From the Aquarium to the Cat Cafe

Last Friday Jason and I once again headed off to Seoul. This time we decided to stay in a hostel for two nights instead of doing our usual day trip. I realized this might have been one of our last trips to the big city before we are done with Korea come August. Time is ticking fast! I bet we'll probably sneak in one more trip but we've become so used to visiting whenever we want on a Saturday that it will be strange to no longer just pop over on the bus.

We were stuck in Friday night traffic on the road from Wonju to Seoul and then once we arrived had to ride on a crowded subway for another 40 minutes or so. Our hostel was in Hongdae, a really hip young area right next to Hongik University, which is an art school. We checked in to our simple accommodations, a private room with two single beds and (thankfully!) an air conditioner. The location was great, the streets were bright and vibrant filled with cute boutiques and coffee shops. We wandered around some and settled on dinner at Dos Tacos. We though the Mexican food in Daegu had been good, Dos Tacos is definitely the best I've had in Korea! There was even cilantro and frozen margaritas to chow down on! After that we walked around some more, taking in all the bright lights, funky street art, throngs of eclectic young people and blaring music. We ended up at a bar we'd visited before and played some pool.

Cute shopping in Hongdae

The most depressed looking Garfield I've ever seen.  Overworked to say the least.

Hongdae

Street food: pineapple on a stick

Saturday morning we woke up early so we could catch the subway and ride 45 minutes to the opposite side of Seoul. My last birthday gift for Jason was to take him to the Aquarium since he said he'd never been to one before. I did such a good job of keeping it a secret until he guessed it the night before! The aquarium is inside the huge COEX mall. We'd never visited the mall before but left wondering why not! The place was huge, with tons of stores and food and things to see, plus an IMAX theater. We had to walk all the way across the mall to find the Aquarium. I really enjoyed our visit. It was a small aquarium so it only took about two hours to get through, which was probably just enough time before we got bored. There were lots of little kids and US military families. My favorite thing we saw where the Clawed Sea Otters! They were so cute and so fast! I couldn't get a good picture of them. We also saw two manatees but they were just sitting in the bottom of their tank, apparently asleep. Of course there were lots of colorful fish, sting rays and sharks. It was a fun experience and I think Jason enjoyed it.

Jason's little helper. It was both of their first trips to the Aquarium, haha.

Jason with fish swimming in a circle

There are fish in the frig, next to my head on the right! Really!  It was fish art.

A sample of "Dr. Fishy" treatment, little fish nibbling on my hands. I wanted to stand there until my hands were smooth but we moved on.

Its a sea otter, really! It's just too fast for my camera.

Don't feed the fish!

There's a sea horse hidden in there. Can you spot it?

CRAZY seahorse that looks like a plant! It was fascinating and kind of creepy for some reason. Jason looked at this and said, "now tell me there's no such thing as evolution!"

Party their path to avoid the shark. Cool picture.

Ahh we were eaten alive and were happy about it!

After our fun morning Jason and I split up. I went to meet Amber so we could visit a cat cafe and Jason went to the Seoul electronics market. I had read about this cafe called Gio Cat Cafe online months ago and Amber and I both wanted to visit but we just now got around to it. When I say it was a cat cafe, I mean that literally. In this cafe you pay 8,000 won to enter and sip on an iced coffee, surrounded by 30 live cats!!

We quite easily found the cafe, slipped off our shoes, donning slippers instead, and walked inside. We were met with the faint smell of cats, but that quickly went away. The place was small, like a normal coffee shop, and crowded. Even though there were no tables available at the moment (they were assigned) we were told we could still hang out on the floor and visit the cats. Apparently that's what everyone was doing, even if they had a table. There were girls and cats everywhere! Oh, and a few unfortunate boyfriends who were dragged in as well. Amber and I wondered why we couldn't just sit at one of the many empty tables but oh well. The whole experience was a bit bizarre... not quite as much fun as it initially sounded to me. (I was super thrilled to get to play with cats!!!) Perhaps that was because it typical cat fashion a lot of them would simply wander by or scamper away, or were sleeping. There were lots of spots for the cats to climb throughout the cafe, a fake tree, a cat tree, windows, benches, baskets. The only time a cat would really stop and sit with someone was if they were being fed. You could pay extra and buy treats for the cats and then they would be all over you. A few girls did this and they were covered in greedy cats, who would promptly abandon them after the treats were gone. A few cats were asleep in some peoples laps, that's all I wanted. But you weren't allowed to pick up the cats, which I think also made it a little less fun that it could have been. Finally Amber and I did get a seat and our coffee. That was much nicer. Some cats stood on our table and hung around us even though we didn't have any food, which was nice. One crazy cat kept trying to eat Amber's hair!! He chewed on her bun about three times. We stayed for a little over an hour and then left as Amber is allergic to cats and was staring to react. All in all it was still a really fun, strange, thing to do that I'm glad I can cross off my list! Who would have thought such a place would really exist! I guess its Korea's answer to not having a pet in your private residence. A lot of Koreans are afraid of cats too, so this seems a new trend.

This is what we saw when we first entered Gio Cat Cafe. Utter chaos.

That's not his latte. So chic, isn't he?

Does he have eyes?! I don't know!

Employees

Lazy dayz

She had treats so she was mobbed. The lady on the right was super pushy.

We finally got a table.

Attacking Amber's hair!

The girls just couldn't get enough

After our little outing we met back up with Jason and ran into a few of our other friends. Our primary reason for going to Seoul on Saturday night was to see our friend Shannon's art show. She is also an English teacher in Wonju who went to school for art in Kansas. She become friends with a Korean woman connected to the art world of Seoul who told her she could set up a show for Shannon in a local Hongdae coffee shop. Before the show Amber, Jason and I ate (again!) at Dos Tacos, it was just so good! We then met everyone else at the coffee shop around 8pm. Shannon's art is part performance, body art, public art, photography and video. We had some wine and coffee (what a mix!) and enjoyed watching her videos and viewing her photographs. I would like to talk to her more in person about her work but I didn't have much time that night. I was very impressed with her though, especially her willingness to show her friends her work! We thought she was so brave, to expose herself like that! She made one video about her first months in Korea and her attempts at learning hangul (the Korean alphabet) that was really great, I totally related to it.

Shannon's art

The night ended simply enough and we got up early to head back to Wonju. Oh did I mention, it was pouring rain again by that time? Oh Korean summers.

Screen Golf and the Two Seouls

Last weekend I had my first experience with Screen Golf. Jason decided it was time I see what all the hype is about. Screen Golf is a form of indoor golf where you can practice actually hitting golf balls, while digitally playing on any course in the world.

Screen Golf venues look like normal buildings, but inside house a number of private "golfing" rooms that are available for rental, on the hour. One person can rent a room, or a whole party. The place Jason and I went to wasn't very far from my apartment and has six rooms inside. The individual rooms are pretty big, about 20 x 20 feet with high ceilings. Inside was a long couch, free juice, water and candy. You pay 10,000 won each to use the room. You are supplied with a full bag of golf clubs, golf shoes and gloves. The couch faces a small stage that is outfitted with a small patch of green. That is where you stand to golf. You simply touch a button and the machine will load the ball into place for you with its mechanical arm. What do you aim at? Well the hole of course! The hole is projected in front of you on a huge screen! It kind of looks like playing golf on a video game, but you are using real balls. You swing and bam! the ball hits the screen in front of you, continuing to fly digitally where you left on physically. It's pretty cool. Like I said, you can choose from any number of golf courses, from San Diego to Jeju Island Korea. You can also choose difficultly level and 9 or 18 holes.

Now I've never been one much for golfing and it took me quite some time to really enjoy this sport, but in the end, I was getting the hang of it and just having fun. Its really difficult actually and although its accurate, its not THAT accurate, so things like putting are kind of difficult. But its fun to be wearing the real golf gear and changing clubs and such. Jason and I both did really bad and double bogeyed on every hole except one. I don't think Screen Golf is the game for me but Jason really enjoys it. Wish we could have taken Dad while he was here!

This past weekend as well as two weeks ago (before Screen Golf) I visited Seoul. The first time I went to meet my friend Kate who is Korean. I first met her when she was an exchange student at UCI for one year when I was the International House advisor. I hadn't met up with her the whole time I'd been in Korea, even though she lives in Seoul, because she'd been too busy. Finally we could meet! It was really nice to see her but exhausting! We visited the downtown of Seoul and the big palace, also Yonsei University where she went to school and a department store. We had a big lunch and then her mother made a traditional Korean dinner for us that night. I stayed at her house and got to meet both her mother and sister which was really nice! They are all really sweet, thoughtful people. I also got to meet their new puppy, a two month old brown poodle. Actually I got to to the store with them to pick out and take home the dog. The puppy store we went to was awful. It was small, dingy, smelly and packed full of little dogs in tiny cages. It made me extremely uncomfortable. The treatment of animals here in Korea is just shocking sometimes! The puppy was so small too, he should not have been away from his mother yet! But they got to take him home and I'm sure he's much better off with them than in the gross shop. We all agreed later it was a bad shop and the owner was pretty weird. Ah what can I, the foreigner do or say? So all in all the weekend was fun, but really tiring with so much running around! I got home on Sunday around 7pm with a huge headache and some left over bulgolgi in my bag (her mom had made me some to take home, so nice!)

Then yesterday Jason and I went to Seoul so I could look for a new dress. Our first stop was not a clothing store though, it was On the Border! We just had to get some Mexican Food. It was pretty good, nothing spectacular, but again a nice change of pace. I think my margarita had only a drop of tequila in it but it still tasted good. After our huge meal we ended up visiting a total of 4 different large department stores in four different areas of Seoul. None of them had anything remotely good or cute. I can firmly say that, at least at this moment, Korean clothing styles are not for me. Everything looked super conservative, super dull, super beige and fit for someone in their 60's who works at a mortgage office. Not a good dress shopping experience. We ended the day in Insadong, which was much more fun! We did some walking in the fresh spring air, looked at some cute Korean souvenir shops and some local art galleries. We also went in this bar that looked awesome from the outside, advertising Sam Adam's and Newcastle, only to enter a really dingy, dark place that did not serve Sam Adam's or Newcastle. We hastily ordered a Beck's each and choked half down before leaving. After Insadong we walked over to a bookstore I'd read about and spent some time browsing through the large English section. It felt very normal to be in a bookstore. Wonju has an English bookstore, but its filled only with children's books and "learn English" phrase books, so its not actually aimed at English speakers. We finally arrived back in Wonju about 11:00, again exhausted.

Today we are being surprisingly productive! Doing laundry, cleaning, going to the grocery store, cleaning out the frig, lesson planning... even though its gloomy again outside, perhaps some Spring cheer is slowly creeping into our bones!

Sunshine and warm weather, please arrive!!

New Year's and Basketball and Winter Camp

New Year's 2011

For New Year's this year I really wanted to do something "big." I decided going to Seoul was what I was looking for. Thus Jason, Scott, Amber, Brian and I hopped on the bus to Seoul Friday night, New Year's Eve, and headed for the Downtown City Hall district. Jason and I had only returned from Seoul to Wonju the day before. We were tired. But, I was determined to make it to the big city! When we got off the bus we decided dinner was a must, Mexican food was suggested and enthusiastically agreed upon. Brian new of an On the Border near Yonsei University so we headed that way.

After a few subway changes we emerged from underground, only to wander around for 15 minutes or so, until finally using an iphone to locate exactly where the restaurant was. It was already 10pm by then and they just barely squeezed us in, they closed at 10:30! We ate delicious Mexican food, tacos and enchiladas, mmmhh so good! We also got margaritas and good beer! No soju or cheap beer for us! It was great! The drinks were weak though, and left me wanting more, but alas were kicked out. We also needed to get to our final destination. That required a quick ride on the subway and we emerged in Downtown, right near the skating ring Jason and I had walked by numerous times recently with my family just days before. I knew right were we were! The crowds were huge and before we entered them we stopped at a convenience store to buy some cheap beer. Amber said she needed so liquid courage if we were going to stand in a huge mob in the freezing cold. We pushed our way in and only had to wait about 15 minutes before midnight. We were on the edge of a crowd filled with thousands and could barely see a glimpse of the stage show and hear the music that occupied the main festivities for the day. At midnight we cheered and could hear people shooting roman candle fireworks around us. On the outskirts only a few went off next to us, but some ash managed to get in our eyes to which I screamed "oww! my eye!" Although Amber tried to get us to leave right away, fearing the mob would move, we didn't want to. But then suddenly we were forced to move along. The mob was lurching forward, a mass wave of people moving as one, without the ability to stop or change direction. Our little group was pushed along, with Amber and Brian in the front, we all tried to hold on to each other and not get lost. If you were to fall, you would have been trampled! Amber was getting pretty freaked out at this, squeaking out "I told you we were gonna die! I told you to leave! I told you this was a bad idea!" For the rest of us, while a tiny bit scary, the mob wave was more fun than anything! And we managed not to spill our beers. We did see some little kids in strollers, their parents standing around them to guard them from the wave, and wondered why there were out there, as it was definitely dangerous for small ones. The rest of the night Brian couldn't let Amber live down her quasi-hysterical cries, or my "my eye!" He poked fun at how we were being big babies!

After that our group split up a bit and Jason and I ended up in a sit down pub with Brian. I really didn't want to go to sleep that night. We had no hotel, but were planning to stay in a jimjilbang. Although jimjilbang's are nice, I hate sleeping in them and get really hot and uncomfortable. Brian agreed but was contemplating sleeping because he had planned to stay in Seoul for the day. Jason was just tired. But I decided I would make it all night and be on the first subway at 5:30am headed towards the bus terminal, then on the 6am bus to Wonju! That's when things started running again. And you know what? We did it! We made it all night! We stayed at the first bar for a long time, just chatting and having a few drinks, it was really nice and relaxing. Then we headed to a hooka bar where we payed way too much for some "nachos" and cheap beer. But the hooka tasted good and the atmosphere was pretty hippy and relaxed. Somehow we made it all last until 5am when we tugged back out into the cold to find the subway. Slipping and with teeth chattering, we made it on a second wind! The second we were on the bus to Wonju, we all slept. We woke up briefly to say bye to Brian, got home and crawled into bed to sleep the day away. Was it worth it? For sure! Were my sleep patterns screwed up for days, of course.


Winter Camp 

For the first week of January I was teaching at an Immersion Winter Camp at a different school than Sangji. The camp was for middle school and elementry students from all over Wonju. I was one of 12 English teachers located in Wonju chosen to teach at it. There were six classes of each grade and I was with the second highest level of middle schoolers. Although I was dreading camp originally, I enjoyed it. At first I was super nervous because I'd had to turn in lesson plans and supply lists just the week before my parents arrived to visit. I was given no warning and had to created 12 lessons from scratch in just a few days. With help and advise from friends, and luckily no teaching in December, just sitting at my desk, I somehow finished them all. Yet when the camp started I was really able to get a sense of my students abilities, which was super high, and their enthusiasim for English, which was also high. I lucked out majorly and got a class of 11 students, boys and girls, with high ability and the strong ability to try and speak. They were perhaps too loud and talkative at sometimes, but I am getting better at controlling them. They were an extremely fun class to teach! As the week went on they became more outgoing and I was able to challenge them more and more. I'm not sure how much they really "learned" that could be measured on a test, but I hope the English immersion gave them some confidence and the time to practice speaking, something Korean kids NEVER get to do in class, unless it is with a foreign English teacher. In their English classes with their Korean teachers, all they do is bookwork and test prep. I was happy at the end of the week when one student remarked "wow its weird to see Korean writing again!" as he was handed an evaluation sheet. All week he read in English, which is an accomplishment in itself for teaching in Korea. Many students, perhaps just flattering me, perhaps sincere, said they were so sad English camp was over, that they would miss me, that I was the best teacher they'd ever had, that they wanted me to come teach at their schools! I just laughed and said thank you. I gave the students my email address in case they wanted to keep talking to me, and one boy, my favorite, has been emailing me since then! He is so cute and sends super sweet messages about playing with his neieces, or what movies he's seen, I hope we continue to be in contact! I think its harmless good practice for him.

I really enjoyed the English camp in the end. It was such a huge change from my usual school where the classes are huge, I only see kids for 45 minutes each week, I have no supplies, very little support... at camp I could request any supplies I needed for craft time, science time... every teacher also was assigned a Teaching Assistant. The Assistant's were all Korean university students who are studying to become English teachers. My Assistant was awesome! She obviously spoke Korean, but also English, fluently! And she's only 22! She was way more help than any of my usual teachers. She also was awesome in that she would only speak English to the students, when they would ask her something in Korean, she would say, speak to me in English. I could always rely on  her and felt I had the backup I needed and thought I would get when I first came here. Camp was also great because all the native English teachers could talk and bounce ideas off of each other. Every day also included an awesome snack for teachers and students, from pizza to hamburgers to kimbab! We also got done at 1pm everyday and got to go home! We taught four hours in the morning and were finished. It was so nice to have a slow lunch afterward, I'd either go home and take a nap or eat out with Brian and Amber and still be home by 3pm to relax and plan for the next day. I enjoyed making difficult lessons that I knew the kids would listen to. That week Jason was also at a winter camp, but at an elementry school that doesn't usually have any native teachers, he had a really similiar experience. We were so down in the dumps after everyone leaving after the holidays that our camps were an awesome pick me up and reminder that teaching can be fun and rewarding and challenging all in one, you just need the proper support and motivation!


Basketball

The orginizers of the English camp also paid for all the teachers to go out to dinner twice, norebang, and go to a basketball game. Wonju has a team that plays for them in the national leauge. They have a nice basketball stadium in Wonju too. Basketball here is played exactly the same as in the US. So we got to go to a game one Wednesday night! We had front row seats and enjoyed watching Wonju beat Seoul! Both centors, for Seoul and Wonju, were big black guys, probably from the US, while the rest of the team was Korean. They were pretty good! (I didn't think the centers were that great though.) The Wonju coach even got a technical during the game and was kicked out! Unlike in the US though, he didn't kick and scream, he just quietly left after arguing over a call. It is not right to show those kinds of emotions in Korea, you would be shamed and loose face, so he kept them in.

The highlight of the game was the halftime show. Earlier they had told us that one of us might be choosen to paly the game at the half time show and win a prize. I had casually mentioned to one of the organizers that I played basketball in high school. Thus when I arrived at the game she handed me my ticket and said "you are playing the halftime show!!" I was so shocked and just started laughing! Should have kept my mouth shut. I had told Amber earlier too, I would never volunteer for something like that!" Karma got me. Never say never! I was nervous and a little worried I would have any idea what to do because I can't understand Korean. Luckily when it was time to go down to the court for the competition, the Korean girl, Ashley, was there to translate! I was against two super not athletic Korean high school girls, haha! We had to run from the base line to half court, put on a wig, place a rubber ball between our legs, jump with it between our legs to the basket and then shoot. So that's what I did! It was great! I shot the ball twice and then made it! I won!! Yay! For my prize I got two tickets to a shabu shabu buffet resturant, not too shabby! I also got interviewed and broadcast on the giant TVs! They warned me this would happen! After I said my name and that I was from the US they asked who my favorite player was, luckily Ashely had told me a name to say, otherwise I would have been clueless! The interview was a little rushed so I don't know quite what I did or said but it was a silly and fun experience! How lucky am I. Later that night Jason also won a free pizza from dominos, delieverd on the spot to our seats. He did this by dancing well during the cheering time, we were copying the cheerleaders moves and she picked up out of the crowd to win. I've decided we need to go to more basketball games.

The Family and the holidays have come and gone, now its back to teaching...

It's already been a week since my family left Korea to go back to CA, which means its already been two weeks since they arrived for their visit! And since they left I've celebrated New Years and started teaching an English Immersion Winter Camp!

The visit by Mom, Dad and Scott was much anticipated, needed and enjoyed. I miss everyone already, mostly because it was so much fun to have everyone here! It was great to be able to show visitors Korea, eat at our favorite restaurants, take in the culture and to explore more of Seoul together. And of course it was amazingly wonderful to have everyone together for Christmas. It hadn't felt much like Christmas before they got here, even though Jason and I decorated and had been listening to Christmas music, which we were kind of sad about, but once the three of them arrived, decorations and presents in hand, it felt a little more right. Jason and I were also very glad to have a weeks break from teaching and/or "desk warming" (we hadn't really taught in over a month, really we had just been sitting at our desks because we were required to be at school while students took tests, went on field trips and basically partied for the last few weeks of school. Why there are two weeks of school left after final exams beats me.) I do feel somewhat more renewed now. It was so nice to have familiar faces around, to be able to talk and relax. I just wish I had even more time with them! There is still so much to see of Korea and there is still so much to catch up on!

To tell a little of what happened over the course of the week, here are the highlights.

The Wednesday they arrived I went to Incheon Airport from Wonju to meet them. It was a three hour bus ride. They were supposed to arrive around 7:30pm and the last bus to Wonju for the night was at 9:10pm. Close but enough time. Except, when I woke up on Wednesday I saw that Mom had texted me right before they had boarded the plane at LAX to say there were already delayed by two hours! Thus their plane didn't arrive and unload until about 8:45pm. I was watching the flight time travel updates all day in hopes this would miraculously change but alas it did not! So as I stood at the gate anxiously awaiting their arrival I also watched the clock tick past 9:10. Finally they emerged and to my surprise I wasn't upset at all about having missed the bus, I was just so happy to see them! I wish I could watch them emerge from the terminal at Incheon every month! I just love the excitement and anticipation and eventual rush of happiness! The three were a little tired but in good spirits. I told them we'd have to find somewhere to stay for the night. Mom went over and talked to the Korean Air people because that's who they'd flown through and told them what happened. Good idea she did because they gave us a free stay in the airport Hyatt! We got a room with four beds in a beautiful hotel that operated a private airport shuttle! It worked out nicely because everyone got to sleep comfortably and shower. I was a little worried because it meant I'd have to miss work on Thursday morning, which meant I had to call my coteacher and explain to him what happened, but he was understanding and I wasn't disappointed at all that I got to hang out with my family instead of desk warm!

We chatted and looked out the window during our bus ride to Wonju the next day. I threw Mom and Scott in a taxi and told the driver to take them to my school "Sangji yogo," which luckily he did and luckily it was the right place, while Dad and I took a different taxi. There was too much luggage for one. We got to my apartment and then immediatly left for my school. I was expected and I told my coteacher I would bring my family over to see everything and meet him. From noon until four pm we were on a whirlwind tour of Sangji, its students and its teachers! I first took them to the English Zone where they met one of my favorite students (who made me cookies for Christmas!!) and were mobbed by a random group of first graders. They were so curious, they asked a lot of questions, tried to touch Scott's hair, and were just crazy! I tried to warm my family they were energetic! Then we met my coteacher Mr. Byeon who gave us some snacks and then told us we would go meet the Principal. I made sure my family knew to accept everything given to them. We had a really long tea time with the Principal, Mr. Byeon translated and we expressed our thanks, he talked about wanting a sister school in the US, etc. The meeting ended with the Principal asking where they would stay in Wonju. I said with me. He then insisted on giving us a free nights stay at a "four star" hotel in Wonju. I tried to say no. Mr. Byeon got quiet and looked at me, then looked at the Principal. "It would be a good experience..." he went on. I got the hint. I had to accept. It was true Korean style, subtly pressuring me into saying yes. So I agreed, he called the hotel, told them to expect us and gave me the vouchers. My parents felt like celebrities! Then it was time to meet all the teachers in the school, at the teachers after school meeting! Gulp! My parents had to stand up in front of all the teachers and say something. Then Mr. Byeon took us on a tremendous tour of the school. We visited classroom after classroom, office after office, he dragged us over to the high school where we met the nurse, the office manager, the tech guy, the VP. Mind you I've never had a tour of the high school, I've never met these people, I was shown things at Sangji I didn't even know existed! Where was my tour and introduction when I first got here? Apparently forgotten. At the end of it all Jason finally met up with us, he'd been at English camp all day. We were exhausted. It was true Mr. Byeon, true Korean style! Frustrating and amusing all at once. That night we were basically forced to stay at the hotel, which was definintely not a "four star" hotel because they made my coteacher drive us there, so we couldn't escape. It was a little sad because everyone wanted to stay at my place because we'd finally arrived and it was cute and snug for Christmas. We did have an excellent tofu dinner at my favorite place and from then on moved to my apartment.

Tofu dinner on the way. Did I mention we always sit on the floor in Wonju?

Friday I had to "work" during the morning so Mom, Dad and Scott explored a little on their own. Dad really enjoyed seeing the numerous driving ranges around town so he checked one out, and they had fun walking the streets around my apartment. Its nice I have a key code to get in because they could come and go as they pleased. In the afternoon I took them to the Wonju Central Market to see the shopping mixed in with traditional food vendors. It was super cold so not as many little old ladies selling veggies on the street were out as usual, but it was still fun to see. That night was Christmas Eve so Jason and I wanted to take them to a really nice dinner. We invited our friend Scott and the six of us went to a nice duck restaurant. There you grill the duck yourself on a burner, both smoked and normal, and you make a wrap with lettuce, onion, veggies and bean paste. The food was fabulous! Mom wanted to try soju so she, Jason and I shared a bottle. She thought it was really good! (BTW, she LOVED the instant coffee!! Maybe she's Korean?) After dinner we went for gelato in Scott's area of town. I was hoping to karaoke or go to the sauna, but everyone was so tired after days of travel and socializing we decided to go home.

Central Market

Duck dinner here I come! Merry Christmas Eve! Scott and Dad

So yummy. Grilling our dinner. 

Saturday brought Christmas morning! Mom was so great she brought us all stockings to hang and even put our names on them! She filled them with candy and toys and we got to open them at morning! Mmmm American chocolate! She also brought presents for us, some from other family members too, and we had a lot of fun sitting in the living room opening them together. (I got all great things!) (I also now refuse to take down the Christmas decorations because they make me happy.) Jason made pumpkin pancakes (courtesy of his grandma's care package). The rest of the day we just took some small walks around Wonju, saw Jason's apartment, had some coffee on the side of Chiaksan mountain (it wasn't pretty like we remembered because everything was dead and cold, haha) and had shabu shabu for dinner. Jason went crazy and ordered a huge meal, which he and Scott devoured. We settled in to watch Toy Story 3 together but didn't make it very far before everyone fell asleep! It was a nice, slow Christmas day.

Dad, Me, Mom and Scott in Wonju

Shabu shabu dinner. Mom and I

Sunday was a long day and perhaps we traveled too far but... we made it to the Eastern Sea to see Naksam Temple. It is a beautiful place right on the edge of the water. We also saw a bit of Sokcho by bus, it looks like a cute place. We had a simple lunch with some great fish as the centerpeice. No one was brave and got any crazy seafood dishes though, even though we were surrounded be fish and sea life of all kinds! Mom wanted to try more soju that night but for some reason it didn't taste nearly as good. Jason cooked a simple dinner and we watched Indiana Jones, well half of it, before falling asleep. 

Cute Yang-Yang mascot. Cute Korea! 

Drinking the sacred water at the buddhist temple. 

Eastern Sea

Lunch. Yummy fish!

Naksan Temple Gate

 Monday it was time to change location and head to Seoul. Dad and Jason checked out the sauna right next to our place (aka they got naked together and bathed!) Otherwise we started the day slowly, Dad and Mom took a last walk around the neighborhood and by the time we go the bus it was after 12. On our way to Seoul it started snowing! This caused some traffic but it was beautiful to see the snowflakes falling outside. Almost a white Christmas! From the bus station in Seoul we took the subway to our Lotte City Hotel. The subway stops right underneath it so it was super convenient to travel anywhere in the city. Jason bought us all reloadable "T-Money Cards" so we could just swipe them every time we road the subway instead of having to pay each time. Its only 900 won a ride that way. Our hotel was pretty cool. It was nice and clean, but only had one bed per room, so three of us had to share. The cool thing was that the hotel was only the first 10 stories, after that the other 30 or more were apartments! True Korea once again, high rise apartments everywhere. This also meant that the bottom two floors of the hotel/apartments were full of stores; a supermarket, restaurants, nail salon, coffee shop, etc. It was easy to get dinner that night and breakfast in the morning. Plus the supermarket had all the snacks and drinks you could need. Earlier Dad had picked up a brochure about a skating ring in the downtown area of Seoul. We decided to go check it out. We emerged from the subway in one of the nicest and most hip areas of Seoul, near City Hall and its most famous temples and shopping areas. There were thousands of Christmas lights in the trees and on the buildings lining the streets. It was beautiful and definitely reminded us that it was Christmas time! Everything was gorgeous. We easily found the skating ring and bought tickets for the next round. It was an amazing deal, only 1000 won (less than $1) to skate for 1 1/2 hours, including skate rentals! And the ring was nice and clean, with a warm locker room and a giant Christmas tree. We were a little apprehensive at first but Dad edged us on. Once we got on the ring Mom and Jason took off! Scott soon gained his ground and followed. Dad was doing well too but took a tumble at one point, hurting his wrist. I was a scardy cat at first and clung to Jason or the side wall whimpering but even I got over it! We skated the entire time and had to drag Scott off at the end. Before calling it quits we walked down some more beautifully lit streets and found the newly renovated stream that runs through central Seoul. It was a great night.

Skating with the Seoul mascot

Scott's on the move!

Watch out for this stud!

Who do you think is faster? Or enjoying this more? LOL. 

Holiday Lights! So great!

Tuesday morning brought clouds and the chance of snow. (It had snowed through the night!) In the morning we headed to Gyeonbok Palace. It was closed so we walked through the cute area of town known as Samcheondong to a different, more famous palace that was open. We also passed through the Hanok Village area of town which contains some of the renovated and thus now chic vintage Korean homes. When we entered the palace it started to snow!! It was beautiful and we had a great time prancing through it! It was a real solid snowfall and just kept coming down. It made everything hushed and clean looking. I was glad my family got to experience such a nice snow. But by the time we were done at the palace it had stopped and was clearing up! We walked on to Insadong, finally grabbed lunch, and sloshed through the now slushy streets. After a break at the hotel for some much needed R&R we headed to Myeongdong to take in the night life! Myeongdong was busy and bustling as ever, filled with high end shopping, vendors, food and neon. We had a delicious ramen dinner (Scott ate everything, he loves ramen!) we quickly stopped in a photobooth before finding a karaoke room. I luckily read a sign (in Korean!) for the "norebang" and we went in. After a five minute wait we were ushered into our private room for an hour of singing! Everyone, even Dad, had a great time singing! The room is fun because its loud, you can choose from hundreds of songs, you get two microphones, a disco ball and a tambourine! You can't help but have a good time! We left the room super pumped and happy, not even realizing it was almost 11pm!

Trying to catch snowflakes on our tongues

Snow!

Oh Jason and his face mask. (He put the flap up so we could see his smile.) Nice picture everyone else. 

Myeongdong

Karaoke!

Tired on the subway

Wednesday was our last full day together. The day started with a trip to the huge Seoul fish market, for Dad, it was gigantic and filled with raw fish, dead fish, live fish, people were trying to sell us sashimi right and left. "Second floor restaurant! Sashimi!" they would say. Scott received many compliments on his hair. Dad took many pictures and almost got sold a huge tuna (probably hundreds of dollars!) Then we visited the Korean War Memorial and the War Museum of Korea. We saw lots of huge statues, tanks, guns and planes, covered in snow. The war museum was interesting and as Mom and Dad pointed out, is the only museum they've been to dedicated to displaying the history of solely a war. The Korean War is very present in the minds of Koreans, even today, so the museum is very important to them. From there we walked to Itaewon and got burgers before heading back to Myeondong to find the entrance to the cable car ride up to North Seoul Tower. N Seoul Tower is on top of a large hill in the middle of Seoul, giving it a great height advantage and making it the best place in Seoul to see the view (also they dubbed themselves the "most romantic view in Seoul" for all those couples out there.) Rather than walk or take a bus we took a fun suspended cable car ride up the mountain. Then it was an elevator the viewing platform of the tower. The whole experience was really great and fun! The viewing platform offered a 360 view of Seoul. It was beautiful! We enjoyed picking out the landmarks we knew, our hotel, the train station, the skating ring (that's right, we really could see it!) the Olympic Stadium, the many bridges over the river. We stayed up there during dusk until the lights turned on in town. Then you could see all the cars, buildings, Christmas decorations, it was breathtaking! We stopped for dumplings in Myeongdong before checking out the expensive merchandise in the huge Lotte Department store. We road the escalator up all 12 stories! I was glad Mom was able to see some of the Korean shopping we'd been talking about! With no breaks all day the night came to an end. We lounged in the hotel and went through the pictures we'd taken all week.

Seoul Fish Market

War Memorial. I'm not PC at all and am shooting a gun! 

N Seoul Tower

Far from home. Indiana Jones style. 

Seoul

Thursday was time to say goodbye. Jason and I stood on the street as Mom, Dad and Scott pulled away in a bus headed to the airport. There were tears on both sides. We waved through the tinted windows. After that Jason and I were down in the dumps as we caught the subway, then the bus back to Wonju. We are okay now but when we first got home the apartment seemed too empty all of a sudden. It was a great trip with lots of fun times and memories! Like I said, I wish I had more time just to sit and talk, go shopping with Mom, joke around with Dad, catch up with Scott. I hope they enjoyed it all too. I know we didn't get to see everything on the list but we made one heck of a dent!

My Favorite

Miss you and love you but am doing well, back in the swing of teaching and (shockingly) enjoying it! (Just a little.)