I am at a loss as to how to begin this blog. I have so much to mention about David and my week that I will have to do my best to summarize it all. I wrote in my last blog that Chuseok was coming up and because of the holiday David had last Friday through Wednesday off from work. While he did a little bit of business here at home on Friday and Wednesday for the most part we got to go and do anything and everything. The weekend was very busy but we both had a lot of fun and got to experience just a bit more of Korea in the process.
On Saturday we had a very special lunch date with a lovely Korean couple that were introduced to us through family. As it turns out there is a twelve year old boy living in Florida with David's aunt's best friend. This boy is the son of the couple we had lunch with on Saturday. After getting in touch with them through email they were very eager to meet with us and offered to take us out for lunch. Upon their arrival we were greeted with a hug and I was given a very nice gift in light of Chuseok. We ended up going to a nice little area not far from our apartment and had some more traditional Korean food. Now yes I may of had to suffer through the meal a bit but the company was well worth it. Rahni (the wife) was absolutely wonderful and has now designated herself as our new Korean mother. As it turns out her husband is also a civil engineer here in Korea so David and him had a few things in common as well. The rest of Saturday appears to be a blur however so we will move on to Sunday.
Sunday morning David and I decided to return to Seoul Union church to give it another go. We are still undecided upon churches but I happened to make a wonderful connection with one of the expat teachers there. She told me about how the local school was always looking for substitute teachers and she promised to pass my name along to the coordinator. It was definately an answer to prayer seeing as how I am looking for things to keep me busy during the week. After church on Sunday we then ventured over to Cosco, which was all very exciting until we actually got there. Lets just say there was a line to get into Cosco, an even longer line to go down the escalator and some extrememly pushy Koreans that made it rather hard to enjoy our shopping experience. We definately learned our lesson, going to Cosco during a national holiday is no good. We did however manage to get some great American made items and I plan to return at a later date to get some more :D.
Now Monday was probably the most exciting and most tiring day of this saga. Monday is the day we journeyed to EVERLAND! And yes when I said journeyed I ment it. Everland is the fifth largest theme park in the entire world and they were offering discounts to all foreigners. Naturally, who wouldnt want to go. We made the trip with our good friends Grant and Joy and left around 9:45 after dropping Bear off at Kindergarden. Since most Koreans leave the city to travel home during Chuseok we were under the impression that transportation would not be that crowded. While that is true of the Koreans, every foreigner in the area it seems turned up to go to Everland as well! In order to get to Everland we had to take a bus, which we had never really done before, and will never do again. The first bus that arrived was so full that we could not fit and had to wait for another. The second bus that arrived thirty minutes later was also very full but we managed to squeeze our way on. That was not the best idea however. There were no seats available, the bus was full to the brim and we had to ride back to back for 50 minutes inside a bus with little to no aircontitioning. Might I add, we were traveling through the windy roads of the mountain countryside which made it all the worse. Anyhow, we finally got there and I was able to walk off my motion-sickness about an hour later. The theme park itself had some really good qualities as well as some less desirable ones. We were dually impressed with the worlds highest wooden roallercoaster but were not as happy with most of the other rides. We definately enjoyed the animal attractions and those alone are worth a return visit. They have an entire zoo built into the park and we were able to enjoy two seperate and equally wonderful animal shows. They also had a safari but we were unable to go through it because the lines got to out of control. All in all we really enjoyed the trip to Everland but we are not real anxious to get on another bus to go there again.
Finally I will end our adventures on Tuesday, the Chuseok holiday. We celebrated the event with a trip to Mr. Harris' house that evening. Accompanied by David's boss Ron and his wife we rode the subway over there to partake in a traditional Chuseok meal. Im sure by now you know how much I enjoyed the food, but David was genuinly pleased with it. Mr. Harris lives in a beautiful apartment like most Koreans in Seoul and we were able to meet two of his children as well.
Alas, it is time for me to study up on my Korean for our language lesson tonight. Missing you all back home, send some food :D
Happy Chuseok
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Two Months of Forever
Well it is official, I have been a married woman for a whole two months! It is September 8th and David and I are celebrating our anniversary with a trip to On the Border for dinner accompanied by a potential American movie. I am one lucky girl to be married to such an amazing man and living in a foreign country to top it off. These last two weeks have been a bit of a struggle for me in the food department. I have been having a hard time eating vegetarian in a place where soybean products and beans are hard to come by. My day has become significantly brighter however now that I have received my very first package while here in Seoul. My mother in law sent me some much appreciated herbal tea, candy, Indian style chickpeas and soup mix among other items. We have yet to receive our sea shipment which contains all of the food we purchased prior to coming to Seoul. Lets just say I will be one happy girl once that package arrives! Well anyhow on with the good...
Just last weekend David and I had the privilege of completing yet another hike, but this time we were accompanied by our new friends from New Zealand. We started our hike up at Yongmasan Mountain and continued all the way down to Achasan Mountain where it spit us back out to a second subway. We had the most perfect weather and felt absolutely blessed to have seen all the wonderful greenery, waterfalls and mountain tops. It took us approximately 3 hours to complete the hike and we hope to one day work our way up to Buchasan Mountain, which is a much higher and longer trek. Compared to my last hike of Achasan Mountain, I will say the Yongmasan portion of it was much more rocky and much more of a challenge. We really deserved the ice cream we purchased at the mountain peak!!! When I say we purchased ice cream, that does not mean there was a pre-existing ice cream shack at the top. Nope, a very courageous Korean man hike all the way to the top with a giant cooler on his back....now that's hard work!
Since our hike took place on a Saturday, after a well deserved nap David and I headed out for a little Mexican food and some walking around the Insadong market place. They had some great music playing outdoors and everyone was enjoying a good stroll next to the stream running through town. The next day was Sunday so of course we went to church! This time we decided to try out another church just south of the river called Jubilee. While the church was much younger than our previous one, we really enjoyed hearing from the Korean-American preacher and meeting all the expats there. It was a great church and it will be hard to make our final decision as to which one we will end up at for the next five months.
It is now Thursday afternoon here in Seoul and we are coming up to the biggest holiday of the year for Koreans, Chuesok (spelling unsure)! Basically this is the Korean's version of Thanksgiving. Everyone is expected to return to their hometowns and pay homage to their ancestors. Many people will go to their beloved ones grave sites and place flowers or clean up the area. There is always a major celebration with of course, a lot of food. We actually just found out that we were invited to a traditional Chuesok celebration at the home of Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris is the VP of the company David is working with and the same man that took us on our first hike here in Korea. I am a little nervous about the food but David's boss Ron and his wife Joy will be joining us for the celebration as well so I am greatly looking forward to it. We have also made plans to meet with a wonderful family here in Seoul that is friends of David's aunt Bonnie. We will be meeting with them on Tuesday for lunch so I am looking forward to meeting with another native Korean.
Finally I want to talk about my trip to the salon today to get my hair cut. I was a little nervous at first wondering weather or not they would understand me and have the same level of care that American salons do. However, I was worried for nothing because I had a wonderful time. The store manager spoke fluent English and I they were very big on head and shoulder massages. The lady that cut my hair did a great job and she even dried and curled it for me afterward. Well that concludes my week, missing everyone back home but enjoying my husband and Korea all the same...
Peace Out
Just last weekend David and I had the privilege of completing yet another hike, but this time we were accompanied by our new friends from New Zealand. We started our hike up at Yongmasan Mountain and continued all the way down to Achasan Mountain where it spit us back out to a second subway. We had the most perfect weather and felt absolutely blessed to have seen all the wonderful greenery, waterfalls and mountain tops. It took us approximately 3 hours to complete the hike and we hope to one day work our way up to Buchasan Mountain, which is a much higher and longer trek. Compared to my last hike of Achasan Mountain, I will say the Yongmasan portion of it was much more rocky and much more of a challenge. We really deserved the ice cream we purchased at the mountain peak!!! When I say we purchased ice cream, that does not mean there was a pre-existing ice cream shack at the top. Nope, a very courageous Korean man hike all the way to the top with a giant cooler on his back....now that's hard work!
Since our hike took place on a Saturday, after a well deserved nap David and I headed out for a little Mexican food and some walking around the Insadong market place. They had some great music playing outdoors and everyone was enjoying a good stroll next to the stream running through town. The next day was Sunday so of course we went to church! This time we decided to try out another church just south of the river called Jubilee. While the church was much younger than our previous one, we really enjoyed hearing from the Korean-American preacher and meeting all the expats there. It was a great church and it will be hard to make our final decision as to which one we will end up at for the next five months.
It is now Thursday afternoon here in Seoul and we are coming up to the biggest holiday of the year for Koreans, Chuesok (spelling unsure)! Basically this is the Korean's version of Thanksgiving. Everyone is expected to return to their hometowns and pay homage to their ancestors. Many people will go to their beloved ones grave sites and place flowers or clean up the area. There is always a major celebration with of course, a lot of food. We actually just found out that we were invited to a traditional Chuesok celebration at the home of Mr. Harris. Mr. Harris is the VP of the company David is working with and the same man that took us on our first hike here in Korea. I am a little nervous about the food but David's boss Ron and his wife Joy will be joining us for the celebration as well so I am greatly looking forward to it. We have also made plans to meet with a wonderful family here in Seoul that is friends of David's aunt Bonnie. We will be meeting with them on Tuesday for lunch so I am looking forward to meeting with another native Korean.
Finally I want to talk about my trip to the salon today to get my hair cut. I was a little nervous at first wondering weather or not they would understand me and have the same level of care that American salons do. However, I was worried for nothing because I had a wonderful time. The store manager spoke fluent English and I they were very big on head and shoulder massages. The lady that cut my hair did a great job and she even dried and curled it for me afterward. Well that concludes my week, missing everyone back home but enjoying my husband and Korea all the same...
Peace Out
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