Oh My Gosh Another Blog

Home Again Jigitty Jig

2009-08-16T23:04:00.022-04:00

So I'm home again now, but I haven't been blogging at all. Jet lag is just terrible once you're back home again. I used to go to bed early and wake up early. Now I can't fall asleep at all until after midnight, I don't sleep well, and then I don't wake up until my emergency alarm goes off. I say emergency, because it's the one I set obscenely late, just in case I don't wake up. Then I forgot on Fridays that I have to go in an hour early, so I need to set my alarm an hour earlier. Did I remember that part? Nope. Thank goodness I wasn't late.

So I'm going to keep on bloggin about my trip until you're all nice and caught up. Then I'll do a couple commentary-type posts. Here's the rest of the day after we saw Gyeongbok Palace.

We left the palace and got back on the subway. A couple stops later we got off at Chung Lo. This was the only place I really saw a lot of street vendors. I wanted to try some, but Hisung said, "no junk food." hahaha! Ok, so I just looked at the delicious looking fried and slathered yummies, and took a couple pics as we walked along.We walked around there for a while, trying to get pictures while walking, and without being too annoying. It would have been better if I had a longer zoom, so I wouldn't have to get up in people's faces to take pictures. That will be the next lens I buy for sure. Also, we were walking walking walking, and it's hard to get good pictures without stopping. So many of my pictures on the trip were taken in a hurry, because we had so many places to go and things to see. I think if I go back, I will have more time to stop and enjoy things without having such a whirlwind. Maybe then I'll get better pictures. I still have yet to edit these pictures, but I don't feel like it at the moment, being so exhausted and all.

So anyway! After Chung Lo, we went to this nice little stream that runs through the city called Cheong Gye Cheon. It was really pretty, and it was filled with couples! This couple was so cute, and I got a couple shots of them bein' all adorable.

They were the cute, unmarried, and totally in love couple. The couple that makes other couples sick with an overdose of adorableness. He was so sweet. He helped her down, helped her across, helped her up. Took adoring photos of her. They were just too too cute! Then there was this couple going across, with their shopping bags. Older, and married, probably on their way home from work, not so cute, and not so adorable. This is where that other couple will be in 10 years, if they're still together in 10 years. Did he help her up or down? Nope. Just made sure she could get up ok by herself. But hey, at least he's carrying the bags, right? Still a good man. lol!So then it was our turn to cross the rocks. Hisung helped me down and took pictures as we hopped along. I guess we're still in that adorableness stage...hahaha!
So we looked around some more on the other side and decided to cross again, but in a different spot. This is where things got tricky. You see, one of the rocks was very small, half of it was in the water, and was very slippery. Only one foot would fit on that rock. The jump between the rocks was also not that little. Why oh why did we have to choose this path across? I stood there and stood there, wondering what it would be like to fall in the water in front of oodles of strangers who are already transfixed on the giant white foreigner. Hisung couldn't resist, and took a picture of this couple watching to see what was going to happen to the poor foreigner in the slippery flip flops. Just look at them. The guy looks concerned for me, aww, how sweet....but the girl, she's just enjoying the show. hahaha!
I couldn't move for a long time. I just couldn't stop thinking about what would happen if I fell. It's not just falling in in front of dozens of staring strangers, it's being wet, for a long time, and walking around the city, all wet and embarrassed. What would happen once I got on the subway? Oh boy......I didn't even want to imagine. I finally decided, it was just time to do it. Time to take the leap and pray I could keep my inner clutz at bay. Just do it! 1...2........3........ok 3 and a half........GO! In the air I went, and down on the rock I landed...and wobbled...panic! But I caught myself, and all was well. phew! Trauma averted. Time to get out of there before I had another chance to make a fool of myself.

We walked down to Myeongdong, and there was this pretty little water feature and some nice grass.

Do you see that sign in the back? Tous Les Jous? They have the best vegetable croquettes on the planet, I am sure. Don't know what that is? I didn't either, but mmmm....It's like a doughnut, but not...It's slightly sweet, and crunchy on the outside, and inside is all doughy and like, really tiny vegetables all chopped up in like....creamy cheese or something. I have no idea...but they are so good, and I can't get them here....so sad...

Anyway! This guy was giving a little concert, which was pretty cool.

Myeongdong has a lot of restaurants, and a lot of people. Not too many cars around, which is nice. It's a cool place to go for a stroll and people watch. We decided to grab some dinner before heading up to Seoul Tower again. Hisung orderd Sulungtang. It's like a light beef broth soup with thinly sliced beef and scallions in it. You put your rice in and eat it that way. You can also stick some radish kimchi in it to give it an extra lil kick. I had some of this later and took some pics for you all to see. It's delicious. But that night, I saw mandu on the menu, and I had never had mandu like these before, so I ordered up, and holy cow... They were HUGE! And yummy.....oh so yummy.
After dinner we headed up to Nam Mountain again, and we locked up our locks, and had some awesome Coldstone ice cream. That's right, Seoul Tower, has Coldstone. mmmm...... Since I've already posted all about Seoul Tower, including the locks, I'll just put up one pic, and close this bad boy.

I still have so much to catch you all up on. Hopefully I will be able to knock it all out soon, before I totally forget all those little details about it. :)

Gyeongbok Palace Continued

2009-08-04T18:35:00.020-04:00

Ok, so picking up where I left off......again. Pictures of the palace! Easily the most beautiful thing in the whole enormous city. Ready? Here we go!

One of the many buildings inside the labrynth of the palace. You can get lost in this place for sure. I think this might have been one of the quarters for some of the lady's in waiting. Apparently each night there were over 700 people ready and waiting to serve the king and queen if they were requested. Over 600 ladies in waiting and over 100 eunuchs.

One of the many doors in the walls. Most of the hallways and building walls have doors like these ones.
This is Kyeonghoe-ru, the largest pavillion in the country and a ballroom of sorts. This is where the king would entertain foreign guests. It's just gorgeous.

Here's a view from the side, looking in.

And here's a close up of one of the sculptures on the walkway.

Here are a couple pics of me and of Hisung in front of it, enjoying the shade from the hot hot sun.
We also went into the king's resting room. Actually I forget what it's called, but it's where he spent most of the day. It's relaxing and quiet, and even in the hot still weather, somehow a lovely breeze floats through the room. It was easily the coldest place in the whole palace. We got to walk inside if we took our shoes off. It was really neat! The ceiling was amazing.

They also had a small couch set up and a place setting where the king would have eaten. Here's a couple pics of the room.

Here's a couple shots of the walkway. There's so much detail all over the place, I couldn't help but take some closeups.

I don't know how on Earth I got a shot of this walk empty. It's the path to the king and queen's rooms as well as the way back out, so it's always full of people. This was towards the end of the day, so I guess a lot of them cleared out by then. Another one of the beautiful buildings.

And another underside of a roof, I couldn't get enough of these.

A look down one of the corridors.

And one last image for you all.

Now I have to get ready and go eat breakfast with one of Hisung's cousins who's on leave from the army. More later peeps!

Picking up where I left off...

2009-08-03T20:31:00.010-04:00

Ok, so a ton of time has passed since I last blogged. It couldn't be helped though. Last week I came down with....the sickness, oh the sickness. I haven't been so sick in a long time. It started Friday, but I didn't know it then. I was very tired all day, and felt just...off. Then Saturday morning I woke up feeling pretty bad. I thought I was just tired at first, but as the day went on I felt worse and worse. Before I knew it, my throat was really sore and swollen, my muscles ached, I was exhausted, and I had a fever. We were out in the city and it was too late to see a doctor, but Hisung's mom works for a medical clinic and she was able to bring me home 2 days worth of antibiotics. Thank goodness!

We were supposed to leave on our trip on Sunday, but I was in no condition to travel. On Monday I saw a doctor. We went in and put my name on the sign in board and the doctor saw me very quickly. I went in and they had me sit in what looked like a dental chair with lots of scary looking metal instruments on a table next to it. When I sat down I wasn't sure if they were just going to look at my throat, or tear my tonsils out medieval style. So the doctor had me open up and she looked at the mess that was my throat. I was feeling better by that time, and my fever was gone. I was hoping she would just look at me and give me a prescription. Instead, she brought out a long metal instrument and proceeded to try and shove it down my throat. It was about that time my fight or flight instinct kicked into overdrive, and after my eyes turned the size of dinner plates I jumped out of that seat faster than a frog in a frying pan. Hisung tried to get me to sit back down but there was no getting me back in that torture chair for sure. The doctor said it was ok and she would just give me medication.

As soon as she motioned to the door I said thank you and I was so out of there. It was very nice of her to see me, since I am in a foreign country, don't speak the language, and have absolutely no insurance at all. I really am grateful to her, yet at the same time, I never want to get sick in a foreign country again. Doctor's are scary enough in the states, where you're used to their tools and speak the same language.

She gave me 5 days worth of medicine, 4 pills, 3 times a day after meals. After we left there, it was back home to pack and get on the road. I'll talk about the trip more later. First I have to update the rest of our week in Seoul. I believe I stopped right at Gyeongbok Palace. So here's that very busy day for you all.

We headed over to the palace and it was a very hot and sunny day. I wore a comfy cotton dress and it was perfect. Cool as a cucumber this time. So we got there and Hisung wanted me to take a very touristy picture by standing up on the steps with the guards. I was reluctant at first, but eventually I embraced my inner tourist.

Atten hut boys, atten hut.

The palace was beautiful. Huge, and beautiful. All the buildings have this type of design under the roof. They're so gorgeous and full of detail. It's breathtaking.

Once we entered we joined a tour group led by a woman wearing a light cotton hanbok (a traditional Korean dress) who was very knowledgeable and quite funny! She told us how the walkway is separated in three parts, and that the middle part is only for the king to walk. If anyone even accidentally stepped on the king's path, they were spanked with a wooden instrument about 180 times. She said that now we're here as tourists, and we can walk on the king's path all we want, and no one will spank us. hahahaha!
This palace, along with other sites in the city, are really interesting to see. They're so old, unchanged by time (except for the renovations and such). They're quiet, save for the tourists, full of green scenery, and very still. Outside is a modern bustling concrete metropolis, noisy, and ever changing. It's so different to my western eyes, but very interesting.

I seriously took an obscene amount of pictures in this place. I could never hope to show you many of them here. It takes several minutes for each picture to upload on the blog. Plus, I took some panoramas, but I will have to wait until I get home to stitch them together. So I'll just show you a bunch of them, with only very small explanations, if any.

Here's the king's throne.

Ok, I'm sorry, I have to cut this post off prematurely. My pictures have stopped uploading to blogger for some reason. It's taking ten minutes for each one, and I've tried the same picture 4 times now and it still won't upload. I can't waste my day waiting for these babies. I'm sorry. I'll have to update more later. :( More is coming though, I promise!

Seoul Tower

2009-07-23T21:31:00.013-04:00

So far on this trip I’ve been to Seoul Tower twice. The first time was with Hisung’s parents. After we left Lotte World we met his parents at a nearby grocery store and went shopping. They wanted to get some things that I would like to eat. We picked up a box of cereal and a few other things for me to make for them for a dinner tonight. After we ate some great homemade SamGyupSal (like, bacon, but thicker and bigger, grilled up with garlic, onions, mushrooms and eaten with ssam, the lettuce wraps), we headed off to Nam Mountain.

Hisung drove and his dad was the one who knew the way, but he got a phone call while we were driving and couldn’t get off the phone, so we missed our turns twice. Insanity thus ensued. Everyone was yelling and angry and stressed. I have since referred to it as the meltdown in the car. I felt really bad actually, because Hisung hasn’t seen his parents in a long time, and he and his dad were just arguing. But when we got there, to reassure me that everything was fine and they really are one big happy family we all held hands as we walked up to the cable car station. Is that a collective “awwwwww” I hear? Probably. It was an awww moment.

So we get up to the cable car and take the nice ride up the mountain above the trees. You can see the whole city from it and all it’s pretty twinkly lights. Once you get up the mountain there’s Seoul Tower. Big and bright, shiny and new. There’s a gazebo of sorts a little ways from the tower, and it’s in the traditional Korean style. It’s just another example of a juxtaposition of the new against the old. A very interesting city indeed.

Right next to the tower there are some stairs and a place where they have a light show and music. The little kids play and dance in them and have a good time. I got this shot of a cutey little boy running around in them.

They also have a few of these wire sculptures that hang about 20 feet up. They’re very cool and look like they’re flying. I don’t know what they represent exactly, but they’re beautiful. There’s one in the lights of the laser show.

There’s also a tradition at the tower, for couples. Couples write love notes, their names, the date, whatever they want, on padlocks and lock them to the fence, then they throw the keys over the side of the tower. Locking them up and throwing away the key means they’ll always be together. Of course, now there are signs that say not to throw your keys, but I’m sure people still do it.
There must be thousands of locks there, tens of thousands, if not more.

We were there at night, so some of these shots I will have to tweak in Photoshop when I get home. Like this one, but I still like it.

While we were up there we took some pictures together. Here’s one of Hisung with his mom and dad.
And one with me and his parents.

The place was closing for the night, and you have to make the last cable car if you have any hope of getting down the mountain without an ENORMOUS walk. They don’t care if people are still on the top, the last car is the last car. So we raced down all the wooden steps back to the cable car station and caught one of the last cars down.

Hisung and I of course, needed to come back. A trip to Nam Mountain needs to include couple locks. So the next day, after a very long afternoon out (which I’ll write about later), we went back up the mountain top. We got locks, sharpie pens, and a little heart we could write messages on.

It was dark and the locks went out at a weird angle, so it was hard to take a picture of. But there they are! Forever stuck to the fence at Seoul Tower. I just know you’re all wondering, did you throw away the keys? No way. I gotta keep something as a momento. So we wrote our names and the date on the keys and we’re keeping them. :)

Here’s a shot of part of the city when you look over the side. Obviously it needs some tune up work in photoshop, but you get the idea. This is only a little piece too. The city is enormous.

And here’s a pic of Hisung in front of part of the fence. See how packed in those babies are?

We got some ice cream at the Coldstone on the mountain top and headed back down the mountain for home and sleep. Glorious glorious sleep.

Now it’s time to get ready to go out for the day. So I’ll write more later. I think the next post will be about Gyungbok palace, and the rest of that day, most likely. :)

Day 2 and Day 3 in Korea

2009-07-23T01:57:00.017-04:00

Can I jam two days into one post? Who knows, but I will try.

So thanks to jet lag I wake up way too early. So after tossing and turning since 3:45 am and finally getting up around 5 I decided I need to start getting to bed a little later. Hisung got up very early too and we went to his old church for an early morning prayer meeting. It starts at 6:15 am, and it's something he started when he was here. Now someone else runs it, and he was glad to see that it was still going on. After the meeting there's a breakfast where some of the ladies from the church made a big breakfast of chicken curry and rice. Holy cow......talk about yum. I haven't had such yummy curry in a long time. It was awesome. Here's a pic of his church from the outside.

When we got back, Hisung and his dad had to go to the dentist. Hisung was having some major dental problems right before we left. He had to take antibiotics and vicodin for the pain. He's having a root canal, but something else is up with it too, I'm not really sure. His dad turns out needed implants, and they cost a pretty penny.....or....won. But yeah, so after the dental appointment we went out to a nice little Chinese restaurant and I had Jjambbong. It's a very spicy red soup with noodles and seafood in it. The noodles were VERY spicy, but good, and I think it goes without saying that I left the tenticals floating in my soup alone. hahaha! I was wearing a white shirt though, big mistake, and I splashed a little of the red soup on it, but I had my little shout pen, and wouldn'tcha know it? It came right out! Those things are like a laundry miracle. Here's a pic of the restaurant, and Hisung's dad in the corner. haha!

That afternoon we decided to go to Gyungbok Palace and see the National Museum. It was so hot and humid. Like I stepped into a sauna with my jeans and tennies on. It was a loooong ride, and there were so many people, I just stood for most of the time, when we weren't racing to a new subway line to transfer, or climbing up and down what seemed like hundreds of stairs. I swear, Seoul is just one gigantic Stairmaster. My muscles are already bigger than when I got here, and it's only been a few days.

So we finally get to the Gyungbok stop and it's beautiful! It's probably the prettiest subway station I've seen here, and they're all pretty good. Inside there's an arch that they say makes you youthful forever if you walk through it. So of course, I got seriously touristy and not only walked through it, but took pictures under it. Yeah tourist.

So we get there, and the weather is terrible. It's cloudy and humid and gross, and then it starts to rain. I snapped a few pictures before we decided to head into the museum though. Even in the rain it's impressive.

Even in the rain, there were still so many people. I snapped a pic of this group of Chinese school kids as they shot a video. Their leader was hilarious! Look at him go!

So we start over to the National Museum, which is right next door, and guess what....closed on Mondays! Sad..... Well, we were meeting up with his friend Sungmin in the evening, and we'd already forgotten his present. I was so hot and sticky and wet and miserable I wanted to go back home anway. So off we went, and that's when I got into my little skirt dress and took out my braids. With my wavy hair and a nice airy dress I felt ten million times better.

So then off we went again and I'm still kicking myself that I didn't take pictures that whole night. We were supposed to see Sungmin again tonight, but he can't come. So hopefully sometime I'll have some pics of them together before we leave. We went way out to see him and they talked like they'd never been apart. He's definitely Hisung's best friend. He was a professional soccer player here for a while and now he's getting ready to go study sports marketing in the states. Even though I'm happy for him, I'm kind of sad, because he doesn't speak English quite as well as Hisung I think, but he has a good TOEFL score and got into the University he wants to attend. Here they have academies that specifically teach you skills for how to pass these tests, whereas Hisung's classes in the states don't teach too much honestly.

Anyway! So we walked and walked and walked to this restaurant, and we finally arrived around the time I thought my feet were going to fall right off and roll into the nearest gutter. It was totally worth the walk though. We had Samgyehtang. It's a chicken and ginseng soup served in a stone bowl. When you get it, it's broth with chopped scallions in it, and a tiny boiled chicken, whole, right in the bowl. When you pick up the pieces with your chopsticks, it falls right apart....soo good. You're supposed to put the chicken on a plate and eat it out of the bowl as you go, and put the bones in a little metal can. I just couldn't do that though....I totally deboned my chicken, then put all the pieces back into my soup and ate it that way. Also! The coolest part, is that the chicken is stuffed with rice, a date, and ginseng. It looks like a big nut cut in half kind of. So when you open it, all the goodies come out and voila! Chicken and rice soup! It was amazing. Wow....Even Sungmin was impressed with how much I ate.

He was a funny guy. He's my favorite of Hisung's friends so far, although I know I've only met too. But he's very entertaining and you know that a night out with him won't be boring for sure. And Hisung gets a lot more fun when he's around Sungmin. He brings out a really funny side to him that I haven't seen as much. It's really great to see him with good friends. So after dinner we took a cab back to the subway station, since I was about to die of exhaustion. This time it was after 9, but my body says SLEEEEEP!!!! at about 8:30. So a cab ride and 45 minutes of subway and what felt like about 600 more stairs we were home, and I totally crashed. I couldn't even get into pj's. I just slept in my leggings and my tank top, but it was a great day.

The next day we went over to Lotte World. We walked around the department stores, ate some Japanese lunch, and took some pics by the ice rink.

Then we headed over to the folk museum that's inside on the top floor. It was really cool, because there's all this information about the history of the country, as well as replicas of all these important artifacts from around the country. So if you can't see them all (especially the ones in North Korea) you can see exact replicas there. They have some authentic things as well. They had some activities here and there and cute things you can do. Probably for the kids, but we had fun doing them too. Here's Hisung trying on a traditional kind of open backpack of sorts called a Jiggeh.

They also had a bunch of displays depicting life in Korea. Everything from ordinary homes and life, to temples, to royalty. Here's one of my favorites of the royalty.

And here's a replica of a Buddhist temple.

Then they had this room with tons of replicas buildings complete with little miniature figurines that were absolutely adorable. The buildings were on a miniature scale, but were still pretty big and full of details.

And the figurines.....well, here's a peak at how expressive they were.

So then on the way out, the coolest thing happened. There was this man who was doing some traditional painting and he let me take some pictures of him. I was really interested in everything he was doing, and so he offered to do a little something for me for free. Then he did another, then he did another. We got three free paintings when they're normally $15 each. The first was a painting where he told me to write my name next to his work. I thought for sure I'd mess it up and make it look terrible. It was ok though. Then the next two were pictures, but they were letters too. So one spells out I love you, and the other spells out my name. I couldn't take pics of those, because my camera for some reason just gave out on me all of a sudden and wouldn't let me take pictures. I thought my battery died, but that wasn't it. It was fine a while later though. Maybe I overheated it or something. But anyway, here's they guy painting and stamping the art. The stamping is apparently a big deal too. It's all official now.

Oh, and also! I almost forgot the coolest thing! He's basically been named a national treasure by the government because of his traditional painting. And in this drama called The Painter of the Wind, it was his hand that did the actual painting. I think that's pretty cool. :)

Ok, well we did some more stuff in the evening, but I have to stop for now. I have been at this for a long time now. We spent the day relaxing for the most part. Yesterday was too busy, and we needed a break today. We're going to get ready and meet Hisung's cousin Harin and a friend who's teaching English here for dinner and a norebang. Fun fun! Ok I'll write more later!

A word about Seoul fashion

2009-07-21T22:49:00.008-04:00

In any busy metropolitan city you’re going to find fashionistas for sure, but I was really unprepared for the fashion norm here in Seoul. The more time I spend here though, I’m starting to really understand it, well parts of it at least. Hisung said they like to imitate New York style. I’m not sure exactly how New York it is, because I haven’t been there in a while, but some of it seems more easy going than New York. There’s a lot of layers and very loose fitting clothing. A lot of it is cotton or linen. Skinny jeans or leggings are the norm here, with shirts that are very loose fitting and comfortable looking, and long enough to be dresses, or maybe they are dresses….hmmm… There’s also a lot of those.

Women here seriously dress up. They also wear a lot of really short shorts and short skirts. I dubbed a certain move the girls have as they walk up the stairs in their too-short skirts. It's called, the Butt Bag. If one's skirt is so short that any normal person can see underwear up it when walking up the stairs, one must cover one's bum with a giant purse or bag. It's seriously funny to watch. Especially if a group of girls all together have short skirts on. They grab on to their bags with both hands and squish them up against their butts and waddle up the stairs. So I say, "Look! There's some butt baggers!" or..."They're totally butt baggin' it." I wish I could get a picture of them doing it. It's too funny. I took some other pictures in the subway though, so you can see.

A lot of people wear skinny jeans, even the guys. And honestly, sometimes I have a hard time telling some of the guys apart from the girls. They’re even skinnier than these super skinny women! So anyway, back to jeans…they must not be too hot to wear, because it’s so hot and humid here I couldn’t imagine wearing jeans all the time. The other day I wore jeans in the morning because the humidity wasn’t too bad and it felt fine, but as the day went on, it got more and more humid, and REALLY hot. My jeans were sticking to me all over, and I just wanted out of them as fast as possible. At one point I was so miserable that stripping in public was not entirely out of the question. Also, I was wearing tennis shoes and socks. I thought it would be comfortable since we were going to do a lot of walking. However! It was the exact opposite. My feet were so hot and sticky in my shoes that I really just wanted to go barefoot as fast as possible.

That brings me to another point. The women here don’t wear tennis shoes. It must be unheard of. I can count on one hand the number of women I’ve seen in anything even remotely resembling a tennis shoe. The most I saw were at night after 9:30. Maybe it’s because they are going to and from work, so they all dress up a little more, but I don’t think that’s it. Everyone wears high heels, flip flops, or ballet flats, and they all look really girly. Every once in a while you’ll see someone who’s not, but surely they must be the rebels. Here's a shot of some shoes, this is a group of some of the most comfortable looking shoes I've seen on people's feet.

High heels are definitely the most popular shoe here, and I honestly don't know how these women walk as much and as far as they do in such enormous heels. I would be a cripple by now for sure. Here's a good example, and look at the toes.

See that polish? I've seen it all over the place. They paint their first toe and leave the rest blank. I've never seen it before, and it looks odd to me. Also here, you can find all kinds of crazy colors on people's nails.

As for me though, I can totally see why they wear some of what they do. First off, dresses and skirts are amazing. I can’t even tell you how awful I felt in jeans, and how cool and lovely it felt to wear a skirt. My feet too, even though there’s not that much support in flip flops, they feel so much better with the air circulating around them than cramped in the hot little sauna ovens also known as my tennis shoes.

After we got back to the apartment from wearing jeans I immediately shuffled through all my clothes to find something else I could wear. I came across something I almost didn’t pack. It’s a long black jersey skirt and I figured out I could wear it as a dress if I pulled it up. The waist part is really long, it’s gathered at the sides, and the seam goes below the bustline, so it’s really perfect. If I wear it as a dress it’s about tea length on me. So I put a couple of black tank tops underneath it and I got some cheapo black leggings at the subway that gather at the bottom and they’re cute. You can’t really see them when I wear the skirt as a dress, but just in case, for when I go up the stairs. I thought they might be hot at first, but when I put them on I realized the fabric is really light and it wicks away the stickiness so your legs stay cool. All of a sudden I feel like I should buy about 10 pairs of these babies and get a bunch of flowy dresses and or skirts. Haha! I didn’t get any pictures of me in this the other night, but I’m going to wear it again soon.

Oh, and another p.s. I forgot my hair straightener at Aunt Barbara’s house, and my hair is going seriously wild in this humidity. I keep trying to get my bangs to stay straight to no avail. They curl up and I look like I’m about 12. So I’ve been wearing my hair either up and braided, in a Gibson tuck, or down and wavy. That way my bangs don’t look so weird. The other day I got a hair straightener though, so I tried it out yesterday and holy cow! It worked so well. My bangs weren't even the slightest bit curly all day. This sucker's powerful!

I'm going to try to take more pics of the people and the fashion here. I am only just starting to get comfortable taking pictures of people on the street. I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb already, so everyone's already looking at me. And I've gotten more than a few stares when I whip out my GIGANTOR camera. I'll take some more though, look for more soon!

Day One in Korea Part 2

2009-07-21T21:56:00.010-04:00

Ok, so the rest of my day on Sunday….wow I have a lot to update! It’s already Wednesday here! So I stopped off at getting shoes for my big giant puffy amazon feet. I think I’ll back track a tiny bit and talk about the views from the subway. It’s really interesting. You can see the big new skyscrapers, as well as the small old run down houses. On top of a lot of the smaller apartment buildings there are these little rooms on the roof. They fascinate me. They’re very small, but people who live on them put up lots of plants and flowers, and they’re the greenest parts of the view from the subway. Most of them look very poor and run down, but at the same time, I think they’re lovely. They hang colorful laundry out in the sun to dry and have beautiful gardens on the tops. The city is really interesting like that. Some parts look like a brand new busy city, while others look older and unchanged by the busyness around them. It’s not like New York. This city has been around for centuries, and you see a lot of the old right along side the new. It’s a cool dichotomy. (note to self, take pictures of one of these next subway ride...)

So anyway! Back to the day! We had gone to Dong Dae Moon to find shoes for my poor blistered feet and ended up walking around there for a lot of the afternoon. There are a lot of buildings with very similar shopping areas. It’s not like malls in the states at all. There are floors and floors of shops, not stores. Each person has their own clothing shop that’s all open, no walls, and they’re about 10 or 12 feet across each. Very small, and all side by side. They line the walls and sometimes it’s like a maze trying to figure out how to get back to the elevator or the door. It was really cool though!

When we wanted some lunch, we went to the basement of one of the buildings and there was a Lotteria. Lotteria is part of the huge Lotte corporation. They have buildings, and restaurants, stores, and a HUGE center known as Lotte World. It has tons of shopping, an ice rink inside, a folk museum and an amusement park too! There’s a castle that looks just like Disney World. In fact, think of it kind of like Disney World with lots of upscale shopping but not so little kid-ish. So at Lotteria, it’s sort of like McDonald’s. Korean McDonalds, and I got the weirdest, most delicious sounding thing on the menu, a bulgogi rice burger. Holy cow…..it’s like, yum on a rice bun. That’s right, no bread bun, the bun is rice, and inside is bulgogi made into burger form with lettuce, union, pickle, bacon and mayo. Here’s a pic for all your curious ones out there. It was sinfully good. Hahaha!

So after lunch we had some time before we were going to meet Hisung’s friend Daesung and his girlfriend Jeein. So we went back to the apartment and I changed into a skirt, which really REALLY helped with the humidity. It’s been warm of course, but what kills ya is the humidity. It’s just stifling and oppressive. It’s because there’s been so much rain lately in the country, and a lot of places are having major flooding and stuff…..I think I’ve said that already though, so moving on…

We met them on a road by a university and went in Daesung’s car. He is a really good driver to get around these CRAZY city streets. I’m going to devote a whole blog to the streets and the driving and stuff around here….so more on that later. We went to a little coffee shop because I had basically been up for 2 days by that point and was really feeling it. It was this cute little place with leather chairs and little loveseats and pretty room dividing screens on the top floor of a small building. It was so cute and elegant. I think it was called something like La Petite Café….or something along those lines.

After that we went for a little walk and I snapped some pictures. Here’s one of Jeein that she didn’t know I was taking. They were both pretty shy when it came to pictures, but she was just so pretty standing there, that I just couldn’t help myself, I had to take at least one of her.

Here’s one of Hisung and Daesung together. He was so happy to see his friend again. So far I’ve met two of his friends and they’re both so so nice. He has really great friends.
And here’s one of Daesung and Jeein together.

Then they took one of us together for us. (please note my JennyBunny Earrings of Awesomeness. Shout out to the Bunneh! As promised. <3 )

We dropped Jeein off at a hospital so she could go visit someone and we went in search of some food. I know I said I was going to write about the city later, but I do have to say that Daesung is a really good driver. There was so much bustling about and so much craziness that I said if I lived here, I would get an ulcer for sure from all the driving stress. I don’t think I’d ever want a car in this city. You’d have to be half crazy to want to drive here. So anyway!, they wanted to have Bosam, which is like pork, in these little small pieces all grilled up and served with a sweet kimchi and ssam (lettuce that you make little wraps with). We went to a little place in Kangnam and sat on the floor and chilled out in the a/c. It was delicious! I have seriously been eating some pretty amazing food here. They all feed me very well and I haven’t had any stomach problems at all. Here’s a pic of the guys munchin on their chunyuk (dinner).

After dinner he drove us to the subway and we went back to the apartment. By the time we got there I was so tired. It was only 9pm, but I was exhausted. So I took a cold shower, braided my hair and was out like a light. Unfortunately my light turned back on again at about 3:30, but I was able to sleep again until about 5 or so.

Well, that’s day 1! Now I’m going to write a little commentary about the fashion here in the city I think. I need some more pictures. I’ll do that today while I’m out. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the things I want to write about so you all can see! It’s so busy here, and we’re constantly running from one place to the next that I keep forgetting that I need to have that camera ready at all times! Soon I’ll have more pics for you all. :)

Day one in Korea

2009-07-19T22:43:00.005-04:00

I'm just going to knock out as much blogging as I can right now, since I don't know when I'll have time . And I'm sure I'll forget half the stuff I want to say as more time passes. (edit: I couldn't upload my pics before, because I found out my jumpdrive is older so it doesn't read bigger cards. I had to figure out how to get my pictures on my external drive, but I have it now!) So here goes!

We've already covered the mad trip to JFK. We left on time, but I was still paranoid there would be an accident or something. I'm glad we made good time because when we got to the bridge it was all backed up and crazy. We waited for over 20 minutes on that thing and you know that cheer the little highschoolers cheer at the games? "Be Agressive! BE BE Agressive!" Yeah, it was like my motto on that bridge. Cause if it wasn't I would have been a total wuss in that little rental car and let a bunch of cutters in just because I didn't want them to hit my car.

So we get there and everything is underweight, so no extra fees, and they let us right through security without any trouble. On the plane they fed us like airline kings. We got 2 meals. First was dinner and we even got a choice. I chose bibimbap, cause mmmm bibimbap, and we got real dishes and real silverwear too! No chopsticks though....sad. We also got blankets and pillows, and in front of each of the seats was a screen where you could watch tv programs, movies from several different countries, play games, listen to music, and you could also see all the flight information. Things like, exactly where we were, where we are going, the speed, the tempurature, what time it was where we left, what time it was where we were going, all kinds of good things. We went up through Canada and across Alaska and Russia then back down past North Korea and across South Korea to the other side, and landed in Incheon.

When we got there and got through customs Hisung's father and aunt were waiting for us. Even though it was only 4am his aunt was all dressed like she was going to work. His father, although I'm sure was so happy to see him, was very reserved and nonchalant about it. But Hisung went up and gave him a huge hug and he smiled then. We have a rented car here and it's very nice, but it's not too big. So only one suitcase fit in the back, plus, hisung's backpack and my carryon. So the other suitcase had to go in the backseat, where I had to sit. So I just crossed my legs indian style and off we went. It was soooooo humid when we got off the plane, I thought I was swimming. I'd love to say that the weather has changed and the humidity has broken, but it totally hasn't. It's not smoggy here, but you can't see very far outside, because so much moisture is in the air it just hangs like a mist over everything.

Hisung drove, and we went weaving from one highway to another, winding around the Han river and looking at the building lights slowly start to turn off as dawn approached. Way in the distance you can see the mountains and hills through the mist. We pulled into a tiny one way street next to a park and had to park the car in a little parking garage of sorts under the apartment building. With all the other cars around, and the tiny space to turn around, it was a feat for sure! Here's a pic of the outside of the apartment, and our rental car.

Ours is the second balcony from the top and wraps around to the front. So both sides of the building are the windows into the apartment.

Once we made it in the spot we started upstairs, where the handle to my suitcase promptly broke. Oh well. At least there's another one. hahaha! Hisung's mother ran out to meet us as soon as we got there and no one would describe her reaction to seeing her son as reserved. She was the exact opposite from his father. She ran out and waved at us before we even got out of the car. She saw the precarious position I had been stuck in for so long and said that it must be hard for me, then she helped unfold me and peel me out of that back seat. Once hisung was out they hugged each other and laughed and smiled. It was really nice to see. (I'll put up pictures of them soon.)

So we get upstairs to their apartment on the 4th floor and they prepared a whole room with a bed just for me. A bed with a real mattress and everything. I wasn't really expecting that, since Koreans tend to like a harder surface to sleep on. Once I got my stuff settled it was time to bow. I had practiced this, and I had wanted to bow to them as soon as I got there. The problem is, Hisung didn't exactly know how a woman is supposed to bow. I looked on youtube, but there were several different ways to do it, and I was confused. I apologized in advance for getting it wrong, if I did. They seemed to think it was ok though. So at least I didn't completely mess it up, and didn't fall on my butt or anything. lol Here's some pictures of the living room, my room, and the kitchen.
There's the balcony you can see from the inside, and that blue loungey thing is this awesome full body massage chair. Wow. It does a tired body good.

My bed....my wonderful comfortable bed, with someof my stuff on the end. lol My window has beautiful etched glass with flowers on it, and it's a pretty bluish green. There's also a computer desk on the other side of the bed there.

The dining room in the kitchen, and that little white thing behind the table, yup, that's a kimchi fridge. I have to say too, his mom makes really good kimchi! :)

Hisung's mother had a gift for me of some hair accessories and some nail polish, and I gave them my gifts too. My mom wrote a card for them and Hisung helped me translate their card as well as the card I wrote for them. They liked the gifts I brought for them and his mother made me feel so welcome right away. She also kept telling his father to smile. hahaha! He's more stern and reserved and she's really bubbly and outgoing. They balance each other well. We looked through photo albums of their wedding, and childhoods, and hisung's childhood. They were really great! I loved looking through them all. Even though the culture is different, and the country is halfway around the world, people are still people, and his family pictures are similar to my own.

His mom is so cute and even though we don't understand each other's language, we still understand each other. We even had a whole conversation about Hisung, in two different languages, but somehow we still managed to completely understand what the other was saying. She told me I should rest, but I knew it wouldn't be a good idea. So she made a big breakfast for us. We had Miyuk Gook, which is a seaweed soup, and Mool Mandu, which are boiled dumplings....oh so good! And Kimchi, homemade and really spicy Kimchi, as well as red rice and little sauteed fish, whole, with the skin, the tail and the head. I wasn't sure exactly how to eat it, so I just followed Hisung. It was really good actually. I just had to get over the fact that my breakfast was staring up at me. hahaha!

After breakfast she cleared out a couple of small drawers for me in the spare room where they have closets set up and I put almost all of my clothes away. Then it was time to figure out the shower. It's a little different than in America. They don't use a separate shower stall. Some buildings do, but I think most don't. So here's how it works. The shower head hangs on the wall and the controls are mounted below it. It's right next to the sink and there's a drain in the floor. So you have to close the toilet seat, and there's a little metal cover for the toilet paper so it doesn't get wet, oh and towels go in a little cabinet so they don't get wet. Then you just shower in the whole bathroom. It's kind of cool actually! Cause I got out my facial clensing stuff and just did that right there in the mirror as I showered. Think about it, you can seriously multitask in a bathroom like that. Running late? No problem, brush your teeth and floss as you wash your hair! :) Here's a picture so you can see.

So we got dressed and headed out. We were supposed to go to church, but it didn't really work out that way. We got started late and even though my feet have never bothered me in my little black ballet flats, all of a sudden I realized I was getting blisters everywhere. I tried to put bandaids on, but it wasn't really working. These shoes never gave me problems before, and I've walked all over with them on. I think my feet were swollen from the plane, cause they still looked puffy to me. So I guess my shoes fit a lot tighter than normal.

So we got off at Dong Dae Moon, which is a shopping district and went in search of shoes. Problem is, I'm like a friggin giant here, and so I have giant feet too. The guy at the shoe store was trying to find my size, but alas, some of the shoes I wanted to try were not made for a freak of nature such as myself. Who knew that a 7 1/2 would be almost laughably huge. Then, the ones that were in my size either looked weird, or I couldn't fit my big fat puffy foot in them. I have never felt like I had such huge feet in all my life. So we left that shop and found another shop that was selling flip flops and we just bought the first pair that looked like it was my size. They are silvery and a little satiny on the bottom, and the top has grey ribbons that tie in a little bow up at the thong part. They're cute, loose fitting, and they even have arch support. So turns out, for flip flops, they're pretty comfy. So far I've worn them all around Seoul and my feet are still sore and tired, but they've held up better than I thought they would.

Ok, this post is getting HUGE. I'm going to publish this one, and write a little commentary, then continue with the rest of my first day I think. Ooh, but to end the post, here's a pic of Hisung and a pic of me on the streets of Seoul.

Hurray for Weddings!

2009-07-19T21:22:00.007-04:00

Here I am in Seoul with finally a moment to spare to look through some pics and blog a little. First off, a post about the wedding! It was great! The bride was gorgeous, the groom was such a sweetheart, no one fainted or fell into the cake (as far as I know) and I even got to do a little Greek dancing before we had to take off like a shot for the airport.

Speaking of which! I knew NY drivers were crazy, but I didn't know they were THAT crazy. Here I was, driving like a MADWOMAN down Route 15 to get to JFK, and I was going at least a good 10-15 over the speed limit of 55 down this curvy 2 lane, treelined highway with no street lights. I normally never speed, but darnit, I was not about to miss that plane. So as crazed as I was, you'd think that everyone else would pale in comparison...but no. Not at all. Apparently it's just cool there to drive with your brights on all the time, regardless of the other cars on the road. And if you're already going 15 over, in the fast lane, apparently it's also totally cool to continuously flash your brights and honk that you get out of the way for someone who needs to go at LEAST 35 over the limit. I flipped my mirror down and tried to stay out of the view of my other mirror as much as possible so I could actually SEE the road I was driving on. Yikes. I'm still sort of amazed I made it in one piece.

Anyway, more about JFK and my trip later, now it's wedding picture time! I wish I could edit these before I put them up, but no such luck today. Oh well, just deal with the weird toned, not as gorgeous as they should be, wedding pictures. :)

Here's the bride getting her hair done already counting down.

Here's Julie, Carl's (Lianna's older brother) new bride. She was a great help the whole day. She helped me take suitcases to my new rental car, and she came with me to the rental place to get the car too. When the lady came to pick us up, she looked all around for us even though we were right there. She thought we were way too young to have rented a car and went looking for people who looked over 16. That just cracked me up. I hope that still works when I'm 50. :P

Me and Lianna! I miss her already....sniff!

A pic of the dress I hung from this tiny plastic tag holding the curtains together. Glad it wasn't a heavy dress!

Lianna getting into her amazing dress.

Happy bride having help putting on the finishing touches.

Father of the bride holding Lianna's niece, the flower girl. Hisung took this one, isn't he good?!

Me walking down the aisle with Kevin. Hisung obviously took this one too. :P

A ceremony shot with the wedding crowns. Hisung was very diligent in taking pictures while I was up there.

Another one of Hisung's shots. Am I surprised he did a close up of me instead of the whole party? Not really. But he did shoot some of the whole party too. :)

So in love....

Hisung looking very nice. :)

Hisung and Carl. He got to know the guys a little better because he stayed with them the night before the wedding and hung out with them all day until the wedding.

Here's one of the whole wedding party at the reception site. Thanks to Hisung again. :)

And one of just me and Hisung

And here we caught Carl enjoying his sister's bouquet. And yes, yes this will be facebook blackmail Carl. :P

Make a wish Olivia!

And finally, a pic of the four of us right before we were Seoul bound.

Phew! That was a LOT of pictures! But I got one more post down, so yays! Next up, adventures from Seoul! So stay tuned boys and girls!

Rehearsal for the Big Day!

2009-07-16T22:54:00.006-04:00

So tonight I'm at a swanky Hilton here in CT, happy but ready to die from lack of sleep. Apparently there was a group of teenagers in the next room last night. There was nothing but yelling, and tv, and running in the halls, and slamming of doors until really REALLY late. Although I slept better than the night before, I still tossed and turned. Oh well, tonight, tonight I MUST sleep....I MUST! I have this laptop that Hisung has lent me for the night, and I will play my trusty sleepy playlist until I fall asleep.

I'm really REALLY hoping that we get to the airport on time, and that I can take my gift through customs. I have two gifts for Hisung's parents. One is a couple bars of handmade soap. They are solid, not gels, or liquids, so I'm hoping they will be ok. I have another gift of two therapy packs with rice inside. First I was going to keep them in my packed luggage, but I hear horror stories of people getting stuff stolen from their suitcases. Also, they are wrapped and I don't want them manhandled. We made the wrapping so that the boxes could be opened. So then we thought we'd take them through on our carry-ons, but now I'm wondering if they'll get through customs. I heard they ask if you're bringing gifts. I just hope I can bring them through without problems. I still think it would be better to put them in the carry-on. Sigh......airport security makes me nervous!

So today was the wedding rehearsal and it went really well! I'm so excited for them, and so SO happy! They are perfectly suited to each other, and I know they will be the kind of couple that makes other couples wish they could be so happy. So here's a few pictures from the church. Here's one of Jason and Lianna lookin all cute and concentrating really hard on getting everything just right.

Here's one of Jason looking all smiley and cute. Just so happy to be getting married to his bride.

And here's one of Jooj and her older sister Rachel in the back. Rachel is the maid of honor, and Jooj is her little sister who's been made a junior bridesmaid. Isn't she adorable?!

Ok, so now it's getting late and I have a HUGE day ahead of me tomorrow. I'm just really praying that we make it to JFK in time, and that everything goes smoothly. Nothing over the weight limits, and everything making it through customs and security without a hitch! I'll let you all know how it went down when I'm on the other side of the world. Korea, here I come!!!

Crashin' in PA

2009-07-15T21:31:00.006-04:00

Ah.....free wifi....is there anything better on vacation? No...no there is not. I hope I have this much access to the internet when I'm in Korea. Last night Hisung and I crashed at Lianna's aunt's house so we could leave first thing in the morning. All the packing and organizing before the trip really exhausted me, and I was especially ready for bed after Aunt Barbara's cat totally attacked my face old school beat down style. Thank goodness she's declawed, but her sharp little fangs are all fully in tact, although I'm surprised she didn't leave anything but puncture wounds in the side of my face. I was just sure she had torn half my face off. Ok, maybe that's and exaggeration, but I was almost shocked I wasn't gushing blood. Which is good! Cause I'm going to be in this wedding on Friday, and I'd rather not walk down the aisle looking like Scarface.

So you'd think after all the busyness and excitement and Animals Gone Wild episode I'd be so tired I would just crash like a sack-o-potatoes, but alas no. I haven't tossed and turned so much in ages. Oh well, I don't need to sleep. Maybe if I'm exhausted enough I'll be so tired when I get to Korea that I'll sleep like a baby and get used to the time change right away.

So we left around 9:30 this morning, after I took some pics of Aunt Barbara's dogs. One is Siggy, he's a very old golden retriever who is just the sweetest thing to ever walk on four legs.

And some more of Sparky, her one year old Corgie who's quite possibly the busiest thing on four legs.

The drive went well. Long, and boring, the best kind. Ohio was straight and flat. Pennsylvania is curvy and hilly. I definitely think Pennsylvania is prettier than Ohio. Sorry Ohio. So we're here in White Haven for the night. We thought we had about 5 hours left of our drive, but turns out we have only about 3! So tomorrow will be a really short trip compared to today.

I started a book earlier called A Single Shard. It's a Newberry Award winning book (oh how I love children's lit!) and I'm almost done with it. So long drives are good for something! Ok, time to go email the folks, finish my book, and hope that I can sleep even though I'm sleeping in a double bed with Aunt Barbara when I'm used to sleeping all alone. If I have huge dark circles under my eyes for the wedding and look like I haven't slept in four days, well, it's cause I haven't. :P

Procrastination Station

2009-07-12T09:38:00.002-04:00

My computer is sucking me in again. Here I sit, with hardly any time to finish packing before I go on the longest trip of my life, and I am wasting precious moments sitting in front of my computer checking email, updating my facebook, reading a great blog I just discovered, and of course, writing this post.

It started out with good intentions. "I'm just going to turn it on because my packing/to-do list is on here.....oh....and I should check my email real quick...." and then it snowballs into an hour wasted in front of the computer when I should be packing like a fiend.

So I guess it's finally time to tear myself away from Good Ole Lappy, a.k.a. my procrastination station, and get my lil butt back to work!

Another Blog

2009-07-11T18:32:00.001-04:00

Because yes, I really think I do need another. Somewhere for all my odds and ends. Here's a post from one of my other blogs, because I hope to post more about my trip on this blog while I'm vacationing. It just seemed like a good introduction. :)

{I love love LOVE traveling, but I never ever get to do it. Well, that is about to change. Starting Wednesday I will be traveling farther than I ever have before. I'm going to Connecticut! I know I know, you're all like, wow Sara, real far away for the Michigander. But wait for it........and from there I'm going to Korea!!! For three whole weeks! And for those of you who are wondering, no, I'm going going to the Northern land of famine, oppression and crazy pudgy megalomaniacs...oh what a fun trip that would be. No no no, I am going to SOUTH Korea, the land of warm oceans, beautiful mountains, hoppin metropolitan cities, norebangs (dude, we need these here in the states), superfab dramas, and of course, the best kimchi this side of the 38th parallel.

I'm gonna hike mountains, swim in the ocean, see statues of Buddha the size of small skyscrapers, temples, ceremonies, tea farms, exotic islands (well at least one! Here I come Jeju!), sing my little heart out at the norebang, try some soju, stuff my face with bulgogi and sushi and probably a few things I wouldn't dare normally touch with a 10 foot pole, buy a bunch of souvenirs I will have no where to put, and take 80 bagillion pictures!

So farewell my loverlies! I'll see you all in a month! As long as my plane doesn't crash in the big blue sea....or Kim Jong Il goes all armageddon on the South....barring any other natural disasters, coma inducing knocks to the head, or if I decide to take up with a band of traveling performers...THEN I'll see you all in a month!}