The Folks Came to Korea

As I mentioned last time, this is the first of my series of posts where I describe when my parents and little sister came to Korea, and then we all went and met my older sister and her husband in Japan. I figure I'll wipe out all of the Korea stuff in one post so I can get to the Japan posts quickly. It was actually a really good time spent in Korea, though.

My parents and sister, Kelsey, ended up leaving the states on Christmas eve, and then flew for about 12 hours while experiencing a time change of 13 hours. This meant that they basically flew for the entire time it was Christmas. How nice of them.

It was just a simple matter of hailing a semi-shady taxi to my town from the airport in Incheon, well known for shady taxis. This guy seemed like he didn't like silence and kept talking about the long bridges he was going over. Except by talking about, I mean that the only words he know about long bridges were 'long bridge,' so he just said that over and over. After paying a fair price, we arrived safe and sound at my somewhat tiny apartment where we all were staying and celebrated Christmas with the help of my 12" Christmas tree I bought for about $8. It was nice.

The next day was a full day to spend in my town of Seosan, Korea, so I tried to make it worth while. The morning included a small tour of the town around where my school was and to a nearby temple. It's a really beautiful temple, called Sogwang-sa, and I'm planning to write a post about it sometime soon. See picture:

We had a nice lunch of sushi, and then toured the market nearby my home which has a pretty impressive amount of sea food. That night was definitely the most exciting one in Korea, and one of my favorites of the time that I spent with my family. For dinner we had what is called Korean barbecue, where meat is cooked on a grill at the center of the table and wrapped in a lettuce leaf along with toppings, as I had mentioned before. The dinner was complete with some soju and a few beers bought by the guy at the table next to us. We then went to norebang (singing room) and cranked out two hours of well sung favorites. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I don't have any photos of this part. That was nearly the end of a great day, which was eventually capped off with Dok Bokki (what my sister calls Korean fire noodles) and some ice cream.

The next day was off to Seoul by bus. We left late morning and had a small hangup at the Bus terminal in Seoul where the taxi drivers didn't know where the hotel was and also didn't want to take us because it was in a really close neighborhood. We eventually got a taxi to take us to a nearby hotel where a desk worker called our hotel to bring the manager to walk over and get us. No problem. This hotel ended up being top-notch for what the price was, so If you are ever in Seoul looking for a cheap stay look no further than the Cello Hotel. The manager speaks great English and will go to great lengths to make the stay enjoyable.

This is a photo walking back to the hotel that night.

That day, Sunday, was spend eating Thai food at my favorite Thai place outside of Thailand, called Thai Orchid, located in Itaewon. They pretty much lived up to my promises of great food so I was happy. We spent the rest of the day exploring a part of Seoul called Insadong which is in some ways like a giant souvenier store. There are just dozens of shops, museums, and souvenier stores for virtually any Korea related gift. I also saw this robot:

A few stands had this traditional Korean candy made from stretching sugar strings into hundreds of strands and wrapping them around assorted nuts all while doing this chant about how great the candy is. It was definitely worth a photo and the candy ended up tasting OK.

An outdoor mall building had this directory of stores, and my dad noticed something interesting top-center:

Yeah, so no comment on that one. That capped off what I thought was a really enjoyable experience in Korea. I think Kelsey and my parents had a favorable impression of the country, even if the amount of snow we got on Sunday in Seoul made things a little difficult. Actually there was only one restaurant open when we were trying to get food delivered to the hotel, but the manager there was excellent enough to find it and order us some delicious chicken. See you tomorrow for a Japan post!

A Visitor

So finally someone took the time to come and visit me in Korea (mostly joking, I'm not bitter, really). My cousin on my dad's side, Jennifer had three days off from her job and decided to swing by the friendly Republic of Korea for those days. She has been working as an English teacher, somewhat like me, over in Japan for almost two years. Actually, hearing some about her experiences had an influence in my decision to come to Korea.

Anyway, the time we had together was short, she got into the airport Sunday night at 8:00 and I had to work Monday afternoon. Actually, her flight was perfectly on time, and my bus ended up being delayed by over an hour. That was an excruciating three hour forty minute bus ride having to watch the clock as I'm more and more late. I ended up at the airport at about 9:10, so then just the quick one hour subway ride to her hotel, and we were free to hang out for the rest of the night.

I should also introduce her friend, Gini, who is an English teacher in Japan and came with Jennifer. She has been in Japan for something like nine years, which is pretty crazy. She had an opinion on just about everything, and she ended up being pretty interesting. I also found that her full name is Regina, which I liked because that is the name of the street that I grew up on.

So here's a picture of Jennifer, she's looking very excited because we about to enjoy her first authentic Korean barbecue.

Here is Gini, also very stoked about the dinner.

Now here is the Korean barbecue meat, and this isn't just any meat, its galbi. That means its high quality beef.

I don't think I've talked much about Korean barbecue on this site, so I might as well put in a few words. It's this meal where you watch meat get cooked over a gas stove or over hot coals at the center of your table. The meat is usually pork, and in this case we had beef, which is excellent. Also on the table are a series of side dishes, ranging from kimchi, the time honored Korean favorite of fermented cabbage, garlic, various sauces, and sometimes even other meats. I actually had a similar meal on Friday where thin strips of raw hamburger was served. That stuff was actually super good. Anyway, you watch the meat cook at the center of your table while turning it yourself to make sure it's evenly cooked. Actually we were all novices at this so the server did most of the work. Once the meat is cooked, it is put into an open leaf of lettuce which is placed in the palm of your hand. Then, you pile on the side dishes to your liking, roll it up, and pile it all into your mouth. I have to say it's an excellent meal, and offers a very communal experience because everyone has to watch the meat cook, share the side dishes, and then build their own lettuce pile.

So I'll move on anyway. The rest of the night was fairly low key since each of us was somewhat tired. We walked around the area of the hotel, where we found a nice walkway which had a Korean workout park that Jennifer and Gini really liked. I showed them how just about every block in Korea is about the same because it has the regular PC room, singing rooms, convenience stores, and then the trash piled everywhere. I don't make it sound too nice, but if you can get by the trash, it's a nice place.

I should mention, because this is pretty funny, I slept in their hotel room on this really small couch thing. It was in two different pieces, one was about 2' by 3', and then another section which is about 2' by 2'. I put the larger one under my head and abdomen, and then the smaller one under my feet, so it did serve as a bed. This hotel unfortunately didn't have any extra pillows or blankets in the room and I didn't want to ask for any because I thought they might have charged extra. It wasn't the best night of sleep of my life. Actually, you might say it was toward the other end. It wasn't really that bad though, I slept soundly enough to snore it up. That's what I tend to do when I'm on my back, which is the only comfortable position I could come up with on that thing.

Jennifer brought me a few boxes of fancy Japanese candy, one of them Fran Whipps and the other Pocky Men's Bitter Chocolate. I have yet to try the Men's Bitter Chocolate, and I'm curious to know what the 11% is about. Is it 11% more bitter now? I'm not sure if anybody who reads my blog knows Japanese. Oh well.

So anyway, Jennifer I hope you had a great trip and everything went well. I also hope you have a good impression of Korea. I'll make sure to check out your blog for updates about the trip.