Daddy's second trip to Korea!!

Daddy came to visit AGAIN!! It was awesome. We did a lot of stuff even though we were both really tired. Dad was tired from all his traveling and I was tired from my last two crazy weekends touring with Kendra. But, boy, did we have fun!

The first thing we did was go to Dr. Fish! YEAH!! Now, I'm usually very good about remembering my camera... but both Dad and I forgot our cameras!! D: We are horrible people. We did stop at every convenience store on the way to try and find a disposable camera which we finally found, but I don't know when/if ever those pictures will make it to this blog. Oh well.

Anyways. Dad had fun and we plan to go back with Jesi in July. HECK YES! We'll remember to take our cameras then. And I will get video of us all together. :)

We got up on Sunday and headed out towards Insadong to see the Jongmyo Shrine. It was pretty! We had to take the English tour since they don't just let people walk around there (except on Saturday...). Our guide at the shrine was much better than the guide Kendra and I had at the museum on Friday.



I also answered one of her questions right and she was very impressed. She asked what the little stone things looked like and people said things like sheep, but I got it right with CLOUDS.

Yeah... I didn't tell her it looked like the little cloud things I've seen on anime...



We got to take a look down this big long hallway where they have the big ancestor ceremony in May. We weren't allowed to walk there, but we could climb up on the steps and peek in. It was really cool.



Dad, of course, was super serious about all this.



Pretty picture of one of the gates...



After the shrine, we headed to Myung Dong for some of my favorite chicken bulgogi. On the way we found a chicken for Mom!!



And SNOOPY! Ah... hi, Snoopy! :)



Once we were filled with lots of chicken and vegetables, we went to Namdaemun. It was a little crowded, but nothing like how I've seen it before. Still, there were a lot of people.



And they were cooking those stinky bug things. Ugh. I HATE the smell of these things. Yuck! They smell like someone is steaming sweat socks. Yuck!



We were getting tired (tired, tired, tired) so we decided to skip the museum and head home to see a movie. There wasn't really anything playing at the theater that looked good besides the King's Speech so we went to a DVD room to watch a movie. I was going to try and get Dad to see Ahjushi (the movie that's like Taken but way more violent), but we ended up seeing Legion. That was a freaky movie. Just... freaky.

I love DVD rooms. They are really nice. About the same price as a theater (a little less) but you get your own room and you don't have to worry about bothering people if you want to talk. Plus: AWESOMELY HUGE SEATING!!



Then it was bed time. SLEEP.

The next morning we headed to Namdaemun again for a while before I had to go to work. Work was tough that day because I wanted to be out exploring with my daddy.

While I was at work, Dad went and walked around my neighborhood. I think he walked around E-Mart and just up and down the roads. Here are some of the pictures he took on his little adventure that day.

Lunch: he totally got kimbob! I LOVE kimbop!



We skyped with Mom that day, too. I love skype. P.S. Let me know if you want to skype me! I'll let you know my skype address.



And ANOTHER chicken for Mom! This time from the chicken restaurant by my apartment. I'm not that partial to fried chicken, so I've never gone here before. I've heard it's good, though.



I want to go to this place sometime. They sell steamed buns. But I don't know what's in them or how to order them. Go inside? Yell at the guy outside? I don't know. Sometime soon. That's one thing I'm a weeny on: ordering food. :/



Dad met me after work on the corner and we went and got some of the pizza I always talk about. Dad agrees: Korean pizza rocks. We got Hot Chicken and Sweet Potato. Pizza and Iron Man 2 made for an awesome Daddy daughter night.

Dad left early Tuesday morning which was sad, but it was still a really fun visit. Plus, I get to see Dad AND Jesi in July when we go to Vietnam! Yay!

Last weekend with Kendra :(

Like I said in my last post, Kendra had to leave. Of course, this meant that we had to go do a bunch of touristy stuff. We had been waiting until the weather was nice because winter was just to cold to go and wander around Seoul. With Kendra leaving so soon, we just didn't have that luxury.

So on Thursday April 7, we hit the town. Of course, it decided to rain ALL DAY. Not big rain, just mist really. Light enough that it felt okay to forgo an umbrella, but enough that after walking around for an hour you realize your hair is totally soaked and only looks worse as it dries. NICE!

Our first stop of the day was Insadong to try and find some souvenirs for Kendra and her family. We walked around a little bit and found a few things for her before we decided to find some food.

Kendra wanted to do barbecue before she left so we set out to find what Sister Christiansen calls a "leaf and beef." We had almost given up hope when a lady passed us a flier saying, "Authentic Korean barbecue!" I think we scared her because we were like, "YES! We were looking for one! Please! Show us!!"

They didn't have what we usually get at the place closest to us, but this one was even BETTER. We got marinated sliced beef with veggies. Mmmm... bulgogi...



Per usual, there were the many sides and I have to admit I didn't try the salads. Sorry. I didn't feel like eating the salad things that always have the same strange sauces on them. Nope. Didn't want it.



I did take a big bite of the kimchi, though. *shudder* I don't know if I will ever get used to that stuff. I honestly don't see the appeal. It's not so much the spicy. It's just STRONG as all get out! You can taste it with your NOSE!! Does no one GET THAT!!?

Anyways. Kendra ate some kimchi, too. It was spicier than usual, which led to large bites of rice.



After that, we took the subway out to Dondaemun to check out Dongdaemun Market which is supposed to be a pretty happening place. We followed the little maps and walked a ways. Then we stepped into a bank, got some money, and walked some more. Stopped at another map, had a nosey ahjumma give us directions, walked some more... We started resorting to walking through random alleys hoping to find SOMETHING!

Finally, we figured out that we had been walking through it the whole time, just no one was there that day.



What a bunch of wimps. A little rain and everything closes down. Psh.

We did, however, pass by the pet area, I guess. There were kittens, hedgehogs, bunnies, birds, fish, and CHICKENS!!

This one's for Mom.



We finally found one alley that was promising. I think this was the toy and stationary alley that we had seen on the map because that is what was there. I was on the look out for my toast pillow, but, alas, though we found many stuffed animals, we never did find any toast. *sad*



I did find the cutest pencil sharpener/eraser holder EVER though.



That's right. The bun clips off so you can store your fries and drink erasers in with the lettuce and meat. Also, it's from HATDONALDS. I love fake brand names. :)



We finally got tired and headed into the mall to watch Kendra's last movie with Korean subtitles. I was surprised at how good Sucker Punched was. I thought it was just going to be a bunch of skanky girls fighting dragons, but it turned out to have a bit more substance than that. Cool.

After a quick trip to Itaewon for a futile attempt to buy fangirl stuff for Kendra (everything was closed by the time we got there) and dinner at Outback, we agreed to meet up at Namdaemun the next morning before her flight for a few last minute things.

We were tired.



After Namdaemun, we went in search of the Korean War Memorial which we never found. Oh well. We did make it in time to the Korean National Museum which was really cool. There was a great view of the city line. Lovely.



We took some stupid pictures in front of the building. Wee!



We were allowed to take pictures in the museum exhibits but our tour guide was... strange so the the opportunity never really presented itself to take pictures. So, instead, here is a lovely picture of the museum gift store.



We decided to take the English tour because we figured they would hit all the big hot spots in the museum that Kendra should see. No. No, he really didn't. Don't take the tour. Just go in and walk around. We were told it would be an hour long tour, but I don't think anyone told our guide that. He spent the first half hour telling us the history of Korea. In front of the exhibits. Not IN the exhibits where we could look at stuff while he talked. AWAY from them. Then he would lecture us about really strange things about how we should feel looking at the eyes of the Buddha, making us walk slowly towards the statue while looking at the eyes...

Not worth it.

I finally looked meaningfully at my watch and he asked if we had to be somewhere and I said that, yeah, we were told the tour was only an hour and Kendra had to leave for the airport. He got really flustered and then just fast walked us through the rest of the exhibits.

The only redeeming part of the tour was that there were only three of us: Kendra, me, and a girl from Spain. I totally got to practice my Spanish! IN KOREA!! It was so much fun. She probably thought I was an idiot, but I had fun.

We quickly left the museum and went on base with Sister Christiansen who had kindly let Kendra spend the week with her and her awesomely adorable (if freakishly TALL) family. Then it was hugs and goodbyes and Kendra was off to the airport. *sigh* Sadness. She's back in Salt Lake, now, with her sister. :(

I headed home to do some stuff to get ready for my daddy to visit the next day! Yay! I stopped and got my bangs trimmed (very badly... I was/am super pissed about that hack job), bought some groceries, and set to cleaning!!

And here I am in my cleaning top-knot, pink cleaning gloves, and apron, ready to attack my nasty bathroom and kitchen!

FIGHTING!!

Dr. Fish

Like I said, Tara called and let us know she had quit her job. Her quitting was a little more dramatic than Kendra's and involved walking out in the middle of the day, an insanely scary director at work, and a groveling school owner. We had tried to meet up later on Friday night, but Tara ended up pow-wowing with her coworkers to try and figure out what to do about the crazy director.

I got more of the story from Tara on Sunday at church and from what I heard then, she plans on staying through April as a favor to the owner who has promised to pay for her flight home and give her her pension if she continues through the month and doesn't leave now. Awesome.

We decided to go do some fun things on Sunday to get our minds off of stuff. Tara had a great idea: Dr. Fish!

Never heard of Dr. Fish? Ah, well let me enlighten you to our fantabulous adventure.

We headed over to Gangnam which is where our whole Korea adventure started! The school had us in a hotel in this area so it was a little strange to go back to Gangnam and see it with new eyes. Fun.

Tara directed us to a building with a cute, non-assuming little cafe on the second floor.



Waiting for our order.



Hot chocolates and endless cookies and bread all around!



Mmm...



Tara enjoying the bread and jam. Yum!



What is this? Dr. Fish?



Well, for the price of a beverage and 2,000 extra won (about $1.75) you get a very special 15 minute pedicure.



You go up, the guy sprays your feet down, and then you stick your feet into a tank of FISH who then CHEW on your FEET. Okay, so they don't have teeth so they are really just sucking on your feet, but sure as heck felt STRANGE.





I first tried the tank with the big fish but couldn't keep my feet in. It was just too much. So I headed over to the little fish tank. Still strange. I kept twitching my feet and it would scare the fish so I never got quite the crowd that Kendra attracted. That was just fine with me.

I cannot tell you what a strange feeling it was to have these fish swimming all over our feet and nibbling all over. It tickles so much!!



Am I going again? Heck YES I am! This is a must see for the peoples who come visit me, if only so I get to watch them go through the same torture I did.

After the pedicure (and another foot bath with sanitizer and lotion) my feet felt like I had pumiced them really well. Quite nice. I'd rather use a pumice stone than fish, though. At least on a regular basis.

Although we had snacked on bread and hot chocolate, we were still hungry so Tara and her friend (who showed up a little later during our pedicure) directed us to a place that serves breakfast foods practically 24 hours a day! Now, I usually only eat two meals a day: lunch and dinner. I've never been much of a breakfast person and the fact that Western breakfast foods aren't a big item here, I haven't had pancakes or anything since I've come to Korea. We were really excited for breakfast.

The place was called Butterfingers Pancakes. I don't think this was a reference to the candy bar, though that would have been cool.



The waitress had a bit of difficulty. I think Tara's friend really confused her when she tried to do some switch around with the sides on her. Personally, I try not to get complicated. I am more of the point and hope strategist when it comes to ordering food.



Omelets!



Breakfast potatoes!!



The item I ordered first caught my attention with the name: "The Morning After." What!? Walk of shame breakfast? I was cracking up so I read the description: Chive waffle topped with two eggs over easy with caramelized onions and cherry tomatoes with bacon. It sounded delicious so, in spite of the interesting name (let's face it... maybe because of it) I ordered up a "Morning After" *snicker* and my first Dr. Pepper in 7 months. Oh, Dr. Pepper. How I miss you. :)



Um, it was DELICIOUS. No one mentioned the DILL PICKLE! So tastey. Think Dad will take me here when he visits this weekend? Maybe? Or should we stick to Korean food?

Perhaps the best part of the night was the taxi ride home. I know, right? How could a taxi ride beat Dr. Fish and breakfast with Dr. Pepper?

Ride a taxi with Tara and you will know. This girl is hilarious. She talked the whole ride with our taxi driver. She knows a little Korean and he knew a little English so she practiced on him. I can't really describe it. She knows the words for grandma and grandkids so she was telling him she was a grandma ans we were her grandkids. He was cracking up and kept telling her "Anee!" No! She also knew the word for bathroom. And the word for here. I won't go into that one. I hope we at least entertained him. He laughed enough and taught Tera to spell her name correctly in Hangul. I hope he went back to his "jib" in Anyang and told his wife about the crazy American girls.

As I got out of the cab, I had to throw my own 10 won in there. I leaned in and said, "Ahjushi, byaneo. Agashi, SOJU, SOJU SOJU!!" or, in English (basically) "Sir, I'm sorry. The miss, SOJU SOJU SOJU!!" Note: soju is the alcohol of choice in Korea. Tara yelled, "AnDE!!!" "Forbidden!" but I assured him, "Nay, nay. Yes, yes. It's true."

And that's how I ended my weekend with none of my work done for research and development, my lessons left un-prepared, and an apartment still insanely dirty while my dad is coming for a visit this weekend.

So what am I doing with my two days off this week? Oh, just another full weekend of touring with Kendra. Hopefully I'll get to clean my bathroom, do my laundry, do two weeks worth of R&D work, prepare next week's lessons, and, oh yeah, sleep sometime before Saturday when Dad gets here. Then I get to do it all over again! Yay!

Next weekend. Next weekend, I will rest. It shall be a restful, boring blog week after Dad leaves. In the meantime, I expect that I will have some good pictures and stories to tell about this upcoming weekend. Speaking of which, I should probably go to bed since I'm supposed to be in Insadong around the time I usually wake up. Loves!

Drama and Kyongbok Palace

I went into last weekend thinking it would be pretty lazy. I anticipated not really having much to write on the blog. Little did I know that life would somehow get super busy and that I would be scrambling to get something posted about last week before a whole other busy weekend showed up and left me two busy weekends behind!

First of all, the only thing I thought I would have to do last week would be go to Itaewon, buy some pants, finish up some research and development work, and then maybe do some grocery shopping.

Thursday was my first day off and was by far the laziest day of my weekend. Itaewon was nice. I found some pants at the first shop I went to and it was all good. I was bored and didn't want to go home to clean or do actual WORK so I headed over to Namdaemun and Myung dong to kill some time. Nothing exciting there except for some random guy singing in Namdaemun. I don't know if he was famous or what. However, I think I was the youngest person in that crowd. As you watch the video, note the plethora of permed ahjuma heads in front of me.



Kendra texted and asked if I wanted to do something later that night since she had a half day of work on Thursday and I said sure, let's hang. As soon as I saw her, I knew something was up just by the look on her face. Turns out that, for reasons I won't go into on the blog, that she had quit her job. Needless to say she wasn't very happy. So we headed to the mall for chatting and a viewing of "The King's Speech" (which was freaking AWESOME in spite of Kendra's depression).

Thus began the weekend of insanity.

Kendra got plane tickets to leave on Friday April 8 which meant that she had very little time to pack up, move out, and get in as much touristy crap done as possible. Kendra wanted to hit a palace so we looked up directions which really weren't at all helpful. The directions said to get out at Namdaemun market and that was it. Nothing really helpful there. Rather than be bummed, we decided to just wing it and hope to find something on the area map at the subway station.

At the Hoehyun station where you get off for Namdaemun market, we thought we found what we were looking for.

Where we were.



Where we thought we wanted to be.



How far away it was.



Whatever. That's fine. So the map wasn't very helpful or detailed. That's okay. We can still do this. We headed out and started in the general direction of where we thought we should go. After a while of searching, we saw some historical looking photos. That looked promising so we followed the photos to a viewing area and were more than a little astonished at what we found.

Here's a photo of what we thought we would see when we arrived.



Here's what we actually saw.



Yep. Apparently there was a tragic fire at some point which reduced our tourist attraction to a pile of rubble. How nice. Well, we later found out that this wasn't even the palace we had set out to see in the first place! This was the Namedaemun East Gate.

There was still hope!

Since we were there, we decided to walk around Namdaemun to find some souvenirs for Kendra to take home. Along the way, we found something that Kendra had been looking for since our first visit to Namdaemun: heart attack on a stick.



I don't know what it is actually called, but that's what it looks like. Turned out to be a corn dog (complete with the breading) that was then covered in potato bite hash brown things. It turned out not to be as greasy as it could have, but it wasn't exactly a healthy meal. I couldn't finish mine. It was giant.



Along the way shopping for Kendra, I finally caved and bought a cell phone charm I had been coveting since I saw a girl at church with one. It's a little chain with little pictures of the beautiful Lee Hong Ki. This boy is just adorable and I love the character he plays in the drama "You're Beautiful."



Here is a picture of him up close for your enjoyment.



What a pretty boy. :)

We spotted a Tourist Info box and decided to stop and ask if they could direct us to the palace we had come for in the first place. I think we gave them the wrong name, but we ended up getting to Kyongbok palace, so I don't think it was a big waste.

Look! Kendra is alive even after the insane taxi ride!



Tada! Kyongbok palace!



I *heart* Kyongbok!





It was a beautiful place. I love the colors of the painted patterns.



Lovely!



We got to look inside some fancy building and I'm not sure what was going on but it was also very pretty.

After walking around for a while, we headed home. We were also super lazy and took a taxi all the way out. Yeah. It was a day of taxi rides. Go us!

But that's not all! While we were in Namdaemun, my friend Tara called and told us she was quitting HER job as well! Stay tuned for the extra fun times that followed this information.