SeoulSapporoSummer: Part One - Seoul

It is the last week of my summer vacation and I am busy grading summer essays, writing my seminary application, and updating this blog with all my summer activities. This was an amazing summer, filled to the brim with adventures. As this is the last summer for Laura and I in Japan, we decided to do as much travel as possible. Of course, as all of you know, travel is expensive, but we scrimped and saved and were able to raise the money for two pretty awesome adventures. The first was to Seoul, South Korea, and the second, to Sapporo, the biggest city in Hokkaido.

So, without further ado, our adventures in Seoul!

I was so excited! I have never traveled internationally before, save Japan, which totally counts, but in a different way. You see when I flew to Japan, there was someone waiting for me at the airport, and I was going to actually be living here. Seoul was my first time traveling abroad for pleasure.

KOREA!

SO HAPPY!

Brent's excited too, you can totally tell.

We landed at Incheon and my first Won purchase was a smoothie at the airport. It was a wee bit odd to revert back to not understanding a word of the language. I was ready to try my best though, and entered the country, phrasebook in hand (I never actually used it, but it was fun to study Korean at night before bed)! When we got out to the buses, who was waiting for me on the side of a nearby tour bus? Why Lee Min Ho! The most handsome of Korean drama actors! If you recall, I am a diehard Korean drama fan. I was able to snap a picture before he rolled away.

Yay Korea! Yay smoothies!

Lee Min Ho bus welcoming me to Korea!

We boarded our bus that would take us from Incheon Airport into the city itself. Once we left the bus, I was navigating, as I had the map on my phone. It turns out I am a terrible navigator. However, what I am really good at is attempting to ask Korean policemen where we were, and how we could get where we were going. There were police everywhere and the ones who helped us were clearly trying to look officious. However, as they were probably only a year or two older than my students, I mostly just found them to be adorable. They were super helpful and got us pointed in the right direction (the opposite way of where I had directed us).

We aren't in Japan anymore...

126 Mansion is a bed and breakfast located in the heart of Seoul. It is right in front of the Blue House, President Park’s residence. The proprietors were amazing people. They were wonderfully kind, amazing cooks, and spoke fluently in English, which they learned entirely from their guests! I highly recommend it to any of you who might be traveling to Seoul.

This little guy lives at 126 Mansion and he is always happy when breakfast time rolls around!

The first day we were there we met up with Brent’s friend Grace and her father. They took us out for a Korean dinner and it was seriously one of the most amazing things I have ever eaten. It was an explosion of flavor in my mouth! So good! We had bulgoggi, a type of beef and onion bowl. Anyway, whatever it was, it was incredible and so were the side dishes. Laura and I don’t like spicy food very much, but our reward for being brave was the amazing flavors that awaited us, spicy or not!

Doesn't it look delicious?

New friends!

After dinner we walked around the neighborhood for a bit. That particular neighborhood was full of traditional Korean homes, called hanok. They were beautiful, even in the dark.  We then went up to a place called The Skywalk. SkyLounge? There was much debate about the name, but it had a great view of Seoul at night. What an introduction to Seoul on our first day!

Hanok

The next day we went to two church services, and English service and a Korean service (though we didn’t stay for the whole time at the second). I feel strongly that my church experience in Seoul needs its own post, so I won’t say more here. We also went to lunch at a Korean-Chinese restaurant. It was so good! I must find a Korean restaurant immediately upon return to Omaha. If any of you know of a good place please let me know. After lunch and church we went to a massive shopping center to see… the aquarium? Now that I have actually seen the real ocean, I continue to be endlessly fascinated by it, and I had read that Seoul’s Coex Aquarium was something to see. It was fascinating, no doubt about that, but I do think that the Henry Doorly Zoo aquarium could give them a run for their money. My favorite was the moving walkway that took you through the shark tunnel while something along the lines of the Jaws theme song was piped through. We also met another of Brent’s friends there, and his name is Inhyuk.

Lotte Castle! Lotte makes my favorite ever chocolates. This was exciting!

Yum! Korean-Chinese food!

Coex Aquarium!

Channeling our inner-Korean

What a great looking group!

Brent and Inhyuk made a new friend

The Penguin Show! With Grace and Caroline

For dinner we had… pig’s feet? Pig’s ankles? Pig’s shins? Pig trotters! Essentially, we went to a restaurant that served meat from pigs’ legs. Again, delicious. I ate nothing in Korea that I didn’t like! And I took pictures of it all so that you can see and be jealous!

Looks delicious!

Rocking out with Sprite instead of sochu

The next day Brent and Grace went off to have an adventure climbing mountains. I was torn, but Laura didn't want to go and I wasn't about to leave her out to dry, so, with Inhyuk as our guide, we set out to explore the city. We slept in a bit and had a wonderful, traditional Korean breakfast, before setting out to see the neighborhood that we currently found ourselves in. One thing we learned pretty quickly is that Seoul gets a slow start in the morning. Most of the shops and things we passed didn’t open until 11:00. We did have a lovely morning walk though and then stopped into a café to wait before meeting Inhyuk.

I look so tired here!

A good breakfast to give me energy!

Here’s the thing. Kumamoto is a big city. It really is, and I love it. But the English section at the bookstore is tiny and the amount of American food to be found stops with KFC, McDonalds, and Starbucks. Which isn’t a problem at all, but it does mean that when I go to a bigger city that has those things, I have to take a minute to indulge. Luckily, Inhyuk totally understood. Our first stop was to get hamburgers. Real, massive hamburgers. Our second stop was the English section at a bookstore. I was a super happy camper as you might imagine. Afterwards, we went to the National Folk Museum of Korea. It is a beautiful museum, full of information about the lives of everyday Koreans throughout history.

National Folk Museum of Korea

This stone represents a grandmother who became a protector of her village after death. BA grandmothers are awesome!

Numbers to call to report a crime with a separate number to report on North Korean spies

Hanok

The museum building itself. It was huge!

Inhyuk was an excellent tour guide and I like to think we all had a good day. It was fun to go from the big, modern shopping center we were at earlier in the day, to a museum filled with old Korea. It’s one of the things I love best about Japan, and Korea too. The old and the new, side by side, coexisting.

See what I mean?

The following day was our last full day in Seoul. We started out by shopping in a busy tourist district called Insadong, which is filled with shops where you can buy all kinds of Korean souvenirs. At one point we were approached by the cutest elementary school children, asking if they could interview us! It was so cute in fact that I got interviewed twice! I couldn't tell the second group no. They gave us homemade thank you cards afterwards.

How cool is this calligraphy sculpture? 

Couples t-shirts! Look closely, its the same shirt. I worked hard to capture that shot. Korea has so many couples items to buy, shirts, shoes, watches, hats, you name it, you can get a couple set in Korea. 

I wanted it! But it was too expensive so I settled for a picture.

Deciding where to go next...

Brent gets interviewed!

His thank you card says "Dear Handsome Man". So cute!

Laura's turn!

I had to go into English teacher mode. They were too shy to actually ask the questions!

How cute are they?!

We are too cool for school. Clearly. 

Just as we were leaving I got interviewed again. They were too adorable!

Lunch choices

Bibimbap!

Amazing food!

These guys made amazing sweets that we brought back as souvenirs for our churches and schools.

We had yet more delicious Korean food for lunch (bibimbap!) and headed for the National Museum of Korea. We only had an hour and a half. Not nearly enough time, but it was fascinating just the same. Although to be honest, I really feel like my knowledge of Korean history is lacking, because that museum just raised more questions than I felt it answered. My disappointment was abated when we had… KOREAN BBQ for dinner!!! Whoot! I love Korean BBQ, and Korean BBQ actually in Korea just takes it to a whole new level of amazingness. My joy was doubled when, immediately after the BBQ we had… HOTTEOK!! Remember, way back in my Tokyo days I raved about the wonders of hotteok? In case you don’t it, is a pancake thing, filled with peanuts, honey, cinnamon… basically chewy goodness. I double fisted and felt no shame. My happiness was complete and the night wasn’t even over yet!

The National Museum of Korea

Myeongdong - kinda like Shinjuku in Tokyo

Shoju and BBQ! What could be better?

Grill Masters

I FINALLY FOUND HOTTEOK!! Two please!

Just look at that goodness...

And Lee Min Ho was right next door!

We found a nearby Catholic church called Myeongdong Cathedral. It is huge, gorgeous, and was hosting Pope Francis two days after we left. But again, church experiences really need their own reflective post. After all that stomach/spirit fulfillment we headed down to the Han River for a night ferry ride. We were almost late and practically threw our money at the ticket people before running for the dock. Much fun and laughter ensued. 

Myeongdong Cathedral

Pope Francis is coming to town!

Ferry ride on the Han River

I was laughing so hard right before we took this picture

So much giggling!

The neon crosses in Seoul

The next day was our last day in Seoul. We spent the morning at Gyeongbokgung Palace. It was huge, and utterly beautiful. Much of it (though not all) is a reconstruction, as the Japanese have destroyed it twice in Korea and Japan’s tumultuous history, and some of it was then destroyed during the Korean war. It is a massive structure and, even surrounded as I was by thousands of tourists, I could feel the pulse of the palace’s history in the air.

Meet Korea's 4H! They were conducting interviews of tourists to Korea and were super excited to hear that my mother was in 4H.

A step through time

We had one last stop for Korean food, this time tteokbokki, or spicy rice cake. Man, so spicy, so good. We then said goodbye to 126 Mansion and headed out to catch the bus.

Red aprons to keep from getting messy

Saying goodbye to 126 Mansion. Thank you for the wonderful stay!

I was really sad to say goodbye to Korea. It was a most incredible experience and I want to return one day, preferably with more time to spare. The people we met, both new friends and strangers on the street, were so kind, so helpful, and so excited to show us Korea. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to travel to Japan and Korea. International travel provides a vital type of education that no school can give. No amount of learning of a culture, through books, movies, or TV can possibly prepare you for the reality of experiencing it with all your senses. I had a grand time, but it is a struggle to even relate a part of how I felt about this trip into a post. Whatever I write, whatever pictures I post, cannot possibly do justice to the memories that I have of this trip. You may simply have to go and experience it for yourself. Many thanks to Grace and Inhyuk for being such awesome tour guides! We were blessed to have you there, I'm so happy we met and became friends. What an adventure we all had together! So here’s to Korea! Geonbae!