together again!!

Mom and hana arrived early the morning after I came back to Korea…I spent my day at Lindsey’s flat, killing time before going back to the airport to spend the night…mom and hana’s flight was scheduled to arrive at 0500, public transport doesn’t run that early…both flights to Korea on which I’ve arrived have come in early, so I knew there was a good chance that would happen again…and it did…their flight landed 50 minutes early, so they were completely through customs and immigration just before 0500…which meant we got to sit down on the benches and wait for the trains to start running…

Hana brought me presents!! A set of stationery cards, and a box of thin mints…I could talk for days about the awesomeness of girl scout cookies, particularly thin mints and samoas…yum…even so, I didn’t open them up straightaway, I didn’t want to waste that awesomeness by eating them when I wasn’t hungry or craving the cookiesJ

After asking the an information desk to call our hotel to get directions, we hopped on the train…too bad it was overcast and foggy, mom and hana weren’t able to see much…not that Korea is stunning, but it would’ve been nice for them to see a bit more at that point…they’d flown into Korea in the dark…what seemed like ages later we got to the particular subway station, found a taxi, and gave him the little sheet of paper given to us by the information lady…he put the hotel into his GPS and away we drove…it seemed to me that we were going in a giant circle, and later I was proved right…nor surprisingly, mom and hana had no idea…lol…our hotel wouldn’t let us check in until 1400, but they did let us leave our bags for the day…so after figuring out a basic plan of attack, we started walking…why does it always seem that I walk in the wrong direction from what I want? I wanted a coffee shop, and it took us foreva to find one…as we learned later that evening, if I’d walked in the other direction, we would’ve found one almost straightaway…argh…anywho…

After lingering over coffee, the weather was still not great, so I decided to have them come with me to yongsan electronics mart…I needed to get a new camera, and wanted to do it as fast as possible…I knew what I wanted, and I had an idea of how much I should be paying for it…which made the whole process fairly easy…the first guy I talked to kept trying to up sell me, so I told him I’d keep looking…which I did by going to the guy across the aisle…he was way cheaper, and not so pushy…even though I was thinking about getting more than just a camera, (I would love a bigger tripod, that’s also light) I stuck to just the camera…I’m still thinking about that tripod…hmmm…hana and mom just watched while I went through the whole process…

By that point, everyone was hungry for real food…hana’s tummy wasn’t feeling so great, she wanted something bland…mom just wanted Korean food…so we walked until I saw a small, typical little Korean restaurant…no English to be seen…I’ve never had to pick out food for other people before, it’s not fun…at least, not for me…other people like it…all three of us were okay with our meals…from there, we went into the I’mall at yongsan station…lots of western stuff, but still entertaining for the ladies of the family…I don’t remember how long we spent in there, but I do remember all of a sudden feeling tired, and not wanting to be on my feet anymore…

Back to the hotel…the 20 minute walk from the subway station to the hotel wasn’t fun…a very early night for all of us…hana and I slept well, for at least 10 hours…lack of sleep and jet lag will do that to you

The next morning we got going later than I thought, but since everyone was still a bit tired, that wasn’t so much a bad thing…mom had shown me a list of things she thought she’d like to see in Seoul, so I picked a couple, and we started from there…she wanted to do the city bus tour, which started near one of the palaces…I suggested we see the palace, then hop on the tour…so we took the subway to one of the stations near that palace…the station is called gwanghwamun, which is the name of the giant plaza area in front of the palace…there are statues of admiral yi sun shin, (I’ve mentioned him in earlier posts…to sum it up, according to Korean history he pretty much singlehandedly turned back the Japanese in a number of battles in the 1590s when the Japanese were invading) and king sejong (he and his advisors invented the Korean alphabet used today, among other things…he’s considered to be one of the greatest Korean kings)…on one side of the plaza is the American embassy, which has to be one of the ugliest buildings I’ve ever seen…it doesn’t blend in at all…

It turns out that under the statue of king sejong, there is a basement area you can enter, and learn about him and some of his accomplishments…I wanted to get to the palace, mom and hana overruled me…so down we went…it ended up being fun…we had fun playing with the digital interpretive stuff…taking photos of ourselves, and putting hats on…mom even took a photo of hana bowing to me…which is the way life should beJ

From there we went to the palace…gyeongbukgung…I’ve written about this palace before…it was built as the main palace of the joseon dynasty…it was destroyed in 1592, by the Japanese, but later rebuilt…now it’s probably the busiest of the palaces in seoul…when I first came back to korea a year ago, they were rebuilding the front gate, so it was covered…that has since been finished, hana and mom got to see the new gate…(which I didn’t point out to them, so I doubt they noticed)…we wandered all over the palace…there are a lot of areas to explore, we didn’t spend too much time in the busier areas…at least, we tried not to…there were several school groups around, I have a feeling that happens every day…we found the area where you can put on old school traditional clothes…I chose the clothes of a commander, hana’s costume of choice was of someone below me…again, as it should beJ…it was fun, and something I hadn’t done in a loooong time…

By that point, it was past lunch time, and we were hungry…so we went to kimbap cheonguk…which translates to kimbap heaven…I picked four “flavours” and the three of us shared…I don’t think hana and mom were really all that keen about kimbap…dunkin donuts was across the street, so that was dessert…

Back on the subway, we went to coex…mom had expressed an interestest in seeing the largest underground mall in asia…it’s a mall…some useful stores, some not so much…hana and I got some jelly bellys, which I hadn’t had in ages…but mostly, we sat and watched people…it was the first chance mom and hana got to see “Korean fashion”…snarky comments ensued…

Back to the hotel, plans made for the next day, daily journal written, and sleep…

The next day we started with a visit to a coffee shop of a chain I hadn’t yet tried…(I never did get around to trying all the different chains I saw in seoul)…and from there we went to the starting point of the city bus tour…I think we just barely missed a bus, but the weather was nice, so it wasn’t much of an issue to wait for the next bus…they come every 30 minutes or so…the original plan was to ride the entire route (which is supposed to take a couple hours) to see how everything fits together, then pick a place to get off the bus and explore…after going for a little while, we decided it would be better to get off when we got to a place we wanted to see…the first place we chose was a traditional village…unfortunately, hana’s tummy didn’t want to wait that long…she got crazy motion sick, so we had to get off the bus earlier than planned…when Koreans learn to drive it seems to me that someone tells them that the break or accelerator should be depressed at all times…which means there is a lot of start and stop motion…I’m a bit used to it, but I still get sick from time to time (and I avoid taxis In korea wheneva possible) but hana isn’t…we stayed on the bus as long as possible, then we just had to get off…the tour lady didn’t seem to understand what was wrong, she asked if we would be continuing our tour later…she didn’t seem to get that we really needed to get off the bus RIGHT NOW…

Fortunately, we got off the bus near itaewon…as far as unplanned places to be, it’s not horrible…the bus recordings say it’s a must visit area for shopping, but it really isn’t…the economy of itaewon is very dependent on the US military base right next door…if yongsan wasn’t there, this area of seoul wouldn’t be anything exciting…there is shopping, but it’s far from the best place in town to shop…there are lots of international food options, but there isn’t a lot of korea in this part of the city…hana needed “comfort food” so we ended up at mcdonalds…it’s a place I try to avoid as much as possible, but her tummy needed it…after that I wanted to go to tartine, which is a Canadian pie place a bit down the road…

Eventually we got back on the bus and made it to the traditional village…namsangol…it wasn’t originally a traditional village…the city took five traditional houses from various parts of the city and moved them all to this location…if I remember correctly, most of the houses are of the upper class…or the way the upper class used to build their houses..in other words, servants quarters and the like…there are “actors” sitting in a few places, I guess they are supposed to be showing certain activities…but when you see them texting on their phones, or see a plastic bag in the area, the feeling isn’t quite so authentic…after we walked in the entry gate, I realized why the place seemed so familiar…my school this past year had come here for a field trip…the school didn’t explore the village, we only went to a performance in the theatre…so it was nice to see what else happens in the area…

This day was 29 april…another big event was to take place that night…(that night Korean time anywho)…after the village we took the subways back to our hotel, picking up dinner along the way…then the three of us watched the royal wedding (prince William to kate middleton)…let me say I’m glad I’ve never married (and never will marry) a prince…planning that wedding must’ve been super chaotic, and super stressful…I can’t imagine planning a wedding (or being in one, for that matter) when you know people around the world will be watching…like many others, I thought pippa stole the show…