Seoul

We made our second trip to Seoul two weekends ago. It was an exceptional trip, we had a best friend and a brother with us so it was that much more enjoyable. The weather was ridiculous, one night was 5ºf. Because of this awful weather we had little to no crowds at everything we went to see. Here are some highlights.

Seoul Folk Flea Market

This was one of my favorite spots in Seoul, one I hope to visit again. It was two floors of a bunch of junk. Electronics, prints, Michael Jackson busts, and other unnecessary items. This guy had a really organized stand:

This machine was amazing, it supposedly tests your stress level or something...it reminded me of Ron Hubbard's E-meter.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

This palace is very much in the center of Seoul. Most of the palaces here are really reconstructions of what once was...the Japanese and Chinese decimated most of their palaces over the centuries. This is the biggest one in Seoul, and is truly amazing.

Singing Room

After a long day of walking around in freezing temperatures and being cultured, it was nice to relax and kick it in a Norebang. The singing rooms here are so infectious...you pay about $15 for a room to sing karaoke in and you get your pick of the songs, two microphones and hilarity. The one we found wasn't particularly nice, but it did the trick. We even got a bonus half hour for free!

The 63 Building

We went to one of the tallest buildings in Seoul, the 63 Building. It was a bit of a let down really, it was a bit expensive. The building boasts "the highest art gallery in the world," and to be fair they had a decent picasso exhibit there, but most people that want a nice view don't want to contemplate fine art at the same time. It was a strange mix. Complete with cheesy tourist photo opportunities.

The size of Seoul guarantees that we'll never see everything, the city has 10 million people. Hopefully you'll come to visit so we can explore it again together!

More Market Madness

There are two main markets here in Daegu, Chilseong Market and Seomun Market. Seoumun is bigger, and more polished. Chilseong is a bit smaller, and has a lot more of a raw vibe to it. For instance:

Below is some Sashimi, or Korean sushi. As I noted earlier, they don't roll the fish up with veggies and rice, they just cut it up and serve it.

I don't know why they hang the fish, but it sure is pretty that way.

Whistle Blower

One of my favorite characters here is the popcorn man. On my walk to the subway I always get to see the popcorn man. He has stacks and stacks of various popped foods: puffed rice, popcorn, assorted rice wafers, etc. They are all packaged in ridiculously large bags.

This in itself isn't that impressive, and you can see bags like this all over the place. The fun part is to watch this guy use his little pressure cooker, which looks like a cannon off of Super Mario Bros., to pop this stuff. He blows a whistle as a warning just before he opens it because of the blast.

If you look closely at that feedbag on the second picture, you can see debris blasting out of the back of the bag. The popcorn shoots into this bag at full force. It's a lot of fun to watch. As you can imagine, this is a favorite spot for pigeons.

Snow Day

We got about 2 or 3 inches of snow over the last two days. It was pretty exciting for us, being from Atlanta, which has little to no snow every year. Things didn't stop here...stores were open, schools were attended, work was done. We work in the evenings, so we got to take advantage of the snowy afternoon.

This small pagoda is adjacent to our apartment, just a little ways up hill. No one was up there, we were surprised.

We ran into this crew on the way down the hill. As soon as they saw the camera, they all huddled around their snowball and posed. It was pretty darn cute.

Just next to the hill with the pagoda is another hill. We decided to make a snowman since both of us couldn't remember ever making one. I couldn't figure it out at first, but Beth showed me the way. We found some gloves to give him hands. Beth had quite an affinity for "Mr. White (aka Three Slaps Johnny)."

I've been meaning to take a picture of this failure for a while.

On the way home I put a few snowballs together. We went up to our apartment on the 12th floor and opened the window. Children were all playing in the snow directly below us. I yelled out "bombs away!" and started chunking the snowballs. Two kids decided to try and catch them. It was a fun day.

Holidays in Korea

We're pretty far into the holiday season, and so far it's been lovely. We were warned before we moved here that November and December can be tough for expats because it doesn't feel like the holidays. So I decided that we would do our best to bring the holidays with us.

Though we miss our friends and family (because that's the best part of the holidays), we've created a holiday atmosphere here complete with a real Thanksgiving, too many Christmas lights, and friends that feel like family.

For Thanksgiving everyone brought a dish and shared some special traditions from their families or cultures. We had a Russian toast before we ate, and said cheers in 10 different languages. The food was incredible. This is a picture of one of the tables of food (there were three!)

We had a beautiful little girl named Hana around to keep everyone charmed.

The day ended with the boys on the porch smoking cigars and some fun rounds of charades and other games. You can't beat that!

Beer Snacks part 2

At nicer bars here in Korea they will give you snacks with your drinks. I've only had these served at one "hof" (bar) as they are called here, and they are certainly the most interesting beer food I've had. It is a small bug. It's called "beon de gi" and it tastes bad. They are swimming in a spicy, salty liquid. You can see the habanero peppers if you look close. These buggers are somewhat soft, and taste like soil. It isn't anything so bad that you want to gag, but one was plenty for me. You can see old women selling these by the bag full at the local markets

Here is some video, post beon de gi consumption.

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Goin' up that hill

We finally went hiking this past weekend. Hiking is a pretty big deal in Korea, nearly 90% of the country is mountainous. The city we live in is literally surrounded by mountains. We have some just 10 minutes walk from our apartment.

Like everything else here, there is the familiar and the unfamiliar. Most Koreans really get geared up to hike...walking sticks, proper gloves, jackets, canteens, hats. This is all for a hike of an hour or two.

Our first surprise was when we got to the top of the first hill. There was a clock tacked to a tree, and a mirror. Mirrors are EVERYWHERE here, from elevators to bus stations. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see one in the wilderness, but I was. We had a good laugh about this.

One of the cool things about walking trails and hikes here is that there is always a lot of fitness equipment. I mean, you've never seen so much, it is anywhere people walk. The top of the hill was no exception. Nothing like benching some kilos after a brisk walk up the side of a mountain.

The view was really beautiful up here. It's still interesting to see how the city looks from above, there are just SO MANY buildings.

We also saw some burial sites, they pop up every now and then in remote places. I thought it was interesting how sculpted the ground is around these mounds. They use the mounds of dirt instead of headstones, and the ground is usually very well manicured. I'm not sure by who.

We encountered these banners along the way, we assume they are talking about what a great area "Dalseo" is (this is the part of town we live in).

Once we made it down the mountain we found another treat--pressurized air guns to get the dust off of our feet. No one needs to know that you were hiking and no one will.