Twenty-Three for Twenty-Three

Dear subway system in Seoul,
You've just been dominated by me. How does that feel?

I KNOW..I am WAYYYY behind..but to make it up to you, today I am going to write 2 whole blogs. And here is the theme of the first blog...best displayed in a picture :) Here we are at an old old old Korean palace..and I have a Buddhist gazebo sticking out of my head.



On Thursday, after teaching my morning class to NEVER EVER answer "O.k." to questions like, "Are we going hiking today?", how to emphasize the "y" in "year" so they stop saying "ear" when they really mean "year," and the cooking term, "drain the water," so they won't keep saying "then I threw up the water," I was off to get ready for my one and only sister's arrival in Gunsan. It was a full afternoon of grocery/last-minute Christmas shopping, miraculously stuffing my bookbag and two medium sized boxes full of groceries and Christmas stuff, hauling that stuff out to the street to catch a taxi, getting all my "loot" out of the taxi and through Myeung san shijeung with the help of a very compassionate ajumma, teaching the afternoon classes, FINALLY cleaning Lily's cage, cleaning everything else in the apartment, and watching an hour of a Korean drama. Then at about 1 a.m. my Korean world and my American world collided.

Erika arrived safe and sound. She had a crazy adventure in Shanghai, but was able to catch her flight to Seoul. She got on the very last bus from the airport to Gunsan with the help of the one and only Elizabeth Holscher, so after 2 plane rides, a bus ride, and a short taxi ride, mi hermana made it!

We hugged, caught up, and then slept. Friday morning I went off to spread the English language while Erika slept even more. On my walk, I experienced another "sneak attack" from the cyclist that always asks my age, but this morning he said, "blahblahblahblahchristmascardblahblahbla," and I said, "oh you have a Christmas card for me?" He just nodded and rode off. After class, my adult students took my sister and I out for our bi-weekly adventure.

I was pretty excited to have another English speaker in the car. Some things you just can't read about, you have to experience being in a car full of Koreans, eating strange things, and stopping in the middle of a busy road to take a picture yourself to really understand.

We went on a drive over the longest sea wall in the world. Yep, that's right..IN THE WORLD. I think it's called Samangeum. Google it. On the other side of the sea wall, we ate at this Korean restaurant. I was a little nervous for Erika just to be thrown into the world of Korean food right off the bat, but she did spectacular..she even said she "liked" the kimchi...liar. After lunch and the long drive, we went to a coffee shop and ate a sweet potato cake..I'm still not sure about all these sweet potato flavored foods.

After the coffee shop, I went back to school to eat toast and make Christmas cards for 4 hours and Erika went back to the apartment to....sleep. No, actually, she went back and decorated my apartment for me...Merry Christmas to me.

Friday night was Christmas Eve. I was a little late..Mr. Oh even left the middle of the service to come get me from my work. When I said, "thank you so much for picking me up." He said, "That's ok, you're my family." Presh. So, we went to the Christmas Eve service at the church, we ate Christmas cookies, opened gifts, and sang songs..myself, Erika, and this other teacher named Hank sang a Christmas special.."Go Tell it on the Mountain." As you very well know, singing is NOT my forte..so to the best of my ability, I stood up front, knees shaking, and silently mouthed, "watermelon" through the whole thing ;)

Christmas morning rolled around and lo and behold, Santa made it to Gunsan, South Korea and Erika and I are 23 for 23 Christmases together! The morning was complete with failed pancakes, successful scrambled eggs and cheese, stockings, presents, skyping with the family, and the ugly sweater tradition.

In the afternoon, we went to a Christmas day service at church, ate SUCH a delicious Christmas lunch--straight up American style, played some games, and then started to make our way back to town from church. Most of us went to watch "Despicable Me," at my friends Melanie and Nick's house later that night. We piled out of the van and started to make our way towards their apartment complex, when we saw these kids having a snowball fight (it had snowed so much!), soooo, we decided we could take these little goobers and as we walked by, we pelted them with snowballs..shortly after, the security guard came out shouting something in Korean..the kids dropped their snowballs, but we didn't, there are some perks to not understanding the language.

Sunday was a very restful day for the sister and me. We hung around the apartment, slept off and on, watched "I'll be Home for Christmas," (Jonathan Taylor Thomas..what a stellar actor), walked around Gunsan's shopping area for a bit, ate a Korean dinner out, walked around at Eunpa park, and had a coffee drink at a cafe called Santa Rosa where our waiter was this young Korean guy who was eager to speak English to us. When he noticed Erika's drink was almost gone, he leaned over and whispered in her ear..."coffee refill?" I think this cat had seen too many American movies..it was pretty awkward and pretty hilarious from where I was sitting. She didn't get the refill and we quickly made our way back to the apartment.

Even though, North Korea says they have an absurd amount of missiles aimed at Seoul as I write this, Erika and I decided to try and defy death. We hopped on a bus to Seoul Monday morning! sorry..that was a little too dramatic.

Monday was such a full day. The Seouls of my shoes were worn down. The first thing we saw was the Gyeongbuk Palace. It was sweet and so so so old. When we got to the end of the palace, I saw this house that was heavily guarded and tinted blue and I said to myself, "If I knew what the Blue House looked like, I'd say that looks like the Blue House." And ta da, the guy at the gate said that it WAS the Blue House...similar to the White House..it's where the President of Korea lives. And since it was built in 1095, I'm going to say we are the copycats in this situation.

Next, I wanted to get some food for my Seoul. I've been craving Mexican food big time! I read that there was a Mexican restaurant called "Ponchos" in an area of Seoul called Itaewon. So, Erika and I decided to take on the Seoul Subway system once again and as we were staring at the subway map, trying to figure out what direction to go, a man came up to us and offered his help in English. Erika was pretty excited to talk to a stranger. I thought it was nice, but was a little worried he was going to follow us the rest of the day to improve his English. Turns out, the man just confirmed that we were getting on the right subway, and him and Erika had a nice conversation about the many travels he's had in his life. We made it to Itaewon, no problem, and I enjoyed a decent beef burrito..however, this place couldn't hold a candle to Casa Mexicana.

We spent the majority of the evening at Seoul Tower. This is where Erika may have met her Seoul mate. Seoul Tower is on top of a "mountain" called Namsan mountain. At the base of the tower, Seoul is visible, unless it's a very foggy day like the one we encountered. Still, it's a pretty sweet view. Around the tower is a railing, on the railing, there are many locks. Apparently, couples come to this tower, buy/bring a lock, write something on it, lock it on the railing, and throw the key. There are SOOO many locks. Needless to say, it's a pretty romantic spot. As Erika and I were admiring the insane amount of locks, this Korean man with a nice looking stache, comes up to us and says, "picture?" and I say, "sure, I'll take your picture." And he then he motions to both of us and says, "no, us picture." First he took it with his camera and then I took one with mine. It was a pretty classic Korea moment.

We finished the day when we arrived at our guesthouse. Thankfully they were not all seouled out. We got a room for 20,000 won each (which is like 17 dollars). And we slept. Well, we tried to sleep. The beds were awfully hard, and at about 3 a.m. it thundered..of course I woke up in a panic because I was sure we were getting nuked, but settled down soon after..but SERIOUSLY, why does it thunder during a snow storm????? Feel free to answer that in a comment.

Tuesday we had one Seoul purpose and that was to find souveniers and other goodies for ourselves. So, we went shopping at Insadong and Namdameun. Insadong was much more quaint and less chaotic than Namdamuen, but Namdameun had some amazing jewelry! Erika was in awe of the awesomeness and cheapness of the necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. And she also had a little fan club following her around Insadong. There were like 8 little 13 year olds who came up to us and asked us where we were from and a few other questions they were all giggling through. So, we answered their questions, snapped a photo with them and were on our way.

We got back to Gunsan on Tuesday night and Erika slept while I organized various things to send back with her. Wednesday, Erika shadowed my regular life, which was not so regular since I had been gone for two days and a few of my classes changed and I got 3 new students. In the afternoon I took her to Lotte Mart and we made the infamous walk to work for the afternoon. After class, Yogita and Jemal took us to eat at this fusion restaurant. It was delicious and great company. And so, Erika ate her last Korean meal and slept through her last night in Korea. Thursday morning we rushed around, hugged, and I put her and all her luggage in a taxi with Elizabeth and sent her to the bus station while I made my way to work and back to my "normal" life in Korea.

Well, I realize this was a massive blog and you may need a few days to read it, SO, I'll write the next blog tomorrow or Monday. Happy New Year everyone! 2011 is going to be a great year..only one more year until the end of the world..yikes!