We spent nearly 4 days and 5 nights in Seoul living the life of ‘urban dweller’ – new to the children. Our friend’s apartment is on the 24th floor of an apartment complex. Watching out for cars (lots), not rolling out of our backyard but onto the street or to the park and the fun of the marketplace replacing the typical US shopping experience. This all took place in a city with 20 million people in the greater Seoul area where not many people speak English and the level of tourism and its trappings is very low. There are about 40 M. people in Korea.
Apart from our English speaking hosts…. there was not much conversation with others due to the language barrier. We all learned to say “thank you’ and “hello” in Korean fairly quickly. There was also a ‘bow’ accompanying both phrases. The way it should be, one might argue! The Korean language has an alphabet (unlike Chinese which has more figures for words)…. So technically you would be able to ‘sound it out’!
The Korean currency is the WAN which runs about 1200 WAN = $1… so you hand over 10,000 WAN for something that costs around $10!
Saturday, June 26th – we arrived @ the apartment to a lovely meal and eventually a nice flat bed!!! We slept between 5 (Mom) - 7-9 hours (kids) that night…(going to bed about 11:30 pm local time… so we were able to get right on the sleep pattern in Seoul but not the length of a long sleep… There were some hairy “jetlag” moments during the day but honestly, surprisingly few. Michael slept over with the Lee boys and the girls and I were in a guest room in another building.
Sunday, June 27th – Michael and I attended Mass at the Internat’l Catholic Church and were one of several new attendees at this very diverse Mass. We were asked to introduce ourselves, along with the other new attendees and met several folks afterwards as a result of saying that we were from Chatham, NJ!
In the afternoon – we headed for the Main park in town (see pictures below) and joined the many Seoul citizens who were walking, riding bikes (renting them for about $3/hour), playing basketball, riding little bumper cars (a favorite with the children). We spent a very peaceful afternoon… doing what one does in the park. Playground too, of course! I also found it interesting to be the only caucasian family in the Park!
We ended our day with a meal of ‘shabu shabu’ where you are seated at a long table – each with a burner and a pot on the table in front of you. You each have a control panel which you use to control the heat as the waitress pours in a very light vegetable broth. You are presented with a heaping plate of lettuce, vegetables and dumplings which you add to the pot as you likr. As the soup heats up you are given a plate of thinly sliced meat. With chopsticks you dip one of the sliced pieces of meat into the broth which both flavors the broth and cooks quickly! You take out the meat and then dip it into different dipping sauces. Delicious! By this time, the broth is cooked through and you add your noodles. Wait a few more minutes and then you have a delicious soup.. . this is Shabu Shabu!
Monday, June 28th We are starting to sleep longer … that is a good thing. It was excellent that at this stage, the girls and I were in a different room. Although we all slept well on Sunday evening- we tended to get up earlier than the boys – so we would stay downstairs until 9ish and make our way up for a lovely breakfast each morning! We made pancakes and enjoyed a real ‘american breakfast in Korea’! We kept a nice slow pace in the morning – the boys playing on the xBox or basketball and we played in the various areas around the apartment complex. There were many nooks and crannies – meandering walks and areas for ‘mediation’…. (if only )
We journeyed later in the day to the main Temple in Seoul – dating back 500 years. It was a fascinating juxtaposition against modern Seoul all around it. The temple, courtyards and gardens were a lovely, magnificent oasis. I was told by our hosts it pales into comparison to the Forbidden City in Bejiing. Another trip!
There was a very cool outdoor replica of an old Korean village about 40 years old in a next door Folk Museum next door. We enjoyed looking at how life was ‘back then’.
The kids loved our next ride… 10 people in a taxi meant for 5 people. It was a short ride to ‘Insadong’ – an outdoor street market where we sampled foods (starting w/ice cream and working backwards through dinner …) we picked up souvenirs and soaked in the sights.
Tuesday, June 29th After another good night’s sleep – thank goodness… we trotted off to the local ‘Paris Baguette” – a chain of stores which has delicious pastries…. So we piled our bags high and headed back to the apartment of a continental breakfast fit for a king. We got ourselves going around noon – boys got in some basketball. We headed to the War Museum where we stayed outdoors exploring the boats and planes from the Korean War. You could feel the impact of the war in the various exhibits…
We headed for another market for lunch where we dined in a restaurant this time… The American Diner! The boys were missing American food and this is THE place to go! Outside in the market –we were able to score designer goodies/s[po for a fraction of the price.
The boys went to a local baseball game with Bob Lee – LG Twins and Laurie and I went out for a drink. Thank goodness for Mae – a terrific new babysitter. Thanks, Mae!
Wednesday, June 30th Sadly, our last day in Korea. Everyone wanted to stay longer. We had just gotten into the swing of things. We had an easy morning and Elizabeth and I went back to Insadong market for a little shopping. We were all packed up!
At about 4 pm – we strapped our luggage into a cab – literally – hanging out of the back of the cab much to our mutual chagrin but we headed for the airport. We had an 8 pm red-eye flight to Brisbane, Australia. Good bye, Korea!
The flight was smooth and service gracious on Korean Air. They did their best to make a red eye as comfortable as possible… we got about 3 – 5 hrs sleep.
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