Seoul food

The title is courtesy of my Uncle Dave... and yes, such a bad pun!

On Friday night, J and I decided to go for pizza and I had beer (she had mango juice).  I have to show you this pizza because we ordered just a cheese pizza (cuz you know, Friday and Lent).  It came out on super thin crust, not a lot of sauce, and crumbles of tortilla chips on top!!  It was good, but weird.

 Decent Hopcat... in retrospect, I should have expected a more hoppy amber ale.  ;)

 You can't really see them, but the tortilla chip crumbs are there, I promise!

 My last beer of then night - Barbara Ale.  This one was SUPER TASTY and took the title of my favorite beer of the night.

So yesterday we had planned for A, J, and I to go to Seoul and try to find me a cell phone that will work in Korea.  I've thought about it, debated it, and decided that I still want a dumb phone.  I salute you smart phone people who are always connected and busy and such, but for me, I like to be able to unplug.  To step away from my computer and the internet.  To ponder a question without having the ability to reach for Google.  Call me crazy, but that's how it is for me.  So that was the plan.  Due to extenuating circumstances, A had to cancel.  So J and I were hanging out in my apt, and I was thinking 'ok, we'll make this a lazy Saturday.  Maybe we'll head out to Emart cuz I'm out of coffee, and I can do laundry...'  J had another thought all together.  Through the magic of wifi she figured out how we could get to Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul.  She then proceeded to convince me that yes, we needed to go to Seoul today if for no other reason than it would be better than just hanging out in our apts all day until we ventured out for food.  I was able to be convinced because I knew that my hermit tendency for the day was more the result of hormones than being truly antisocial. 

So we took the bus from Dongtan to Seoul Station, and I became intrigued by a building that looked like it was the original train station of Seoul.  We decided to come back and take a look at that building before catching the bus home. 

Isn't that a cool looking building?!?!

So we took the bus to the stop that Google told us to take (we could have gotten off at the previous stop, but meh, we didn't know.  We got off the bus and got coffee (of course) and on the way to the palace, we passed a lot of shops where you could rent traditional Korean clothes.  There were many people in the palace dressed like this, which was intriguing. 

These are called Hanbok, and J is interested in going back and playing dress up.  LOL

So then we went to the palace itself.  We got a kick out of the Aussie accents we heard on the way to get tickets and met a couple of very nice Canadians in line for the tickets.  They seemed interested that we were English teachers, and they made sure that I knew they were not fans of the current American president.  I have a feeling I'm going to get a lot of that from other English speakers... sigh.  Just like in Europe, they had to tell me how much they loved Obama, now they have to tell me how much they like/dislike the current president. 

Anyway, back to the palace.  Our tickets were 3000 won (about $2.75).  On the back of the ticket, it says that the palace was finished in 1395, destroyed by fire during the Japenese invasion of 1592, and was not reconstructed until 1867.  During Japenese occupation (1910-1945) most of the palace was torn down.  The effort to restore the palace has been going on since 1990 and the main entrance was only completed in 2010. 

 Outside the main entrance, waiting to get in.  I think they were still setting up for the changing of the guard ceremony, which is why we couldn't go straight in.

 The detail on the ceiling is incredible.

 Another gate that we didn't go in, with the mountains in the background.

 The changing of the guard ceremony.

 Changing the guards.

 The entrance from the inside after the changing of the guards.

 The ceremonial drum that they used to signal the changing of the guards.

 I like this shot, with the entrance to the next courtyard, the drum, and the mountain.

 The entrance to the next courtyard.

 The throne in the main building.

 In a side courtyard, we found this treasure.  I had to wait a few seconds for all the people to leave before I could get this shot.  It was a windy day and the wind was biting cold, so I think there weren't as many people this day than there will be when the weather is nicer.

 I love this part - looks like they had a fire pit ;)    We wandered the grounds for quite a while, and they were pretty extensive.

 We were not allowed to wander around all this, but just LOOK AT IT!!!  It's so pretty, you can almost forget that you're in a city of 10 million people!

 Of course, the trees are starting to bloom, and man are they pretty.

 Obligatory selfie... I didn't like my hair or my Rudolph nose (told you, it was cold).  J tried to tell me that my red nose was 'sultry.'  She's so great. 

 My favorite shot of the day.  I may actually frame this some day.  The willows framing the pavillion with the storm clouds in the background... yeah, I feel like a bit of an artist with this one ;)

 The funniest part of Seoul is seeing this (albeit restored) old palace, but you know that the (extremely) modern city is just over the fence.

 A nice mix of old and new.

 A model with the traditional armor.

 I'm pretty sure the peacock plums on his hat means this guy would have been a captain or similar ;)

A fun pic of the entrance again - we were headed across the street to find out what the demonstrations were about.  Turns out there were 2 protests going on - one to protest the end of the war (with N. Korea - that's right, they don't want it to end, apparently) and one to protest the continued imprisonment of Korea's first female president, who has been in prison on corruption charges.  Being near the protests made me nervous, but they apparently do this all the time and they rarely turn violent. 

As you can see, plenty of policemen were present.  Turns out, when you travel with someone who is a journalist through and through, she will find out what's going on (in case there's a story in it somewhere).  Traveling with J is going to be quite the adventure. 

 So we wandered around until we saw a sign outside a restaurant that had pix of food that looked AMAZING!  So we went in, and they had an electronic ordering system.  Thanks to this system, we were able to order in English, pay, then go and sit down.  This saved everyone the confusion of menus, language barriers, etc.  And thanks to my uncle, I had to tell J about us having 'Seoul food.'

After lunch, we decided to head back to the bus stop and got caught in a 10 min snow storm with driving winds and nasty snow.  By the time we got to the bus stop, it was over.  I had to take pictures from KT square of their 2 statues.

One of these is probably King Sejong the Great.  I don't know which.  I also was able to pick up a paper map of Seoul.  Now, I know that I'm young, a millennial, etc - but I love having a friggin' PAPER map.  First of all, it's all in English, so I don't have to deal with Google being all in Korean.  Second, it's nice to be able to find my locations on a map because then I feel a liiiiitle more like I know where I am/where I'm going.  We've always known that I'm an old fashioned kind of person, and this just confirms it.  So I have a map, I can now choose other things that J and I can go see the next time we're in Seoul.  YAY for maps!!! 

We did stop in to the cool building - there was an exhibit on the DMZ.  I'll just give you a few more pix of that (cuz I know you love pix).

 An artist's rendition of a duplex house - one side would be North and one side would be South.

 Pictures of the DMZ in all seasons

Pictures of the military presence in the DMZ

 It was really a great day and I've thanked J repeatedly for dragging me out - even if the weather did get nasty on us.  So today will be my 'productive' day.  I've done a load of laundry, about to head to Emart to get coffee, wine, a basket for my cords, and possibly even some more food (though that's not urgent).  Then to clean up a bit and then I'll go meet J for Mass at 6.  So yay for a good weekend of Seoul fun and still getting stuff done at home!  Much love all, MUAH!  :*

Entering the age of wifi

So it feels like it's been ages of living without wifi in my apt.  I've been going to a coffee shop not too far away from my apt to post, check my fb, check on emails, etc.  It's not bad and the coffee shop guy is quite nice (and I stopped going to Starbucks all together cuz yay for independent coffee shops), but I felt weird on a call in a coffee shop.  Even if there was often no one else there.  So now, I have wifi and the first thing that I did was try to call my older sis.  So far, we've got one platform where the video works and one platform where the sound works.  Funny enough, she can hear me, I can't hear her.  Also, Skype is not supported with the version of Windows that I'm running on my computer (it's only, what, going on 10 years old now).  Either way, I'm super excited that I can see/call my family again!  As for what is going on in Dongtan - spring is trying to be sprung.  Here's some pix I took of the cherry blossoms on my way to work.

You can't really see it, but these trees were FULL of buzzy bees, being all busy.  :)

After BBQ the other night, we decided to go to A's rooftop.  I had a pretty rough day the next day... but it was fun. 

 The Metapolis at night - one day I do want to go all the way to the top of one of those towers :)

Yay for hanging out on rooftops. 

 I told you that M doesn't like pix!

So here is A, M, D, J, and G.  We are probably above A's apt.  I was pretty glad we didn't get in trouble for being so loud :)

So there's not much else going on.  I was able to make the video chat to my sister work, so YAY being able to talk to my seester!!!  I am now available for phone dates!!!!  That's pretty much it for me here - I can now start learning Korean and doing yoga more (cuz I'll have videos) and CALL people!!!  Life is good, peoples!

Rearranging

I had to attempt to make my apt a little more 'homey.'  So this weekend while I was cleaning my apt, I also rearranged some things, hung up the pix that Ana sent me, also hung up some of the post cards that my Glen Rose peeps gave me before I left.  I now have a bedside table, outlet for my wifi router (that should be happening some time this week - next post will be from the comfort of my home instead of at the coffee shop), and a better 'flow' of the place.  J came over and agreed that it was much more like a home now.  I'll put up some pix, but first (because it's gonna be the one that comes up on FB) here is a pic of me in what I think of as my 'dad' shirt.  It seemed like a shirt Dad would buy and when I wear it, it makes me happy. 

So here's the apt after the rearranging and cleaning - it doesn't really get dirty during the week, just a bit cluttered and OMG - THE DUST BUNNIES!!!  They multiply like... well... bunnies ;)

 Bed is now blocking one of the doors to my laundry room, but it feels a bit less like a pass-thru and more like a home.

 My mop is hanging, along with my resistance bands... the wardrobe has my pix and post cards on it... I did move the trash can to the other side, with the recyclables.

 The infamous bathroom - not much to do in here, really.  After seeing M's apt and where his shower head was originally, I'm thankful for mine!  It's tall enough for me, and now I can clean the floor of the shower after every shower!!

 The other side - the pile in the corner is all of my recycleables - there's 4 bins at the bottom of the stairs for recycling, then the rest goes in a special bag that you take out to the trash tree.  That's right, it's a tree where everyone puts their trash and then it's collected from there.  I have yet to see any stray dogs, cats, or raccoons, so the trash is often undisturbed. 

 My cupboard after the last grocery run.  I felt the need to show Dad that I do have food/am eating.  He seemed concerned about me going hungry here.  I do like the ramen that I had the other day... I also had another kind of noodles that looked good but were super bland.  I now have salt and pepper and garlic powder, so bland food shall soon be a thing of the past!

My (kinda expensive) fruit... the tupperware container you see is filled with food that my students have given me.  They are the cutest when sharing their food.  Korea is most def a sharing society.  There will be a much longer blog post about Korean society from my view after I've been here a bit longer. 

So I mentioned on FB that the other night we did a very Korea thing - we went to a 7-11 and got some drinks (after we had Korean BBQ... I friggin' love that place).  Here's the pix that I took and one that D took of the 2 of us. 

 Soju... so good, so evil. 

 M was usually on his phone with the wifi - this was before we both got Korean Sim cards.  Mine doesn't work in my phone, so I'm exploring options for that... A (as you can see) was happy, having a good time.  Hehehe.

I love this pic of D and I.  She's my daily dose of TX. 

Speaking of TX, I've been wondering about myself.  I keep mentioning to J that she has to come home with me.  But when I say 'home' half the time I'm talking about WY and half the time I'm talking about TX.  So my question is - can I be a Wy-xan?

Also, that word 'home.'  J was talking the other day about how she's kind of country-less because she's been to so many when growing up and currently resides in Australia.  She mentioned the idea of having a place to belong.  I'm not sure that I've ever thought of a place as being where I belong.  The more I think of it, where I feel that sense of 'belonging' is dependent upon who I am with.  I belong with those I love and those who love me.  That's why I have so many homes - WY, TX, KS, NM, WA, etc.  Home is where my people are.  And I love and miss all of you so much - can't wait for wifi (should be coming this week) so that we can set up some calls!!!