Seoul Shennagians

Joseph and I had a great weekend with Ray and Chien.
We ate and drank our way through a few different districts and met some hippies. Korean hippies are weird but no less endearing than western hippies.


We began our day at 8:00am or more accurately about 8:30 with delicious coffee at Casa de la Reed.  Senior Joseph made us coffee to help kick start our day.  Thanks honey!
We packed the rest of our junk for a weekend of fun and off to the bus terminal for tickets.  While waiting for our bus we hopped across the street and had some breakfast before our 2 hour bus ride (or I get sick--apparently I have age to thank for that).  We saw Florida grapefruit and tried to buy one but they were only for a smoothie...AGH!  We just wanted it halved in a bowl.  Boo.

We met Ray and Chien in a neighborhood that is primarily Chinese and Taiwanese.  Chien took us to a Chinese restaurant for lamb leg!  YAY!  Joseph and I love lamb and we have only had it one other time since we have been in Korea. 

best. time. ever.

the restaurant owners on the right and random friends on the left sharing what Koreans do best

Next, we all walked around the neighborhood in the open market streets and sampled what this delicious neighborhood had to offer and picked up a few things for later.

just read it.

yummy street food: dumplings with *beef* (hopefully)

for you, dad

duck eggs.  HUGE!

After that, we headed toward another neighborhood near a university and saw hippies, fun signs and lots of people waiting in line.

Time to eat again and we could not pass up a Taco place called: KrissKo.

boys with their matching hats

The Korean says "mut"  haha

Korean hippies!

Joseph and I stayed the night in a real hotel and then the next morning met up with Chien to go to the bus terminal and have lunch.

We found a Dean and Deluca that absolutely made my day so we had to do a bit of shopping.  Honestly, I started jumping up and down and everything.  Joseph and Chien stayed with me but also went and did their own shopping. Then we said good bye to Chien and got on our bus.

"drool"

It is funny how quiet the trains and buses are here. Coughing and snoring are the occasional sounds you hear in addition to cans or bottles being opened.

Thanks Ray and Chien for a fabulous weekend!  We will be up again to bother you.  :-) 

Soccer Game!

A few of us from work went to a soccer game Wednesday night to break up our tiring work week.

Had. A. Blast.

We had the entire stadium to ourselves basically and we asked to sit in another section--Tiffany scored us those!  So we sat in the front row.  Apparently it was the season opener.

It works the same way as the baseball games here: you can bring in food and whatever.  We will do that next time for sure.


We had our pictures taken with the cheerleaders (do they look old to you?), the mascot and I somehow scored us free tickets for another game from an older guy who we think is the owner of the team.  Super friendly guy.  A camera was dropped on the field and a really nice guy picked it up for our group.

OH!  We also had our photos professionally taken while we were there.  Seeing as we were only a handful of foreigners there this must be the reason we were photographed: check them out  and this one too.  If the link doesn't work (not sure how long it will), scroll to the bottom.  I saved them then put them in last.

Also, photos of dragons, horses and chickens...coming soon.  From Krystal, Tiffany and myself before the game. 

the soccer stadium is also host to a rather cool kids play area

tickets please

other "non-Korean" people we saw

the Daejeon soccer team cheerleaders

who we got our free tickets from. my new buddy

he pulled out this ticket book and began counting then just handed me the whole thing (8 tix total)

what's going on here?

super close

photo on the soccer team website

photo from soccer team website

Weekend Workouts

This weekend was a bit dissapointing but it all worked out in the end.

Saturday we woke up to SNOW.  Yes.  Crappy snow.

It lasted about an hour or so but after that it was cold and wet and honestly didn't want to go anywhere so we didn't.  We stayed home.  All cuddly and warm.  I don't even think we left the house. 

Sunday was another story: warmish and sunny.  Is spring bipolar?


Anyway, Joseph and I needed some fresh air so he went for a bike ride and I went for a 6 mile jog/walk.  In about 1.5 hours.  It was awesome.

Joseph and I really enjoy our bikes and neither of us is a runner.  Some how I had it in my head I wanted to jog.  I needed to move.  About 3 hours after, my feet were killing me and when I woke up Monday, my legs doth protested.  Still, I wanted to do it again on my way home.

We had dinner with a friend and his girlfriend and then went back home to relax until the daily grind Monday.

On the upside, we have approximately 2-3 months until our contracts are up.  CAN'T. WAIT.

he must have been comfy because I stood there a few minutes and he didn't budge

the older generation looking for edible weeds and greens to feed their family (true story)

yes I'm wearing sunscreen.

walking across the river on stones. it's about 2 feet deep where these are

ducks nesting next to the river

stones I'm walking across.  Completely fantastic

 

By the River

Our bike ride home was quite interesting: 

We saw 3 Korean Coast Guard helicopters at the river doing touch and go's and other exercises today on our ride home.

Joseph got some cool shots:

Delicious Pigs Feet

Dinner tonight was yummy!

We got paid today and we always try and go out to eat somewhere we haven't tried yet when we get paid.  It isn't expensive, just a little treat for us.

We paid 40,000W which is about $35 USD.  Again, all of the sides are unlimited but we didn't need that because it was just us two.  If we had 4 or 5 people we would have needed more of our side dishes. 

After our spectacle filled trip home (river), we thought we would take ourselves out for dinner. 



We parked our bikes in the apartment then walked down the street about 500 yards from our building.

Our first choice was duck but as they were out of that (common at duck restaurants) we got their second best dish: pigs feet.  Now, I threw a bit of  "I'm NOT eating pigs feet" at Joseph but he reminded me that I need to be open minded and that the pigs feet won't actually look like their hooves.  I told him if it did I'm not eating it and he said okay.  Everyone else had pigs feet as well and it wasn't in the shape of their hooves.
We realized we had eaten this before and just not known what it was called.  It is delicious and the fat/skin around each piece is traditionally, "good for your skin by providing collegan to your body" which is why women eat it like candy.  It was a bit too salty for me so I ate some but not all of the fat/skin.

It is called, "Jokbal" 족발, and more information can be found here.  

We really enjoyed our dinner but we were so full we brought the rest of the huge plate of meat home.

about 500 yards from our apartment

we had 5 to 6 types of salad on our table. This one has dried shrimp, onion and soy sauce

pot of home made kimchi--delish!

left: sweet potatoes right: onion pancake
both to die for

"help meeee!"  says Mr. Dried Shrimp

pork feet

pot O' kimchi, pot of soup and various salads

"salad" soup: greens, anchovies and soybeans.  Super yummy

rim of collegan

super stuffed

quite normal to eat your soup with chopsticks

so full!

check please!