Videos from Seoul

We took quite a bit of videos for our memories. Here are just a few for your entertainment. 

Mark on the “Treeble Hopper”. So much fun:)! I remember Katya going for the first time on the same kind of ride, “Frog Hopper” at the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

At Lotte World, Mark and I wondered around amazed at the enormous size of that Amusement Park. In this video, you get a glimpse of what it was like….plus my very Ukrainian accent (sheesh, I better learn how to say the word  “tired” properly-hahaha)

Sunday (Day 7) in Seoul and Osan AFB—Goodbye the “Land of the Morning Calm”.

Saturday night we changed our original plans of staying in Seoul, at Dragon Hill Lodge, through Sunday night. We decided to check out right before church and take a bus back to Osan later that afternoon. That way we’d have a whole day Monday to explore (shop) near Osan AFB. It turned out to be a great idea.

We packed up our suitcases, left them at the front desk and took a taxi to the church. We followed our new friends who live in Yongsang there since it was quite far from the Dragon Hill Lodge. After church, we stayed for their “Much and Mingle”, met some great people and got free lunch:) All English speaking foreigners go to church at this location, so we met people from all over the world. Some people just moved here with military assignments, others with the US State Department jobs, and others were teaching English to the Koreans.

After church, we came back to the hotel, got our luggage, caught a bus back to Osan AFB and in 1 hr and 15 minutes were checking-in into Turumi Lodge. Suites at the Turumi Lodge had a kitchen, living room and a bedroom which made life so much easier for us, especially when putting Mark to bed.

That night we went to….drum roll…Chili’s for dinner. It was exciting! (except I had to send Mark’s corn on a cob and my sizzling chicken fajitas back because they were not even hot)

In the morning, after a delicious breakfast of waffles and pancakes (that I also had to send back because they were burnt on the chocolate chip side, I promise, I am not picky!), we took a taxi to the shopping area right outside the base gate. I enjoyed “shopping” here a lot more than in Seoul. I had as many choices, but fewer crowds. Did we get much? Nope… We got some custom-main luggage embroidered with our names, a blanket, some neck ties and (my favorite) a Korean wooden lamp.

 

The kids were getting tired after walking around, so after lunch, Robert took them back to the hotel for some serious movie watching and popcorn eating.

I had no other choice but wonder around streets ALL BY MYSELF, window shop and, of course, get a manicure and pedicure (for a fantastic price).

In the evening we ate a Thai restaurant that was all right, not as good as our local Misawa’s Phada’s, in my opinion. Next morning, we had to wake up at 5:30 to catch our free flight back to Misawa. We got on the plane with no problems and finally arrived to Misawa at 11:30 am (military on-board processing takes forever!).

No matter how fun it is to go places and travel to foreign countries, it is always so good and comforting to come home…

Seoul Day 6—National Folk Museum

We were determined to make the most out of our last day of sightseeing in Seoul. As always, we were up and running by 8:30 am. After a very American (ie artery-clogging) breakfast at the Green Room buffet, we got a taxi and went to the National Folk Museum (not to be confused with the National Museum of Korea).  The Folk Museum children's museum turned out to be really fun.

It is situated on the grounds of the Gyeongbokgung. The whole museum, including the kids' section, was free. While walking the grounds on the way to the museum, we found lots of these curious statues. I learned later they are Jang-seung, traditional Korean totems which were placed at the entrance to villages to ward off evil spirits and also to set the boundaries for different villages. In the past people and families prayed to them to bring good fortune to their town, friends and village.

 

These were tombs placed on famous people’s graves.

Some of the outside exhibits depicted life not in Ancient Korea, but the conditions people lived in just 50-60 years ago.  There was a replica of a barbershop, restaurant, movie theater.

 

Do you recognize these classics?:)

Katya, our fashionista, decided to try on a new pair of shoes.

Museum workers were waiting outside the kids’ museum to show us how to play some of the traditional Korean games.

Using a metal stick with a “hook”, you try to keep your metal hula-hoop running—that’s my way of explaining it.

 

It is harder than it looks.

Inside, we found a whole bunch of hands-on activities for kids all based on a story about a princess Shimcheong who was once blind. Then she was reincarnated through a lotus flower.

Mark playing in the underwater kingdom.

And of course—dress up time. Our kids love to dress up:)  And Alex couldn’t be happier playing with that drum.

We spent at least 20 minutes at this drawing station. Maybe because the kids hadn’t really colored for almost a week, but they really enjoyed this. If anyone a year ago (before Kindergarten) would tell me that Alex would love to color and draw, I would laugh. If drawing and crafts come naturally to Katya, Alex had to learn to like that. He does a fantastic job now. The kids left the pictures they drew of the princess and lotus on the wall to be displayed:)

 

There was much more in store upstairs. Musical instruments, more crafts, more traditional Korean games, more dress ups. This xylophone was Katya’s favorite.

This was near the traditional hat exhibit. Hilarious:)!

After a little over an hour, we decided to check out the rest of the Folk Museum. The kids didn’t want to leave… because we were on a schedule to get to the next place, we only took a couple of pictures outside….

      

…and these Chinese ladies took a couple more pictures of Katya:) I could definitely tell they were not Korean or Japanese.

Seoul-Day 6 Deoksugung and Myong- Dong

This is Deoksugung’s gate. Every day at 11 am, 2 pm and 3:30 pm, these soldiers perform a change of guard ceremony. It’s quite a neat “show” to see with music and marching. The commentary to the ceremony is led in four different languages, I believe (it was very interesting for me to hear that).

     

So here is a close up of a Korean man for you:) I cannot believe that I can distinguish now between Japanese, Koreans and Chinese. It’s a skill I developed last month-hahaha.

Right across from Deoksugung, Seoul looks like this:

Another short taxi drive took us to Myong-Dong—a popular fashion shopping area. We didn’t come there to shop though. We were looking for this one dumpling place recommended by Tripadvisor. After a bit of walking around trying to find the place, we had to ask someone about Myeongdong Kyoja. Even after someone pointed us in the right direction, we couldn’t see the place! The problem was that the name of it was written in Korean. Finally, we found it (ask me for directions if you ever decide to go to Seoul)! The place was already quite full—it was only 11:30. 

There were 4 entrees (yes, that's all) on the menu. Dumplings, noodle soup, something spicy, and something with milk and green grass (kidding). We ordered two soups and two plates of dumplings.

YUMMMMM! Delicious!!

This is what the restaurant looks like on the outside.

By the time we were finished, around 12:20 pm, the wait was at least 30 minutes. People were standing in two lines waiting to be seated in the downstairs or upstairs (yes, there are two levels to this place). I definitely recommend it -- early in the lunch hour though.

As we walked around more through Myon-dong, we saw the honey string candy makers:) They do a little “show” for you to demonstrate how the candy is made. The kids found it very entertaining. Basically, hard honey is mixed with lots of flour and then stretched several times, twisted and stretched again. This candy has a very unique taste.

Walking from Myong-Dong to Namdaemum Market. N Seoul Tower is in the background.

   We did go to Namdaemum Market which is one of the most famous shopping areas in Seoul. You could find a ton of clothes, accessories, cosmetics, suits, etc. there. I recommend going there without kids:) It was very crowded (it was Saturday) and too much to choose from.

Our day was only half way over. At 1:30 pm we hopped on a subway train heading across Seoul to COEX mall where a fun COEX Aquarium was located…

Seoul-Day 6 COEX Aquarium

Okay, so you’ve hopefully read about most of day 6 already.  Well, there’s more.  After lunch, we eventually made our way down to COEX mall.

Wikipedia:    COEX Mall is an underground shopping mall located in Gangnam-gu Seoul, South Korea. It is Asia's largest underground shopping mall with an area of about 85,000 square metres.

Robert:  COEX Mall is really big.  We went in through the entrance near the subway station and saw a sign for the aquarium.  That’s all we wanted to do there, so we headed the direction the arrow pointed.  We walked and walked and walked.  “Surely we must be getting close.”  “Did we miss it?” “Wait, there’s an overpriced stuffed monkey.”  “Oh, I see another sign for the aquarium.”  “We’re almost there.”  “Just kidding.”  “I think we’ve walked a mile or so.”  “Can I ride in the stroller.”  “No, Robert, you cannot.” 

Finally we made it.  At first I was skeptical about the aquarium.  After all, I’ve been to my share of aquariums (even the Mall of America has one).  If you’re expecting Shamu, then this is not for you.  However, I must admit I really enjoyed it.  It was definitely unique (albeit insanely crowded).  We probably spent a good two hours there.  That’s pretty good considering the kids don’t stay put for very long – constantly moving.  

I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures, though I certainly could have, but I decided to try and enjoy the aquarium instead of try to figure out how to get my camera to take quality pictures indoors.  Plus, who wants to see a bunch of fish pictures anyway.

So here they are in all their fuzzy indoor-lighting glory:

First up, Korean style fish tank, complete with miniature footbridge and Buddhist temple. 

My favorite room was the “think outside the box (or tank)” room.  Want a Coke with your fish? 

Baseball hit your fish tank?  No worries

I hope that’s not a piranha in there.

I’m sorry , could you speak  up a bit?  I think there’s water in my ear.

  

As you can see, Mark couldn’t get enough of these creative fish tanks. 

 

What should I make for dinner?  How about fish.  They’re fresh!

Why do my clothes smell like fish?

Yes, there was a hedgehog at the aquarium.  I like hedgehogs.

There was even a two-headed turtle.

And an iguana sitting on a tortoise’s back?  Aye-yai-yai.

Be sure to follow all signs posted.

  

Three crazies – that’s all there is to say.

He used to say “Ooohh, Nemo!” like all the other 21st century kids.  But he’s been edumacated, and now it’s strictly, “clownfish.”  Or, when he’s feeling P.C. he’ll say “anemonefish.”

So Alex is the size of an Emporer penguin, and Mark’s as tall as a Gentoo.  Who knew?

So, aquarium done, it was time to get back for dinner.  We had met a wonderful family earlier in the week who watched the kids while we went to the LDS temple.  So we decided to treat them to dinner.  The plan was to have them take us to their favorite Korean restaurant and then pay for everyone at the end of the meal.  Well, they ended up inviting another friend and his kids-- which actually was wonderful because our kids had even more new friends to play scream at the table with—which slightly complicated the pay for everyone plan.  The real problem came when at the end of the dinner, as everyone was leaving, I was trying to corral my children (ie chasing them down), our new friends paid for the meal and wouldn’t let us pay them back no matter how persistent we were (which brings up the question, how long should one be persistent in these matter?  “No, really, I insist.  Take the money.”  “No” “Okay, then.”)  Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about the food.  Really good.  Meat: good—grilled right in front of you (Bulgogi it’s called). 

Sidedishes:  different.  Guess what this one is.  Sure, it looks like ice cream with sprinkles on top.  But you’d be wrong. 

In reality, it’s potato salad with sprinkles on top.  Actually quite tasty.  Other sides: octopus, kimchi, onions, garlic, rice (kid favorite) and some other stuff that I can’t recall.  After dinner, off to 7-11 for melon popsicles. 

Oh what a day.

Robert