Exploring Seoul with the Park Family!

My day in Seoul with the Park family!

Click on the image above to view all the photos in the album

First of all, I don’t think I will ever be able to express my gratitude to the Parks for their kindness, generosity, openness, warmth, and hospitality! They made me feel incredibly welcome in the city of Seoul and were wonderful hosts to me! After I said farewell to my husband in the Guam airport, I had to clear Guam customs, and re-check in for my alternative itinerary. I then boarded a plane for Nagoya, Japan and braved a Japanese airport for a while (which was actually very clean, well labeled, and very pretty). From there I flew onto Seoul and was soon greeted by one of my MCC students (and one of my Model UNers), Jenny Park, Mrs. Park, and Jenny’s brother and sister.

In seconds I was transformed from being an English-speaking foreigner to being embraced as an honored guest by the Parks. They swept me up and made me feel incredibly welcome. Before I knew it, I had dropped my bags at my hotel and was at a beautiful dinner. The style of meal was called “kalbi” and consisted of a variety of delicious side dishes that you eat with grilled meat. Only…the meat is grilled at your table on a little mini grill in the center of your table. …So, think fondue, but with a grill instead. The waitress continually lays more beef or pork out and then cuts it into strips. You then eat the piece of beef with other side dishes, like sautéed peppers, raw onion strips, or greens in a sesame pepper sauce. You can also take the meat and wrap it in a piece of romaine. It’s delicious! (And!...Mrs. Hals managed to eat it all with chopsticks! My chopsticking ability was even praised by the Park family, although I have suspicions that they were just being kind). Mr. Park joined us for dinner as well and I was able to debate the strengths and weaknesses of the US law system with him – very intriguing!

After dinner we enjoyed some very delicious, light, refreshing desserts at a coffee shop. Jenny and I split a big bowl of shaved ice topped with raspberry syrup and fresh fruit. It was yummy and is a new favorite dessert of mine.

The next morning, Jenny, her brother, and her mom, met me at the hotel and took me sightseeing. They ran me ragged, but we had a fantastic day! I can’t possibly describe every second of it, but I’d like to share a few highlights with you:

One of our first stops of the day was Bongeunsa, a Buddhist temple in the heart of the city. It was my first Buddhist temple and was absolutely beautiful. Jenny’s mom told me lots of little details and patiently answered the multitude of questions I had as Jenny translated for the two of us. The interior of the temple was beautiful (I don’t have a picture, because it would have been rude), but the ceiling was lined with prayers, hanging from flowers, that people had paid money to have placed there. The right wall was lined with little golden Buddha statues that Jenny’s mother explained people had purchased and on the left wall were two big fancy ships that had boards with smaller papers added to them. I was told these were spots purchased by families to ensure their deceased family member had a seat on the boat that provided safe passage to the Buddhist version of heaven. There were many opportunities throughout the grounds to purchase prayers that would hang in various ways throughout the complex (check out the pictures). We walked the grounds and witnessed a monk’s funeral prayer going on in one of the temples, saw a very large Buddha statue, stopped by the pagoda that housed the large bell and drum that are sounded on festival days, and enjoyed the view of Seoul.

Shopping was quite an experience. As we traversed through the city, they showed me several different amazing shopping areas. First, Jenny shared Coex with me, which is her favorite place to meet her friends. Coex was a very cute mall with lots of fun stores (now I know where she gets her adorable pencil cases!) We visited several other shopping centers, some of which were malls, others were markets. The market was amazing. I’ve been to many foreign markets, but never to one like this. The quantity of goods available was absolutely astounding to me. And everything is clumped together by topic. So we walked through probably 100 or 200 stations selling jewelry. (I’m going back!) We walked by row after row of souvenirs, row after row of shoes, food, etc. It was really neat! We also went down to a grocery store (which was the basement level of a mall) and her mom showed me many different fish, fruits, vegetables, that were unique to Korea (or at least not normally found in the US). It was really interesting and gave me a great feel for the shopping opportunities in Seoul.

Jenny also showed me the Korean spin on a photo booth (you know, like the one in Melbourne Mall that you sit in, make funny face, get a little strip of pictures…), only this booth was very high-tech in my opinion. We had an interactive touch screen and a green screen behind us. We picked out our backgrounds. We then went to a different booth and used a touch screen to decorate our photos, add cute little digital stickers, crop, label, you name it. Very fun! (You can see our final product in the album above…let’s just say I laughed, a lot).

The last thing I did with Jenny and her mom was go to the top of the Seoul Tower. To get to the base of the tower you have to find a way to get up a very long, very steep hill. Because of the intensity of the traffic, Korean residents are expected to walk or take a public bus. If you are a foreigner, you can take a taxi or a cable car. So, the Parks were very excited to use me as an excuse and to be able to take a taxi to the top (I was more than happy to oblige). :) At the top of the hill, we waited for the sun to go down with the idea that it would be prettiest to see the entire city at night. So we enjoyed the view from the lookout, watched teenage couples attach locks to the railings and throw away the key (thus locking in their love), snacked on frozen yogurts and coffees, and had great conversations. The view from the top of the tower was beautiful and was a perfect end to a great day!

The Parks gave me a wonderful inside look into the city of Seoul! It really is an awesome city and I am very excited to have two more weeks here! I still cannot thank them enough for their amazing hospitality!

PS – I have resigned myself to accepting that I will probably continually be about 2 days behind on this blog. Internet has not been reliable (the past two hotel rooms I have had do not have working internet in the room…what are the odds?) I’m trying! And will keep posting! But just realize it probably happened two days ago. I met up with the teachers program on July 7th and have had two easy days as everyone else is jetlagging, but tomorrow is the big day! We are leaving for Korea University at 7:15 am and have a FULL day planned, several seminars with KU professors, lunch, a meeting at a local foreign language high school, my guest teaching session with the students, a meeting with the principal, and an afternoon and dinner with a student’s family! A full, full, full day! Wish me luck! : )