My parents got here on Friday, Jan 28 after over 20 hours of travelling and bags left behind in China (along with the maple syrup my mother tried to bring me, bought duty free on the Air Canada flight). I was so thrilled to finally see their faces in real life after 6 whole months of only Skype calls to hold me over. That was the longest I'd ever gone without any physical contact from my family. (Even longer for my brother, since he wasn't able to make the trip.) Crazy.
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| Papa |
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| Mama |
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| I kept trying to capture them coming out the doors, but failed, so my Dad snapped this in the meantime. |
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| Pictured with Jae-Seok, brother to my Mum's friend, who was awesome and gave us a ride back to Siheung! |
The first day or 2 were spent in Siheung, checking out the various places I've discovered since moving here:
We also spent Saturday moving my parents' suitcases to the hotel they were staying in for a few nights. After we'd finished, my Dad realised he'd lost his cell phone. After retracing our steps twice, we still hadn't found it. So I called his phone, which was answered by a Korean man who found out where we were and brought my Dad's phone back!!! WOW!! Can you think of anywhere else that would have happened? I can't!!
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| The man who found my Dad's phone. |
On Sunday, we went into Gangnam to check out the restaurant where I planned to have my birthday dinner: TAJ Indian Restaurant! The food was delicious and the service was quite good. All the servers were pretty friendly. My Dad struck up a cricket conversation with a couple of them. One of the servers had just finished saying the West Indies team wouldn't make it and when we told them we were from Jamaica (which is included in the West Indies team), the server said, "Oh, I'm sorry sir." HA!
On Monday, we went to my school and on the way my parents got a chance to meet my piano teacher!
At the school we were lucky that the Vice Principal and both of my (then) coteachers were there. So my parents met them and got to check out my nifty classroom!
Then we hopped onto the good ol' public transit system and headed into the "French Village" in Seocho, located by the Express Bus Terminal station (Line 3). Well, this was a big disappointment. The first time I was there was for the French Christmas Festival, during which there were many French-speaking individuals walking the streets and French things being sold in this little square. Of course when we went back, it was a grey day, no festival, no Francophones, no French things anywhere. Sorry Mummy! I wanted to take my parents back to the French restaurant where I'd eaten the last time, but it was mysteriously closed. Also... I didn't know this before, but there's such a thing as "break time" where restaurants appear open, but are not in operation as everyone takes a break for a couple hours. What? I don't even.... So anyway, we ate lunch at a Korean barbecue place where our server was Chinese.
Anyway, after our brief and dismal stop in Seocho, we met 2 friends of mine, Cyrena and Kesia, for Indian food in Gangnam (Different Indian restaurant. Different exit from Gangnam station). I don't remember the name of this place, but it was a small, and really nifty place. Run by Koreans, but the cook is Indian and the food was wonderful. I'd like to go back there someday (once my insides are back to normal). If I do, I'll do a better post with more info!
What did we do on Tuesday? I can't remember... Oh yes! My mother had wanted to try a Templestay, but we didn't have enough days to do this, so instead we went to the Templestay Information centre, where we got some pamphlets on the Templestay locations that speak English (for me to try sometime before I leave) and enjoyed the Buddhist bookstore, the Jongyesa Temple across the street and the Temple Cuisine Restaurant for dinner!
After all of this, we wandered over to Insadong (not even a 5-minute walk away really) and bought a bunch of souvenirs as well as caught one of the shows of the dudes who make the honey treats. You know, the 16,000stringsWOW!! thing. Wish I'd caught a video. I will endeavour to do so before I leave Korea.
On Wednesday, we checked into Hotel Noblesse, which we found through Innostel, which is a site for Seoul government managed hostels and hotels. $70 per night for a hotel room that looked liked this:
This was the night of my birthday dinner, since my actual birthday fell on 설날 (Seol-nal), the Lunar New Year (commonly referred to as Chinese New Year). It was great. Met with a bunch of friends and new acquaintances and had a delicious dinner at T.A.J. Indian Restaurant! (See Sunday for the link). Pictures!
Thursday was my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!! Pretty low key, since most things were closed. Hung around in my hotel room (yes I had my own room. Happy Birthday to me again!) for the first bit of the day, then we all made our way to COEX Mall, where we checked out some stores (and I bought some nifty gadgets. Happy Birthday to me from me!) then we ate delicious Dak Galbi! My stomach wasn't happy after (see previous blog post), but it was yummy!
Then we ate BaskinRobbins31 ice cream and went back to the hotel. Probably should've tried for a movie, but we were tired. And had to be up early, because....
On Friday, we went to Gangneung! Where? Gangneung is in Gangwon-do, north-east coast of Korea. A 3 hour bus ride from Seoul and about an hour's drive from the DMZ. Beautiful beaches! Here's Gangneung on the map:
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| She's so cute! |
At the school we were lucky that the Vice Principal and both of my (then) coteachers were there. So my parents met them and got to check out my nifty classroom!
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| With the Vice Principal. I'm the only one who kept their coat on... |
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| Man I look like I'm choking with my scarf like that... |
Then we hopped onto the good ol' public transit system and headed into the "French Village" in Seocho, located by the Express Bus Terminal station (Line 3). Well, this was a big disappointment. The first time I was there was for the French Christmas Festival, during which there were many French-speaking individuals walking the streets and French things being sold in this little square. Of course when we went back, it was a grey day, no festival, no Francophones, no French things anywhere. Sorry Mummy! I wanted to take my parents back to the French restaurant where I'd eaten the last time, but it was mysteriously closed. Also... I didn't know this before, but there's such a thing as "break time" where restaurants appear open, but are not in operation as everyone takes a break for a couple hours. What? I don't even.... So anyway, we ate lunch at a Korean barbecue place where our server was Chinese.
Anyway, after our brief and dismal stop in Seocho, we met 2 friends of mine, Cyrena and Kesia, for Indian food in Gangnam (Different Indian restaurant. Different exit from Gangnam station). I don't remember the name of this place, but it was a small, and really nifty place. Run by Koreans, but the cook is Indian and the food was wonderful. I'd like to go back there someday (once my insides are back to normal). If I do, I'll do a better post with more info!
What did we do on Tuesday? I can't remember... Oh yes! My mother had wanted to try a Templestay, but we didn't have enough days to do this, so instead we went to the Templestay Information centre, where we got some pamphlets on the Templestay locations that speak English (for me to try sometime before I leave) and enjoyed the Buddhist bookstore, the Jongyesa Temple across the street and the Temple Cuisine Restaurant for dinner!
After all of this, we wandered over to Insadong (not even a 5-minute walk away really) and bought a bunch of souvenirs as well as caught one of the shows of the dudes who make the honey treats. You know, the 16,000stringsWOW!! thing. Wish I'd caught a video. I will endeavour to do so before I leave Korea.
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| Tasting tea in Insadong |
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| Not bad right? |
This was the night of my birthday dinner, since my actual birthday fell on 설날 (Seol-nal), the Lunar New Year (commonly referred to as Chinese New Year). It was great. Met with a bunch of friends and new acquaintances and had a delicious dinner at T.A.J. Indian Restaurant! (See Sunday for the link). Pictures!
Thursday was my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!! Pretty low key, since most things were closed. Hung around in my hotel room (yes I had my own room. Happy Birthday to me again!) for the first bit of the day, then we all made our way to COEX Mall, where we checked out some stores (and I bought some nifty gadgets. Happy Birthday to me from me!) then we ate delicious Dak Galbi! My stomach wasn't happy after (see previous blog post), but it was yummy!
On Friday, we went to Gangneung! Where? Gangneung is in Gangwon-do, north-east coast of Korea. A 3 hour bus ride from Seoul and about an hour's drive from the DMZ. Beautiful beaches! Here's Gangneung on the map:
Why'd we go there, you ask? Well, my mother has a friend whose family lives there and they graciously invited us to spend some time with them while my folks were on the peninsula. We only went for a day, but as it turns out, they were expecting us to stay for 2 or 3! That means we did a WHOLE LOT during our visit: museums, old fashioned houses and the BEACH! My favourite part. It was cold and windy, but beautiful and I've been invited to go back with friends this Summer. Can't wait!! Anyone interested?
We got back to Seoul around 11:30pm. Not bad! Saturday was our check-out day, but we were NOT done with Seoul yet! So we gathered all our belongings and stashed them in a locker in one of the subway stations, and went to Myeongdong, which was crowded of course. After that we went to Sinchon to celebrate Kesia's and Cece's birthday! That was a fun dinner. Then we headed back to Siheung!
Sunday in Siheung was pretty relaxed. We did another walk around, this time seeing the other half. I discovered a Buddhist Temple/Preschool that I hadn't seen in the 5 months I'd been here and we ate delicious food. Well, I ate some of it, but mostly it was my parents lol.
In the end, Monday came. The day my parents were to go back to Canada. I had to go to work, but the plan was to help them get a taxi to the airport during my lunch break. Fortunately for me, the Principal came by and, upon learning of my plan, told me to go home!! Happy Birthday to me again! So I was able to spend the day with my parents, went to the airport with them and then bid them adieu to return to my apartment and sleep.
Wow, seeing it all written down, we sure did a lot!! Sweet!
The End
