Luke and Dana's visit

As I said, I would go into more detail about Dana and Luke's visit. So here it is...

It took us about an hour or so to get home from the airport. We got home and they were both pretty hungry so I took them for their first taste of Korean food. We went to a kimbop shop, which is Korea's equivalent of fast food. They both tried dolsot bibimbap, which is rice, vegetables, and a raw egg served in a stone pot. In Luke fashion, he ordered two and proceeded to eat both of them and the rest of Dana's. Once they were done eating, we headed home and crashed for the night. But I couldn't sleep! I was so excited they were there I think I slept a total of 3 hours that night.

Saturday I let them sleep as late as they wanted and I went out for a bike ride. Once I got back, they were both awake. We got ready and set off to explore Migeum so they could see where I lived. It was a gorgeous day and we were able to walk around and see the area.

We got back home, grabbed some food and got ready for Luke and Dana's first real Korean experience....Korean baseball!! We caught the subway for Jamsil for the LG Twins/KIA Tigers baseball game. It was an experience neither of them had ever encountered. The game was another great display of bad fielding and hitting and even more terrible pitching. But the talent factor had nothing to do with the experience of the game. Both Dana and Luke enjoyed the game and the chance to see what baseball is like in another country. After the game we were all a bit tired and hungry so we headed to Travelers in Seohyeon. It is a foreigners bar with good American food. We got some food, had a drink and we were spent. We headed back home to get some sleep.

Sunday brought a bit of rain but we didn't let that stop us. We went to the Korean Folk Village, which is a pretty cool way to see Korean Culture in a small area. We walked around and saw all the sights, then the downpours started. Thankfully we had already seen much of the village and so we waited it out a bit, finished looking around and headed home. Since I had to work the next day, we had an early night and went to bed pretty early.

Monday brought more rain but it didn't matter because we were spending the day at school. It was Chuseok Fun Day at school so all the kids wore their Hanboks, Korean Traditional Clothes, and all the teachers also got to wear Hanboks. Since it was our only day of school that week, we didn't do any studying and just had fun. It was a perfect day for Luke and Dana to be there. We played traditional Korean games, took pictures, and made traditional Korean food. The kids loved playing with Luke and Dana, once they warmed up to them. At first they were all a little scared of them but it took all of 2.3 seconds for them to be hanging on them and asking them all kinds of questions.

It was great for me to have Luke and Dana there because now they can put faces to the kids I talk about. And they can picture my school and know where I go to work every day. It was a long and tiring day but it was really fun. Monday night we went out for some more Korean food, this time it was dak galbi, which in essence is chicken and vegetable stir fry. They both like it but I think they both like dolsot bibimbap better! After dinner we meet up with all the girls I work with for a bit of Noribong, Koreans karaoke. It was a great time and I was happy they both got to experience the magicalness that is Noribong.

Tuesday morning started off cloudy but no rain so Luke and I went for a bike ride, we would have gone running but I hurt my heal right before they came. I was bummed I couldn't run with Luke but I was happy we could at least go biking and Luke could see where I run every day. The bike ride was good and since it was cloudy and looked like rain, we decided to go to the Korean War Museum in Seoul. And it was a good thing we had indoor plans because on the way into Seoul it started raining, and by raining I mean the most torrential rain I have ever seen! It was an adventure getting to the museum. First we had to take the bus to Seoul, then we had to hail two cabs in the downpour. Once we got two cabs we had to find our way to the museum. With the help of the Korean Help Line, we finally found the museum but that was not the end of the adventure. The museum entrance was a bit of a jog from the curb and it was a jog through huge puddles and the pouring rain. Instead of getting my shoes completely soaked, I took my sox and shoes off and leisurely made my way to the doors.

After trying to dry off, we started looking around the museum, and it was worth the rainy adventure. We learned more about the Korean War than I had ever known before. We learned how the war started, why the North attacked the South. How the North almost captured the entire peninsula and how the South fought back. We also learned how the border came to be and how the two countries still have strides to make before unity is possible.

Once we were done exploring the museum, it was still raining cats and dogs. Instead of trying to wait it out, we decided to just start heading home. Since we knew finding a cab would be tough, we just took the subway. It was a bit scary when we went down into the subway and one of the lines was closed because of flooding!! After about an hour on the train we finally got home and it was still raining! We grabbed some food at the kimbop shop and headed home. Once we got home we looked to see how much rain we had gotten, Seoul had got 10 inches of rain in about 5 hours!!! It was like a monsoon!

That night we invited some of the girls over and just watched a movie. We headed to bed pretty early to get rested up for more jam packed days.....