Western Meal

Today we went to visit Sunghee’s brother Kibum, who is doing his two years of required military service. After a long drive, we met up with him in the visitors building to enjoy a plentiful lunch of sam gup sal (really yummy), spicy pork (really yummy), kimpop (really yummy), and fruit to finish it off (really yummy). In short, the lunch tasted pretty good. We talked (well I listened mostly, since I can’t speak Korean) for a while, took some pictures, then said goodbye.
When we arrived home, I started the pizza dough, watched some Smallville (of course), then finished making dinner which consisted of pizza and spaghetti. It was a big hit, and it was really nice to enjoy a Western meal. I kept making Sunghee take more helpings as it would make me looklike a better chef if there were no leftovers. :P Turns out, there were no leftover, so I guess I am a good chef. :)

Lazy Day – July 17, 2010

Just like yesterday, we didn’t do anything significant. It was still quite a good day though, I must admit. We once again lazed around the house, watching shows. For breakfast, I made pancakes which were a big hit, especially the banana ones. With bacon and eggs, we had the perfect Western meal that was a nice switch. Don’t get me wrong, I love Korean food- it’s so delicious- but it was nice to have something I’m used to.

After dinner, I started cooking tomato sauce for dinner tomorrow. I am going to make pizza and spaghetti, as I promised Sunghee. Normally, when I make sauce, I use already peeled, seeded and diced tomatoes from a can. Unfortunately, I did not have access to this, so I had to do the tomatoes from scratch. I suppose it’s only a bonus in the end, since it tastes fresher and is just overall tastier. When the sauce was done, we had a taste and it was delicious. I am definitely looking forward to tomorrow night’s spaghetti and homemade pizza. :D

Not Much To Say - July 16, 2010

So Today we didn’t do anything noteworthy. We mostly just lazed around the house, watching Smallville, then Full House when Megavideo ran out. Well, I suppose I should tell (rather, show you) about the fantastic job Sunghee’s Mum did painting our nails…

Other than the nails, (mine are the blue, Sunghee's are the pink) I have nothing to report. :)

More Seoul – July 15, 2010

Hehehe...

This morning we left Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, where we were staying, and met up with Sunghee’s cousin Bona. For breakfast, we ate sandwiches, and everyone thought I was crazy because I didn’t want any sauces on mine. We rode the subway to Myong Dong, a very busy area in Seoul. We walked around for a bit, I bought some socks with Totoro on them and we made our way to a ticket booth so we could watch Eclipse. The salesperson had to see my drivers’ license because apparently she didn’t believe that I was a student. At first I thought she didn’t think I was old enough to see the movie. :P While we waited for the movie to open up, we got Cold Stone ice-cream which is worth the expense. We got ‘Greeeen With Envy’ icecream which was green tea ice-cream with chocolate, nuts and Oreos, and it was absolutely delicious. After disappointment with the Twighlight and New Moon movies, I was quite surprised that Eclipse was pretty good. (This may have been because I don’t really remember what happened in the book at all.) We also went to another sticker booth (my third time since I've been here) because Sunghee thinks there's nothing more to life than sticker booths and cyworld :P (she's so Asian).

If you read my blog from a few days ago, you’d know that Sunghee and I visited a Korean palace in Seoul with a good friend of hers. Apparently, he skipped school that day to hang out with us. In Korea, if you skip school, you must write a report about why and show pictures. (They expect that if you skip, it must be for educational purposes.) Her friend, who goes to a boy’s school showed a picture of the three of us and apparently all the boys at school were jealous that he skipped school to hang out with a couple of mega-babes. :P:P

Lotte World - July 14, 2010

Today we met up with a friend, Eunjin, who used to live in Canada, and spent the day at Lotte World, the largest indoor amusement park in the world. It also has an outdoor area called ‘Magic Island’. A scene from ‘Full House’, the Korean drama we’ve been watching was filmed here. Lotte World is miniscule compared to Wonderland, but it has a lot of themed rides such as an Egyptian adventure ride, Atlantis and The Adventures of Sinbad. I convinced Sunghee and Eunjin to go on “French Revolution” which had a loop-de-loop and a number of other fantastic twists, and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately though, my earring in my newly pierced ear partially fell out, and I lost my favourite earring from my other hole. Somehow, the back of my hole closed over in just a few minutes, and I had to shove it back through. :S We noticed everyone, including the males, were walking around with silly headbands with bows and ears on them, so Sunghee and I decided to get some too.

We went on rides all day and explored the themes of Lotte World, and with very sore feet headed for the subway. We were very late for dinner, so we had to run quite a way. The running was perfectly rewarded, though, with a delicious meal of noodles, dumplings, tempura, and French fries (which didn’t really fit the meal, but were tasty nonetheless.).

After eating, we hopped back on the subway, on our way to watch “Cookin’ NANTA’. It is a show that fuses martial arts, dancing, percussion and humor to create an amazing performance. The performers run around chopping food, making messes, ‘cooking’, banging on things with knives, banging knives against knives, and other fantastic things. The show was unforgettable and if you ever get the chance to see it (it travels around the world) then you must!

Seoul - July 13, 2010

Today we headed out early for Seoul, Korea’s capital city. When we arrived, we met up with friends of Sunghee and her Mum. We went to an expansive palace called Chang Duck Goung. Sunghee’s friend explained all about the architecture and interesting information about the palace. After walking around in the unbearable heat and sun, we rested for a bit in a little café at the palace. I was relieved to have some chocolate ice-cream, since I have been somewhat deprived of chocolate since I’ve been in Korea.

Who knew hobbits lived in Korea?

Chinese style sun dial (rhymes)

Mythically, this pot would contain water, which would create a reflection of any fire monster woh came near the palace, scaring itself off. Functionally, it contained water to put out fires if they occured.

After the palace, we roamed the streets for a while, passing by cheap vendors and small boutiques. I bought a couple of things and we went for lunch. We ordered bibimbop which is basically a whole bunch of random things mixed with rice, and it is to die for.

When we were leaving the restaurant, we noticed a place where you could decorate objects such as rings, necklaces, mirrors and such with shell fragments. We decided to give it a shot so Sunghee and I decorated mirrors. I attempted to make a sun of sorts, but I’d like to say it’s more of an abstract piece…

We continued to roam the streets until we noticed two guys making a Korean traditional treat. Basically, he took a hard block of honey, and using cornstarch, transformed it into what looked like locks of thin hair. Then, the other guy cut it up and filled it with almond and peanut mixtures to complete the delicious treat.

On our way to a cool place to rest (ended up being Dunkin’ Donuts), another Korean palace was hosting a traditional ceremony. People were dressed up in Korean traditional clothing of subjects of the palace, did marches, played instruments, and posed for photographs. We rested for a long while in Dunkin’ Donuts, watching the ceremony through the window and savouring the air conditioning.

As we started to get hungry, we met up with Sunghee’s aunt at a very expensive restaurant. There we ate a six course meal, which I can’t say was the tastiest meal I’ve eaten since I’ve been here. The first course was fried seaweed, which was good, but I could not bring myself to swallow the cold, slimy, sea cucumber. After that came a bland soup with meat from the joints in a cow. Interesting… The main course was actually quite enjoyable though, simple soup and rice.

Crab Fishing

I was lucky today to finally get my money transfered from Canada, so I am not so broke anymore. After picking it up at the bank, we went to a famous Japanese restaurant where we ordered their signature dish, Momill. It was, of course, delicious like everything else here (almost everything else). After eating, we headed to a jewelry shop, where I got my ear pierced. Sunghee got hers done last week, and the way she talked about it, I'll admit I was quite scared. Instead using a gun, she just pierced it with the earing in her hand. For Sunghee, the earings were sharp but mine was dull. I was very surprised to find that it was not painful at all.

We got home then changed quickly for the beach. Last time we were there, we spotted some people crab fishing. We decided to give it a shot, so we bought some gear and bait. We had to crouch on the rocks and lure them out with dried squid and sam gup sal. When the bait worked, we either caught them by hand (using gloves of course) or picked them up with tongs. Since we were the only people at the beach, the lifeguards decided to join us. One of them caught a massive crab, the size of my palm (normal ones were about the size of a toonie). Apparantly, the large species lives in the forest, and it is a mystery how it got down to the rocky beach.Not sure exactly what to do with all the crabs, we set them free and headed up the stairs to our car. On our way up, we spotted a few of the forest crabs which were just as large as the other. They are bright red opposed to the neutral brown ones that live under rocks on the ocean shore.

I appologize for the poor photo quality, I hope to get my good camera's lense fixed tomorrow. For now, I'm stuck with my dinky camera which doesn't make me look as good as my nice camera!