I was supposed to meet mum of the bus at Dongdaegu, so I was waiting not so patiently when I got a phone call. I picked it up and it was a Korean man; this is not unusual as they reuse the phone numbers here and so I often have a conversation with any Korean who happens to call. Then I realised that in the background I could hear Fordy's voice! So she gets on the phone and apparently a taxi-driver had lent her his phone but then also wanted it back pretty quickly. She had just enough time to tell me that she was here and not at the bus terminal and for me to panic and say to go the the subway station. So after the phone call we were both none the wiser. Then while running around trying to find her I get another call from a fantastic translation service that told me where to find my mum. So I go where she said and she still isn't there but this man looks like he is asking me to follow him, so I do but then stop as I though I might have been mistaken. After been reassured I was supposed to follow him, he showed me to my mum. It turned out that neither of us were at the right bus terminal! Anyway, once we were reunited we went out for tea at a beef BBQ place and ate with chopsticks and she found it to weird to not have a plate!
Mum brought me lots of little presents a lot of them with union jacks on to remind me of home, but the funniest thing she brought was a washing line peg from our very own washing line (accidentally brought attached to some bed sheets!)!
The Sunday we just went down-town to shop and went to bed-bar which was lovely as always! We then went to see Titanic 3D (very Korean I know!) and it was really funny because when anything shocking happened the audience all went 'ooooo' in unison! She also had her first try of one of my favorite things in Korea: Kimbap!!!!
So we ventured out on the Monday to the Hello Kitty cafe as mum wanted to experience the extreme pink and Kitty shaped everything!
We also had a sit out in the glorious sunshine in the Joonsang memorial park. Then I showed her dog street, which was cute but also sad. On the night we went to a place I regularly go after work that we just call green awning.
OK so on Tuesday we actually did something a bit more cultural and went to the temple at Donghwasa, which was an experience. I had tried to be a stand-up citizen and offered my seat to an older lady on the bus...then we were best friends! She offered for her and her friend to go round Donghwasa with us, she even paid us in! They were both very friendly and despite not understanding the majority of what they said, we all had a good time. In typical Korean fashion, they were lovely and trying to help but insistently, resulting in Mum wearing their coat which happened to be an alarming shade of orange!
The cherry blossom festival was on when we went and the drive up was beautiful, the streets were line with gorgeous blossoms that created a bridge above the road. We saw the big Buddha and the temples which mum was very impressed with. This time the museum was open which was good because I hadn't been in there yet. We got to see the main meditation room and a tour guide showed us how to do a big bow to the cremated Buddha. You do three of them where you start standing with your hands in a prayer position then kneel and bend so your fore head touches the floor while turning your hands palm up. Having your hands in this way is supposed to symbolise you supporting Buddha's feet. Mum also had a wish on the lucky eggs, a throw of a coin on the podium and a (fake) drink from the fountain.
On the Tuesday night just before I was going to leave work, my boss found out my Mum was in Daegu and was very generous and decided to treat me and mum to a meal. He drove me, Mum and a couple of other foreign teachers to this very nice restaurant, which is famous in Korea and the mayor of Daegu goes there! It was a beef BBQ place which was delicious.
My boss had also called ahead to tell them not to close because he was coming, so they stayed open later especially for us! Mum was over the moon because my boss had complimented her on her use of chopsticks!!! The lady in the restaurant also gave us a rare treat as she gave us the rice that sticks to the bottom of the pan that hardens and you can eat it as a snack. This is rare now because people use rice cookers instead of doing it the old-fashioned way, so it was a big privilege. Then we preceded to a welcome/goodbye party for work at a soup place near my house. One of the ladies is leaving to have a baby and we got a new teacher! They had already finished their meal when we got there so we swiftly moved on to have drinks. When Koreans go for drinks they also get a platter if they go to certain places, even if they have just eaten! So we went to a clam place were you grill them.
So Mum got to meet most of my colleagues and she got to taste Soju for the first time (lucky her!)! So that concludes Tuesday-phew!
On Wednesday me and Mum had a nice walk around Dyuru Park in Daemyeong in the morning.
This was then followed by us going for traditional Korean tea with a couple of my friends!
Mum had had an invite from my boss to come and look at the school and she got to meet a couple of my elementary students! On the evening we went to the Kam-Je-Tang soup restaurant which Mum really liked, which I was happy about because it is one of my favourite places too!
On Thursday we both accidentally slept-in and so we decided to have a chill morning and just went for a coffee in Sleepless in Seattle, which is a coffee shop that we love the name of! It is actually a chain in Korea.
For lunch we joined some friends of mine to go to a spring roll place. You get a big boiling pot full of seafood like octopus and whatnot,you also Cook your duck on the side and put thin strips of beef in the boiling pot and it cooks in there! So then you get these hard rice paper things and put them in a bowl of hot water until it goes clear and then add any meal you want. There is also a load of different vegetables you add and then dip it in a sauce. This is called a saam, which is like a wrap. You also have the broth from the pot and any seafood. Then you get noodles and then this egg rice thing after - we were stuffed!!!
Despite this on the evening we went to Lotteria which is a Korean fast food chain! We also looked round Homeplus, which is the same this as Tesco and Mum found it really funny that they had Tesco's own brand and the ladybird bags- haha! We got some lovely Korean snacks here along which some home comforts that Mum treated me to.
So it was a bit dingy to begin with on Friday morning so we decided to go to the market which was good and we treated ourselves to some strawberries! Then we went to Paris Baguette for lunch which is a delicious chain! Then Mum was brave an ventured out for the first time on her own to downtown.On the evening Mum also had her first try of mocali, which is a Korean rice wine which I think is fairly strong!
On the Saturday we went to Busan, which is a beach city, however it rained the whole day and everything was closed so I think the less said about that the better! On the evening we went to Sorae, which is a pork BBQ and is one of my favorites and Mum had a go:
So that was our first week together :) ! Stay tuned for week two!
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