Fordy's visit - week 2!!!

Hello again and thank you to everyone who is reading, it does mean a lot. So the second week kicked off with me and Mum going downtown and then going to Suseong Lake, which was beautiful!!!! It was a gorgeous day, not like the previous one.









We even got to ride on the swans, but because Koreans like to be white and stay out of the sun , the swans have roofs on  which was a bit strange:

There was also this really cool restaurant that was a plane that you can see in the background here:
(we had to take a picture for my brother who is a pilot)





After this we went with some of my friends to up Apsan which is part of the Polgangsan Mountain; it is the side with the cable cars going up.

After this we went downtown for BBQ and to the cupcake shop which was amazing!!!

So on Monday we had quite a chilled day and met up with a friend of mine for Paris Baguette and also bed bar. Then we also went for lovely ice-cream and saw this:

Can it get any better?!

We also went on this bus restaurant but then evacuated when we saw chicken feet on  the menu, but the place is quite cool:

That's right, he's wearing a boiler suit!

I also must tell you about Mum and her accidental bartering skills. If you think I am indecisive then you haven't witnessed Mum's epic dithering! Anyway when she was in town on her own she wanted some shoes and couldn't make her mind up. Well the salesman thought this was all a tactic to get a lower price, so it kind of went like this:

Salesman: 70,000

Mum: ooo I don't know.

Salesman: 60,000

Mum: I'm not sure I'm going to come back.

Salesman: 50,000

And so on and I think she may have got them to 30 or 35 thousand! Genius accidental haggling! Then this day she got a little more confident and haggled purposefully and did very well!!! Later on the evening we just got a pizza from one of my regulars called Pizza School and watched some TV.

On Tuesday morning we were up and out on our way to Gyeong-ju, which is a beautiful place about an hour away on the train, where there are lots of touristy things to see. Before we even got there I was having a ball as I stumbled across another amazing inventions used by the Koreans. We got to our seats and there were four women sat facing each other, well they stared to move which I felt bad about because we didn't need four seats facing each other... then it happened... woman just turned round two of the seats so there were only two seats? I felt the need to take a video (please ignore all the kerfuffle at the beginning and end of the video):

After the thrilling train ride we got there and went to some tombs:

Daereungwon Royal Tombs

Cheomseongdae Observatory

Then after seeing the tombs we went to see the observatory, which
was really funny because you can see it from the path but you can splash out and pay 25p to go a bit closer.

Gyeongju is famous for this yellow flower, and there was a field of them just in front of the forest. I felt like Dorothy in a parallel universe.

We later ventured to the National Museum, which was great! We had the best guide, and although he was a little inappropriate, he was very friendly!

At the museum was this beautiful big bell, and when I showed the kids at school they informed of an old folk tale that is connected to this bell. This tale was about a religious woman who loved her God so much she wanted to sacrifice her own child. She melted her baby girl and formed a bell, and when the bell rings it is supposed to make the sound 'Emilae'. This is similar to the sound of the baby crying, and so this is the name of the bell.

This is Anapji Pond, and me and Mum got to see it both during the day and at night. It used to be a palace for royalty, but now only three building are left. You can see models of what it used to look like and even now you can see where the courtyards were.

We were picked up from Anapji Pond by a man who only spoke Korean, who was to take us to a traditional hotel that we had booked. He then drove us 30 minutes up a mountain!! This was a little scary when thoughts such as 'is this the right man' pop into your head! However, it was the right man and we got there safely, it was pitch black with no other building around apart from our hotel. You could hear a constant noise of frogs croaking in the background. We got settled into our room and 'traditional' was no lie! As you see we slept on the floor... that is until we were passing out with the heat as the lady left the underfloor heating on! It was only 11 at night and we couldn't have stayed there all night. So I rang the number I had on the details and just said 'hot, hot, it's too hot'! We literally could not sit in the floor because our bums were burning! The lady comes in and touches the floor and looks very confused as to why the strange foreigners had a problem with their backsides being toasted. Anyway, being the genuinely lovely lady she was, she moved us to a cooler room that wasn't entirely ready for visitors as we could tell by a pair of her socks being left in there to dry. This room was a family sized room that felt a little less traditional due to the TV:

Next to the TV is the bedding we used, see how the pillows are long and thin. They were quite hard but felt almost like a bean bag. The lady woke us up with some milk and bread with a sweet substance on, that I am still not entirely sure what it was.

First room

     
 When we got home and unpacked a pulled out an unfamiliar pair of socks that were not mine or Mums!!!Fordy had only gone and accidentally stolen the woman's socks!!!!!

Before we got home and realized we were thieves, we had a great day in Gyeong-ju despite the rain. First we got dropped off at Seokgulam Grotto, where there was a beautiful big  gold Buddha inside a hill  that you could see when you went inside the grotto. Unfortunately you were not allowed to take photos which was a shame as Mum said it was the most impressive thing she saw.  Then we had a lovely walk to Bulguksa Temple which was also very impressive and is apparently the best temple.

There were monks doing their prayers with the gongs and incense while we were walking around. After seeing the temple we went to the folkcraft village and Mum bought me a gorgeous fan and a ceramic turtle  to put incense sticks in. Then we headed back home on the fabulous KTX train. On the Thursday me and Mum and the guys from work went for a traditional course meal at a place whose name translated to 'the inner scent'. There were sssoooo many courses, we were all so full!!!!We were sat in our own little room with a sliding door which was very private.

On the Friday we were off to Seoul, the bright lights of the big city!!!So when we get to the hotel we are in the grand suite, the room was huge and we had a living room section as well as the bedroom. We also had a very fancy toilet with lots of buttons and a heated seat!Mum was playing with the buttons and the toilet started making funny noises and mum bent down and lifted the lid, which resulted in this:

The bede was apparently in full working order and had washed Mum's t-shirt for her!!!! We were hysterical!

So then we went to In-sa-dong which is the traditional shopping district and got presents for people.









The next day we went on the city tour bus and then to to Gyeongbukgong, which is the biggest palace.

 The pictures with us and stone statues is us with our zodiac animals, I am a snake and Mum is a rat. This was just out side the folk museum which was really interesting. After this we went to the traditional village and saw some traditional homes that were very similar to the hotel where we stayed in Gyeong-ju. There was also a band with traditional instruments warming up for a performance when we were there:

 Then we went back to In-Sa-Dong and had a lovely meal:

 Then unfortunately it was time for bed and Mum left for merry old England the next morning, just after a last dunkin donuts. That concludes Mum's visit! Thanks for visiting Mum, I had a great time and miss you! 

Mum and me- week 1!!!

OK, so I have had my mum over to visit. I have waited to post this so that when Mum tells people about her trip they won't go "Oh I know, I read it on Katie's blog". So lets begin...

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 way back down we walked round the festival where they had Korean music performances and lots of stalls selling foods and other hand-made products. Mum also had her first meal sat on the floor which was Pajeon, being a sort of pancake with onion and some squid on the top.

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!