On a Saturday morning, I took the early bus to Seoul, at 6:30. Not fun waking up that early, not to mention my friends had convinced me to go out drinking that night. But I made it, not even that hungover which was nice. When I got to Seoul, I called my mom and let her know I was there. Her hotel was part of a big complex with a department store and a whole bunch of floors, so we missed each other for about twenty minutes. But I finally caught up with her. We didn't do much that weekend; she was still a little jet lagged. We went to Itaewon, and my mom thought it was pretty shitty. I didn't think of her perspective, but yeah it's kind of shit. I did get a nice haircut, got some books, and found a place to get my back waxed for beach season which I had seriously been looking for for a while.
Sunday night, we came back to Samcheonpo. My mom thought it was pretty dirty, and shes kind of right, but it is basically a big fishing village. The first day we didn't do too much; had some coffee and ate lunch at a kimbap nara, which is like a small hamburger shop would be in the states. Then she met my boss, gave her a present, and I showed her around my school. She actually met one of my students as we were walking in; it was one of the adorable elementary schoolers, thank goodness it wasn't one of the little ugly kids (i'm joking, they're all pretty cute) The next day, we went to Jinju for Shabu Shabu with my Korean tutor. It's a kind of Korean-Vietnamese fusion dish. You put everything in a pot full of water and it cooks fast. Then you make little spring rolls with rice paper. We had a great time; my mom and Korean tutor really got along. Then we had coffee, but unfortunately had to catch the bus back to Samcheonpo.
When I got to work that day (Tuesday) my boss came in asking what kind of food my mom liked. My mom is on this weird vegetable kick, which screwed up my plans for places to eat in Samcheonpo. So I told her she liked bibimbap which is sticky rice mixed with a lot of vegetables. But anyway, surprisingly my boss invited my mother, my co-worker, and I out for lunch. My co-worker and I were really surprised; our boss has never taken us out to eat, and hadn't taken my coworker out either in the year before I got here.
We piled into the hagwon van, which was unnecessary because the place was a block away. Me and my co-worker walk by it all the time but we never knew it was a restaurant! This happens all the time when I'm with my Korean friends. We had delicious bibimbap with a lot of sides. My mom didn't eat much, but she liked it. I hope my boss wasn't offended. Then, we chilled at home before I went to work.
The next day was funny. Right before I left work my friend called me. She's an English teacher at a different school in town. She was pretty drunk and wanted me to join her and her friend at a song room (noraebang). I had been wanting to take my mom there, but didn't want to go with just the tow of us. This was perfect! When I got there my friend and her friend were pretty drunk, but we ended up having an awesome time. I got a little drunk myself, and my friend passed out and napped on the couch. My mom was hilarious, she really got into it. She wouldn't even let me sing Mariah Carey with her because I was "yelling over her" (it's called singing a power ballad).
The next night I called my friend to go get Korean Barbeque. When i went to the usual place, it was closed. We went to the BBQ place across the street. It was mediocre but not too bad. She met my best friend in Samcheonpo, and they hit it off. They both know the names of so many actors. I'm always like "wait whos that guy??? oh yeah that's Tom Cruise, he was in Risky Business!" But we had a good time anyway. But then it was back to Seoul.
In Seoul we stayed at the same hotel. They had an awesome free restaurant for "preferred guests," so we ended up eating there most of the time. When we weren't eating, we basically explored a little. My mom said she wanted to walk everywhere, but I knew she couldn't. Most of the time she was done after an hour or two and just wanted to go back to the hotel and read. That was fine though, because it was a balling suite. The second time around we went to Gangnam, Gyeongbokgung palace, and shopping in Dongdaemun. My mom's a hard bargainer, and actually stopped me from getting some nice cheap belts, she lowballed the person too much. But we had fun; watched movies together, read, and just spent quality time together.
The palace was fantastic. It's a huge complex. On the day we went, it was Lunar New Year, so it was free admission and they had all kinds of games and activities. They had falconry, crafts, food, and all kinds of neat stuff. They even had traditional Korean games. I got a picture in a Hanbok, which is traditoonal Korean clothes. We got lost, which was actually a good thing because we got to see the changing of the guard ceremony. It was really cool! Here are some pictures:
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Our last night in Seoul we did a food tour with Ongo tours. It promised a culinary experience, but I was skeptical because I could do a food tour. You can't swing a dead cat around without hitting 3 or 4 restaurants in Korea. But the tour was fantastic. It started poorly because we were kept waiting by the other people who got lost on the way. But they turned out to be these really cool family from Hong Kong. First we had Korean BBQ; it was fantastic. Then, Ddokpoki (spelling is off but whatever) This a seafood and rice cake soup with cheese melted on top. I've had it before, but this was the best. At the BBQ place, we sat on the floor, and our host assured us that was the only floor sitting place. But at the Ddokpoki place, we were going to sit at two separate tables back to back. They were really cool, so we sat on the floor, but it was fun and we had some good conversation.
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