annyong! hi! hello!

this has been an interesting couple of days. 

it all started after korean class...

jen and i tried to ask our teachers if the ymca had a microwave that we could use to heat up our lunch.  we explained that we were going to seoul and wanted to eat quickly so that we could leave. bo sun got confused and told us where we could go buy a nice microwave.  haha.  so, we re-explained the situation, the teachers understood that time and went on the microwave hunt.  unfortunately after all the confusion and hunting, we figured out that the ymca did not have a microwave.  oh well, the haggis was still pretty good cold. 

after lunch, we headed to the ktx.  the ktx is the high speed train that goes in a big ataris shape across korea.  i didn't realize how thankful i was for the ktx until this weekend.  we got right on the train and i promptly fell asleep. 

when we got into seoul, we took the usual trip to itaewon.  we stopped at what the book.  while we were there, tammy called.  jen went and grabbed her and we continued browsing.  i bought a book called the white tiger and another book about buddha.  man, i love books.  then, we headed for some delicious mexican food.  i am so happy that seoul has mexican food!!!!  thank you for foreigners!!!!  let me just tell you... you don't realize how much you will miss that skanky el canelo food until you can't have it.  oh man, gimme some grease.  <3.

we decided to go out that night even though we were meeting my mom and dad in the morning... BEST idea.  first off, we met the gayest, (i seriously mean) THE gayest boy i have ever seen in my entire life.  not only was he the flamingest queen i have ever seen, he was a giant.  i'm not kidding, this guy was like 7 feet tall.  he was so over the top and so did not speak english.  haha.  he was just thrilled with us.  needless to say, we were thrilled with him. 

we had a wonderful time chatting up the koreans and dancing like fools.  (how else can you dance to k-pop?)  it was really nice to be in a bar where there were mostly koreans and everyone was having a fun time.  sometimes i think there is a problem with the separation between koreans and foreigners in daegu.  however, i think the reason for this is that there are a lot of people in daegu that don't speak english and korean.  it's difficult for both sides to converse.  this leads to awkward silences and language lessons... not so fun. 

saturday morning was the big T and P meetup!  tammy and i successfully managed to remove ourselves from the baller suite we managed to snag in itaewon and head to the coffee shop.  (i thought i might die when my dad gave the wakeup call at 8:00 but we did manage it.)  not only did we make that happen but we SUCCESSFULLY found the hotel in mere minutes upon exiting the subway.  it was truly a miracle.

the lady at the front desk was so nice because, of course, i didn't know my parents room number.  i called up, my mom told me the number, and it was reunion 2010.  haha. 

we got to the room and i thought my mom was going to crush me with her hug.  you guys aren't going to believe this but my mom did not cry.  let me repeat that:  *MY mom did not cry ... when she came to see me in korea... THIS is the true miracle.*  hahahahah. 

so, we waited around for my dad to get back upstairs from his massage.  obviously, his 6'+ body was smashed all up in the 13 hour flight.  when he came back to the room, we got ready, and headed to insadong to see a palace.

the palace was so beautiful and was used until the late '80s.  i think both of my parents really enjoyed it but it was a LOT of walking around.  i mean, it's a palace, the thing's supposed to be giagantic, right?  it was really nice to see the cherry blossoms and flowers and trees and grass and everything growing.  ah, so awesome.  don't worry, i will post another blog later with pictures... my dad certainly took enough.

we wondered around insadong which has all these cute little shops with earrings, trinkets, traditional korean things, etc.  it was nice to look at all of the stuff in insadong because it seems so well made.  also, the whole street is so colorful and there are people everywhere.  we bought some stringy, honey candy from these korean guys that obviously target foreigners.  i've had the candy before and really liked it, so i thought my parents might enjoy it.  i think my mom enjoyed the korean boys' routine more than the candy.  they yell words like, "wow!  amazing!  exciting!"  as you can imagine, she was very into the whole thing and it was cute to see my mom talking to the korean people.

yesterday, we went to the coex mall.  it is huge.  holy crap.  we just walked around for a little bit but we were pretty tired from the day before.  it was really interesting to see and i think i would like to go back another time.  there was just so much to see and so much shopping to do.  it's hard to stay away from the materialization here. 

after that, we headed to myeongdeong for some actual shopping (the coex was far too expensive).  GIRLS you must go to H&M.  uh, i thought i was in heaven.  honestly.  i could try clothes on and everything.  so wonderful. 

we pretty much wrapped up the day with dinner at mad for garlic and beers at the platinum brewery.  even though garlic is not hard to come by here, good beers certainly are.  my dad and i had a good time sipping a sampler called morphine down... 8.4% alcohol.  do i want to die?  maybe.  haha.  don't worry, it was just a tiny cup. 

overall, i think they've been having a fun time.  it's so funny to see what they think is so interesting and unusual.  i remember when kids saying hi to me, guys spitting in the street, food slurping and so many more things were so crazy just a few months ago.  it seems so weird how used to some things i've gotten and how far there is to go.  they also seem pretty impressed with the amount of korean i can understand and the little i can speak.  it makes all the hours of studying seem much better.  i know there are a lot of us who get stuck in a rut thinking we're not learning anything and the cultural shock is just too much sometimes.  it's nice to have people around who can show you just how far you've come. 

i'm happy to have my parents here and excited to show them around some more.  we're planning on gyeongju and busan.  also, they haven't seen any of daegu, yet.  this should be funny...

love you all!! 

lacey.