Saturday Night and Sunday

Saturday night we went to Sun's family's house to watch the traditional gift giving cermoney. Sun's family owns a gym in Suwon, which is south of Seoul and about an hour from where we were staying. We were dropped off and it turns out that all of Sun's aunts and uncles were there along with her parents and siblings. A few minutes later Jonghyeon came in carrying the wrapped suitcase and smashed a gourd as he entered. Then Sun's parents inspected the suit of clothes, coat and jewelery that was in the suitcase. They also had the story of Sun and Jonghyeon's lives to that point written out, which her parents read.

After this was done Serinia and I were sat next to Sun and Jonghyeon and made to eat a lot. First there was this huge meal with 20 billion different choices my favorite being the make your own kimbob. Through the whole thing everyone was drinking and was very amusing in their attempts to speak English and get us to learn Korean. After dinner I hung out with Sun's siblings, who I don't know how to spell their names right now. They were very shy at first but slowly warmed up to us. They are a super cute family.

After a couple hours they had order sushi and I was soon back eating, even though I was so full I was going to explode. This is the point where Sun's uncle, a police officer in Seoul, kept flirting with me through Sun. It was rather weird. Soon it was time to go to Sun's parents house and sleep. Her parents gave us their bedroom and they stayed at the gym. Jonghyeon kept making Sun's siblings talk to us in English, even her little brother who is very shy around us. We stayed up very late talking. The next morning we woke up and went to the gym (which seems like where they live more than their house) and ate leftovers from the night before and watched TV. Korean TV is awesome.

After this we (Serina and I, Sun and Jonghyeon, Sun's mom, and her two younger sisters) went to the Traditional Korean Village, which is this huge replication of different styles of Korean houses. It was amazing. I have lots of pictures of this. I had cold buckwheat noodles for lunch and some iced beans for dessert (it was good). We also saw a traditional Korean wedding and Sun explained to me the parts they would use.

When we got back from the Village we went to dinner (yes, there is a lot of eating here). Serina, Sun and Jonghyeon and I went to a som(?). It is where the meat is made at the table and you make little lettuce wraps with them. I think it is my favorite meal so far and I don't even like pork. This was a good dinner because we were able to talk and be funny. I really enjoyed it.

After the dinner the four of us were driven back to Jonghyeon's parents house where we watched the historical drama "The King and I" that is filmed at the Traditional Village. There was some issue with the reservation on the hotel tonight and Sun called them and sorted it all it. It was super sweet. Then her and Jonghyeon gave us directions to where their wedding is (at the Gimpo Airport, I'll explain that later) and then they showed us all the places in Seoul we should go.

This morning we are going to the temple that Mrs. Park manages and then Jonghyeon will drive us to our hotel. I am excited about doing more touristy things now.

BTW, it is funny how everyone here has to ask which is older, Serinia or I. They also want to know our ages, what our parents do, what we do, how many siblings and why I don't have a boyfriend. They are so direct with their questions that it is very funny to me.


PS: I am not spell checking these because it sort of sucks on this computer.

Monday

This morning we woke up and packed our bags because today we moved into a guesthouse in Seoul. However, before that we got to go to Sun and Jonghyeon's blessing ceremony. Neither of them are buddist but Jonghyeon's mother is very devote so she wanted them to do it. The temple was half way up a mountain in Uijoughbu (I think this is spelled wrong). We went to the first part then the monk suggested we go hiking at this park that surrounded the temple.

We started to climb to the peak but then I realized that Serinia was wearing slingbacks. However she was willing to keep going but soon some Korean women that were also hiking made her take her shoes off and roll up her pants legs. They also forced us to take a bottle of juice. This is what most of the Korean woman we have met are like.

After an hour or so we went back to the temple and sat in the sad looking out over the valley. I read my guide book and I think Serinia napped. Then we joined the last half an hour of the ceremony. I wish I had taken a picture of the inside of the temple because it was very interesting. However, I forgot.

After they burned some stuff it was time for lunch. This is when I realized "church ladies" are the all over the world. They kept giving us food and laughing at my inablity to use Korean chopsticks well (they are thin and metal, I am usually good with chopsticks but I kept dropping these). Since we were at a buddist temple nothing had meat in it and Serinia willing ate tofu which made me laugh.

After lunch and coffee Mrs. Park drove us into Seoul and the place we are staying. This was a long drive and we were all so tired. Jonghyeon took charged and got directions and when we got here dealt with all the people in Korean, even though it is a place for foreigners so they speak English. He even carried our bags and then him and Sun walked us to the Insa-don so we could go shopping. It is really nice yet odd that they are so worried about us here.

After they left us we walked the lenght of Insa-don and stopped at Starbucks to get frappocino's. I have been craving two things the last day, one is something really sweet and diet coke. Korean food is good, just they don't do heavy sweet foods at all. I wasn't in the mood to shop so all I bought was postcards then we went walking around the area that we are staying. I didn't really get lost because we didn't have plan on where we were going but it didn't work out like I wanted. However, I found a liter of diet coke to buy.

We got back to the guesthouse and repacked our bags. Then we came down to the common room and wrote postcards. We also got to hear the guesthouse drama, which cracks me up. There is this Australian here that talks to everyone and caused some girl to cry last night. I think he is sleeping with some other girl too but I am not sure yet. Right now he is flirting with a third girl.

The plan tomorrow is go to one of the places and then go shopping. We might also go to a movie (Indiana Jones).

PS. I am in Korea!!!!