Chuseok is a Korean holiday very similar to our Thanksgiving. We celebrated at school with various traditional games and crafting. All the kids dressed in Hanboks (the traditional Korean dress), which gave me reason to wear mine as well. The kids were amazed that I had a Hanbok and loved seeing me in it. It was a great day with the kids, but I just had something else on my mind.... my parents coming. I had been looking forward to their visit since I got here. I was so excited to show my parents my home away from home. They got in on a Friday night and after 16 hours of traveling they were exhausted so I took them to dinner and then they were ready to crash. The next morning we headed to Olympic Park, one of my favorite places in Seoul. We walked around for hours just enjoying the scenery. With the beautiful day we decided not to waste any time.
We then geared up for hiking Namhansan, which I had never done before. I got to introduce them to hiking in Korea. It is completely different then any hiking I have done at home. These trails are very steep, but when you see little kids and older people doing it you always know you can do it. We hiked to the top of the mountain where there was a temple and fortress. While walking around at the top searching for beer we met a Korean guy that was in love with my dad. He directed us to and bought us beer to celebrate our hike. We then ran into him again on the way down and he hiked the rest of the mountain with us. At the bottom there was a restaurant, which he then decided that we must introduce my parents to Makeli (rice wine). We sat around and ate a bunch of food and drank a bunch of makeli. He was a very nice guy and he was even able convince my mom to perform a cheer leading dance with him. Later that night we walked around the outdoor fish market in my neighborhood and met with my friend Allison and her parents for some drinks. The next morning I took my parents on a bike ride along the Han River to Itaewon. We had a great time minus the butt pain on the way back. Later that night we went to Galmekisal. I tricked my parents into eating pig diaphragm because it is my favorite here. They thought they were eating beef, which is what I knew they would think, but little did they know what they were actually eating. I had worn my parents out with all the exercising from the past two days we just decided to crash. The next day we went to Gyeongbok Palace, Insadong and Cheonggyechon Stream. to the Chuseok holiday there were many festivals and shows that we got to enjoy that I did not anticipate, which made it great. The next day my sweet friend Ara had planned a traditional Korean lunch at a restaurant in my neighborhood. A traditional Korean meal is just a WHOLE bunch of side dishes in my opinion. Don't get me wrong you still walk out overly stuffed but it is different than any meal we would eat at home. We then decided to walk off our meal with some shopping in Namdaemun Market. The next morning we decided to going hiking at Bugaksan, which my mom had read about on the Internet. Since I had never been here before my parents got to experience how the language barrier can be frustrating at times. What should have at $20 cab turned into a $40 cab and many turn arounds. This hike was 1600 steps (believe me my mom counted), but the view from the top was worth the hike. that night we went to a baseball game. Of course I wanted them to see the Twins play and I got lucky that they were playing while they were here. I have been telling them how funny Korean baseball is and they enjoyed it just as much as I have. They compared it to being in the student section of a college football game, which completely makes sense. The next day I unfortunately had to go back to work after a 5 day weekend so my parents set out to see Seoul Tower. On the following day I was lucky enough to have my parents come visit my school. My kids had been looking forward to meeting my parents for quite some time and I was so excited for my parents to see my school and meet my little ones. little girls LOVED my dad, but then again who doesn't. After work we went on a Han River boat cruise. It is so beautiful being on the water and seeing the city lights for miles on both sides of you. We also caught the boat cruise that had a lighted water show from one of the bridges. The next day we had to wake up bright an early to head to the DMZ. This is something I had not done before and was pretty pumped about. The DMZ is the border of North & South Korea. This place has a very tense feeling and I'm not gonna lie it was a little scary, but it was well worth it. We got to walk into a conference room that is split on the border where meetings are held between the 2 countries. As we were staring and taking pictures into North Korea they were also video tapping and taking pictures of us as well. There are guards staffed 24 hours a day in a martial arts stance.
ROK (Republic of Korea) guards names are quite fitting in that they look like statues. We were there for the morning tour and later we found out a few hours after we left a North Korean defected to South Korea by killing the 2 guards with him and running across live mine fields to reach South Korea. All I can say is I'm glad we were not there when that happened because I would have been very scared. Later that night we went to the international firework show. I had heard about it from work and for those of you that know how much I love fireworks I knew this was a must. There were fireworks from all over the world that lasted 2 hours long. We were exhausted from a long day so we only made it one hour and we wanted to beat the MILLIONS (no joke) of people heading home after the show. The next day was their final full day so I wanted to fill it with as much as I could before I sent them home. We went to the war memorial museum, which was a HUGE free museum that had a lot of war memorabilia, history lessons and military equipment. We then walked around Seodaemun Prison which is a former prison that the Japanese held many Korean freedom activist. It was very sad and quite disturbing to see all the forms of torture they used on these people but also gave me more insight as to why all my kids HATE the Japanese. On my parents last night I wanted them to meet all my friends so we all met up for dinner. I decided my parents needed to go out on a bang so following dinner a few of us made it out for drinks and then noraebong. You can't come to Korea and not noraebong. It was so great to have my parents here and have them see exactly why I love it so much here. it was also interesting to see what strikes them as strange that I have grown accustomed to over here, such as the cable lines, cars, and many more. I wish I had the opportunity to show more people around Korea because it is such a beautiful place that I think more people should be able to experience. My Korean friend at school said I had quite the agenda for my parents and I was able to show them a lot of Seoul including food, arts, culture, nature, history and others. If anyone is willing to make the 12 hour flight here I would be more than happy to be your tour guide! Sorry for ranting, but yet again I have waited too long and had too much to share with you all! I hope you enjoyed!
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