Here's a quick little video I took at a bus stop on the way to Jeonju. You'll get a chance to see some vendor food we had -- chicken on a stick with a bbq/sweet&sour sauce and then a potato that was so hot the outside carmelized.
I have lots more video os Seoul to come, just not a lot of time to edit the clips. For now, you get the bus stop!
To start the day, we had the pleasure of shopping for a cell phone, Hand-a-pone-ay. Koreans LOVE their cell phones and you should see these crazy bad boy phones. Full digital TV ... yes, video chat ... yes, subway maps ... yes, and it just keeps going with the features. No iPhones here so I guess America has one thing better. I ended up having to buy an older used phone with less features so I could buy a pre-paid pay-as-you-go plan. It cost about $45 so about the same as renting but a lot more hassel with all the vendors, etc. It was fun anyway and Sang Sook was lots of help.
After enjoying some gimbap for lunch, Korean maki roll with kimchi, we left to meet Mari's aunt and cousin. The meeting place .... Dunkin' Donuts. Hah! When we met up with them we went to the bus station and to our surprise Mari got to meet one her uncles. That was pretty exciting. He was just there to see us off and we were in a hurry so no pics.
We left the safety of Sang Sook and the kids and head out on the bus with Mari's aunt, son, and grandma who do not speak much English. We got on the bus to Jeonju, famous as the birthplace of the Korean dish bibimbap, to meet with Mari's other aunt. I have some video of the bus ride to post later but it was an interesting trip. We got to drive through the countryside and see the mountainous regions. It also started snowing big fat flakes so it was very pretty.
The bus trip was about 3 hours and then we arrived in Jeonju. We then headed out to a famous restaurant for traditional bibimbap (rice, vegetables, meat, hot sauce in a hot pot all stirred up), the Korean side dishes, and some Korean rice wine. Mari met another cousin who is 25 and can speak a bit more English. Her aunt's husband also came and he could speak a little as well. We had a very emotional conversation to get started ... you can imagine how these things go. They remember Mari, her parents, and all of the events leading to the adoption.
Here's a photo we snapped outside the restaurant.
After dinner, we went to Mari's aunt's apartment. Most everyone lives in high-rise apartments here. Mari and I shared some photos with the family. Then Mari was given a photo of her and her mother. Mari was about 3 years old in the photo.
Today (Day 3) we are going to visit Buan and Mari's maternal aunt. She apparently has large photos of Mari's mother so Mari is very excited. We'll also be visiting a national park near the sea. It should be beautiful.
Okay, I need to go be social now. I could write forever. Lots of random fun facts to share.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here are some pics from the first day. We visited a palace and the Korean National Folk Museum before heading over to meet Mari's birth family. Totally feeling the jet lag now ... it's about 9:20PM on Monday ... so need to cut it short.
The first meeting of Mari and her birth family went well. We'll be meeting up with Mari's family tomorrow and traveling with them into the country to city where Mari was born and to see other relatives. We'll be staying at the home of one of Mari's aunts. It will be 4 days and 3 nights so we'll be away from Seoul for a few days.
Annyoung haseyo from Korea!
Mari and I arrived safely in Seoul last night with no problems. Wow, what a long day … or days? We started at 4:30AM with our ride to Boston Logan – special thanks to Chad & Anar for the ride. Our first flight was to New York (JFK) to catch our connector to Seoul. Man, that JFK airport is a real piece of work. The difference couldn’t be more stark between rolling into New York JFK and Incheon International. Anyway, after walking outside between terminals and asking many people where to go, we made it to check-in at ……. Korean Air. Wait, I bought these tickets on Delta, right? Ha!
As we boarded the big blue smurf colored Boeing 747, we already felt like we were taking our first steps into Korea. The flight attendants were dressed up all super-classy, almost a throwback to when flying on a plane was something special. Most everyone on board was Korean, all the signage was written in Hangul, and my in-flight entertainment system contained some albums from the great k-pop star, Se7en. (Yeah Punchbowlers, that’s right!)
Flying economy for 13.5 hours is not cool. Our flight went north and west from New York over the Hudson Bay, into the Arctic Circle, down along the Russian coast (I think Sarah Palin could see us!), down between Japan and N. Korea, and then across S. Korea where we landed in Incheon International. The flight was rough at times … it’s kind of freaky to think about this giant plane getting tossed around but we were! All the in-flight meals were Korean dishes and it was all good. We got the trip started right with a little bibimbap (a traditional Korean dish where rice, vegetables, and lots of red sauce are mixed together).
The highlight of the day was most definitely the moment we exited customs and were greeted by Sang Sook, Na Young, Se June. They made little “Welcome to Korea!” signs for us and it was so cute. The perfect end to a long day on planes and airports.
That’s enough for now. Of course, this is just the part where the story gets interesting but I’ll write some more later.
It's my first Christmas away from home and family. It's a little bit sad, but on the other hand I hear Chicago O'Hare is having its annual xmas cluster f&*(ck so I'm thankful we're not traveling that direction this year! I can't help but feel a bit guilty that we're not home for Christmas, running all around Iowa seeing family, visiting grandmas, etc. We'll be with family next year ... it just wasn't practical this year. Sorry Mom & Dad :(
So anyway, Mari and I are celebrating our first Christmas alone. We didn't have many decorations or festive things this year besides a little Egg Nog + Maker's Mark, but we did treat ourselves to making a little dinner together and a bottle of wine. So I present, the Christmas Vegetable Pot Pie.
It's an Ina Garten recipe and it was buttery goodness.
You too can make and share an eCard like this one on MyPunchbowl.
Well, I finally came to the conclusion that my old domain name, coin-operated.net, just would not cut it for my new blogging digs. After a few hours of trolling through unclaimed domain name registrations I finally found fantasticness.com.
With the new name comes a new design. Woooeeeeooo!