Vacation Part: I

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Kyle and I have vacation from January 24- February 5. I am going to try and do my best to keep you posted either daily or every other day.

I was pretty nervous about the whole idea of just going out in the country and trying to get around in different cities since we don't speak the language (besides a few words) and we don't read the language (besides my name) and so on. So, when we were trying to decide where to go, I got stressed out and we decided to play it by ear.

We headed into Seoul on Saturday afternoon. We made there in time to drop our stuff off at Krista's place and pick her up and do a short jaunt to Olympic Park and get some Starbucks. I of course had my grande chai tea latte and Kyle had his vanilla black tea latte (basically a london fog). We then darted off to Itaewon to meet up with our friends for Mike and Derek's birthday dinner at Outback Steakhouse. I wasn't feeling to hungry and was looking forward to having poutine at the pub in an hour or so, so I just ordered soup. It was soooo good. Then after that, we headed to Rocky Mountain Tavern, a Canadian pub in Itaewon, had some good talks, good food and all around good times. We played some dutch blitz (my partner and I rocked!) and it was just nice to be with friends in a good atmosphere. We were the only people upstairs in the pub so it wasn't like we were really in a pub at all, more like we were in a friend's basement back home!

After that, we caught the last subway and got back to Krista's house. The girls had decided that we would do a girls afternoon/night on Sunday. I was really excited about it. Kyle was going to spend the afternoon and evening with the guys and do guy things and us girls were going out to have fun. And fun was most definitely had!!!!!!!

After church Steph, Allison and myself headed to Starbucks to wait for Jennell and Krista to finish at their churches. Matt and Kyle headed to Kyobo bookstore and were walking around there for a while. After that they headed to the guys house in Itaewon. While at Starbucks we played Dutch Blitz, which I just started playing recently. It's really fun, but when playing by myself I am not that good!! Oh well. We were playing a round when Jennine randomly showed up and she joined. It was nice to see her if only for a little bit. She is always happy and smiling. We looked at the time and realized it was late and we would be late meeting up with the girls, so we ran to Body Shop and bought some stuff and then got on the subway. We headed towards Yeongdeungpo-gu Office (I can't remember the name of the stop we went to and my subway is worn out). So, it was Krista, Jennell, Steph Allison and myself.

We went to a place called "Dr. Fish". It's a little cafe where you go to sit with your feet in water and enjoy the strange feeling of fish eating all the dead skin off of your feet. Yes, you read that right. You have hundreds of little fish in these ponds around the table, you wash your feet in the sinks provided and then put your feet in the water and they eat them. Weird. I screamed but at least we were the only people in there so it didn't really matter. I was not the only one screaming though. For those of you who know me... you know I am very very VERY ticklish on my feet, so this was quite the undertaking for me to do this. We started in the one with the smallest fish and moved to the one with the bigger fish. The small fish feel like little bubbles all over your feet, but the big fish, you can feel their mouths on your feet. So strange. I am glad I did it because where else in the world would I get to experience that???

After that, we headed to a Luxury Noraebang (a place where you sing karaoke in your own private room), although quite disappointed by the lack of country music there, there was a lot of English music and we had so much fun. I even told their little mascot that I would bring them back to Canada with me. She was so cute. We sang for 2 1/2 hours. So much fun.

We sang ourselves hungry so we headed to some random mexican restaurant and ate some food and we were the only people there. After that we headed back and stopped at Starbucks. I think we all had a lot of fun. I am definitely ready for another girls night soon. I haven't had that much fun since we were in Canada and I played Wii and went shopping/ate appies at milestones with wine, and danced to high school music with Caitlin in the living room.

Monday was the Lunar New Year holiday here and all over Asia. It's the biggest holiday of the year. We went walking and taking pictures in Olympic Park (they have sculptures/statues from every country that participated in the Olympics there). We even saw a zamboni cleaning the outdoor rink while we sat in Starbucks again (this seems to be a very common theme, being at Starbucks). We then headedto Chungmuro and walked through some of the exhibits they had up and watched some performances for Lunar New Year. It was fun, but it was cold on Monday. After that we went to Myeong-dong and had Vietnamese food and then quickly left to go to the Rocky Mountain Tavern again to watch the all star game. Can't believe the East won. I was on a mission to try new cocktails I had never tried before, so I had the paralyser, attitude adjustment, melon ball, singapore sling, and some of Krista's creamscicle, almond joy. The best were the attitude adjustment and the singapore sling. Stay away from the almond joy.... way too sweet. The guys headed out for one more beer after the game and Krista, myself and one of Krista's coworkers went to a Noraebang again for an hour waiting for them.

Today we (Kyle, Krista and me) went to Jennell's house in Bundang and she made us homemade soup. It was so good. I think Jennell should open her own soup and sandwich place and I am pretty sure that Kyle and I alone would eat there enough to keep her open!!!!!!! It was absolutely delicious. She lives in a beautiful area of the city as well. Bundang is a suburb of Seoul that you can get to by subway. It was so peaceful there. Her apartment is adorable too. After food we talked a bit with each other and two of Jennell's coworkers and then we went for a walk in the park. It is a beautiful park and I want to go there again in the spring and have a picnic.

So, that has been our vacation thus far. We still have a while to go and we are planning more adventures next!! Enjoy the pictures and the video when I get it up here... hopefully tonight or tomorrow. And Krista.... thank you so much for being so hospitable and loving and letting us stay with you in your tiny apartment on your floor for three nights. Thank you thank you thank you.