Coinciding with the coldest temperatures of the year, January and February have been host to our first Canadian visitor's in Korea!January 24th - February 3rd was Irme time.
February 8th - February 19th was Daddy Roman time!
Having visitors was exciting and strange, as we haven't hung out with anyone that we've known longer than 7 months really since we've been here! So having people that are parts of our past was a totally different and neat experience! Especially being able to show them around Korea for their first visit here!
Irme came with gifts of packaged pasta sauce, parmesan cheese, English magazines, chocolate and her witty banter!
We showed her around town, discussed our school politics, played Jenga with 10 year olds, and drank until we could not drink any more. Seriously.
We typically went out until 7 or 8 am, minus a stint we had in Busan (one city over)
, when we got in at 10 am after a crazy night in meeting up with a fellow x-ringer/Antigonisher, having dinner, hitting up a few bars, and then the casino... If grad week and Irme week didn't kill me, than I don't know what will! It did take about a week to recover though!Great company the whole way through, whether "drunken" or sober, I think Irme enjoyed her time in crazy So Ko.
After recovering for approx. 4 days, my dad came over for a visit! It was the lunar (or Chinese) New Year, so we had a five day weekend! We took the opportunity to go up to Seoul for the first time, and meet up with my dad who flew in on a Friday night. Jake and I found a reasonable hotel, that was in transition from being a love motel, into a regular motel. The area was a little deserted, but the floors were heated, we had a water cooler in the room, fresh towels and instant coffee and tea every morning, two double beds and free VHS rentals all for $30/night! The stripper club next door was boarded up, and looked like it went bankrupt, hence why our hotel was no longer catering to the hourly customers, but transitioning into a regular hotel. The hallways were still adorned with red and blue lights though.
We picked up an exhausted and almost luggage-less papa Friday night around 10. After recovering the lost luggage at the airline office, we had missed the last bus into Seoul and cabbed it. The next few days we did some Seoul sightseeing. We went to Itaewon, which is a VERY western part of Seoul, where it was actually rare to see Koreans, which was mind boggling for us, but no big deal for my dad. We found some great pub food, bought some Toronto and Montreal Hockey jersey's, and explored for a while.
On Sunday
we went to the DMZ on a half day tour. The DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) is the 4 km that separates the North and South Korean border. It is apparently the most heavily guarded border in the world, as the two countries are still technically at war, just at a ceasefire. The border is guarded with both Korean and American soldiers, who stare at the North, and make sure that the North doesn't cause any trouble. The soldiers on the North side are watching the South 24/7 to ensure the same. We got to check out some of the recently discovered tunnels that the North Koreans tried to dig in order to infiltrate Seoul... seriously strange stuff. It's one of the most bizarre situations in the world.On our last night in Seoul, at Jake's insistence, we checked out a WWE show, who were conveniently on tour. We actually had excellent seats, and being one of the few english speakers out of 20,000 people, our chants and slogans stood well out and were actually acknowledged by some of the wrestlers. Jake yelled an extremely dated "LET'S GO SPARKY" at low-level wrestler Bob Holly, and we think only he and Jake got the joke.
Roman spent the rest of his stay bumbling around Ulsan, photographing many a Monk and school girl. Our boss, Mrs. An, graciously carted him around, showing him the sights. We took him out on an exceptionally dull night at the bar, leaving him to wonder if we actually had any friends at all. We do, folks. They were just... busy that night.
For those who wish to come over and take part in the Colleen and Jake reality camp, we suggest checking out Kayak.com, one of the best travel sights we've come across. We're already knee deep in it, trying to chart our course back to Canada in the summer.
All the best,
Colleen and Jake
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1 comment:
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