Japanese Scary Times

On Tuesday Dad, Matt, and Andrew went to a prison camp the Japanese operated during their occupation of Korea. Mom and I decided to go to the Toy Alley area of Dong Dae Mun (Dong Myo Ap Station exit 6) to look for stuffed animal sheep (she needed them for a project for one of her classes). We found some awesome sheep heads (yes, I realize that sounds kinda creepy), and she made bodies for them out of felt. They turned out well, if I do say so myself.
Matt should really be the one to write the rest of the blog entry, but he's even worse than I am at timely blog posts, so I'm just going to post the pictures and encourage him, Dad, and Andrew to post their observations, feelings, etc. in the comments section of this blog.

The pictures:


I now encourage Matt, Dad, and Andrew: please feel free to write about your experiences.

Flowers and Friends

On Monday April 2nd we went to the flower market at the Express Bus Terminal. The market is open from 1:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. and has rows and rows of seasonal and hothouse flowers and greenery at low-low prices.

These pictures hardly do justice to the utter magnitude of magnificience that is the flower market. However, you may get some idea of it.

Here Mom and I are with one of several bundles we purchased that day. I always have to set a limit of how much money I am going to spend there; otherwise I may end up with way more flowers than I have vases for and no money.
After purchasing flowers, my friend Katheryn and I have a tradition that we sing "Here I am, Miss America," wave, and graciously nod to all the people. I do not think that additional explanation is necessary. ;)

The flower market is one of my favourite places to go in Seoul because I feel like my eyes are otherwise denied discerning such colours and textures.

Nothing can surpass the Palette of God.

Later that evening we met for dinner with one of Matt's friends from his mission days. This friend is actually Chinese, although ethnically Korean. He took us to a Chinese restaurant located in Seoul's Chinatown (located a short walk away from exit 3 of Nam Gu Ro Station) where we met up with his wife.

Here are some pictures of the Chinatown area:

This is the restaurant at which we ate (which is across from the food market above):
And finally here we all are, posing together for the photo:
The food was absolutely fabulous, and very authentically Chinese. Like America, Korea has its own "version" of Chinese food, so this was indeed a rare treat. My favourite dishes were the dumplings (not shown) and the spicey mutton skewers up front. Sooooo good.

Yong San Electronics Market

No visit to Seoul would be complete without a trip to the Yong San Electronics Market. So, we went there, and auspiciously ran into Matt's bosses (husband and wife team). It was fun to see them.

The Yong San Electronics Market is (coincidentally? I think not) located at Yong San Station (pictured below). The electronics buildings are on the far side of the station, but Matt recently found a bus route that goes right from our house to the market. We live in the best location in Seoul.
We ate at one of my favourite restaurants ever (you know, the sollong tang place that I take everybody to).
The electronics market itself comprises several buildings, so we only hit a few of the hot spots that Matt and I like to go to (a.k.a places that sell video games). Here's a picture of one of the walk-ways that goes between the buildings of the market.
Although on a different day, we later ate dinner at one of the food courts in the basement of one of the electronics buildings. This food court is amazing, there are about fifteen different restaurants who all basically serve the same gigantic menu. If it's Korean food, you can find it here. Mom was a little skeptical of the place at first, but once she bit into her sea food pancake, she was convinced as to the merit of the place.
The food was delicious. I had kimbap ramen, Matt had donkatsu, Andrew ate bibimbap, Dad Witt ate kalbi tang, and Mom had the seafood pancake, as previously mentioned. The hole-in-the-wall places are always the best.

Family and Fondue

Matt's parents and brother Andrew came to visit us for the week during their spring breaks. It was really fun to see them, and I will say we definitely had a good time.

They arrived on Friday March 30th. Andrew's connecting flight from San Francisco to Seoul had been cancelled, and he was re-routed through Narita Airport in Japan. Of course we didn't find out about the delay until well after he was supposed to have arrived. We were worried that he had not made it on his flight at all, as I guess there is a history of that? ~blink blink~ Anyway, he made it (late, though no fault of his own, to be sure) safely, and we drove home.

This is Andrew. Isn't he cute? (Not as cute as Matt, though; sorry Andrew, but that's the way of it. *tee-hee*)
On Satruday we went to the Yongsan Electronics Market and looked around. We ran into Matt's boss, which was fun. We ate lunch at one of my favourite restaurants in Seoul (the sollong tang place), which is located there. We talked about going to Baskin Robins for icecream afterwards, but we were too full. We came back another day to enjoy some of Baskin Robin's Icecream Fondu, which is totally awesome. I don't think they have it in the States, so all you peeps are really missing out.
I know I have the scary Nina Meyers look in this picture, but everybody else looked nice so I had to include it.

On Sunday we went to church, which was nice. We came home and enjoyed some of Grandma Witt's famous lazagna (a.k.a. Stoffeur's), which was reminicent of the old Cousins' Dinner she does once a month for all the grandchildren in the area. Those were always fun.

Until later...