Seoul Weekend

Erika was at a PWOC retreat this weekend, playing music that she didn't have to plan and enjoying speaker Victoria Robinson. Dan and I were on child duty. Dan went for a bike ride Saturday morning while Simeon and I did playground and board games. In the afternoon Dan led us on an adventure to a festival at a shopping mall.

The fun started in the train station.

The information about the festival was in Korean so Dan wasn't exactly sure what we were getting into. At first all we found was a shopping mall. Korea is very first world, and a shopping mall is a shopping mall even if the signs are in a different language. The signs we saw for C-Festival said W10,000 admission (about $10) and all we could see through the convention center doors were exhibition booths with more shopping. Not exactly something that would interest Simeon. But then we saw some colorful outer-space mascots coming down the escalator. When we followed them, we discovered a whole other area with much more kid-friendly activities--like this Legoland-type area where Simeon and his dad built towers with this magnetic construction set. And this stuff was free.

Outside we found a marching band, junior belly dancers in gauzy dresses that Simeon thought were beautiful (I found 8-year-olds with padded bras to be pretty weird), and this juggler/tightrope walker/unicycle rider. The masks in the audience are because of the air pollution, which is really bad at this time of year. I even got an emergency warning on my phone in the wee hours. It was all in Korean, but I'm pretty sure it was my weather app telling me not to go out.

Korea is looking forward to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics next February. (So am I!) There are lots of promotions around.

Sunday at home included a neighbor's birthday party. The base is like an American small town set down in the middle of a city of 10.25 million (25.6 million in the larger metropolitan area). This superhero-themed party included a bouncy house and junior high girls doing face painting.

Superman and a ninja turtle join Spiderman in the bouncy house.

Simeon gets a spider added to his Spiderman costume from his own birthday last year

Look Out Kim Yu Na

I have adopted Korea University as my home rink in Korea. Or maybe they adopted me. I don’t usually travel with skates, but this time I was going to be gone almost two months and couldn’t stand the idea of being away from the ice that long when I KNOW Korea has good figure skaters. Kim Yu Na was both Olympic and World Champion and inspired a generation. 

(I brought more things for my feet this trip than on any previous trip when I wasn’t actually moving. Besides my skates, I brought hiking boots, tennis shoes, flipflops, loafers and heels for Easter and any other special occasions. It all fit in two roll-aboards and a small carry-on.)

My Lotte World skating experience was less than satisfying, so last Thursday I tried the university rink. I had directions from the internet: 2 subway changes and a bus. My only mistake was getting off the bus one stop too soon and having to walk further up the hill. (This is Korea; everything is up hill.)

But this sign just inside the university gate told me I was on the right track.

 The rink building is pretty ordinary modern.

But the university building across the street is anything but ordinary.

Last week the hockey team was practicing when I arrived. They zambonied the ice, but it was still pretty rough. Also crowded with speed skaters around the outside and lessons in the middle, but it wasn’t as hot as Lotte World, and the ice was the hardness I’m used to. All around it felt more like a “real rink” instead of a tourist attraction. At one point I was skating around the outside and found myself facing a 10-year-old skating backward (something I wasn’t anxious to try with the rough ice and speed skaters). She stopped her skating and gave me a polite bow from the waist, then went back to skating.

It was her coach who spoke English. I talked to her a bit after the session, looking for a time when moves-in-the-field and dances wouldn’t be hampered by orange cones marking the speed skating track. The answer was 6 AM, pretty common for serious skaters, but not practical when I have to travel about an hour to get there.

Today the hockey team had NOT been there, so the ice was much smoother. There were not as many kids having lessons, and I essentially had my own patch at one end of the inside section to work on jumps and spins and outside mohawks. The coach I talked to last week greeted me warmly, and not one, but three little girls skated across the ice to smile and bow, hands clasped in front of them, in greeting. I felt very welcome. Today is Buddha’s birthday, so next Wednesday might have more activity again, but like I said, I will consider Korea University my rink for the duration.

Shopping Spree in Yeoju

Today I took a bus trip with a church group, including Erika's sister-in-law and a couple PWOC friends. Much of the nearly hour and a half it took to get there was dedicated to circumnavigating Seoul. Then we went through a couple tunnels and wound among beautiful hills before arriving in Yeoju, center of the South Korean ceramics trade. The group sends a bus about once a month, and many of these ladies had favorite shops and knew exactly what they were looking for.

The novelty this trip was a ceramics festival. There was a lot of beautiful stuff, but for the most part the prices were higher than we wanted to pay.

Outside the exhbition hall were plenty of other shops of the cheaper, more permanent variety, where I found some small things for Christmas gifts that I think my Sunday school class will enjoy.

I bought several bowls of this blue pattern on a previous trip.

The factory outlet had lots of different shapes and sizes, but I decided my cupboard didn't need more dishes.

Another stop found us crowded into a tiny room with this elegant white-on-white china. These companion shapes are commonly sold together as male and female. If I didn't live in a cabin in the north woods, I might have been tempted.

In the larger area, one of the few children whose parents trusted her to come on such a trip watched a potter making more.

What I really had been hoping for was something like the blue and gray bowls I already had, but with touches of red like you see in some of these gorgeous pots. It was this last shop that would have really tempted me if I had more space, not just in my luggage, but in my house.

Korean fast food seems to be often served State Fair style--on a stick. This "fish bar" would have been nicer fresh and hot instead of handed to me from under a heat lamp. As it was I would classify it as one of those things I'm glad I tried, but I won't be rushing back for more.

This is only a portion of what our ladies brought back under the bus. Some of them are getting ready to leave and want a remembrance to take with them. Some of them just enjoy living in Korea.

Seoul Zoo

I love nicely landscaped zoological gardens. This one is at Seoul Grand Park, a mere seven subway stops away.

The zoo nestles among hills. We took the chair lift to the top. The views were fabulous, but I would have enjoyed it much more without a wiggly four-year-old sending my stomach into my toes every few minutes.

We found this interactive pavilion where changing the position of your arms evoked different segments of film including a major tiger roar.

Then we found the real thing.

And a climbable version. The odd expression is Simeon roaring like a tiger cub.

We met up with some friends, watched the dolphin show, picnicked and generally had a wonderful day.

Hitting the Markets

Monday was a stay-at-home day. I took Simeon to the playground in the morning while Erika's PWOC music group rehearsed. In the evening we had Cubbies (Awana) where Erika has a table of kids to supervise for craft and to hear their verses.

This morning we took an easy subway ride to visit my cousin Sarah who is married to a Korean and has lived in Seoul for years. Sarah is great with kids. Her husband made it very clear that he is ready for grandchildren. Their college-aged daughter Susie enjoys Erika so we had a good time. When we put Erika and Simeon on the train to get back in time for school, Sarah, Susie and I caught a bus. I was glad for that experience because I may try to get to a different ice rink later this week, and the one I'm thinking of would involve a bus.

Sarah took me for lunch to one of her favorite hole-in-the wall places in Dongdaemun Market at the 500-year-old East Gate of the city, (which of course, is now totally surrounded by high modern buildings). We wended our way through the food section of the market.

Here's the kitchen of our restaurant where they are frying the bean cakes Sarah recommended.

They did have a small dining room back behind.

After lunch Sarah showed me a bit of the market. This is the bakery market. I guess Koreans don't usually bake at home, so she comes here for things like baking powder and chocolate chips that she can't buy in a grocery store.

There were cookie cutters of every shape and size.

Now, you probably have been envisioning this market area as a square block or so. A square mile or so would probably be more accurate. The buildings on either side of this canal are just a small part.

The building on the right as far as you can see contains clothing stalls, the sort where retailers come and order fifty or a hundred of an item. There were shops with nothing but hats--20 shops in a row with nothing but hats. Aisle after aisle, block after block of clothing shops. The building on the left is fabric--stall after stall of trims, then stalls of button and sequins, not to mention aisle after aisle for multiple floors of bolts of fabric. Very overwhelming. My favorite was the shops with elegant fabrics and embroidered pieces ready for traditional Korean outfits still used for weddings and celebrations. They even have seamstresses on site.

I am not a big shopper; I'm mostly a looker; but I did have some shopping I needed to do in Korea. The gradeschool of my other grandchildren is near the university and very multicultural. The librarian told Katie that she finished the year with $150 still in her budget that she wanted to spend on Korean language books for the Korean-speaking kids attending the school. I agreed to do the shopping.

Susie had her own errands to run, but she joined us to go to Kyobo, a major bookstore in the center of Seoul. This store is so big it even has it's own subway entrance. Here is a small corner of the children's section.

It was no less overwhelming than the other markets, but I was grateful to have Sarah's help to figure out what we were looking at. Susie pointed out some stuff that was popular when she was in fifth grade. We got some translated classics, including one of the current Newbery winners, and some major series. I ordered A Single Shard, an older Newbery set in 12th-century Korea that I loved. They prefer to deliver rather than have me come back to get it. Never in America!

When we were finished, Sarah and Susie pointed me to the correct train and sent me on my way, a bit nervously I thought. I texted when I had successfully arrived home. I'll have to see them again because my book is being delivered to their house. :-)

Hyeongjebong

Here I was thinking, "It's Sunday. I wrote about church last week. I can take a day off from blogging." And then Dan said, "Do you want to go on a hike with Simeon and me?" Erika had music prep to do for the women's meeting, so the three of us took off after lunch.

Destination Hyeongjebong in a national park right here in Seoul. Bong means peak. You guessed it. Like most hiking in Korea it was uphill.

After driving across town, we parked here, right on the highway in the background of the picture.

But 180 degrees from taking that picture, I took this one.

Of course, every Korean hiking spot includes a temple, but we didn't take the time to investigate this one. Notice how much younger the leaves are at the higher altitude. A lot of the flowering trees were still just in bud.

Simeon found a fireman hold a relaxing way to hike. Further along the trail, that hold became a matter of safety rather than laziness.

Despite being surrounded by nature, we were never far from the city.

Simeon wanted to picnic at every rocky lookout. Here we snacked on dried seaweed, a favorite of Simeon's.

There was no shortage of rocks to climb on.

And then there was this part of the trail. That is the trail you are looking at.

I was beginning to think we had gotten off on a side trail to a lookout, but no, the trail continued down the other side, almost as steep. There were knotted ropes as well as these bars to help us up.

According to my phone app, I did not reach 10,000 steps today, but I think I can be forgiven since it says we climbed the equivalent of 80 flights of stairs. That is not as high as it would have been to climb Lotte Tower instead of taking the elevator, but we were pretty tired on the way home.

Tot to Tower

It's been a busy Saturday. Simeon's school had a carnival including a short program by the kids. Simeon's class sang, "Dance Like You Have Ants in Your Pants," and acted it out enthusiastically. It was a priviledge for a normally remote grandparent like me to be there.

It was a beautiful day, and after lunch Dan thought it was a great time to go up the new Lotte Tower, which opened last month. At 123 floors, it is the sixth highest building in the world. Definitely the tallest I have been in. It's right beside Lotte World and the ice rink where I skated earlier this week.

We waited in line for tickets, fearing they would be for later in the day, but we were able to go straight to the elevator line.  First we passed through security where they x-rayed our bags. Dan carries a small pen knife on his key chain. They sealed it in a plastic bag and gave it back to him as if a plastic bag would stop a terrorist. The big security risk evidentally was Simeon's yellow balloon, given to him by a friendly Korean lady in the line; the young woman at security took it from him, let the air out and handed it back. Simeon was as deflated as his balloon. His lip trembled, but he didn't cry.

Korea is BIG on technology, and this is no exception. The tunnel to the elevator reminded me of DisneyWorld with plenty to interest you while you wait. Except we didn't wait; we hurried right past. Even the elevator had multiple screens on three sides with doors made of mirror. In the 55 seconds it took on the way up they showed a surround video that began with an ancient temple and showed the development of Seoul in timelapse up to the building of Lotte Tower. On the way down we were surrounded with views of the tower erupting with fireworks on the night of the opening.

The "top" included multiple floors, each slightly smaller than the next. The views are like something you would expect from an airplane.

Seoul Tower can be seen in the distance on the right.

The green space below is the site of the Seoul Olympics. The shadow to the right is none other than Lotte Tower.

One level had projections with glass floors we could walk out on. Didn't bother Simeon a bit.

The projections above were outdoor terraces where you could feel the wind.

We could also look up through a netting to the summit of the building.

The lowest levels are an elaborate shopping mall. You can see Lotte Tower through the glass roof of this atrium.