So before I go into details about this past weekend, let me first say this: for those of you unaware, I happen to be married to the greatest person ever. Just thought I ought to clear that up.
Secondly, I'd like to share with you something I've learned about Korea. This place is a land of contradicions. For starters, I present this picture, which, although it is most likely simply another error in translation, presents a good example of what I'm talking about:
Another aspect of Korean society is that it is incredibly contradictory about body image and sexuality. For instance, although there is a word for sex in Korean, it is rarely if ever used. They almost always speak in inuendo rather than say the word sex. Also, despite the fact that relatively provocative images are still seen in the media, conservative is the word when it comes to standard Korean dress, especially for women. All of this was what made the following display at the entrance to a housewares store that much more surprising.
A housewares store, don't forget.
So these are cushions on sale that are supposed to be representations (apparently) of the breasts of Cameron Diaz and Beyonce from Destiny's Child. So weird.
Anyway, on to the actual events of the weekend. Becca had prepared a surprise for Saturday, which was amazing since she doesn't particularly like all the logistic stuff involved in things like this, especially in another language. This weekend was the Seoul International Air Show, which she (correctly) thought that I would be interested in attending. It was awesome. We got there a little late since there were a couple accidents backing up traffic on the freeway, adding an extra 45 minutes to the bus travelling time, but we still got near enough to the airfield to watch (for free!) some acrobatic flight teams doing some neat tricks. Observe some of their sky art:
On our way back to the subway after the airshow, we witnessed an interesting thing about Koreans: their absolutely screwed up (non-existant?) taste buds. I mean, any country where the children thoroughly enjoy the taste of rotten cabbage covered in red pepper paste has obviously got its share of culinary difficulties, but this crap completely takes the cake:
What's that, you ask? Well I'll tell you. That, my friends and family, is a big pot of boiled silk-worm larvae. And the kiddies LOVE it. That's an actual Korean child (no paid actors here, let me tell you) digging into a paper cup full of the little wormy critters, served piping-hot and nauseatingly aromatic at roadside stands in various corners and events all over Korea. Yeah.
Right beside the pot above is another pot serving up cups full of river snails. This guy sat down right beside us, slurping away on them. They're really tiny, and you need to just suck them out of their shells. I've actually tried them, and they're not *bad*, per se, just useless. They're so small that you can hardly even notice them before you swallow them. Not a lot of point, in my opinion, but this guy seemed to be enjoying them:
But enough about horrendous "food". The next place we went was an incredibly pleasant surprise. Becca had read about this place called the COEX mall, where they've got loads of neat interactive stuff to do and see, including (according to the book she was reading) a couple sound-proof booths containing drum kits that you can wail away on for free. She figured that it'd be fun (which it would have been) so we decided to mosey on down and see what was available. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any such mythical place in the mall. We did see the housewares store with the interesting array of pillows seen above, and we did see something you wouldn't see in Canada, store-wise:
Yup. It's a board game cafe. You go in, order a capuccino and sit down to play a round of your favourite board game with your friends. They're also all over the place here.
Anyway, the really cool part was the aquarium that they have in this mall-thingy. I wasn't holding out too much hope for it, being that it's an aquarium inside a mall, but we paid the 14,000 won each to get in and started on our way.
It started out fairly dull, featuring various forms of tiny, household-pet-sized freshwater fish in household-pet-sized aquariums, so we were getting a little worried, but it turned out to get better and better the further along we went.
Before we got to any really big fish, we entered a little room where they had a bunch of installation-art-esque aquariums set up. Like so:
They also had a Coke machine, a fridge and a couple TVs (185 channels -- nothin' but fish). Overall a pretty neat way of caging fish.
Then came the really rad stuff. They had an amazing array of fish from all over the world in this aquarium. Stuff ranging from huge (and apparently irrisistably attractive) river fish from the Amazon:
to awesomely huge moray eels:
to incredibly cool things called sea dragons:
They also had a couple of those really big aquariums featuring full-wall windows and sharks, sea turtles and marlins swimming around inside (so freakin' cool) including those neat plexiglass tunnels you can walk through and have sharks etc swim right over your head.
They also had a tank with a few giant spider crabs inside. These things are terrifyingly huge. For anyone who hasn't heard the story, I've developed a healthy respect for the strength of crabs since I saw a medium sized one snap a thick, hard, plastic ashtray in two with its one big crushin' claw. *shudder*
That said, it's easy to understand how I found this a little unnerving:
For size reference, the body of this jerk is about the size of my outspread hand.
So, I was busy marvelling at the size and potential bone-crushingness of this little fella, when I happened to look up and see the following. Again, for size reference, the rock to which this particular monster is attached was roughly the size of my torso, if not a little bit bigger. I don't even care if you believe me. I still shudder a little to think about it.
Ridiculous.
Oh yeah, and before we left, I got caught in some sort of weird undersea vortex.
I got out safely though. Boy was *that* an adventure!
Anyway, once the aquarium experience was finished, we decided to go and eat at an Indian restaurant that Becca had read about in Itaewon. It was delicious, but not quite as delicious as the last (cheaper) Indian buffet restaurant we visited, which was good cause now we know we can save money and have incredibly excellent Indian food at the first place. Anyway, the food was still spectacular. Afterwards, we decided that we had most likely missed the last bus back to Cheongju, so we'd better get a room somewhere so we didn't have a repeat of our last little Itaewon experience. Wanna see what 30,000 won will get you by way of a hotel room in a grubby area of Seoul? No? Then would the concerned parents involved kindly look elsewhere while scrolling down to the next bit of this post? Thank you.
Here's our room (note that Becca was at the doorway and was still too close to even get the opposite wall fully into the picture):
I'm lying across the bed sideways, so don't think that. It was a regular double bed, but it stretched the whole way from one wall to the other, and probably would have done the same the other way. However, the room did have a decent shower in the bathroom, clean sheets/bedding a tiny TV (that actually worked once I fiddled with the cable connection a bit) and an air conditioner, so it really wasn't that bad.
Here's the grand entrance:
I would've taken pictures of the surrounding neighbourhood (at night) but I was afraid that our parents may have some sort of coronary, so I figured it'd be best to try to catch it at its most flattering. What do you think?
To those of you currently worrying about parental mental health, I know for a fact that both of my parents have stayed in places of the same, or lesser, quality, so they'll be alright. To the Sheppards, if there are any lasting psychological injuries as a result of these pictures, I offer my heartfelt apologies.
So that brings us to another incredibly long, potentially boring, post updating y'all on our weekend wanderings. Hope you've enjoyed the retelling, and there are more pictures of the aquarium available if you would really like. I'll most likely wait until I talk to you on MSN or until we get back though. HAHAHA!
I'm going to bed. G'night.