So on January 27, 2006, a momentous occasion took place.
Pat and Judy Paulsen (also known as mom and dad to some) arrived in Korea.
That's right, folks!!
THIS is the post talking about their whirlwind tour of this wild and wacky country, only slightly after-the-fact.
It was a really great visit, despite its brevity. On the Friday, Becca and I took at bus from Cheongju to Incheon (the city that actually has the international airport -- about 45-60 minutes away from Seoul) once I was finished work, and met them at the Incheon Airport Hotel. They were pretty jet lagged after the ridiculously long travel time, but we dragged them out to a galbi restaurant near the hotel, so they got their first taste of Korean cuisine right away. They weren't hungry, so they didn't eat much, but they both tried it, and liked it, which was a good sign.
Saturday, we went into Seoul, dropped off their luggage at Jess and Brandon's apartment, two friends of ours that have featured in a couple other fascinating installments thus far, and proceded to show them around a bit. We went to Insadong, a really cool pedestrian shopping neighbourhood with loads of little crafty-type shops and street vendors and cafes and the like. From Insadong, we then went to show them the aquarium at the COEX mall, which we've already shown you pictures of, so we're not going to bother doing so again. After the aquatic festivities, we went to Itaewon to eat at a fabulous Indian restaurant we frequent, and then down to the bus terminal to pick up our luggage and make our way back to our humble abode here in Cheongju.
Then sleep.
On Sunday, we slept in and lazed around a bit, and then went to church, showing them the various rooms and neat features of the church itself, and after the service going back home for a bit. When we got back, we took them to our favourite local galbi place, where they got a more expansive example of a typical Korean dinner spread (plus they were a little more awake for this one). We were really happy that it was even open, because most of Korea was closed in celebration of Solnal, the huge lunar new year holiday.
Monday was a trip to Songnisan, the national park about an hour away featuring the enormous Buddha statue and loads of really cool temple pagodas and stuff. It was regrettably cloudy and chilly that day, but the park is still spectacular, and a good time was had by all. After getting back to Cheongju, we went to an awesome chicken restaurant, then dad and I went and played poker with some other foreigners and mom and Becca went and hung out together for a while.
Tuesday I was supposed to work while Becca had the day off, but because she's awesome, she worked it out so she could switch with me, so in the morning we all hung out together and walked around our neighbourhood a bit, and in the afternoon, I took mom and dad down to the downtown area of Cheongju. We had coffee at the biggest coffee shop in town (called New Yorker for those who are curious by nature) and then went to check out the Yukgeori covered market, where you can browse anything from piles of frying pans to buckets of pig heads and pretty much everything in between.
Wednesday morning (we were still on a morning schedule at that point) mom and dad came into the school with us to see some of the kids we teach.
This picture was taken in my grade 3/4 split class immediately after one of the boys in the front row responded to my "How are you, Kevin?" with an exhuberant "I'M DIRTY!"
I swear I have no idea where he came up with that. I was as shocked as you are.
This is Becca with a class of three fourth-grade girls who have phenomenal English for having never studied outside of Korea. They're also really well behaved and less apt to say things like the kid in my class.
As soon as we were finished our classes for the morning (I still had a middle school class later that afternoon) we rushed hope, got mom and dad and their luggage and jumped in a taxi to head down to the bus terminal, where we bid our goodbyes, hardly able to believe that the visit was over already, and put them on a bus to make the 2.5 hour trip to Incheon by themselves.
They survived.
All in all, as I've said, it was awesome to have them, despite the short length of their stay, and anyone else who'd like to come for a visit is more than welcome!
That's all for now, folks!!