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Date Night: Songchoo Gamagoll
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Tag Archives: 2012
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Tune Up
Happy Birthday, America!
Seoul Cathederal
This morning I awoke and decided to take the train down to Seoul Cathedral. When Rebecca was visiting we talked a lot about church, God, life, and the family that you build within a church.
Rebecca wanted to attend an English service at the Seoul Cathedral while visiting, however time slipped away from us.
I decided that today was a perfect day as any to attend service. Plus, I wanted to share with her and others how the Cathedral and service was.
Seoul Cathedral is located beside Deoksu Palace and across from Seoul City Hall. You can take Subway Line 1 and get out at Exit 3. I was absolutely delighted on how easy it was to find the Cathedral after exiting the subway.
Please excuse the iPhone photo quality
(Once you reach the top of the exit 3’s stairs you will immediately see this wall, follow until you reach the opening street that turns left, keeping an eye out for the above posted sign too.)
The Anglican worship and Holy Communion is held every Sunday at 9:30 AM (in English) located in the Cathedrals Crypt Chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist.
Immediately while wondering and being completely astounded by the exterior of outside, I was approached, greeted, and led into where the English service would start.
There was a real sense of pride, geniality, and overall neighborliness. All the impressions and feelings a place of worship should leave you feeling.
The congregation was fabulously welcoming. It was wonderful to see and meet various nationalities present too.
The space was so unique. I was told that Reverend Mark Trollope is buried in the Crypt Chapel and his remains lie under a copperplate engraving of him, as shown above.
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Beatitude
Change
From top to bottom: New and old neighbor’s moving, the first rainfall in weeks on my walk home tonight from our work dinner (forecasted to turn all monsoon on us), and the best kind of change…a brand new Starbucks opened this week right in our own backyard….can we say dangerous!?
Farmer Market Finds
Day 9 R&S Invade South Korea
Today is day nine…I can’t help but think about the fact that in a few short hours my wonderful week with my best fiend is coming to an end. Nevertheless I am very determined to not let that gloom over my head and not let me enjoy the precious hours that I do still have left with her.
Rebecca is still recovering with her medication. We again decided to have an easy, slow, at our own pace type of morning. With no rush or real plan in place, we all woke up, ate some breakfast, talked, and got ourselves around for the day.
We eventually decided that once the sun was setting we would head up to Herb Island, a fabulous (i’ll admit a tad bit cheesy too) botanical garden facility near our place. I really enjoy going to this place and was absolutely delighted when Mr. B first took me there. I just knew Rebecca would feel the same way and really enjoy it too, or at least I really hoped so!
Mr. B had some things he needed to tend to during the afternoon hours. This left Rebecca and I more time to just lounge around the house, nibble on our left over market goodies, and giggle. A few hours later we both looked at each other and decided that we were growing incredibly hungry. We were in need of something light, not in the mood for something heavy. Perhaps a sandwich shop? Hmm…the Subway shop nearby? No… that wasn’t sounding that appetizing or appealing in the moment. Ah! We could dine at the local GS 25 (A local convenient store) and raid the place for interesting finds. Yes! We thought: what a perfect idea!
We sat on the patio and munched on divine foods such as seaweed covered tuna triangles, chicken triangles, banana milk, with some sort of crazy circle things? Friend that speak Korea, throw me a bone and help me out! HA HA! We had a blast just sitting there watching the world go by, eating our triangles.
On the way back to our place we stopped by a local grocery store and perused the place for some goodies that we could box up and send back to the states for Josh (Rebecca’s amazingly sweet boyfriend!). While we were running amuck we found the popsicle display case and it was marked 30% off! SCORE! Of course we had to!
We strolled home in the heat with our melting popsicles. Mr. B had arrived home and gave us a ring to find out our location. We were so close so we just decided it made sense to meet back up at home again.
Around 6:30 we all piled back into the car and Mr. B took us on a nice drive through the countryside North of our place, no not North Korea HA HA! Rebecca really enjoyed getting to see all the mountains and all the lush green farmland. It’s such a change from hustle and bustle of Seoul and the city. It’s refreshing, calming, most of all it reminds us a lot of home.
We looped back around and found ourselves at Herb Island, exactly where we wanted to be once the sun had set. Excellent timing! The place was not jam-packed with people and we free to mosey around as slow as we wanted.Plenty of time to stop and smell the flowers, or in my case snap a million pictures. There were just to many silly or beautiful things that I couldn’t pass by without capturing.
After our Herb Island trip was almost complete we ended up at the restaurant, or what was left of it, that we wanted to share Herb bibimbop with Rebecca. Phewey! Herb Island was doing some major construction and the building was no longer standing in the place it once did. We opted to head into the bakery and munch on all the delectable samples of freshly baked breads. Mmm… this place is Mr. B’s Achilles heel.
We had to decide on something different for dinner. Our options were herbed meat or pizza. We didn’t have much reassurance in the pizza place because it was fairly empty. We all decided, meat it is. It wasn’t the herb bibimbop, but it was still tasty.
What a great night! Rebecca had a blast! Yippee! The night was a total success!
Day 8 R&S Invade South Korea
Rebecca was up and out the door this morning at 6:00AM to catch the metro down to City Hall in Seoul. Today is the DMZ tour and it takes approximately one hour and ten minutes to go from our metro station to the City Hall station. What a trooper! She woke up with a very runny nose and stuffy head. It might be allergies, it might be just a plain old case of the Korean crud, either way I knew it was going to be a pretty rough day for her.
Mr. B and I both had to finish out the work-week today. We were both delighted that Rebecca could go tour the DMZ and get a feel for the hope that exists for North Korea and South Korea to reunify. Rebecca said that the tour guide was a riot and reminded her of a little gangster when she used certain phrases or exhibited certain expressions. She thought to herself while on the tour that Id get a kick out of it. She knows me so well, I’m sure that I totally would have!
Once we were all back home in the evening, We wanted to hear how the tour was. Rebecca said it was good however the visibility was much like that of looking at North Korea on a google map. Eeek! That bad?! Yes, the sky was rather gloomy all day and it definitely would have affects on the South Korea DMZ observatory. That mother nature can really be a Debbie downer sometimes…All and all, Rebecca and I both are grateful, we know it may be a once in a lifetime opportunity experience.
Rebecca’s symptoms were definitely peaking in the evening and she was in dire need of some antihistamine or decongestant. We took care of her, many thanks to Mr. B, sometimes I am not sure what id do without this man folks, what a godsend. We hung out for a bit allowing the medication to sooth Rebecca’s system. About twenty or thirty minutes later she was actually starting to dry up a bit. She commented on how nice it was not to have to blow her nose every few seconds.
The semi re-charged Rebecca bravely blurted that she could handle going for dinner when we were ready. Dinner, dinner? Did someone mention dinner? Mr. B’s ears were certainly perked at this point. All week Mr. B knew that Friday night dinner plans meant D-I-N-O-M-E-A-T-S,those words were magical to Mr. B. and he was up and about and ready to go in no time. Uh-oh Rebecca…hope you are ready for this place.
We like to go to Dino Meats occasionally. Okay, okay, using the word occasionally very loosely here. This is a restaurant that is very popular because of the copious amounts of meat that you can consume. You hand select every cut and type of meat that you personally will grill and eat right at your own table. You must take off your shoes before entering and you must sit on the floor. We enjoy seeing the reaction of people who go for the first time because of all the key items listed above such as the floor seating, all you can eat meat, grilling at your table, and removal of shoes. It’s fun!
So how does one eat like a dinosaur? What a splendid question! I think we should ask Rebecca about that one…
Mmmm Hmmm… we indoctrinated Rebecca right away. We let Rebecca hand select the first round of meats. We then proceeded to provide her with a gigantic lettuce leaf and let her go to town. Mr. B said she had to eat it the Korea way. The Korean way, she asked? Yes, prior to consumption, you take whatever slice of the cooked meat you like and place it on the lettuce, with some cooked rice, or any combination of the vegetable such as the sliced garlic, kimchi, mushrooms, bean sprouts, or grilled onions. The final step, roll everything up in the leaf, and shove the entire thing in your mouth. It sounds easy right? I swear, it’s some form of mastering food art.
What a champ! She did it! Enjoyed it too! We giggled about how the first time Mr. B and I had to eat the meal this way we were trying to be all proper and have manners. Trying to perhaps tackle the leaf with some scientific approach and tear it in half, this way it would be smaller bites and smaller portions. WHOAAAAA!!! That wasn’t flying with our accompanying friends. When you are in a Korean “beef and leaf” restaurant in Korea, all the years you were drilled not to shove your mouth so full with food goes right out the window.
Bellies stuffed to the gills we went home.
Day 7 R&S Invade South Korea
Unfortunately I couldn’t tour Korea with Rebecca today, it was back to the daily work week grind for me. However I was very fortunate to have the time I did off with her.
Rebecca decided to get up, Skype, and catch the metro down to Myeongdong to see one of Korea’s catholic cathedrals. Afterwards she stopped off in Itaewon and found the foreigners bookstore called What The Book. She said the new books were priced a bit steep, but the used ones were very reasonable.
After grabbing two new books and a mango smoothie, Rebecca decided to make her way back to our place in Dongducheon. I’m so glad that shes the type of gal to seize the opportunity and get out see things even if I can’t join.
Once I got home from work we decided on dinner and a stroll along the metro line. I wanted to show Rebecca how the Koreans utilize the land and space for all it’s worth. It’s incredible! I mean even the building that I work at, outside has a tiny patch of something green sprouting up. We really could learn a lot as Americans from this self sufficiency.
As we walked, we reminisced about the fun times we had growing up. We talked about Rebecca’s friend Nora, which by the way she sounds so sweet, and how she is interested in starting up urban gardening programs. I made sure to snap some photos to share with her.
We ended up eventually at Lotte Mart. We decided that we wanted stone bowl bibimbop. It really hit the spot too!
Eventually, later in the evening, we met up with Mr. B and decided on going for dessert. Pot bing su! Is there anything else in the summer months of Korea?
Our cool treat was absolutely heavenly! We all walked back to Mr. B’s car while taking in the city lights, occasionally stopping for some photos. We’re big cheesers, we simply cannot help it !
Im super duper excited for Rebecca, tomorrow she is going on the DMZ tour!
Again, do these days really have to come to an end so quickly?!
