Tag Archives: Park

Special visit

The past few days have been a busy blur of copious amounts of good food and buzzing all around Korea like we were tourist again. This time the only difference was, we had bumblebee and Kelsey along for the ride!

Yes, Kelsey, this young woman has more depth, kindness, loyalty, boldness, grace, honesty and wisdom than I ever knew could exist in a person! Oh! And she’s family to boot!! Cousin Kelsey, you my dear are nothing short of amazing and we are SO happy you chose to come visit us again before starting your new exciting adventure on the East coast! We cannot wait to watch you go on to do big things!

Backpackbees

First Mother’s Day

Yesterday marked my very first Mother’s Day. My coffee cup and heart were filled to the brim with such good stuff! The weather was straight out of Mr. Rogers neighborhood perfect! I’m talking clear blue sky, the sun shining, birds chirping happily, and the evening sunset was one of the most beautiful we’ve seen to date in Korea! See! Perfection!

Olivia and Mr. B made my day so very special and absolutely memorable. Outside of the fact that I get to wake up every single morning to my best friend and my daughter, seriously is gift enough, but I also had a lovely prepared breakfast, freshly brewed coffee, the sweetest little message from “Olivia”, as well as two beautiful charms to add to my Pandora bracelet.

Sipping on my coffee that morning, I couldn’t help but think about the past several years, the Mother’s Days that passed, that my heart waited, ached, and longed to be a mommy. To experience life being a parent with my husband. I didn’t realize that there was a bigger plan eventually in store for us, it just wasn’t our time. It was a hard pill to swallow and I just didn’t understand why. So this very morning, like all my mornings since becoming pregnant and having our bumblebee, meant so much more to me than anything in the world. As I said on our Instagram account, my husband and daughter are the greatest gifts on this side of eternity to me!

We continued our afternoon with a stroll, snapped some fun photos and picked up potbingsu from a local cafe.

It didn’t just stop there! The Mr. continued right on spoiling and making the day special by cooking the most deliciously moist grilled chicken, Israeli shiitake mushroom flavored couscous, spicy crushed tomatoes, and bread with homemade dipping oil….. I scarfed it down, I had to grab this photo off of the Mr.’s cellphone.

These past few weeks, two months, this very morning, life as a whole has become so much more meaningful to me. There has been no greater miracle than this one to me. So many heartfelt thank yous to my husband and bumblebee for such a beautiful day.

Backpackbees

Yeouido Hangang Riverside Park 여의도 한강공원

I feel like TOMS and potbingsu pretty much sums up a spring or summertime dream here in Korea.

You know, I’ve been thinking about friendships again lately. With life, friendships come and go. In an expat community this is rather typical and pretty much the norm. One of the best parts about being an expat with a new-found friendship is that you have another connection to a different world. A world that you might not be familiar with and luckily you get to experience that little piece of the world through your friend.

What about you, do you think that each of our friendships with individuals represents a world in us, a world still forming or possibly not even born until they arrive?

This past weekend I met Kelsey at Namdamun Market. Unfortunately it was Sunday and I failed to realize that the buildings where we really wanted to go were closed. Oops… sorry Kelsey.

It wasn’t a total bust, we picked up some kumquat, watermelon and Ya-chae Ho-tteok stuffed full of jap-chae noodles. After walking around the market a bit, we headed to Myeongdong because it was so close to walk to. Kelsey showed me a few little boutiques that she visited the week prior and wanted to share, and then I shared the Artbox store with Kelsey. The Artbox is a cute little store with all sorts of stationary and wacky little gifts. Kelsey was on the hunt for a hot water tea kettle and she was able to pick one up in the Artbox for only 11,000W practically $11US Dollars. Score!

After visiting the markets, Kelsey asked if I wanted to check out a park that she also went to the prior week with a friend. The sun was shining and the day was absolutely gorgeous, so of course we went! We ended up at Yeouido Hangang Riverside Park 여의도 한강공원. Also known as Korea’s Manhattan, or the financial district. A very clean well-groomed part of Seoul. It was very easy to see why this area is so popular with its lush parks and attractive riverfront area.

We grabbed drinks and a potbingsu to go at a local convenience store/cafe. We found a nice quiet spot where we kicked back, slipped of our TOMS, dipped our feet in the cool water, took photos, talked and people watched (prime people watching territory… check out all of the couples wearing matching outfits, or riding tandem bikes!). All ranking high on my top list of things to do! We’ve made plans for a near future picnic too, now all I need is to locate a good picnic basket. Guess you will have to stay tuned in until next time.

Backpackbees

Addresses:

Namdaemun Market
49, Namchang-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Subway Line 4 at Seoul Station → Exit No. 5 in Hoehyeon Station
Closes every Sunday/Open 09:00 ~ 19:00
Namdaemun Market Tourist Information ☎ 02-752-1913
http://www.namdaemunmarket.net/

Myeongdong Market
Transfer to Subway Line 4 at Seoul Station → Exit No. 2 in Myeongdong Station
Myeongdong Tourist Information ☎ 02-774-3238

Yeouido Hangang Park
330, Yeouidong-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul
서울특별시 영등포구 여의동로 330 (여의도동)
Yeouinaru Station (Seoul Subway Line 5), Exit 2 or 3.