A Little Prep

Saturday night I went to my mom's house to visit with two ladies. My mom had arrange the meeting for my sisters and me. Only my older sister, Mrs. H. was able to make it. We met with Reese, 28 year old Korean woman, and Jane, 19 year old Chinese woman. Reese shared some information about Korea with us.

When I arrived at my mom's house, my sister and her two kids were already there. My sister made some rice (because all Asians love rice - just not Spanish rice - that's for my friend, Mr. Mark) and vegetable stir fry. Reese arrived with some kind of meat dish. I forgot what she called it. She said it took four hours to cook. Since it's over my 30 minute cooking limit, I probably won't be making it and posting the recipe here. It was yummy though.

My mom is very involved with international students at a local college and her church. This is where she met Reese & Jane. Both girls were so gracious to come and share an evening with us and answer all our questions we had about our upcoming Korea trip.

We will arrive in Seoul, Korea and stay for three days. My mom has booked the hotel for Seoul. We will then travel to Pusan and Kunsan. I am not sure which city we will go to first.

Here's what we learned from the girls. I had to take notes.

In Seoul, it was suggested we visit the following places:

The Seoul Tower

The Han River - beautiful

The Dongdaemun Market - shopping is supposed to be much more affordable than the local 25 story malls

The Cherry Blossom Festival - I'm actually most excited about this in Seoul. I love cherry blossoms. We will be there at the perfect time of year to see the blooms.

It was also suggested we visit the White House and the Full Gospel Bible Church (Reese said it was the largest church in the world).

Reese told us our hotel is the "artsy district". Maybe we will see some interesting things while we are out walking around. She also told us to take the shuttle to the hotel. A cab ride would be too expensive. Reese showed us exactly where on the subway line our hotel is. I've only taken the subway once when I visited my sister in Virginia - over 10 years ago. Apparently it's pretty easy. Well that's what Reese said when she was showing us the subway map.

This is what she showed us:

This is what it looked like to me:

Luckily my sister, Mrs. B, is going and she's good with this kind of thing.

I also learned several other things regarding shopping/site seeing.

1. You don't tip. The tip is included in any price you are given. Same goes for cabs. If you go to a restaurant, the tip has been included in your bill so you not supposed to tip. Our meals will cost around $10.

2. 10,000 won =$10 U.S. dollars. Don't exchange your money at the airport. It's too expensive.

3. When shopping, anything with the a price tag is the expected price you should pay. Anything without a price tag is negotiable and the merchant will start high. We were told to not ever accept the first price given.

4. Beware of pick-pockets.

5. Don't take the cabs if you can help it because traffic is bad and it will take you a lot longer than taking the subway. Also cab drivers may or may not drive around in circles instead of taking the shortest route possible.

6. We, as English-speaking tourist, may be stared at. My older sister, Mrs. H. and I may be really stared at because we appear to be Korean, but we speak English and have no accent whatsoever.

7. Do not wear white ribbons in your hair. Korean do this when they are in mourning or at funerals.

8. Drink bottled water.

Reese also gave us a great website so we could learn a little Korean. It has 20 chapters of Korean words that can be useful upon arrival in Korea. I like it because it has the word written in Korean, phonetically in English and you can hear what it sounds like in Korean.

Here are some of the other words Reese taught us:

Pissayo - expensive
Ermayeyo - how much?
Almajo - how much is it?
Ajumma - it means a married woman with or without children.
Gomapsemnida - thank you
Anenghaseyo - hello
Aniyo - no
Ne - yes

Reese gave us a little information about Pusan. We can get a hotel by the beach for relatively cheap. There is an E-Mart. E-Mart is the equivalent of Wal-Mart. I wonder if they take coupons. There is supposed to be a great seafood market, Jagalchi. I am excited to go to this too, despite my meat issues. It is really pretty all lit up at night.

Apparently there are some "really great nightclubs" in Pusan too. I giggled when Jane said, "Kathryn is NOT going to go to nightclubs!" Seriously, can you see me, my two sister and my mom dancing the night away in a nightclub. It was funny to me too.

Lastly, Reese told us a little bit about Kunsan. There is no subway here. You only take cabs or buses. There's not as much traffic so taking a cab isn't so bad. She said Kunsan is a little more rough around the edges. It's a smaller town and there is more countryside. There aren't many hotels so our choices will be much smaller than in Seoul or Pusan. She told us to book a hotel near city hall or the harbor.

That's about all of the important stuff. Jane often chimed in with tidbits of information about her experience when she visited Korea and about life in China. Jane just got back from California. She went all by herself. She told us about her trip. Several times when she was lost people went out of their way to help her, spending half the day with her showing her where to go or taking her places. One man even bought her a California A's hat, which she was wearing. I'm going to have to get her a cute OU hat. Everyone needs a cute OU hat.

It was such a fun evening. I'm sure if my mom and other sister were there, they would have had a lot more practical questions. Reese and Jane were very open and honest with every question we asked them. Reese got out her laptop and showed us maps, site-seeing locations, looked up hotels, and pictures of Daniel Henney. Daniel Henney is who Reese and Jane think my son will grow up to look like. :)

Thanks mom for setting up the meeting. Thank you to Reese and Jane for coming over and laughing a lot with us.