Day 5 of our trip was a lot of fun. It was a Monday, and it was a holiday. The Korean holiday was Buddah's birthday. One of the ways they celebrate it is by hanging lanterns everywhere. We saw them hanging along streets and in shops. They had a lantern festival the weekend before, but we didn't go to where it was until a couple of days later. Everyone said that was good because it would have been very crowded.
I started my day off early (for me anyway). I woke up at 7 a.m. and crept quietly into the bathroom. It was 5 p.m. Oklahoma time. I used my mom's phone to text the officer. I told him I needed to chat with him via Facebook. I needed to tell him about my lost passport. I admit I was kind of nervous about it. I went downstairs and logged on. He was already on. The officer told me later he thought it was my mom texting him so he had no idea what she could need to chat with him about. I didn't bother to tell him it was me. I was too preoccupied.
I logged in and just ripped the band-aid off.
"I lost my wallet last night - not joking. Lost driver's license, money and passport."
I told him how I had lost it, that I may need papers Fed-Ex to me, and that he will have to call the credit card company. I told him about our plans to go to the embassy, how my friend, Sung Eun, had helped me the night before, and when I would get in contact with him about what else he might have to do. He just finished the conversation with, "I hope you are laughing about this because I think it's kind of funny." Not the reaction I thought I might get, but a reaction I was thankful for. By now, I was pretty calm about it, but I'm thankful I didn't have to stress out over the officer being stressed out. He was continuing on with his plans to take the kids to lake the next day because it was Memorial Day.
Jung Hwa picked us up at our hotel. We were going to go to her mother-in-law's house for a traditional Korean lunch. She drove us in her car. It took about 45 minutes. We noticed as we got closer to her mother-in-law's house all along the highway, there was barbed wire along it. We asked Jung Hwa what the barbed wire was for. She said, "We are getting closer to the North Korean border, so there is barb wire all along here." Every so often there were towers. The closer to the border, the towers would have armed guards in it.
We arrived at Jung Hwa's mother-in-law's apartment. Everyone lives in apartments. It was a beautiful day. She had the doors open on both sides of the apartment and it was nice and breezy. We met Jung Hwa's mother-in-law, Jung Hwa's husband, Jeff, her son, Minsu, and her sister-in-law.
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Rice cakes. They kind of sweet, chewy and filled with liquid. My mother can inform you on how to eat these. Either don't bite right into the middle of it or cover your mouth when you do. The liquid has a pretty good squirting distance. She bit into the middle and it got Minsu in the face.
Lettuce and peppers. You put a small bite of meat and vegetables into the lettuce and eat it all in one bite.
This was chop chae. It was vegetables and chicken in it. It was absolutely delicious.
Beef bulgogi. It's just sliced marinated beef. Very tasty! Terrific on top of your rice.
I just took Gina and my mom's word that the kimchi was good. It still looked too hot to me.
Bean sprouts. This has become one of my most favorite toppings on steamed rice. That's the picture below.
Seaweed soup with beef. I wasn't a big fan of this soup. I like dried seaweed on my kimbob's, but that's about the only way.
This is the table just before we started eating. Look at all that delicious food. Makes me hungry just looking at it.
This was the table when we were finished. It doesn't even look like we made much of a dent in it, but felt like we ate and ate and ate.
For dessert, we were served watermelon. It was cold, sweet and juicy. I think other than at a summer cookout watermelon may not seem like a dessert in America. We often purchase a huge watermelon in the summer for only $5. However, in Korea the watermelons were anywhere for $18 - $25 so it is indeed a treat. It was the perfect way to top off all that food.
We had a great time at lunch. There was a lot of laughter. The sister-in-law told me I look like a Korean police women. She also told my mom and Gina that she liked how they ate slowly. I said, "Don't think they are "eating slow" they just aren't full yet!" They said Mistie had "very bright skin". Somewhere where my sister's "bright skin" is appreciated! :) The mother-in-law tried to encourage Gina to find her birth parents (although this is highly improbable.) We teased the sister-in-law that we would find her a nice American man to marry. Everything went through Jung Hwa who interpreted for us.
Oh yes, I have to show you a picture of one of the bedrooms. There were three bedrooms. The floors are heated. The mother-in-law had a twin bed in her room, but the other bedrooms did not have beds. Since the floors were heated, I suppose there was not a need for a lot of blankets. There were never extra blankets in our hotel rooms (which did not suit my mom). Perhaps this is the reason.
The mother-in-law showed us her kimchi refrigerator. This is made specifically for kimchi. She had eight containers of kimchi in her refrigerator. Not only do they eat it for every meal, but since they eat it so much, they make for a year at a time. The longer it sits, it kind of just marinates and gets hotter and flavorful.
After lunch, Jung Hwa's whole family took us to the DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone). This is the area between North Korea and South Korea that is a buffer zone. We rode with Jung Hwa and the rest of her family rode with Jeff. We parked in a parking lot and took a shuttle to the DMZ.
The DMZ was very neat. They had several observation decks and rooms. There was a room specifically for English speaking people. We listened to video that told us how difficult it has been on the North Koreans and what the North Korean government has done to it's people. It's very sad. Just a peninsula divides people who are happy, prosperous and those who are poor and going hungry.
More of these cute statue people like the ones we saw at the police department.
It was pretty foggy on the peninsula, so you actually couldn't really see North Korea.
These are large kimchi pots. Can you imagine how much this would weigh when filled with kimchi?
In the lower level of the building, there was a museum and gift shop. I purchased a DMZ magnet for the officer.
We took the shuttle back down to the parking lot. It was a little crowded so we had to stand. Gina loved that part!
Oh I forgot, one of the cutest things I have even seen. On the shuttle to the DMZ we saw this mother and her baby. The baby had on a pink headband. That hair sticking out of the sides of the headband is fake, but that is the cutest little baby ever!
Once we were finished at the DMZ, Jung Hwa drove us back to our hotel. We were meeting Mr. HongKun Lee and his daughter, Ruth for dinner.
They were waiting on us when we showed up. We were supposed to go eat dinner at a nice traditional Korean restaurant, but when Mr. Lee heard what he had for dinner he canceled that reservation. We decided to just look around the hotel for somewhere to eat. We found this Subway. We went into see if we wanted to eat there. There was literally six seats in this Subway and one of those seats was taken by another Caucasian. The employee immediately said, "There's no room here for you to eat!" so we had to find somewhere else to eat.
We found a fantastic little pasta restaurant called I Love Pasta. It was very cute. Everything in it was decorated.
The food was great too. Even though there was six people in our dining party, they only brought four pieces of garlic toast. And they never brought more. So not like in America. We like our garlic bread! :) We all ordered pasta dishes. They were actually very good. My mom was a little surprised because she ordered a shrimp pasta. It came with the shrimp - all of it including the eyes! I just ordered the creamy onion pasta. Very good.
shrimp pasta
cajun chicken pasta
creamy potato pasta
Mr. Lee spoke English very well. Ruth understood a little, but spoke even less. She was very sweet though. She's 11 years old. She made me miss my daughter. As soon as the waiter brought a water bottle and glasses to our table, Ruth immediately got up and served everyone water. She smiled and giggled a lot while Gina and I tried to talk to her. Mr. Lee had another child, Joseph but he was at school and could not make it to dinner. Mr. Lee used to live in the United States. His kids actually went to school in the United States for a bit. However, Mr. Lee got a job in Japan and they moved there. His wife was killed two years ago when she was hit by a car. Mr. Lee quit his job and has spent the last two year just taking care of his kids. They plan to move to the United States a few months.
After dinner, we walked back to our hotel. Each time we eat, we are stuffed and we are all thankful for that walk back to the subway or hotel we have to do so we can walk off the food.
When we got back to our hotel, Mistie and Gina went to their hotel room. Mr. Lee and Ruth came up to our hotel room so we could visit. We gave them the gifts we had for them. Ruth loved the candy and t-shirt. Mr. Lee visited with mom about his plans to move back to the Unites States. Ruth and I laid on the bed and played games. We drew pictures, played tick-tac-toe and played four square. Ruth is such a sweet girl. I can't wait for my daughter to meet her.
Mr. Lee and Ruth left and we pretty much headed to bed. And for those of you wondering, my mom woke up in the middle of the night again to read.
Again, I am so thankful for the hospitality of strangers. They welcomed us into their home and made us their friends. I loved that were able to go to someone's home and experience that.
1 comments:
You are a good journalist and photographer. So glad you wrote this!
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