full weekend

Hi Folks time to fill you in on the weekend. It was a busy one. Two full days out and about in Seoul.

On Sat we went on a free museum tour that our friend Joe hooked us up with. It was pouring rain so Joe opted out but we had fun anyways. It was part of a campaign by the government to promote the G20 and show happy foreigners enjoying Seoul. So they gave us free t-shirts and took lots of pictures of us enjoying Seoul. We are expecting to see our photo plastered in the subway any day now. It was a diverse group which was fun - some Koreans, South African English teachers, students from China, Thailand, and India and a few Americans as well.

First we went in a big tour bus to the home of the first presidents house. It was incredibly lovely with amazing gardens that included a waterfall down a big piece of granite. It was interesting as the president had a fascinating life which included being imprisoned by the Japanese and studying in the U.S.

The whole time we were at the home Olive kept asking for "fooo" her word for food and as she had already eaten all of the snacks I brought and we were apparently in the only location in Seoul without a convenience store we were a little out of luck. But Olive was so charming that the tour guide gave us her personal Subway sandwich that Olive then gobbled down. Strange as it was - some sort of sweet meat with spicy peppers and sweet pickles --not my cup of tea but it did the job with Olive at least for a few minutes....

Next we went to a folk village. It was beautiful there - however the tour was on a schedule and it was rush, rush, rush. I could have walked around there for hours but we did get to participate in a tea ceremony and a drumming session. Both of which were so fun - Netta had a blast. She and Olive were the only kids on the tour which was a shame I thought but after warming up to the other folks she enjoyed the attention. She even sang "I love Egg" (you should watch this on youtube - I tried to link it but can't make it work) over the microphone to the whole busload of tour goers.

Then they treated the whole group to lunch at a meat restaurant. We had bulgogi which was yummy - not for Netta - but the rest of us enjoyed it. At this stop we were very close to our favorite thrift store that we rarely get to visit. The last two times we have tried it has been closed. So we escaped the group as we were finished with our lunch early and went and found some bargains. Although not the butter knife we are desperate for.

Lastly we went to the Korean Folk Museum. Everyone got a free headset to use that explained the items in English. Netta really loved this and spent a long time in the museum. So long that the group just left us there as it was the last stop and we went home from there. Netta is such a good listener she really paid attention and spent time in that museum. Olive slept through it all.

It was a good day - we were all exhausted when we got home.

The next day Netta set her mind to a visit to the zoo. We went with it - Olive has never been to a zoo. It is late here so I will leave you hanging and post about our thrilling visit to the zoo soon. I know the suspense will drive you crazy. I'm employing the oldest trick in the book to keep you reading......