Christmas Vacation part 2

Nick and I had a great Christmas. We are very grateful for the packages that were sent from family members. It made Christmas feel a little more like Christmas. It is hard being away from home for a big holiday. As much as we tried, Christmas just wasn't the same, but it was good because it was the start of our own little Christmas traditions.

These little decoration stickers helped! (Thanks to Mom Stevens)

This is Nick being silly. It is hard for him to get out of bed. This time I laughed at him and asked what he was doing. He said that he was finally warm.

The day after Christmas we decided to go explore our little town. We took the bus there and walked around. We walked into the bakery and Nick spotted some cream horns. I had to taste them to see if they were better than Peggy Ann Bakery back home in Huntsville. I would say it is a good tie on taste because the cream in these wasn't very sweet which I liked because I felt Peggy Ann Bakery's cream horns are too sweet.

This one was my favorite because of the crunchy chocolate on the outside!

After we finished our research on the cream horns we decided to look at cell phones. I promised Nick that if he did research on a phone that would work in the US he could get a phone plan here.

We walked into one store, but no one there spoke English so we moved on. We came across an Olleh (Hello spelled backwards) and walked in. Turned out that the president of the store did speak some English and helped us find the right plan for us. KJ is super cool!!

Here you go KJ, now you are internet famous!

Nick and his new phone.

As we were walking around we found this cool park for kids and adults. Nick decided to sit and meditate. 

This is the Adult part of the park.... A work out station!!

Beautiful isn't it!

How cold it is here!!

We were getting tired so we decided to head back to our apartment. We haven't caught a bus back home before because we didn't know there route, but as we were walking around we found a few stops. As we were walking to one of the stops a bus flew by us. Nick yells at me, "RUN!!!!!" We took off running. Lucky the bus was stopped by a red light. We were able to catch up to it and jump on. The bus driver and the one passenger on it smiled and laughed at us because we were breathing so hard. 

 Thursday we went to Daegu to pick up a few things we needed. When we got back to the Changnyeong Station we decided to walk and find a place to eat. Nick has been wanting to try a restaurant in town called Chicago Pizza and Coffee (It seems like every restaurant here is called '<insert food name here> and Coffee'), so we decided to go in and try it. It was pretty good. Best pizza we have had in Korea thus far.

Friday we woke up to all this snow and to make it better it kept snowing till about 3 or 4 pm. We had just under a foot of snow. We were so excited because people kept saying that our little town doesn't get snow. Nick took this picture of me from the roof of our apartment building.

We built our first snowman.

This is a video of me making my snow angel.

This is Nick making his snow angel... Watch him cause he makes a cute halo at the end

This is were the rice fields usually are but they are completely covered with snow.

Our beautiful school and field covered in snow.

Although, at first, I wasn't going to make snow cream, I decided that I was going to try and it tasted the same as in the states. I was just worried with all the pollution here that it wouldn't be safe. Oh well, too late now, it was good. If I get sick I will let you know... and so will half the staff ;)

Christmas Vacation 2012

Our two week break is half way over :( It has been awesome though.. Hope you find our stories as interesting and awesome as we did.
 Saturday morning (12/15/2012) when we reached Daegu by bus we hit the subway where the Waffle place is. We see and smell this place every Sunday and, as much of temptation it is, we haven't stopped. NOW it is Saturday and we could have waffles anyway we wanted them. Chocolate syrup and whipped topping was in order.

The first story is Nick's to tell because we split up on Saturday when we reached Daegu. I went and did my visiting teaching and Nick went exploring. This is his story.....

So, I left Lauren at Bongwoldong station.  The station where you can transfer to the other subway line.  After a bit of wondering around and exploring the underground mall and the shopping area above the station (where I was nearly hit by a McDonald's Delivery scooter, yes McDonald's delivers here)  I sat down in the underground mall to try to figure out how to get to HomePlus where I was going to purchase a couple Christmas Gifts.  I was sitting for less than 5 minutes when an old Korean man (they are called Ajeossi, pronounced "Ah-Je-She") sat next to me and began talking to me in fluent English.  Our conversation went something like this,

     "Hello! How are you?"
     "I am well, how are you?
     "I'm fine... So are you waiting for some friends?"
     "Oh, no, I am trying to figure out how to get to HomePlus from here. I have some Christmas shopping I
      wanted to do there."
     "I know how to get there.  I can take you! Come, Follow!"
     "Oh, I don't want to take your time.  Can you just tell me how to get there?"
     "I am an old man looking for good ways to spend time. Come, you will follow."

I really had no say in the matter.  So I followed this Ajeossi  through the subway to HomePlus.  He was 86 years old and had learned English as a translator for the U.S. Army during the Korean War.  During which he was captured by the Chinese and kept as a POW for ten years.  His family thought he was dead and sold all of his stuff.  When he was finally release he had nothing and was homeless for two years while he worked and saved up money.  He now lives alone in Daegu and he likes to talk foreigners as a hobby.  He was really nice.  He followed me into HomePlus asking if I would mind him tagging along, he wanted to learn about American culture from the things I bought.  When I finished shopping he bought me lunch and helped me get a HomePlus card.  He was very nice.  He left me at HomePlus saying he had somewhere to go but he left me with his card and asked me to write to him.

It was an interesting and pleasant experience.  On my way back through the subway station, though, I was felt up by an old lady (like full up felt up all over). That was an interesting yet decidedly unpleasant experience.   

Nick and I met back up at the church for the ward Christmas party.

After the party Heather, David and their three kids Aiden, Lilly, and Reagan took us out to eat at Italy Italy. It's a wonderful place where you can pick your noodles then your sauce and toppings. VERY GOOD! We had a great time with them and we are very grateful they let us stay with them.

Monday we left, with our friend Jennifer, for the temple.

 Nick on the train!!

Jennifer and I sitting together on the train.

When we got to the temple they gave us our bed and a key for our locker. The Seoul temple has a dormitory. They allow you to stay the night for 10,000 Won a night. Below is my bunk. 

After we got settled in we met a really nice girl who just finished cleaning the temple. She was born and raised in the US and finished her degree at BYU Hawaii. She showed us a good place to eat.

We passed this along our way...

And this...

Jennifer and Ji

She came to the restaurant with us and told the waitress what we wanted. It was super good but SUPER spicy. I couldn't eat that much of it.

This is it.

 After we finished most of it they brought some rice, kimchi, and seaweed and put it on top. We mixed it in and ate more.

This was our dessert. Gelato, fruit, and waffle

It didn't last long.

We spent all day Tuesday at the temple! It was an amazing experience the people were so nice and spoke pretty good English. I have been told stories that women would pat or pinch other women on the butt. Well it finally happened to me. Some really old Korean lady looked a me and smiled real big, then before I knew it she patted me on the butt. I giggled because I didn't know how to respond.

Tuesday night Nick and I left and found our hotel in Seoul. Then we walked around and found a good little burger joint.

Nick in our hotel room

The toilet.

All the buttons on the side.

Funny restaurant name can you spot it?

After dinner we kept walking around and we found this.  

And this. 

That guy is a famous general who designed what are called Turtle Ships.  These ships were instrumental in defeating the Japanese in several important battles.

 There was a big political rally going on behind the statue, so we decided not to stay long because there was A LOT of police on the street.

This is the turtle ship that is below the statue.

They reduced accessibility to the ship by enemy forces while in battle while having a more shallow profile in the water so the ship could move faster and ram harder than enemy ships.

Wednesday we walked around Seoul and we found this in the subway.

(Big) Polar bears in the subway

We started at Anguk and walked all the way down Insadong gil (Cheap souvenir shops) These girls were out in the traditional Korean dress. It was about 25 degrees and my scarf and hat weren't doing the job so I found some new ones. 

My new hat and scarf.

 and I know what you are thinking but I couldn't resist the ice cream, it was too cool.

You can barely see my face, but we had been walking all day and I was freezing. The lights behind me were super awesome.

Nick being super cute in front of the tree.. 

We walked back close to our hotel area and ate dinner. Then we walked some more trying to find some gelato and waffles. We finally found some, but we ended up trying something different, we should have stuck to the waffles (They are the best). 

Thursday morning we met up with Gloria, David and their son Alan at City Hall. Next to City Hall we found this palace. We stayed there because they were about to change guards. We were able to watch the ceremony and then take some pictures.

This little girl hit the drum 3 times to begin the ceremony.

This was my favorite instrument. 

Picture time.

This is City Hall!

We had such a great time shopping and walking around the big city. We spent a couple of days at Gloria and David's house until we left via the KTX (Fast train) to Daegu Saturday evening. Heather and David took us in for another night so we could make it to church in the morning. We had a great Christmas Sunday and are very grateful to be home safely.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!