I hate to admit this....
                                                       It is something you might have a hard time believing.
                                                                                    I'm a little ashamed.
                                                                             You are curious aren't you?

Confession: This past weekend was the first time I have gone out into Seoul and watched a movie at a Korean theater.  EVER.

Seriously.

Shocking I know.

When we lived here before movies at the theater on post were FREE.  That's right, they were FREE!!  So we really had no reason to go off post and pay for a movie.

This time around the movies are not free. (Dang it...I really liked that perk!)
 
They are still cheap, ($5USD) but the movie theater is a 'post' style movie theater.  You know, 1950's auditorium style.  The post movie theater kind of reminds me of the auditorium from my High School, but smaller...not that I went to high school in 1950's, heck I wasn't even born in the 50's,  But I'm sure some of you know what I am talking about.  So anyway, since the movie theater on post isn't free anymore I don't feel as obligated to frequent the theater as often...and since the movies off post aren't much more money than the ones on post ($5 vs. 8,000 Won - or $7.52USD) and it is a MUCH NICER theater with ASSIGNED SEATS, cheaper drinks/snacks...PLUS you can get Jagermeister Energy drink at a movie theater in Seoul.  I mean really..what more can one ask for? 

I did a little research and I found out that the movie theater at the Coex Mall is supposed to be the nicest theater in all of Seoul....some say all of Asia.  I can't say as I haven't been to them all.  In fact I have been to none of them.  How about this...I'll let you know if I find a nicer one.

So, trying to see a movie here in Seoul is not as easy as in the states.  You don't show up 1/2 an hour before the movies start to buy your tickets.  You order your tickets online several hours or DAYS in advance to guarantee you get a good seat.   Seriously, people around these parts PLAN their movies outings.  I ordered our tickets online more than THREE HOURS EARLY and this is the text they sent me:

We had to sit on the 2nd ROW!!  NO JOKE!!  Did I mention I ordered tickets more than 3 hours in advance?

To order tickets online anywhere in Seoul go to this website:
Cine in Korea
and you will see how easy it is.
They like it if you have a Paypal account.

This is the entrance to the movie theater.

And then you have to go down stairs to get to the ticket box.

All Korean movie theaters have little ATM type machines where you can buy tickets and print tickets.  We tried to print out tickets there but I couldn't figure it out so I when I went over to the information desk to ask how to print out the tickets they ask for my ticket code and printed them for me.  Easy peasy.

After getting our tickets we headed over to the snack bar for some yummy popcorn and we were intrigued by what all they have to offer.  As you already know you can get Jager Energy drinks, but did you know you can also get a Jager combo for a mere 14,000 won! 

It seems a little crazy to me that the Jager combo is less expensive than the Asahi combo!

And check out their nonalcoholic combos - this has got to be the best kept secret in Korea.   They are AFORDABLE - for movie prices anyway!  2 pretzels, 2 sodas & a popcorn for 9,500 won!  I'm super excited about this!

We ended up buying a popcorn combo...2 types of popcorn, 2 sodas and a hotdog for 12,000 won!
That is right...2 types of popcorn!
Cheese and caramel baby!
I liked the cheese more and Hubby liked the caramel more.
He says it is because I am cheesy and he is sweet. 
I'm not sure I agree with that. 

Isn't this bucket of popcorn AWESOME!?! 
Oh and the popcorn.... 
A M A Z I N G ! !
It was so good I wanted to go out and buy butter popcorn when we finished this bucket, but I resisted.
This way I have another 'new' thing to experience the next time we go to a Korea movie theater.

OH....I almost forgot to tell you.
There was NO CANDY counter!
How great is that?

Sometimes when walking in Seoul you will see something that reminds you so much of home that your feet just take control of your body and force you to go in.  That is what happened when Hubby and I were out on our date the other day.  After the museum we were in search of lunch when Krispy Kreme started singing our names.  It was like a beacon in the night.  There was absolutely no reason to fight it so we followed that beacon and it led us straight to this:  

It has been a long time since I have had a fresh Krispy Kreme.  However as you can see Korean Krispy Kreme stores are a little different than those in the states. There is no place to watch the donuts being made....they don't have fresh donuts coming off the conveyer belt but they do have quite the variety of donuts.

After you place your order you are given a buzzer.  We ordered 3 donuts and 2 coffees - it cost about $11 USD and WORTH.EVERY.PENNY.

Tiramisu donut... 

Café Hazelnut donut...

But the best donut by far was the plain ol' glazed Krispy Kreme.  It was so go we ordered a dozen to take home to the kids for afterschool snack.  (And for the cab  ride home!)

Do you need a Krispy Kreme fix?
Directions:
Line 2 to City Hall Station exit 4
1st street take a right.
There will be tons of restaurants on your left.
Go to the 1st intersection and Krispy Kreme will be on the left side of the street - across the street.

A few weeks ago Hubby and I went to see the musical Miso at the Chongdong Theater in the City Hall area of Seoul.  While out on that adventure we stumbled upon the Seoul Museum of Art and then we noticed this:

Tim Burton in Seoul, South Korea?!  Yes please!  We knew we would go back.  So yesterday Hubby had a day off work  so we grabbed a cab and headed out (might I add that yesterday, 18 Jan was the 21st anniversary of our first date...can I get a collaborative ahhhhh.....  :o)

The Tim Burton exhibit is on the last leg of its tour - the grand finale is here in Seoul!  It started in New York, went to Melbourne, Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris and now here - saving the best for last!  If you haven't seen it you have until April 14th, 2013 before it is wrapped up and shipped back home.  I wonder where Mr. Burton keeps all his goodies when they are not on tour.  I would LOVE to see his house.      

                                               The entrance to the museum - check out the windows.

Aren't they fun?!

I want some for my windows.
You know, just for fun.

This is the first thing  you see when entering the museum.
What movie is he from?

And this is where you give your ticket to enter the world of Tim Burton!
Do you have any idea what the red thing is? 

It's his tongue! 
I hate to admit this, but Hubby had to point that out to me.
I'm not sure I would have ever figured that out.  I would have just thought is was red weirdness.

I wish I could have taken pictures inside the exhibit.  Oh my goodness - how cool it was and before today I was never a HUGE Tim Burton fan.  He has over 800 pieces on exhibit and 90% of it was from his private collection.  I saw his first 'rejection' letter from Walt Disney Studios - they liked his first book although they thought it might be a little too much like Dr. Seuss, although it was good....  He had that first book on display too.

He shared many of his childhood drawings, and TONS of napkin drawings!  They had his personal drawings set up in themes, couples, men, women, pirates, numbers, aliens and more.  I giggled many times at the words he wrote to go with the drawings and many times I thought of my own Boy 2 and how goofy he is when he puts titles with his works of art.  Maybe I should start saving all this silly stuff.....you know, just in case he has a collection of his own someday.   One that really made me laugh was a picture of something shooting a poodle - the poodles body was split in half and there were brown pieces all over the paper it said (these are most likely not the exact words) "Never shoot a constipated poodle".   Bahahaha!  Gross I know.

Hubby and I had a great time even though it was CRAZY busy.  I forgot that Friday's are field trip days for Korean schools.   There were so many little people all over the place.  If you go, you should try to go during the day on  Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  I've heard you have to wait up to an hour on weekends just to buy your tickets!   

OK...How much do you LOVE these couches?  Are you flashing back to 1977?  We cracked up when we saw them, but then we sat on them.....OH MY GOODNESS, they are SO COMFORTABLE! 
I think I want them for our basement, you know, when we get a basement. 
These had nothing to do with the Tim Burton exhibit, this was just a lounging area in the museum!  I love Korea.

The exhibit runs through Sunday 14 April 2013
They are open from 10:00-20:00 (Tue-Fri) / 10:00–18:00 (Weekends, Public Holidays) / Closed Mondays/ and open 10:00 – 22:00 on the 1st-3rd Tuesdays
The cost is W12,000 Adults / W10,000 Teens / W8,000 Children under 12
To get there by subway:  Line 2 to City Hall Station exit 2  -  turn right at the corner of the palace and follow the palace wall until it ends - at this point you will come to a 't' intersection - you will see The Seoul Museum of Art on your
left!

BUT....just before you turn left to go into the museum, make sure you check out this sweet little family.  They crack me up and freak me out all at the same time.

Here is their story:

Happy 21 Anniversary of our first date Hubby. Here's to many, many more!  :o)
(PS...we met on the 17th of Jan 21 years ago - our first day was about 12 hours later.)

Welcome to Korea where temps don't get much higher than freezing on any given day from Dec-Feb.
Yesterday it was actually warm, 34 degrees F, but it started snowing early in the day and it didn't stop till sometime in the middle of the night.
If I had not made reservations for the show Miso it is possible that last night could have turned into a  'Dexter' night.
(We just started season 7 of Dexter, and OH MY GOODNESS.  I'm so rooting for Dexter.  Don't judge me.)
ANYWAY...back to MISO!
Of course had to catch an outside train.
The deck was covered.

We took line 2 to City Hall Station and went out exit 2 (don't listen to other blogs, they renumbered the exits -WHY?!?!), this is what we saw to our left:  

And this is what we saw to our right:
The Deoksugung Palace.
(Doesn't it look magical with all the snowflakes?)

To get to the Chongdong Theater you will need to turn right at the corner of the palace and follow the palace wall until it ends - at this point you will come to a 't' intersection - you will see The Seoul Museum of Art on your left  - and a street on your right - continue going straight for about another minute you will see the Chongdong Palace on your right:

How it works...you make a reservation on THIS WEBSITE. 
You do not get seat assignments until you arrive at the theater and pay for your tickets.  The box office opens 1 hour prior to the show. There are 2 shows a day 5 & 8PM, ever day EXCEPT Monday.

Hubby and got to the theater early, paid for our tickets and headed out for a little grub.  We stopped at the first place we found a little Korean hole in the wall. (We continued walking straight past the theater and it was the first restaurant on the right.)  The food was YUMMY!    We got some kind of spicy boiled chicken.  (You will see the menu on the next "not quite right" post.)  This entire pot was 23,000 won and it was more than we could eat.  If we had not been going to a show we would have ask for a to go box.

            After dinner we met up with our great friends to get our Korean culture on at the Chongdong palace!
Miso is a love story set up in the Joseon Dynasty  - girl loves boy, another boy loves girl, girl goes to jail and is beaten because she loves the wrong boy - love prevails in the end!  The costumes are traditional, colorful and beautiful! The choreography was fantastic, the lighting great, the orchestra was spot on. There was laughter, crying and everything in between! There was Korean traditional dancing & opera style singing!  Just fun, fun, fun! Overall I think we all had a great time at Miso and would recommend it to anyone above the age of 12.  

After the show it was snowing EVEN MORE!  Here we are in front of the ice skating rink at City Hall. We considered skating, but the line was FOREVER long - we decided in the end that we will go during the day and take the kids...

Let me get a few things out of the way right off the bat:
1. Pictures are G rated.
2. I wasn't sure if I could take pictures or not, so I was trying to be sneaky about it.
3. Because of #2, the picture quality is VERY POOR.

Thursday night hubby and I had an impromptu date night.
Hubby knew I had been stressed an KNEW I needed a massage (since I kept asking him to do it) so he suggested we head out to the Dragon Hill Spa - aka - Naked Spa to me - jimjilbang to Koreans.
I was game until the little boys started fighting right before we left...I didn't want to leave them with big brother, Boy 1 during their fighting session but both Boy 1 and Hubby assured me that Boy 1 would be fine and had everything under control.  I, on the other hand wasn't sure I would be able to relax knowing there was turmoil in our house. 
But something odd happened as soon as we drove away from the house, those fears disappeared and I didn't think about it again until we got home and at that point all children were nestled, all snug in their beds.... (while visions of sugarplums danced in my head....)
The point - sometimes Hubby does know best.  :o)

OK...so we drove to the Dragon Hill Spa.
I can't give you driving direction yet - I'll get back to you.
Anyway - once you find your way to the parking garage, take a ticket - park - take ticket inside with you to have your parking validated.

Upon arrival Santa was waiting to greet us! 

Once you arrive it is 10,000 won to enter.
You get some groovy looking PJ's to wear in the common area and you get a locker key wristband. 
Your first stop is here:

The shoe lockers. 

Take your shoes off before stepping onto the nice floor and put them in your shoe locker. 
Your locker number will be the same for your shoe locker and your clothing locker.

After you put your shoes  away continue walking straight, then turn left up the ramp, then turn right to get on the elevator. Kiss your loved one good-bye.  If you are female take the FEMALE ONLY elevator. Male, take the MALE ONLY elevator. (Yeah, I think you could have figured that out on your own.)  Go to floor 3.

Exit the elevator and take a right to head to the lockers.
This is where you strip down to what you came into this world wearing.

OWN IT.

PRETEND you know what you are doing and that you are comfortable with your nakedness.

Toss your *little-bity* hand towel over your shoulder and strut your stuff down one flight of stairs to the 'wet spa' area.

If you brought your own toiletries take them with you - if you did not stop at the little 'concession stand' of toiletries before you head downstairs.  You can purchase items here at the spa.  I wasn't prepared so this is what I bought:

You don't need cash, just your wristband locker key.  

Everything you buy is scanned to your wristband locker key.

I felt these items were a little pricy and normally I bring my own things, but like I said 'impromptu' date night. 
Scrubbing pad was 1,000 won, face cleaner 1,400 won and shampoo 2,400 won.  So it didn't break the bank, but really 2,400 for shampoo?  Is there gold in it?  Is it even shampoo - it say 'hair pack' so I'm assuming, but really,  I guess I will never know for sure? It was thick and creamy more like conditioner...

Anyway, head downstairs and you will see a treatment room straight ahead....this treatment room is where you sit on a 'pot' and wear a big pink plastic cover (they type you wear when you get your hair cut). 
Don't go in that room unless you want to have your lady parts cleaned.
Turn right and go through the double glass doors.
Walk straight past all the naked people - keep going until you arrive to the area where you see ladies sitting on stools taking showers and scrubbing one another.
Find an empty stool, sit down and shower. 
Don't take a normal 'American style' shower where you are done in 3-5 minutes, you need to take SUPER LONG shower.  Scrub yourself, wash your hair, scrub yourself, shave your pits, scrub yourself, wash your face, scrub yourself shave your legs, scrub yourself...you get the idea. 
If you take a friend, you need to scrub each other.  No joke. Just go with it. 
I was by myself and I saw a little old lady eyeballing me - I think she felt bad for me because I was there all alone. If I hadn't got up to leave I think she would have come over and helped me scrub.  It's just their culture.  You help each other in the shower.
I showered and scrubbed for a good 15 minutes, but the ladies that were there before me were STILL there scrubbing and cleaning each other when I left.
I felt bad, almost dirty like I didn't clean myself enough.

After all the scrubbing I went and hung out in a couple of the hot tubs before meeting back up with Hubby in the common area.
 
The tubs range from FREEZING cold to BURNING HOT!  I did a little of them all.

In the 'wet area' you can get spa treatments - from cleaning your lady parts, to body scrubs, massages, facials and more  (read about my first adventure here).  The body scrub is 20,000 won and they remove several layers of skin leaving you feeling disgusted that so much dead skin could come off of you and you being to wonder why you didn't scrub your  own skin harder during the 'showering part'....after your scrub you check to make sure you have skin left and when you touch yourself you wonder why you don't get this done more often.  Your arms feel as smooth as a baby's bottom.

After a little relaxing in the hot tubs downstairs I went back to the lockers, put on my rockin' PJ's, grabbed my Kindle and headed upstairs to meet up with my boyfriend.  :o)

I snuck this picture in the girls locker room.

When I headed to the common area I found Hubby half asleep in a massage chair.  He wasn't ready to eat so I head in for a sports massage in the common area.. 

This is the entrance to the massage area. 

I had a 60 minute sports massage for 60,000 won.
It was WORTH.EVERY.PENNY.
After my massage I found hubby and we headed to dinner. 
There are 3 restaurants in the spa.
We chose the Korean restaurant:

Mmmmm, dinner! 

So even though we didn't spend a lot of quality time together during this date we still had a wonderful time.
If you choose to come to the Dragon Hill Spa for date night there is a ton to do.  
In the common area they have a movie room, sleeping room, all kinds of saunas, an internet café, a swimming pool, play area for small children, 3 restaurants, a couple of snack bars, TV's, a big room with heated floors for you to lay on and read or eat on.  They also have the treatment room for massages, facials, manicures, pedicures and more.  There is a gym and a driving range!  I think you have to be a member to use the gym & driving range, although I am not sure. You can spend an entire day OR night here.... 

In the end we ended up spending:
20,000 won entry free
And then our bill for dinner, massage, toiletries, massage chairs ended up being right at 90,000 won. 
Parking was free.
So in the end you can make this as inexpensive or as lavish a trip as you would like.  :o)

I think I want to go back next week....
Anyone want to go with me?

PS....weekend and weeknights are super busy - daytime is less busy.

If you don't know what you are looking for you will walk right past it.
Like we did - and we knew what we were looking for.

When I stepped into the Jazz Story almost 4 years ago I instantly fell in love.  A classy dive bar - there IS such a thing   and they do it so well here at the Jazz Story!  The creativity of the owners amazes me.  When they took us to our table I almost  felt like I was on the set of Dexter, I mean check this out... a claw foot tub with stains in the tub and something that looks like bloody gloves (although Dexter ALWAYS cleans up his mess)!  You've got to love it!!

And check out our seats.
That is right - AIRPLANE CHAIRS!

This place is a mixture of a bomb shelter, antique store, thrift store and an album collectors dream!

If these bathroom signs don't make you giggle, you should have your funny bone checked! 

The urinal from the men's bathroom upstairs.
I have no words.

A view from upstairs.  Notice the hanging airplane? You can see the wing in the middle of the picture.

There is so much going on in this place if my friend K hadn't pointed it out I would have totally miss 'Big Brother' watching us!

I want a window like this in my future house.

There were candles burning everywhere.
I dig the crazy amounts of wax falling.

Upstairs seating.

Lovely décor.

The owners.
You will always see them here.

Remember I mentioned 'album collectors dream'?  Here are a few of the albums:
AND - they are in alphabetical order!!
Alphabetical order - that makes my heart skip a beat!

OH MY GOSH....
Don't you just LOVERBOY it?!?!

S channeling his inner rock star!

Here at the Jazz Story you can eat, drink AND listen to LIVE MUSIC!  However if you are expecting Jazz you have come to the wrong place.  They play a great collection of 70's, 80's and 90's music AND they sing in English.  Go figure!

This guy was a guest singer - I thought I might be able to add him to my "famous" Korean list, but alas, it seems he is not famous after all.  Everyone was just excited that he was singing Gangnam Style. 

Upon arriving to the Jazz Story you are given a bowl of peanuts to snack on - we were so excited to see a full bowl!  The last time we were here each person got about 5 peanuts each - they have totally stepped it up a notch. 

We opted to eat someplace else but just so you know you can get food here:

And the drinks are plentiful!
(and PRICY!)

If you go with a large group I recommend going with an entire bottle of "Vodca" for 170,000 won.  Then you can get some side to go with it, like glasses, lemons and maybe a bottle of juice if you choose. 

Broken down for you = 1 bottle of Absolute vodka for roughly $158 USD.  No Joke.  But it is a better deal than purchasing all those drinks individually.

Good times, good friends, good drinks, good music, big price tag.  That's what Seoul is all about!  :o)

I'm not sure what he said to me!

The band plays 3 sets every night with the first one starting at 8:30PM.  Get there early to get a good seat!  We arrived just after 8PM and took the last table on the ground floor.

To get there: Take the Jungangseon Line – LIGHT BLUE - Exit HyeHwa (just one exit PAST Dongdaemun Station) take exit 2. Walk about 70  feet, turn left and then walk through a little ‘park type area’.  Walk towards Pops Video,
past the GS25 Convenience store and turn right at the next street (in front of Cafe Marion).  Walk about 100 feet down the street and you will see the Jazz Story on your right.  

GYEONGNAM, that's the name of the team they played back on October 7th when we attended this game! (Thank you Google!)  How could I forget that?  And I think FC Seoul won, don't quote me on that, but I think it is true - there was lots of smoke in the stadium that day, so I'm pretty sure it was a winner!

As with many great adventures in Seoul this one started with a subway ride where you really get to know the person standing next to you.....

Hop on subway line 6 and get off at Seoul World Cup!  It is THAT easy!  Once you get off the subway just follow the signs to Seoul World Cup Stadium!  Go up this super high escalator...

And when you get off you will be here:

I mean how cool is it to be in Seoul World Cup Stadium which was built for the 2002 FIFA World Cup?!?!

You can buy tickets in advance or you can just purchase them at the window. 

Ticket prices are start as high as ￦20,000 for reserved seats in the West Stands but also go for as low as ￦10,000 in the North stands and only ￦3,000 for kids.  They didn't charge for Boy 3 who is 7 years old....I'm not sure this is normal, and we did tell them several times his age - so maybe children 7 and under are free?  I have no idea and just went with it after they gave us the little 'x' with their fingers several times.

I just ask Boy 3 what his favorite part of soccer games are and he answered  "When they make a goal, they make fire!"
It is true, when they make a goal here they shoot off flares in the stands.  The first time I saw this it freaked me out a little, but now it is just SUPER COOL! 

OH, and check out the cheerleader...
More specifically, check out her shoes.

Time for chow....this is the closest thing they have to hot dogs.
The great thing about professional games in Korea - you can bring in your own food and drinks.

Unfortunately I blogged about this a few days late.  It appears the last game of the season was just 3 days ago.  But don't worry, they start back up in March!  So start making plans for the spring to attend your first FC Seoul game - you won't be disappointed! 

Really in the end it is all about good fun, great memories and happy kids.
FC SEOUL! 

To all my Facebook friends, remember a couple of weeks ago I posted this:  "Out of all the things I ate on our date last night, the pig intestines were the best."?  Well this is the blog you guys have been waiting for.  (And I'm sure you have been waiting on pins and needles, right? :)

It was hours before date night and I had planned NOTHING.  NADA.  ZILCH.  So I turned to my trusty friend Google, who never disappoints, and came up with the Gwangjang Market.  Gwangjang Market was the nation's FIRST market and I have NEVER been.  WHAT?!?!  Anyway, back to the nation's first market - it is the oldest (duhh) covered market and it is bustling!  The market sells mostly textiles, traditional Korean clothing (if you need a Hombak this is the place to go!), herbal medicines and vintage clothing and is only open during the day from  9AM-6PM. Since we arrived after 6PM we didn't get to see much of the selling in action, but from what I have read this is an area that not many tourist visit and it is very old school Korean.  But what we went for wasn't the shopping.  We went for the food.  Korean street food, oh baby!  There is nothing quite like Korean street food!

We started our journey out at the first little store we could find for a little brewsky.  And this guy below, well he just cracked us up.  I wish I would have gotten a picture from the front.  He was having a ball, invited us into his store and just danced around like a total dork without a care in the world.  He was awesome.

Our friend B always adds another level of entertainment to our date nights.  The little Korean lady had to come over and help him get this shirt on as she shook her head in laughter.  Don't worry, he bought the shirt. 

Continueing  down that first alley of Gwangjang Market we happened upon this:

As we continued on our journey I knew we were getting close.   I had read that the spider like market had the good food stalls in the center of the market and as we walked the aroma was growing stronger with each step we took.  We started seeing a few vendors of herbal medicine and then gifts that they were packaging for Chusok.  And then the mother load of food stalls, we knew we had arrived!   If this had been my first stop in Korea I would have probably turned around and ran the other direction begging to return to the states, but alas it wasn't my first stop and I was (somewhat) excited to try a few new things! 

As you can see there are TONS of fun things going on in this market!

We finally found a stall that didn't look too intimidating.  It was a bibimbap buffet style booth, but it still had some of the 'good stuff'.  We sat down and started preparing our bibimbap and started talking to his local Korean couple. This young girl is the one that helped us on our food adventure.  She said she LOVES sundae and insisted that we try it, and so we did.

Sundae is that sausage roll looking thing below. Basically it is pig intestine stuffed with noodles and blood.
We also had a little the pig feet (jokbal)...

We followed everything down with a bit of makkoli, an alcoholic beverage made from a mixture of wheat and rice, which gives this Korean goodness it's a milky, off-white color, and sweetness....

Sundae wasn't bad at all, in fact I ate Hubby's as well as my own.
True story.
And jokbal aka - pig feet (pictured) tasted like, well pig. No big thang there.

The next item to tickle our tastebuds was deep fried pig skin (I don't know the Korean word for this tasty treat), but hey if I can do sundae I can do pig skin, right?  I'll just put it this way; I would rather eat an entire plate of sundae than to eat this chewy substance again.  It wasn't terrible, but I don't ever feel the need to eat it again.

Next up on our list of luscious lickables was this:

It doesn't look that bad now does it?  I'm not exactly sure what it is, but you are supposed to eat it warm.  The local Koreans that we were hanging with told us it was, are you ready for this?  Pig cartilage, from knees and elbows.  I tried looking it up and I am finding that it is another style of pig skin.  Either way this was by far my least favorite dish.  I couldn't spit it out as that would have been rude, so it was followed down by an entire bottle of Makkali (OK, not really, but it sounded good.)  This is one Korean dish that will not be passing through my lips ever again.  I would rather eat a plate of deep fried pig skin before eating this delicacy again.   

After that things just got interesting.  This guy all dressed in white with his spray painted motorcycle and boots, horn blaring came driving through this market where it is hard to even walk around!  How he got his motorcycle through these alleys are beyond me.  You could tell the people working the stalls were not very happy with him. 

Once our bellies were full we head out and took a stroll down the Cheonggyecheon Stream where we happened upon a young singer performing. 

We ended our night with a little night shopping in Dongdaemun where Hubby picked up some really hot glasses and I got myself a super cool old lady hat.  :)

                                            There is never a dull moment when living in Seoul! :)

I'm sure there are many ways to get to Gwangjang Market, we went by cab/subway -
Jongno-3-ga Station Exit 12. 
Walk straight for a few blocks, you will come to a bigger intersection, look to your right and you will see the entrance to the Gwangjang Market.
 Enter and walk down the alley for quite a while...you will start seeing food stalls, but don't stop until you hit the mother load and start seeing places to sit and eat.  You will know when you have arrived. 
Good luck and happy eating!! :)

Hubby has the best birthday EVER!  Labor Day weekend always falls right around his birthday meaning he always get a long weekend attached to his birthday!  This year his birthday fell on Saturday - we woke up, had ice cream cake for breakfast and then hit the road to Busan for a relaxing weekend in the sun!

We couldn't decide to take the KTX or drive to Busan - in the end we drove THINKING it would be cheaper, but since we had to rent a car (we didn't trust our hooptie to make it to Busan - a 5 hour drive) and pay our more money in tolls than we expected (over 50,000 won!) AND having to buy gas off post (CRAZY expensive!) ...well, we spent about the same amount of money as we would have it we had taken the train.  Next time, KTX here we come.  2.5 hours each way vs. 5 hours each way....learn from our mistakes and fork out the $$ and take the train - this way you can drink on the way and the fighting in the backseat won't seem as painful! :)

This trip I took advice from my Korean friend.  "Never rent a pension on the beach.  They are too expensive, dirty and a party place." 

This time we stayed in a hotel. When we walked into the room Hubby exclaimed, "WE HAVE BEDS!"  He was SO happy as he had been sleeping on the floor for the past two weeks during the military exercise he was on. 

We even had a cute little kitchen with a fridge. Ahhh, life is good in a hotel.   See the glass wall to the left of the picture (and to the right in the picture above)?  That is our bathroom.  Very cool.

And even though we had a western style hotel, the towels were still scarce.....this is what we got - 2 hand towels and 1 bath towel.  I ask for more I got the big "NO - no more, only exchangie". 

We had an amazing view:

It actually took us 7 hours to get to Busan with stops and our GPS kept taking us the LONG way.  Finally we gave up on the GPS and used a good old fashion map.  So when we finally got to Busan and got checked into our hotel it was pretty late, but we had to go out and hit the beach for a little moonlight stroll.....

After hanging with the kids on the beach for a while we tucked them in bed with Boy 1 babysitting and headed out for a birthday date night with my man. 

A cute little shopping area near Haeundae Beach where we were staying. 

We found this cute little restaurant with tables outside - perfect for eating and people watching.  

Happy Birthday to my Hunk of Burning Love!  Here's to many more together. 

One of the things I love about living in Korea is that Hubby and I have a regular date nights.  AND because we live in the world's second largest metropolitan area in the WORLD (over 25 million people - Tokyo has us beat by 7 million people - thank you Wikipedia) there is always something new and exciting to do! 

Last Saturday Hubby and I had our date on and around the Banpo Bridge.  (Sounds boring I know, but stay with me.)

The Banpo Bridge is a major bridge in Seoul that connects Yonsan with Seocho districts.  We live the Yongsan dristic and we are a whole 10 minute walk from the Banpo Bridge.  I have crossed the Banpo Bridge many times by foot, car and bicycle.  I have always done this during early morning/day time hours.  I KNOW you are going to find this hard to believe, we have NEVER crossed the bridge at night.  Really! Weird huh?  We never crossed the bridge after dark EVEN though we had heard about the amazing waterfall and light show that happens nightly.   (What is wrong with us?)   So this past weekend as I was searching for a last minute date night I happened upon this article and guess what is in the top 10 'creative' dates in Seoul...you guessed it, the Banpo Bridge! 

So, I don't know if this happens every Saturday night or not, but last Saturday night as Hubby and I were walking over the bridge at 8:20PM, just as the waterfall stopped, there was an amazing fireworks show that lasted for at least 15 minutes! 

After the fireworks we continued across the bridge as the waterfall was going.  The Banpo waterfall is the world's longest bridge fountain that set a Guinness World Record with nearly 10,000 LED nozzles that run along both sides that is 1,140m long, shooting out 190 tons of water per minute!  (Again, thank you Wikipedia!)

The waterfall starts at 7:30 each night and runs for 15 minutes at a time every 30 minutes.

I only wish I were a better photographer so I could have better captured the beauty of the waterfall.
Oh, and the waterfall dances to music! 

This date night would have been perfect had I not had a camera.  I was so in love with the Banpo that I kind of neglected the love of my life. For that I am sorry.  I am now imagining he *might* implement a rule that I can't take my camera on dates.

After sitting and watching the waterfall show for a while we took a little stroll...couple were picnicking in the park and hanging out under umbrellas enjoying the evening.

For a picnic you can bring your own or there is a Korean Chicken and Beer place where you can pick up a box of chicken, grab a couple of drinks and hang out in the park area.  There is also a convenience store to buy sodas, water and beer/wine.

This coming weekend as a special treat for the kids we are going to head over the Banpo, pick up some chicken and have a picnic with the kids.  Don't be surprised if you don't see pictures as my camera *might* not be allowed.