I previously wrote about Gwangjang Market here.
We knew Grammy would love this place when she came to visit!
(She visited back in October.)
Here we go Gwangjang Market with Grammy:

Shopping in the market:
These are Korean Wedding Ducks.
Wedding ducks are a pair of duck carvings, traditionally Mandarin ducks.  They are used in Korean wedding ceremonies and often giving as marriage gifts.  Mandarin ducks are used because it is believed that unlike any other types of ducks Mandarins mate for life and if one of them dies the other will mourn.  I'm not sure for how long, but they mourn. :)  Korean believe the Mandarin ducks represent peace, fidelity and lots of kids.
Female ducks are red, males are green or blue.

The craziness of the market.
Motorcycles in the aisle, no rhyme or reason. 
Blanket stall right next to a food stall.

I'm not sure if this is plastic food molded to look like fish or rice cakes molded to look like fish.

A common site all over Korea.

The nucleus of the market - the FOOD STALLS!
Where Koreans from all over come to eat some of the best and oldest style of street food available in Korea!

Hubby made sure his momma had food...

I made sure she had makkoli!

She had no desire to eat some of the cuisine here:

But she did enjoy the mung bean pancakes!

All in all a great trip to the Gwangjang Market!

To get there:
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!! :)

                                                              It's the most wonderful time of the year!

If you have been around for a while then you know how much I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the flower market at the Express Bus Terminal.  I just love filling my house with beautiful (and super cheap) fresh flowers. The flower market was one of the things I was most excited about when moving back to Korea!  I mean where else can you get 10 roses for 2-3,000 won - or lilies for 3-5,000 won - or gladiolas for 3 - 5,000 won....I could go on and on, but you have heard it all from me before.  

But what you may not have heard as much about is the 'other side' of the flower market. I refer to the 'other side' as 'Michaels on Steroids'. Seriously.  You can get almost anything there from candles, amazing fake fruit, arts and craft stuff, fake flowers, baskets, wrapping paper, ribbon, boxes, bags and SO MUCH more (imagine me saying that super fast without taking a breath....)  Just typing about it makes me smile from ear to ear.   I am in love with the flower market on a normal day, but then when fall is over and winter is on the way the flower markets turns into a magical place of Christmas, Christmas and MORE CHRISTMAS!  There is a different feeling in the air - an almost magical feeling....

So if you are new to Seoul (or not) and you didn't (or did) bring all your Christmas treasures with you, hop on a bus, or take the subway to the Express Bus Terminal, head up to the 3rd floor and enter a winter wonderland......

(Just a reminder - the flower market sides opens about 1AM and closes about 1PM - I know the 'Michaels on Steroids' side opens later, around 9AM and I'm not sure what time it closes.)

Happy shopping & Merry Christmas!!

              After taking the kids to the Trick Eye Museum, we ventured out to Pet Alley in Dongdaemun.
Pet Alley: where you can find anything you ever wanted for a pet and several things you never wanted for a pet. 
                                                                PETA would have a field day here.

Well, they are kind of like hamsters.

Hens, roosters and chicks, oh my!

Birds anyone?  There are THOUSANDS of them here!

If you are looking for fish, this is the place to go.  You can get fresh water or salt water fish.

I love this guy....I wish he hadn't been so big.  I love that it looks like he has Chinese writing on him.

BEAUTIFUL.

I totally thought these frogs were plastic.  They are not - they are REAL!!!

I love these little smilie face crabs! :)

Hermit crabs anyone?

Really?  Water bugs for sale?  Who would have thought?

We had told our kids we would buy them a milk snake in Korea.....we didn't realize they were going to be almost 200,000 won!  Aggg....something we had to go back on.  I just can't see spending that much money on something we will be giving away in 2 years.  I hate going back on my word.....

After keeping the kids out all day we thought we should feed them, and what better food to eat than street food?!

We have wanted to try these French fry covered corn dogs for a long time, and tonight was the night!  Now I know his face doesn't look like he is all that excited, but let me tell you we all LOVED the French fry corn dog!  We liked it better than the other corn dog, I'm not sure what the other one is....maybe panko covered?  Anyway, the French fry dog was the best!   (The other one was good too, and it will do when the French fry one isn't around.)

Then we tried a little processed meat on a stick.  We really don't know what it was, but it was good and Boy 2 liked it more than he liked the French fry corn dog.

Hubby had some sort of fried kimchi...again, another winner! 

To get to pet alley  - take exit 6 Dongmyo subway stop....walk straight, cross a couple of alleys, continue to the big intersection.  Turn right JUST BEFORE you cross the Cheonggyecheon stream.  You will be walking with pet alley on your right and the Cheonggyecheon stream on the left.

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!! :)

Lesson #1 - Don't drive to E-Mart on the weekend.
Lesson #2 - When driving to E-Mart during the week, pull into the parking garage - just when you think you need to pull a ticket the bar goes up and lets you in.  No tickets needed.  They just took a photo of your license plate stamped with the time you arrived!  (How awesome is that?) No fear of losing that stinkin' parking ticket!
Lesson #3 - Shopping carts, sure their shopping carts are just like shopping carts you find in the states, EXCEPT they are all chained together!  How do you get one?  Put 100 won in the slot and unlock the cart.  Take your cart inside and shop away. 

Lesson #4 - E-Mart shopping carts are magical - they will stay in place while going up and down a moving ramp.  You don't even need to hold on.

Lesson #6 - E-Mart is Super Target on steroids.

Lesson #7 - E-Mart does not have shopping bags or baggers.  You put everything in your shopping cart and take it to the 'Self Packing Zone'.

Lesson #7 - In the self packing zone there are boxes, scissors, tape and plastic ribbon stuff for tying your box together.   You do it yourself.

Lesson #8 - Take your boxes to your car.  Return your shopping cart to the shopping carts that are chained together.  Get your 100 won back.

Lesson #9 - Keep your receipts handy.  When exiting the parking lot you have to go through a parking lot toll....if you spent enough money parking is free.  (I always spend enough money.)  Exit the parking lot. 

Lesson #10 - Just like Super Target, you will always spend too much money at E-Mart.

Hubby had been bugging me for a few weeks to get my Korean driver's license so I could drive off post.  I wasn't motived to do so.  I was busy putting together our house and I was really in no hurry to drive off post.  I wasn't even sure I wanted to drive off post -  in fact let's back up a little bit.....(rewind a few months...) 

When we were moving to Korea I got the idea that I didn't need to drive AT ALL while living in Korea.  I thought to myself; 'there is plenty of public transportation, post has a bus system and if I ever need to go anywhere in Seoul I can take a cab, subway or bus.  Plus - I do have a bike.  There is NO REASON for me to need a car.  We can save money and help the environment - yes, I'm going to go 2 full years without driving a car!'  Sounds like a good plan doesn't it?  I was 99.8% convinced I could do this. I thought I *might* have to drive in an emergency situation, but other than that I don't need a car.  However I didn't share my thoughts with Hubby (or anyone) and it wasn't until we were on the peninsula and Hubby started talking about buying a 2nd car that I shared my thoughts with him.  He laughed thinking I was joking.  When I told him I was serious he looked at me like I had 3 heads and laughed again and told me good luck.  (He knows me so well.) Then he told me that he was still going to buy a 2nd car because HE couldn't go 6 weeks without having a car (his Jeep wouldn't get here for 6 weeks from the time we arrived) and that when his Jeep arrived that we could sell the 2nd car if I still didn't want to drive. OK, I can live with that.  (See how he worked that?)   It took me all of 2 days to realize I WANTED a car.  

Anyway, a couple of weeks went by and I was busy putting the house together.  It wasn't until I put my curtains up that I realized I need my Korean driver's license.  I NEEDED to go to the Fabric Market and I NEEDED to drive there.  You see the last time I was here (2008-2010) I had curtains made for our house in Texas.  Homes in Texas have MUCH higher ceilings than in Korea so when I put my curtains up they were about 3 inches too long!  Grrr! I was so ready to have a completed house after living out of suitcases for so long and the curtains the  were the finishing touch – I almost
cried when I hung them up.  (Just FYI, moving is STRESSFUL and tiny little things can put a typically calm and relaxed person over the edge and bring them to tears.) It looked as if my house was trying to play dress up and it wasn’t pretty. So the next day I went and took my driving test and within an hour of getting my license I was driving to the fabric market (and I'm sure Hubby was having a good laugh on the inside although he never said a word to me about my crazy idea of not driving for 2 years.)

Once at the fabric market I went in search of my designer/seamstress. I had saved all the information from my last tour here.  I had her stall number and a picture of her so I thought it would be easy to find her. I thought this will be simple - I'll find her have her alter the curtains and have them hanging in my house within 2 days.  Well, as luck would have it, my girl was gone.  Vanished.  No longer in the spot she once was.  I would have used the gentleman in her spot, but he wasn't very friendly and didn't give me the warm fuzzies, so I went on my way looking for my cute little designer.  I showed multiple people her picture but I kept getting the little finger "X" sign, which means no.  I'm not sure if that means they didn't know her or she is gone.  Either way I couldn't find her and gave up looking.

This led me to my next adventure, trying to find someone what could alter my curtains the way I wanted them done.  I walked down the sewing aisle of the basement in search of someone that looked friendly.  I made eye contact with one seamstress and smiled, but she was eating and didn't smile back at me so she was a no go for me.  However the little lady next to her (who was also eating) smiled back at me - this was my girl!   I walked up gave the friendly Korean nod and half bow and proceeded to try to talk to her only to realize she spoke no English and my Korean, well, it sucks.  Not to worry, I knew what to do....I showed her my curtains and in Konglish/sign language....I started cutting with my fingers and wrote down how many centimeters I wanted her to cut off.  Because I wanted them done a specific way it made it kind of hard to get my point across.  I considered giving up but just when I was about to move on to someone else  a very friendly and helpful Korean/American came by and assisted by translating for us.  Perfect!   Don't you just love little random acts of kindness? :)

I had 4 panels I needed altered and my friend did it for only 30,000 won!!  ($26.64)
AND they were hanging in my house within 2 days.

These are my new fabric market friends.  Aren't they just the cutest little couple?   The lady that stopped by to translate for us told me the man wanted to charge us more but the lady told him no.   Good job Ajumma! I'll come back to see you and I'll bring my friends!  :)

Some things in life are just too fun and too good to pass up.  If you ever get a chance to go to Noryangjin Fish Market you should go -  even if it is just to look.  If you are worried about the smell don't go on a blazin' hot day.  Go during the winter, or just suck it up and deal with it, wear a nose plug or a face mask - they are all the rage here.  After the first 10 minutes you don't notice the smell anyway.   

    Last Sunday we had friends over for dinner, but first we met early to go pick out our dinner at the fish market:

Don't worry, we didn't have that, I don't even know what that is!  However those mussels in the bottom left corner look pretty scrumptious!

The fish market is filled with rows and rows of unidentifiablefish and shellfish.  See those big mussel looking things in the picture below?  When you open that shell it looks like a HUGE scallop (see just below the shells, that is what they look like out of their shells) .  We tried them last time we lived here thinking they were going to be the BOMB DIGGITY, they were anything but!  All tough and chewy.  I'll stay away from them this time.  

However I plan to buy these prawns one of these days and pop them on the grill.  Wanna come over?  I wonder how long you cook these bad boys....I'll have to do a little research.

What the what, what?!?  I so wouldn't be able to hang with Andrew Zimmerman.  Does anyone know what these are and how to cook them?  Not that I really want to try.

And finally, our DINNER!  FRESH TUNA STEAKS!

2.5 kilos for 35,000 won!  Oh BABY!  In English that is - 5.5 pounds for $30.79

After buying our dinner we headed out to the fresh fruit and vegetable alley, but our first stop was the drink lady.  (I was a little sad she didn't remember me - I bet if we had the kids with us she would have...) When in Korea, do as the Koreans do....10:30AM and it is time for a little brewsky. (Plus it was after 5PM in the states.)

One happy man.  Beer in one hand, coffee in the other.  Life is good.  :o)

We finished our trip off buying a few veggies...

and dried fish....
(not really)

And of course no trip is complete without Hubby daring someone to do something.  This time he dared Brent to stick his hand in the live sardine bowl, and of course Brent complied....BOYS!

Cooked to perfection...

I made Hubby's favorite - Pan Seared Tuna with Avacado which was a big hit with our guest! 
(Click the link/red words for the recipe)

Trish's Tips for the fish market:
1)  If you go and plan to buy, ask a Korean friend (or go to Kohome and ask one of the workers) and ask them to teach you how to say in Hangul the fish you are looking.  Also ask them to write it down in Hangul for you.  This way you can look for the stalls that have the same word as what you are looking for, or you can show it to one of the many fish mongers at the fish market.  This will make your trip go more smoothly! 
2) Take won
3) Wear rain boots
4) Take your camera
5) Take your kids!
6) Be open minded and HAVE FUN!

This past week as I was looking at my Facebook account one of my Korean friends (that I met in Texas) was posting quite a bit, however I can never read her wall because it is all in Hangul.  It wasn't until she started posting pictures that I realized that she must be in Seoul!  I sent her a note to see if they had moved back.  They had not move back, however she is here visiting and having an art show in Insadong!  So Hubby, (most of) the kids and I headed to Insadong for our weekend adventure!

While waiting for the train Hubby *tries* to get a cup of 'ice coffee'. Instead he gets a cup of burning hot coffee....doesn't that snowflake on the machine make you think the coffee would be cold?  Us too.

For any of you newbies afraid of using the subway here in Seoul, don't be - most things are in Hangul and then in English.

I just love this shot of my sweet boy in this alley near Insadong.  Gives you a great idea of what Korea looks like.

These are cookies!!  They tasted kind of like sugarless Captain Crunch cereal!

After a bit of searching we found where Hyunsuk's art show was being held!  You can see her name on the colorful sigh on the left side of the picture! 

Us with Hyunsuk in front of one her pieces.

After lunch the kids wanted ice cream so we stopped at this street vendor.  He was very entertaining (but his ice cream - well - not so good, however the kids didn't seem to notice).

While we were getting ice cream a bird pooped on a lady standing next to us, and then another bird pooped on Hubby.  That is when the ice cream man gave Boy 2 a gun and told him to shoot the birds!  :o)

Insadong is filled with Koreans and foreigners from all over.  Insadong has tons of art galleries and shops. This is a place we take all guest that come to visit, as you can buy all your Korean souvenirs here and there are many entertaining street vendors.  Insadong host a ton of Tea houses, restaurants and pool halls. OH, and I saw a place for Doctor Fish here as well - SWEET!  

As we were heading back to the subway we stopped in a Chicken & Beer place to have a beer.....

And snacks. Boy 2 said these taste like cheese-less Cheetos. 

Until next time.....

After getting back to our Korean roots  (aka- Blackhawk Village, mostly Americans) our kids realized that their 'dotchies'  (a Korean game that no one really knows how to play) were RARE!  They had ROUND dotchies and all the kids
are now playing with SQUARE dotchies.

So of course our kids have been dying to get to Toy Alley so they can buy some SQUARE dotchies.  On Sunday morning the kids woke up, got dressed and brushed their teeth (without being ask I might add....miracles DO happen!) and we hit subway!  Once we were in the subway we realized a few of us needed to visit the facilities.....however, we forgot about these:

Actually I think it was a mental block.  I didn't want to remember these.  But there is good news - there was toilet paper IN the stall, not on the wall outside the stall.

And I forgot about these:

                     Soap on a stick.  Reminder to self:  ALWAYS, ALWAYS remember to carry hand sanitizer.

After collecting ourselves we continued our journey.  Toy alley is in the Dongdaemun area.  You will find different ways to get there, but this is the way I like to go.  Typically I hit 2 birds with 1 stone as 'the sock man' used to be at this exit too.  I'm not sure if he is still here or not because my children were too busy in toy alley and then they were STARVING so the sock man will have to wait till next time to see my smiling face.

To get to Toy Alley:  Take line 6 to Dongmyo Exit, #636 and then exit out of Exit 6.

Upon exiting the subway walk straight to the first alley, maybe 50 steps.  You will see this store - this is a great stop for ice cream and drinks. 

 Turn right down this alley and you are on Toy Alley! 

It took a few stores but in the end the kids found 'dotchies'!

Pure joy.

We didn't hear another word from them for the rest of the day! And that makes it all worth it.  :o)

Boys 2 & 3 were biting at the bullet to get to Electronics market.  They had money in their pockets and they NEEDED to spend it!  In fact they Boy 2 has been saving his money for months so he could spend it at the electronics market as soon as he arrived in Seoul.  He mentioned it several times on our flight over and then again every day since we arrived.  Finally Saturday came and we headed out!  But before heading to the market we stopped at one of our favorite little spots for lunch!  Ahh, Korean food.  It hits the spot!