Apartment Update!

We're Back: Kal Guk Su, Insadong, and Bungee Jumping!

Well, we're back in Korea for another year of awesomeness. In case you're wondering, the flight went surprisingly well. The first leg to Atlanta was a bit over and hour and the second leg to Seoul was 14.5 hours, but went smoothly and we actually got some sleep.

We're adjusting well (must easier than last year!), and we're getting excited about the upcoming year. We decided to start off our Korean experience with a bang this year, so this post will be a bit of a smorgasbord of things we've experienced in the week we've been here. Enjoy!

Kal Guk Su

Kal Guk Su is probably our favorite Korean meal. I don't know why, but we don't eat it very often (probably because we don't know how to order on our own), but look forward to it every time we know we're going.

First we start off with some appetizing side dishes (video below):

Then, the waitress fills our kettle with mushrooms, greens, onions, a few potatoes, and some super yummy broth. We cover it and wait a few minutes for the veggies to cook down.

Then, we take some of this sliced beef and do this (video below picture):

Once we eat all of the Shabu Shabu, we dump in these wonderfully thick noodles and eat the rest like a soup. Oh wow, I wish you guys could taste this.

Toward the end of our soup experience, the waitress dumps the rest of our soup into another bowl and begins to do make this (video below):

And this bokkumbap (bo-koom-bop, or fried rice) is the last thing we enjoy in the meal. Then we go home and sit on the couch and just about explode as we watch an episode of Heroes.

Insadong

Insadong is an area (a street, really) in Seoul that has many knickknack shops and just generally cool places to look around. This trip wasn't to the heart of Insadong, but to a huge musical instrument market. We should have taken pictures of the inside of the building, Nakwon Arcade, but I was too awe-struck by all the nice guitars that I forgot. Too bad the nice guitars were almost double the price that you'd pay in America:( We took some time to enjoy a neat historic, traditional park nearby.

Here's a little intro video for the park:

This big temple-y looking monument was built in 1467. The glass building was built around it to (I presume) keep it out of the elements and away from vandals.

Nearby, I found one of the culprits responsible for all the noise in the park (and all over Korea this time of year): a cicada. He was dead of course.

I think Jess could make it as a superhero. Or at least as a statue.

I'm not quite as good of a poser as she is though.

This monument thingamabob was built in 1471. If you look at the picture below it shows what is below foot level, down in the pavilion. It's a turtle shaped stone cut.

We saw a not uncommon scene right outside the park gates: a man asleep in a cart. He looks comfortable.

White Waters and Bungee Jumping

We had two chances to go white water rafting in the states this summer and didn't capitalize on either. We were asked to go today and decided that the third time's the charm. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures because we were afraid to bring our camera, and for good reason. It was a lot of fun, we got really wet, and almost tipped the boat a couple of times. I don't know much about the classes of rapids, but I'd guess that we went down a 1.5. Sort of disappointing, but I don't know if our group could have handled much bigger than some of the spots we went through.

We went with a group from one of the local churches who hopped onboard a service provided by Osan Air Force base. Unfortunately for us, the bus was full so we had to drive a church van there. Fortunately for us, we got to go home at our own pace and stumbled upon a bungee jumping place just upriver from where we went rafting. Here are the results:

Wave to the camera!

How they get you down.

We only parked to check out the price in case we were ever in the area again, but decided to go ahead and do it once we were there. Three of us jumped in all: Russ, Tad Romsa(the director of our school), and Dakota- Tad's son. It was a lot of fun, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Jess wasn't feeling too well, so she didn't go, but we are coming back to this area for Labor Day Weekend and she's promised to go then. We'll keep you updated ;)