Halloween Party in Hongdae

Who doesn't like Halloween? It is the time of year that men wear makeup, women can dress provocatively and not be judged and you can be someone else for the evening!

That is exactly what we did on October 27! We attended the Ask Now Halloween Party with about 70 others, and it was a night not to be quickly forgotten.

We ordered our costumes online and got a view accessories here in Sanbon, they were well worth it!









Yes, Krista is putting makeup on Jon, eyeliner, mascara and eye shadow




yo ho yo ho a pirates life for me, yo ho yo ho drink up yea 'arties yo ho.........wheres the rum? Krista looks like Julia Stiles in this photo!



We took the train to Itaewon (subway from Geumjeong line 4 to Samgakji then transfer to line 6 two stops to Itaewon) to meet up with some of our friends. This is where the fun started once in Itaewon, the stares that we had been getting on the subway turned to whispers of "Cap't Jack Sparrow" and the shutters started clicking! Everyone wanted a picture with the Captain! We went to a bar to wait for our friends to change, and when we walked in everyone there started clapping! Apparently their halloween party is next weekend, and we're invited, or so said the bartender when he gave us a free shot!

Stacy, Dave and Tanja



At Gecko's



Bam Bam!



From Itaewon we took the subway to meet up with the Ask Now party in Hongdae (Line 6 to Hapjeong and transfer to line 2 to Hongik University). We went to the Carne Station a Korean style buffet, with raw meat that you cook back at your table. This buffet also came with an all you can drink liquor, beer and soju! What more could you ask for.....? Strangely there was no rum for the Cap't............





Bam Bam and his true love.....







After the Carne Station we walked to a bar called Tinpan 2 and chaos ensued....I blame the sneakers.........


What do you see? I see 2 pirates and a shoe? Nice halloween costume!



"Captain Jack Sparrow" was all we heard all night....if you want to be a celebrity in Korea, either be blonde or dress like Johnny Depp, and then if Johnny Depp is around it doesn't matter how blonde you are......



No these girls weren't dressed up for Halloween....



Even men couldn't resist having their picture taken with Jack Sparrow!











If you are wondering, yes this is his real hair........





Krista showing her best Korean smile :)



Tinpan 2



From Tinpan 2 we walked to Gogo's for more drinks



Yes kids, Soju is for bunny rabbits too! (this playboy bunny is holding a bottle of soju)





This guy was nice enough to pose with the "beautiful girl" and couldn't understand why everyone wanted a picture with Cap't Jack and not with a blonde pirate







"picture, picture, kimbap, picture!" Capt Jack


"I speak English!" Kimbap girl

Everyone yelled to us picture picture, because they didn't speak much English. I guess we learned our lesson.



What can I say, Korean women love the hairy chested men!


Bam Bam


It was a who's who in Hongdae, even Harry Potter was there!






A bar in Hongdae






Even Barbie, a Devil, an Angel and Medusa couldn't resist Jack Sparrow!



These fellow foreigners were speaking Arabic!





At Gogo's



Meowwwwwwww



Apparantly The Mask is a symbol for partying everywhere...I'm reminded of boat cruises in Mexico, and lots of tequila..........



Thanks Heff for lending us one of your bunnies for the night!





two pirates and the prettiest girl in Korea!




"will you take a picture?" Cap't
"you are mean Jack Sparrow, she is druuuuunnnnkkkkk." drunk girl's friend



outside of Gogo's



Rocky Horror Picture Show!









Kiss?!








We partied till dawn.....when you party in Hongdae its either about a 30,000W cab ride home, or you wait till the subways run again............at 5:30 am. It makes for a long night, but it was well worth it!

Seoul International Fireworks Festival

On Saturday October 13, 2007 the Seoul International Fireworks Festival was held. This is an annual event, was canceledlast year due to controversy with North Korea (as far as we heard South Koreans were afraid of being bombed by North Korea, and that the fireworks would mask the sound of the bombs.).

Jon, Krista, John, Christie (confused yet? did I mention John and Christie are also from Saskatchewan?) and Stephanie, also from Canada, took the subway from Geumjeong transfer station (Line 1/4) to Singil and transferred to Line 5 to get to Yeoinaru where we watched the fireworks from the park along the river.

We arrived 2 hours early so that we could actually make the subway and get a spot on the grass to watch the event. The subways and busses stopped running in that area for the fireworks. There were people absolutely everywhere. We started off having space around us on the grass and about 30 minutes before the fireworks started, everyone is shoulder to shoulder, basically sitting on top of each other. We have never been in a crowd of this size or density. It's like Craven x 10 or Rockfest x 3, but with everyone sitting on the ground with their shoes neatly laid out next to them! Koreans take their shoes off all the time!


Can you see any shoes in this picture, if you look hard you will see them!



There were vendors selling kites for kids and blankets to anyone that was cold or wanted something to sit down on. Krista and Christie each bought a blanket for 6000W or $6. I eventually got cold and went to go buy one as well. The young Korean male told me 7000W, and I just stared at him (can you guess what I was thinking?) I said no - they (I pointed in a crowd) paid 6000 and shoved the money in his hand. I'm not sure if everyone gets ripped off or just a male foreigner? Either way, I took my blanket and kept warm.



This is Building 63 the tallest building in Northeast Asia



Does this look crowded to you? Not to us!



If you click the picture to enlarge, and look closely, the lights on the building spell Jon!














Sooooo many Asians (and some foreigners in the mix too)! There was a 5x5 area just behind us that was open. If a group were to sit down, we'd all touching each other. Well guess what... two adults and two kids decided to sit themselves down. Krista was not impressed and basically sitting on their toes. She commented outloud on how irritated we all were (not like the ladies could understand us anyway). Twenty seconds later, they gave us food! They gave us Wagon Wheels (for those of you in Canada) and a Ho Ho / Little Debbie (for those of you in the US), an apple slice and some juice! How great was that! We were a little nicer towards them after :)



The police were out in full force to control pedestrians and traffic - and to ensure there were no riots. Police were blocking all subway entrances to ensure that people didn't flood onto the subway and hurt each other in the proccess.



Krista missed the American and Korean fireworks because she stood in line for the bathroom, for over an hour. Soju, which is drank everywhere, and even on the street was a must for handling the crowds!






Here the long line of police officers were controlling pedestrians so traffic could actually flow through the streets. The Police would block the crosswalks, and then when the light changed they would make a path for you to safely walk across the street.





Jon striking a pose with the cops controlling the entrance to the subway station. All Koreans love spreading a little peace!



This picture does not do the comedy we had seen justice. After the fireworks were over, the subway stations in the area were jam packed with people, the subway cars themselves were overcrowded. Apparently, this lady could not wait for the next subway to come so she decided to push her friend/daughter? in to the car and squeeeeeeeeeeze herself in without getting caught between the doors. It was absolutely hilarious.




This video is of the subway station (which is 3 levels underground), a view from just outside the station and another view from the grass. Soooo many people.



This video is of the fireworks. When you see the bridge, it is actually lit up with fireworks on either side that are set to look like a waterfall. It's a little too dark to really capture how beautiful it was, but you get the idea. The Koreans did a good job.




This video is of the crowded streets while we are on the way to look for food.




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The Walk to School

We have about a 15 minute (there and 20 back home, because it is all up hill) walk to school every day, and we see some spectacular sights! It is always interesting being a foreigner in another country, especially when you stick out so much. People say "hi" and giggle because that is the only word they know, and Krista gets waved at sometimes by kids on busses.....

Its always an adventure, and Korea never fails to surprise us! Enjoy some of the pictures of our walk to school.

This one is just down the street from our apt. It is a view of Suri San (We found out San means mountain). From Geumjeong Station take either the 2 or 3 bus up the hill and stop by Koklan Jungehakgyo.


Krista



Jon walking by the corner store, that everyone affectionately calls "The Sexy Lady" Store, not exactly sure why......



Here is a mechanic shop, there are 2 on our street!



The trucks always make me laugh, they are so little



The time that we walk to school, the other schools in the area are just getting out so we get flooded by young Koreans in their school uniforms.



Alot of students, they all have about the same outfit on, they only thing that really changes are their shoes! No, the students at our school don't have to wear uniforms.



A mountain shop on the corner, they have a sale everyday and we can't wait to get more mountain climbing gear.



More students



Waterfall on the corner



The bus coming to pick up students





2 girls buying some Ddeokbokki. Ddeobokki is sold everywhere it basically consists of rice cakes (not like western rice cakes, they are very doughy) in a very hot sauce. Most of the kids in school will come in with a little dixi cup full and eat it with a toothpick. You can tell who likes ddeokbokki because their fingertips will be red! A little dixi cup portion is 500W.



The big Catholic Church on our walk to school



This is a fire station, for emergencies in Korea dial 119! Our gym is located behind the fire station.



Side view of our gym, Dream Center



Crossing the street





Right where the orange sign is is the entrance to our school! Incase you are wondering, yes, they do drive scooters on the sidewalks sometimes!



We made it!

Saturday Surprise!

After climbing Mt. Suri-San for the second time this Saturday we decided to stick around the apartment for the majority of the afternoon. However, we did end up on our way to a local market to pick up a few veggies for supper. On our way to the market, we came across lots of tents and shops set up on the sidewalk. We took a look around and found everything we wanted to pick up and more and only about 4 blocks from home!

For about 9000W $9 we picked up 24 eggs, a bunch of bananas, a bag of garlic cloves, a package of mushrooms and 4 small packages of tiny mushroom heads with long stems.. mushroom sprouts or something.



The best find were the extendable walking sticks. We were thinking about trying to find some of these earlier in the day while hiking - everyone else seems to have one too. They were just 5000W $5 each!

Good ol' Home Cooking!

So being over here in Korea creates an adventure not only for ourselves, but also for our palates! Everything over here looks like a culinary creation straight from Top Chef (how many times have you eaten quail eggs?) but it doesn't always taste very good.

As you have seen with the pictures from E-mart, that shopping here is sometimes very difficult and just being able to see the food isn't the worst part! Reading labels and figuring out what the vegetables are, to where is the rice (you would think that it would be clearly marked seeing as everyone eats it all the time, but it isn't!) is a challenge and an adventure.

We are managing pretty well, and are trying all kinds of new vegetables (yes Jon is eating vegetables, but only select ones..) like the many varieties of mushrooms, bean sprouts and peppers. Warning if you do not like spicy food stay away!

Here are some of Krista's culinary creations, or see how many different ways you can make rice a main dish....any and all recipes are welcomed!

Here is one of our first meals, like our dishes and mixed matched glasses? The green bits are peppers and they are spicy, much more spicy than a jalapeno, 1 is enough to overpower the entire meal, I have learned to dice them up really fine and then sprinkle them in, then the flavor is evenly distributed.

Yum, this one is one of our favorites! Krista's variation of Spanish Rice with tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, chicken bullion, peppers, onions, garlic, ham and bean sprouts. We love our beans, they are the magical fruit!

The menu at Jackie Chan's restaurant in the COEX Mall. We had awesome dim sum!

The menu just down the street from out school. The food looks awesome and so realistic! The sushi here is called kimbap and it usually has ham in it or just rice and vegetables in it instead of raw fish. We haven't eaten here, but drool over the plates.

For Chusok we each got a Spam and Canola oil gift set, and have grown fond of Spam and eggs!



We will keep you posted on any and all other wacky food we try!

Yongsan Station - Electronics Mart

Yongsan Station is a major railway station in Seoul, South Korea. It is located in Yongsan-gu, and adjoins the Yongsan Electronics Market. The station is the terminus for high-speed and long-distance trains on a number of railway lines, including most trains on the Honam Line, and all trains on the Janghang and Jeolla Lines.
Prior to 2004, all long-distance trains serving Seoul terminated at nearby Seoul Station, but with the opening of the Korea Train Express (KTX), Yongsan Station took over some of Seoul's services.



Yongsan Station is also served by Seoul Subway Line 1 and Yongsan-Deokso Line.
In 2004, a major movie theater was opened adjacent to the station. In August 2006, the whole station building was made into a large department store, called IPark Mall.

The building now includes the train station, subway station, the CGV movie theatre, several restaurants and shops as well as housing the first building of Yongsan Electronics Market. There is a bridge connecting IPark Mall and the Yongsan Electronics Market. (Wikipedia)



Yongsan Plaza Enterance




The terminal area of Yongsan Station



This was one of two levels that sold mainly cell phones. If you thought it was bad having cellular stores all over at home, think again, this is much worse! You can buy the same cell phone / hand phone at more than 5 different booths, not sure if the prices differ. There are a couple major cellular carriers in South Korea - KT and KTF (now branded as SHOW). There are a lot of cool phones with streaming TV and video, these are widely used on the subways.



This entertainment stage is also part of the I Park Mall. Some was there performing for the launch of a new GM Daewoo G2X. Looks pretty similar to a Saturn Sky made by GM in North American.. Click here to take a peak.






Attention all gamers! It's the character from Halo, for the big release of Halo 3, you could play it here in the CGV theater!





L-O-V-E





Night view of Younsan Station







These steps were really cool - they turned it in to a mini waterfall with flashing lights. I tried to get a clean shot, but the little girl would not stop playing on the steps.. so she became the star of these photos.






Click here for more information on the station and the I Park Mall at Tour2Korea

Hiking Up Mt. Suri-San - What a View!

On Wednesday, October 3, 2007 we summited our, Mount Everest. We were told that it was just over this over pass, and to take the path on the right..........which is right when the path diverges in every which direction?

We took the middle road, and at times seemed to carve our own path up Mt Suri-San.

We really need to learn Korean.....no clue what the signs ment, but we hiked on!

The way up was filled with dirt pathes, a resemblence of stairs, boulders and steep unforgiving rock .

I know it appears that the entire way had stairs, but we can assure you that it didn't. Some places were so steep that there was a rope railing to pull yourself up the rock face!

Almost to the top!

Sanbon, Gunpo-City, Gyeonggi-do Korea

"I'm the King of the World!" Jon exclaimed as we summited Mt. Suri-San.

We passed many people coming down off of the mountain, and many people passed us on their way up. Towards the top it was a struggle, and we were both a bit light headed. A very nice man gave us some Twix bars, and showed us where the best view atop Mt. Suri-San was and we enjoyed the view together.

We could see almost all of Sanbon, even E-Mart!

We can't wait to come back and take more pictures, hopefully on a sunny day!

Helicopter landing pad

There were many people picnicing on top of the mountain, most of the picnic baskets consisted of some kind of meal, and alot of beer! We couldn't believe the amount of little kids at the top, or on the way up! When we were going down, an easier path, we even saw a mother carrying a toddler on her back!!

Which way would you take? We definately took the long way up, and the short way down, the way down was just as scary as the way up!

Tokin' Turtle

Many people had brought up water jugs to fill them with this great mountain spring water.

Crossing back over the overpass

Thats our building over there!

View this video with caution!! Next time we'll take better photos at the right places and more (with less shake) video.

Dr. Fish Organic Coffee Bar & Spa

Krista and I were wandering around downtown Sanbon one evening and someone was handing out flyer for this Book & Coffee Spa. The lady pointed to where it was so we decided to go in and take a look. As we were standing inside looking around a Korean girl in her teens was trying to serve us and give us information. She spoke English! It was fun talking to her - we found out that until the end of November you can go in and buy a specialty coffee, have some free toast and jam, read a book or use your notebook PC and then for FREE drip your feet in to this foot spa that contained little fish. The fish would suck on your feet and eat the dead skin and bacteria leaving them so fresh and so clean! What a neat idea..

There was a bit of a wait, so we decided to come back the next morning with John and Christie.

The foot spa area

Confucius say, little fish good for cleaning dirty feet.

This was an awesome find! If your ticklish like Jon is.. you'll have to find something to occupy your mind while the fish do their job.

Check out the video of the fish swimming around - John T has somehow managed to have all the fish on his side.

COEX Mall Aquarium

Over Chusok we ventured into Seoul to the COEX Mall Aquarium with John and Christie, it was a definite treat, and the bonus was that foreigners got in at a discount 10,500W ($10.50)for each of us, of course it said that we had to show foreign identification, but for some reason they didn't ask us!

You can get to COEX by taking the Green Line 2 to Samseong Station Exit 5.

The COEX Aquarium is the only theme-oriented aquarium in Korea. There are 90 exhibition water tanks and 140 tanks used for breeding. There are about 600 species and 40,000 oceanic fish altogether. The tanks are divided into six different sections and are viewed in a tunnel like atmosphere. The first exhibit is the 'The Inca Empire'. This exhibit displays the origins and relics from the Incan Empire. At the end of the Incan Empire, the 'Amazonian World' awaits. In this exhibit tropical fish and cute otters can be seen. In the seashore section of the 'Amazonian World’, sharks and stingrays can be viewed. The end of the 'Amazonian World’ leads to 'Seven Seas'. In romantic settings, fishes from the Mediterranean to the North and South Poles can be seen. After that, you can experience the ‘Ocean Kingdom’ in which displays dozens of sharks, polar bears, and numerous fish. You can see different types of fish swimming above you in the ceiling.



Finding Nemo



How many seahorses can you spot in this picture?



Only in Korea would they put squirrels on display!




Beautiful Coy Fish




No, we haven't seen any place in Korea that looks like this.




This next set of exhibits we fondly called, "What can you put fish into?" Try to spot the fish in each picture!












I wouldn't want to shower with this dude!



Yes, a much better tv than ours!



Look at how big this fridge is, I wish ours was as big!




Microwaved crabs anyone?!




Fish a la Bistro style!




Yes, those stick things are fish, they are shrimp fish!




A wash machine/dryer, who knows, but it is pretty!



"Fra-gi-le, it must be French."








I don't know that this computer would work so well...



A pig-nosed turtle, now I have seen it all!



Jon's new aspirations, to be the Jacques Cousteau of Korea!



Can you spot the weedy sea dragon....yes that is it!










We even saw a polar bear!



Sawtooth Shark



Sea turtles







These jelly fish brought back memories of Cancun........without the pain!



Spider crab, spider crab.........



Video of a Crab Eating Something



Video compilation of Fish, Shark and a Sea Otter with music!