!Baseball Training!

Thursday was a breezy day at school. I was doing level tests with the 6th graders during each class, which took about 20-30 minutes of each class. The grade 3's are easy to teach period, and the last 10 minutes they did level tests. After school I headed home to make a quick dinner and get ready for baseball training. I decided to join it for a month and see how it goes. If I notice a difference in my body and eating habits then I will continue with it, or until I get bored. It is pretty pricey to join for a month, but you can go all 5 days a week if you want and you are constantly working your muscles and learning different techniques. I'm hoping this training will get rid of my fear of baseballs as well. Although I'm not quite sure if it's the baseball I'm afraid of or the pain of being hit by a baseball. If you know me, you know that I hate pain, I resist it at all costs and I think that makes me weak when it comes to playing sports. The training is for 2 hours a day and we start with stretching, then jogging, then sprints, soccer, etc depending on the day. Then we play catch for about half an hour and then again, depending on the day we will do drills, batting, mini baseball game and then we end the night with push-ups, sit-ups, or squats, etc followed by stretches. It really is a work-out like no other because you are working all different muscle groups and I'm gaining strength in muscles I didn't even know existed. After baseball we headed over to a Korean friend of Nicole's, DJ, who owns a galbi restaurant. He also comes to baseball training, but only when he get time off from working. He invited us there for some drinks and food. I didn't stay very late because I was exhausted from training and knew my body was going to be a hurting machine Friday, so I had a few pieces of galbi, a few drinks and headed home. Friday was exactly how I expected it to be. I could hardly move my body from all the working out it got on Thursday night. Thank goodness my classes were the same as Thursday. Level tests, level tests and more level tests. It was nice having a 5 class day though, because I got to stay standing a lot of the day, so my muscles stayed warm and mobile. After school I met up with Nicole and we headed to baseball training. Day 2 of training was a bit more chill because it was Friday. We did the usual stretches and jogging at the beginning, but got to have a soccer game afterwards. Then it was catching followed by a baseball game. I feel like a bit of an outcast because Nicole is really sporty, so she is good at baseball and there are Korean kids that are insane baseball players that come to training and everyone is Korean except Nicole, Mike and I. I feel a bit awkward and very nervous when I'm there and everyone watches me. I feel like I should be better than I am, but I'm not use to this intense of training and with guys that play baseball professional. However, it will be a great learning experience for me and I'm hoping it will make me stronger, fitter and a better baseball player. I ended up leaving a bit early on Friday night because I had to be up early Saturday morning to head to Jeju-do for the weekend.

School Nights and Drinking DO NOT Mix!

School was pretty easy and painless last week. I only had a four day week since I got Monday off to say good bye to my parents. Tuesday night was game night last week and we had planned on going bowling. Nicole and I cabbed together to meet Lindsay, Nick, Holly and Tracy for some cheap Korean food and then we headed up to Tracy's apartment to pre-drink and hang out while we waited for Carolina and Damien to show up. Once they arrived we headed to bowling. My Korean friend and his friend tagged along for bowling as well. We were all very excited to go bowling for games night, but found out that it was league night and we wouldn't be able to bowl until after 10:00 p.m. Since that was too late for most of us we agreed to go drinking at none other than Mad Max. If you don't think it's legendary by now, then you haven't been keeping up. Nicole and I filled the jukebox with Korean pop songs, we drank pitchers of beer and my Korean friend introduced us to a Korean drinking game. Basically, you go around in a circle and each person asks a question, "Who do you think was the worst dressed in high school?" Then you count to 3 and everyone points to one person sitting around the table. The person with the most votes has to take a drink. If there is a tie you play ki bi bo (rock, scissors, paper). The game ended up turning out to be a lot of fun and it can be as clean or dirty as you want it to be. As it started getting later people started to head home, except for Nicole, Kevin (my Korean friend's friend) and I. We decided to hang out a little longer. Plus, Nicole invited her baseball coach out to drink with us. Well, when he got there with his friends we left Mad Max and headed to a restaurant in ajushi alley. We drank some more and played more drinking games. They wanted to play 'Titanic', which is where you pour some beer into a glass and drop in a shot glass. Then you go around the table and each person pours soju into the shot glass. Whoever sinks the shot glass has to 'one shot' the drink. I lost almost everytime, so I was stuck chugging drink after drink after drink. Finally around 4:00 a.m. we decided to call it night, so I took a cab home, how I made it home is beyond me, but I did. I fell asleep instantaneously. Unfortunately, I forgot to set my alarm, so I ended up sleeping in and was 90 minutes late for school Wednesday morning. I missed my first class and made it just in time for my second class. I swear I was still drunk when I woke up. The good thing is, I'm really good at disguising a hangover, so I'm pretty sure no one knew, except for me. Anyways, I made it through my 4 classes on Wednesday just like any other day, but was in hangover mode by mid-afternoon. After school I headed over to Nicole's to meet her and go to baseball training with her to finally check it out and see if I wanted to join. I'm looking for a new exercise routine and Nicole raves about baseball training, so I had to check it out. I ended up enjoying it from what I watched and the food thing is, every day is a different form of training. Nicole and I were both nursing hangovers Wednesday night, so we both headed straight home after the training on Wednesday.

Annyeong Kaseyo!!

Last Monday was the day my parents left Korea. I managed to get the day off school to spend with them. We spent the day together just packing, hanging out and getting ready for the airport. We ate lunch at the Korean style Italian Restaurant on the bottom floor of my building before we headed on the journey to the airport. My parents went home with so many suitcases that we could all hardly fit in the taxi. We took a bus to the airport and it took a good 90 minutes to get us there. We were on time and my parents went through check-in in no time. We had a few minutes to hang out before we had to part ways, so we shopped and looked around. We said out good byes before they walked through customs, never to been seen again, until June 2009, when I finally make it home. We said our good byes, which were not nearly as hard as the first time around, which was nice. It made me realize we can live far apart and survive. I decided to take the bus home from the airport thinking it would be a 90 minute ride, but it turns out it was actually a 2 and a half hour ride home because of traffice and all the stops it made. I was suppose to go watch Nicole and Mike's baseball training because I was thinking about joining, but I ended up missing it because of the bus. When I finally got home I was so tired and sore from my parents visits and the bus ride that I cleaned and then went straight to bed. My apartment seems is way roomier and far more spacious now with no parents and all the stuff they took home for me. I loved having my parents come visit me because they got to see my lifestyle in Korea, meet my friends and tour the country that I've called home for the past 8 months. I'm really glad they came and traveled while they were here as well. I do miss having them here, but I have more freedom with them not here...lol!

This Blog Is Two Weeks Overdue!

Ok, so I fell really behind on my blogs. I just got so busy with my parents last weekend in Korea and just being to lazy everyday after school to sit down and write it. Let me continue where I left off, with my parents in Japan. They arrived back to Korea on Friday, November 14th and I was already asleep in my bed. I was exhausted from my eventful week of drinking and games night, so I decided to head to bed early the Friday night in case we were getting up early to head into Seoul. We decided against Seoul on Saturday, which was fine by me because commuting there takes far to long. Instead, we bussed to Dongincheon station and went shopping in the underground for a bit. My dad did not want to be there, so he decided to have a bad attitude the whole time instead of making the best of the situation (love you dad because I know you are reading this). When we had enough of the underground, which offered us nothing we were looking for we headed back to the Yeonsu area. My mom and I sent my dad home to chill out and take a breather and her and I headed over to Lotte Mart. My mom just wanted to look around one last time. Since it had also decided to ran on us and we did not come prepared with an umbrella we had to buy yet another umbrella, but at Lotte Mart they are fairly cheap, so not a big deal. When we finished making our purchases at Lotte Mart we headed over to the Converse Outlet, so I could buy myself some shoes and send them home to Canada with my parents. I ended up buying two pairs of Converse shoes for under $70. The people that work at the store also know me, so they are always so nice to me and treat me really good when I'm there. I think I will bring them treats from Canada if I go there again. My mom and I bussed home to meet up with my dad, so we could get ready to head back over o the Yeonsu area for dinner and drinks. Since both my parents love dukgalbi I thought it would be nice to make sure they got to try it one last time before leaving Korea. I took them to this really great restaurant in Yeonsu and we enjoyed delicious food, drinks and conversation. After dinner we headed over to the legendary Mad Max where we just drank the night away. Nicole came and joined us and we had a blast drinking, listening to the juke box and being interrupted by Koreans wanting to speak English to us. The highlight of the night was dad and Nicole's conversation about how shoes have to match your outfit. My dad didn't get it, of course, being a man and all, so Nicole spent a good portion of the night explaining to him the importance of shoes matching your outfit. It really was quite funny and amusing, for my mom and I anyways. Sunday was spent lazing around in my apartment getting organized and packing. We were meeting up with my friends later in the evening to celebrate Damien's birthday, so we wanted to get as much done as we could. We headed to dinner around 7:00 p.m. and were hoping to enjoy delicious ribs, but the place was closed so we opted for galbi at the good galbi restaurant instead. There were quite a few of us, which was nice. After dinner we sang, 'Happy Birthday' to Damien and enjoyed chocolate cake followed by drinks at Mad Max. See, it really is legendary. Once we had enough of Mad Max and it started getting later we headed over to noraebang. This was my parents first experience at noraebang and only my mom sang. Dad was being a dud and decided to waste his time reading every single song in the song book...lame! (again I love you dad because I know you are reading this). We headed home around 1:00 a.m. and went to straight to bed.

An 'Onion' That Won't Make You Cry!

With my parents now gone and out of my apartment for the week I have more freedom to hang with friends. Since Nicole and I both live in the same area of town and we are always traveling to everyone else for dinner and drinks we decided to host a dinner and drinks event in our hood. So, last night a bunch of us, Me, Nicole, Nick, Mike, Nick, Tracy, Holly, Damien and later Carolina and Lindsay, got together in the 'Onion' (how our area of town is pronounced) and we ate at a galbi restaurant near Nicole's house because she knows the owner and the galbi is super cheap. We ate meat and jumbo shrimp and drank soju and beer.

My near and very dear to me kiwi friends, Nick and Tracy giving each other a little loving at galbi. Carolina and Holly doing typical Korean poses for the picture. Me and my wife Nicole showing off our 'bat' wedding rings at galbi, which was our reception dinner.

When we finished dinner at the restaurant we headed over to Indis, a pub close to my house that we hardly visit because no one comes to our area and pigged out on more food and drank more beer. When we had enough of Indid for the night we headed back Nicole's way and drank kiwi soju cocktails and ate even more food at jijimi. We didn't end up leaving the jijimi until around 2:00 a.m., so I didn't get to bed until after 3:00 a.m. It hurt to wake-up this morning for school and I had to teach three grade 3 classes, which actually made my morning less miserable because it flew by. Plus, we all know I love the grade 3's, so teaching them is never rough no matter how I feel. After school I headed straight home to have a nap before I headed over to Holly's place for 'Game Night!' A bunch of us showed up to play games, eat pizza and chicken and drink some alcohol.

This is all the food we consumed. Delicious pizza that only costs 5,000 won per pizza and delicious deep fried chicken. Carolina obviously has nothing bad to say about the chicken as she stuffs a piece in her mouth.

It was a really fun night that we are going to turn into a weekly event. There were about 12 of us at Holly's by 11:00 p.m. drinking away and having a blast playing games.

Holly and Rebekah enjoying games night. One of the games we played was called 'Squint.' Basically, it's like pictionary, but you have to use the shapes provided to make the picture. If you are the person guessing the 'noun' you can squint your eyes to see it better. Tracy and I enjoying game night. What a great idea!

I left early around 11:45 p.m. because I was still so exhausted from the night before and wanted to get a good nights sleep, even though I only teach one class Thursday. I know games night got rowdy and carried on well into the night/morning, so I'm glad I left earliest because otherwise I would have been there far later and way drunker than I wanted to be.

A Trip To Seoul: Part 3

Sunday was abother busy day full of more sightseeing. My parents went to the Korean War Memorial first thing in the morning and when they got back we headed out to Gyeongbokgung Palace, which is the largest palace in Seoul.

Heungryemun is the entrance gate to the palace. My parents got a picture with the main guard at the palace entrance...My mom forced my dad into being in the picture. My mom and I inside the palace walls. I just decided to take a ridiculous photo at an entrance gate to a different part of the palace. My parents make great royalty, don't you think? A cool picture I took of the pagoda that surves as the roof for the Korean National Folk Museum(part of the palace) and my dad just happen to be walking along as I took the picture...F.Y.I. It was pouring rain outside and he was taking his slow ass time running for shleter. The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. This year is my animal year. The year of the RAT! Me enjoying the company of some sticks with faces and a pile of stones outside the Museum. My parents in front of the beautiful pagoda at the Museum. It decided to rain on us for most of the day at the palace, so I decided a picture with the umbrella we bought there was necessary. The stone statue next to me seem fitting for a picture with the umbrella as well.

When we finished at the palace we walked to Insa-dong, so my parents could do some souvenir shopping and see a more traditional part of Korea. We walked around and enjoyed the festivites that Insa-dong had to offer. We ate lunch in Insa-dong before heading home to Incheon. When we got back to Incehon we dropped our bags off, showered, changed and heading for galbi with Tracy and Holly. After dinner we went to Mad Max for a pitcher of beer and then parted ways and headed home for the night. My parents had to be up early Monday morning to head to Japan for the week, so they wanted to get to bed early.

A Seoul Saturday Night: Part 2

When we finished eating outside the Family Mart in true Korean fashion we headed back to the hostel to change for our dinner date in Itaewon with Rudy and Danny. They found us this delicious Italian restaurant that had amazing food and pretty good wine. It was a bit expensive, but worth every penny to have authentic Italian food, not Koreanized Italian food. After dinner we headed over to Rocky Mountain Tavern because my dad wanted to check it out. It always makes me a bit homesick being inthere because they serve Canadian beer, the decor is Canadian and they show North American sports feeds.

My dearest friend Rudy and I at RMT. We always take such good pictures together :) My parents posing with the 2005 Calgary Stampede poster hanging on the wall at RMT. I obviously needed my picture with the poster as well. My dad showing his appreciation and love for Alberta beef. Too bad he can't get any of that fine quality beef here in Korea. Frankie! Hey-Ho! Hey-Ho! I love this guy like a brother. He is so hilarious and super fun to hang out with...It took him forever to get to Itaewon Saturday night. We were all glad he finally made it and in one piece. The three of us enjoying our night out in Itaewon. Go Team Alberta! Nothing like seeing my home province's license plate on the wall.

We ended up spending most of the night at Rocky Mountain Tavern before we decided we should head home because my parents were getting up early to visit the Korean War Memorial, which I've already seen.

A Trip To Seoul: Part 1

This past weekend my parents and I headed into Seoul to spend the weekend there sightseeing and hanging out. Our first stop on Saturday was to Cheongdeokgung Palace. Finding the palace was easier than I expected. When we got there we had to wait about 45 minutes to actually visit the palace. They only offer guided tours in order to view the palace, so we waited for the next English tour.

This is the entrance gate to the palace called Donhwamun Gate. This was our Cheongdeokgung tour guide. Her English was pretty good, but there were still times she was hard to understand. These are called "Rank Stones" and they lined the courtyard of Injeongjeon Hall. My mom and I being your typical tourists and posing for a picture together in front of the hall. The three of us got a picture together in the 'Secret Garden'. The Juhamnu Pavilion, the pond and the leaves changing color made for a great picture.

The guided tour lasted about an hour and a half. When it was finished we headed to find the hostel we would be sleeping at for the night. I decided we should walk to find it because it was only 2-3 train stations away and didn't seem worth paying for.

This is the beautiful canal that runs through most of Seoul. We passed it along the way to the hostel.

I followed the directions perfectly, but on they were written wrong on the email confirmation, so we ended up having to ask around. It took us an extra 10-15 minutes to find the hostel and it was just by fluke when I looked down an alley and saw the sign. The hostel was really nice and better than we expected, being a hostel and all.

We ended up having bunk beds in our room at the hostel and of course, some ridiculous wallpaper.

We chilled at the hostel for a few minutes because we were exhausted from all the walking at the palace and then walking to find the damn hostel. We went looking for food in the area, but after walking for a good 20 minutes we realized there was no restaurants around or any that seemed worth eating at. We just ended up going to Family Mart and buying some snack since we were meeting up with Rudy and Danny for dinner in a few hours anyways.

Surviving Week 2 With The Parents!

Last week was a normal school week. I had the grade 6's twice and the grade 3's once. Monday I sent my parents to China town and Wolmi-do where they could enjoy the sights of the new bridge being built and walk along the warf enjoying the sights and sounds. Monday night I took my parents out for shabu shabu. I wanted them to try a Korean dish that I'm a fan of, so we met up with Tracy, Holly and Nick around 5:30 p.m. and enjoyed the delicious dish. Afterward, my parents and I headed over to beer story for a quick beer before we headed home for the night. Tuesday after school we had a dinner date with Nicole in our area of Incheon. We ate some delicious kamjatang, another dish I'm a huge fan of. We hung out and talked for a bit and then headed over to a local bar to have some beers and chat some more. We didn't stay out too late because Nicole and I had to be up early to teach and my parents, being old and all, were just tired. Wednesday was a good day at school because I only taught the grade 3's and only had four classes, so I was teaching by 1:00 p.m. My parents came to see my school and meet my principal, vice-principal and co-teacher, Jiny on Wednesday. They didn't see me teach any classes, which I was kind of relieved about, but it would have been a good experience for them. Meeting the principal was funny because Jiny had to translate everything he said to us and then she would have to translate everything we said back to him. The poor girl was getting bombarded with translations. They didn't get to meet the vice-prinicipal because he left early to go to another school. My parents had brought gifts for all the teachers, so after meeting with the principal I took them on a tour of my school and introduced them to all my English co-teachers who were very nervous meeting my parents because they think their English isn't very good. Jiny told me that the principal was letting me leave early because my parents had come to the shcool, so we headed home and got changed for the evening festivities. Wednesday night I took my parents to the Arts Center/Bus Terminal area and showed them around. We ate delicious Chinese food for dinner and then headed to meet up with two of my friends, Joanne and Christa, to go to Dr. Fish together.

This is mom washing her feet preparing for her first Dr. Fish experience.

In order to experience the Dr. Fish experience you have to buy a beverage, which is bit expensive, but totally worth it and then you have to pay an additional 2,000 won. Basically, Dr. Fish is a foot treatment that involves small fish biting the dead skin off your feet. It really creeps me out and took me a good 10 minutes (we are only given 15 minutes) to put my feet in the water and let the fish eat me. My parents wasted no time and just stuck their feet in the water right off the bat. My mom got swarmed by the fish.

Mom, dad and I enjoying our Dr. Fish experience. The fish eating at way at my feet, however, I moisturized that day, so much dead skin was too be found. The three of us with our feet submerged in the water in the last minutes of our Dr. Fish experience.

Both of them really enjoyed the experience. We finished with Dr. Fish we parted ways with my friends and headed home on the bus. We took it easy when we got home and enjoyed a drink together before heading to bed. Thursday was an average day at school for me. BUT, I sent my parents to the DMZ for the day because I think they really need to experience it while in Korea. I know it's experience they won't forget. Thursday night we had planned a dinner with Jiny around 5:30, but my parents ended up getting a bit confused taking the subway home after the DMZ, so the dinner started a bit later than planned. Jiny took us to a delicious French/Korean fusion restaurant. The food was impeccable and my parents got to get better acquainted with the person has been my mom away from home my entire time I've been in Korea. After dinner, which Jiny paid for and made mom mad, she drove us home and the three of us ended up being in bed asleep before 10:00 p.m. Friday was my busiest day of the week with 5 grade 6 classes and it was also yearbook picture day. I assumed that this meant I would get my picture taken and out in the yearbook, so I dressed really nice and even did my hair and wore make-up to school (a rarity with me Mon-Fri). Turns out it was just a giant group photo of all the teacher's at my school. I was kind of relieved about that, but not disappointed I dressed up. I told my mom to come to my school and see me teach my last class of the day, but with a sudden schedule change the class got moved to an earlier time, so by the time she got to my school she missed seeing me teach. It was disappointing, but I can't help the randomness of Koreans. Friday night I introduced my parents to the Bupyeong underground shopping center, which is ridiculously hot and crowded. We did a bit of shopping and I bought a few things for myself and my mom bought a few things for herself. When we had had enough of the underground I took my parents for my favorite meal in Korea, dukgalbi. We ate at the one place in Bupyeong I know is good and always popular.

This is dukgalbi, it is BBQ'd chicken with cabbage, rice cakes and chili pepper paste all mixed together. It's mouth watering. Mom and dad sporting the aprons provided at dinner. Check out my mom with her bottle of soju...alchie!

When we finished dinner we met up with Tiffany and Carolina and did some looking around the shops side of Bupyeong before we headed to N's pub where we bumped into some of our friends. My parents got to meet even more of the friends I've made here and my dad enjoyed a game of darts with my friend Christa.

My dad with hs perfect dart throwing positioning ability. My mom and I at N's pub. I literally...no joke...took 4-5 pictures before we took a good enough one for me too post :)

We ended our night at N's pub and managed to catch a bus home, so we didn't have to take the train at all and the bus stopped right across the street from my house. We went straight to bed when we got home because we had an early start to Saturday to look forward to.

Bongeunsa Temple and COEX Mall!!

Sunday morning was a bit of a struggle for me because of another late night. However, the fact that I was sober both nights made waking up far easier than if I had been hungover. Since my parents are visiting my dad made us a delicious bacon and egg breakfast before we headed out for day number two in Seoul. We headed to Gagnam to visit the COEX mall, which is the largest underground mall in Asia. The train ride was roughly 90 minutes, which is a long time, but worth it. Before we looked around the mall we headed across the street to Bongeunsa temple. I want my parents to experience more traditional parts of Korea as well as the more modern parts, so I thought visiting the temple would be a good start to the day. We spent about 45 minutes - an hour viewing all the different parts of the temple and enjoying the beautiful fall day. We ran into a guy from Boston who is here on a business trip.

This is Mireukdaebul, which is the Buddha of the future. It is the largest statue of Buddha in Korea. Mom and dad pose for a picture in front of a temple monument. It's kind of funny that there is a parking lot and high rises within walking distance of a temple. This is the statue of Haesoogwaneumsang. She represents the Korean traditional Gwaneum faith. She is surrounded by an oriental pond, which combines nature with the Buddhist belief.

After we finished with the temple we headed back to the mall where we spent a good 2 hours just walking around and eating some lunch. I had my parents try kimchi jiggae, which is one of my favorite Korean dishes. My mom liked it, but my dad couldn't handle the spice. The mall was awesome and had many Western stores and Western style influence store. However, because of the area of Seoul the mall is located most of the stores were expensive (Western prices), so expensive for Korea. I did manage to buy two adorable sweater dresses and two Big Bang CD's.

I just thought I would ad this picture for your viewing pleasure. This Calvin Klein ad and another one lined the walkways in the mall. They were everywhere.

We left Gagnam around 5:30 p.m. and headed back to Incehon on our 90 minute journey. When we got back to my place we had a home cooked meal and some wine. I was exhausted from the busy weekend I had, so after dinner I just downloaded pictures onto face book, posted some blogs and then went to bed. Next weekend we will be staying overnight in Seoul, so we don't go crazy from all the travelling.

Yeoido and 63 Buliding with My Parents!

This past weekend was a very busy and tiring weekend. I didn't get home until late Friday night, so getting up Saturday to head into Seoul was tough. We got a late start to the day, but it all worked out in the end. The longest and most tiresome part of the journey was taking the train to and from our destinations. First stop was Yeoido Park, which is just a huge park located along the Han river in Seoul. You can rent bikes or bring your own, walk, roller blade, etc. We just wandered around for a bit and enjoyed the crisp fall air.

My parents enjoying the fresh air and view of Seoul from Yeoido park.

Mom and I posing in front of a mural at Yeoido park. I made her do the "Victory" sign with her fingers.

We could all use a little exercise in our lives, so why not have exercise equipment at the park?!?!

We almost got run over by the Korean children's bike gang. They were out of control on those bikes with training wheels...I was scared for my life.

Stop number two was the 63 Building, which houses offices and an Observation deck on the 60th floor. I thought it would be worth checking out since it's in Yeoido. We happen to have 15% off coupons from the T-money cards we bought earlier that day, so it was the perfect opportunity to use them. The observation deck allows you to view most of Seoul and houses the Sky Art gallery, which is devoted to Hello Kitty.

The entrance to the elevators to take us to the observation deck at the 63 building.. I just had to get a picture with Hello Kitty.

This is one view of Seoul from the observation deck. The green bridge is where the subway runs. This is a view of Seoul from a different angle. You can see Namsan tower a.k.a. Seoul tower on the mountain in the background.

As you walk around the onservation deck you can view different pieces of Hello Kitty art from different artists and countries. It was a bit unexpected and there was a lot a lot a lot of Hello Kitty, but it made the onbservation deck that much more exciting. Not only did you get to view the beautiful city of Seoul, but you could enjoy some Hello Kitty art as well.

This was an adorable looking Hello Kitty piece of art. I think she looks like a box or Lego. Of course I would make my parents pose for this picture too. Hello Kitty and Daniel -- Lawrence and Mary Alice. This is another view of Seoul from the back side of the 63 building. It was absolutely amazing how much of Seoul you could see. I fell in love with this animal. I forget what they are called in Hello Kitty, but they remind me so much of Dr. Seuss. I really liked this cute little Hello Kitty garden that was made of foam pieces stuck together.

Although the Hello Kitty was a little overwhelming because their was just so much, the observation deck was a lot of fun and provided an amazing view of Seoul. We decided to have a beer while we were up there and before heading back down to soild ground. The third and final stop on the day trip to Seoul was the Costco. It was only a 10 minute train ride from Yeoido, which made the transportation bearable. We decided to eat dinner at Costco because we didn't eat much all day, so we had some pizza and hot dogs before we started our shopping frenzy. We didn't spend too much time at Costco because I had an appointment back in Incehon with some friends who leave on Friday. We bought loads of food to last for the remainder of the time my parents are here and for me after they leave. When we had finished spending our money at Costco we took the train home. When we got home I changed into socks and sneakers and headed to Mad Max to have some drinks with Nicole. We eneded up getting more free stuff. The owner gave us each a cigarette holder (useless for the non-smokers, me). Later on in the evening when we were getting ready to leave Nicole told one of the workers who is out friend that I loved popcorn and next time we come in can we get it in a big container. Well, he came back to the table 5 minutes later with a Corona bucket full of popcorn for me and Nicole to share. Then he told us we could leave with the bucket and keep it. He also brought Nicole her own bucket. I got sucked into going to Bupyeong for my friends Laura and Andrew's going away party, so Nicole tagged along. We took the last train in and when we got there we were sober and didn't drink and pretty much headed home 3 hours later. It was another late night and I had to be up early for another day trip to Seoul with my parents.