Mom and Meema Visit Meghan:

The Korea Edition

As many of you know, my mom and grandma made the long journey to Seoul to visit me for a little over 2 weeks! They will be writing a short guest-entry to relay their experiences here to you all once they recover from the jet-lag :)

One of the first things I wanted them to experience was Dr. Fish. This is the cafe where you can have little fish nibble on your feet while sipping on your coffee. It was hilarious to watch them both laugh in surprise when they put their feet in...it truly does tickle like crazy until you get used to them!

Its a bit difficult to remember small detailed stories since they have been here so long, but I know they really enjoyed the city of Seoul. They stayed in a really nice hotel on the 14th floor that had an amazing view. I was spoiled by being able to stay with them (their hotel room was about twice as big as our apartment and it was really closeby to my school).

We ate like queens - Korean food, Mexican food, Thai food, Italian food, etc. One night mom and I went to the market near my apartment and picked up an assortment of foods I wanted them to try: gimbap, mandu, spicy bean sprouts, chobap, mini-shrimp in a spicy sauce, etc, and had a sort of picnic dinner at the hotel. Another night I wanted them to try Korean pizza...which as I explained before has some interesting toppings. My favorite is when it has sweet potato paste!

Last Wednesday night we went to see NANTA - a Korean comedy performance gaining popularity throughout the world. Its a non-verbal play about 3 chefs who need to prepare a ton of food for a wedding in a short amount of time. They incorporate Korean style drumming and "drum" with knives, spoons, pans, everything! It even had a little bit of audience participation...and I was asked to come onstage! I had to put filling inside a small pastry and then drum on a bowl twice before I could do the next one...and I had to do it as fast as I could b/c I was competing against another audience member. Needless to say, my team, the red team, won! It was a lot of fun :D
Since they were staying so long, we decided to take a long weekend and explore the second largest city in South Korea, Busan. Busan is a costal port city down south known to be a bit more laid back and open than the concrete metropolis of Seoul. Once we got there I could feel the difference between the cities immediately. Busan had wind. A small thing but I never noticed that Seoul doesnt really have wind like that - largely due to Busan's proximity to the ocean I'm sure. And thats another thing - water. Seeing the south sea and the bays and bridges was very different from Seoul, which has a beautiful river, but thats all. Anyway, we stayed in an amazing hotel right on Haeundae beach. We didn't plan it this way, but we ended up visiting on a weekend when Busan was having a lot of festivals. The best festival we stumbled upon was the Busan Fireworks Festival; a 50-minute show of over 85,000 fireworks, displaying the latest in firework technology. The fireworks were synchronized to music with a backdrop of a lighted bridge, laser lights, and the south sea. It was the best fireworks show I have ever, and may ever be able to see. As one of my friends put it after seeing the video I took, "the sky was falling." We had to turn our heads to see it all because the entire sky was lit up. We thankfully got there early, as the crowd was massive. Everyone was sitting on their blankets or mats on the beach, eating snacks and hanging out. We had a ball.

Also in Busan we explored the Jalgachi fish market, went shopping in Nampo-dong and went to a beautiful park near the sea.

Back to Seoul...

Of course, they wanted to come see my school! They came in one day and got to sit in on a few classes with me and meet my kids. One of the funniest moments was when I was introducing them to Elgar class and I said "this is my grandmother and..." waiting for one of them to say "mother" as I was gesturing toward my mom, but everyone was quiet until John shouted "Grandfather!" Gosh, I love that kid haha. Then I prompted them to ask questions - the best opportunity for them to utilize the English they've learned with me that past 8 months...but all the questions were "do you like scorpion?" and "do you like mosquitoes?" Then "do you like poision scorpion?" I tried to get Elgar to ask them about food but they must have just learned the word "poison" because now they were putting it in front of everything - "Do you like poison apple?" and "Do you like poison tiger?" haha.

At one point, Meema started singing for all the kids trying to make them smile because I was taking pictures. The only Korean word she knew how to say was "thank you" (kam-sahm-knee-da) so she just bursted out in a "thank you" opera. Needless to say, I got the shots I wanted. The kids loved this crazy older white American lady singing "thank you" to them in class. I suppose I would too, if I were them :) Another girl drew a picture of my mom and then gave it to her, it was really cute!

It was kinda funny hanging out with mom and Meema around Seoul because a lot of the Koreans were so surprised that Meema was my grandma and my mom was my mom. They always thought that Meema was the mom and that my mom and I were sisters - they just couldnt get over how young both my mom and my grandma look! This has also happened a few times back home but nothing like here!

We also too a boat cruise down the Han River at night. It was beautiful to see the city riverfront lit up. I definitely want to do it once more very soon before it gets too cold!

Overall it was so, SO great to have them here! It was amazing to be able to share Korea with them and trust me, I DO know how blessed I am to have them able and willing to visit me. They came to visit me in Barecelona when I studied there, and now Seoul...and I'm sure wherever I end up next, they will be visiting as well ;) After all, it's not everday 3 generations can explore different parts of the world together and I'm positive that someday I will be telling my daughter, and her daughter about the adventures I've had with my mom and Meema here.

Pictures of their visit HERE