Blossoming Seoul: April 2014

Since Daniel James is now officially finished with college, he was able to stay in Seoul for a few extra days for some more sightseeing. We covered all of the main tourist attractions during his first visit in September 2011, so now it was time to hit a few "off the beaten path" type things. About a month ago I made my list of things I want to see in Seoul before I leave and it just happened to have the Trick Eye Museum in Hongdae (practically next door to where I live) and the COEX Aquarium in Gangnam (as in "Gangnam Style") on it. With Daniel's approval, we decided those would be our sights to see during his extended visit. On Saturday we were still a little travel weary, so we hung out at the apartment, watched Big Bang Theory, and went out to dinner. Sunday morning we got up late, got ready, and took a ten minute taxi ride to Hongdae to hunt down the Trick Eye Museum. It turns out the place is harder to find than we thought, but eventually this directionally challenged girl was victorious! Despite the fact that it was an absolutely glorious spring day, we were greeted by half of the neighborhood inside the museum. Here's the premise behind the whole thing. You enter, position yourself as part of a 2D painting, and take a photo that "tricks the eye" and makes it look like you and the painting are 3D. It's a pretty fun concept if you do it right! Some of the paintings do have 3D components for you to interact with too. So, we patiently waited our turn at each painting, took our beautifully framed and perfectly posed photos, and had a blast. Okay, not really. We got a little annoyed with people who kept pushing and cutting in line, argued (as brothers and sisters do) about framing the photos properly, and took a bunch of mediocre (and a few great) pictures. Then we popped into the Ice Museum for a few minutes to check out some cool sculptures and go down the ice slide--talk about freezing your butt off! All-in-all, it was a really fun afternoon. On the way out I convinced Daniel to have a caricature drawn of the two of us. Kiko, our artist, was really sweet and did a fabulous job of making us look much cuter in cartoon than we are in real life.

Hanging out on the wall.

Oh no, little Daniel is in trouble!

Puss n' boots…and Daniel in a boot.

This is highly unfortunate.

Yes, and now my true persona is revealed:).

Daniel is the mischievous angel!

I had to take this photo especially for my friend Erin Canova who grew up swimming synchro.

Turtle ride.

Spidey ride

Alternative transportation.

Four visits to Venice and this is my first time in a gondola.

Oh no, sad panda!

Ohm…I have found my inner peace.

Looks comfy.

Awkward!

Brrrrrr!

Our fun caricature from the Trick Eye Museum! We look way cuter in cartoon than real life.

On Monday the vacation bubble burst and I headed back to reality. Daniel decided to come on in to school with me and sit through my classes. I think he finds this amusing in some way. When I taught my first group of students, Dan was a freshman in high school and that's the age of students I still teach today. Sometimes it's hard to imagine my little brother as a grown-up. While I taught, Dan worked on his resume and LinkedIn profile. After school we hopped on the subway to Itaewon, the area near the military base. I was craving Thai food and I wanted to take Daniel to Buddha's Belly. It was another beautiful night so we were able to eat dinner on the patio overlooking the main street in Itaewon. After a great dinner and a little shopping, we were back on the subway and home in no time.

The plan for Tuesday was to send Daniel out into the city solo to take the Seoul City Bus Tour. It's a hop-on/hop-off bus tour that loops around the city and hits many of the major sights. Mom and I did the same thing when she visited and I figured it would be a good way for Daniel to get up to Seoul Tower and to any of the other sights he hadn't visited yet. Despite walking down the front of the hill and taking the VERY LONG WAY to the subway, he managed to follow my subway directions successfully and just as his bus was about to depart a group of cameramen boarded the bus. Daniel was asked if a mayoral candidate could interview him and he learned that the former Prime Minister was running for mayor and was looking for input from foreigners. I guess you could say Daniel had 15 minutes of fame while visiting Seoul. As of yet I haven't seen his picture published anywhere, but I'm keeping an eye out;). He hopped off to have a look at the Korean War Memorial Museum, for lunch in Itaewon, and at Seoul Tower. It was a clear enough day that he was able to take the elevator to the top of Seoul Tower and have a nice view of the city. All went well and Dan was even feeling confident enough to take the subway back, rather than grabbing a cab, until he surfaced in Sinchon. Each time you exit the subway, you have to choose from several exits--it could be five to ten options. Not knowing which one to choose, he surfaced and realized that nothing looked familiar. Uh oh! A phone call to the school did him no good because I was in a meeting. Hmmm…when in doubt, look for the Yonsei University sign, and he finally found it. Following the signs led him to the university and subsequently to the back gate of the SFS campus. For dinner on Daniel's last evening, he requested crepes at my favorite little place in Sinchon--La Celtique. Back down the hill we went for a wonderful dinner of sweet and savory crepes and a lovely time with my friend Erin, who also accompanied us when mom was in town.

I took the day off work on Daniel's last day in Seoul for a final adventure, this time to the COEX Aquarium in Gangnam. Four years in Seoul, and I've only been to Gangnam once before. We got on the subway, not realizing it was peak commuting time, and settled in for a forty-five minute commute with hundreds of others on their way to work. Before long, we were there! The COEX Mall has been under construction for about a year and is slowly starting to re-open. Passing through on the way to the aquarium let us check out some of the new stores and restaurants I'd been seeing posts about online. It took us an hour and a half to make our way through all of the exhibits and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing new species of fish and reptiles in each room or area we passed through. I loved the room with household items used as fish tanks. I also enjoyed the sharks, manatees, and seals. The aquarium was pretty empty, which was great for us and gave us free reign of the place! After a stop at Starbucks to recharge, we headed home to grab lunch at the newly opened Subway in Yonhidong (I know, not a big deal to all of you Americans, but Subway is a scarcity here!) before sending Daniel off to the airport. And so another year of Spring Break fun has come to an end! Here's hoping we can do it again next year…