Six in Seoul

My time here has come to an end. I've had such a great time that I hate to leave.  The people I have been staying with told me I am going to have so much fun at the next place.... I am going to Greece!  I am going to stay with a family that lives on an olive orchard!  I will continue writing my blog here, but give me a couple of weeks to get settled in before you start looking for my writings.

I miss you EZ & all my friends from Mrs. M's class!  Look for my note in the mail!  You should get it before Christmas! 

You won't believe this....I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters!  It was so cool!!  We sat RIGHT behind the Globetrotters, in fact we were so close we could touch them.  The show was lots of fun.  They were dunking the basketball, doing funny dances, telling jokes, and they even pulled one man's pants down!  It was so funny!  Don't worry, he had boxer shorts on.  One of the Globetrotters even dressed up like an old lady.  This was such a fun show!

During the show the Globetrotter, Flight Time picked me up and took me onto the court!  Here I am posing for a picture with him! 

Guess what I did?   I went on a photo shoot with two of the boys I am staying with.  Apparently they do lots of modeling, so this time they ask if I could join them!  Whoo-hoo!!  I modeled for the company Four Lads. It is a British company.

Here I am having my make up done....

And here I am watching TV and eating donuts with some of the other models while we wait for our turn.

And here I am taking pictures with the boy!

We had a very long and busy day!   Mrs. Sue, the modeling agent, gave us all a bonus of 10,000 won each (that's what they use in Korea for money) because we worked so hard.  This is us on the ride home.  The boys were so tired they fell asleep, but I was wide awake!

After Nanta, we went out to eat, and I had my first traditional Korean meal.  Did you know in Korea, they eat while sitting on the floor?  I had no idea. In the picture below I am having my first bite of kimchi.  Kimchi is a type of salad they eat here in Korea. There are many different types of kimchi, with the most popular type being cabbage kimchi, which I tried.  I must tell you, I am not a big fan of the cabbage Kimchi.  They say you have to eat it several times before you "develop" a taste for it.  I don't know I will ever develop a taste for it.  Give me some water please!!! 

Now, the rest of the food was pretty good. When eating a meal here, they serve lot of little side dishes for you to share with each other.  They also like their food spicy.  In the picture below, you can see several different types of kimchi, including radish kimchi, and an octopus kimchi, which was really good! There are mint leaves, and a couple of different types of soup in the picture also.  Don't I look happy?  I really like experiencing new things. 

And this was my main course, a type of Bibimbop.  A very popular dish here in Korea.  It is served in a VERY HOT dish, so you need to make sure you don't burn yourself.  The dish is very hot because they put a raw egg in your dish, so once you get your meal, you mix it up and that cooks your egg.  This picture was taken before I mixed it all up.

OH MY GOODNESS, I am having SO much fun here!  I went on a field trip with the Seoul American Middle School to see the show Nanta, which means "cooking" in English. I had so much fun. You get to sing, and dance around in your chair while the actors jump around on stage using pots, pans, knives and trash cans as instruments.  They actors are all very energetic!  I laughed so hard I thought I might tear in half.  Thank goodness I have an extra coating of plastic over me.  See the picture below?  That is me in front of the stage.  Don't I look happy? 

I LOVE the Flower Market at the Express Bus Terminal in Seoul!  It smells SO much better than the fish market I went to!  This place was HUGE, I'm starting to see a trend here, every thing is BIG!  I thought Texas was known for BIG things, but I think Seoul might even beat Texas out on that!  Just look at the pictures below, you can't even see where the flower market ends!  If I had to guess, I would say there are at least 200 vendors selling fresh flowers here!

The family I am staying with have fresh flowers in their house all the time! 

Not only is this place a fresh flower market, they also have an area that reminds me of Hobby Lobby back in the states, just BIGGER!  Girl and I are standing in front of a Christmas decoration stall!

Here is something else you might find interesting, we got up at 5:00AM, yes, in the morning while it was still dark outside, to go to the flower market!  I told them we needed to go later, but NO, they would not let me sleep!  They told me the flower market is open from 1:30AM to 1:30PM, and you get the best deals early in the morning.  Plus Girl needed to get dressed and go to school still.  I don't know how she went to school after getting up so early.  I went back to bed when we got home!

The next stop on my trip here in Seoul, South Korea was the Noryangjin Wholesale Fishery Market.  I have NEVER seen anything like this.  There were fish EVERYWHERE, and I mean that, there were fish on the tables, fish in tanks, fish in bowls, and some fish had even escaped their bowls and were flopping around on the floor. There were big fish, little fish and every size in between.   Most of the fish here were bigger than I am!  And, did I mention how much this place STINKS?!  All the kids and I were holding our noses.  

When we left the fish market we went down this alley where a bunch of local farmers had stands and were selling all kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables.  Dinner that night was amazing!  We ate muscles, oysters and salmon.  I might not ever want to leave this place.