Weekend 36 of 52.

Cafe Rumi, Unhyeongung Palace, Insadong, Seoul Lantern Festival, Bosingak Bell Pavilion

We kick-started last weekend with mid-week fun at Cafe Rumi, a TV and Wii room, to celebrate Luke's birthday. We bowled, we boxed, we ice-skated, and we had bottomless soda and ice cream. A fine way to spend a Wednesday.

On Saturday we went to our third palace (1 here and here, 2 here). I have been surprised at the differences between the palaces. This one felt more casual and had mannequins set up to display the clothes and practices of the time. After the palace, we walked through Insadong. Dan and I got harassed by a drunk man alternately trying to give us things and get us to bow low and say we were thankful. But for real, he followed us the length of Insadong's main road, pressing a crappy mirror compact into Dan's chest, until a vendor told him to leave us alone. It was not awesome. At least we got some tasty street food. This time a stuffed and fried pancake called hodduk.

The Seoul Lantern Festival is on, so we tried to muscle our way down to Cheonggyecheon Stream to see the light show. It was completely packed, complete with police officers manning the stairs and a queue snaking around stream's wall. We abandoned that idea, peeked down from street level, and then moved on.

Weekend 23 of 52.

Cheonggyecheon Stream: Revisited, Doctor Fish: Revisited, Dongdaemun Market: Revisited, Gyeongbokgung Palace: Revisited, Insadong: Revisited, The National Folk Museum: Revisited, Seoul Tower: Revisited, The War Memorial: Revisited, Banpo Bridge, Coex Aquarium, DMZ Tour, Namsan Hanok Village

We had our first visitors! Dan's mom and her friend Sharon made the long journey from Ohio to Seoul. They championed jet lag and immense summer heat and trooped all around the city for 9 solid days of fairly intense sight seeing. It was great to see family, and we tried to give them a good and varied view of this little country we've come to love.

We revisited many of our favorite or quintessential spots, but we even tried out several things Dan and I haven't yet had the chance to do. We hit up the Coex Aquarium on a rainy Saturday, and it was completely packed, but we got to see a two-headed turtle, so still cool. We got over to the Banpo Bridge to watch the fountain/light show. Dan made sure to inform us that it is the largest bridge fountain in the world. We happened upon the Namsan Hanok Village after the Makgeolli concert we wanted to attend was sold out, so we instead got to see how the locals used to live. And we finally went on a tour of the DMZ, which left us longing for reunification.

Right this very moment Jean and Sharon are flying their way back home, and I'm afraid we may now have to ward off some latent homesickness.

Weekend 11 of 52.

Soul Underground Session at Cafe Soul Underground, Lotus Lantern Festival

On Friday night, Dan and I (as the Bell & the Hammer) got the chance to play a show at Cafe Soul Underground. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience, and I will blog about it over at our band's site and we'll be posting videos of it there as well. I am going to steal (with permission) some pictures from some of the teachers at school.

The Lotus Lantern Festival is an annual celebration of Buddha's birth. It is a three day street festival culminating in a lantern parade. We attended the closing parade on Sunday evening, and it was very much like Disney's Electric Light Parade, but with lantern floats, and that is now the third time I've described it as such. I guess some people aren't that impressed with it, but we really enjoyed ourselves. The lanterns everywhere were beautiful, and sometimes it's fun to feel the full force of Seoul's population. After the parade, Dan and I sought some quiet down by Cheonggyecheon Stream. We and all the other young couples of Seoul. It is a lover's respite after sunset, it seems. The stream is fast becoming one of our favorite features of this city.

Weekend 6 of 52.

Taco Amigo, Bangsan Baking Market, attempt at Yeouido Cherry Blossom Festival, National Assembly Building, Doota, Loving Hut Buffet, Children's Grand Park, Daiso

So this weekend marked our first South Korea fail. We wanted to go see cherry blossoms in Yeouido for their festival, but the cherry blossoms had not yet bloomed, and we didn't even end up finding the festival (we didn't go far enough toward the river). So we resorted to wandering around Yeouido, which was sort of peaceful and nice, but not what we had intended. Earlier that day, Dan and I had ventured to the Bangsan Baking Market in Dongdaemun, and we went back to Dongdaemun after our festival attempt in order to go to the mall, Doota, and buy some shoes and eat food court food.

Sunday, Dan and I commuted to the Achasan station, forty minutes away, to go eat at the Loving Hut Buffet. We got there around 5:30, and dinner didn't start until 6, so we walked across the street and found ourselves in Children's Grand Park, a huge park that includes a zoo, a botanical garden and an amusement park. We hit up the arcade in the amusement park and played Tetris and a thrilling timed game of air hockey (I won). I thought we were only going out for dinner, so I left my camera at home, but I think we will go back.

We ended our weekend at Daiso, a type of dollar store. Amazing. So amazing that we almost decided to live here forever on account of its ability to amaze us.

Weekend 3 of 52.

Saint Patrick's Day Festival at Cheonggyecheon Stream, Subway Art Gallery, Dongdaemun Market, Dongdaemun Gate, Haechi of Seoul, Doota Shopping Center, Burger King

Saint Patrick provided us with a ready made Saturday. The Irish Association of Korea (yes, this exists) puts on a parade every year down at Cheonggyecheon Stream. Cheonggyecheon is actually an ancient stream (like 1300s ancient) where wives used to do their laundry. Eventually the stream got grubby and they slowly filled it in and covered it with a highway. In 2005, the stream was uncovered again to promote environmental friendliness and human interaction. And, even though it was freezing out, because the winter high temperature in Seoul only lasts for a quarter of a minute apparently, there were people gathered down at the stream.

Back down in the subway, we serendipitously (not my name, by the way) stumbled upon a small art gallery. There was a sketch exhibit chronicling the artist's time in Nepal. We almost bought his book, and then we didn't, and then we were sad about it.

Also in the subway randomly, a little gallery for Seoul's mascot, Haechi. Does your city have a cute mythical mascot? No, obviously not. Haechi is a little guy whose job is to keep watch over everyone in Seoul. We wound up at a gallery and gift shop space in his honor. Also, free lollipops.

We saw the Dongdaemun stop on the subway on our way down to Cheonggyecheon, so I told Dan that Dongdaemun Market was on our list and we should stop by after the festival. The market is basically a huge, huge flea market. It winds down city streets and even underground. There's also more conventional shopping in Dongdaemun. We ended up at an 8 story mall called Doota and had Burger King on its 7th floor and coffee down on the 5th. We didn't buy anything at all until we were headed back to the subway for home and we saw some chair cushions. We sit on hard wooden chairs for many hours every day, and we noticed that Dan's clever Korean co-workers all have seat cushions. We bought blue sporty ones that are embroidered with the exhortation to "Be Happy".

Before all that, on Friday night, we, with Korrine, found a local Korean Barbecue place. We ate (a lot) for only W5000 each. A young Korean couple at the table next to us helped us order. They saw our aimless gesticulating and took pity on us, as Koreans are wont to do.