Dan's Birthday Dinner at Greek Joy.

Dan's been 27 for weeks now, and I keep forgetting to put up his birthday pictures. We went out for Greek food at Greek Joy in Hongdae. The owner goes to Greece regularly, makes his own feta cheese (and refuses to substitute with store-bought), tailored my meal to be dairy-free, and gave the three pregnant ladies present extra portions. What a dude! Our 4 course meal included a salad, pastitsio, souvlaki and rice, and gyros. If you live in or near Hongdae, you should obviously go there. It's across from the playground.

Weekend 41 of 52.

Water Heater Repair, Hongdae

When we woke up Saturday morning, we found that our apartment was without power. We promptly ate up the perishables in our fridge (leftover chicken soup and taco meat), then Dan went to Dunkin Donuts to charge his phone and call someone at the school. When he got home, we found the breaker box right in the middle of our kitchen in front of our faces, flipped the switch, and had power again for about ten minutes. So Dan re-called someone from his school, and then his boss came out with an electrician and replaced the fuse. We had power again for about ten minutes. So Dan re-called his boss, who came back later in the evening with a different electrician who discovered that our water heater was overloading the circuit. He fixed the water heater, and all was well, and the day was over. But, it was kind of nice to be stuck inside for a day of lounging around, and now we can take consistently hot showers again.

Weekend 38 of 52.

Hongdae Free Market, American Thanksgiving

I know I am late blogging the weekend (during which we laid low entirely in Hongdae, watching a friend perform at the Hongdae Free Market and meeting other new friends for coffee), but now I have bonus pictures from our American Thanksgiving dinner. Dan organized the celebration with the other English teachers at his school. We were able to purchase a turkey and ham dinner from the Dragon Hill Lodge. The meat was awesome and completely undoable otherwise, but the sides were lackluster and we didn't even get the advertised beans almondine (mixed vegetables instead) and gravy (raisin rum sauce instead). Luckily, our meal was supplemented with roll cake, lemon cake, nut cake, sweet potatoes, deviled soy sauce eggs, tomatoes, oranges, Tropicana Sparkling, Shany rolls, chocolate peanut butter pie, and the pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes also from the Dragon Hill Lodge.

The food was abundant, and it was so good to spend time with the teachers. We laughed a lot, and Dan said the day was one of his favorites in Korea so far (Thanksgiving coincided with Happy Day at the school, a day for students to shirk class responsibility and watch movies and play games and eat and sell snacks). And now AFN Korea is airing the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which I had given up seeing (but what's a Thanksgiving without various recording artists enthusiastically lip-synching to pre-recorded tracks?)! Thanks, Army!

Weekend 31 of 52.

Hongdae, Dangsan, Hangang Park

I'm not going to say that the rain ruined another weekend of plans (plans involving Seoul Grand Park and being outside and not being wet). I will instead type it. That is what's known as semantics. No, but I don't hate the rain, though it does inspire taking shelter and eating popcorn for dinner and taking pictures of neither of those activities.

Sunday was dry enough for a walk along the river. And that is pretty much all we did.

Weekend 28 of 52.

Hongdae Free Market, Seoul Wow Book Festival, "Smart Donuts" at Dunkin Donuts

Dan and I (as the Bell & the Hammer) got to play at the Afternoon Stage of the Hongdae Free Market. The Free Market is an artist run flea market where you can buy handicrafts and hear some music. It's held every Saturday at the Hongdae Playground. Saturday's weather forecast called for pretty much 100% chance of rain at all times, but it managed to lessen to just sprinkling for a couple afternoon hours. That made us glad.

On our way home from the Free Market, as the rain picked up, we walked through the Seoul Wow Book Festival.

On Sunday we had our second Korean hit of Taco Bell and ate some "Smart Donuts" (made with soy milk!) at Dunkin Donuts.

Weekend 24 of 52.

Skypergories, Fringe Festival

We accomplished a pleasantly low-key weekend. It started with Skypergories (Skype + Scattergories) against our wonderful friends Lacy and Justin DiSabatino, and it ended with some (Korean) Independence Day (Korean-style) BBQ. We made a brief visit to Soul Underground on Saturday night for a concert in concert with Hongdae's Fringe Festival. Dan and I (as the Bell & the Hammer) get to participate in the festival next Saturday, and we are really excited about it. If you live in Korea, you should come (here's a map or you can contact us for directions). I think it starts around 7, and, if last night indicates future Fringe Festival precedent, first drink is free. That's good as gold. Right as rain. Sweet as sugar. Cool as cukes. Pleased as punch. Am I right?

Weekend 8 of 52.

Children's Grand Park, Seoul Forest, Loving Hut, PC Bang, Bau Haus Dog Cafe, Bistro Corner

This was a weekend for birthdays. My birthday was on Sunday, and Teresa's, a teacher, was on Saturday. Also on Saturday, an all day training seminar for some of the teachers, including my husband, so Teresa and I joined forces and went to Children's Grand Park and Seoul Forest together. I mentioned Children's Grand Park when Dan and I found it a weekend or two ago, but this time I had my camera and actually explored the park, which contains a zoo, a botanical garden, pony and camel rides, and an amusement park, all for no entrance fee. We thought it was pretty amazing. We tried to go to Seoul Forest afterward, because Teresa thought a friend had recommended it, but what she really had recommended was a foresty area along the Cheonggyecheon Stream. Seoul Forest, especially after Children's Grand Park, was not pleasant but not impressive.

For Teresa's birthday dinner, we were back at On the Border for Mexican food. This time with a whole group of people. We definitely had a fiesta, if you know what I mean.

Sunday was my birthday, and Dan and I went to the Loving Hut restaurant in Sinchon. Next door to that was a PC Bang, an arcade, where we played Street Fighter, and I excelled as Chun-Li like I always do. We ended up going over to Gwanghwamun to a bookstore and to try to find Insa-Dong. We did not make it to Insa-Dong, but we found ourselves down a pretty path between two stone walls, which would have been prettier if I'd had a better attitude, but sometimes you get sick of walking two full days in a row.

After a nap, we went to the Bau Haus Dog Cafe! And it was wonderful, and we are going to make every final Sunday Schnauzer Sunday (which totally works because there was a sleepy Schnauzer there). A dog cafe is a happy place where you can bring your dog to play with resident dogs and otherwise, where you should order one drink per person, where you should bask in the happy atmosphere. The best part about the dog cafe is that it is the shortest walk from our house. It was only three blocks away. We ended the weekend at Bistro Corner and ate ribs and fries and a cheeseburger.

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.

Park Yong Ha and Korean BBQ.

I mentioned that we were going to a Korean hip hop concert. That was only partially true. Our friend Jeannie dances with some b-girls, and they, along with some b-boys, danced back up for Korean pop artist Park Yong Ha. I tried to find a good page with pictures, but I couldn't. He is a Korean drama actor (read: Soap Star), also a singer, and he is huge in Japan. Most of the women at the concert had traveled from Japan. So big is he in Japan that all of his songs are in Japanese and most of his dialogue with the audience was in Japanese, which was fun for Dan to try and decipher. Anyway, Yong Ha is meant to be pretty dreamy.

Weekend 1 of 52.

Shabu-Shabu, Hongdae, Gyeongbokgung Palace, The National Folk Museum, Kyobo Book Store, Yongsan Electronics Market, Seoul Tower, Itaewon

We had our first weekend in Seoul, and it was packed full. On Saturday, we were on our feet from 11am til 11pm, and the brunt of that pedestrian time was walking not standing. Our feet were so sore by this evening that we couldn't even bear to go grocery shopping. I really want to try and bake cookies in my toaster oven. Someone online likened it to baking in an Easy Bake oven, so maybe I should scout out some Easy Bake recipes. I never had one of those, so I don't actually know how that works.

Anyhow, I might as well get on with the pictures as they are many and varied. Have we mentioned that we love it here? We do.