Madter's Travel Adventures: Meera and Marky Visit Me in KOREA!!!

I felt so lucky to have friends who would make the effort to make the trek to Korea to see me. These friends being none other than Meera and Mark. For those of you who don’t know Meera, she and I went to teacher’s college at York together. We’ve created a very strong bond over the last few years, and I’ve also come to fancy her husband Marky…a total gem. Basically to sum up the week, it was laughing, sarcasm and more laughing. I worked the Monday-Wednesday and had Thursday and Friday off of work. They arrived bright and early on a Sunday morning and being that it was technically dinner time for them, Mark discovered his love for the baguettes from Paris Baguette. Then we proceeded to buy almost every Korean chocolate bar and candy in the Buy the Way Store to ‘try.’ My healthy eating kick took a hiatus that week. It was actually good, there were lots of things I had wanted to try but never really got around to it. New discoveries for everyone! Before I came to Korea, I was getting advice from Mark, who had came at an earlier date to visit his friend living in Seoul. Two things I knew I had to experience. One-Doosan Bears baseball games. Two-Sharky popsicles. I checked the baseball off my list last summer…and continue to LOVE going to games, but Sharkys were not something I ever did discover. It took some searching, but Meera and I saw one happy boy when he found his long-lost sharky.

So Sunday, the troopers and I had an absolutely full day of Seoul fun. Enroute we walked past an outdoor gym (everywhere in Seoul), and so we had a quick workout to start the day haha. We did some walking around Insadong Market. Various smells wafted around from silk worm larvae to dried squid, honey candies and baked goods. We also met Marcia for some Korean eats. Next we went to a Palace with a Secret Garden. For the sake of Meera, Mark and I; I’ll include some quotes that cannot be forgotten: “Sooty. Do you know? S-o-o-t-y; Look over there, do you see the blue roof?; Please don’t eat chocolate in the garden; Yes….definitely not; BECAREFUL!”

The week continued as they went to the DMZ; Visit to RIS; Hair-did; Dinners out with friends; Co-Ex Aquarium; Shopping etc. On Thursday we had a Roady to Jeonju. This is a city 3.5 hours South of the city. It was enroute that I was suckered into wanting to buy an iTouch. Marky and Meera had some wicked apps that I felt I couldn’t live without. I’m a proud new owner now of a 32G iToucher! Jeonju was…good…and interesting! First we hit up a couple hotels. You haven’t visited Korea, until you’ve slept in a Love Motel. Okay, sure it sounds weird. But really they are just cheaper hotels. And done up…nicely? By this we mean a circular waterbed and see through bathroom doors HAHA. Marky and I took turns sleeping on the floor, but we also had to hide our heads during bathroom breaks…only…in…Korea. I banged out some Korean skills during the trip. Some which worked well, some, not so much. “Goood Morni…ng..Hoo..Teel…” Jeonju is a cute city. It has this folk village with some cool traditional shops (wine museum…HAHA…man…can’t even explain). Nice Cathedrals and traditional buildings. It has a city center with lots of shopping and restaurants (Ceaser Salads…stay away!). We went to a DVD bang (place where you can rent a movie and watch it in individual rooms). One of the days we went hiking on ‘Horse Ear Mountains.’ WHAT and experience. I’ve never laughed so hard in one day in a long time. First….getting there. We had to transfer to a small town bus in a very small town. Oh my gosh, God love ‘em but there was like 60 people over the age of 90 at the bus stop. We think just for something to do. We also think that no one under the age of 90 LIVES there lol. We were not outcasts at all! Haha. So we get to the mountain and the trail is quite nice leading to it. A nice temple, rock structures and such to view. Then we get to a point where we can turn around and retrace, or follow some path. What would your mother say? Well we DIDN’T do that. We started on a trail that had a rope up. But being that we all had some sort of Superman/woman skills, we ignored. Well, there was still snow. So if we were scaling sides of mountains, we were SLIDING down snow hills. We kept going to the point that we couldn’t turn around b/c the hills we slid down were too steep. What kept us going (beside laughter) were these one set of footprints. Mark told us after…he was afraid we’d run into a dead dude and the prints would end HAHA. Yes I had cell phone reception, but hadn’t much of a clue of our location. One of two ain’t bad. Finally after 2 hours, we came to a point we had recognized from before. Want to know what we saw? We were on the OTHER side of a large sign with a huge X over it. We had seen it earlier and thought oh, part of the mountain is closed. No, THE mountain is closed now…but we disobeyed. Made for interesting/akward convo with the elders on the other side as we scaled the sign HAHA. As if that is not enough. We mosey down to the parking lot to wait for the bus. Long behold, an entire two buses full of agummas (old ladies) and agassis (old men). DANCING. CUTTING serious rug with the speakers that someone had set up and some dude on a microphone. It looked like a bus tour and a lunch stop over with a dance party to go along. I never pass up a dare, and Meera and I are cut from the same cloth. Down we go, uninvited but very much welcomed. Dancing like FEENS with these people. Mark was mauled, literally mauled by old ladies. They passed him off like a piece of meat. My face HURT from laughing as I too was getting spun back and forth between strangers. One even with a strange mask on. Mark was slightly scared, thus after 10 good min of dancing we ran away waving as though we were the entertainment or something. Then proceeded to hide behind the bathroom inc ase they found us again. Oh my gosh. What a freaking day.

On Saturday morning we heading back up to Seoul, stopped off at Youngsan Electronic Market (to get an iTouchy and some DVDs for them). Saturday night was St. Patrick’s day partying. And that, we did. Wolfhound and Polly’s Kettle left us feeling happy yet slightly tired on Sunday. Now, one last day with my good friends. We spent it at Dr. Fish…to clean up our feeties with the guppies, and then a walk around Itaewon and eats with friends.

What a fantastic week. Memories to last a lifetime. I am so thankful that they made the effort. Lots of love you guys!! Xxoo

Outdoor Gyms..