It feels like an eternity since I've last written. I am back from Korea and China, for a few weeks actually. It was really amazing to go back and see family and friends... see many places and experience many things... sensory overload. (see woman diving in the busan waters below) 
It always makes me wonder to see how much family I have and how sad it is that I live so far from all of them... What would it be like to live with all your extended family? Fill up one whole apartment building? Have your own village? My mom is the youngest of 7. One of her sisters has 4 children who each have about 2 kids... which comes out to 18 family members just via this one aunt! And between the two of us, we have more than 20 aunts/uncles who all have children who have children... Anyway, we tried to meet with all of them. 
Oh I went to Busan for the first time! Seafood is truly amazing there. When I nudged the seafood with my chopstick (i think octopus) it would respond with a wiggle. It was horrifying yet fascinating. We repeated this a few times. It was like communicating. I ate it eventually. We became one. 
When I visited my uncle in kunsan, he took us on his company trip where we visited the presidential retreat and an herb garden. The presidential place was very serene and green. Not a bad place to chill. 
At the herb garden, we had flower bibimbab. They are edible flowers! It was so pretty! Very good for vegetarians. Now really, aren't all flowers edible? Couldn't I just go pick some flowers and eat them? Come over my house some day... let's try this out... i'm serious... 
They also had a Miss Korea pageant going on. Not necessarily entire Korea, but an area of Korea (Miss Choongchun? something?)... Anyway, they were eating the flower bibimbab too. (Note: Much of the bibimbab was left over upon their departure) Many people were gawking at the Miss potential Korea's through the glass in the other room. 
This is somewhere in the city of busan... A happening place where young people go hang out. We actually didn't have much alone time like this. Most of the time we were with family or in transit to visit family. I didn't really like the fashion so much in korea right now. Not much pastel action going on, so no fob-ification this time. 
There are so many mountains in Korea. I loved it! It's like let's go home now. But on the way, let's climb a mountain or two. Oh mountain? I have one in my backyard! And so many people just exercising and walking around the mountain too. 
When we walked through this row of food places in dongdaemun, it was hard. Everyone is calling you and soliciting you... I have naengmyun! I have kong gooksoo! I have same thing! I have same thing too! Come here! It's so hard to say no to ajumahs. And you know, I always feel like sales people are the opposite in Korea and in America. In Korean dpt stores, they run toward you at full speed and invade your personal space while trying to help you. Very very high density of sales people per square foot of selling space. Very low in US. 
Ah, this is Chungehchun? In seoul, they built a river in the middle. I remember it was very hot that day. And when we went downstairs, it was still very hot b/c it is all cement unless there was a shade where there was a bridge overhead. Everyone (office workers mostly) is huddling in the shade eating lunch or dangling their feet in the water, chatting... it was nice. This area had a lot of western chains around.  You know, I was really looking forward to dakgalbi but that trend has passed and now it is all about kimbab - nara, chungook, shidae, etc. We did the korean sauna thing one day- it's like King's Sauna but 3x the size with ice room (like being in a fridge) and pine room and salt room etc etc. Oh, and how people crack small boiled brown spotted eggs on their head while they are in the sauna and eat it while dipping in salt... did that too, but it is much harder to crack the egg than i thought! Honestly, it took a few tries. I recommend using someone else's head. Soooo, we went to myungdong and of course!!! we asked around "where is myungdong kalgooksoo?" and a very nice old man said blah blah go here... and we went to myungdong gyoja. Basically, b/c everyone everywhere started using the name myungdong kalgooksoo, they had to change their name to myungdong gyoja! Isnt that interesting? Upon verifying the authenticity of the place and that we were in the right location, we had some kalgooksoo. It was ok. (oh my goodness jk - it was sooo good - see below) 
Anyway, we spent about 1.5 week in China - mostly Beijing but also a city called Xian. You know I have the worst memory. It's fading even now, but I will always remember the food. Wow. I never realized Chinese food was so amazing. It's like the France of Asia. So much attention and detail to food. As soon as we got to beijing and checked in, we went exploring. We passed by this place in the street and it looked sooo good. But when we peeked our heads inside, there were no signs or prices and it was so full and bustling and we got intimidated and sadly wandered off. 
During the tour, we had some sort of 12 course mandoo meal. So creative! Mandoos that looked like swans, and various stuffings and mandoo skin colors, etc. Very cool. 
The highlight of Xian is the Terracota warriors. Like egyptian mummies, the emperor wanted an army in the afterlife, and commissioned 750 people over 4 decades to create life-size warriors out of terracota... and after they were done, he had the warriors and the people buried (to preserve the secret of the location). Anyway, they were discovered when a farmer was digging a well in the 1980s. Each warrior has his own expression. No two are the same! Some are pudgy. Some are skinny. Some are short, tall, somewhat smiling. Some are grim. 
In Beijing, I took the subway somewhere and went here. 
I did not have enough courage to eat the bugs. It's like voluntary fear factor.  
I also went to Forbidden city and tianeman square. very cool. Do you see Mao?  The highlight of the china trip was the great wall, by far. The air was so piercingly sweet. Such an architectural success. To think of how difficult it must have been back then to build this? We went to a less touristy part of the Great Wall... where you can take a tobaggan down. It was so fun! What a great idea! 
Anyway, these were some highlights... good night! 
| 
