goecaching

What is geocaching? According to Geocaching.com, "Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location." It's a modern-day treasure hunt; and who doesn't love looking for things other people have hid?

Lately Bee and I have gotten back into geocaching and any time we go somewhere we check to see if there is any hidden treasure close by. I was introduced to the game by my brother many years ago and I introduced Bee to the game on the second or third date we went on. It is an easy game to get addicted to and a great way to get out and discover different sights when in a new place. Often times people will hide caches near historical or popular venues or in neat places that most people may not know about. And when you find the cache you not only find the physical treasure but a new and exciting place to visit or fact you did not previously know.

We both love the thrill of the hunt but we had not gotten around to doing it here in Korea until a few weeks ago. The phone I have is one of the new smart phones with a built in GPS which has saved me many times while trying to navigate the streets of Korea. I downloaded an App that shows nearby caches so whenever Bee and I are out it is easy to see if there are any nearby treasures that we can hunt and find while we are in the area.

For more information on geocaching watch this.

Everland

So Hunny had Monday off and we decided to spend the day at a well talked about theme park; Everland. And what a beautiful day to go out. It was gorgeous! Since our car died we took the bus. We are pretty grateful for public transportation here. They are really good about having subways, buses, and last resort, taxi's. So we hopped on and arrived. It was pretty magical looking and even sounding. Thankfully, everything was in English which Hunny thought kind of surprising. We looked around and began to aimlessly explore our new playground. We went down a gondola and landed in the zoo area. I have only been to two zoos and haven't been able to see many animals such as polar bears, otters, and penguins so this was pretty exciting for me. I love animals. They are so cute. Well. except monkeys. I am not a fan of monkeys. And they had a whole village devoted to them. Oh and the orangutan was almost scary it was so ugly. The baby wasn't as bad though. They also had squirrels in the zoo, and a area for guinea pigs. Yup. Guinea Pigs.

There is a guinea pig in this zoo!

We went on a safari, sorta. We loaded on a zebra looking bus and rode around in an area where they were keeping all manner of wildlife. They had it set up where the lions and bears had to be in or really close to the road so as to be super close to the bus. It was pretty cool and exciting to be that close to them until towards the end we saw a bear that had a hurt paw. I began to wonder if I approved of this attraction. I'm thinking I don't. It is sad to pen up wild animals for our selfish entertainment and for their money. Anyway, we got done and I bought cute clip on cat ears. I really like them and I think Hunny likes them more. Since he can see them and I really can't. :P

We then meandered to a huge wooden roller coaster. Both Hunny and I love roller coasters. Well I LOVE them and Hunny is used to them since it is about the same flying a helicopter. The roller coaster was noted to be the steepest wooden roller coaster in the world. Not sure if I really believe them, except the drop off was almost tilted in past straight down. I didn't realize how steep it was till I was on it. All I saw was the climb and thought it was about the same but Hunny said no and pointed and when I saw it I wanted off. Why did I pick the very front seats? There was no way I was going down that! But we rounded the last bend and up went the hands. WWOOO HOOO!!! It was crazy awesome. I had never sat in the front of a roller coaster before. I had tears streaked back to my ears it was so fast. If the line wasn't an hour long we would have done it again. And mind you, it was a week day. I'm glad we didn't go on Saturday.

Grabbed some food before we starved and hit up some smaller attractions. A 4D Korean theater, a spooky 'rotating house' and while on the swinging boat we saw some of the rides we wanted had finally lit up. We raced over with our last remaining light and got in line for a smaller metal coaster. Unfortunately it set my pending headache over the edge with my ears beating the side holders. With not much time left and my sickness, we started to walking and looking around the gardens we had previously skipped. Currently a Rose Festival is going on. So we walked through the gorgeous rose garden. Went through a few shops. At one clone shop, I happened to find something that I hadn't seen previously that I wanted. Hunny told me no because it was either that or caramel popcorn, which is quite common in Korea. I had given up on popcorn since all the stands had closed a few hours previous. He just wanted to get out of spending money :P We happened across an open stand. But unfortunately it was closing. :( Dreams crushed we continued to explore the night life of the park. Towards the exit, about to leave, Devon spots a stand. It had barely any left but enough to fill our order! I was so excited! I love the caramel popcorn here.

With triumphant popcorn in hand we head to the bus stop. Though it was chilly, my wonderful Hunny kept me warm. We had a great time. Thankfully Hunny didn't have work till later the next day cause we were beat after our long eventful day.

Salsa

If you do not know this, I LOVE salsa...the food...I am not one for dancing. Salsa is Tasty. MMmmm! Every once in a while I will make my own salsa. I have done it for years. I have made all kinds of salsas. I have made hot salsa, chunky salsa, thick salsa, pineapple salsa, salsa with corn, and even mango salsa. (I've also made guac.) I don't remember how I got started, one day I just decided that I wanted to make salsa so I looked up what all I needed and went to work. I once had a New Year's Eve party with a bunch of friends and had a salsa making contest as part of the festivities. It was pretty awesome! So what I think I am trying to say is, I love salsa.

So Bee and I got a Ninja® Blender from my aunt as a wedding gift (Thank you Suzanne). I am not going to lie, it's Awesome! I love blenders. So I usually hand cut my salsa makings but sense we have this blender we thought we would give it a whirl. So we cut up all our ingredients, shoved them in and pressed go. It does not take long at all for that Ninja to dice and mix all the various veggies into a scrumptious salsa. And it made for a good picture to see all them veggies in that blender. Doesn't it make you jealous? Go ahead, put your computer aside and go make some salsa. All you really need is tomatoes, onion, peppers, cilantro, salt, and lime juice.

Cartoon Museum

Bee and I made plans to go to Namdaemun to go shopping and buy her some yarn today but we never made it there. I wanted to to stop by this other part of the city on the way to price out climbing ropes and then walk the rest of the way to Namdaemun. If you take the subway everywhere you miss out on seeing much of the city. We stopped for my rope and started walking toward Namdaemun when we went in this underground shopping place (referred to as Arcades here in Korea) and discovered several yarn shops. Bee tried to get some yarn from this one lady but for some reason or another she would not sell us her yarn. We think it was because her yarn was for making clothes out of- not blankets. She even told a lady of another shop not to sell to us. What's the deal!? It's yarn! We quickly left there to escape the Yarn Nazi and continued walking toward Namdaemun.

Out of the arcade and across a small bridge we wandered down this street. To our amazement all along this street was nothing but yarn shops; we hit the mother load! Bee was in heaven. We went from shop to shop until we found the yarn Bee was looking for. Yarn ladies are tough, and they do not haggle at all. We got Bee her yarn and continued our journey toward Namdaemun. It was farther than I originally thought. Our walk took us next to this Korean Comic Museum and I thought it would be fun to check it out.

It is kind of silly visiting a Korean Comic Museum not knowing Korean but it was fun none-the-less. It was more oriented for little kids and that meant I was right at home. A lot of what was there was this kid cartoon of transforming safety vehicles that help other vehicles. I think I've seen something like it in the U.S. but I am not sure what it is called. There was also this place you could mold your own anime characters and then make little stop motion movies. The part Bee and I were most interested in was the three artists at the front drawing characters museum guests, two of them where using pastel but one was using watercolor. Bee and I decided we wanted one for the two of us so we waited for the guy doing the watercolors to finish and then sat while he painted us. I think it turned out great! I am glad we did it.

Lemon

So today our car got towed to the junkyard. Hunny bought it for $300 off a coworker when he got here. They both knew it was a junky car but that it would get around for a while longer. There was this one incident with the transmission- It has always given Hunny problems but as we loaded up to go to church it got out of the gate and decided it wasn't going any farther. Hunny has always driven a manual and didn't realize it needed fluid. After we filled it with transmission fluid it worked better than when he bought it. But tragically, something happened. On our way home from Osan while running some errands before the ball, Hunny happened to look down and see the temperature needle well over the red danger zone. He was torn between driving it into the ground or pulling over on the side of the expressway to let it cool off, which would put us later to the ball. The car made the decision for him. We pulled over and Hunny attempted to cool it. It didn't touch the needle's tense stature. we drove it a little farther to an off ramp and left it there. Hunny and I retrieved it Tuesday only to get 2 and a half miles from home before over heating again. We ran there that night to drive it the rest of the way. And now today, I cleaned it out for the last time, Hunny can get pretty sloppy when it comes to cars..., or kitchen, or living room. We got 300,000₩ for it. I am quite impressed with how long it lasted. It looked rough. The window was being held up by a plier handle but that didn't stop the window from sliding down a enough to make a loud whistling noise. Hunny has underestimated the length of his nose on the car a few times as well causing a few blemishes. And the fellow who had it while Hunny was in the states highlighted a bald spot with orange spray paint. Though with all it's defects and annoyances, I have come to really appreciate and love that car. It was sad to see it go but am pretty excited to look for another car. This time we will pick it out together. And it will be our first one together. A new dawn. And I think I'm going to like this one.

Plant

I am so excited about our little sprig plant. Hunny had mentioned that he wanted some greenery in the house but that it was somewhat expensive. Buy the plant, pot, soil. But one day I was at a friends house, a wife in the church branch, and she had a huge viney plant that I don't know the name to but know that Diane would. I asked if I could take a cutting. It would be free and it could grow for a while in water without having to buy a pot or soil. I was so excited! I took my new toy home and showed Hunny.

The same week if not the next day a friend of Hunny's needed us to plant sit for a while. So with the two new additions sitting on the sill, we felt pretty cozy. I had the sprig in a clear plastic cup of water for quite a while but the roots were barely moving. It wasn't dying, just being stagnant. Hunny got a great idea, we took one or two dirt clods from the potted foreigner and plopped them in the baby cup. The roots have since taken off and even a new leaf has sprouted. Oh just think of how well it'll do in really soil. I love that we got it pretty early in our marriage. I'm hoping to keep it and watch it grow with our marriage. To have somewhat of a tangible time counter.

Festivals

So this week has been crazy. Thursday was Cinco de Mayo in the States, while here in good ol' South Korea, it was Children's Day. Plus, this week is Hi Seoul Festival. And instead of Mother's Day is Parents' Day. Tuesday is Buddha's Birthday. After a church meeting Saturday night we attempted to make the most of everything. Hunny and I subwayed ourselves over to the River/Stream across from the Palace and got to see the art work and even a mist light show. Farther down, in the river were these lantern statues. They were lanterns that were shaped into different figures like a rabbit or a palace. Above the river we heard loud activities going on and decided to check it out. It was a lantern parade. There were floats made from huge sculptures of lanterns. One was a gigantic elephant. And Koreans dressed in traditional attire carrying lantern balls. It was fun. After a while they opened the streets and a concert started on stage. Hunny and I left since, first off it was SO loud and second, it didn't help that the noise pounded into us was all in Korean. So we meandered down the street and saw the brightly decorated Buddhist Temple. There was a ceiling of lantern lights and the tree that went through it had lanterns all along the branches. They were giving out free lanterns everywhere you turned.

Click picture to see more

In the temple were three huge golden statues of Buddha and you could go in and bow. On the outside was a small fountain with a statue of Buddha sitting on the water where you could pour water on him. It was a neat experience to watch the celebration. We weren't sure if it was a festival of lanterns, Hi Seoul related, or if it was to celebrate Buddha's Birthday. Either way, we enjoyed ourselves and were glad we could see it.

So on Sunday, after District Conference we ate a picnic lunch at a park that was holding a Seoul Friendship Festival and looked around after eating. The part we saw was a line of stands from all sorts of different countries around the world. They called it around the world in two days because it was a 2-day event. After that we subwayed ourselves over to Yeouido where we discovered most of the events for the Hi Seoul Festival were taking place. It all made for a long day but we had fun.

AAAA Ball

My first Ball. And what an experience it was. Hunny and I had a ball on Friday. It was the Army Aviation Association of America Ball. Not really sure what it was for or what all that means. All I know was I got to buy a nice, fancy dress and get all pretty. But it wasn't smooth sailing the whole way there.

Hunny and I had to go south, down to Osan to pick up a few things before we could get ready. Mind you, Osan is about an hour away. On our way home, after already having forgot something and having to go back and pick it up, Hunny looked down and happen to see something- the temperature needle pointing above the red mark of dangerous. So he questions if he should just run the $300 dollar car into the ground or stop to see if it will cool. We were only able to get so far before the decision was made for him. We pull over and no amount of water could move the needle. So we left the car and got a taxi. We got in the taxi about 20 minutes before the ball even started.

We made it home after paying with an arm and had to get ready in 30 minutes in order to make it to dinner. Hmmm... but how were we going to do that with no car. Hunny found us a ride and I did my make-up in the car. We were backed up in traffic for well over the hour it was supposed to take us and surprisingly made it in the middle of the toast before dinner.

Click picture to see more

The ball was at the Grand Hyatt. If you don't know, which I didn't realize how much, the Hyatt is a VERY fancy, and expensive place. Our appetizers alone made me wide eyed and open mouthed. It was a square of fish with some fancy drizzled stuff around the dish that you only see in shi shi restaurants on TV. During the meal, we had some delightful entertainment. 4 or 5 Koreans dressed in old timey costumes and played on huge drums. It was so fun. Then, after a bit after them, an award ceremony commenced. I'm assuming that is one of the reasons the ball was set up in the first place.

Then after some yelling for our battalion and their awards, the 'formalities' were over and off came the jackets. I didn't know beforehand, but if the ladies get to dress up in evening gowns, what do the gentlemen get. Not just their shanzy uniforms, here in Korea, you get a 'party shirt' made. The cuffs and front are normal so with the jacket on you can't tell the sleeves and back are a different pattern and fabric...or if you are one of the guys there, with no sleeves at all.

With a live band and a dance floor we partied it up. It was nice knowing quite a few of the people there from our battalion. The people are so nice and fun. We had an enjoyable time. Talk about tired from a long day. We made it home after I napped a bit in the car ride. :) I was partied out.

Dongdaemun

So there is a ball coming up and therefore I need a dress. I've talked around and keep hearing Dongdaemun and Namdaemun market. So today Hunny and I finally made it out to start the search. First we have to find it. Hunny is the navigator in the family. I'm the one that would read it upside down and Hunny can tell when one is upside down but the words aren't, like how the maps in the subway are (north was down).

We weren't really sure what we were looking for when we got there. But when we got to the area where Hunny's phone said Dongdaemun was, there were malls after malls built right next to each other. A girl's dream. And I was to buy a fancy evening gown. Oh I was excited to look around. Fashion is a huge deal here in Korea. Men will wear suits everywhere. Women and most young ladies will where heels no matter where they are. Running in the Subway station in 3 1/2 inch heels is not unheard of. So looking around at all the options of accessories and clothes and shoes was almost overwhelming. But as many clothes and stores as there were, we could not find evening dresses. After about the third mall, Hunny decided to look all around this one store on a floor I knew would be fruitless only to find a small selection of gorgeous dresses. Koreans are very helpful. Because they want you to buy their stuff. I would have to say this one was a wee bit too eager for me. After she opened the mirror door to the hidden, 2x2 dressing room, I had barely gotten the dress on when she opens up. I thought she was being impatient but she was wanting to zip up my dress. "Can you let me get it up first?" Being in the band and having to zip the uniform zipper I was quite capable of doing it myself but I didn't have time to get to it before she was pulling up my dress for me to zip me up. I tried on a few and settled on a gorgeous floor length purple sparkly one.

We continued to look around since we were there and had completed our mission so quickly, we thought we could relax a bit. We grabbed a bite to eat on one of the floors of the mall and grabbed some caramel popcorn from the theater on the same floor. That is one thing I love about the malls here. Is there are theaters on the top floor. AND they sell CARAMEL popcorn. MMMMmmm!!!!

In another mall we got to a floor and part of it was a hair cutting place. I've been meaning to get my hair cut for a while now but wasn't sure how. I always do the same cut and my sister has always been the one to do it for me. I knew how to explain it to her. But I was here and decided to go big or go home. I picked out a cut. Except it was about the same cut as always so...almost big. But the funniest and most scary part was communicated how I wanted it. She was Korean and therefore spoke... Korean. I was scared but excited. I love getting my hair cut. I turned out great and she styled it and guess what? It was only 20,000 won. I was floored. There was no way. But yeah. I felt great. I looked pretty nice if I do say so myself.