Mom in Korea: Part I

I was trying to wait until mom uploaded her pictures before I posted about her trip here, but she's been busy settling back in and playing catch up at work so I'll put some pictures now and do another picture post eventually when she posts her pictures! She basically has all of the pictures with my students on her phone, so the cutest ones will just have to wait I guess!

So as many of you know, my mom traveled 6,000 miles from Oklahoma to visit me for 10 days! When I would tell people she was coming on June 29th and would get a very similar reaction from every person I told, "I can't believe she's coming at the very end! You go home a month after she leaves! That's dumb!" (Okay, they never said the dumb part, but with the way they said it, that was exactly what they meant!) So yes, it was a little crazy to come after I've been here for 5 out of 6 months, but like myself, my mother had never been out of the country before this trip, so she was about due! I am trying to infect her with the travel bug. lol Just kidding mom! I'll do a quick long rundown of what we did while she was here and throw in some cute (and awful) pictures of us. As I said before, the humidity was about 80% or higher the whole time she was here, so as soon as we stepped out of my room or the hostels, we were automatically nasty looking. 18 days until that sweet, dry, Oklahoma heat!!! Thank the Lord!!! I never thought I would miss that stuff!

Friday June 28th:
Mom left from OKC Friday morning, while I was slaving away cleaning my house, waiting for her arrival. ....boring, I know..it gets better.

Saturday June 29th: 
I woke up early and headed to Incheon Airport!!! After a very long 18 hour plane ride, mom arrived! And an hour early on top of that! From Incheon, we made our way to our hostel in Seoul with all of mom's luggage. After what felt like hours of lugging around suitcases and bags, we finally made it to our hostel. Mom showered and freshened up and we hit the town. Seoul was really a blur, and we didn't get to do half the things I wanted to because of the time crunch, but I took mom to her first Korean BBQ experience. Unfortunately  I've had way better, so I was a little disappointed that I couldn't show her how good it could be.  After dinner, we stayed in Hongdae (which is where our hostel was) and walked around there a bit. It's always so full of young college people and foreigners, so it's always where we  stay at when we go to Seoul. Next, I attempted to find the part of Insadong that I had been on my first Seoul trip. It was a much more traditional area of Seoul, shopping wise, so I thought that would be cool to find, but turns out I didn't do very good at navigating. After that didn't work, we headed back to Hongdae and I showed her the park we always go to. In Korea, there are no laws about public drinking, so this park fills up on weekend nights with young people drinking and watching the performers  Mom and I watched some dancers and singers for a little bit, then headed back to the hostel so she could rest and recharge for the week ahead. I promise, it really gets better than those two days. lol Hang in there...funny and weird things happen eventually.

Mom, being a pro at Korean BBQ!

This is how small a normal Korean body towel is. It's about the size of an American hand towel! This was at our hostel in Seoul. 

Sunday June 30th: 
We woke up and went to my favorite breakfast place in Seoul, Butterfinger Pancakes!! (I know what you're thinking, "Oh of course, your favorite place in Seoul would be about Butterfingers.") Well, jokes on you because that's just the name. Unfortunately,  I have more Butterfingers here in Gunsan at my apartment than this restaurant does. They've inspired me to attempt to make actual Butterfinger pancakes when I get back to the states though...in 18 days!!! But I digress. Butterfinger Pancakes is located in Gangnam, which is the nicest part of Seoul, so that was cool that she got to see the difference in a party, college area and a nicer, more upscale area. And we got to say "Oppa Gangnam Style", which is a must. Thanks, Psy. After breakfast, we headed to Myeongdong for some shopping. We did some browsing, a little damage at Forever 21, and got some of Emilee's favorite street food. Mom also really liked it! After a long day of running around Seoul, we eventually headed to the bus station and got our tickets back to Gunsan.

Sticky, sweaty messes in Gangnam! Op, Op, Op, Op, Oppa Gangnam Style! 

Street food! Sausage and Dak (Korean rice cake!)

A couple of funny things in Seoul: 

Oma is the Korean word for mom. We could over hear people talking about us when they walked by or when were were on the subway across from them. The very common situation would be them pointing at us, then saying a bunch of things in Korean, including oma (which is about all we understood. lol). This actually happened everywhere we went, but it obviously started in Seoul.

A man on the subway told me to sit, in Spanish. So mom and I sat, because in Korea, you do what old people tell you to, even if it's in Spanish. (Thank you Jesus for that one year of Spanish class in High School. It's really paying over here in KOREA.) hahaha So after we sit, he looks at me and asks if I'm from SOUTH AMERICA. (In English this time, even though I would have totally understood if he asked in Spanish...maybe.) Really sir, South America? Well, at least you got the America part right I guess. So he proceeds to tell me that he thought I was from South America, which is why he used Spanish to tell me to sit down. Then he also asked me if I knew Spanish, because I understood what he said. No sir, I can say sit down in three languages, it's just ironic that you happen to use one of the very few phrases I know in Korean, English and Spanish.

I should have written these posts as it all happened, because now I'm forgetting it all, but I'll add more funny things later as they come to me. In the mean time, it's bedtime, so keep an eye out for Mom in Korea: Part II!

-Kyla