The Saturday after Thanksgiving we were trying to plan an outing. There was a trip available to go to Incheon, where General MacArthur landed and changed the face of the Korean War. But we decided it was getting to cold to take the kids out and do something like that, so we would save it for the spring. Instead we did something much less historical, and much less outside. Mike and I went on a date and saw Nanta! We asked Laurie and Ben to babysit and Mike and I went to see the show.
We started our journey via Taxi. The show was in an area called Myeongdong. I thought Itaewon was a crazy place, especially on a Saturday night, Myeongdong was almost ten fold!
When we first made the reservations earlier in the week, the guy said that we would be getting VIP seats since all the others were already sold out. I wasn't sure at the time what that would mean exactly but it turned out we were in the 3rd row! It was superb!!!!
The cab ride there was pretty interesting. The guy wasn't exactly sure how to get there even though I had directions and a map written for him from the travel desk. From what the travel guy told me we would be dropped off a few "blocks" (nothing is really a block since there really aren't any straight lines or planning in the format of Seoul, its more of a if it fits build it city) away from the actual theater and then walk a bit. My understanding was this was because the roads surrounding the theater were only for pedestrians. I don't think the cab guy knew that or cared! He started driving up this road, surrounded by pedestrians toward where his GPS said to go. Then he ended up on like a dead end, with no cars, just shop and people and food vendors everywhere. He just parked right there and went into the 7-11 and asked. Thats when we reached our stop! Right there in the middle of the sidewalk! I have no idea how the cab driver got himself out of there, but it was no longer my problem! From there we walked a bit, not far at all and saw the Nanta sign. It was right across from the Krispie Kreme Doughnuts!
Some pro-scenes from Nanta.
We went up a whole bunch of stairs and into the lobby of the theatre. It wasn't very big, and had just a small reception desk, coffee stand and a few little souveniers. I bought a program book for 10,000 won. This was a good buy because it not only had pictures, but it gave a synopsis of the show and some history. Turns out Nanta toured the world and even stopped at Shea's Performing Arts Center in Buffalo! I really have a hard time wrapping my head around that idea though considering how big Shea's is compared to the Nanta Theater. Shea's must hold at least 4 times more people if not more.
Mike in the Nanta Lobby before the show.
Me in the Lobby before the show.
The cast for our performance.
So the show is based on the story line that there are 3 chefs who must prepare a wedding feast before 6 o'clock. They are joined by the manager of the hotel and his nephew. They don't really cook anything, but there is lots of rhythmic chopping and slapstick humor. It literally had me laughing so hard I cried! It was a great show!
View of the inside of the theater from our 3rd row seats.
After the show we decided we would take the subway home, which allowed us some time to walk around Mejongdong. I love taking pictures of the city because there is always something new to see here. We discovered an underground shopping labyrinth. I can't call it a mall, it was truly its own subterranean world of shopping everywhere. After looking around a bit, we went up and into one of the Lotte department stores. We entered into the "food court". I put that in quotes because it was nothing like a food court in a mall in the states. It was high class, fresh food, liquor store, bakeries and made to order sit down food. No fast food chains in sight! I was hungry so I got an assortment of "crepes". Crepes is in quotes because they are not the thin breakfast pancake we are all used to, these are more like what we consider wraps in the states. And two of them were on little dinner roll type things. They were an assortment of tuna, veggies, ham and cheese and roast beef. We took the food and then continued through the store toward the exit. There we so many people everywhere, as is the norm here. You never see a mall that crowded in the states, the only thing it is similar too might be Black Friday, and even that is tame compared to Korea!
The hot light was on, but we didn't stop :(
A view of Myeongdong, with a street vendor in front. The crowd was unbelievable.
Street food of unidentified nature. Smelled good though!
Really cute hats for sale...
Lotte Department store from across the street. So pretty all decorated for Christmas!
Thought these bags were funny because we have friends here with the name Kitson.
Whats even funnier is her first name is Cathy and this brand is Cath Kitson! I will have to buy one and have her autograph it!
Some lights in the area.
Decorated for the Holidays.
Under ground shopping euphoria!
Anyone want a purse made with purple balls of fur?
Another endless hallway of shopping land!
There was even an engraved floor piece showing what direction other major shopping areas were.
Anyone want a Steve Jobs jeweled IPad case?
How about this Hello Kitty IPod case? Its nice and chunky and would be kinda hard to loose!
Fresh food a'la carte. It went around the little belt and then you paid by the piece.
Very fancy edible rice cakes.
More rice cakes, just smaller and more assorted.
This is what I ate, the crepes.
Me and the giant bear, Mike said I couldn't have him because he wouldn't fit in our house!
It was a very enjoyable evening, and nice to be kid free for a while! I definitely want to go back to Myeongdong and check it out some more. Maybe next time I can do some shopping, there is even an H&M there!
At the end of my last post I said something along the lines of we didn't go anywhere the rest of that weekend because Daddy had duty. I totally forgot about Story Time. Saturday November 12th there was a special story time at the Yongsan Library with General Thurman and his wife. I have been told they do these special events from time to time as a way to get the community together and promote reading. The theme for this one was Thanksgiving. The morning started off with the General and some kids cutting a cake and then carving a turkey. Then they read a few books to the kids and everyone got to eat. They had a whole Thanksgiving dinner spread including turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, pies and even cake. It was a really nice morning. Laurie and Ben brought the girls and Mike's commander, Major Magee and his family were also there. We will definitely be going to the special story time events in the future.
General Thurman and his wife.
Cutting the cake, every kid there volunteered.
This boy looks so much like his father!!!
Giulianna and Rhyon met the General, he insisted on holding them.
Gotta get Avery in there too!
The week following Veterans Day weekend I don't recall doing anything really. Just pretty much routine with maybe a few play dates with friends and Giulianna's school schedule. There was one thing, we went to a tribute to Veterans concert at the Seoul American High School on post that Friday night. The concert was the 8th Army Band and the ROK Army Band. They had a few special guests that sang or played instruments as well. It was a great performance. I took videos of several of the songs but one in particular sticks out. The very last song was accompanied by what I would call a Korean violin. It is a very interesting sounding instrument. Its a long video and that's not even the whole song, but I hope you watch some of it and really enjoy!
The weekend of the 19th and 20th we stayed pretty low key. I went to a little Holiday Bazaar on post with Laurie and her mother in law Kathy on Saturday morning. The only thing I bought was a little poinsettia for the holidays, which I have almost killed already. That afternoon I went to Dongdaemun with a new friend of mine named Darla and her son Matthew. I did not take any pictures of Dongdaemun this time, but there are some in an earlier post if you missed them. While I was out with Darla, her hubby called and wanted her to get a babysitter so he could take her out somewhere as a surprise. So I gladly volunteered. When we got back to Hannam, Matthew came home with me which was a great surprise for Giulianna. She really plays nicely with him and he is a great kid! The next day was our typical Sunday, with a stop at the big commissary after church. We were hosting Thanksgiving dinner at our house so we needed to get everything. I managed to find a 27.8lb turkey! Poor Mike had to haul "tom" and all the groceries up all stairs to our apartment. He earned his keep that day for sure!
On Tuesday that week, Giulianna's class had a Thanksgiving party. I don't know what I was thinking, I guess I wasn't thinking, but I didn't bring the camera! So her class sang a couple songs and I didn't get them. I did however, get a picture of the class in their turkey hats on my I Pod. It was a nice little lunch/snack. After school was over I had a bunch of errands to run, so Laurie took Rhyon home for me so he could get a nap and my life would be a little bit easier. In the midst of our errands Mike called an wanted to meet him for lunch, which was a delightful surprise.
Wednesday night Mike had overnight duty again. He left at 10pm and didn't get home until 4am, so I was on my own for turkey prep. I was up bright and early at 6:30am making stuffing and get "tom" in the pan. At 8am I woke Mike up so he could carry "tom" to Laurie's house where he would spend the day cooking. Thank God she lives 2 doors down, because dinner would not have been possible without her oven! Mike came back and went back to bed until about 11am. I did some other prep work and hung out with the kids. The thing we missed most about Thanksgiving in Korea was the Macy's Parade. It just wasn't the same without it. When Mike got up he gave the kids a bath and I got in about an hour nap before the chaos really ensued.
Our menu consisted of: Turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, buffalo wing dip, spinach artichoke dip, french onion dip, cheese and crackers, stuffed mushrooms, corn souffle, broccoli souffle, sweet potato souffle, baked apples, mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole and kimchi. I figured we had to have kimchi since we were in Korea after all. Christina brought a ham as well, and Doug brought some beer and wine. We had plenty to eat. Everyone was told to just bring a desert. Christina brought pumpkin pie, Laurie brought an Eggnog Cheese Cake and the Kitson Family brought a Korean Cake. The Korean Cakes are very interesting in that they aren't really sweet cakes like Americans eat. They are really good though, and always very pretty. The one they brought had little pieces of fruit in it. Its hard to describe their cakes, but they are uniquely wonderful!
The whole group was 19 people. Our family of 4, The Hirsch Family of 4 plus Kathy, The Rauhala Family of 4 plus their friend Mark, The Kitson Family of 4 and Doug. It was a very full house. The kids had a great time. I don't think any of them really ate anything because they were so busy playing. The play room was destroyed! At one point they all found the dress up clothes and did a nice little fashion show for the adults. We played a nice game of Trivial Pursuit on the Wii, in which the ladies beat the men! Before we all knew it, it was way past the kids bed time so everyone got ready to go. There were plenty of leftovers to go around.
My perfect golden creation!
Time to cut "Tom"
The peanut gallery making sure he was doing it right!
Getting the food all lined up on the table.
Some decorations.
The kids table.
Rhyon out ate every one of the other kids, maybe even all of them combined!
Everybody Smile! That's one happy family!
The kids fashion show!
Korean Cake, Yum!
All our desert!
Christina serving up some pie!
After the kids were in bed, Laurie and Christina came back and did a little more clean up and then we played Phase 10 along with Doug and Mike. Doug won in the end, we were teasing him it was because he is half Korean! It was about 1am when everyone finally left and we totally crashed. It was a wonderful day. Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday and it was nice to spend it with our "close family" as Christina said. We have truly become a family away from our families back home, and there is nothing I am more thankful for than that!
