During the weekend I got to enjoy a visit from my cousin Corrie. Corrie is an English teacher in Mongolia, and she was able to have a long layover in Seoul on the way back to Mongolia after going to a conference and having a vacation in Thailand.
My morning on Saturday started dark and early as I got up to go to the airport, but unfortunately not only did my ride to the bus stop oversleep, but I did too. My goal was to get to the bus by 6, but he called at 6:37 to tell me he had overslept. Fortunately it wasn’t a big deal as the bus at 7 got me there before 8, so Corrie only had to wait an hour for me at the airport, during which time she got some needed rest.
On the bus back to Seoul, I casually pulled out my copy of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamozov” and asked if she had ever read it. She laughed and proceeded to pull the same edition of the same book out of her own bag! We thought this was hilarious, so she took out her camera and took a picture of us holding up our books. Our opinions of the book were similar, though slightly reversed; I like all of what I’ve read so far, but I like the beginning the best, while she likes the book but thought it had a slow beginning. In either case, it is an excellent book.
After getting back to Uijeongbu, we went to Deanna’s apartment and stayed there for a couple hours so Corrie could settle down and get refreshed after her flight before we sent to Spaghetti House, a local Italian place we really like because you can design your own pasta. We were there with Deanna’s roommates, Sue and Janet, before we (Corrie, Deanna, and I) departed for Seoul.
After an hour-long train ride to Seoul, we found ourselves at Gyeongbokgung (Gyeongbok Palace), the primary palace that was used by Korean royalty. (Following the Japanese invasion of 1910, Korea is no longer a monarchy, and only a few distant relatives are left from the royal family.) We got to the palace in the middle of a changing-of-the-guard ceremony, so the timing was excellent. Corrie got several good pictures, though her batteries were dead and she was trying to squeeze what little life out of them that was left. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the palace and at an adjacent museum.
After our visit to the palace, we went to Insadong, an outdoor/indoor market, where we shopped around for a little bit before we went to Coldstone Creamery. It was Corrie’s first time eating Coldstone’s icecream, so now she can say that her first time there was in Korea.
Following the icecream, we all were a bit tired and went back on the train to Uijeongbu to Deanna’s apartment where we played some Guitar Hero and hung out for the rest of the evening. I walked Corrie to my pastor’s house where she was staying and then went home.
The next day was not as eventful; we met at church, and after the service, we went back to Deanna’s place and just watched TV and talked until I had to go on post to fold the flag at the end of the day. We didn’t really have time to go anywhere since I had to be back, and it was good for Corrie to get a relaxing “chill” day anyways.
It was really nice to see her, and she was able to meet Deanna for the first time, so it was a really fun weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment