Everland & Seoul

Everland is the Korean knock off of Disneyland.  I have a friend that calls Korea "the land of almost, but not quite."  Basically, they make a lot of good effort to be as cool as the U.S., but they really fall short.  It was a fun day with all of our friends from our church, but it was definitely not Disney.

 Since Blogspot changed it blog writing/posting format, for some reason when I add pictures that I previously rotated, it turns them sideways.  I'll try to remember that for the next time, but I'm not going back to fix it now.  I'm a little behind all the things that I have happened to our family this spring, so I'm going to just go fast and give overviews.  Besides, when I wait awhile to post about outings, I forget all the funny Koreanisms that happen.

 My baby is almost 7-years-old.  Can you believe it?  Okay, maybe it's just me that is so amazed at how much my kids are growing up and how fast time goes.  But, let's be honest, I am SO happy not to have babies any more.  It is especially nice on activities like this because all my children are big enough to go on most all of the rides.  And, besides Florence (who is a bit of a scaredy cat), they all LOVE the big twisty and turny and nausea-inducing rides.  Me. . . not so much.

 There was a seal show, reminiscent of something one might see at Sea World.  It was not quite as cool as Sea World (almost, but not quite!!), and it was all in Korean, so we had no idea what kind of little play they were trying to put on.  But at the end, all of the sudden the lights dimmed and "Everyday I'm shuffling" busted out over the speakers as the five seals all started dancing.  That was pretty hilarious.

 Oakley is quite the ladies man.  He spent the whole day hanging out with these two girls and loved every minute of it.  The other awesome thing about having older kids, is that the teenagers can just be sent off on their own with some cash for lunch and a time to meet to leave.  Besides the fact that it was freezing cold, it was really an awesome trip to an amusement park for us.

 After our day at Everland, we went and spent two nights at the Dragonhill Lodge (the Army resort) in Seoul.  We didn't do a whole lot besides eat awesome food from Itaewon and relax in the pools, saunas, hot tubs and massage chairs. 

 At one point we decided to check out Namdaemun market in downtown Seoul.  It is the largest traditional market in Korea.  It was exhausting.  I term the anthill approach to life of people swarming, crawling all over each other, and stealing your personal space--which Asia is known for--as Asian Crazy.  I can't even count how many times were deliberately pushed out of the way, shoved, elbowed, yelled out, grabbed, etc.  Especially by old ladies.  In Korea, after a person reaches 60, I guess everyone is supposed to get out of the way for them.  So, they are the absolute meanest if you don't see them coming and accidentally get in their way.  I had one old lady start pushing me with her body as we walked in the same direction.  She was trying to shove me off the walkway and off to the side.  Sadly for her, I'm American, and I don't care how old you are--you don't have the right to be a jerk.  So I started pushing back, and even more sadly for her--American chicks are a lot bigger and a lot stronger!

 Finally, we took the kids for Indian food at Chakra in Itaewon.  It wasn't the best ever Indian food, but for Korea it was pretty decent.  I love that my kids will eat everything.  They are so adventurous in their eating.  I don't think I tried Indian food until college--and now my kids are always asking for chicken makhni, or thai penang curry, or Turkish kebabs. . . but don't worry, they still like Taco Bell!