Olympia Hotel Seoul

... we met up with mel's friend won who was really nice and although we'd been walking around myeong dong for about 2 hours at this point he still managed to take us somewhere different! great dinner = noodles yay!!! then decided we wanted to check out insadong and arty more traditional area of seoul and ended up at baseball batting cages! mel and won were game to take a swing while caity and ...

The intelligence test (IQ test) was created by a pompous bunch of intellectuals. Its design was merely to allocate names like moron and imbecile to those that might use other forms of intelligence to navigate their existing reality. Neglect it does the emotional intelligence, drive and will power, street smarts, or any other avenue that may be used to interpret reality positively and successfully. I am ashamed that such a device might have very well ...

... my route, watching the flight records for flights going from America through Tokyo to Seoul, and trying to teach my students at least some English. At 8:00 my wonderful co-worker Jennifer called a taxi company and asked for a cab to be downstairs to take me to the Cheonho subway station. The cab would be there at 8:35. So, for the first time since coming to Korea, I purposely let my kids go 5 minutes early, ran downstairs and caught my cab. The driver ...

... Koreans out.  There was a small window in the first blockade, but there was nothing to see through it.  Here we turned around and headed back.  The tunnel was very chilly- it felt wonderful- and the air was really nice too.  You could see yellow circles where North Korean soldiers strategically placed dynamite to dig the tunnel.  They were smart in building the tunnel, because they made it slope slightly towards North Korea, this way the water building up in the tunnel ...

... men come up and start talking to us in Korean. They as is we are Russian. I was so confused. Amanda understood that they were asking us if we were prostitutes (Russian = prostitute ?) so she jumped in and corrected them! Ha! Then, we thought they asked us if we wanted a shot of soju, which we certainly did, but then they sat down at our table! Oh great! We both looked at each other with no idea how we wanted to deal with this. We decided ...

After a wonderful/horrible week that I won't bother trying to explain (suffice it to say that the weapons of war are firing and it has nothing to do with any missile), I finally get over the sickness. Let the tourism begin... A few weeks ago it abruptly turns from winter to summer. I am perfectly comfortable outside in a thin sleeveless dress, perfectly ...

... raw, pickled vegetable concoction indispensible to Korean cuisine. Kimchi usually includes tiny fish or shrimp. Wanting a vegan version, I decided to learn to make it myself. I've found that this spicy fermented side dish is quite easy to make, and will keep for many weeks in the fridge, slowly growing tangier. kimchi There are many types of kimchi eaten in Korea. Baechu kimchi, the most common variety, is made with Chinese cabbage. To make a ...

One thing that I just couldn't pass by, was a trip to Korea's biggest indoor water park - Tiger World. Tiger World isn't really that big, but what's oddly fun is the fact that it really is entirely indoors. You walk away after a day of water fun with absolutely no sunburn - which is rather fantastic. It boasts 7 water slides, a lazy river, a children's area, and the best part - a spa including ...

... great drunken sots that they are, would have worked out a good morning-after breakfast.


That day I caught the subway to the south gate. It's on the top of a mountain and has part of Seoul's old city walls. Fortifications. Yay! The views were great and the hike was nice. I totally fell in love with the subway system. Subways are great places for people-watching and the best thing about Seoul was that everybody was so busy making sure not to stare at ...