entertaining family

They have been a whirlwind, I tell you. Sometimes when I sit down to write about all of this, I’m truly astounded that this is my life. I mean really. Could all these things happen in just one day?

We’ve been living it up in Korea for the final month of our rather outrageous adventure. Jim’s dad and brother visited us for about 10 days. And let me tell you, most of our experience with them was about food! It was really great to be able to share all the things we love to eat with new people! They spent some time up in Seoul and then headed to Gwangju before jumping a plane to Jeju. We took them out to our favorite elaborate meal—sashimi straight from the tank on the street. The whole place is ondol seating – that is, sittin’ on the floor. We were seated right next to the big picture window adjacent to one of the very large fish tanks outside. So we got to watch our future meal swim aimlessly around the tank and stare at us with very big eyes (very, very big eyes). Jim and I had discovered this place on Valentine’s Day after meandering the streets of Sangmu and deciding to brave the fish experience. There’s no way to know what yer gonna get when you walk into a place like this. We’re pretty good at understanding food and such, but this place is advanced. Our first time, we had so much food, including a GIANT fish that had just been sliced up, that our table was three layers deep in small dishes and delicious treats from the sea. Some were completely unidentifiable and truly strange. As soon as our food came, Jim said, “We’ve got to take my dad and brother here!”

And so we did. Three hours later, we were stuffed to the gills (ha!) with so much fish and deliciousness we could hardly walk. I ate something very odd that tasted just like squishy sea water. The food just kept coming. It was pricey—maybe 30,000 won a person—but far less than anything of its likeness in the states. And I’m quite sure there is nothing like this anywhere in the states. One of the best meals I have ever enjoyed. There are lots of pictures of the adventure of sashimi eating on my Flickr site.

His dad and brother shuffled off to Jeju for a few days and returned on Friday night to spend the weekend in Gwangju before they headed back to Seoul for their flight. So, Friday night, we took them out to a spicy meal of shabu shabu, definitely one of my favorite dishes in Korea – a Japanese soup that involves tons of vegetables and beef that you cook in the broth while the soup boils in front of you. After you’ve stuffed yourself, they bring you udon noodles to add to the soup. And then, when you’re sure you couldn’t possibly eat anything else, they take the soup pot to another table and use it to stir fry the most delicious rice ever. And then you leave. Rolling out the door. It’s awesome. I hear there’s a good place for it in Japantown, so get ready people!

We wandered around downtown for a while and then made our way home. Hit up our favorite little café – Chocolat Village (don’t know if I blogged here about the article I wrote that was published about this café…you can check it out here) then headed back home. Saturday was a busy day for me, so I met up with the guys later in the day. It had been drizzling all day, so instead of hitting the 5.18 Memorial Cemetary, we took them to the Folk Museum instead. Not before we stopped at Lotteria for a squid burger, of course. I mean, who can resist? So, rain and all, we wandered up to the folk museum with 30 minutes until closing time. Always a funny time to walk through life-size dioramas of traditional Korean life. In the drizzle, we walked through the park and museum complex and across the awesome archway bridge. Caught a cab downtown to yet another of my favorite places—the restaurant of only side dishes. I have no idea what the name of this place is, but when you sit down, the lady of the house brings you dozens and dozens of tiny white dishes of all manner of good eatin’. Grilled fish, raw crab in spicy sauce, a million different kinds of kimchi-style veggies, candied lotus root, chun (Korean egg pancake), omelet-style eggs, and so many other countless wonders. It’s awesome. And all for about $5. seriously.

After the food extravaganza, we wandered across downtown towards art street to show them the archways lit up at night. Always a lovely sight. As we wandered, we of course found a million funny things to buy. Jim is obsessed with socks. There are the damn cutest, strangest, funniest ankle socks ever in Korea. Some of you have received some from me. perhaps I should buy more. They really are awesome. I have an amazing collection at this point, but Jim can’t stop buying them! We also found little monkeys with slinky bodies and a little letter “e” on their shirts. What we found out later was this: when you take the monkey out of the plastic package and you pull down on the slinky body, the monkey flashes disco-style as the slinky hits its’ head. “e” monkeys. Indeed.

We made it to art street after braving the Saturday night downtown madness, including the ladies outside of all the cosmetic stores in bright outfits and funky leg warmers hawking the latest sale item. Art street was lovely as usual, but there was something new. We got to the small park at the main intersection only to find that a new art installation had appeared. Atop the bus stop loomed a half dozen large Korean cabbage heads stuck on rebar-like sticks. And in the trees were multi-colored Buddha statues hanging in all manner of positions. Pretty damn cool.

We put Jim’s dad and his brother in a cab to their hotel with the plan to meet them the next morning, and we headed over to the tattoo parlor to find our friend badkitty who had been planning to get a tattoo for weeks now. Of course, when we finally arrive at the shop, there was no sign of anyone. Of course. The previous week, when I went there with her, we arrived to find people packing and moving. The tattoo artist was in Seoul and they were “remodeling” they said. So it was only natural that they shop would be totally deserted on this particular night. We headed to a nearby bar to have a beer, and located badkitty. She had been escorted to the NEW tattoo parlor down the street by two very sweet Korean girls who were waiting for her at the old shop when she arrived. Her tattoo was rescheduled for the following day. So, we enjoyed some cocktails at this bar which was a bizarre sort of old west motif but smelled distressingly of lamp oil – I kept saying that it smelled exactly like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland in Anaheim. Jim’s first drink was some sort of flaming experience that involved layered green and white liquor. I stuck to a Long Beach Iced Tea which proved to be a pretty close imitation of a Long Island Iced Tea, surprisingly. We drank our fill there and made our way across the street to Truffaut, our favorite haunt in Gwangju. This is the place with the DVDs and the fab atmosphere and the lovely jazz that wafts through the romantically lit little room of a bar. Over a bottle of Shiraz, courtesy of Jim, we chatted about life and devised a fabulous way to decide the upcoming election of the Mayor of Black Rock City. A simple vote will simply not do. And being intimately connected to both candidates, it was imperative that we use our collective brilliance to create a wild and wacky plan to definitively determine said election. And so, over 20 different contests have been set down. Looking forward to seeing these in action. Very satisfying to know that the whole scheme was dreamed up over red wine in Korea while listening to great jazz.

And on to the next day. Met the family at the hotel. Dragged them out of the city to the 5.18 Memorial Cemetery for a tour of the grounds. The cemetery was established in 1997 as a means of truly honoring those who were killed in the 5.18 Democratic Uprising in Gwangju. It was an incredibly powerful space, as one could imagine. A large memorial spire stands at the top of a large plaza encircled by pillars. To either side of the memorial spire are two copper statues—one of the protesters and another of the military. Behind all of this are the three levels of graves that stretch the length of the park. The first tier are people who died in the uprising. Some of them are identified by photos and some only by the national flower, the rose of Sharon. There are also people who are buried there who have died recently. It appears that if you were in any way connected with the uprising, you have the right to be buried in this cemetery. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon as we wandered around the grounds of this very powerful place. Young people—15, 16, 17. College students, elderly. So many faces. Not many women.

To the side of the cemetery was a room full of photographs. In a half circle on the wall was a tiered marble display of all the photographs of every person buried in the cemetery complete with their grave site numbers. On the other side of the cemetery was the museum – more photographs and paraphernalia along with video footage and tons of media coverage. It was pretty overwhelming to be there. Still astounding to me that we never learned anything of it. Never. I am so glad that we were able to get there before we left town. We waited forever to get back to the city. Finally got to Sangmu and had lunch at a kamjatang place—yet another of my favorite foods here (pork soup). Saw them off to the train station and back to Seoul. It was a great trip. Great to have them here and great to be able to share so much of our experience here with his family.

That night, I made my way down to the tattoo parlor where badkitty was scheduled to actually start her tattoo…more about that in the next post!