Phil is eating corn on the cob with his coffee.  One reason the Koreans are not overweight is that they don’t use butter and a lot of salt.  You just eat the corn plain.  Also, we had potatoes at Lana’s grandparents and there is no butter, no sour cream, no salt, you just eat the potato in it’s skin and being that it has just been harvested out of the ground at their farm, it doesn’t need anything else.  It was delicious just as it was.

Here we were trying to decide which fish to buy.

The kimchi is on the left in the dish broken into thirds.

Phil had some fried mackeral and thinks one reason they don’t overeat is because it is quite a bit harder to pick up something with chopsticks than a fork!

This was the fish that was picked for our lunch.

Lana’s mother serving some soup to her sister.  We tried a variety of soups and really enjoyed them.

It looks like so much and it is, but they are small dishes and you pass them around for everyone to share.

You can make things as spicy as you want by adding different sauces.

Here comes the karaoke!

We are already looking forward to our next trip to Seoul.

After the fitting, around 10:30 that night, they also paid for me to have a facial!  After that we headed back to the apartment for some sleep.  Charlie rang the bell the next morning around 7:00 and took us – in the rain- by taxi to the neighborhood McDonalds for pancakes and coffee.  How sweet of him!  Then it was off to hair and makeup for me and Phil went off with Charlie.  After makefup, Lana’s mom and I were driven, along with Lana’s sister, to the wedding hall by Lana’s friend.  We met with the wedding planner who helped us into our hanboks – mine was purple and Lana’s mom’s was pink.  We went upstairs to visit with guests and get a few pictures taken before the ceremony.  Danny’s friend, David, was assigned to be our translator for the day as Danny was busy prepping and having pictures done.  We were happy to see Lana’s grandparents, her uncles, and also Danny’s friends whom we had met a few years earlier on our first visit to Seoul.

This was set up at the table where the guests signed in before the wedding.

Phil had the easier task in dressing, only having to don a suit.  Danny did not seem nervous at all and went with the flow throughout the whole ceremony and the traditional Korean ceremony following the wedding.  The minister took about 45 minutes to go through the ceremony which should have only taken about 30 minutes.  There was a wedding every hour for almost the whole day at the wedding hall and the kids were afraid it was going to throw the whole days schedule off if he went on any longer.  Danny’s friends, Adam and Andrew performed a song at the end of the ceremony with Andrew on guitar and Adam singing that touched everyone.  The wedding “comedian” made Danny do pushups before heading back down the aisle and after trying to tire him out doing that, he told Danny to lift and hold Lana in his arms and do squats!  I’m glad the parents didn’t have to follow suit!

After the ceremony the guests went down to the reception hall in the same building while Danny and Lana changed into their traditional clothing and went through a ceremony with Phil and I and then Lana’s parents.  We had to each eat something from the feast on the table in front of us and then throw a handful of different kinds of nuts into a cloth they were holding together.  How ever many nuts they caught in their cloth was supposed to symbolize how many children they will have.  All mine fell on the floor, but they managed to hold onto seven of Phil’s.  They should have five sons and two daughters if that is correct

This is a picture of Lana’s sister and her boyfriend at the reception.

After the Korean ceremony, we all went down to the reception hall and enjoyed a great meal.  After visiting will all the friends and relatives, we all headed back to the apartment to change and get ready for the after party at some neighborhood bars.    We were so happy that we were there to share in this special day.

We noticed that there were not a lot of overweight people in Seoul. People seem to walk a lot and although they eat quite a bit at meals, it is things that are not particularly fattening.  A lot of vegetables, water, and no desserts or soft drinks.  They don’t do a lot of snacking throughout the day and seem to be active from the moment they wake up until they go to bed at night.

This is kimbap.  We took it out to the park and had a picnic.  It’s almost like going to Subway, you let the woman at the restaurant know what you want in yours.

This is the park at around the Han River.

There are biking/walking/jogging lanes all around the river.  No cars are allowed here and it is a beautiful place where people can waterski on the river while people watch from the shore.  Next is a picture of the gardens on the other side of the walkway.

Obviously, with 12 million people living in this city, space is at a premium.  Phil was amazed at the efficiency of the parking garages.  You pull in and your car is moved up and around in the building to where they have a vacant spot.  When you return, you give the ticket to the attendant and they bring it down for you.  Also, they still have gas station attendants at all the gas stations and it is full service.  They also have car washes at the gas stations that are manned by about three guys who squirt your car with detergent, spray it down, you go into the brushes and then someone dries it on the other side.

This is the park right around the corner from Lana and Danny’s apartment.  Kids were playing here until very late at night.  We were amazed to see how kids as young as six would ride their bikes to school crossing quite a few lanes of traffic at times.  We never worried for our safety walking through the streets late at night.

This was a park near the apartment that was all artificial turf, even the infield.  It was in an overflow area where all the storm drains ran into from all the streets.  When it rains hard, it floods, but it doesn’t hurt the fake turf.  For most of the year, they can use it and the surrounding soccer and basketball courts.

This ice skating rink is in the mall at Lotte World.  It was a huge mall with an interesting escalator that was curved.

After spending about 5 minutes in here with eggs cooking in their shells beside us, we went into the “cooler” to bring our temp down.

That’s a towel I have on my head.  You fold it in thirds, rolls the ends and open the middle to wear as a hat.  I had seen it on an episode on the travel channel and wanted to try it out.

From the cooler, you went into another room where you relaxed on a woven rug in a warm room, but not overly hot.  You switched back and forth from warm to cold to hot to cold and then we relaxed and watched a little TV.

From here you went back to the locker room and showered in a huge room that reminded me of the showers in high school.  There were a couple of hot tubs on one side of the room where women were relaxing and another part of the room had women getting rubbed down with a loofah type cloth that they said took off every ounce of dead skin you had.  I passed on that, but took a shower with Lana and her mom and then dressed and dried our hair.  They sell little packets of shampoo, body wash and body lotion at the counter and then you pay to use the hairdryer by inserting coins for a certain amount of time.  The heat of the most intense sauna room sort of stuck my contacts to my eyes and I was having trouble getting any amount of moisture behind them.  My eyelids were sticking to them as I blinked.  If I wasn’t so blind without them, I would have taken them out before even going in.

Danny said that there was a room where some people who even spent the night at the sauna.

Quite the group shot!

Those are our locker keys around our wrists.

We had great seats right next to the first base line.  Lana’s Dad bought us both a hat and we were hoping the Bears would win.  We left at the seventh inning stretch when they were behind by 5 runs.  They couldn’t muster a comeback and we found out the next day that they had lost.

This is the squid.

Olympic Stadium is within walking distance of their apartment and avery nice complex.

Here’s the picture of the beer guy.  Just squirt if out of the backpack!

Later that night after dropping Alex off with his mom, we headed to the sauna.

After we made it back to the bottom, we took some shots in the cable car and the photo stop area.

Here is the spread they laid out for us!  Man, can they eat   We got the hang of the chopsticks after a bit, but Phil thought the metal ones they use there are harder to use than the cheap wooden ones we get in the U.S.

Korean custom is that you remove your shoes before you enter most restaurants and certainly as you enter a home.

We spent the night at a hotel on the beach and took a moonlight stroll along the beach before turning in. At night, spotlights are turned on pointing out into the water to illuminate anyone trying to make their way into the country.  The following shots were from our balcony looking out over the water with the sun rising.

From here we headed out to Seorksan National Park.  More good shots to follow.

Here are some other shots from a beach that we stopped at after lunch.  In one, you can see a cruise ship up on the cliff.  It is an actual ship that they have turned into a hotel!

What a beautiful country and the people were so friendly.  They were always smiling at us and went out of their way to try and communicate – helping us with our very broken Korean.

Here was a public toilet on the street across from the beach.

Here’s a picture of the lake that was on the street behind the hotel when the beach was on the street in front of the hotel.  Quite the nice surroundings.

The weather was about the same as it is in Chattanooga – in the 70′s this time of year.  The mountains and the green spaces of the countryside also reminded us of home.  Coming up next is a trip to the beach and while you are standing in the sand looking out at the waves, behind you are the peaks of the mountaintops.