Korea Sparkling!

So we just got back from our 3 week trip to Korea. While it was really tough traveling with a one year old, it was so much fun. I already miss it and I'm already looking forward to our next trip back. Anyways, so much happened, I just wanted to start with the end. The plane ride back was quite eventful. We ran into our friend David Chow on the plane. How crazy is that. He was coming back from a 3 month trip around China and central Asia including several of the former Soviet "stan" countries (i.e. Uzbekistan). Then, a kid sitting nearby started hurling like crazy. It really didn't sound good at all. After him, the guy sitting in front of him started rolling around on the ground. I guess he barfed already in the toilet (my cousin grace said in one of the lavatories, there was some barf on the toilet seat and we're guessing it was his) and he was still in some serious pain. the flight attendant had to make an announcement asking if a doctor was on board. I never thought I would ever really hear that on a flight. Then, I started feeling sick too and had to barf in the bathroom. Gross. I think something was up with the award winning KAL bibimbap. Nate wasn't feeling good either.

In Transit
Because I used my miles to get a free ticket, we had to make a stop in Tokyo. But fortunately, we got a bassinet seat which made the plane ride so much easier. And lucky for us, Oooju just barely made the height and weight limit (because he had grown over the 3 weeke, on the flight back, it was so obvious he was just way too big for the bassinet. I had to lie to the flight attendent to get one anyways.) Here you can see him taking a nice little nap. The Japanese couple sitting next to us had a 10 month old son. They also took pictures of their baby sleeping in the bassinet. It's just too cute. But people seem to be looking out for travelers with babies. We got to board the plane first. And then at Narita airport, we found this awesome kid's playroom. Oooju went crazy with excitement. Below are some more pics of Oooju on the plane. The one with the beer is neat because the open sign from the airplane door lines up perfectly with the beer.





Welcome to Incheon
We stayed with our friend Jihyun who lives in Incheon for the first 3 days. She's so funny and crazy. We always refer to her as the Incheon girl and our friend Nicky as the Dark girl. We met them both in Irvine when they were studying English at UCI. Together, they are the funniest people ever. It was great to meet Jihyun's family. She really took good care of us and especially Oooju (until she almost killed him walking down some stairs with him on our last day in Korea). She even taught him this great song:



So above is a picture of Incheon Girl and Dark Girl. Then there's Jihyun's grandmother and Oooju. She was so cool. She had this husky voice from years of smoking and kept saying to Oooju "Uh-boo-bah" which is what little kids say when they want a piggy back ride. Then, there's the sign for Chicky Pub the best chicken hof in the world. Because our friend lives in a family friendly suburb, most of the customers at this place were families and a lot of women. There would be a table of moms drinking beer and having a great time and then next to them, a table with all their kids. So it wasn't weird that I was there standing with a baby strapped to my back drinking beer. You gotta love Korea. Anyways, throughout our whole trip, Jihyun kept repeatng their motto: Your appetite will be stimulated by unique flavor of the Chicky Pub. Then there's me getting the Doctor Fish treatment at some cafe. For 2 dollars, you get to dunk your feet for 15 minutres into these little pools while Doctor Fish come and eat off all your dead skin. Turns out, they're not even real doctor fish which are native to Turkey or some other middle eastern country. I guess this country refuses to export them. Instead, the places in Korea get these fish from China. It's a scam and some friends told me that one lady had to go to the hospital becuase of an infection she got from doing this. Anyways, of the 15 minutes I paid for, I could only withstand about 40 seconds, five seconds at a time. It felt like a million little fingers tickling my feet. I couldn't stop laughing.


Welcome to Wolmido
Our friend Jihyun insisted we go to the "world renowned" Wolmido which is a little island off of Incheon. She really wanted us to ride the "Disco" which is some cheap carnival ride she insists is world famous as well. She says people come as far as Busan to ride this Disco thing. So we took a 45 minute bus ride to Wolmido. When we got there, it just felt like a deserted beach town closed down for the off season. But we purchased our tickets to ride the disco and sure enough, other people were showing up to ride it as well. Most notable was a group of high school girls in their uniforms, supposedly out of school on a field trip. Anyways, it's a crazy ride, really painful and mainly about hurling people out of their seats. Well, after everyone got off the ride which lasted about 3 minutes, Jihyun looks at us and says, ok, that's it, let's go home. Even though she said there's nothing else to see, we walk around to realize on our own that there really is nothing else to see in the world famous Wolmido. Later on, Nate kept asking everyone if they had been to Wolmido and how it's more beautiful than the Grand Canyon.