New Friend

 Wrapping tires in gold really cuts down on the mystery regarding which tires to buy.

This evening we were taking the subway into Seoul. On the subway a young man sat down and started up a conversation with Megan. He told us that he was practicing his English and asked what we were doing this evening. We told him that we were going to a club in Seoul to hear live jazz music, to which he replied "I've never heard jazz music before, I'll come with you."

This is a picture of our new friend James at said jazz club.

Lafesta

This is Lafesta.  Lafesta is an outdoor mall of shops and restaurants.

This is a psychic reader. We would have gone in for a reading but...you know the whole language thing.

This is a giant Totoro.

I guess you might say that Lafesta has a fantasy theme. these are some magical light up swans.

And here is a giant wizard.

I don't know, would you call these magical?

This LED enhanced escalator is definitely magical.

This is a view into the window of a fancy Italian restaurant with magical Kraft brand Parmesan cheese on display.

Mega-church

We visited a "mega-church" with our boss.


It wasn't all bad though, beforehand we had this festive meal that involved rice wrapped in what I am guessing were banana leaves.

Don't tell Megan that I put this picture on the internet.

Another highlight is that we saw this guy on our ride back home.

Scenic Post

This is a scenic post.

 We took the cable car to the top of Namsam mountain.

  As you can see the views are pretty nice from the cable car.

 This is a view from the top of the Seoul Tower.

 Sadly, most of the views out the windows are "obstructed" by dirty windows.

 I found that if the picture is blurry enough it's hard to see the dirt on the windows.

The Fog

It gets very foggy here in Ilsan. Apparently.

We can't see the mountains.

And we can't see the garbage burning factory.

Shinee Lucifer

This is the Namsangol Hanok Village, it is a village of traditional homes.

The village is located down an alley of high rises and food stands.

Here I am trying to decide what delicious treat I want.

Fish shaped pastries filled with red bean paste,

nuts and puffed rice cakes,

hot dogs, corn-dogs and fish-dogs,

or possibly cotton candy.

Did I mention that it is still very cold out?

Here is Megan in a traditional Korean costume.

We were informed that if you sit at the entrance of the house, you will receive good energy from the spirits who have lived here in the past.

Historical...

Here is Megan asking our tour-guide a pertinent question about Korean social structure and how it influences architecture.

Here we are enjoying history.

This meal consisted of several types of dried noodles that we cooked ourselves over a hot-plate in the middle of our table.

Included with the meal was the Korean version of ice cream. It really put the "ice" in ice cream.

Shinee Lucifer, indeed.