Crappy Bread?

While Pete and I were out together last week we found a great little bread shop in one of the subway stations downtown.  It's called Dong Bang.  They sell these little doughy pastries that are delicious.  Each has a different filling.  Pete and I got five to share:  chocolate, vanilla, caramel peanut, strawberry, and the Korean specialty, red bean.  Yes, you read that right, red bean.  Here's a picture.

I have to admit, red bean paste in a pastry was a little odd for my taste buds, but the others were fabulous!  

So as we were waiting in line, I started to wonder about the icon they used to advertise.  It's a little swirl.  You can see it on the cartoon character's head on the bag above and also next to the store's name.  I thought it was a little odd.  Then I noticed the plush hats they were selling, much like the one's on the character's head.  You can see them here on top of the boxes.  So, what do you think they look like?

Well, if you said poop, you're right.  Dong Bang, we found out later, literally means "poop bread."  Wow.  I think this was one time when it was a good thing I didn't know what I was eating.  Here's Pete holding up one.  The dough is molded into the shape of poop.

I'm not sure how this would go over back in the States, but here in Korea, it was incredibly popular.  There was quite a line for these steaming hot treats.  Poop bread...Holy Crap! 

I Never Knew...

"I never knew."  This seems to be a recurring phrase for me since I moved to Korea.

I never knew the Korean people are so friendly and welcoming of foreigners.

I never knew the Korean alphabet was so easy to learn.

I never knew the Korean public transportation system is so amazing.

I never knew Seoul is so safe for being the second largest city in the world.

The list of things I never knew about Korea just keeps growing and growing.  And today I added a new one...I never knew the Korean alphabet was created by a king who wanted to give language to his people.  Today Pete had the day off work, and since the kids did NOT have the day off school, we had a great date day.  We headed downtown to the museum and statue of King Sejong.  Here's me pretending to be him.

King Sejong is one of Korea's most beloved rulers.  He was the 4th king of the Joseon Dynasty ruling in the early 1400s.  While he didn't live a long life, what he accomplished during his reign is astounding.  It makes me wonder how I went through 16 years of schooling and never heard this man's name.

King Sejong's most famous accomplishment is definitely the Korean alphabet.  As a young leader he realized the people had no control over their lives because they couldn't read or understand the legal documents they signed or the laws they were supposed to keep.  He wanted everyone, including peasants, to understand the laws.  He even went as far as wanting to give commoners equal freedoms.  He recognized that the people couldn't be a part of the upper class because they couldn't read or write.  At this time the Koreans were using Chinese as their written language.  King Sejong recognized that the spoken Korean language was very different from the written Chinese.  He wanted a language that, when written, looked and sounded like what was spoken.  He gathered scholars from around the world to help him create a language that would be easy for the common man to read.  That is how modern day Korean, known as Hangul  was created.  The characters were formed to look similar to the shape the tongue should make while saying the sound.  What a great idea.  What an amazing king.

We also visited the Gyeongbokgung Palace and enjoyed the changing of the guard.  

Here's a short video.

It was a fun day off in Seoul.  

Good Eats

We had the adult session of District Conference Saturday night.  After the session we were invited to eat Korean with some of the other couples.  Luckily for us one of the guys had served his mission in Korea, so he speaks fluent Korean.  Wow.  It was so much easier to get what we wanted.  We didn't have to use our pathetic sign language of pointing and smiling.  

Because the guys were dressed up, the waiter brought the men aprons.  

 I can't remember what the meal was called, but it was delicious! 

After we finished the meat and noodles in the pan, they added rice and fried it up in the sauce.  That was my favorite part.  I wish I'd gotten a picture.  

For dessert we got these tiny popsicles.  They were adorable.   

It is so hard to get Korean food with the kids.  It was nice to actually be able to eat the local food.  Yummy!

Day Off at A Palace

The kids had the day off from school so we invited some of the people we've met to the Changgyeonggung Palace.  Even though it was November, we had beautiful weather.  It was the perfect day to wander around the palace grounds.  

Jared, on the far left, was our tour guide.  

Being an "old-timer" here in Korea (he's lived here for about 4 months), he's taken this tour several times, so he shared his wisdom with us.  

Here are the kids on the steps of the King's Throne Hall.

And posing on another step.

 There were lots of fun places to explore...

 ...and learn about.

We kicked the kids out of the picture and got one of just the ladies.

This is a sundial developed during the time of King Sejong -- one of Korea's most beloved Kings.  Not only does it tell the time, but also the season. 

This is where the royal placentas were entombed.  Yes, you read that right.  :)

  Finally we headed to the pond behind the palace.  The leaves were changing; it was beautiful.

We had a great day with great new friends.  

After the palace we headed for a very traditional Korean lunch...crepes!  

I was hoping to eat something more Korean, but Emma was starving, and we had to find something she would eat.  This fun crepe stand served gelato on theirs.  That was a first.

Here are a few other random pictures from the day.

A Shopper's Dream

I made a great friend at church who invited me and a friend of hers shopping in Dongdaemun.  I had no idea what I was in for.  Dongdaemun is shopping like I have never experienced before.  I was envisioning rows of small shops along with several street vendors interspersed -- much like New York City.  Dongdaemun is nothing like that.  The area is only about ten blocks total, yet within these ten blocks there are 26 shopping malls, 30,000 specialty shops, and 50,000 manufacters.  If there is something you want, you will find it in Dongdaemun.  

Here's an example.  This is shoe alley.    

You can't really tell from this picture, but these shoes are displays outside stores.  If you were to turn left or right out of this main alleyway, you would walk into a store with a million more shoes inside.  There are probably over 20 shoe stores in this picture.  Unfortunately for me, I'm a "big size" in Korea.  For some reason they don't sell a lot of size 10 shoes here so I didn't get to buy myself anything.  Oh well, I can always shop for the kids.  

Here's another shoe store.  Seriously, you can find any shoe want if you have the patience to search.  

The shopping malls are incredible.  Some of them have as many as 5 floors above ground and I don't know how many below.  They have stall after stall after stall of vendors.  One whole area will be designated to fabric, while another area will be only neckties, and yet another buttons.  Yes, there really was shop after shop selling just buttons.  Wow.  

Here are some of the bookstores.

I'm not sure how you find what you want, but I'm sure the shop owner has a system.  

Unfortunately I was so enthralled by the entire experience that I forgot to take many pictures.  A few things caught my eye, though, and I had to capture them.  The first was the elevator attendant.   

It's not a great picture because I took it quickly on my phone.  (Yes, I was the crazy tourist taking pictures of people without asking!)  I couldn't believe this was a real job.  Their only job is to push the elevator buttons and tell you what floor you're on.  What a job.  Their work uniforms were my favorite part.  They look like Pan Am girls.   

This is the only picture I got of a scooter.

It's not a great one.  Because the alley ways are so small, the vendors use scooters to move their goods to and from their stores.  These scooter drivers are crazy!  They will stack huge mounds of merchandise on the back of their bikes.  Seriously, I think one pile of merchandise was at least 10 feet tall.  They strap it all down with ropes and drive off at insane speeds.  It's impressive.

Finally, this was what my friend called street vendor take out.  Apparently shop owners order lunch, and this is the way it gets delivered.  

Considering there isn't much room to move around in Dondaemun, I think it's pretty ingenious. 

I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of things being sold here. You could even buy live pets.  They literally had everything.  While I didn't buy anything this time, I'm looking forward to coming back soon.