Nice people, good food, and the sites

Let me start off with an experience that happened to me today. This experience shows the type of people that a lot of Koreans are. Mark and I found this little bakery close to our house. We've gone there a couple of times now and have met the owner and his wife. Don't get me wrong, the food is great but i think we keep going because the owners are so humble, sincere and nice! Mark had work today and I was really craving some Korean pastries, so I went by myself. I walked in and the owner came out a greeted me with his usual smile. He asked me where my "boyfriend was (we're a little young to be married by Korean standards). Although happy that I came in, I think he wanted to see Mark. Anyhow, I got a couple things and went to check out. He asked me what Mark's name was and as I was busy getting my wallet out, he left the counter and came back with a pastry and said, "give this to your boyfriend. I call this bread: Mark's bread." [He said this all in Korean by the way]. It was so funny and nice! This occurrence isn't even weird at all over here. People are a little more apt to be sentimental. Yesterday was our second Sunday at church and it's crazy how Mark and I were mobbed with people wanting to talk to us! This lady sat by me in class trying to translate the whole time even though she knew maybe 20 words in English. After church all the women kept shaking my hand and giving me boiled eggs (Not sure why ^^). They kept telling me how good looking Mark was and how happy they were that we were there. I don't think we're less capable or less motivated of being sentimental in the States, but our culture makes us shy in these type of situations which is unfortunate.

Anyhow, on to our other adventures. Mark and I have been looking for a good pork restaurant(돈까스 집). We've looked five places total, and eaten at one of them. Two of them were closed down, one was closed for the day and two were not the Korean style. It's been almost comical. Every night it seems we think "Let's find this place," but we've been disappointed. We drove by a new one on Saturday and so that might be our adventure tonight! So if you know of any good places...

Anyhow, we've done a little more sight seeing


In the secret gardens of Changdeok Palace ( 창덕궁). In the main palace of Changdeok Palace. This is at Jongmyo Shrine (종며). They keep spirit tablets here, if you were a good king then you had a tablet made in your honor and it was kept and remembered here. They still do annual ceremonies here in May. We got a new camera before coming to Korea and there's a facial recognition thing on it. When Mark was prepping to take the picture, the camera recognized all the faces in the background and when Mark took the picture, the camera asked if one of the faces in the background blinked. This is in front of Jongmyo shrine. Again, in front of Jongmyo Shrine. There was a huge park here, and honestly over 50 old men were lounging around, playing Korean chess and checkers. There was no female or young person in sight except for us ^^ Mark's Korean professor from BYU, Mark Peterson, came to Korea and gave a fireside. He talked a lot about Korean genealogy and record keeping. It was pretty cool :).

Anyhow, we're having fun and loving Korea!

So, we're finally in Korea! 한국에 왔어요! I got here the 26th of June and stayed with my uncle and cousins. They're really cool. My cousins had enough English skills and I had enough Korean skills to communicate.

Mark got here on the 27th and we moved into our place! It is small. Imagine a really really really small studio apartment, okay divide that in half and that's our house :). It works for us though, we don't have much stuff. :)

It's great to be back! Mark hasn't been back since his mission and I haven't been back for almost 12 years! The food and shopping are still great! Mark has already bought 6 ties for less than twenty dollars! Apart from eating and shopping, we've been doing a little sight seeing. This is a picture of King Sejong. He is the reason why Korea has the alphabet that they do, which is great because Korean is really easy to read :). P.S: I'm holding up my Korean name. This other picture, with Mark posing like the statue, is of Yi Sun Sin. This guy was a great military hero of Korea and was really really smart. This is in the middle of Downtown Seoul by the way.
This is at Gyeongbok Palace, 경복궁, in the middle of Seoul.

These next two pictures are our Korean Zodiacs. Mark was born in the year of the Ox. I was born in the year of the Snake. Ironically, I hate snakes the most.


(Top)I went to see my mom's old high school :) It was cool to see where she grew up :). (Bottom) That person in the top middle area looks familiar... Anyhow, I'm not much of a writer and the formatting of this page has been really frustrating but I'll do my best to keep you informed. Sorry for the disorganization^^