Mike's Korean Adventure!: Lunar New Year and My Birthday

It has been awhile since I last posted a blog. Maybe a little too long. The weeks after Christmas break were pretty laid back with not a lot going on during the weekends. Two weeks ago we had a 3 day weekend because of the Asian lunar new year. This time of the year is very important to Koreans. It may be even more of a celebration in China because people will celebrate for the entire week around the new year. This year the new year was on a Sunday. Normally on holidays you get the day before, the day of, and the day after off of work. It was too bad that this fell on a Sunday. It would have been nice to get more days off. Emily and I had planned to visit either Shanghai or Japan but the prices were a little expensive and the flight times weren't the best. Instead we decided to venture around Seoul some more and visit places we had not seen yet.

On Saturday we went to a popular mall named Coex. Among all the stores there was an aquarium and a kimchi museum (which I definitely want to see someday). The aquarium was really cool. It took us about 1.5 hours to walk through it. The aquarium had many types of fish from all around the world and some land animals. The path to follow in the aquarium took you through different parts of the world showing you fish from that region. One cool part of the exhibit was that fish tanks were created using household or things you might see outside. There were fish tanks inside of a refrigerator, washing machine, phone booth, toilet, mail box, etc.

A very interesting looking fish

Washing machine fish tank

Spider Man mailbox fish tank. That was my favorite.

Traditional Korea next to a Coke machine

A pig-turtle

Shark tank

Emily and the jellyfish

The last part of the aquarium was the penguin habitat

Sunday happened to be the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day. We started the day off by going to Gwanghwamun, a region of Seoul. I have been here before to look at some of the palaces. This time there was a big festival going on on the street to celebrate. Along the street there was different concerts going on, an ice skating rink, and many people flying kites. Emily and I decided it would be fun to fly kites like all the Koreans were. After flying the kites and walking around the area we went to a little sandwich shop for dinner which was delicious.

Kites in the sky

Emily flying a kite

After the street festival we went to Seoul Tower. This tower is in central Seoul and has a great view of the city especially at night. The tower is 777 ft. tall. The tower sits on top of a big hill so in order to get to the base of the tower we had to take a cable car. When we got to the base of the tower there was a few restaurants, gift shop, and things to look at. The cool thing about the tower is that along the fence that surrounds the tower at the top of the hill people who are dating or married put padlocks on the fence and then are supposed to throw the key over the side. All of the fence space is full of locks that couples have put over time. We were able to find a spot that was open. We put a padlock on the fence that we had bought from the gift shop. Putting the locks on the fence is supposed to bring good luck to those people so hopefully it does! After doing that we went to the top of the tower. Knowing my fear of heights I was surprised that I wasn't freaking out. I did get a little scared however, when walking to the window to look outside. I made sure to stay about 2 steps away! Who knows if I'll ever get over that fear or not. On the windows around the top of the tower it showed international cities and countries that you are looking out at. Going to Seoul Tower was really cool and it was a cool way to spend Valentine's Day. I plan on visiting it again in the future but during the day this time so I can see how much different the city looks when its light outside.

View from the spot where the cable car left

Base of the tower. I liked this picture because in the corner is a traditional Korean structure. It looked cool to mix a traditional and modern styles.

The fence that went around the base of the tower. As you can tell it is full of locks people have left. Our lock it behind the while pole near the Korean couple.

Somewhere far, far, far away is Des Moines!

Lastly, Saturday was my birthday. The plan was to go out to dinner with Emily and then meet up with friends in Sinchon and Hongdae (two places very close to where I live. These places have universities so many people around our age hang out there). Little did I know that Emily secretly planned a surprise party for me. The restaurant was On the Boarder. A Mexican restaurant from America. We got to the restaurant at 8. Not expecting anything we were walked to our table which was in one of the big rooms set for larger groups. As we walked I finally saw all of our friends sitting at the table. I was extremely surprised and excited! It was a great way to spend the night, eating and going out with all of my friends here in Korea. A few of my co-workers and a bunch of Emily's came. As we all know at restaurants when its someone's birthday they sing happy birthday to you. They gave me a poncho and sombrero to wear. After dinner we went to a bar owned by two Canadian men and we watched some of the olympics. It's been cool to be able to watch the olympics here. Also, it has been interesting to see the focus on the athletes from a different country. All in all it was a perfect way to spend my birthday. I had NO IDEA that Emily was planning a surprise party for me! It was much appreciated. Thank you to all my friends and family back home that wished me a happy birthday! Also, congrats to the SJU swim team for the great job at the conference meet this past weekend. I was able to stream the swim meet for parts of 2 evening sessions. It looks like everyone swam well which is great to see. This weekend Emily and I are searching for places to go. Hopefully we will be able to find a flight somewhere, in or outside of Korea.