Thursday, April 27, Osan AB and Missed Train Stop

We did our laundry this morning, then walked to the train and went to Osan AB.  We walked from the train station to Osan AB.  On the way, I took some photos of a train mural in an alley way, where train tracks had once ran.  We walked through the "Hello Market" area, which is right outside the base gate.  Then gate security kept my DL and gave me a pass.  We had lunch at the Chili's restaurant on base. They had good gluten free options with not much ado.  I like that.  I collected my DL, on the way out.  We walked back to the train station and posed on the angel benches that were on the way. 

 On the way back, we missed our stop on the train, so we went on to the next one, which was Suwon Train Station, so we went to the Koex Mall.  I was looking for a sweatshirt or sweater, no luck, but we got some pork and some rice bowls to prepare for dinner.  We looked at the potato chips, and Mary used her cellphone app for interpreting Hungel, indicated a "note: contains eggs, nuts, shrimp, wheat . . . .etc."  We think it was a blanket, cover-their-ass warning statement, but to be safe we did not purchase them.  While waiting for the train to go back to Seryu Station (next door to Suwon AB), we ran into a couple of Mary's friends.  After we go back to Mary's place, I rested while she ran out for a tad.  She walked to the Shoppet (on Suwon) and got us some American chips and GF Lucky Charms.  When she got back, I fried up the pork and she figured out how to cook the rice. The instructions were not in English.  It turned out great, and we ate every bit of the pork clean up! 

Mural on wall near Osan AB

We watched the Lego Movie while we pigged out.  What a great day!  



On Wednesday, April 26, went to Suwon Hwaseong Fortress

We spent the morning just chillin', then in the afternoon, we went to visit the fortress.  It turned out that it is so big we could not see it all, or walk it all, in one afternoon.  It was pretty cool, and we probably walked about a half mile along the perimeter of the wall. We rested at the one pavilion for a bit, then continued on enjoying the lovely landscape, but were annoyed by the wind.

 

Tuesday, April 25, trip to Dongdaemun and Nondaemun and back

I come to Mary's room every morning and type on my blog every morning, prior to us setting off to somewhere new.  On Tuesday, after typing and Lucky Charms, we go to Seryu Station, which is two doors down from the entrance to Suwon AB.  We caught the KTX express train to Seoul Station.  I took videos out the window while, Mary read her book.  We exited the train station then entered the subway and went down, down, to the train that would take us directly to Dongdaemun.  It turns out Dongdaemun Textile and Craft Market is located right were exits 8 and 9 are from the subway.  We went up a couple flights and found fabric.  It was not what I was looking for. We found some oil cloth type fabric on rolls, cotton duck, shirtings, silk, and more silk and fabrics for clothes. This place is huge and stuff.  Mary helped me decided which way to go to cover more ground in our search for cotton for quilting.  We made it to the craft floor and boy did we run directly into some awesome quantities of varieties of para-cord.  She got an AA+++ for resisting.  Meanwhile, we finally stopped and looked at some fabric samples that I decided was actual cotton.  The man there spoke a little English and while I was deciding, on what my top three favorites were, he brought more fabric swatch sample books and said, "This is soft cotton."  Listen up ladies, the thing to ask for when you come here as a quilter, is soft cotton.  Then he said the minimum cut was 3 yards.  Yikes! My fabric addict world was trembling, but I decided to choose just one fabric, which made it extremely difficult, so I could have been there for days deciding which single fabric I could purchase 3 yards of.  I was not leaving without some fabric, so I picked the floral with the green back ground. It was 7000 won per yard, which comes to a little less than $7.00 per yard.  So, I got three yards for 21000 won.,  Not bad for some lovely fabric that I could share with my friends. The man said, "All the fabric is on the sixth floor. I will be right back with your fabric." I sat on his stool, while he was away at the six floor getting my fabric cut and everything for me.  In about five minutes he was right back with my cut fabric. He put in a black plastic bag and I gave him 21000 won. Mary told me later it came to exactly $18.62, American.  He gave me his card, which I will scan and post on my blog later.  It has one of those square bar code things [sparqcode?]on it for accessing his site from outside Korea (aka in the USA).

Then, we moseyed down a couple more rows and found a vendor who had a few interested parties and nice things made as examples of their fabric selection.  They adorable fox, sheep, and strawberry fabrics, gauze backing fabrics, which were really had to resist.  They had a sale stack, which had two different kinds of robot fabric, ooooh so hard to resist!, but I did.  I needed help getting the white fabric out of the pile so I could check it over thoroughly.  Then I decided it was right up my alley!  I could do with two or three yards of this.  Maybe the sale stack did not have a three yard minimum cut requirement.  Well . . . .I asked the man if I could a couple yards, or was the sale stack [2000 won per yard] where you had to buy the whole piece?  Yes! You guessed it!  It is for the entire piece.  A whipped out a yard stick and in a flurry of arms, fabric , and yardstick he measured six yards.  I said I would take, much to Mary's surprise.  "That's a lot of f-ing fabric."  But at a translated $1.77/yard, you cannot beat it for something that is so versatile and Asian looking.  In retrospect, I should have gotten the robots, too!
   Then I drooled over some other fabrics on the way out of the building, but made it safely out onto the sidewalk.  We passed gobs of bright items in a row along the building as we made our way in the cool breeze. There were cars of trims, lace, pom-poms, and plastic ware.  We cut through the block in a wide area beneath the 2nd floor of the huge building, and people were zooming past on scooters and carrying stacks of goods.  We came out on the other side of the building, where we tried to avoid the man annoying us with his loud whistling, who thought he had something to do with managing traffic,  We grabbed a couple bottles of water and escaped across the boulevard to see the temple that was there.  From the other side of the temple, we could view a hillside with a wall along the top, and people were sitting on the hillside enjoying the afternoon.  We decided we needed to rest, so we journeyed to the hillside.  You could not cross the street to get there, so we had to go back the way we came and go around the other three sides of the huge intersection to get there.  Then we walked up the hill to a park bench where we relaxed a little and watched the world go by.  It was a lovely day, and we witnessed five fire trucks rushing through the intersection below, and along the road on our left, which was also going uphill.  Besides being giddy over a lot of fabric that I could not get a little of any, earlier, this was the most excitement I had had all day.  We walked further up the hill and visited a gazebo/pagotta?  There was a wall museum there, but we did not go in. 
   We went back to the subway and traveled on to Nondaemun.  This is an area with a outside market where items are a bit cheaper.  On the way there we, wondered passed "Line Friends", when there was no line, but I said we could stop there on the way back., Okay.  We walked on around and found the Cat Café.  We met a traveler from New Zealand, as we were pausing deciding to go in.  He came and also was deciding if he should go in.,  Mary worked out the shoe system situation, and we all decided to go in.  I took off my shoes and Mary got me a pair of slip-ons to wear in.  They were not as uncomfortable as I suspected.  We were greeted at the door by a young lady who sprayed some disinfecting soap on one of our hands.  We put our personal belongings into plastic bags, to keep the cats from catching anything from us.  We ordered from the coffee menu and sat at the table next to the man from New Zealand.  He was 'on holiday' and had just come to Korea from Japan.  He gave Mary some travel tips about Japan.  We enjoyed the cats and had a very relaxing time.  One cannot help relaxing when a new friend has found a comfy spot on your lap.

Mary tries to pet the squash-
faced kitty's tail

A friend found my lap.

Cat on the counter where you order.

Mary took a photo of me with the cat on my lap.  I must have petted the kitty for 20 minutes or more.  It was funny that it walked around NZ and Mary and jumped up on my lap as if to say, "Your the one I want to nap on."  It appears they have a lot of cats, but they do not let them all into the café at one time.  I think they are rescue cats.  And the one little gal was giving them their afternoon tooth brushing.  One after another she would pick them up and carry each to the table and sit down, and lay them on their backs and use a pre-prepared tooth brush on their teeth.  The cats were very patient with her.  We said good-bye to NZ, and he wished us an enjoyable holiday. 
    We left and strolled on down the way, loud music coming from every store front and in the street.  We made our way back to "Line Friends" and stood in line so I could take Mary's photo in front of the BIG BEAR at their storefront.  Then we went in and looked at what Mary called "more really cute crap we love."  We went on and found "Art Box", which had a crap load more of really cute crap we love.  I could not resist purchasing a couple things in there.  I got me a note pad, so I would not have to write my blog info on old used envelopes of Mary's or the back of my prescription description paper. It has a pineapple with eyes, that says "I'm fine" on the cover.  I love all this cute art and odd verbiage smattered everywhere.  I took a video to capture the noise, while Mary was checking out with her baggage strap.

Mary at Art Box with her friend

     We went further and found a place with food. Up a couple escalators, we chose a place that had steak.  Nice place, quiet and unhurried.  Mary gave the waiter my 'food allergy' card.  He took it and a representative came and showed me the two menu items he said I could consume.  I was disappointed that I could not have the gold hambak.  Actually none of those meat patties could I have, however, one of the options was one I had eyed initially.  I had the Rice Bolognaise.  It was a chubby wiener served on top of a slice of cheese that was melted on top of some lovely red sauce that was covering a heap of rice.  IT WAS DELICIOUS!!!!.  They got an A and I did not get sick.  I am sorry, I did not get one of their cards on the way out, as I cannot remember the name of the place.
    We finally made it to the market. It indeed reminded me of the Roseville Flea Market in Roseville, CA.  Mary was bag shopping.  She finally found one, which was a bit more than she wanted to pay, but she gave in and to her surprise when she looked at it out in the street, it had a flaming pink inner lining.  She said it was inside and she could live with it.  We went on to the end of the road and came out where the No. 1 National Treasure was.  We decided to go see this temple.   Of course, we could not just cross the street to get there.  We crossed the street then walked around the block to the entrance.  It was very nice. There were few people there, so photos were mostly unobstructed.  It was the Sungnyemun Gate, (not a temple) which dates from 1394.  Sungnyemun means gate of exalted ceremonies.  It was also known as Namdaemun Gate, meaning south gate. 

Carol at the south gate

     Then we headed back to the train and as we were boarding the KTX express to Suwon Mary got me laughing so hard I could hardly breath.  I think it was about the typewriter on her translation bracelet.  As we were walking back to the barracks after going through security, Mary said when we come to Germany we would have to go to the vineyard and make our own wine.  We would squish it with our own feet and then stay up all night getting smashed.  I thought that sounded wonderful, but I told her I would need latex gloves for my feet.  She replied that would mean boots. I said okay, socks. She said the juice would leak through the socks and it would be boots.  I said, my boots have laces, so the juice would still leak in.  We had a great laugh and I still think latex socks or gloves.  This morning Mary told me that "Grapes are known to be great arch supports."  And there you have it! 

Tuesday, May 25 -going to Dongdaemun textile & craft market!

I made myself stay in bed this morning until 5:50 a.m..  Got up showered, washed hair, brushed teeth, etc. Got things organized and put the badge in my pocket for quick access at the gate, so I can swap it for my DL.  They take my DL every time I go on base.  Mary was busy cleaning her kitchen, when I got to her room.  We are going to Dongdaemun!!!!  Later!

Monday, April 24

Got up at 5 a.m. Could not sleep any more. I got my snuggly-long sleeved top on and listened to the remainder of my audio book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.  I am glad it had a happy ending.  I had GF Lucky Charms for breakfast, then  I washed my hands with Mary's toothpaste.   It was in a pump container just like hand soap! My hands were minty clean. We caught the train to Osan.  We went to the money exchange, so I could get some local won to spend at Dungdaemun tomorrow, We took photos with angel wings, as we walked back to the station at Songtan.  Although, parts of some communities are not that clean/tidy, I like the magical child-like artwork that seems sprinkled here and there along the way, such as the train painting in the alley way and the angel wings bench.
     After we returned to Suwon, we walked to the E-mart.  It was magical and I managed to purchase only three things, one being a pair of much needed scissors.  I found a small pillow.  I was walking around with it, when I found this bin in the aisle way, with big body pillows, that had either penguins or polar bears on them.  They were so soft!  Mary and I were admiring them, when two older Korean ladies came up and did the same thing.  One looked at me and said something about my little pillow.  Mary said, "Eggy means baby."  I just held it to my chest and said I love it, and the two ladies and Mary all laughed.  It was a fun moment.  
    The stuff they have at the E-mart is the same kinds of thing in the US, but they have different designs and more artful.  They have the best kid stuff and school supplies!  We walked back to Suwon AB where I am inspecting a building.  My feet were killing me.  We chilled at Mary's digs for the rest of the day.  We watched some You Tube videos and a couple movies.  We watched "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Kubo and the Two Strings." 

Sunday, April 23

We caught the express train to Seoul, then transferred from one train line to another, and then another to get to the Seoul Aquarium.  We found PF Chang's right next to the mall where the aquarium is located.  We had lunch and relaxed. There were only three GF items marked on the menu, so I had the moogu guypan and raspberry oolong tea.  [I will have to come back and update this entry with some correct spellings and terminology.]  We spent a few hours at the aquarium. Who knew an aquarium in a mall could be so big??  It did not look huge, but wound about with exhibit after exhibit and it just got better at every turn.  There were lots of young parents with small children there. Between the sea creatures and the excited enthusiastic children, there was a lot to appreciate.
     After the aquarium we walked around the mall.  We took our photo at the picture wall and got it posted. About a dozen people were having fun posing for photos to post on the wall. After all that walking, we walked back to the train.  It was a shorter route back, but we still had to change trains the same number of times and these trains all stopped at every single stop, so it took a lot longer to get back to Suwon.  Lesson learned,.  I was pooped! I feel asleep on Mary's couch while she was looking at all her photos from the day. She woke me up and walked me to my room, where I took a hot shower and fell into bed.  ZZZZZZzzzzzz

Made It To Suwon South Korea

I had a long flight. It was only eleven and half hours from Seattle to Inchon,. I found Mary waiting for me at the airport.  We crossed the really long bridge to the main land.  She was driving the only big pick-up on the road.  She gave me a tour of Suwon AB.  I relaxed a few minutes, then we walked to the train and went into Suwon for dinner.  She had printed out, and laminated, some cards with information about gluten free dinning in SK.  We had a couple kinds of pork, grilled right in the center of our table at the restaurant, with vegetables and lettuce for making wraps.  It was wonderful.  And I didn't get sick! Yeah!  Then we went across the street to admire some socks and had to get some . . . .oh this was a fine little treasure trove shop!  I got Mary a little, and I mean little, blue tooth shutter control thingy for her camera,.  She took a funny photo with it this morning and showed her dad when were skyping this morning.  (it was Saturday night in Idaho, but Sunday morning in Suwon).  I did not know she had taken a photo of us until she was showing her dad.  It turned out to be a pretty amusing photo.  I was skyping and eating gf Lucky Charms and she was looking all cute cause she was taking the photo, unbeknownst to me.

     Today we don't know what we are doing except maybe going to the Tulip Festival. I will add some photos later!

First Use of Passport Eminent!

I am on the brink of using my passport for the first time.  I am taking a little over two weeks of annual leave from my life sustaining job.  I have decided to keep a journal of my trips. I have done journals of trips in notebooks before, but this time . . . on the blog.  Pete got me a new camera today. I got it charged up. Tomorrow we are going down to the river to see how much of the bank is eroding away with this incredibly heavy flow going on. Departing next week!!

I said "Good-by" to my favorite tree.



I am ready to go!