I don't think I mentioned that it is monsoon season here. The past two years the Youngstroms came they did no experience the rain. Well it has been raining for at least two straight weeks according to the locals but it is mostly a light rain. It doesn't stop the Seoulites from doing anything. In fact they are super prepared for it because they have neat umbrella contraptions at the entrances to buildings to either leave your umbrella or to wrap it up so it won't get wet.
Day 2 was super mellow. I slept well and hung out with the girls and their babysitter. Breakfast here is a mostly Wetern style buffet with a few Korean options like salad every morning and some other specialty like corn chowder or some porridge. There are only 3 tickets so I go with the kids which is super generous of the Youngstroms. After breakfast Diane had a Skype Hebrew tutoring lesson while Kay was supposed to work on school work but instead I picked up a 3D clear puzzle of a swan which fell apart in my hands so we worked to try to put it back together as did the babysitter but we all failed.
Browsing and Eating
Next stop was Insadong. Insadong is a touristy shopping district. The girls were hungry and wanted me to try King's snack or Dragon's Beard. It is a show that two guys put on. It is fermented honey? that is stretched into really thin strips. As they stretch they count and start doubling the honey strips-2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and they get really high into the thousands.
After that you can get it stuffed with a mixutre of nuts, just peanuts or chocolate. We got just peanuts to avoid almonds and skipped chocolate because it was more expensive. It was quite sweet but good.
When you bite into it it puffs whiteness like smoke so it is best to put the whole thing into your mouth.
After our little snack we checked out the shops to see what I could buy. I did not buy anything yet becuase I wanted to see my options. I am sure I'll be coming home with socks, bookmarks, pencil cases, chopsticks, fans, and key chains. The rain started coming down more so we went back to the apartment to have Korean pancakes that are filled with a sugary cinnamon substance called Hota not sure of the spelling.
On the way the girls finally told me what the statue near our residence is. It tooked like a slug and a pipe but it turned out to be a calligraphy brush. Who knew! Now it looks exactly like that.
President's BBQ
Later that evening we attended the president's BBQ for Korea University. It was very formal but they run their events to the minute so at least the speeches were not too long. The president was there to thank the international staff for a successful first half of the International Summer Campus. There was a cake cutting but then we didn't get to eat the cake which was strange and one of the professor's speeches had a super long joke that seemed offensive at first but luckily he recovered. There is always and ice sculpture according to the girls. It is the University mascot. Here are the girls melting like ice.
The food was Westernized fancy. It started with fancy appetizers. The shrimp and cheeses were delicious. The pea stuffed cherry was prety but made me need a sip of water.
Here is the menu:
The meal began with a shrimp/bird clam/abalone/scallop appetizer, followed by a cauliflower pesto soup, then a salad with a yogurt dressing, steak with mashed potatoes, and a coffee mocha dessert with fruit. It was a bit fancy so the girls kept asking for more rolls. On the way out the professors got a business card holder and pen and everyone got an umbrella because it was still raining. And that was day 2
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