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This has to be fast…
It’s 7am and I’m up. Ick. We’re leaving in 45 minutes to go for a hike - a walk - around Chong Wa Dae (the presidential residence). This particular area has been closed to the public for many years for security reasons but is now open for all to see. Yeayy for us. We will get to see the place where President Pak Chun Hee was assassinated. I love stuff like that.
That’s all supposed to be finished around 1pm or so. We’ll head out for lunch most likely; maybe we’ll go to Insa-dong for tea. I’m thinking we’ll eat American food because we’re both still reeling from the garlic of this most awesome Korean stuff we had last night call soojaebee. Omigod, it was so good. We totally just plowed through it. A new soojaebee restaurant (read: hole in the wall) opened up in our neighborhood. I want to be their best customer. Anyway, so the garlic was way overpowering and I’m still tasting it this morning in between sips of my chocolate moo.
After lunch, tea, and walking around we’ll be meeting Kathy and Paul, new arrivals on the Korea scene (living in Inchon - think MacArthur) from my hometown of Seattle. I met Kathy Thursday for lunch and tea. We chatted for many hours. I might’ve had a lot to say about that on Thursday, but it’s, you know, Saturday morning and all I can remember is that she was really nice, we laughed about reading habits, and I had a really good time. I’m looking forward to meeting them today, taking them to dinner at our favorite tubuchongol place, and then going to Macondo for some Latin music. All right!! If you go to Macondo’s web site you can sign up for a free beer. I already submitted mine and now I just have to pick it up. Woooooo.
It’s a dawn to really-late-at-night kind of day.
Ah!
So I lied in the last entry when I mentioned going to Lotte. I did go there, but I also went somewhere else. I didn’t mention it because I don’t want to jinx it. And once you tell people something like this, they usually keep asking about it. Getting worried? Sound like I’m pregnant? Well, it’s better than kids, it’s a VACATION!! Yes, I’m trying to plan a vacation…to Vietnam!! I’m getting excited. I went to Ulchi Book Center and bought the Lonely Planet Vietnam book. Now it’s all I can think about. It’ll pass. If we go we won’t go until next Fall or Winter. So long from now. *sigh* But, I really, really hope we go. It seems unspoiled by huge industry and huge tourist development yet. Things are still really cheap there. But the best part for Dave and me is to visit this place that is so much a part of the American psyche. This big wound. This scar we inherited as Gen Xer’s.
We are both war history enthusiasts, each with our own interests. I like thinking about how war is indicative of humanity’s development, its psychology. Dave really digs strategy and straight out historical timelines. Weird? It is weird. Anyway, I really want to see this place that has always been portrayed to me in movies, the location that shaped contemporary American war policy. I want to see that old US Embassy that is so famous. Da Nang. Nha Trang. The whole country is hallowed ground.
Gotta scoot.
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