Yes Man

In the Jim Carrey movie Yes Man (which we accidentally borrowed shortly after our arrival in Seoul), the lead character is forced to say Yes to every experience that comes his way. This is actually (though we hope not unduly influenced by Mr. Carrey) how we have been orchestrating our introduction to Seoul Life. Yes, I will take your paper-gluing craft class (and 3 more classes besides); Yes, I will go to your all-French coffee mornings (and meet you weekly to listen to you burble about your babies en francais); Yes, I will hire your housekeeper, I will teach English to your Kindergarten class (wait, I won't, but I will work for YOU for three hours a week if I can do it from home); Yes, I will have half the office over for Thanksgiving dinner; Yes, I will come to your house for coffee and yours for lunch, and yours for playtime and meet you at the public baths. Yes I will invite you and you and all of your husbands and children over to my house for a third birthday party; Yes I will host a baby shower for two women I only just met, and a third I know only by reputation. Yes, I will learn your language and eat your food and watch your movies and YES, of course I will bring my babies on a day-long-adventure digging ginseng in the demilitarized zone.

You may not realize this, but Paju-Gaesong ginseng has the power to fight off AH1N1 and to bring about peaceful reunification of North and South Korea. This was primarily demonstrated to us via taekwondo and B-boying, featuring dancers in Kim Jong-il masks, virus costumes, and ginseng suits. It was surprisingly entertaining. (Hopefully the collage above will expand to a large format if you click on it. That's a Finnish person holding Jamie's hand in the top right corner.)

When we (the tour group of foreigners) got to the festival, we were told there would be a parade to entertain us, and shown where to stand. Then, it became apparent that we were actually in the parade. After the performances, there was a slight delay before being bussed to ginseng field, as the musicians had to get there first to pipe us in. (But with traditional Korean instruments, no pipes.)
Believing there was ginseng enough for all, we disembarked leisurely, and were last to the field, which when we got there was a teeming mass of people wielding small garden implements in the rain-softened soil. Everyone had bags and bags of ginseng. I found a couple of broken root-ends, which I think weren't really dug up, but just discarded. But then the tour guide gave us a courtesy sack of ginseng to make us feel better. It's in our fridge (the kimchi fridge) awaiting inspiration.

After stopping off at the festival once more, the day was over and we set off for Seoul. Saturday evening traffic being what it is, what had been a 45-minute outward journey turned into a 2-hour trek back to the drop-off point. Luckily we had ginseng candy to eat on the bus.

Yes Man is especially apropos because in the film, one of the things Jim Carrey acquiesces to is learning Korean. Sadly, he has a great deal more success with the language than we. But at least

we're saying yes.

잘 먹겠습니다 - jal meokkesseumnida

The title, I think, means "enjoy your meal," but could be translated as "eat as much as you like" or "get stuffed." We have been doing many forms of stuffing this last fortnight leading to Chuseok day (Korean thanksgiving). Here, for example, is Jamie with some deer at Seoul Forest Park. These deer, though not stuffed, are regularly stuffed full of whatever people choose to feed them. Feeding the animals anything that seems edible (popcorn, candy floss, sticks) seems to be a frequent occurrence at zoos around the city. Here, however, a nice couple gave Jamie a plastic glove and filled his palm with dried corn to feed to the deer. (That's his gloved hand at the bottom left) Bottom right is Jamie pointing to the photo-map of the deer "we already saw these ones and these ones but we still have to see this one."
We've been having some varied food experiences here now that we are trying to move beyond only going to restaurants with pictures and pointing. We had a steaming bowl of gelatinous beef organs in spicy broth that we had to leave largely uneaten the other day, and I made Brian buy me a big bowl of dukbokki (hot and spicy rice cake) that, it turns out, is not my favourite - but maybe it was just park-fast-food version that was the problem. I stuffed myself with crab juk (rice porridge) for my anniversary lunch, and yesterday we had some tasty BBQ pork flavored with miso sauce, sesame oil, garlic and green onions and wrapped in lettuce (sam-gyup-sal / 삼겹살) that was great once the server showed us how on earth we were supposed to prepare and eat it. We also enjoy buying random things in convenience stores and trying them out: red-bean Popsicles, Samgak gimbap 삼각김밥 with mystery stuffing (great value - 2/$1.50 and usually tasty), and strange drinks. Here is some melon milk and some tomato grapefruit juice (tomatoes are a fruit here - we had them on our waffles with whipped cream last week). The top picture is a ham sandwich we bought for Jamie, it was also stuffed with macaroni egg salad. He seemed to like it.

Seoul Forest, where we stuffed ourselves with the picnic food above, is one of the largest parks in the city. It has the deer as well as multiple playgrounds, picnic sites, playing fields and bike paths. Despite some no-bikes/no-dogs signage, many people rented and rode bikes with great enthusiasm. This is the location where the bicycle-riding scenes of the famous mini-series "Winter Sonata" were filmed. It is now a favorite location for "romantic couple story" or "together with sweetheart love dream" afternoons. Top centre you may see a young couple enjoying this wholesome past time.

After the park, we walked along the river to Tukseon Resort metro station. The river is spanned by many massive bridges that seem to do loops and turns just to prove that they can. Construction projects aplenty dot the riverbanks. There is a new climbing wall (and some climbing-wall-art to celebrate). There is a new walking trail with warnings by a cute cartoon construction man telling us not to follow his lead as he plunges to his death with a tear in his eye. They are also building a long white tube in mid-air (the panorama - see plan top right) for no apparent reason, but it will be done in time to "say bye-bye to 2009" and though yet half-built, currently houses a display of multi-media art. No wasting public space, even if it is a construction zone. The riverside is also home to many playgrounds, exercise equipment parks, and swan pedal boats. We like the fact that every time we venture out we find something new and unexpected to do. On our walk Jamie found this:

Yes, it is a giant bouncy-castle-fun-zone (in summer, a water-park). Jamie was amazing as he climbed and bounced and slid with abandon "I'm slidding!" - not in the least fazed by the big kids, great heights and uneven bouncy surfaces. I don't think I have ever seen him THAT happy before.
Chusok day (Saturday), we decided to take advantage of the relative quiet (many people go back to their hometowns for family activities) and take the kids to one of the many amusement parks in the Seoul area. This one is LotteWorld: "Children will be joyful and the whole family will be happy!" It is both an indoor and an out door amusement park. We were confined to rides that could be enjoyed by those under 100cm and under 36 months, but that was okay. Jamie found many trains, boats, balloons and cars to drive and stuffed himself with some "European style fast food." ("Today's the happy day! The family's eating out!")

It turns out that there is free babysitting so we could have gone on some of the grown-up rides: "Hold you hand together when riding with your sweetheart! Keep your composure!" Maybe next time we can "Share the fun of the night!" with the "trip of fantasy for you and your sweetheart" that is "the love-story of two!," but on this occasion it was the love-story of four. Note: We did not stuff ourselves with "NEW! Peanut Butter Sqid" as seen bottom centre - but we were tempted. We did have some "Mexican-style fry pastry" and very cheap beer though.

LotteWorld sells many funny hats and hair ribbons. Visitors to the park took to these accessories with enthusiasm. Bottom centre you can see some sweethearts dressed identically. Couple shirts (or matching ensembles for the whole family) are very popular here ("a cute way to show others the way they feel about each other.") There are shops that cater to just this fashion desire. I once saw a very elderly woman wearing a teal and green floral blouse accompanied by her aged spouse wearing the same blouse accented with a tie in the same fabric. Sadly I have not yet mastered the ability to photograph complete strangers since I am afraid they will tell me to get stuffed.

LotteWorld is also home to a folk museum and a miniature village. 2000 stuffed dolls in over 40 dioramas all hand-crafted with tiny accessories. I thought it was very fun - Jamie wanted to ride more trains.

We took home some souvenirs. We tried out the sticker booth, also fun once the young staffer pushed all the buttons for us and helped us design our final products. And look - it's a bee with Iris' face! She did get stuffed!

Last weekend was Brian's birthday -and yes there was stuffing involved. We raided the high-end department store (Shinsegae) food section and bought marinated fish, specialty flavored rice, meat skewers, sushi, BBQ ribs, etc. Everything was wrapped with great care - the sushi, for example, came in a metallic cooler bag with ice packs. But what took the cake (and we had plenty) was that the boxed chocolate dessert came with a serving knife, and inside the handle were matches and a a striking surface.

It was also our anniversary (now we've been married as long as we lived together) and moving day - yes, our stuff finally arrived by sea and our cavernous home is stuffed (well, not really - we still have much room and many empty drawers). We liked the three giant crates labelled Canadian Embassy. It made us feel important. When we first got here the information line - 114 - thought our home number was the Canadian Embassy and I fielded many calls in Korean asking for Embassy services - I did not ever say get stuffed, but it was a bit of a trial in my first 24 hours here to have the phone ringing off the hook with wrong numbers. Once again we were impressed with the ability and efficiency of the Korean moving company. Four people in a little over four hours carried in and unpacked all my things leaving nothing behind them but several tonnes of nicely shelved books and well-hidden ill-advised Costco bulk purchases. Only one item was damaged (bye-bye little red wagon), and my birth-certificate seems to have vanished, but it went well and then we all had pizza (here it comes with packets of sweet pickles - Jamie was very pleased).

We also went to Seoul Grand Park on birthday weekend. We skipped the amusement park, the rose garden and the contemporary art gallery, and instead rode the Elephant tram to the zoo (the tram was Jamie's favourite part). Apparently it is the 10th largest zoo in the world, and indeed we did not have time to visit the whole place. We were slightly surprised at the rampant animal feeding by visitors and the tendency to stuff many animals into the same enclosure (I think I saw 9 beavers huddled together eating lettuce - see bottom left), but the animals were surprisingly active, and I got to touch a lemur's toe and see an anteater having a bath. We drank some iced coffee, ordered and abandoned a strawberry slushie, and took a very scary cable car back to the gates.

Now, to reward your patience, here is a video of a snake. Zoos in Korea are to please the people, not to cater to the animals it seems. The people are pleased, and the snake can get stuffed (which he might do once he expires from all that handling). Eat well.