Road Trip!

So today we went on a Korean road trip! We drove about 3 hours south of Seoul to visit Will's grandma's house. It was interesting driving through the countryside and seeing rice paddies and seeing the contrast with Seoul. We even stopped at a rest stop for lunch. It was funny seeing a Korean rest stop. Will and I both had ramen with dumplings (mandu) and rice cake. Yum!

Then we got to Will's grandma's house. He calls her harlmunee. This is the house where Will's mom grew up. Coincidentally, Will's dad grew up literally down the street so we got to see his childhood home as well. Will's parents knew each other as kids but didn't meet until college in Seoul. Small world huh? It's weird seeing how people live in the country. It's definitely different and shows how spoiled we are in the U.S. In the backyard, she has a huge garden with lots of vegetables and she makes kimchi in those big clay pots (just like the Kimchi museum said people did in the old days!). When we were in the backyard, Will and I got bit by a million mosquitoes. No one else but us. They must of known we came all the way from America and wanted to say hello to us.

Here's a picture of Will's grandma. She's really cute! The picture of the two of us is next to her persimmon tree.

On the way out of her country town, we went by to see Will's grandpa's burial mound to say hello. This is what it looks like. The mound next to it on the right is for Will's grandma when she passes.

Then it was on the way home but first we stopped at Daejun for dinner and to see more family! We had a delicious dinner (my second fav of the trip!) with Will's aunt (another one!) and Will's uncle (who came from a different city an hr. away to meet us). Will's family is all really nice and Will is very popular! They all want their own dinner with us. It's actually really great because they each take us to a super nice dinner. It's funny though because I think Will's mom gave each of them a prep course on us because my favorite foods somehow show up at every meal! And you have to be careful not to look at something or point at something or otherwise they will try to buy it for you.

Now we're back in Seoul! Tomorrow's agenda: The DMZ. Hopefully President Clinton won't have to come bail us out.