Rice Wine and Spider Candy... among other things

On Saturday, Elly and I went to Seoul! We also invited Tom, a soldier from our elementary school, to go with us. He's my age, just a couple months older :) In Korea, when a guy turns 20, he has to serve for a couple years. You could be a police officer or a security guard or many other things... Tom chose to work at an elementary school. Pretty sweet place to go if you ask me.

Anyway, we went to Jongno-gu, a section of Seoul, to go shopping (more like window shopping; there was so much to take in!) and to visit the neaby palace. We went to Insa-dong which is this busy street full of shopping and souvenirs. I bought a cute pair of earrings with little kitty cats and a dangly pearl (not a real pearl) for 1,000 krw! Like a dollar! We had a traditional lunch at a restaurant nearby, consisting of soup and sides like crab, kimchi, anchovies. And since we're super classy, we orderd a Korean rice wine to enjoy with lunch! We drank them out of small metal bowls. It was milky white, but carbonated...?

And, silly me, I forgot to charge my camera! So I didn't get pictures of everything I wanted because it died soon after we got to the palace.. grrr... But don't worry! I'm sure I'll be back....

we took the subway in. hi elly ^^ (< their version of a smiley face. cute, right?)

makgulli, a korean rice wine.

good ole anna... gettin' drunk at lunch.

Then we walked around this mall that was also on this Insadong street. It was very busy and had a lot of different shops. Elly bought us some desert. I don't have a picture, but it was a pastry with chocolate frosting inside and it was shaped like a little pile of poo! Whaaat?

While walking down this street in Insadong and watched these guys make candy! They start out with a brick or lump of fermentated honey and stretch it into 16,000 strands. It's crazy! Then they cut it into smaller portions that they wrap around crumbled chocolate or nuts (what the guy is doing above). It's pretty delicious. I bought a box after I watched their little performance. It's kind of like eating a crushed candy bar wrapped in spiderwebs. Floury, honey flavored spiderwebs. Interesting...

After lunch and window-shopping, we went to one of the palaces, Changdeokgung Palace, and looked around the grounds. It was very pretty! And there were a lot of foreigners :) After that, we went to the museum that included Korean history and artifacts. Pretty cool. Some of the displays had English explanations otherwise, they'd at least have an English name.

their version of a serious british soldier. no smiling!

it was difficult  getting a picture of them without someone else standing next to them posing for their own pictures!

straight cheesin'

the kings throne. the moon on the mural is for the queen, the red sun, for the powerful king.

Once we were done at the museum, we went back to Insadong and went to this adorable tea shop. I had the sweetest fruit tea with little bits of fruit in it. We shared this traditional lunch box meal that kids used to take to school. It came in this metal tin and included an egg, rice, seaweed, an egg, and some sauce. You're supposed to mix it all up together; it was sooo good! We also had a plate of little sweet snacks that were so cute. Again... I wish I had pictures.

So despite not having my camera for half of the trip, I still hope you can imagine being there with me... it's like we separated halfway through and I just had to give you the play by play? You just... took a nap... in my purse...

Anyway, school pictures soon to come!
Anna

Sharing the limelight

Anna sure has been posting a lot lately. But that's okay. I just haven't had the time! It was my birthday on Sunday!! YAY! Finally, I'm 21! And it's been awesome. I love not having to feel bad about not being old enough anymore!! Although, since I still haven't gotten my new I.D. yet a lot of people have looked at it, opened their mouths to say something, realize I actually AM old enough, and hand it back. But I can live with that. :]

~Marybeth~

Sweater: Thrift

Pants: Thrifted (re-sewn to make skinny)

Shoes: Thrifted (They're 1/2 size too big but I couldn't resist!)

Necklace: Thrifted

We didn't take a lot of pictures on my actual birthday because we're really celebrating it THIS weekend with a trip to Chicago and going to see Second City. After midnight, I did go out to a bar for karaoke though and then I hit up Elgin's casino boat where they gave me a free case of Coke and a first AID kit (which I forgot in Brooke's car).

I also won .60 cents! After losing $15.. haha I guess I won't have to worry about a gambling problem. I did not like losing my money. But Brooke (Max's sister) won some money and so did a couple of my other friends, so that was good. After the casino we went to another bar a little more well known where they play country up until 2 am but the night we went, at 2 am mind you, they were still playing country. We tried to dance a little bit but it was line dancing... haha not my kind of dancing. 

And so Sunday afternoon my family, Max, and I went out for brunch where I got a little drunk on two drinks. haha Had to come home and take a little nap after those two. I still had homework to do for Monday because my lazy self put it off. So I started that a bit until I went to Max's house for dinner. We had make your own tacos, which were AMAZING! Plus sweet wine and Janine made us shots of marshmallow vodka and Bailey's (dangerous combination, but SO GOOD). Plus we got to enjoy skipping through the super bowl to watch the commercials. :D I will admit right now though that my homework was finished with a brain that was definitely under the influence. haha Good thing it was opinion based questions. Max's dad, Bill, took some shots of us taking shots. Hope you enjoy. :]

 But MORE pictures are to come this weekend. Hopefully on Sunday. I am SO excited!!

<3<3<3<3,

Marybeth