So, we rounded out Bethany’s visit with a relaxing, do nothing, day here at home. Walked onto base for a comissary run and a final visit to the BX. Ms. Lee had us all over for dinner, too. It was so nice; she made a wonderful traditional Korean meal complete with LOTS of side dishes. We all enjoyed ourselves a lot.
Finally, as a big bang bye bye we drove up to Seoul yesterday for their New Years celebration. Bethany, Zoe, and I drove into Seoul and then visited the wedding market, Dongdaemun fabric market, and the Lotte World mall where there is a new Toys R Us. We had fun and got exhausted of being super hot inside stores and super cold outside. The best part, though, was that she found the perfect fabric for a great price at Dondaemun. So, I’ll make her duvets and get them to her later. In the evening we met up with Bryan who rode the train after work, and Ms. Lee and her fam….they got us an awesome hotel room at the Korean Air Force’s Seoul hotel. It was so super nice; had a humidifier, bidet, touch lamps, and other neato Korean things. We chilled out in our room for a while, then headed out again to Metro-it down to City Hall for New Years! We got to see the new ice skating rink, and listened to some singers on the stage near City Hall, then walked to the Bosin-Gak area where it was packed. There is a bell called the Bosin-Gak that is only rung at new years, and a huge river walk near it. The river was all decorated with people, and there were bands, drum circles, and music all along it on the way to the bell. We got to the bell with 40 minutes to spare and stayed squished next to thousands of Koreans until the countdown. It was very exciting and people everywhere we setting off fireworks over the crowd. Some famous Koreans sang on the stage and then right after the countdown, four men rang the bell a few times…we could barely hear it because the crowds were so thick, but it was a deep deep vibration sound. NEAT!
The trip back to the hotel was pretty squashed…we took our time walking back, and Bryan enjoyed shooting fireworks. Bethany and I downed some pear champange and then we all crammed (literally) onto the subway. It was funny as the whole subway crowd would cheer as people got off on the way out of town. We only had five stops, so it wasn’t bad. Bethany and Zoe slept together which was cute.
This morning we slept in and then drove Bethany to Incheon airport. We all hung out a while and had some lunch before seeing her off *sad*. The drive home wasn’t as fun without Bethany singing her bee song to Zoe. We had a great time with Bethany here!!!