We went to Seoul, Korea for 4 days, leaving Friday after school and coming back Tuesday. It was really fun, a great place. It has big mountains and is a really developed country, much more so than Beijing. We got there around 10:30 and were planning on taking an airport shuttle bus to our hotel, but the last one left at 10:20. The airport is about 1 hour away from any hotel, so taxis were not really an option. We finally decided to take a bus to another hotel and then a taxi from there. The kids were exhausted and we finally got to our room around 1:00 am and slept until 10 the next morning. We used the subway most of the time, went to the Seoul Tower, which is a big lookout tower. The kids bought the universal snack- cotton candy. At the top of this was a teddy bear museum which they liked. We went to some markets and Lauren bought a traditional Korean dress which she has wanted since her friends from Korea wore them for International Day at school. At the top of the tower is the place on The Amazing Race where they had a key to fit one of the thousands of locks (if you remember that episode). I put a picture up of it.
The next day we went to a different shopping area and got to see alot of familiar favorites- Krispy Kreme, Burger King, Build a Bear Workshop. We passed a Toys R Us, but weren't sure where it was so we kept telling the kids we would go if we found it. We took the kids skiing on Monday. We got up at 6:00am to take a subway to the place where the bus picks us up (we thought). It was supposed to come at 8:05, at 8:30, another bus pulled up for a different ski resort so we asked if they had room, and luckily they did. It was a great resort, about 2 1/2 hours away but worth it. They had a ski school, but it was too expensive to get it in English for the kids, so we tried our best. They did really good. Both went down the beginner hills, Lauren a little faster than Marshall who took a few face first falls. Lauren really had a good time. Then we went in for Hot Chocolate where Marshall had a group of about 8 Korean ladies around him talking to him and giving him hugs and kisses. They taught him how to say Hi in Korean. They also had a tube hill, where you could sled down, so the kids did that about 10 times and had a great time. They got their snow fix by making snow angels, throwing snowballs, and just playing around. Things got even better for them, when we found out the bus makes one of their drop off stops right by the ever elusive Toys r Us, so we made a visit there.
It was a very busy weekend. When we were on the bus to the airport again, Marshall made us laugh by saying "Where are we going now? Mexico?" The poor thing falls asleep on every plane, train, and bus and we always seem to be somewhere new when he wakes up.
We came home and made Christmas cookies tonight. Right now, the kids are watching Rudolph and tracking Santa on Norad, getting ready for bed.
Have a great Christmas everyone, we wish we were there with all of you!
