Farewells and see you laters...

"We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away.  And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there."

-Pascal Mercier

   The hard thing about living abroad is that most of my friends are also living abroad for a specific amount of time.  Once that time is up we have to say good-bye and part ways.  This past weekend was my friend, Beth's, last weekend in Korea.  Beth was my first friend in Korea and graciously took me under her wing when I first arrived.  She was my coworker and the person who kept me company and tried to take away some of the awkwardness of riding in the car to my first school from the airport with my former boss.  She will be greatly missed but at least we were able to have a fantastic weekend before she left!

Saturday morning Lindsey had a sparring match for boxing.  She was supposed to box for 3 rounds of 2 minutes, the other woman quit after a round and a half.  I would love to post video but the coach said we aren't allowed to.  If anyone else saw it no one would ever want to spar or box her again.  After the sparring match, we went straight to Seoul to our friend Sally's apartment where our last hurrah with Beth began.   

Our first stop was a secret bar in the Four Seasons Hotel.  The bar is called the Charles H. Bar.  Of course to go to a secret bar you must be at your finest.  This is where Sally comes in, I maybe wear mascara once a year and that was not going to cut it.  Sally made sure all of our make-up was impeccable.

The bar is "secret" because this is the entrance.  No one would ever think to try and open this door unless they knew what lay on the other side.  And let me tell you what lay on the other side of this door was magic.

As soon as we entered we felt like we were transported back to a 1920's speakeasy, or thrown into a party from the novel "The Great Gatsby."  As soon as we were seated we were offered champagne and tiny hors d'oeuvres of some sort of cheese and truffles in ice cream cones.  I know it sounds weird but serve anything in a tiny portion and it becomes amazing.

The waiters were outfitted in James Bond style white tuxedos.  Our waiter/bartender was Italian and very attractive.  I rarely drink so I asked for the drink that would just taste like fruit and let me tell you, this frothy peach concoction delivered.  Later in the night, Sally wanted a drink but she wasn't really seeing anything she liked on the menu.  Our waiter asked her for two flavors that she liked  and just went and made her an amazing cocktail with a roasted marshmallow on top as a garnish (maybe all bartenders can just do this, I have no idea.  Either way I was super impressed)

Remember Polaroid cameras?  Well they are back and now all the cool kids are taking photos of their friends in bars with them, or maybe that's just us.  Its funny how it is now a novelty to wait and see if you all actually got in the photo. 

The bar was beautiful and so much fun.  Whenever you are in such a fancy place your whole demeanor changes.  Suddenly you are sitting up perfectly straight, crossing your legs, and holding your drink in funny ways.  We kept looking at each other and giggling.  I guess no matter how old you get, everyone still feels like they are playing dress-up when put in a fancy place.

After the bar we were responsible adults and went and got peanut butter and brownie milkshakes at a 24 hour diner and then went and had a sleepover at Sally's apartment.  The next morning Sally drove us to a beautiful coffee shop outside of Seoul.  Who doesn't want to drink coffee out of gold cups? 

The coffee shop actually had a lawn! I don't know when the last time was that I walked on grass.  Lindsey and I both commented on how lush the grass felt and then we realized it was just normal grass.  Its so strange the things you don't realize you miss.

 Our final stop on our roadtrip portion of the weekend was to a temple.  Beth loves visiting temples and I will admit they are tranquil and very beautiful.

All these tiny statues are representations of Buddha, each is slightly different from all the others.

If you look closely in the left side, near the mountain top you can make out Seoul.  Its amazing to me that you can have a major city so close to all this greenery.

The final chapter of our weekend, was a Han River boat cruise.  The highlight was seeing Banpo Bridge.  Every hour on the hour the bridge has a light and water show.

It truly was a weekend to remember!













Last week, there was a sparring match at our boxing gym.  Since we were there already to work out we stayed to watch.  Little did we know that we would be shown on Korean TV! After the episode aired, one of my former co-workers texted me a picture of the TV with me on it! and the next day one of my students was so excited to tell me that she had seen me on TV! If you don't speak Korean or French just skip to 40:40 for some excellent facial expressions, compliments of me.

이웃집 찰스.E120.170704 작성자 xormr25

Our picture is also now featured on our gyms advertisements! and for those of you who don't speak Korean the red writing behind me says, "lots of women."  Our coach said hopefully it will make women more comfortable to join and the men will join to see the women.









Now its only 3 more weeks until I leave for Mongolia!  Until then I need to catch-up on a lot of sleep!