Dear Mookie- Aug 15
Mookie Mookie Mookie,
Gosh so good to hear the you've got so much love on that end. You have so much on this end too. Let's see we have so much to catch you up on.
So this past weekend was a really nice getaway with the whole fam. Your aunt Jung Eun, uncle Jaeyong and your cousin heeyeon came over on saturday and we hit the holiday traffic packed roads east to the mountains. First stop (after lunch of cold bean noodle soup with cucumbers in soybean milk) was grandpa's farm. Boy would you have had fun there. Grandpa is hard at work finishing up his house there. it's really nice with great windows and good light. his temporary accomodations aren't too shabby either--little greenhouse kitchen, bedroom with internet, and compost toilet and pee bucket (that one's kinda gross).
so he's got rows and rows of rasberries that you would love. next year he's gonna have a whole lot more and might even bottle some wine. it's good for him. hard work, but relaxing and he's retired so he doesn't have to worry about making a living off the land. It is however a hard time for most farmers in the region. They are having a hard time competing b/c prices are set each day on the world market and it's hard to compete with all the crap that's dumped here from U.S. and China. Also, grandpa says it's easy for him to do organic, but many of the other farmers around are so worried about high yield that they often turn to the narsty chemicals and it ends up being not so good for a lot of reasons. The rains this year have been problematic too washing away many of the crops, but hopefully these farmers and their farms will be as resiliant as you mookie.
So, we picked up grandpa from the farm and met the smelly neighbor dog who was really nice and a big shepard. you'd like him too, but again he smelled really bad.
And then we went to Phoenix Park, our accomodation for the weekend. Daddly likes to point out that people leave their high rise apts in the city to come to the mountains to move into high rise condominiums for the weekend. Phoenix Park is like a combination of Las Vegas, Great Adventure, Dance Dance Revolution, public bath house, paintball, starbucks and ski resort meets densely forested mountains and spiritual retreat. go figure.
Once we arrived we enjoyed lovely dinner as always by grandma.
Woke up on Sunday morning to a hearty breakfast and then off to the Buddhist Temple but first stop was lunch at this really old korean mountain restaurant... it's like 50 years old with copious mountain food.... you walk in an they set the table with 25 banchan (side dishes) and soup and rice. super duper yum.
The Buddhist Temple in the mountains was really nice. They used to have these ancient korean scriptures, but then the Japanese stole them, but then Korea got them back, and now it's a debate between the museums and universities and the temple who gets to keep them.
Grandpa got your mommy a cool buddhist outfit.
then we headed to walk in the nearby Fir Forest which was adjacent to a stream and we played in it thinking of you and stream days not too long ago. Then we headed to this um, sheep farm. supposedly they are not common in korea and people pay to visit them not eat them. still felt a little wierd being there. not sure what to make of it. what do you think mookie? do you like sheep?
Anyhoo, went back to phoenix park. grandpa got red bean cakes for everyone. yay!
Monday was our trip back home, but we swam some at phoenix part and then of course we ate lots of yummies on route... a place that specializes in homeade tofu (doo boo)
yum yum... and came home to pomegranite juice from your grandparents trip to turkey.
we heart pomegranite juice.
We visited your aunt's apt and also explored a local organic market. wanted to buy this mountain root wine that only grows in high altitudes and is from north korea, but grandma advised against. heeyeon picked up some yellow duck lollipops. To her dismay, later in the evening she found out they were cabbage flavored.
We ate a yummy dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called salem.
the key phrase of the trip so far is jael mogo sim ni da. i ate well thank you.
That brings us to Today......
August 15.. Korean Independence Day, Indian Independence Day, Accidental Anchovey consumption day, Overcompensating Anchovey consumption with vegan buffet and desserts day, and much more.
We drove to seoul today with grandma, jung eun and heeyeon. we parked at grandma's buddhist institute. buddhists get all the best parking spots.
there were military cops getting ready for demonstrations. we think the folks who want U.S. to be in command in case of an attack are protesting against the gov't who decided that they could take charge.
We visited the palace of the former kings and queens and servants. Gyeongbokgung. Really cool because these buildings have been around for more than 700 years or something. that's a like a gazillion in dog years. parts were destroyed in the japanese occupation and restored. Seoul is a real interesting city with these old school palaces and temples with mountains in the backdrop among newer high rises and chain yuppy stores galore.
Today was sweltering hot, but while we were at the the palace the rains came and we chilled at the king's quarters watching the rain getting a temporary respite from the heat. we ran to the subway...
Boy was that cool... i know you've never seen the one in NY because we are not blind and you do not fit in a bag which seem to be the only ways to get you down there, but the one's here are sooooo much cleaner. It's really good infrastructure. Granted much newer than our lines.
We did a little shopping, got some reading material and visited one of three Sticky Fingers Bakery, but hoping to check out the first location and korean headquarter soon.
We're sleeping over your aunt's place tonight and heading in to the city early to go for a tour of the DMZ. We're excited. Can't wait to tell you all about it.
thinking of you. we talk about you all the time. everyone wants to meet you.
you'd like everyone here too. heeyeon especially.
Give the wilkens smooches from us.
And lots of smooches for you,
waggie waggy waggi
sangu and wan
Gosh so good to hear the you've got so much love on that end. You have so much on this end too. Let's see we have so much to catch you up on.
So this past weekend was a really nice getaway with the whole fam. Your aunt Jung Eun, uncle Jaeyong and your cousin heeyeon came over on saturday and we hit the holiday traffic packed roads east to the mountains. First stop (after lunch of cold bean noodle soup with cucumbers in soybean milk) was grandpa's farm. Boy would you have had fun there. Grandpa is hard at work finishing up his house there. it's really nice with great windows and good light. his temporary accomodations aren't too shabby either--little greenhouse kitchen, bedroom with internet, and compost toilet and pee bucket (that one's kinda gross).
so he's got rows and rows of rasberries that you would love. next year he's gonna have a whole lot more and might even bottle some wine. it's good for him. hard work, but relaxing and he's retired so he doesn't have to worry about making a living off the land. It is however a hard time for most farmers in the region. They are having a hard time competing b/c prices are set each day on the world market and it's hard to compete with all the crap that's dumped here from U.S. and China. Also, grandpa says it's easy for him to do organic, but many of the other farmers around are so worried about high yield that they often turn to the narsty chemicals and it ends up being not so good for a lot of reasons. The rains this year have been problematic too washing away many of the crops, but hopefully these farmers and their farms will be as resiliant as you mookie.
So, we picked up grandpa from the farm and met the smelly neighbor dog who was really nice and a big shepard. you'd like him too, but again he smelled really bad.
And then we went to Phoenix Park, our accomodation for the weekend. Daddly likes to point out that people leave their high rise apts in the city to come to the mountains to move into high rise condominiums for the weekend. Phoenix Park is like a combination of Las Vegas, Great Adventure, Dance Dance Revolution, public bath house, paintball, starbucks and ski resort meets densely forested mountains and spiritual retreat. go figure.
Once we arrived we enjoyed lovely dinner as always by grandma.
Woke up on Sunday morning to a hearty breakfast and then off to the Buddhist Temple but first stop was lunch at this really old korean mountain restaurant... it's like 50 years old with copious mountain food.... you walk in an they set the table with 25 banchan (side dishes) and soup and rice. super duper yum.
The Buddhist Temple in the mountains was really nice. They used to have these ancient korean scriptures, but then the Japanese stole them, but then Korea got them back, and now it's a debate between the museums and universities and the temple who gets to keep them.
Grandpa got your mommy a cool buddhist outfit.
then we headed to walk in the nearby Fir Forest which was adjacent to a stream and we played in it thinking of you and stream days not too long ago. Then we headed to this um, sheep farm. supposedly they are not common in korea and people pay to visit them not eat them. still felt a little wierd being there. not sure what to make of it. what do you think mookie? do you like sheep?
Anyhoo, went back to phoenix park. grandpa got red bean cakes for everyone. yay!
Monday was our trip back home, but we swam some at phoenix part and then of course we ate lots of yummies on route... a place that specializes in homeade tofu (doo boo)
yum yum... and came home to pomegranite juice from your grandparents trip to turkey.
we heart pomegranite juice.
We visited your aunt's apt and also explored a local organic market. wanted to buy this mountain root wine that only grows in high altitudes and is from north korea, but grandma advised against. heeyeon picked up some yellow duck lollipops. To her dismay, later in the evening she found out they were cabbage flavored.
We ate a yummy dinner at a vegetarian restaurant called salem.
the key phrase of the trip so far is jael mogo sim ni da. i ate well thank you.
That brings us to Today......
August 15.. Korean Independence Day, Indian Independence Day, Accidental Anchovey consumption day, Overcompensating Anchovey consumption with vegan buffet and desserts day, and much more.
We drove to seoul today with grandma, jung eun and heeyeon. we parked at grandma's buddhist institute. buddhists get all the best parking spots.
there were military cops getting ready for demonstrations. we think the folks who want U.S. to be in command in case of an attack are protesting against the gov't who decided that they could take charge.
We visited the palace of the former kings and queens and servants. Gyeongbokgung. Really cool because these buildings have been around for more than 700 years or something. that's a like a gazillion in dog years. parts were destroyed in the japanese occupation and restored. Seoul is a real interesting city with these old school palaces and temples with mountains in the backdrop among newer high rises and chain yuppy stores galore.
Today was sweltering hot, but while we were at the the palace the rains came and we chilled at the king's quarters watching the rain getting a temporary respite from the heat. we ran to the subway...
Boy was that cool... i know you've never seen the one in NY because we are not blind and you do not fit in a bag which seem to be the only ways to get you down there, but the one's here are sooooo much cleaner. It's really good infrastructure. Granted much newer than our lines.
We did a little shopping, got some reading material and visited one of three Sticky Fingers Bakery, but hoping to check out the first location and korean headquarter soon.
We're sleeping over your aunt's place tonight and heading in to the city early to go for a tour of the DMZ. We're excited. Can't wait to tell you all about it.
thinking of you. we talk about you all the time. everyone wants to meet you.
you'd like everyone here too. heeyeon especially.
Give the wilkens smooches from us.
And lots of smooches for you,
waggie waggy waggi
sangu and wan
posted by Wan Park at 11:30 PM
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