Corned Beef and Kimchi?

This weekend we decided to head to Seoul to explore a bit. We ended up going with some friends to Cheonggyecheon Place in downtown Seoul for the St. Patrick's Day parade. Who would have thought that our first St. Patrick's Day parade would be in South Korea? :-)

The parade was fairly small, but there were a zillion foreigners, a stage with live Irish music, and free Guinness and Guinness t-shirts! We went out for some delicious spicy chicken (again, we failed at remembering what it was called),  and then explored around a bit. Our friend Jeff's fiancee showed us around to a few places. We ended up seeing two different temples. They looked so colorful and artistic against the tall gray skyscrapers in the background. It was as if the city simply rose up around them. The larger of the two temples was holding a Buddhist service while we were there. There were large windows from which we could watch it.

As we continued back to the St. Paddy's day festivities, some people in our group found other friends. By the end of the afternoon, our group of 6 or 7 had turned to almost 20!  We met a bunch of other foreigners who live in our area. Some of them have been here for 5 or 6 years. A few others were new, like us. It is really helpful to meet people who can give us tips on how to get around the area.

Here are a bunch of pictures from Saturday! I am pretty sure you can click on them to make them larger.

St. Patrick's Day festivities! The day when everyone is Irish!

The parade!

They were doing free face painting as well!

Yes, it is what you think. A women's parking spot. It is longer and wider than all the others. Awesome.

Jogyesa Buddhist temple

The view inside the temple.

People light these candles for wishes and good fortune.

Amazing neon-lit horse drawn carriages!

Samsung Tower. It is not Samsung headquarters... just named after Samsung, like many other things in Seoul.

This is the street view near where we had lunch. As you can see, the sky is a strange color. This is from the Yellow Dust that blows over from the Gobi Desert. It is chock-full of all sorts of delightful pollution that makes you sick if you inhale too much of it. It started blowing in mid-afternoon and by around 5:00, the sky looked like this.

Overall, it was a great day! We left a bit early and found our way back home via the subway. We are thankful for the English signs in all the subways! This next week we will do a bit more grocery shopping and perhaps set up our bank account. Next weekend we may go back into Seoul to do some more exploring!