Blog 16 - 17th May

This week has seen more entertaining as Damien's sisters left and our dear Canberra friend Ronis arrived. Thoughtfully they all planned their schedules so we overlapped at Incheon Airport on Friday evening. As the one way trip takes 2 hours we really appreciated this excellent planning. Ronis has volunteered to be the guest editor this week. Highlights of the week include a new cooking class at O'ngo Food Communications Cooing Studio www.ongofood.com which will be a definite for future itineraries. Also we are all getting ready for Buddha's birthday on 21st May. So now it's over to Ronis....

How wonderful it is to share Seoul with Susan and Damien. In a short while they have become very comfortable with this huge city and the many many people who live here. They have made their apartment a friendly and welcoming space. The summer cafe has just opened over the road and their are vegetables growing on the veranda. The nearby walks are so different to the Torrens River Park walks but such a delight. There is a park over the road that has people playing and riding bikes and sitting and exercising and chatting and eating all times of day - a fantastic use of open space.

So first some pictures of the sisters' visit.

Thanks to Dan and Jia owners of this business, pictured above, we were taken on a guided market tour first and then cooking in brand new premises. We had a choice of menus and Sean the chef taught us Haemul phajun (seafood pancake) tofu and kimchi and Sangchoo gutjhulee (salted lettuce salad). We invited Janet Tseng to accompany us before her return to Ottawa. Janet's Chinese Hong Kong background was a wonderful help in interpreting different things.

And now the beginning of the lantern festival - this year we celebrate the 2554 birth of Buddha.
Susan and Damien ran off and left me for a couple of days so I continued to celebrate the lantern festival....


and then went exploring other places.

How special to visit the House of Sharing - I am now committed to telling their story. The museum they have created is very moving and we were blessed to meet 4 of the halmoni residents. Halmoni are women who were forced into sexual slavery during WWII under Japanese military rule. Here I am pictured with my friend Trish with some of the women telling their stories of hope and survival.
www.houseofsharing.org

And the best book is the book shop cafe that a friend of mine runs. Great coffee and conversation and I am sure the selection of Korean books is a fine one.
http://cafe.naver.com/gildam

Here is Ronis and Damien eating bulgolgi in Insa Dong. Miraculously Susan who is not renowned for her great sense of direction has been able to find two restaurants that she had been to before.