Amy, Sydney and I. Walking around Bukcheon, historic Seoul.

Some good things to know if you look at a Korean map. Names followed by:

--Si  = city

--Dong  = neighborhood/ area

--Gu  = district

--Gil  = street

--Ro = road/ alley

--San = mountain

Sydney, Sherie and Amy near NamDemun Shigang (South Gate Market). Sydney doing some following spy maneuvers....

Sydney and Amy at Doksugung Palace and in Bukcheon.

We'll be seeing this guy live this weekend. K Will. K-pop all over the Macbook Air last night.

 Sherie and Sydney do homework together every night: math, history and vocabulary. These are the looks they give each other.

***
As some of you know, I'm a Scorpio. As some of you know, Scorpios are hard on themselves. As some of you know, I'm hard on myself. As some of you know, I've been working non-stop for months and months and months and almost denied myself this trip to Korea.

Even if you don't believe in or care about astrology, I'd like to let you know, this is what my horoscope says for the week of July 3. Thanks to my friend Sarah, fellow Scorpio, for alerting me of this little break in Scorpio-ness:

"You have permission to compose an all-purpose excuse note for yourself. If you'd like, you may also forge my signature on it so you can tell everyone that your astrologer sanctified it. This document will be ironclad and inviolable. It will serve as a poetic license that abolishes your guilt and remorse. It will authorize you to slough off senseless duties, evade deadening requirements, escape small-minded influences, and expunge numbing habits. Even better, your extra-strength excuse note will free you to seek out adventures you have been denying yourself for no good reason."  --- Rob Brezny

Happy 4th of July ya'll!!! I'm so glad I'm NOT in the USA:)
***

The Irvine of Seoul.

The arrival scene: evening time at the 605 apartment in Bundang. Sydney and Amy. It's about as tiny as it looks.

Of course, it's always about food first. Here's Sherie's nengmyung for a warm, humid day. I had a few bites... mmmmm.

First breakfast in Seoul. It looks and is quite simple but one of the most delicious meals I've eaten; homemade by my incredible cousin Jung-min/ Sherie. Tiny dried minnows and honey-roasted walnuts mixed in soy sauce, sugar and garlic wrapped in rice and nori as kimbop, with a side salad of cabbage. I know there will be naysayers, but it was truly lovely, subtle and tasty.