Day 414: Guests!

I was super excited about today. I've got guests coming in today! (and we all know that Scotty loves to play host!) ;-) Ryan and Christine were flying in from Kaohsiung, Taiwan and I was really stoked about hanging out with them for the weekend and showing them around Seoul. I've actually never met Christine before, and hadn't seen Ryan in almost three years. I met Ryan in June 2002 when I was the best man in my buddy Greg's wedding. Ryan is Greg's cousin and was a groomsman in the wedding party. Ryan is now a fellow English teacher in Taiwan, and Christine is his girlfriend who also lives and teaches down there.

On my way to the airport I was disappointed and disgusted to notice that today was one of the worst yellow sand days that I have ever seen. ("Yellow Sand" is that nasty spring phenomenon in Korea where winds blow dust clouds of yellow sand from China's Gobi Desert over the peninsula bringing horrific air quality and very limited visibility.) While on the bus going across one of the bridges over the Han I could barely make out the next bridge, less than a kilometer downstream. It's so gross!! And SO not the first introduction that I wanted Ryan and Christine to have of Korea!

I picked up Ryan and Christine and we headed back to my place to drop off their luggage. We had a quick bite to eat (their first introduction to Korean food!) and then rode on into the city. We tried to go and visit Gyongbok Palace but arrived mere minutes after it has closed for the day. We spent the evening wandering around Insadong instead. Addie joined us later and we had a loud and lively dinner of dakkalbi at the dizzingly busy restaurant in Neon Lane. It was good stuff! Ice cream was definitely needed after such a spicy dinner so we indulged in a little Baskin Robins. We did a little more walking around Jongno after that and then headed on home. It was a great day and everyone was really tired. Plus, those two gotta get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow!