The world gets even smaller

With no actual new interaction or visit with Ammi Yeon Joo today there is nothing new to report on her so if that's all you are interested in you can stop reading now.

We do get to see her for a hour or two tomorrow afternoon - we will make sure we post a couple of new pictures of her tomorrow - and Kris will resume witing the blog becasue I can't actually write about her without crying..

However - the world gets even smaller goes like this...

Last night we had dinner plans with Erik (speedo) & Kristin and another couple from MN we have met - Julie & Zander. Speedo was a bit under the weather so it ended up being just Kris & I with Julie & Zander headed out to find us some Korean BBQ! As we were walking/wandering to dinner we talked about where we all from - the typical conversation about high school, college, where our houses are, etc... Zander says that he went to Grinnell - so I say "I have freinds that went there - Do you know Ben Shaw, or Scott Marks, or Beth Kreoger?" To which Zander stops walking and stands there with his mouth agape. So I guess the answer is yes? As it turns out we can't figure out how we haven't met before - we seemed to have always just missed each other at various Marks or Shaw events. So we went on to have a great dinner with Zander & Julie with whom we have good friends in common and are very much looking forward to seeing them again at home. As a further note we got to see them this afternoon as they received their son Jin Parker - moments ago - they looked super happy - well Julie did anyway - Zander looked scared and happy - a feeling every new father undertands.

As far as the rest of the day, it went something like this...

Breakfast at my new favorite restaurant "Paris Baguette" (the thing I will miss most about Seoul) with Erik & Kristin - then they had invited us to meet their son during their second visit with him - which was great! He is so cute!

Then a subway ride to go explore some more Seoul.

Our destination was - Namdaedmum Market - A crazy huge 6 to 7 square block open air/indoor market area where you can get anything and everything - from "boiled fish alley" to "noodles alley" to "camera, jewery, eyeglass alley" and everything in between. Kris first described it as "the minnesota state fair on steroids." From there we got a bit lost trying to find a place to eat - and ended up in the nicest grocery store I've ever been to - makes Byerly's and Kowalski's look like dumps - and makes them look cheap too - how about a tray of 12 or so (lovely) strawberries for $20.00??? We had a light lunch there then went off to see "Sungnyemum" which of course means...."something gate" I don't actually remember. But it's a "big gate" or so the pictures made it look.

Unfortunately it was all closed up and had a 3 story wall around it for restoration - so oh well - there is always the next trip to Seoul.

Then back here to see Julie & Zander and get Jin.

Next we are off to dinner in Insialdong/Insildong/Insadong ??? with Speedo and Kristin.

More Ammi news tomorrow!