the day *we built this city*.

okay, we didn't really build seoul.

but, the starship classic goes with my song-titled posts, you know?

was anyone even getting that?
no?
just me being a nerd? probs.

any.way. after we had our meeting with choi boy, we took advantage of the remaining day and a half we had on our own since we would be picking up choi boy before the weekend.

i never managed to post our pictures from traipsing around seoul. my mind was slightly occupied at this time last year. :) so, here's what we were up to last year when we weren't hanging out with our little man...

first things first...what's a girl to do after meeting her son for the first time and seeing how small he is?

go shopping, of course!




my aunt took us to itaewon and dongdaemun where we marveled at the stacks and stacks and stacks of STUFF and tried to get our serious shop on, looking especially for some cute digs for cb, who didn't look like he would fit into most of the clothes we brought with us from home.

we also saw some random signage in english, including this gem:

crazy, right? not even sure what it was for...perhaps "peter choi" is synonymous with "calvin klein" in korea?

what we were *really* interested in, though, was the street food. YUM.





seriously. watering at the mouth right now remembering this. i wonder if visitors to the US find our street food as enticing and yummilicious?
somehow, i think not.

for dinner, my uncle and aunt took us to this tiny restaurant near one of the mountains in seoul and we feasted on the yummiest sahm-gyup-sal we've ever had.

p.s. sahm-gyup-sal = pork butt. delicious, right? ;)

our gracious hosts for the week, my uncle (who looks so much like my dad!) and aunt:


the next morning, we booked our day with back to back meet ups with several of our friends that live in korea. it was such fun to reconnect with our friends and share part of this incredibly special trip with them.

first, we had coffee and cupcakes with cynthia, my college bud, who bought choi boy his adorable puppy and bear pajama sets.


she also took us to an awesome multi-level book shop where we loved finding translations of some of our favorite books,


and giggled like little kids over some new literary discoveries:

why, yes, that would be a book entitled, "ddong" or "poop" -- it's a story about a piece poop that starts out sad and lonely only find redemption and acceptance in becoming fertilizer. and yes, we bought it. at the hubs' insistence.

next, we met up with mike, the hubs' close friend, and his family for more coffee and other yumminess.

what is it about coffee in korea? so good!

and finally, we capped off our fun day with our friend, debbie,


who took us out for this:

be still my stomach.

we were totally wiped out after packing our free day, but we were so glad that we were able to take full advantage of our short visit to seoul. though we really didn't get to do much sightseeing, we couldn't be upset because we knew it was because we were getting our boy sooner and we also knew we'd back. someday. :)