Sunday in Seoul!

If Busan had more places like The Bakers Table to eat breakfast at, I might consider staying a 5th year!!

Seoul is filled with these charming little authentic bakeries and Aaron and I woke up extra early to take advantage of the opportunity to indulge at it!

It was another early morning this morning!  The 4 of us met Dawn and Derek at the bus stop outside the bakery and headed to Bukchon, one of the oldest traditional Korean neighborhoods in Seoul!  I love this photo of Dawn!

Mayo, in his new FOREVER 21 french pirate shirt!

My love, with his coffee, on our walk to Bukchon Village.

Jess wasn't feeling very good, so she and Mayo stopped in at a tea shop while Aaron, Derek, Dawn and I went into the village for the photo shoot.  (behind the scenes) at a traditional Korea knot making home where Dawn did her thing.

Derek hoisted Dawn up onto this fence, where she then climbed up onto the roof for this shot!  (this was taken with Instagram... the real photo is even more awesome!)  I'm telling you, this girl is fearless and will do anything, anywhere!

Dawn and Derek had a train to catch for their beach getaway, so Aaron, Jess, Mayo and I walked the streets around the BLUE HOUSE (the president's house)...

... and landed here for lunch!  We were originally drawn in for their frozen margaritas on the first floor and then found out they had awesome food upstairs, and an outdoor balcony, which we're always huge fans of!  It's nearly impossible to find outdoor seating in Busan. :( 

There was tons of strolling, people watching, and relaxing to do in this area!  

It was a nice change of pace!

My love and I, waiting on a step while Jess looked in a shoe store! :)  

Thanks for the photo Mayo.

 We didn't have anything left on the schedule to do but shop, which we were saving for later, so we ducked into this traditional Hanok style tea house and ordered some tea while sitting next to the serene Asian garden!  As you can see, we were all very relaxed by this point!

Wall carving graffiti on our walk...

Brothers from another mother!

We went over to Myong-dong again and for some shopping at H&M and FOREVER 21, which were both HUGE... much bigger than any I'd ever seen in America (besides the Manhattan H&M, which is 4 stories!)  I probably could have shopped for another 3 hours, but we had a dinner date for 8:30pm at Kristen and Alicia's, and didn't wanna be late!

Kristen and Alicia had gone ABOVE AND BEYOND and made all kinds of stuff for tacos! (Soy tacos, that is!)  These two are health nuts, and I was thankful for it!  I had had enough junk in the last 3 days to fill a whole month!

Kristen even made fresh squeezed lemonade for us!!!

Just the way I like it! :)

These two were in charge of heating the tortillas!  

BTW: Kristen's place is by far the most awesome Korean place I've seen, to date!  I was bummed that I only had my 35mm lens and couldn't get any photos of the whole place! She and Alicia live in an actual neighborhood, on the 2nd floor of a home!  It's technically 3 bedrooms, but the smallest is used for their closet!  Yes please!  There are huge windows, wood floors, a big kitchen, and a REAL bathtub!  

Ahhhh, it made me miss America!

 

Kristen and Lucy girl.

We got into a pretty deep conversation about relationships after dinner!  Mayo is studying and reading a bunch of stuff on relationships and wants to start community groups where people get together and discuss love and stuff!  He got us all weighing in on the subject, which I loved, loved, loved!  I'm not big on small talk... I'd always rather delve deep into people's lives and see how each other ticks!

I'm blessed to have met Jess, Carlos, and Kristen way back in the first week of orientation in February of 2009!  I'm even more blessed to still have them as my friends! Adding Aaron and Alicia to the bunch just made it that much better!

Cheers to another fabulous day in Seoul!