Oh what a weekend!

This weekend was...chaotic. I'm not even sure if there's one singular word that can accurately describe everything that transgressed since Friday.  It was insane!

First of all, the beau's mother (Mama Staudinger) arrived late Friday night for her first ever trip to Korea! We were so excited and rented a car so that we could pick her up in style. However, while she might have arrived safe and sound, her luggage did not. Le boo. To make matters worse, we were leaving at the crack o' dawn on Saturday morning and she'd be sporting the same pair of clothes for the next 2 days.

We sorted everything out, returned to Pohang, got mama a sweet hotel and then headed to bed for a few hours.  It seemed like my eyes were only closed for 2 minutes before it was time to wake up, don my Hapkido dobo ("uniform" for you non-Korean speakers) and rush downtown to catch a bus to Seoul. 

Everything leading up to Lotte World was pretty uneventful.  I slept for about 3 hours of the bus ride, ate some lunch, and slept some more.  Little did I know that once we arrived in Lotte World I would be entering a winter Christmas wonderland of delight!

Yes, it's only mid-November but I sure do like your style Korea.  We pranced in to Lotte World just in time for their Christmas parade (yes, Christmas parade).  mm-hmm, there was fake snow and everything!  They even threw in an ice rink for good measure. However, the one thing that really boggled my mind was just how they got so many western foreigners to schmooze the crowd in the parade.  

 

After the marvelous parade we found ourselves with 5 hours to kill and a few thousand Koreans to shuffle through.  Let me tell you, Koreans can queue, and queue they will.  We were only able to make it onto two rides during those 5 hours and one of them wasn't even a ride!  It was a 20 minute 3D movie and you, the audience member, were living the life of a cat.  Yeah, wasn't too happy I waited an hour for that one.  

The other ride was like the tower of terror.  You pretty much get swirled hundreds of yards in the air only to come crashing down at break neck speed.  We were trying to figure out if you could survive if your safety harness didn't latch, and let me tell you, you probably wouldn't. 

Ahhh yes, it wouldn't be a Korean theme park without a variety of funny headbands.  I was searching all day for the perfect one but nothing really spoke to me.

My future child.

The explanation of our "cat-like" experience.

Probably going to be our family Christmas photo.  ha.

We may or may not have stayed for the night parade.  What?  They had pretty lights.

Now, if you took away the ridiculously long lines (blah blah blah do I want cheese with my wine? I know), added a little more daylight, and included a turkey dinner- this little girl would be one happy camper.  Otherwise, no complaints.  It was a great way to spend our day before the big Hapkido competition.