Since my last post, S and I have done some more exploring in Seoul.  I can’t believe we have almost been here for 2 months.  It’s crazy to think sometimes, but we are living in one of the 10 largest cities in the world population wise.  Gangnam is so busy and loud; I miss the tranquility and slow pace of Mississippi so much at times.  I had to get away from the crowds and fast-pace life the other day, so I went to an area in Seoul called Itaewon.  Itaewon is about a 25 minute cab ride over the river from Gangnam.  There is a US military base there; so it is nice to see other fellow Americans.  I also like the variety of foods in Itaewon.  They have restaurants from all across the world which gives a visitor to the area more of a variety to choose from.  It was nice to sit, have a cold one and read a book in tranquility.

After this day, I realized I needed that tranquility outside my apartment more than I thought.  I purchased a 5 book series called “The Crossfire Series” by Sylvia Day.  I love sitting outside and reading a good book.  S and I started roaming on the opposite side of the main road (That’s what we call it… across the street area) across from where we live.  We stumbled upon the cutest little coffee/tea shop that is secluded and has wifi!  Some coffee places here don’t have wifi.  It’s seriously the craziest thing!  This place has become my escape haven to read or type my blog.  Hey, we all need that place to be alone and enjoy some coffee and a good book!  We have a deck at home that I greatly enjoy, and it will be waiting on me this fall!

How cute is this mason jar, baby’s breath and burlap string?  This is at the place that S and I found across the street that I go to !  It reminds me of home with its Southern charm.  Our wedding theme was in mason jars, burlap and lace so of course it makes me happy to see these things in Seoul.

Like I have said before, Mondays are off days in the KBO.  We love Mondays!  The last off day we went to the N Seoul Tower.  The day started out by me wanting to go to greenery AKA a park.  We live in a concrete jungle so any piece of greenery I can find is a plus.  We went to Jamwon Hangang Park to start the day.  It was great to be by the river and just walk.  We had some Korean fried chicken which was actually pretty good.  I’m a pretty tough critic of fried chicken since I’m from the south, and I grew up on my Nannie’s fried chicken.  The batter was different, and the lady handed us some honey mustard.  We were very impressed; I honestly think Korean chicken is better than American chicken.  S wanted to do something more than just walk so we decided to go to the N Seoul Tower.  I had the bright idea to walkup the trail after the taxi cab dropped us off.  I actually liked the idea as I saw a bunny and a few cats.  It was so refreshing to hear a cat meow.  We miss our sweet Skylar so much.

Skylar thinks he is a human and loves to be as close to his mommy and daddy as possible.  So, he thinks its ok to hop on any surface that allows him to be closer to me and S!  He hopped on the sink in our bathroom so of course I snapped a picture of him.  The bunny is the one we saw while walking up the mountain to the N Seoul Tower.  It was just chilling right there!

These are a few of the pictures I snapped while making our way up Namsan Mountain.  After walking up a little ways, S goes to grab his iPhone out of his pocket for a picture and realizes its not in his pocket.  When we arrived, the team gave us LG phones so we could communicate here.  S had his Korean phone, but the American iPhone no where to be found.  We couldn’t use the “Find iPhone” app because our phones are on airplane mode.  We had my phone searching for his phone, and his LG hot spot turned on in case we got close to his phone and then it would let us know if it was around us or not.  We had to go back down the mountain and search for his phone and call his translator.  We both were convinced it was back in the cab.  I mean there is about a 50/50 chance the cab driver is nice and has our phone or it’s gone.  Our translator, Jay, had to get our card information and see what cab he needed to call to track down the phone.  Jay calls us back and says that the cab driver had S’s phone, and he was going to drive back to the N Seoul Tower to drop the phone off.  THANK YOU JESUS!  We were so so thankful that the cab driver was nice enough to do this for us!

After this mishap, we decided to just take the cable car up the mountain and forget the walking.  I hate heights and thinking about riding on a cable makes me nervous but I survived.  Here are a few pictures of our trip up and down the mountain!

View from the cable car and when we made it up the N Seoul Tower.

I took these outside!  There were locks everywhere.  I mean as you can tell there are Christmas trees lined up of locks.  It was so beautiful looking down at Seoul from the top!  Inside the tower, you can buy tickets to do the live museum and go up the elevator to the tower.  We did both and had so much fun with the live museum.

These are a few of the shots we took while walking around the live museum.  Before we walked in, we saw this Korean girl wearing a Mississippi State jacket.  I had to snap a picture of it because it took me and S both by surprise.

I think she needs a little help on choosing the right university in Mississippi.  I should have given her a Southern Miss shirt, but hey just seeing this was great!  The girl in front of her needs a LG Twins hat as well.

Views from the N Seoul Tower!  It was so beautiful; we didn’t realize there are so many trees in Seoul.

After this eventful day, we were both exhausted.  We enjoyed the adventure and seeing some tourist attractions in Seoul.  The next off day, S wanted to find a good burger joint.  One of the other wives whose husband plays for the Nexen Heroes told me to get the 4 square app.  This app has really helped us with showing cab drivers addresses and locating places to go around Seoul.  We looked up a burger joint called Brooklyn Burger.  We took a taxi, and it was so Americanized.  When we walked in Gavin DeGraw’s “Chariot” was playing and my day was made instantly.  For those of y’all who don’t know, I love me some Gavin.  Our first dance was to his song “Follow Through.”  There were New York posters everywhere and tons of American bumper stickers on the wall.

When we left Brooklyn Burger, we had to go to the grocery store.  They have Emart and Costco here.  We went to Costco because we were buying bulks of meat.  I seriously hate grocery shopping here because nobody understands me; I make S go with me because I get frustrated so easily.  Meat here is soooo expensive.  It gets imported and its organic which is great but hefty on the checking account!  The meat we buy is imported from Australia.  There is steak that is $100 I kid you not.  We always joke about buying it.  I will have to snap a picture of it next time to prove it really is $100.

We dropped our groceries back at the apartment and decided to do the Namdaemun Market.  It was very interesting; it reminded me of The Hangover 3 when they go to Bangkok.  There was not really anything S and I were interested in buying, but it was crazy because as we walked through these places it was like people were popping out of nowhere in these booths.  I couldn’t quit laughing because S was like wow wait theres another one.  I’m assuming a lot of people go there because Seoul is very expensive and you can get a pretty good deal at this market.

While the boys were away, the girl’s decided to play!  Kelli (the other wife here on our team) found a place called Children’s Grand Park.  It was so neat, but I was so upset about the otters play area.  There were 3 otters and they barely had any water to swim.

I have never seen a peacock with its entire feathers spread like that.  I think thats a sign it wasn’t happy!  The roses were gorgeous, and I love smelling them.  I was still a little upset about the zoo area because seems like the animals need more room.

S and I have finally settled in pretty well, and he got his first win!  He also got his first quality start too!  The KBO is a very hard league for pitchers.  It takes some time to adjust and get in the groove and to figure out hitters.  They love baseball here, and we are so thankful for the outpouring of support.  Seoul loves their LG Twins, and we are so blessed to be on this team.

LG posted this to their Instagram account.  It was so funny because I asked S what the sign said, and he was like I have no idea I was just told to hold it.  We found out that it says MVP.  He has worked so hard to adjust to the KBO league; this was a great day for the Copelands.

Now that Sunday games start at 5:00, S was able to go to church with me Sunday.  After church, I said, “Isn’t it great and refreshing to have people speak English?”  S was like yes it was great!  I was able to share Jesus this week with a friend who said she doesn’t have a religion.  In the states, I know we assume most people are Christians but that is not always true.  Always look for ways to share Jesus friends you just never know whose life your impacting!

Keep the prayers coming our way as we continue our journey in Korea.  We are so thankful for all our friends and family back home praying for us. My parents will be here soon, and I couldn’t be more excited to introduce them to the Korean culture.  The Britt’s take over Korea coming soon!!

Thanks for reading,

XOXO

HC