My parents came out to visit us in Seoul last spring and we had a wonderful time together. It was good to show them around the city and have them experience firsthand what our lives are like on a daily basis... which has proven to be complicated to explain over the phone! We took them to korean barbeque, cooked in with them a few nights, and showed them all the things around town that we have enjoyed. Most every day we would find ourselves relaxing at a coffee shop or tea house and catching up on the last year of our lives... trust me, I know where every Starbucks in Korea... it's like a little refuge of peacefulness from the mayhem! Here is a picture of my beloved parents at the Gyeongbok Palace, in full springtime bloom.
This is in front of some of the highly secured buildings along the the border between North and South Korea. The DMZ runs along the 38th parallel and remains the most heavily guarded border in the world. We took my parents with us on a day trip to see what it was all about. It was definitely a worthwhile visit, but disturbing and sad as well. [kind of scary!]
