Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Day 3 Wally World (ie. Lotte World)













Guest Author of the day - Jimmy Murphy

This is the trip that I have been waiting MONTHS for. Not only did I get to ride on 2 different airplanes to get to Korea, but I was able to eat Korean food everyday of my vacation. It was SO yummy. My favorites are Kim Bop (Korean sushi rolls) Jap Chae (Korean noodles/Maggies) and Bi Bim Bop (Korean stir fry rice bowls). In fact, I was really disappointed to find out that in Korea, restaurants specialize in each one of these things and no single restaurant carries all of them. I put up a mighty fit and had lots of questions about that!!

The best part of about Korea was seeing all my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, but the ABSOLUTE best part was being able to play with my best friend Ced every day. Ced is my best friend, but he's also my cousin. He was born 6 weeks after me and we are good friends. He's my buddy. Ced lives in Costa Rica, so he has never seen snow. It was so fun to go up on the roof of Eastern after it had snowed and show him what snow tastes and smells like (not very good with dirt and pollution mixed in). There wasn't enough to make snow angels, but when we get back to MN, Ced can visit and I'll show him snow that tastes good and is good for snowballs, snow angels and sledding. Ced got 2 new hand held video games for Cmas, a Superman one and a Batman one. We played those for hours on end when Mom and Dad weren't dragging us around Seoul.

Speaking of being dragged around Seoul. Ced and I were really excited when Mom told us that we were going to go to Lotte World on Saturday. Lotte World is like Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America on steroids. It also has a bowling alley, indoor skating rink, and outdoor amusement park that is even open in the WINTER! The outdoor park has a big castle in the middle of it, just like Walk Disney World. Also, just like Disney World, the place was really really busy (Mom kept calling it a zoo, but I didn't see any animals there). As we were approaching Lotte World, my Mom and Dad kept saying things like ... Welcome to Wally World, we are closed The Moose out front should have told you ... UGHHH! and... Wally World burnt down because of something you did... Parents are so strange sometimes.


Never the less, we loved it. We had to stand in line for 45-60 min's to go on any of the rides. My favorite rides were the balloon (a 'real' hot air balloon that took you all over Lotte World), the train and the cowboys and Indians game. This game was so cool, you rode on horses and got to shoot at the screen. You got points for all the bad guys you shot and then they put of the pictures of the people that got the most points. Dad came in 3rd place! Everything was in Korean, but we managed to figure it out. Unfortunately, I am so tall now, that I am TOO tall for any of the kids rides. Kay and Billy had to ride on those for me. Kay loved the Hopper, but after Billy insisted on riding on it as well, they had to stop the ride because he was too scared and putting up a major fit on the ride. We were afraid he was going to fall out! Little brothers sometimes, I tell you.






I don't know why, but the grown ups didn't seem to like Lotte World as much as Ced and I did. I can't understand why! The 8 of us cousins loved running between peoples legs, butt-ing in line, eating junk food and screaming with excitement at the top of our lungs. So what if it was too crowded to walk, or that fact that we all had to carry our winter coats along with us inside with a 80 degree temperature or that nothing was in English so we couldn't figure out what time the shows/activities were at. They should have just let us go and came looking for us 4-5 hours later, that was my plan at least.

Another really cool part about Lotte World is that we got to ride 2 subway trains and they even went OUTSIDE! This was so cool. We saw all these buildings and the river and people and tons of parks and bridges. One lady on the subway even gave me 10,000 won and started clapping when she found out that Kay, Billy and I were all born in Korea and that Mom and Dad had adopted us. I was feeling rich so I gave the money to Grandpa Jerry and he bought us all ice cream, that's so nice. Yum! My other favorite person from the trip was Baby Herbie. He's Aunt Tammy's newest baby and he is WAY too cute. I helped feed him a bottle and played with him whenever he wasn't sleeping. He is so dang cute. But... I cant decide if he's as cute as Isabelle, our neighbor in Palm Meadows, or not. I guess they are both pretty sweet.

Finally, it was time to go home. On the way back from Seoul to Bangalore, I ate 5 donuts, 2 kids happy meals at Burger King, all the snacks/treats my Mom had packed in my backpack, the yummy salmon lunch on the plane and a peanut butter sandwich when I got home. I felt like the very hungry caterpillar. I think I am growing again. Darn it, the new school shorts my Dad bought me in Oct don't even fit any more.

When we got home, the 1st thing I said was ..."I'm so excited to sleep in my big comfy bed again:) !!"

Home Sweet Home!
LOVE to ALL
Jimmy


(FYI, more from Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Kay tomorrow)