Carrie and Bradley's Excellent Adventure!!: The Levinsons visit!

On March 27^th, my (Bradley) parents came to Gwangju to visit our city for a week and a half. During their time here we showed them around to the spots we have come to enjoy around town, although most of their time here was used for recuperating from their long adventures on a pontoon boat out of Phuket and all throughout China. If you want a journal of those excursions you will have to contact my mother and father.

The first important stop on the Levinson’s tour of Gwangju was a delicious restaurant that Carrie and I have enjoyed while we have been here. We took them to a Sha-bu Sha-bu restaurant, which is actually a Japanese style restaurant. The Koreans have added their style to the meal. The dinner starts off with a big wok of broth sitting in the middle of the table with a burner underneath. When the broth begins to boil I put in all the vegetables (that’s right I ate the vegetables). Then after the vegetables have cooked a bit you add the delicious bulgogi (meat, still my favorite part). This soup is the first course. The second course is noodles and Mahndoo (pot stickers). If you are not full from the first two courses you still have the last course of rice porridge to eat. As soon as Carrie and I ate this meal we knew my mother and father would love it and we had to take them to try it. They loved it.

Mom bought this sweatshirt in a Korean thrift store and when she was wearing this outfit she looked like a hipster.

We also enjoyed the beginning of spring (though it was still pretty cold when they were here). These pictures are from nearby our house, at a reservoir where we often walk.

The cherry blossoms blooming with an artist touch.

The beautiful lake by our house.

The side lake where the tadpoles and koi fish swim.

A cute picture of us.

Dad using the back stretcher at the lake.

Another adventure we went on was to a baseball game. Since my father and I love to attend baseball games back home, I thought my father would love to see what a baseball game was like here in Korea. Both Carrie and I had not yet gone to a game because when we got here the season was ending and we were busy discovering other things around Korea. So this was a perfect opportunity. The game was a great game, there were like 5 lead changes and the Kia Tigers (the team in Gwangju) won the game 10-9. It was really exciting. Carrie and I will be going to more baseball games while we are here, since the tickets are so cheap.

Mom enjoyed every moment of the game with her crochet needles in her hands.

It was opening day so it was packed!

There was a place to microwave your food from home.

Just a cool view from our center field seats

This was their version of the car race.

Bradley playing with some of the local kids.

We also took a trip to the folk museum in Gwangju. This museum was very similar to the other folk museums that we have visited in other cities, but this one had one distinguishing quality. It had an exhibit on the history of Gwangju. Carrie and I enjoyed the photos of Gwangju from the 1950-now. There were only a few big buildings here in Gwangju in the 1970s and 80s. Crazy to think that this city is so large compared to then.

The last of my parents’ adventures was a visit to our school. The kids were all very interested in meeting my parents. All the students came up to my parents and asked them simple questions and my parents gladly answered with smiles on their faces. When Carrie and I had class we were joined by my parents. We started off with questions from the kids to my parents and then we played a simple game with the kids to get them to talk in English. My parents had a great time and the students loved having my parents in class. After lunch my parents and got to meet the Vice Principal (She’s the boss of the school, even though there is a principal). We talked about how well we were doing in school. This was a great experience for everyone involved.