A visit from Pim & Johnny and visit to Seoul, Korea

My cousin Johnny and his wife Pim came to Hong Kong for a short visit Sun Nov 21st and Mon Nov 22nd. Johnny's being stationed for a few weeks just across the bay on mainland China and Pim came down from Thailand for the weekend before Johnny goes off to work.

Johnny used to work 1 month on an oil rig and 1 month home in Thailand but he's just got a promotion and will get to work on land this time.

That means he may get a chance to come see me and Mark over Christmas while he's just a 45 minute ferry ride away.

Wow, family in HK for Christmas, means we may have to actually do something celebratey and Christmasy this year.

Thanksgiving in Korea
Just 3 days after Johnny and Pim visited, Mark and I hopped on a plane to Seoul, Korea to visit Bill, Hyoeun and their 2 kids Naomi and Abby.

1st comment on Korea in late November?! It's flipping COOOOOOOLDDD. Especially for a Hong Kong person like me. Temperatures were below freezing and on our last day, snow sprinkled down a little bit.

2 days before we left for Korea, there was also a little skirmish between North and South Korea that was all over the news all over the globe. However, other than the news, you wouldn't have been able to tell anything was different.

We had a great time. THANKS BILL AND HYOEUN!! They hosted us in their apartment, took us to all the best eats and we had a great, relaxing 4 1/2 days with good friends. Now I even have a special friend in Naomi who turns 7 on Nov 30th. We had a lot in common, and had a good time hanging out despite the 31 years age difference. Also, big thanks to both Naomi and Abby for giving their room while we were visiting.

Some pics below of our fun times.

• Lots of Korean BBQ and I think I may have eaten about 10 pounds of meat and ready to slip into a protein coma as my belly bulges over my jeans. (not to mention the corn dog on a stick dipped in deep fat fried french fries that I had to try)
  
• Other pics of our hike up "the mountain" behind their apartment
  
• The snazzy Spiderman hat I bought Mark at a market in Korea.
• Free Hugs also available at the market, which I did not indulge in by the way
  
• Plus kicking it in Geumchon with Bill's friends.
• And, drinking some of Bill's home brew, one flavor made with pumpkin pie spice which made for a yummy Thanksgiving treat
• The sweet potato truck man near their apartment that I bought Sunday breakfast from while Bill and family were at church. (no pictures of later when I got lost on my way back and froze so bad I wanted to cry while I communicated with Mark who was back at the apt on blackberry trying to figure out which apt building I was supposed to go to. Not smart on my part...)
• Sunday dinner, this time with the kids, and 30 minutes later when the kids ran out of energy. Handy the table's is on the floor so they could just lay down for a nap....