Christmas in China and Bringing in the New Year in Seoul, S. Korea

We were RELEASED = China job completed.  No one thought a release would happen in time for Christmas though.  Many people were able to make it back to see families.  Me, on the other hand, well I decided to take advantage of being on the other side of the world to see Seoul and Tokyo before heading back to the States.  I knew I would be able to see my family when I got back - love y'all; thanks for understanding :-) 

Christmas Day was spent in China.  Tom and I had a quite relaxing evening in the lounge at the hotel drinking wine, eating yummy h'ordeuvres and desserts while watching CSI: Las Vegas, and movies Death Race and Four Christmases on TV.

I had never been to S. Korea so I was super excited to see Seoul for New Years.  However, we ended up staying up until 4am each night causing a early afternoon wake up...not the best for seeing the sights but we were still able to enjoy some.  The weather there definitely prepared me for the cold blast I was expecting back home.  The 1988 summer Olympics were held in Seoul and I wanted to see the Olympic park.  Being freezing cold and windy to me who did not have winter clothes, we didn't end up walking around the park but warming up in the free museum - which was really neat and modern however we did find many mis-spellings in the English translations....even mis-spelled Beijing as Beijinf.

The Flame's Still Lite

In front of the Entrance to Olympic Park

In trying to find the Seoul Tower cable car entrance we came across this area that appeared to be an old traditional Korean village complete with an ice sculpture. It was really neat to look at and crawl around....

                               

 
Our New Years was spent bar hopping all night in the area of Itaewon, the foreigners street.  It didn't really feel like I was in a foreign country because everywhere we went was not really Korean.  It was fun and I made sure to eat a late night burger at Uncle Kim's street food!!  Dominic and Luis, who have already been there for a few weeks on assignment, met up with Tom and me in Seoul for new years.

Luis, Dominic, Me, Tom

More pictures of my time in S. Korea can be found on my Picasa page,  HERE.