Noraebang and Duck!

As I write this on a Saturday morning the snow is falling again and everything is turning to white. We have had some lovely weather lately, around 8 degrees during the day, but still going below zero during the nights. The cold weather hasn’t stopped us doing anything though, and we have been and about quite a bit during our Christmas break. One of our outings saw us head to the local Noraebang (pronounced Nor Bung) and Duck Restaurant. A Noraebang is a Karaoke room (bang means empty enclosed space) that you can hire on an hourly basis. Jenene had been previously with a few of the girls from work and we thought it would be a fun activity with the kids. Luckily they had quite a few Christmas Carols on the list, so the kids were able to grab the mics and sing their little hearts out. They really enjoyed hearing themselves and yelling into the mics. They got a bit bored with singing after about 40 minutes, so they were quite content to jump around and dance while Jenene and I murdered a few old time favourites. When Jenene pulled out “Wake me up Before you Go Go” we knew it was time to leave. I handled Footloose quite graciously, but this was going too far.

Putting the fear of Avian Flu in the back of our minds, we went to the Duck Restaurant (not sure what it’s really called) which is a place that we pass everyday on our way to school and we have been wanting to try it for some time. This was our first traditional dining experience where you leave your shoes at the door and sit on the floor. This was quite a novelty at first, but when you’re 6 foot 3 inches tall, the novelty gives way to uncomfortable leg pains after a short time. The food was great, and one of the dishes was BBQ duck, which actually tasted like pickled pork – delicious. After a big feed of 2 types of duck, a duck soup, and a wide variety of side dishes, we were treated to a traditional Korean dessert – sweet beans on shaved ice. The beans were the colour of kidney beans, but resembled the shape of a slightly larger baked bean. The beans were congealed in some type of caramelized sauce, and were served on top of a bowl of shaved ice. It’s one of those dishes that you aren’t sure if you like it or not, so after eating about half of it you stop, just in case the latter proves to be true.

All in all it was a very enjoyable evening and the kids keep asking when we’re going singing again. You can be assured that all who come to visit us here in Suwon will be subject to the Noraebang and Duck experience.