My Body No Longer Knows How To Process Water, Only Beer

Sorry we haven’t posted recently, but our second night at Heineken House resulted in international shenanigans on such a grand level that our livers and brains needed some time to recover.  We barely managed to make it to Men’s Giant Slalom, where Ted Ligety did not have a good day, followed with Men’s Aerials, where the eastern Europeans own that sport.  I’m guessing it has something to do with their obsession with gymnastics! 

We hit up women’s ski halfpipe the next day, where we got to see the “Hungarian” skier do her safe but boring run.  An inspiration to us all, I think.  Find whatever loophole exists to get you into the Olympics.  Sounds good to me!!!  Who wants to start training for curling? 

After ski halfpipe, we took advantage of a 24 hour schedule break to visit Seoul.  We bought bags of skin care products, and with the way Korean women’s skin looks, we are going to look like our teenage selves soon enough!  They literally sell face masks in bulk packs, like 10 at a time.  They also dump a million samples into your bag at checkout.  Free BB cream!  Free sample mask!  Free glow crème! 

Speaking of skin, we are feeling like we’re getting some great color here, but not from the sun-from the WIND!  It is bone chilling, serious wind and that’s definitely one thing that we’re happy to leave behind.

Last night was our final event, Nordic Combined, and we got to witness Germany go from 0 medals in NC ever to a total podium sweep!!!  The crowd was going crazy!  Jessica got branded by a German early on when she asked to get a picture with them, and they marked her face with the German flag.  Very apropos for Berlin’s newest resident, I think.

Korea has been one long dance party.  At the events, there is always music playing, and everyone is dancing or moving to it (exception is ice skating), in Seoul when we were shopping, there was music blasting outside in the streets, and inside the stores, it’s just a ongoing music fest.  We, of course, loved it.  Dancing all the time was a great way to burn off all of those calories from the beer.

You have not been to a sporting event until you have been to a sporting event where people are eating bowls of ramen.  And by bowls of ramen, I am referring to tubs the size of small movie popcorn.  Get on this, America!  All you need is boiling water and a dream!

We got the chance to visit 2 other places in Seoul-the Samsung interactive exhibit called D’Light and Changdeokgung Palace.  We did a Virtual Reality roller coaster ride (it was AWESOME!) and some really cool uses of tech to manipulate our images and track our movements.  Changdeokgung Palace was packed with young women wearing the traditional Korean costume and taking pictures in large groups and with some professional photographers.   After I did some brief googling, it turns out that this is becoming more and more popular amongst young Koreans.  There are a lot of rental shops where they can get outfitted for their fabulous friends photo shoot.  I want to dress up as an old timey cowboy or pioneer woman and get a friends photo shoot at the OK Corral or Little Big Horn.  Let’s do this, guys!

The palace was incredibly beautiful-the detail of the painted wood and the mix of indoor/outdoor space that is so enjoyable to experience.  Just when we thought we saw the highlight of the castle, there was another treasure around the corner. 

Favorite Korean people:

-Each shuttle bus to events had a TV mounted in front with various events being broadcast.  One particular driver just wanted to watch his stories, so that bus was blasting Korean soap operas.  It was amazing

-The guy in the Seoul subway video that was running on repeat.  He was wearing a hot pink glittered blazer.  I loved him.

-The 70 year old woman that started jumping up and down when I did during a song and how happy she was about it.  Serious health and wellness goals, that one!

-The cab driver that spoke just enough English to be hilarious, yelling “LET’S GO!” when our address finally came up in his GPS, and excitedly kept saying “Okay?  OKAY!” when dropping
us off.  Honorable mention goes to the Korean cab driver that peeled out of the gravel driveway upon leaving, like he couldn’t get away from us fast enough.  We couldn’t stop laughing for 5 minutes.

-Josh & Jane, our Airbnb hosts-they were so kind and helpful, telling us we were beautiful the day we dressed up for figure skating, to being more than cool when we missed our scheduled shuttle time with them the day after Heineken House.  The place was tiny, but clean and the hosts couldn’t have been more kind.

-Definitely NOT the Korean Airbnb host that thought we were prostitutes.  It’s a long story, and we’re not POSITIVE she called us prostitutes, but she was giving us a stinkeye that told us she thought we were up to no good when ALL WE WANTED WAS A CAB AND THE KAKAO TAXI APP WAS HORRENDOUS

-All the adorable babies and kids dressed up in snowsuits and Olympic gear.  My fat Asian baby obsession was more than fulfilled and satiated for sure. 

-Definitely not the Koreans that organized the transportation, trained the volunteers, and organized/stocked the concession stands.  To be fair, the concessions were markedly improved around the halfway point of our stay, but an hour long wait in line for beer at ski jump was my breaking point.  From then on, I just ordered a million beers for myself.  They weren’t going to get warm-it was c-c-c-c-c-c-cold outside!!!

-The Korean volunteers that were always so friendly and kind, welcoming us to events and saying goodbye, and matching our energy levels when we responded.  The two handed wave just makes you feel good-both giving and receiving!!

Favorite Olympic Moments

5.  Taking a ski lift for a beer run

4.  Watching Nathan Chen redeem himself.  You guys!!  This kid!!! He’s just 18 and he bounced back like a pro!!!  I will definitely be there in 2022, for him AND Vincent Zhou!! 

3.  Meeting up with the McGuirks at Beer Chicken Pub before Ski Jumping, drinking yards of beer and catching up with the second coolest set of siblings at the Olympics.  The wait for beer at ski jumping almost dampened the evening, but it was saved by ordering 20 beers and then drinking them all.

2.  Snowboard Halfpipe-Gold medal for Shaun White, great performances by the other Americans, an awesome dance party followed by a phenomenal party for snow volleyball at Austria House, where we got free booze and ponchos, met several Olympians, followed by a visit to the medals plaza, followed by a great time at a place called Beer Chicken Pub with our friends Dave and Mike

1.  Heineken House night 2-Canadian tuxedos, a ginger dance off, conga lines for days, and the end of the night spent in a karaoke bar, belting out Gangnam Style.