Korea: Sunday Adventures

Sundays seem to have become my adventure day each week. I haven't been big on 'going out' here, which isn't such a bad thing. I tried it a little bit, and maybe given another try it could be good, but for now my adventures are tame. So here is how I have been spending my weekends.

~~~

Sunday March 4th, Seoul Tower

A few weeks ago I met up with a cousin who happens to also be here in Seoul. She has been teaching English here for a year and a half. I went with her, her fiance, and one of the new teachers at her school to Seoul Tower. The weather was decent enough so we walked up the mountain (which is more of a hill in size, but it's called South Mountain Park). Even by the time we were halfway up the view was stunning. So we continued.

At the base of the tower there are fences covered with locks. Couples make the climb together, dressed alike, and then put a lock on the fence with a note. It's a cute gesture, something I'm finding a lot of here. Koreans are a very proud people, but that pride is well deserved considering where they are now, and what they have overcome to get to here, especially in the past 100 years.

But I digress. We had a lovely lunch of salad with blown up mozzarella and pizza while overlooking Seoul. Now I realize that worded like this it doesn't sound lovely other than the overlooking Seoul part, but I promise it was as lovely as the view. First, the salad was beautiful, which has a lot to do with the mozzarella ball. New good food discovery of the evening: honey goes well on pizza.

We timed lunch so that it was while the sun was starting to set so we could watch the lights come on across the city. And then afterwards we went up into the tower. As darkness set in it became clear just how expansive Seoul is. This was definitely the best view. The windows on the tower listed different major cities from around the world, and how far we were from each one of them. It served as a kind of reminder that this world is so interconnected. My favorite part of the view from the tower was a set of bridges over the Han river. I'm not sure exactly what it was about that view, but I loved it.

To conclude our excursion we took the cable cars back down, walked through Myeong Dong, and parted ways at the subway. All in all it was a Sunday afternoon well spent. It left me wanting to explore Myeong Dong more, and wanting to go back to the tower in the spring when the flowers are in bloom.

~~~

Sunday March 11th, Myeong Dong

And so, wanting to explore more of the city, the next Sunday I was back in Myeong Dong unintentionally with Parth. We spent the afternoon wondering through the streets and allies, taking pictures of the various food stands, and even trying some of it. The streets of Myeong Dong are packed with people and vendors. There is a mix of restaurants, both American and Korean,and shops, both American and Korean. The vendors sell everything from food to American apparel (Red Sox hats are common place here), to cutesy Korean things.

Fried shrimp, teokbokki, or cheese 

Dried octopus tentacles and squid

Hot dog in swirly potato

~~~

Sunday March 18th, Coex Mall

To continue my habit, I went out once again last Sunday. My roommate, Crystal, and I decided it was time to take a trip to Coex, the largest underground mall in Asia. After about a forty five minute subway ride, and my first time crossing the Han River, we arrived. As we first emerged out of the subway there was a display of a few high end cars. Naturally we gravitated towards them and I even got to sit in one :)

Then it was time to enter the mall. It truly was expansive. There were restaurants throughout, as well as a food court, a very large bookstore, American mall staples and their Korean counterparts, souvenir stores, a kimchi museum, and an aquarium. Now I've seen my share of malls and the interesting things they have in them, from fountains to roller coasters, but the kimchi museum definitely took me by surprise.

After wandering for a while and buying a few things, we decided it was time to get some food. We stopped for Japanese food by the entrance to the mall, and for dessert: Baskin' Robbins. What trip to the mall would be complete without ice cream, afterall? (or gelato or frozen yogurt). After dessert we made our way back to campus because I had a Seoul Mate group meeting (see the pun there? I didn't come up with it, but chuckle at it every time)

On our way back from Sinchon we happened across a very special man in blue overalls. Naturally we had to inconspicuously get a picture. So we caught up to him. Casually, yet quickly walked past. And then I snapped a picture over my shoulder. The convenience of an ipod #TechnologyRocks 

~~~

Sunday March 25th, Misadventure

So as today is Sunday I decided I was yet again going on an adventure. I planned out my adventure (2 palaces, a bookstore, and a market), got ready to go, went down stairs, and saw one of my classmates from Korean Language. I stopped by to say hello, which turned into a half hour conversation through which we discovered New Zealand (where he's from) is technically it's own continent. Now, he had been waiting on friends to go grocery shopping. But when two of his other friends came over to say hi and invited him along to lunch, he disregarded groceries, invited me to join lunch as well, and so off the four of us went.

We went to a little Korean restaurant right around the corner from our dorm that is very popular among Yonsei students, especially international students. I got teok mandu guk (dumpling and rice cake soup). It was perfectly what I wanted. And the conversation we had at lunch was quite amusing.

But as far as adventures go, this one=fail. But that's okay, because my wonderful roommate brought me a surprise!

So until next time, I'll try to have some more exciting adventures.
KM