This is an extremely long post so put on some pajamas, find a cozy couch, make some popcorn and enjoy! haha
Let's first start off with a reoccurring problem that all of us English Teachers here have whined about ....in Korea they haven't jumped on the genius bandwagon of, if you have a holiday that falls in the middle of the week MOVE IT TO THE MONDAY TO GET A 3 DAY WEEKEND! Most of our, few and far between, days off fall on Wednesday and it is very inconvenient. This past weekend was one of only 2 holiday weekends this year in Korea! It's a big deal! After much consideration of our options we decided to celebrate Buddha's Birthday (the same weekend as Memorial Day for all of you in the States) up in Seoul with our awesome friend Ben!
Pre-planning
Because of the mad rush of travelers on such a special weekend, we decided to get our tickets earlier on in the week. Our thinking was to get on the earliest bus to Seoul on Saturday morning and leave "wicked" late on Sunday night to get the most bang for our buck. After using the calendar and broken English at the ticket counter we were asked what time we wanted to catch the bus. Both of us hold up our fingers saying 1, implying the first bus. She scribbled some numbers along the line of 5:00 AM. Oh heck to the no! We both looked at each other without hesitation and held up 2 fingers (obviously meaning 2nd). We were set for the 6:20 AM bus. I checked the weather- sunny and warm, made plans to stay with Ben who was getting out of work at 1:30 on Saturday and also made plans with our friend Chris Doctor who was going to be our tour guide and "make us the most satisfied tourists in Korea" on Monday. It was all set to be a perfect weekend!
Day One (Saturday)
We wake up to the alarm at 5:20 AM and since we haven't had to do that in such a long time, in a mini frenzy we forgot how to shut the alarm clock out and I just ripped the batteries out to make that awful noise stop.
Halfway to our destination the bus made a pit stop. The second we got off the bus I immediately panicked because for some reason it was freezing out! (and for most of you who are reading this...know how big of a concern it is for me) This wasn't the plan! Dave asked me, "didn't you check the weather?" and yes, I did...only for Mokpo! Somehow in the midst of things I didn't put my thinking cap on and just assumed Mokpo and Seoul would have the same weather. Dope.
Arriving in Seoul at around 10:30, we were lucky the weather was beautiful. We bought new T Money cards, because we forgot ours at home. We had a text from Ben asking us for an update and we told him we were going to walk around a bit and wait for him to get out of work. His reply text said, "Why don't you come to my place and drop off your bags before I go to work." Hm.....I guess I read the original plan wrong! He was going to work at 1:30, not getting out! So we hopped back on the train towards Ben's apartment. We were surprised when he greeted us in a stalker like fashion, claiming it was my hiker hat and old lady dress that allowed him to spot us so easily.
We dropped of our things off and heading to explore the huge city while Ben was at work. We didn't have much of a plan but we accidentally stumbled upon Gyeongbokgung Palace. It's the largest and most impressive of the 5 palaces that were built by the Joseon Dynasty in Seoul. The name Gyeongbokgung translates to English as "Palace of Shining Happiness." (Thanks Wikipedia).
People were flocking around this guy so we did too. Turns out he's a famous comedian in Korea. Way cool!
Throughout the day we had a couple groups of university students approach us. At first we were really apprehensive because the only people who approach us in Mokpo are the religious types. The first group asked us to take pictures with them holding signs. They were supporting nondiscrimination towards North Koreans. We took many pictures with them, holding signs in Korean. I hope the signs really were supporting non discrimination against the North Koreans and not saying, "I'm a stupid foreigner."
We had another group ask us if they could film us while they conducted an interview with us about the public transportation. We kindly agreed. One of their questions was, "How do you feel about giving up your seat to the elderly?" I said, "It's a good idea....they're old, they need to sit." After every answer they would all say, "Ohhhh!" and clap their hands and giggle. We were loving it.
After the palace we walked along the Cheonggyecheon which is a man made stream in the middle of the city. It's a really neat place because it is tucked away below the city so it feels like you are on a nature walk surrounded by trees, bugs, and fish, but when you glance up there are huge buildings and a bustling city above. There were many people walking and playing the the stream. In lieu of Buddha's birthday there were rows and rows of beautiful lanterns strung from the trees and large lantern sculptures.
From there we headed to Itaewon which is the reverse of China Town back home. In this Asian city, there is a section that should be called America Town. There's a ton of western restaurants where you can get any type of food you can imagine, western bars, and of course many foreigners. Dave and Ben got kabobs at a Turkish place and they were very tasty. We also checked out the used book store, What The Book, which we spend hours trying to find during our winter vacation in Seoul. Turns out, it's right on the main strip! From there we went to a 7-11 and bought some beers so we could sit outside and drink. Side note- here in Korea, all of the convenience stores have a set of plastic chairs and a table outside so you can sit at and drink. Very awesome. We were going to sit by ourselves, but a foreigner invited us to sit with him. From the very beginning he was obnoxious! He started off asking where we were from. When we said the US his reply was, "because you never know where people are from. They could be a normal black guy or a real African. I just saw this black guy walking in a FULL African getup, like, traditional robes and stuff." Then is friend from UK comes over and tells us about how he lost his job his first night in Korea because he went out and drunkly hit on his co-worker. She didn't appreciate this and complained and he was fired. Great start. Anyway, I suavely asked them which bars they hang out at to make sure we avoided them. (Pretty clever don't you think?) I discreetly texted Ben saying, "We have to get out of here! Pretend this text is someone else. SOS!," and we quickly finished our beer and got out of there.
We went to an Indian restaurant (Agra) for dinner. We met Ben's boyfriend Miguel from Mexico City who is working at a Mexican restaurant there in Seoul. He was super nice and we are glad we got to spend some time with him, even if it was only for an hour on his lunch break. We got to the restaurant around 9:55 PM and were greeted by the pushiest waiter, who told us we had to order right then because they were closing down the kitchen, that we had to leave by 10:30, insisted that we ordered more nan bread than needed, hovered over us, and didn't give us our change back (it was only 80 cents worth, but still! Rude!) The rest of the night was relaxing. We just sat at a GS25 and split a bottle of beer and chatted about the difference between Ben's students and our students. Ben teaches super geniuses who are in 6th grade studying university level English and our kids, on the other hand, are in 8th grade and can't make full sentences.
Day 2 (Sunday)
That night was the worst night sleep! For some reason Ben's apartment is infested with mosquitoes!!!! I barely slept. Just when I would doze off, another bugger would get me! I am covered in bug bites! The first thing I said to Ben in the morning was, "Good morning been. I DIDN'T SLEEP!" The highlight of that night though was snuggling with Badonkadonk, one of Bens' cats.
The one food I wanted to eat in Seoul was dakgalbi so we got it for lunch. I don't know what Ben was thinking, but he ordered the extra spicy one. It was very very very very very very very hot! I think we asked the waiter for water at least 20 times. They must have said to each other, "Silly waygooks!" Of course we had to get dessert to cool down our mouths. We got waffle pies which is a warm waffle with ice-cream in the middle and folded in half to make a little sandwich. Yum! Yum! Yum!
Extra spicy Dakgalbi!!!!
YIKES!!!
We didn't have much of a plan for the day so we moseyed on to a museum which we couldn't find and just walked around in a huge circle. (I'm not the only one who's bad at directions!) We ended up in Myeongdong, the huge shopping district. We got hungry so we continued our tradition, which started our first visit to Seoul, of getting a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts to share!
Being full from the donuts, we thought it was the perfect time to experience our first cat cafe. Well, it was an experience alright! Yes, you read right....CAT CAFE! When you first walk in there is a large wooden gate and a place to replace your shoes with slippers. A cat cafe is exactly what its name implies... a cafe with tons of cats roaming around. We ordered our complimentary drinks and found a seat. The cafe is filled with little nooks and crannies for the cats to rest and a central play area equipped with balls, yarn, some sort of rocking boat that cats can sit it, and boxes. As for the cats, they roam around wherever they please including the bathroom, the tables, and the counter where you get your drinks.
In the, longer than we would like to admit, time we were there we picked out of favorite cats including the the hairless cat, Mr. Miserable (we named him because he looked unhappy and didn't want anything to do with anyone), and KoKo.
You wouldn't think many exciting things would happen at a cat cafe, but that's untrue! First, there was a cat fight. That was exciting because they were chasing each other around the entire cafe running on top of both tables and people. At one point one of the cats was scaling up a post trying to get to the other cat who was posed up on the ledge like a king, probably thinking, "Go ahead...just try and get me!"
The stories don't stop there. On the table next to ours was a cat. It kept pawing like it was going to jump to our table. After a few seconds of contemplation, this tiny tot made the huge leap, but landed short! It's front paws made it but the rest of it did not and it took a HUGE flop on it's back!!! We were dying of laughter!
And the last funny thing that happened was that Mr. Miserable was avoiding people and other cats by hiding between the wall and the movable bench we were sitting on. We didn't want the cats to get stuck behind there so we pushed it back as far as we thought we could. Well, Mr. Miserable had a different plan. He tried to go face first into the hiding space, only it was far too small for him so his head was suck and his back legs were sticking straight up in the air!
The rules of the Cat Cafe...Dave really wanted to steal this
The surprise above our table
Ben trying to tame KoKo
Failed attempt to leap to our table, major highlight!
Being a rebel
Loving life!
The Cat Whisperer
Our friend KoKo!
Mr. Miserable also loving life
Weird cat rocker thing-a-bob
That nights dinner was Korea's beloved samgyueopsal and it was Dave's idea to order 3 big beers and a bottle of Soju. The food was served to us a bit differently though. There was a trough around the edge of the grill that was filled with egg. The delicious part was that all of the juices from the meat dripped down for a tasty egg concoction. (It sounds gross, but trust me...it was awesome!) The one downfall to the dinner was the amount of bones there were in the meat. At one point I was using my hands to pry the meat away from the bone, and all of a sudden the bone flung out of my hands/mouth and directly at Ben! It hit him right in the chest! All I hear is Ben's "Liiiinndddsssseeeyyyyyy!!!!!! I can't believe you!" (one of Ben's favorite things to say to me) I think we all had tears in our eyes from the laughter!
We walked home and before bed we went on a mosquito killing spree to prevent another sleepless night and watched the best youtube video that I would like to share with you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
Day 3 (Monday; Buddha's Birthday!!!)
We met our friend Chris Doctor at a subway station and he was our tour guide for the day. We gave him a rundown of what we've seen and the "tour" began. On the way over to our first destination he showed us the Blue House (from a far of course), which is the equivalent of the White House in the US. After about 10 minutes of walking we ended up in Insadong, a traditional neighborhood filled with many shops full of Korean artwork, crafts, and antiques. We could have spent hours there. From there we explored the Unhyeongung Royal Residence Place.
Chris: What does this look like to you? Me: A foot? Chris: No, it's a paintbrush!
Love buttons. How cute!
Chris: "Dave, I can't see your face." Dave: "Yeah, it's funny this way." (I agree!)
Us and Chris Doctor!!!!!!!
This is placed on doors in the spring to bring good four tune
It was lunch time! Chris brought us to a one of his favorite restaurants that he has been going to for 10 years. Boy, was it delicious! The dumplings were the best we have ever tasted! This place had a cool atmosphere complete with dumplings laid out surrounded by candles and a Soju bottle with a spray nozzle on it. (Soju is the hard alcohol everyone in Korea drinks) I can't imagine what it was used for.
Drinking Makkoli
Not a very good picture, but you get it. What on Earth?!
Because it was Buddha's birthday we thought it would be fascinating to go to a temple. The Jogye-sa had a huge celebration where thousands of people gathered and enjoyed the the many lanterns and traditions of Buddhism. It was beautiful.
Cutie Alert!!!
After lunch we walked through many different neighborhoods ranging from high end ritzy, to the trendy vintage, which we couldn't possibly remember all of them. He brought us to few other places including the largest bookstore in Korea and a neat little park. It was a fast paced day filled with good information and many sights we wouldn't have seen without out him. We are very thankful that he spent the day with us.
Tree IV's. No Joke. The label on the bottle said "Pine Power" We are still confused.
Cutie Alert!!!!
Chris got us on the first try! He is such a great photographer and all of the photos of us from the day should be credited to him. Thanks Chris!
Also, in the background is an English Academy whose motto was, "You can do!" Nice try English Academy. Next time pick a slogan that is grammatically correct! Chris loved this!
After we said our goodbyes and thank-yous to Chris we met Ben for a farewell dinner. We decided on Mexican including nachos, quesadillas, and burritos. The boys were still hungry so we went upstairs to a bar/ restaurant fully equipped with a beer pong table and they both ordered hamburgers!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! Because they still weren't satisfied, we went for round 2 of waffle pies. We are disgusting! We said goodbye to Ben and hopped on the 10:30 bus back home. We were back in Mokpo at around 2:30 AM and took a taxi with the world's slowest driver back to our apartment. Come to think of it, that taxi driver was probably just going the speed limit. We are just so used to the taxi drivers speeding, running red lights, and passing people on the wrong side of the road, that that has become the norm and we make fun of the "slow" ones. Oh Korea.
The one other thing I wanted to mention about Seoul is the amount of people that speak English. In Mokpo English is practically nonexistent. When Koreans talk to us it's always in Korean and we always respond with "I don't know," or "I can't speak Korean" (in Korean of course). I just assume no one can speak English. Well, in Seoul it's a different story. Many people speak English, even if it's a little. So when ever I interacted with Koreans I took the Mokpo approach and spoke with very simple words and used many hand gestures. Two instances stand out in my mind. The first was when we were in a connivance store and the man at the counter asked me several times, "May I help you?" And I just kept putting up my arms, crossing them like an X (because that is how you say no here), shaking my head back and forth and saying, "no, no, no" Ben looked at me and he said, "Um, Lindsey, he's asking you 'may I help you in Enlgish'" Oppers! The second time was in the Mexican restaurant when I didn't want jalapeños in my burrito. The waiter came up to me and I just pointed to the burrito and then pointed at the jalapeños and did the typical cross my arms to say no, and he responded with perfect English, "So no jalapeños on your burrito?" I was embarrassed! hahaha
It was very strange to me because Koreans would talk to me and I would just tell them I couldn't understand them
Here are a few random pictures from Seoul!!! Thanks for reading and/or just looking at pictures again!!!!
Teddy doesn't approve of this.
The Cocktail Truck: answering our question if open containers are ok
Dirty Garfield cat that is always hanging out on the corner. We love him!
I hope I haven't bored you to death, and that there are enough pictures to keep you interested. Until next time when we will keep it short and sweet....
-Lindsey :)
