I've got Seoul but I'm not a Seouldier

September 24, 2010

Well we made it to Seoul on Wednesday and that night we went to experience some of the downtown life. It was fun and there are a lot of different types of bars. We did see plenty of army men which seriously felt like I was right back in Columbus, Ga. The next day we went to this park called Ttukseom Resort? It was pretty neat and there was this little maze for kids. It was also a PERFECT day to visit anything outdoors; it was sunny but a nice breeze and cool. We ended up going to a little family mart shop, bought some $1 ramen noodles, sat on the grass in front of a river and started people watching. It was the most beautiful day I've seen since I've been in Korea. It was amazingly relaxing and it would've been more perfect if I would've just brought a book... but the conversation and company with Max, Chelsea, and Gems was nice. I ended up just laying down on the grass and closing my eyes...  took a little nappy poo. Just an awesome, stress free day.

In the nighttime we wanted to head to the tower that allows you to see an awesome view of Seoul and apparently it's really beautiful at night. So we walk around a bit trying to figure out how to get up there... we ended up taking a taxi. Well, the taxi took us to the wrong entrance so we walked up this hill for good bit and we arrived at some stairs... these stairs stretched for one mile... up hill. We debated walking up the stairs and came to a mutual decision... "screw the tower." There was no way we were going to make it up these stairs... there will be plenty of other chances to make it to the top of this tower and to make it to the correct entrance to take the elevator. Instead, we ate at some chicken place, went home, and watched TV.

Today we just went out to do some shopping and we found that the marketplaces we went to were way too touristy. Next time we will have to do a little more research to find the good stuff. We met up with one of our EPIK group leaders and ate dinner with her; we got some cocktails afterwards. The bar that we got some cocktails was totally a "sex and the city" bar. It was very upscale and modern looking. It just so happened that Chigan loved Sex and the City... lol, awesome. Tomorrow our train leaves around 2:30PM so we're thinking about visiting city hall before our train leaves and just chill there for a couple of hours.

The Seoul trip was not exactly what I expected only because we didn't get to make it to the tower (which was a mishap on the taxi's behalf lol) and because we didn't get to visit the market that I remembered from several years ago when I visited Korea with my family. However, the company and my friends made the trip satisfactory and would go anywhere with them. It's not even like I would've been able to buy many things because we just got paid today... but not in full so I'm technically broke. We'll see how this goes but another trip to Seoul is definitely coming again soon. ;)