seouldier

Alright - so I just got back from a wonderful trip in Seoul. It was my first trip to Seoul and it is quite different from Daegu (thanks captain obvious). I just spent almost an hour uploading all of these pics from the trip so you all better enjoy it. The pic of above is Eun-Kyu, me and Jessica. They are 2 teachers from my school. Eun-Kyu is my Korean saviour. She helps me whenever I need some translation , which happens everyday. So we took the KTX early in the morning and our first stop was an Italian restaurant. It was amazing and I had artichokes for the first time in 6 months. It was good. After that Susan spilt water on herself and looked like she peed herself. (see picture below) Aside from that she was amazing. She lived in Seoul for years so she knew just where to take us.

This is outside our hotel. It was by far the coolest and strangest hotel I've been in. It was like I walked into the 80's. I think that was the right generation. Everything was red, white and blue. Very streamline. Very expensive. I'm so upset that I forgot to take pictures of the lobby bathrooms. They were like separate pods, bright red and inside this hollowed out room was a tv displaying runway shows. Basically if it weren't for Careys mom we could never afford to stay there.
In the rainforest style shower with Carey.


Part of the lobby. They had egg chairs too.. just like Austin Powers! If only I had a hairless cat with me.

We were very pumped about the bathtub because, we don't have them in our apartments. So, I was able to have a bath, and because it was open concept watch the mens finals of the Australian Open (which was sponsored by KIA - hello, Korean connection)
Our room was also covered in curtains, all over. This was Marla and I pretending to be in that scene of Pearl Harbour where they're in the parachute hatch.
I know this looks weird but these were hanging down the roof of the elevators.. it didn't show right but they were coloured lights.
So, after settling into the hotel we went to Insadong. It was a really good place for shopping and picking up traditional items. I got a screen, handpainted fan, some silk place settings and pottery. It was the first time i bought Korean stuff for myself so that was exciting. After Insadong we went to the Deoksugung Palace. It was great, and big, and interesting. Good to see but I've seen so many palace/temple structures I don't know if I'll be able to keep them separate in my mind.
Me being tough. I practiced and this was the best I could do.

Cool shot.

So this was the best part of the Palace. They had traditional games set up. This was a see-saw thing but standing. So much fun! I'm basically professh at this.

Throne Room.
Marla and I infront of the Throne Room.

This could be my favourite pic. I discovered that I was exactly the same height of this underpass. I'm on the left.
Ever being culturally sensitive, this is us trying to break down the door.
This is a statue of King Sejeong. He's probably the most famous king of Korea. He created the Korean language - Hangeul.

Alright so after the Palace we went to see a hockey game! It was Korea vs. China. I have some issues however because every single player on the Chinese team was from Sweden. So I call them the 'fake China' team. Anyways to quote Marla "An Asia League of Ice Hockey? That's like having Canadian Samurai".
So Korea won 7-1. There was a nice guy who knew enough English to explain all of the players to me. Except he didn't like the fights, and anytime there was one he explained that they were always caused by the other team. Korea is a gentle country.

After the hockey game we went for Thai food in Itaewon. It is a very famous part of Seoul that has tons of foreigners. Seriously so many, and Im not used to it. But this area has tons of Ethnic restaurants so I was in heaven. AFter that we went to about 4 different bars. I didn't lots of dancing and it was a really fun night. It was really nice to go out somewhere different. I don't have any pics from the night really except for this one of me playing pool. I'm really upset because I was playing a guy from Moonkkang, but not our branch. I right here I was about to run the table.. and then the eight ball when in and circled the pocket twice and then went out. So I lost, but it was a moral victory because I was upderestimated.

Here we are the next morning, very tired but happy on the inside to have American breakfast for the first time in 6 months. It was pretty good. They also had a big screen and were showing Canadian hockey games. I think the place was called the Rocky Mountain.

This is me riding the subway. The public transportation system here is really huge but really easy to figure out and follow. We didn't ride taxis too much but I probably spent more on them than anything else.
After we ate breakfast we went to the War Memorial Museum. It was so huge and a really good thing to see. It's very exhausting, you could easily spend a whole day there. It did a wonderful job of explaining the history.

This was the first of a series of hallways that had the names of everyone who died in the Korean War.
This was the most moving part of the Museum. It is a statue called "Two Brothers". When the North and South was divided, it also divided families as well. So this statue depicts a true story about a South Korean soldier who shot a North Korean soldier to find out that it was his brother. This shows the one brother dying in the arms of the other.




Exhausted, we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. They had a curry buffet so I was in heaven.
Today we got up, got ready and went back to Insadong to do some more shopping. I picked up some more things, and saw more things that I wanted to buy but didn't have have the money and or space for.

So this is the end of the trip at Seoul Station. The weekend went by really fast. Right now it's about 10 pm and it sucks that my long weekend is over so quickly. At least it's only a 4 day week next week!
Tonight my friend Kyung-Soon came over to give me some traditional Korean New Year desserts that they only have once a year. She's a sweety.

Anyways, i'm off to relax what little time I have left this weekend.

oh, one other thing i forgot to mention. I saw my first red light district. or at least the first one i noticed. hooker hill they call it. strange to see women just sitting in windows and doors waiting for american soldiers to come by. a few were knitting, i guess they were trying to say that on top of everything else they have mad domestic skills. i dunno.