seoul searching

This past weekend, Deb and I made our first of what will hopefully be many jaunts into the glorious city of Seoul. We left on Saturday, around noon, accompanied by the experienced and knowledgeable Sandy-teacher, who we've made a habit of turning to for all things Korean. We took a taxi (which are incredibly cheap here; most of the taxi rides I've taken have cost between 2 and 5 dollars) to the bus station, and caught a bus to Seoul.

The bus was roomy and luxurious and the seats reclined all the way back, as Sandy learned when the man in front of him utilized this option, thus crushing Sandy's kneecaps. We stopped at a rest stop where the bathroom stalls had mirrors on the inside of the doors so that you could look at your own face while you pee. At the same rest stop were bars of soap that were magnetically attached to their holders and a woman who was incredibly impressed by both my nails and Deb's hair (I've recently learned that Koreans simply cannot grow their nails long, and I think we all already know that they cannot grow their hair curly). The remainder of the 3-hour ride was spent in sleep, thought, chatter, and twenty questions, though not necessarily in that order. At long last, we arrived in the big city.

The traffic in Seoul, both of the cars on the streets and of the people in the subways, makes New York City look like Prospect after 10 pm. Okay, that's an overstatement. It's more crowded than a pub on St. Paddy's Day. There are a lot of foreigners there, and at first, we had to fight the urge to say hey to every white person we saw.

Right outside the bus station are Gyeongbokgung Palace (below) and the Korean Folk Museum. We toured both, and Deb will post our pictures of the Palace soon. It was awesome.

After we saw the sites, we got down to business. We took the subway to Itaewon, the foreigner-infested area of Seoul that Mr. Choi refers to as "The lie Place." However, the food that we ate there was the truth. We went to a bangin' Thai restaurant and got delicious meals. Deb's was the most intriguing, a tasty beef dish with undertones of fruit loops (no lie). We went to a Starbucks and got LARGE coffees that were even more overpriced than they are in America. We saw "Hooker Hill," but were not in the market and so did not go there.

Then we got a taxi and made our way to a different area of the city, the name of which escapes me. After longingly eyeing a bunch of sweet jewelry being hocked by street vendors, we hit up a bar called the Tin Pan and had some drinks. It was great fun, and I enjoyed some nostalgia-laden Long Island Iced Teas. After that, we moved the party to the Noreabang for karaoke. It was also great fun, as with only three of us we were able to sing our fill of songs, spending two hours at the place. After this, we went to a club and danced the remainder of the night away. Basically, we spent the night much as we would have in Gunsan, but we were in Seoul which made it way cooler.

We stopped at a convenience store to get snacks, where I saw the second person of the day wearing a shirt that I simply must have. (If you've never seen Neon Genesis Evangelion you're too cool for me and you won't understand this or care, but if you have, you'll love it.) It read, "HUMAN INSTRUMENTALITY PROJECT: WE NEED AT FIELDS!" Forgetting the reality of the situation, I approached him and said, "Sweet shirt man!" He replied with some Korean, so I pointed to the shirt, gave him the thumbs up, and said "Very good!" It's a beautiful thing when two strangers can share the language of nerdery.

At some point in the night, we met up with Joel, a former teacher of the Ivy School and a friend of Sandy's. Joel is now a grad student in Seoul (grad school in a foreign language... this guy's got balls!) and he was kind enough to let us all stay at his dorm/apartment. The trade off, however, was that we had to get the f outta dodge at about 10 in the morning. I think we went to bed at 5, so you can imagine how that went. But we went to Burger King (yay!) and dragged our asses back onto the bus, where I slept and Deb kicked Sandy's ass in Simpsons Twenty Questions.

So after a weekend of seoul searching, we got no answers and ended up back where we started... with twenty questions.

And I am le tired. G'night all! ...kel