May 5, 2008: Seoul Experience

Anyung,

So Monday was amazing. Normally I would be working, but it was a national holiday, Children's Day. With how hard they work the kids here I'm glad there's a day for them to let loose. So Mindy and I decided to take the subway and travel to Seoul today. What I realized right off the bat is how amazingly clean and efficient the subway system is here. I've been on subways in New York and San Francisco and they don't even come close to the one's in Seoul. We never had to wait longer then 5 mins for a subway and they run incredibly smooth. Also all the signs are both in Korean and English so we had no trouble at all. I'm pretty surprised by how westernized Korea is.

The first area we visited was Gangnam, which is the area I will be living in and it was amazing. From what I've read Gangnam is a very affluent area of Seoul and that was pretty evident. The way people dress and all the high end shopping it really reminded me of New York. So I'm pretty happy about the location, but I haven't seen my apartment yet. Either way I'm really glad that I will be there rather then in Anyang.

After walking around in awe for a while we traveled north across the river to an area that our liason recommended, but wow it was a completely different world. I'm thinking that we may have gone to the worng area cause it was nothing like what we had expected. This was a much older part of Seoul, population and infrastructure. We actually only spent a short time here because the smog was so bad I had trouble breathing. So we traveled back towards Gangnam but visited Seoul National University.

Apparently because of children's day they had some huge fair at the school. We sat at the stadium there and watched all the kids and their parents playing on the fields and it was a pretty amazing site. I was pretty amazed how involved the parent's were in all of these activities. I feel that in the U.S. most adults feel too old or mature to do many of the things these Korean parents were doing. And man were these kids happy!

From there Mindy and I decided to go grab some lunch. And man was this an adventure. So we saw this restaurant that had an open grill out on all the tables, which in my experience usually means Galbi (a delicious marinated beef). But man was I totally mistaken. So since I can't read and write Korean, I had no idea what was on the menu. But with my very limited Korean I understood that she was suggesting a dish, which I thought was Galbi. Well when they brought out the food I realized that it was pig intestine and beef mixed with onions, garlic and chives. So the waitress just started cutting it all up and cooking it in front of us. The girl I was with, Mindy, doesn't really eat red meat, but she claimed the beef right off the bat. So I was left with the intestine, and I must say it wasn't the worse thing I've eaten. The flavor wasn't bad it was just the super chewy texture that made it odd. I felt like I was eating rubber tubbing. Well I knew that I was gonna have some interesting eating experiences here and that was my first. And the worst part was that the lunch cost $30, but at least I have this story.

Well I know that many of you have been asking for pictures so I broke down and took a bunch while I was out. Here is the link to the long awaited photos. Enjoy!
http://picasaweb.google.com/sunny.bae

~Sunny