Day by Day with Gina

Seoul Searchin'

UPDATE FROM SOUTH KOREA
Wednesday, December 28, 2006

On Wednesday, we rode the subway into the city of Seoul and did some Seoul-searching. Ben, Shane, Jason, and Britt went early in the morning to explore the Electronics Mart. Becca, Micah, and I went up around lunchtime to join them. The subway ride there was very culturally interesting.

At first, we didn't have a seat, but a nice lady let Becca have her seat when she saw her carrying Micah on her front-pack. As Americans, we get a fair amount of staring and general attention most of the time. When you throw in a Caucasian blue-eyed baby, we get even more attention, especially from old Korean ladies. Becca had to feed Micah while we were on the subway, and this Korean woman next to her tried several times to tell her how to do it. Becca was covered with a blanket, which I am sure many on the subway appreciated her modesty, and the Korean woman next to her told her to take the blanket off because the baby couldn't breathe. She even reached over to take the blanket off of Becca, and Becca had to pull out her smack-down face, grab the blanket to keep it on, and insist that Micah was just fine. Keep in mind that we have never met this person before, and she's trying to expose Becca in front of a subway car rather full of people. Micah was, however, getting warm, so Becca and I pulled his pant legs up so he could have a bit of ventillation. The Korean woman reached over and tried to pull his pant legs back down, I assume because she thought he was cold or that we were being negligent. Becca and I both pulled out our smack-down faces and said (with motions) that he was hot. The Korean lady finally stopped making unreasonable suggestions and became content just watching and making cooing noises at Micah.

There were other interesting things that happened on the subway. Several beggars came through during our ride, asking for money, sometimes playing music on an instrument or a small radio. There were also salesmen that walked through, selling items like earmuffs, scarves, gloves, toothbrushes, battery-operated razors, and even band-aids. I actually saw some people purchase from them, so it mus be a viable economic option of some kind.

Becca and I made it into Seoul at the Yongsan station, which is really big and looks like this:
There is a very large store there called the Electronics Mart. I only spent a couple of minutes in it, and I had to leave because I was so overwhelmed! If you have ever been to the Apparel Mart in Atlanta or know what it's like, imagine that, but full of only electronics. It is several buildings (over 20) with several floors (3 or more) each, and on each floor are many separate vendors, each selling myriads of electronic devices. That's the best I can do to explain it. Ben will probably do a better job since he spent more time in there, but imagine lots and lots of this:
Also at the Yongsan station is a relatively new food court, where we ate lunch together. I had BiBimBap, which is rice, vegetables, and eggs in a very hot ceramic bowl, where you cook it yourself altogether. Ben had Bulgoki, which is beef and rice that you put in leaves of lettuce like a burrito. Shane had some kind of sweet pork dish. Britt had a turkey sandwich, go figure.

After lunch, we walked around the shops a bit. I found a store named after me!!!

Then, we braved the subway journey home. It was so crowded on the subway that we all stood the whole way home (over an hour). Poor Becca was carrying Micah and standing most of that time, so she got a bit tired. Britt finally releived her and carried him the rest of the way.

We took a taxi back to the apartment, made chicken for dinner, and the boys went downstairs for the men's fraternity meeting. Becca, Shane, Micah, and I chilled out in the apartment with some Allison Kraus dvd viewing and put our feet up. We ended the evening with...Signs, the alien/faith in God movie, then had a much-needed night of sleep.

Thursday, December 29, 2005
We got up early on Thursday and headed back into Seoul via the subway. The boys had some interesting head happenings on the train:
We rode toward the Gyeongbok palace on the north side of the city. It was very cold, but it was really a neat palace and we all enjoyed looking around the grounds and the beautiful buildings.
We took the subway south back into Seoul and got off at Daebong to see the 63 building, the tallest building in Seoul. Guess how many floors it has??? We had planned to go there and eat in the food court and shop around a bit in the building, but we found out most tourist-y spots at the building were closed for renovation. Bum-mer. It was about 2PM and everyone was starting to get cranky from lack of food, so we zipped out to the streets and found the closest decent-looking restaurant we could. We had Kalbi at this very authentic Korean restaurant. We sat on pillows on the floor, and they brought out the meat and cooked it on a grill in the middle of our table. They had excellent pork and rice. I also had some really good dumpling soup, but the side dishes were not as accessible for us boring Americans. They were mostly too spicy or had unidentifiable substances.
Now that we had our glucose levels back within the safe range, we walked back over to the 63 building and went up to the observation deck, the only part of the building that was actually open. It was a beautiful view of the city.
Seoul is really interesting. In most American cities, the tallest buildings are offices and companies. In Seoul, the apartment buildings are just as tall, if not taller, than the businesses. And since the tallest building in Seoul is only 63 stories, you can imagine that there just aren't that many skyscrapers there. Donal Trump has some Trumpworld towers in Seoul. At least two sets, that I was able to see.

After recharging with some chocolate ice cream, we boarded the subway again and headed toward home. Becca and Britt were able to get seats, which was good so that they could hold Micah and Becca could feed him again.

We picked up our really awesome tailor-made shirts at the shop and then walked over to Britt and Becca's favorite Bulgoki restaurant. The owner and his wife know Britt and Becca really well, so it was really a great experience. He called himself grandfather (in Korean) and whisked Micah away when he started to get fussy.
He and his wife ("grandmother") entertained Micah for most of our meal. The Bulgoki was great. He cooked the chicken on the grill in our table, then would randomly put food in our lettuce-burritos for us- a little bean sprout there, some seaweed over here. He was really a fun guy and seemed very genuine and nice. The food was incredible.
My favorite side dishes were the potato salad, the egg rolls, and the cucumber kimchi.
We made a stop at the Coffee Tree, and kept ourselves warm with our excellent coffee on the cold walk home.
We ended the evening with two more episodes of Arrested Development, the we all crashed after a very busy day.

I promised to write about my Korean potty-time adventures, but this blog post is getting really long, so I will save it for tomorrow. I know you're disappointed, but a girl can only do so much.

Until next time...sugo hasaeo! (Keep working hard!)

posted by Gina @ 7:56 PM