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Bongeunsa Buddhist temple
My new friends and I happened upon at a wonderful temple just outside the CoEx Mall. With the internet, the world has become so small. I remember as a child when we moved to Seoul from 1968 - 1972, we had to write letters to family back in the States. Making a phone call was a HUGE deal costing a ton of money for just a few minutes. My parents were on the cutting edge of technology by using reel-to-reel tapes to send "audio letters" back home. Back then, we were a lot alot farther away from those we left behind. Nowadays, I call friends and family all over the world for free (or very cheap) via Skype or Jahja on a regular basis. Emails, photos, and videos fly back and forth like nobody's business and if I need to see a form or bill, my father scans it and sends it to me. As I said, the world has become a lot smaller.
I think this changes our connections for being introduced to people. With the onset of the internet age, my father has been able to communicate on a regular basis with some Israeli neighbors we had while living in Seoul back in the 70's. So, a few weeks ago when my father
Dusegung Palace
I met Ali at Doeksegung Palace for and good wandering around Austin in Florida told his friend in Israel that I was in Seoul, his friend replied that that he knew people who had just moved to Seoul as well. So, a few Skype calls later and I've arranged to meet with Etti and Eddy whom I would have never met otherwise. We met at the COEX Mall which is an enormous shopping center with a subway station connected right to it. We had some tea, wandered around, went to a bookstore with English language books, wandered some more and then found a Buddhist temple outside the mall. We went back to the mall and had ate dinner. We talked about all sorts of things and I instantly liked them. It was all very nice. We video Skype on a regular basis.
I met someone else the same way last week when a friend in the States told me of another friend she knew that moved to Korea. Within a few days, we were meeting at exit 2 of the City Hall subway station in Seoul. Once again I met a wonderfully nice person who had lots to talk about. We walked around the Deoksugung Place, wandered through the HI! Seoul
The table groaned with food
They were stacking dishes on top of dishes. Festival and started wandering around looking for a place to eat. Eventually, I suggested going to Sosim restauarant which was a few subway stops away mostly because I wanted to have a vegetarian meal. Sosim is closed on Sundays, so we went looking for another place and bumped into some other teachers at the English camp where he teaches. We wound up eating with them at vegetarian restaurant where they had a traditional Korean dance performance. The table groaned with food. What a wonderful meal! There was a Korean man that had been invited along to eat with us who, as the oldest male in the party, paid for us all! Holy mole! The meal was expensive and we had no intention for him to pay, but that's the rules and we had to thankfully accept it. After the meal, the group moved to a bar with a magic show in Myeong-dong. We saw the show, had a few drinks (the Korean guy paid again!) and had a good time.
Some of the best times I've had in Seoul are directly due to introductions made via the internet. Not only has the internet made the world smaller, it has
made Seoul smaller for me. Is there anyone else I should know about?
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Kathi
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Having fun
with you on your travels...