Blogs from Seoul, South Korea, Asia - page 125

I leave on my trip in a little more than three weeks, and while I'm whittling away at my to-do list, I still have many things to do. The past six months have flown by and I have not been as active in my planning as I should have been. For example, I am still looking for a way to get the bulk of my possessions from Korea to the U.S. in an inexpensive manner. I think I'll have it figured out by today because Jackie, my girlfriend, is calling movers today and if their quotes are good, I'll use one of them. Otherwise, I will end up leaving quite a few possessions in my apartment for the next occupant to use, throw out a bunch of old clothes (which I should do anyway) and shipping ... read more

What is it about Itaewon that draws one so consistently back? I know what people that have been here are thinking...you are lazy tourists that want to avoid the authentic experience and hide away in your own pre-established routine and plethora of expectations and don't want to be challenged or embarassed (HA! to those who think Itaewon can't embarass you). I think it is the hockey. Jen and I had an errand running day....back in Bundang. We were wandering the suburbian streets last night at 2 o clock in the morning because we were too tired to argue with the Korean cab driver about expenses and street names. Where's the logic there I wonder? So we have time to kill. So what if we chose to stick to the familiar. It is a very strange place ... read more

So much has happened since our last little blog... day 2 (wednesday), we found a nifty mountain to hike on the internet... "GwanakSan". So we hopped on a subway, and followed the people with the hiking gear, and found the trail entrance pretty easily. They actually have gondolas bringing up military officials (they have a base somewhere up there), but of course, since we're soooo hardcore, we hiked it. well, it wasn't as cool as the peak (kidddinnng)! It was so rad! nifty pine trees and mountains made of giant balls of granite were all around us... and we had a great view of the monstrosity that is Seoul below us. Apparently, Koreans love their hiking, so we said Hellooooo to them as we passed. Well, when we arrived at the top, a Korean named Mr. ... read more

And so we departed... midnight our time on January 29... and arrived at the Incheon Airpost a very long 14 hours later... on the 31st, 4am Korean time. The flight was strange.. I'm pretty sure we were 2 of the only four non-koreans on the flight. Cool thing, though - sometime during the 14 dark hours spent flying over Canada/Alaska/Russia/China, we saw the Northern Lights. Rad. And, we were fed some interesting meals... hotsauce in a toothpaste tube, green tea rice porridge, and even bean cakes. Yess!!! . We landed in a very surpirsingly empty Incheon airport, though it was 4 am at the time. We then checked our bags, exchanged soem currency, and began tha agonizing quest for food. After much deliberation we decided on Mc Donalds. Cheap and open. A nice Korean helped us ... read more

Well, let's see. I met up with Anna and Mike today at around noon and we took the bus (that we waited for for about 30 minutes I swear!) to Seoul. They hadn't really seen too much yet so we were going to go to a palace, but ended up going straight to Insadong to meet up with Corey and Rebecca. Insadong is a really old street full of shops with Korean souvenirs and teashops and stuff. So anyways, we are waiting outside Starbucks and this reallllly old man comes over and starts talking to us. He wants us to sign his book and write where we are from in it. He proceeds to tell us that he likes to talk to foreigners, etc, etc....he was really funny, so we signed it. And he did have ... read more