Jul 21

Day One in Korea Part 2

Ok, so the rest of my day on Sunday….wow I have a lot to update! It’s already Wednesday here! So I stopped off at getting shoes for my big giant puffy amazon feet. I think I’ll back track a tiny bit and talk about the views from the subway. It’s really interesting. You can see the big new skyscrapers, as well as the small old run down houses. On top of a lot of the smaller apartment buildings there are these little rooms on the roof. They fascinate me. They’re very small, but people who live on them put up lots of plants and flowers, and they’re the greenest parts of the view from the subway. Most of them look very poor and run down, but at the same time, I think they’re lovely. They hang colorful laundry out in the sun to dry and have beautiful gardens on the tops. The city is really interesting like that. Some parts look like a brand new busy city, while others look older and unchanged by the busyness around them. It’s not like New York. This city has been around for centuries, and you see a lot of the old right along side the new. It’s a cool dichotomy. (note to self, take pictures of one of these next subway ride...)

So anyway! Back to the day! We had gone to Dong Dae Moon to find shoes for my poor blistered feet and ended up walking around there for a lot of the afternoon. There are a lot of buildings with very similar shopping areas. It’s not like malls in the states at all. There are floors and floors of shops, not stores. Each person has their own clothing shop that’s all open, no walls, and they’re about 10 or 12 feet across each. Very small, and all side by side. They line the walls and sometimes it’s like a maze trying to figure out how to get back to the elevator or the door. It was really cool though!

When we wanted some lunch, we went to the basement of one of the buildings and there was a Lotteria. Lotteria is part of the huge Lotte corporation. They have buildings, and restaurants, stores, and a HUGE center known as Lotte World. It has tons of shopping, an ice rink inside, a folk museum and an amusement park too! There’s a castle that looks just like Disney World. In fact, think of it kind of like Disney World with lots of upscale shopping but not so little kid-ish. So at Lotteria, it’s sort of like McDonald’s. Korean McDonalds, and I got the weirdest, most delicious sounding thing on the menu, a bulgogi rice burger. Holy cow…..it’s like, yum on a rice bun. That’s right, no bread bun, the bun is rice, and inside is bulgogi made into burger form with lettuce, union, pickle, bacon and mayo. Here’s a pic for all your curious ones out there. It was sinfully good. Hahaha!

So after lunch we had some time before we were going to meet Hisung’s friend Daesung and his girlfriend Jeein. So we went back to the apartment and I changed into a skirt, which really REALLY helped with the humidity. It’s been warm of course, but what kills ya is the humidity. It’s just stifling and oppressive. It’s because there’s been so much rain lately in the country, and a lot of places are having major flooding and stuff…..I think I’ve said that already though, so moving on…

We met them on a road by a university and went in Daesung’s car. He is a really good driver to get around these CRAZY city streets. I’m going to devote a whole blog to the streets and the driving and stuff around here….so more on that later. We went to a little coffee shop because I had basically been up for 2 days by that point and was really feeling it. It was this cute little place with leather chairs and little loveseats and pretty room dividing screens on the top floor of a small building. It was so cute and elegant. I think it was called something like La Petite Café….or something along those lines.

After that we went for a little walk and I snapped some pictures. Here’s one of Jeein that she didn’t know I was taking. They were both pretty shy when it came to pictures, but she was just so pretty standing there, that I just couldn’t help myself, I had to take at least one of her.

Here’s one of Hisung and Daesung together. He was so happy to see his friend again. So far I’ve met two of his friends and they’re both so so nice. He has really great friends.
And here’s one of Daesung and Jeein together.

Then they took one of us together for us. (please note my JennyBunny Earrings of Awesomeness. Shout out to the Bunneh! As promised. <3 )

We dropped Jeein off at a hospital so she could go visit someone and we went in search of some food. I know I said I was going to write about the city later, but I do have to say that Daesung is a really good driver. There was so much bustling about and so much craziness that I said if I lived here, I would get an ulcer for sure from all the driving stress. I don’t think I’d ever want a car in this city. You’d have to be half crazy to want to drive here. So anyway!, they wanted to have Bosam, which is like pork, in these little small pieces all grilled up and served with a sweet kimchi and ssam (lettuce that you make little wraps with). We went to a little place in Kangnam and sat on the floor and chilled out in the a/c. It was delicious! I have seriously been eating some pretty amazing food here. They all feed me very well and I haven’t had any stomach problems at all. Here’s a pic of the guys munchin on their chunyuk (dinner).

After dinner he drove us to the subway and we went back to the apartment. By the time we got there I was so tired. It was only 9pm, but I was exhausted. So I took a cold shower, braided my hair and was out like a light. Unfortunately my light turned back on again at about 3:30, but I was able to sleep again until about 5 or so.

Well, that’s day 1! Now I’m going to write a little commentary about the fashion here in the city I think. I need some more pictures. I’ll do that today while I’m out. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the things I want to write about so you all can see! It’s so busy here, and we’re constantly running from one place to the next that I keep forgetting that I need to have that camera ready at all times! Soon I’ll have more pics for you all. :)