seoul, south korea

Just got back from an epic two week excursion through Seoul and Hong Kong with a friend! New "friends," pregnancy obsession, tap left, "so civilized," facial masks, and "juxtaposition." The middle of August is the best time to experience crazy humidity and heat... :D

Seoul in summary: everyone is super nice, Mandarin helps a lot when English doesn't work, Korean food was aight (I blame SD/LA for spoiling me), the city is way bigger than you think, Koreans like their cheese, and cars are really scary and often go down narrow alleys they shouldn't be allowed to enter.

This is going to be a long post, because of memories.

Day 0

Before I even made it to the international terminal at SFO, I befriended an old Korean man who was lost and asked if he could follow me because we were on the same flight. Then I finally found KL and began the slow process of going through security. We laughed a bit at the TSA agent who was trying to speak Chinese to every Asian he encountered. Later when I was buying lunch, a bunch of Asian children cut in front of me, which prompted the cashier to ask, "are you guys together?" Oh my.

On the plane, I sat next to a very old white man who bragged about all the times he's visited Asia and kept on awkwardly flirting with the flight attendants. Turns out he was going to Thailand to marry his girlfriend there. KL and I were stuck playing the same game on our phones because we each only had one game on our phones. The audio jack in my seat was also broken so I watched Insurgent on subtitles alone. Not a bad movie, I must say. I was impressed by Singapore Airlines' service: socks, drinks galore, multitude of snacks, and... the BEST ice cream sandwich ever (some SF based ice cream + graham cracker cookies with the perfect consistency).

After we finally arrived in Seoul and spent the next 1:45 hours getting into the city, we got hopelessly lost and could not find our housing. Why are building numbers so small? That 8 digit number has the building number on it... why is it a phone number? Why aren't numbers sequential?? I ended up gesturing to some random guy on the street to help us. We couldn't understand each other, but he tried really hard to help us; looked at a big map for us, asked one of his friends, etc. Well, even with his help we still got lost, but we later saw him again when he was driving his van down the street and honked at us telling us to go another direction. The fact that I'm writing this shows that we eventually found our place :)

Day 1 

Thanks to jet lag, KL and I woke up really early and decided to start our day with breakfast at the Noryangjin fish market How this place works: you buy fresh seafood in the market and bring it to a nearby restaurant to have them cook it for you. KL and I decided to try live octopus, some shrimp, and sashimi.

Alien-looking octopi.

This was when I was pleasantly surprised by how many people in Seoul can speak Mandarin. I haggled in Mandarin for the shrimp (I told the lady I wasn't happy with her price so I walked away and later she chased me down and gave me what I wanted, though I probably could have been more aggressive). For the fish, I tried talking to a Korean man with hand signals and suggested 15k won for a 20k won offer, but instead of getting a yes or a no, the guy killed the fish for me right on the spot. Guess that was a yes.  

The restaurant we went to only spoke Korean, so asking them to cook the shrimp was a little difficult. The owner asked us, "China?" and used a translation app on his phone to translate Korean into Pinyin (thankfully). Sadly, the octopus sashimi wasn't as alive and squirmy as I had hoped. Maybe it was too dead by the time it got to the restaurant. The gochujang was really good though. And we were asked if wanted soju... at 9 in the morning.

After the fish market, we made our way to Yeouido Park, a fairly scenic area with lots of loud cicadas. Our plan was to walk the main strip and the perimeter, but we only managed to get through the main strip. Spent too much time taking silly photos. And the park was way bigger than we expected.

Seoul has a bunch of these insane 14 lane crosswalks that are essentially freeways. You get approximately 40 seconds to cross. 

Next stop: Itaewon, the land of many foreigners. Kind of the up-and-coming new hip area in Seoul, so we had to check it out. So many different cuisines from all over the world! And with all of those diverse international choices, KL and I had bibimbap and naeungmyeon for lunch haha....

During lunch we encountered an intense rainstorm so we were stuck in our restaurant, watching people walk by with their clear umbrellas. When it was safe to leave, we then made our way to the Korean War Memorial (entrance fee: free). My vast knowledge of historical facts was revealed when, halfway through the museum, I had to ask KL what the Korean War was...

By this time, we were too exhausted to continue reading stuff in the museum even though it was interesting. Went back to our apartment to take a "short" nap and woke up at 9:45 PM.

To avoid wasting the rest of the day, we immediately hopped on the metro and went to Gangnam (yes, the Gangnam Style one). We had some delicious tteokbokki on the street and people watched all the clubbers line up for exclusive dance rooms. Then we went back to our place and ordered some delicious Korean fried chicken to go (gotta say "take out" or else they won't understand you) and we were both amused that the chicken came in a fancy purse box! Fun fact: the chicken we ordered came with two neck pieces. You don't see that in America.

 

KL: "It's 1 AM and I'm going to eat another piece of chicken."

Day 2

Gyeongbokgung palace! Since we timed our visit perfectly with a Korean holiday, we got into the palace for free (normal admission fee is only 3 bucks anyway). Lots of cool doors, and a cute arrow that we took too many pictures of. But after a while, everything kind of ended up looking the same.

Next we went to the nearby Gwanghwamun square and Jogyesa temple. KL accidentally burned someone with an incense stick at the temple. She also tried some strange flavorless milky soup with noodles at the temple, which we later discovered was not milk (more on this later). The highlight of this visit was the communal plate of kimchi at every table that KL was too scared to eat because of germs. I was saving my stomach for Insadong, so I just observed.

 Then... the popular Insadong! Very hip, lots of eating.

Also nearby was the Hanok Bukchon village, a traditional Korean village with cool alleys.

We then made our way to Dongdaemun, the location of one of the gates that used to surround Seoul. Unfortunately the Dongdaemun market closed at 5pm, so we went to a nearby department store/mall and ate some patbingsu to cool off.

Cheonggyecheon stream... kind of reminded me of the Seine in Paris.

Lastly, we made our way to Gwangjang market to check out the food scene. This place is so happening. The market is separated by food type: Korean pancakes, raw seafood things, blood sausages, kimbap, japchae, etc. Lots of people yelling at you to come to their booth.

Day 3

Royal tombs of the Joseon dynasty: again, admission was free because of the holiday weekend (yay saved one dollar). Turned out to be more of an athletic forest hike (poor KL did not bring proper shoes). The tombs were also hard to see and almost everything was blocked off. Just a couple grassy mounds where they buried people, with some animal statues on top.

That juxtaposition.

KL: “My name is Pat Bing Su. Call me Pat.” 

Then we visited the nearby Bonguensa temple for 5 minutes and went to the COEX underground mall across the street. By this time, I was starving and delirious so we went to Gangnam to find Korean BBQ. The place we went to had a guy who spoke some Mandarin, but neither of us could understand each other. Later, KL wanted rice so I tried ordering in both Mandarin and Korean, but apparently rice could only be served with soup. I tried ordering just rice and got a verbal acknowledgement, and then waited 10 minutes for the rice to come out... with soup.

More street food to supplement our KBBQ lunch.

After lunch we traveled east towards Olympic Park and rented a bike cart for 30 min to ride around the park. Rates were a little higher because of the holiday weekend, but that made up for the free palace and tomb visit. I was originally too tired to want to do any sort of biking, but I'm glad KL made me join her. I think we both agreed this was the funnest part of the trip! Trying to get the cart back within the time limit though... so stressful.

We then tried going to Myeungdong, the land of high end shopping, but accidentally got off at a shady stop. In the same way that Dongdaemun is basically hanbok central, this wrong stop was kind of like toilet central (lots of random toilets on the street for sale). KL also stepped on a loose brick and got sewage water all over her. People were shocked that KL could speak perfect English despite being Asian.

Eventually we found our way to Myeungdong and walked around for a bit before going to the N Seoul Tower. Who else was going to there? EVERYONE. The bus we were on was so crowded I thought it was going to topple over multiple times, especially with bus driver's crazy driving. A bunch of people eventually got off at a stop and KL tried saving a seat for me by putting her hand on the seat, but an aggressive lady sat on her hand. This same lady ended up sitting on half her leg for the remaining 15 min of the trip. This brief stint in history will now be known as "butt drama."

The hill going up to the N Seoul Tower was very steep, kind of like all the insane hills in Ljubljana. KL will never let me forget that I originally suggested we walk to the tower....  

KL: “I need masks for my feet." (we found them the next day at Dongdaemun!)

Smoggy smog.

Day 4

For our last day in Seoul, KL decided she wanted a legit full breakfast. So we stumbled upon a noodle place that had a good crowd in there. We went in and found out our waitress was Chinese. Hooray for being able to communicate! As I was trying to talk to the waitress and order stuff, she kept on insisting that we get a beef noodle soup and some giant dumplings. I also got away with ordering a bowl of cold noodles even though it wasn't "allowed." Anyway, when the food came out, we realized the beef soup was the same mysterious flavorless white soup KL had at the temple a few days ago. This was when we learned that this soup, called seolleongtang, is a typical Korean breakfast item that gets its milky white color from boiling bones for a long time. It's intended to be bland so you can season it at the table, but neither of us were really feeling it. Ugh seolleongtang, the stuff of nightmares.

After our nutritious boiled bone breakfast, we headed over to the Namdaemun market to find an extra luggage for KL. She was doing a great jog haggling; she went from seller to seller, said "too much," looked sad, and walked away, while occasionally turning back when the seller would yell out a lower price. Unfortunately this haggling game took a dark turn when we reached one particular booth. We did the usual bartering ordeal with a seemingly jovial young man who eventually offered 25k won for a suitcase KL wanted. I suggested that KL say 20k just to try. If he said no, we'd just take it, right? Well, when KL said "20?" the man yelled, "bye bye!" to us and started kicking the luggage furiously. KL and I looked at each other and quickly walked away.

KL: "That guy beats his wife."

After the traumatic incident with the luggage beater at Namdaemun, neither of us really had the motivation to buy anything anymore. So we went back to Insadong (which felt much safer and less shady) and got KL some ice cream. Then I went back to Gwangjang and got some Korean pancakes and gimbap. We headed back to Dongdaemun and met up with one of KL's friends from college and chilled around a Gong Cha in Itaewon before it started raining like crazy. We called it a night and went back to our room, where I got yelled at by a custodian guy in the elevator for not being able to speak Korean D:

reflections on jude

Things have been a bit strange lately. Mostly because of health issues that lead to paranoid thoughts about my mortality. I know I'm probably being a drama queen, but if I die, I die, right?

Well, until then, more sleep and less coffee.

Anyway, some good things that have been on my mind from reading Jude continuously this month:

• Contend earnestly for the faith. Do not take God's grace for granted or use it as an excuse to live licentiously. God's wrath is no joke!

• "Behold, the Lord came... to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts..."

• Pray in the Spirit and do not be worldly-minded - current circumstances should not dictate our attitudes because our hope is not in this fallen world.

• Love the closing doxology: "to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."