Seoul Searching:

This past weekend myself and 7 other ETAs ventured down to Seoul to relax, hang out, and see exactly what the capital of Korea has to offer. Since I've been in Korea, everyone has been talking that the only "true" city (I don't even know what that means) in Korea is Seoul ... that all other cities pale in comparison to it's awesomeness. I don't know if it's fair to say that Seoul is the best city in Korea ... seeing that I've only visited a couple ... but I did have an great weekend and got to experience urban life in Korea, if only for a couple of days.
We left Friday evening and traveled by bus; Korean public transportation is insanely accessible and clean! Best bus I have ever been on. Oh, the little things. However, our group of 8 was yelled at by the bus driver, who said we were speaking too much English. He told us that if we wanted to continue to ride the bus we couldn't talk - or must speak Korean (not something I can easily do, unless people only want to know my name, and phrases like "the cat is on the table"). It is common for many Koreans to feel offended or put off by native English speakers. When they hear Westerners speaking English many Koreans feel as if our doing so is only to show off how good we are at speaking English, something they don't easily do. Believe me, if I could speak Korean I definitely would. But that day has yet to come ...
Anyway, we had a fantastic "tour guide" for the weekend. Norman, a member of the Kangwon Key Club came with us, booked our transportation and hostel, and showed us around the city for the weekend. He was absolutely amazing - fluent in English, a bio-engineering student, and all around wonderfully interesting guy.
We arrived in Seoul Friday evening and managed to find a cheap hostel to hold us. Less than an hour into the city we broke down and went out to eat for some "comfort food" at On the Border, a Mexican restaurant chain. A group of Americans, eating Mexican in Korea - quite the sight. But I did manage to order my water in Korean. So at least now I know that I won't die of thirst over here. Food, however is a different story. As of now the only things I can order (or at least know how to do so in Korean) are cookies, ramen, milk, and rice. Hopefully everywhere I eat they serve at least one of those items. I think it's safe to say that rice is always a given.
After gorging ourselves with delicious Mexican food (never in my life have I been so excited to eat black beans), we headed out to the Seoul "clubs". Norman promised us that the best thing to do was to find a certain bar/club that had just opened that Koreans apparently are going crazy for ... so we followed him around Seoul in search of this place. This search ended up taking about 45 minutes, walking, in the pouring rain sans umbrella, among crazy traffic and people. As we finally arrived (and believe me we were looking fresh) we were met by the bouncer guy who ended up not letting us in, because one of the guys that came with us was wearing flip-flops. The dress codes for clubbing here are pretty strict - Koreans do not take open toed shoes lightly. We attempted to buy some pretty sketchy shoes from some street vendor, but scratched that idea when we realized he would have to pay about 60,000 won for some ugly Nikes. We then ended up going to a different bar (called S-club ... appropriately named after the British 90s pop band) and hung out there for a couple hours. It was nice to take in the urban atmosphere of Seoul, even if the majority of the music played was horrible American rap. I swear I heard the song that talks about "boots with fur" 3 times in one hour. After our stint at the club I have come to conclude that Asians, like most Westerners, are just as horrible (if not more so) at dancing to rap music. Though it was nice to be "at home" among my fellow awkward dancers.
Following a brief rest at the hostel, we awoke Saturday morning to a delicious continental breakfast complete with bread, milk, jelly, and hotdogs. Nothing says good morning like a pork product. Our Saturday afternoon was filled with sightseeing, shopping, and exploring the streets of Seoul. We visited the Gyeongbok Palace of the Joseon Dynasty, which was located in the middle of the city. We toured thorugh entire palace grounds - which were gigantic - and got to see many different parts of the palace that were scattered throughout the grounds. The architecture was beautiful and situated between a mountainous terrain and the modern city of Seoul - pretty sweet.
After getting our fill of culture and stuff, we headed down to Mee-yong-dong, a shopping disctric in Seoul complete with many American stores selling grossly overpriced clothing. It was nice to walk around and take in the "busyness" of the city, but I was somewhat overwhelmed ... the streets were so crowded! Never in my life have I been surrounded by so many people all at once. But it was quite the experience, and I enjoyed the 2 days that I was there.
I will definitely go back - if only to eat Western food and go to more clubs named after British pop bands.
We arrived back in Chuncheon late Saturday night by train, and I was completely exhausted. My Sunday was filled with sleep and studying for the Korean language exam we had on Monday. I'm not completley fluent yet ... but give me another 3 or 4 years and I should almost be there.
Well I must head off to bed tonight to make sure I am well rested and ready to go for tomorrow. Korea takes a lot out of you.

Also ... I updated my photo website - so check it out, yo!