Best Western Kukdo Seoul

... and they were in fact door-to-door jesus salespeople, just like the others. before i could come up with some way to shoo them away, one of them asked me for some water. i thought they would wait at the door while it got it for them but they came right in! i tried really hard to get them to leave by saying i didn't understand them. they were trying to convince me that god was a woman. no joke.

anyway, i hoped that might be ...

... br>Thursday morning we got up way too early to go into Seoul to Insadong, which is a traditional shopping market. We wanted to make it there while it was open and didn't know how things were going to be over the weekend because Saturday was Cheusok, which is like Korean Thanksgiving. So we got to Insadong at 9am when the shops are supposed to open, but only a few had their doors up, so we walked around for a while and looked in a few ...

... started in earnest...dot, dot, dot...

...there was also some hanging out in the park with Koreans ... and we went to some club and saw a band, Freebird @ Bannana soul - or possible the other way round... and then there was a taxi and I think we eventually got home in the wee small hours... well, what do you expect all I had to eat was some complimentary bar peanuts and small whole salty fishes... a rookey mistake!

Stepping onto the train, we had to avoid the drunk sitting down right in front of the door. He looked completely passed out. But we didn't give him much thought.

At the next stop, another drunk got on. At first he seemed to be yelling at and poking the first drunk, but then he turned on me. I had just seen some friends get on, so I yelled out to them (being an obnoxious American, of course ...

... was at Gyeongbokgung Palace getting photos and these little teenagers came up to me wanting to get pictures with the random bandanna wearing American, of course. So I’m making them giggle simply by saying words to them that they only BARELY know how to pronounce (like “Hello” and “Sure”.) We go to get set up for the picture and there are two on one side of me and one on the other. They are all a good foot shorter ...

... traditional souvenirs, arts, luxury brands, and fashion trends. Seoul is a very fashion conscious city. The only problem here would be finding the right size! Women here are small made, sleek and slim, though you can manage to find something the will fit you if you are really patient and love shopping.   We live in an area called Insa-dong, which is considered as the traditional downtown of Seoul. Insadong is filled with restaurants, art galleries, traditional Korean ...

Well, several weeks ago I joined Ashley as she was hunting for a ski jacket. We didn't find a ski jacket but we did find a Namdaemun Market! Namdaemun is a wonderful outdoor market in Northern Seoul. There were vendors selling so many great things! And the greatest thing.......this is prime bargaining territory! Elena managed to talk down the price of a coat from 20,000 won to 5,000 won and then she literally turned around and bought another ...

... teach the students. This is complete nonsense and they've since relented, but actually I might save my holiday days afterall as I want to visit Taiwan for a week in April/May. I'm not sure why Taiwan has suddenly entered my head, but I really want to check it out as it could be a potential teaching destination post-Korea. Plus I have a friend there and she seems eager to show me around... We had another all-expenses-paid work gathering on the Friday, probably to celebrate more ...

... to eat tonight. He told me I did not need to eat. I wanted to strangle his little Indian throat and slap him. I just yelled back - I am sure I was "that rude American" but I didn't care. I really don't care for these people. I then picked up my dress! It's a little more low cut than I expected but I still like it. How can you not like a dress that was made for you? After shopping, we saw 007 to kill some more time. Then, we ate some tasty McDonalds (again ...

... available in Taiwan. Scarily enough, 3 (albeit fairly large) cans of beer were enough to make me a tad tipsy and, on a beer buzz, I ordered the room service traditional Korean breakfast for the next morning before collapsing zonked out on the bed.

I was hungover the next morning (from 3 beers... oh the shame). And when I got my breakfast, I cursed myself for a fool. Fish (just about the last thing I like to eat when hungover) seafood soup (ditto) little dried ...