South Korea's Got Seoul

I'm safely here in my hostel in Seoul. There are volumes to write about the last two days, but I won't subject you all to that. My flight was on Singapore Airlines. It was twice a long as any flight I'd ever been on (12 hrs), yet it felt quick. The plane was extremely comfortable and decked out with more electronics than I knew what to do with. I watched movies and television shows on demand, then played a little Mario Bros. Of course, the screen grew old at times. I bought a book at SFO, but by the tenth page I realized it was most likely written by a barely literate fourth grader. Seriously, is puctuation dead?!? The author seemed to think so. Anyway, the real highlight of the flight was when Jon realized we were above Siberia. We rushed to the window, and it was gorgeous. We took some pictures, which hopefully I'll be able to upload. After that bit of excitement, it occurred to me that I should prepare for being in Korea. I used the interacting language learning software in my seat to pick up a little Korean. For instance, "maek ju" means beer. I think of it as "Mike Jew" and picture myself with a pint.

01 Siberia

I haven't had a "maek ju" yet. Jon and I tried to order some when we arrived, but it proved a bit tricky, so we just repeated "soju" til they brought us a bottle. Soju is interesting. It's kinda like weak sake, but not. I can safely say there's more of it in my future. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I had plenty to ingest while still on the plane. For some reason, I decided to order the Kosher meal. Don't ask why, even I'm not sure. The flight attendants were phenominal. (Yes Buddy, phenominal). They brought out my Kosher meal before takeoff to make sure it was to my liking. I was always served first, and I swear I received 5 different meals. All throughout the flight, they just kept bringing me more food. No complaints here. (Except about the airline Gefilte fish. My God. Words cannot describe the horror). After landing, we made it through customs and exchanged a bit of currency. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for the bus, and we were off on a 2 hour ride to the heart of the city where our hostel is.

02 Welcome to Korea

At first Seoul seemed to be... completely unremarkable. It looks like a city. No distinct skyline. Then some details emerged. This city loves random roadways that venture out above the water. If you're familiar with the section of the San Mateo bridge that sits pretty close to the water.. yeah, it's like that. Except that the roads go way out for no forseeable reason. They don't bridge two separate pieces of land. Just low, waterskimming roadways. But the sky is where things started to get interesting. As we left the water and delved into the city itself, a red glow cast down from above the rooftops. Dozens of buildings in every direction have the exact same red neon crucifix lit up. It was like a thin atmospheric layer of "Jesus Was Here" to rile up the brick of Gefilte fish that was still brewing in my stomach. We made it to the hostel with ease and checked in.

03 Amie Cafe

Let's skip over the multi-hour ordeal of acquiring and using a phonecard. We got one. It works. Today was spent learning our surrounding neighborhoods and coming to the harsh realization that no matter how many Korean words my airplane seat tried to teach me, I don't understand anything in this language. Buying food has consisted of wandering until we find a place whose menu has pictures and prices. We point and pay. That's about all Jon or I are capable of for now. I know 'hello', 'goodbye', 'thank you', 'soju', 'beer', and 'dog'. That's not nearly as functional as I'd hoped. But it's amazingly fun, and the food is phenominal. Worst case scenario, like when we bought sandals today, I can always draw a picture. Ok, I think that's enough. I'll try to post again before we leave if I can. I miss all of you. I sincerely do.

04 Soju at Amie Cafe

05 Breakfast

06 Jon and Gandolf the Grey

07 Lunch today

08 Outdoor Market