The final blog
Trip Start
Nov 22, 2008
1
6
Trip End
Nov 30, 2008
Seoul,
Korea Rep.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
From there we drove to see 2 of the most beautiful scenic sights in Korea. We just stopped, walked around, and of course, Trent and Jong took lots of pictures. I don't know if I mentioned that Trent and Jong are both really into taking pictures. Jong has an old-style polaroid and film camera, so he has taken a lot of cool pictures with it.
We made it back to Seoul in the evening and ate pizza at the Mr. Pizza by Misoo's apartment. The pizza was really nice. The crust was stuffed with sweet potatoes. They have a different style sweet potato in Korea that is really yummy. It is not orange, it is yello. The pizza was good, but we filled up really fast on it. Mr. Pizza's slogan is....Love for Women. That really cracked me up. It has to do with them having healthier pizzas, so they are targeting women who do not want to gain weight. Something tells me i could still get fat on thick crust, sweet potato pizza!
After that back to Misoo's. Her mother had prepared sushi rolls and strawberries for us. I found out that Misoo's father has been buying strawberries for me everyday because he saw how much I liked them. How nice is that! We sat at the table and hung out with Misoo's family. They are such a lovely family.
So a few final reflections on South Korea.....
*The people are amazingly nice. They are also polite.
*Appearance is very important to Koreans. Plastic surgery is very common. Many women get eyelid surgery if they don't have good solid eyelids. And for other things too. Driving down the street there were several plastic surgery places up and down the street. Everyone here thinks Misoo is too short, and have told her she needs to wear high heels. I think she's just right :-)
*Korean men love fancy, luxury cars, and they take a lot of care with their cars.
*Toilets vary from quite clean and nice (luxurious with heated seats!) to quite dirty and gross. I don't mind the in-the-ground toilets, as long as they are clean, but some weren't clean.
*You can eat soup with noodles and slurp like crazy (I love that!).
*I am glad we came with MIsoo and Jong. They made the trip so amazing, and helped us to see a lot of Korean culture. It wouldn't have been the same if we had come on our own.
*My favorite part was staying with Misoo's family, and seeing the differences between how a 26-year-old single girl in Seoul lives compared to a 33-year-old single girl in Bloomington. In some ways very different, in some quite similar.
*I have had so many crazy dreams while I have been here. Last night I dreamed Barack Obama was my neighbor in Bloomington. There were secret service all over the place! Not to mention my roof was collapsing and I was dying to talk to Sharon at work to get the name of the guy that remodeled her kitchen to fix my house. I also dreamed my sister and I were in a big fight, and I was so so sad.
*Kimchi abounds. If you don't like it, maybe don't come to Korea (just kidding....).
*Thely make really yummy pancake things that remind me of elephant ears, but aren't all spread out, they are the size of a pancake and so dense, not crunchy like elephant ears, but they have a filling that is pure yummy cinnamon goodness. You buy them on the street. I LOVE them.
Ok, that's all I can think of for now. It is 7am. I need to shower, finish packing, eat breakfast and call American airlines to try to get an upgrade (I don't know if I can sit for 12 hours, so it may be worth the upgrade). I am anxious to get home and finish out the semester at ISU and have a bit of a break where all I have to do is work everyday.
See you soon!
