Touristy Things I Did
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2008
1
2
5
Trip End
Ongoing
Seoul,
Korea Rep.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Seoul Tower
. When we bought our tickets, we also reserve our seat kinda like a baseball game.The following week of school went very well, preparing for classes has gotten much easier and much less time consuming. This is a very good thing!!! Thursday I went out to dinner with a couple teachers and then me and one other foreign teacher went to the bars. It was very fun! At the bar we thought about ordering food and realized there were nachos on the menu. We were about the order them when we noticed what the nachos really were. Not only chips, cheese, and tomato, but also watermelon and some other melon. Two Korean guys ordered it right next to them. SO we started talking and were at the bar for about 3 hours just talking. There English was not great, but good enough to get ideas across.
This past weekend was the big national holiday in Korea, and the new teachers were not able to make plans in advance. This meant we stuck around in Seoul for the four day weekend. Friday night I had Korean BBQ with my co teachers. Basically you order raw meat and cook it yourself on a grill at the table. Well at least that is what the Koreans do, the restaurant staff usually do all the flipping and cutting of the meat for us because they awesome we are ignorant American (partly true). We went to a bar after this and then called it a night.
On Saturday I met up with a friend and we went to the COEX Mall. This is one of those super nice and huge shopping malls found in Korea. You know with the food court, aquarium, and movie theater. We were planning on going to the Kimchi Museum. It was closed because of the holiday, so we walked around and ate. Side note, tons of American restaurants/stores in Korea, I will have an article dedicated to this. One store that surprised me at the mall... FUBU.
Anyways, I went home after that and then went to a birthday dinner for a friend. We ate Korean BBQ and then went out and then noribanged (Karaoke in a private room).
Sunday was the day everybody celebrated Chuseak. This meant all stores were closed and not many people were out. I slept in then went on a walk to the Han River. The reason I didn't make it there was because I walked in the opposite direction, I had to take the subway back home. I did not accomplish much at all this day, but I felt better after talking to friends and realizing all the other foreigners didn't do anything either.
On Monday we started off by going to a sauna for $7. It was very nice and sweaty, there was a foot bath with tiny fish that eat/clean your feet. It looked very cool and I want to do it next time I go. We then ate lunch and went to a big park in Seoul. After about a 15 minute subway ride we were at the park which butted up against a national park. There was a lot to do and see, we rode on a ski lift thing, went into a garden, and did other stuff. We moved very slowly and took our time.
Today we went to the Korean War Museum. Although all the inside displays were closed because holiday there was still lots to do outside. There were war planes, tanks, and guns that you could climb in and on. There were also statues and monuments. It was very neat but I will go back to see everything when it is open. After this we ate and then rented bikes and rode along the Han River, this was very cool and we saw many things.
The four day weekend went very well and I am looking forward to a short three days of school before the next weekend comes up!
Bye
