Christmas
Trip Start
Oct 20, 2008
1
63
93
Trip End
Jan 31, 2009
Seoul,
Korea Rep.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Browsed in the mall, on the first floor of the 63 building. Couldn't find any meaningful gift for my host family. Bought them Starbucks coffee cups and my favorite blend, Estima, for Christmas.
Jin Su's (my host friend from college) mother had set up a beautiful dinner table with candles. Our European-style dinner that was underscored by Jin Su's mother's favorite arias included oysters, salad, creamy soup, steak, mash potatoes and fruit. Our friend from college, Kendall, and his girlfriend joined us too.
A Building in Yeouido
Apparently, Korea has been affected by the global Latin dance trend. There were numerous salsa bars in town, as we learned from the internet. However, we ended up going to a Norebang (karaoke) because Jin Su had never tried a salsa bar in Seoul before. The private karaoke rooms that they have both in Japan and Korea have to potential to be really popular in Istanbul. All we have there is the communal type, which makes people wait for a long time, in addition to intimidating them.
I had emailed my doctor about how to use my malaria medication (Lariam). No answer yet. I will wait for one more day and then go ahead with it, because I have to take it 2 weeks prior to entering Cambodia. I'm scared of the probable side-effects of the pills.
On Travelpod, I've read that Vietnamese cab drivers rip you off really hard and take you to unrelated places. The underdevelopment of Vietnam will be difficult to get used to after spending so much time in Korea and Japan. I got paranoid as I was trying to sleep. Couldn't sleep for more than a few hours.
