Seoul Trip

On Saturday we had our mandatory medical check-up which lasted way longer than it should have.  All 350 of us had a battery of tests done on us and took from 9am to 4pm for all the groups to get done.  Thankfully I'm in group four and was finished by 1:00pm and was ready to leave to Seoul by 2pm after lunch.  I was going to meet up with a few friends to head over to the train station but they were still waiting to finish with the medical check-up so I went alone.  The train station was a piece of cake to find because I run by it in the morning and found some other people in the TaLK program waiting to go to Seoul.

For 6,900 won ($6.50) I got standing tickets on the train to Seoul.  The sitting seats were all sold out when I went to buy the tickets.  The trains here are air conditioned but we stood in the non air conditioned connecting part of the train which wasn't too bad.  On some parts of the train they even have computers and even karaoke rooms.  Next time I'll see how much they cost to get in them.  Anyway, the train was about an hour and a half.  By that time I was suppose to call my friend Young-gun at the train station.  Keep in mind I have no cell phone, so I had to go the old school route and call using the pay phone.  He quickly made it to Seoul station but had trouble finding me, but he eventually found me.  It was great to see him because it has been almost 3 years since I last saw him.  He was a world traveler up until last November and has since found a job as a software engineer at Samsung, pretty much a dream job for any Korean.  Anyway, we caught up over Samgyeop sal (pork belly) and Soju in Hongdae (a very hip place where many younger Koreans are).  The Samgyeop sal was really good but a tad expensive (I guess in Korea) at 9,000won a serving which would be about $18 in the states.  The soju was about 5,000won which would have been $15 in the States.

Grilled Pork Belly and all the small side dishes

He showed me all around that part of the city and the college campus and we had some really good Ddokboki at a really famous place.  The translation of this specific dish of ddokboki was gangster ddokboki but too bad I forgot how to saw it in Korean.  It cost 5,000won with fried seaweed wraps (teegim).  SO CHEAP AND DELICIOUS!

Best Ddokboki in Hongdae Seoul.

After walking around for a bit we sat down and started talking to the girls next to us in Korean. We asked them if they wanted to go out and drink Makolli (rice wine) and they agreed.  They spoke very little English so it was great practice for me because I hadn't spoken too much Korean yet since arriving.  After that we headed back to Younggun's place and I met his parents.  Again I surprised myself with how much Korean I was able to speak with them.  It's very common for young Koreans to live with their parents until they get married.

Traditional way of sleeping in Korea, the floor!

After getting a good nights sleep I woke up to this...

Korean breakfast.

Young-gun told me that he was originally from Gangwon-do before he and his family moved to Seoul so he gave me lots of tips on what it is like in the province I'll be living in.  His mom even had an accent so I had a little trouble understanding her.  His family overall was extremely nice and welcoming to me.

Later on Sunday Young-gun and I went to Itaewon (the foreigner district) to get me a cell phone.  We looked around and found a place that sold second hand phones that I could get without my alien registration card, which I won't receive for another few weeks to a month.  For the equivalent of $30 dollars I bought a pretty nice phone and enough minutes to get me by.

It's got a dictionary and everything else under the sun on it for $30!!!

Instead of taking the train back to Jochiwon, I took the bus which was 100 won cheaper and I had a seat.  Then once I arrived to campus, I met up with a bunch of friends and we went to norebang.

So much cheaper and nicer than the states.  For 10 people about 2 hours and 2 bottles of soju + snacks it was around $30.

This weekend I'll be going to Seoul with the TaLK program and can stay there for two nights so I'll be putting up more pictures of the different areas.