Life In Seoul

After rushing around Austin for three days getting my life moved into storage and finishing up various tasks that needed to be completed, I hopped on a jet plane to Seoul. With the all the hustle and bustle involved in the last few days it didn't really set in until getting on the plane. I was leaving behind a life I got pretty accustomed to in Austin and going to a strange foreign land.

In the final three days in Austin I got a total of around nine hours of sleep, including an all nighter before my 6:00 flight early Sunday morning. I was, of course, exhausted. As we were hanging out in San Francisco during our five hour layover, I was joking with Alan about how nice first class would be considering I have an extremely tough time sleeping on airplanes. Literally within five minutes I was called up to the front desk. The attendant informed me that in order to keep a family seated together I was upgraded complimentary to business class!

As a result of this, I was able to fly for 10 hours in this

Instead of this

So we get to the Seoul airport (Incheon Airport), which is by far the most modern and nicest airport I've been to. (Click on pictures for larger view)




Supposedly, there are robots that go around and assist customers, however we were too tired/excited to spend any more time than needed in the airport to find them. I did google a picture of what they look like though.



We breeze through customs and baggage claim in under five minutes and get in a taxi cab. Instantly I realized just how annoying Seoul traffic can be. Bumper to bumper of cars with extremely aggressive drivers. In the 90 minute cab ride to the hotel there were a few moments where we had to hold our breath. After reaching the hotel we were completely exhausted and grabbed a quick bite and passed out.

The next day we took care of some odds and ends and tried to get acquainted with the subway system and surrounding neighborhoods. The night was capped off by eating some traditional Korean barbecue. Fatty pork wrapped in big leafs of lettuce. It was absolutely delicious. While that has been my favorite meal here so far, I have been really impressed with all the food. Spicy broth typed soup dishes are extremely common, with sides of rice, kimchi, green onions, and various other vegetables. Nearly all restaurants have freshly cooked foods with nearly no artificial flavorings or preservatives. It's evident early that while the Koreans typically drink and smoke pretty heavy, their overall diet is way more healthy than what the western diet consists of.

The past few days have consisted of exploring different areas during the day, and catching up with old friends and family of Alan's at night. It's nice being shown around by people who are familiar with the city and culture/customs, and gives a much better feel for the city verse staying in the touristy spots and eating at western style restaurants.

Alan has an old friend from school who he hadn't seen in many years. His friend is a teacher here in Korea and just finished an intensive three week course. His classmates were one British guy about our age and six Japanese ranging from age 19 to over 60. One funny thing of note; the two older Japanese ladies in his class were basically Japanese housewives trying to improve their Korean in order to better understand Korean dramas. Well anyway, Alan's friend Matt invites us to go to dinner with him and his classmates which is kind of serving as a celebration for finishing. It was a really great time with good food and lots of funny stories and games played. It was great to see a group of very diverse people who seemed to get along extremely well. It was evident that they were a bit bittersweet about their course being over.


I'm pretty sure you can get deported from Asia for being in a picture without flashing the peace sign.

Dinner lasted numerous hours and was very relaxed and fun. I wish these styles of dinner were more common in America. Instead of just focusing on eating and then leaving, focus more on relaxing and enjoying the company, but eating while you do so.

After dinner we all went to a Korean style karaoke, which they call noraebang. It's not karaoke in the western sense of going to a bar full of people with one person singing. They have private rooms where groups of people go to hangout just by themselves. For some reason Asian cultures LOVE this stuff. Japanese, Korean, it doesn't matter, they can't get enough of it. Now, I'm not really a big fan of it, but we were with a fun group of people and didn't want to be the downer. To our preference Alan and I avoided the microphone most of the night, but I guess avoiding it the whole night would be considered rude so we capped off the night with a dueling rap song which was, well, interesting to say the least. Haha. Even the older Japanese gentleman showed off his skills, which needless to say were a lot better than mine.






Last night we met up again with Matt and his girlfriend, and a few of her friends. We went to another different type of Korean restaurant, as with a lot of other places they cook the food right at your table. This time it was a big skillet and they put chicken, sweet potatoes, noodles and a spicy sauce in it. We had sides of pickles, coleslaw, and a cold seaweed based soup.

Afterward, we moved to another location for a few drinks and more food. Food is basically involved in everything. It seems like the Korean don't go longer than an hour or two without eating. The food at the next location was basically four or five different snacks to munch on while hanging out. Little did we know the fourth course would be silkworms. When they sat the dish on the table I was pretty certain it was bugs, and was confirmed when the girls started giggling. One of the native Koreans with us dug in and was acting like it was his favorite thing of the night. However, neither Alan, Matt or I had ever ate a bug before so we braced ourselves. Matt went first, and his reaction made Alan and I a bit uneasy.

That was right after his girlfriend fed him the silkworm. He nearly vomited and claimed it was the worst thing he had ever ate. Now Matt has been in Korea for good amount of time and acted like he had ate some pretty interesting/crazy stuff, so for him to show this reaction was a bit unnerving. However, I really didn't find them to be that bad. I think Alan actually enjoyed them despite his initial reaction in the picture.

Going in for the prize

We decided to do a "bug toast", which I'm surprised I look so happy in. I guess I cover up the nervousness with a smile.



The reactions.




Today we moved to a different hotel in a different part of town. It's in a much nicer neighborhood and was actually cheaper than our last one. We went walking around after checking in.









More to come, need to get going to dinner. Meeting up with Alan's cousin Derrick.