week 2

I'm about two weeks behind on these events, which I do apologize for. Last weekend I foolishly ignored the tiny voice in the back of my mind that was trying to tell me I would not have any time at all to do this during the coming week.

Me: 0. Tiny Voice: 9999999999.

Anyway I'm actually quite lucky because my second week was much, much calmer than my first week, and can be reasonably condensed into a single post.

After nearly a week of running this way and that all over the city, Monday was a nice change in pace where I did almost nothing. JB had orientation for his summer classes, so I stayed home alone. Given that I scarcely remember a moment of that morning/afternoon, I'm going to take a wild guess that I was uselessly surfing the interwebz. I think I did some eating as well. Also I remember that I was singing right before he unexpectedly came home early, and that I was really relieved that he did not walk through the door sixty seconds earlier than he did.

His mom came home not long after that, and then we went to Costco! I'm totally unashamed to say that this got me really excited:

An escalator for shopping carts!!!!! Do we have these in America? I have never seen them before. I think they are so cool!!

We went to Costco by car and I'm pretty sure it took more than 20 minutes. This was fine for me because I was just swiveling my head around like an owl the whole time looking at everything, but if I had to go through that drive every single week I feel like I'd be a lot less interested. And then when we got there we had to deal with parking, which, wow. I will never complain about American parking garages again.

(Well, I mean, I will, but. You know. Korean parking is ridiculous. Too many people inside of too many vehicles inside of too small a space!)

The Costco itself was at least as big as it would be in America, and actually probably even bigger, but it was split up into many levels instead of being a giant warehouse like I'm used to seeing them. (Hence the super dope shopping cart escalators.) Another nifty difference I noticed was that there were samples literally everywhere. I don't remember if I was hungry when we got there but I am positive that by the time we left I was not.

We then drove to JB's dad's workplace. They own the entire building, but lease out the top six floors to tenants. The first two floors are for his golf business.

When I heard that JB's dad owned a "golf range" I was really intrigued to see how they could accomplish that in the middle of Seoul, where land is difficult and ridiculously expensive to come by. You'll have to stay tuned to find out how they do it!!

After eating dinner there with Mr. and Mrs. Lee, as well as checking out the vegetables growing on the roof--

--we went home and waited for the sun to finish setting before heading to Olympic Park.

Olympic Park is huge chunk of land that does indeed have a sizeable park, but also has many sports arenas. As you can probably guess from the name it exists because of the Olympics, which were hosted in Seoul in like 1982? 1984? I could probably look that up. Anyway, I took very few pictures because my smartphone is not smart enough to see in the dark, but it was really really cool. The building with the swimming pool in it is designed to look like a whale. It is awesome. Although there are a bunch of super random giant sculptures here and there. I saw one that was basically a giant red parabola.

And the significance of this solitary painted curvy steel is...? Oh, no one knows?? Not even the artist? Not even whoever paid probably a few hundred thousand dollars for it?

I will never understand modern art.

I think my friend told me that nearly/every major in Korea has an Olympic Park. Seoul's is the biggest, because, well, Seoul. Even after 10pm at night, it was still bustling. There were a lot of people there just walking around or riding their bicycles or taking a smoke break or playing badminton. I will have to return during the day because although the night view was lovely, there were a lot of things I couldn't see in the dark. I did get to see the Olympic flame, though!

 Incidentally the only reason I saw it was because we got a little lost, which extended our walk home by a few minutes. And by a few, I mean I was thisclose to hailing a cab. But I'm glad I didn't. I really like walking around this city. Actually, I think I just like walking in general.

Anyway, the next day JB started class so I was going to spend the day with BB (his childhood friend). However, I can't really use my phone where I don't have wifi, which is pretty much only in the house, and I also didn't have his number so when I couldn't find him at where I thought the meeting place was supposed to be, I had no way to contact him. We both waited for hours for each other! (It turned out that I was underground in the subway and he was basically in the exact same place above ground. SO FRUSTRATING.) So that day kind of sucked, haha. But the next day we tried meeting again and were successful. We went to see Sogang University, which is where my classes are at and which I will show pictures of in a later post, and also his university, which is one subway stop away from mine. 

He told me his campus was very, very small, but the first thing I saw was that big building in the first picture. Since it also kind of serves as the front gate, it gave me the impression that there were many other and bigger buildings like it. However, that huge building is pretty much the only one. There's another building for dorms, I think, and there's an outdated soccer field, and that's pretty much it.

After that brief (very, very brief) spin through his campus, we left and wandered around the surrounding area, which is called Hongdae. It's one of the most popular places for young people in the city. There are clothes shops, restaurants, and clubs everywhere. We hunted down a dango shop that was in the area and ate there and man it was sooooo good.

From left: regular (with soy sauce), green tea, strawberry, and red bean

The cups have miso soup in them. I don't know what is in the tin.

Beef and umeboshi onigiri

I find it a little ironic that I tried dango and onigiri for the first time in Korea and not Japan. I'm so glad I didn't have to wait any longer to discover how yummy they are though! Barring, however, the umeboshi, which is the wily little devil peeking out of the onigiri on the right. I am never ever putting that thing in my mouth again.

Also that orange drink you see in the first picture is probably the most refreshing thing I have ever tasted, aside from the kumquat mojito I had last week (more on that later!). I don't remember exactly what it was but it was kind of like a lemon and an orange had a baby. It's some sort of tea that Koreans drink cold in the summer and hot in the winter, and is supposedly good for colds.

I also met BB the next day to "watch" World War Z... quotation marks are necessary because it was more of me covering my face than me actually watching. It wasn't bad though. I really don't do well with scary movies, and this one was bearable. I thought it was kind of predictable, but that was the only reason I didn't run from the theater screaming, so the predictability was much appreciated. :) (And I mean, so was Brad Pitt's face.)

After the movie we went to the Garak Market? I think? Maybe it was Namdaemun. I think Garak is under construction right now, so it was probably Namdaemun. It's basically the oldest public market in Korea. Sort of like Seoul's Findlay Market, for my Cincinnatians.

These were carved from A FISH. WHAT.

Deep fat fried deliciousness!

The market is pretty big. I haven't been to Findlay enough times to compare the two, but we walked around for a solid ten minutes and I think we still hadn't seen everything. The rain was coming down in a torrential downpour outside and there were gutters that reached into the building that were totally overflowing. Water was gushing out of them straight into the sewers and there were still huge puddles everywhere. Luckily my camera decided to take some personal time or whatever at that point, or I'd have a picture.

Also I almost received my first kiss! BB helped an old and very, very drunk man pick up the credit card he'd dropped, and the man tried to thank me. Luckily BB was there to save the day, haha. (<--nervous laughter.)

The next day JB and I went to the 63 Building!

The 63 Building is famous for its killer view from the top, which we saved for last. It also has a 4D and a 3D IMAX movie theater, a wax museum, an aquarium, an art gallery, and some shops and restaurants as well as a food court that didn't really impress me. The rest of the building is an insurance company, I believe. The inside is very clean and shiny, and there are many men in suits with briefcases walking around on the first floor. You have to buy tickets to see the attractions, so we had ones with access to the aquarium, the 3D movie, and the Sky Walk art gallery thing that's on the top floor.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the building is kind of tall and juuuuust a little imposing. The kind of structure you can see from far away, right? So we got out of the subway station (about a 10 or 15-minute walk from the building) and of course Homebody JB didn't even know what the building was supposed to look like. We saw a sorta cool, sorta tall building on the other side of the street and said That must be it! Unfortunately, it was just apartments. JB asked a security guard for directions and as we were going along, I looked up and saw this enormous gleaming skyscraper that towered over all the other buildings and I said, "JB, I think that's the 63 Building!" and he said, "No, I don't think so," but then of course after following the security guard's directions we arrived directly in front of it. And guess what JB said to me? "Wow Charlie you were right," "Gosh Charlie you are just so observant," "I am so lucky to know someone with such a keen mind."

If you guessed any of of the above, you are wrong.

He said, "Don't argue with me!"

Men.

After he recovered from his inability to deal with my superior logic skills, we visited the aquarium first. It was actually better than I had expected. Apparently they have over 22,000 fish there.

The otters had a tunnel linking two of their little habitat thingies. It was really cool!

They were actually chasing the one otter around and bullying him. Eventually he went and sulked in a corner by himself, haha.

I found Dory!

And Bubbles!

And Nemo!

We also had magically perfect timing because we were there during a synchronized swimming performance, which was choreographed entirely to Michael Jackson songs:

There was also a seal performance, but it was only like five minutes long and I couldn't really see it. Also, no Michael Jackson. Not as cool.

Then we went to see the 3D movie, which actually I'd already seen in Cincinnati a few years ago. It was the one in the Grand Canyon about how our rivers are in danger, I don't know if any of you have seen it. It had been long enough for me that I'd forgotten most of it, so it was okay. One of the characters was Native American, so it was kind of funny to listen to her speaking in a Korean's voice. (I do not mean that as a racist comment, I apologize if anyone is offended.)

And then we went up to the Sky Walk!!! I think we were probably riding the elevator to the top for about five minutes. It took forever.

Holy crap but it was worth it.

I can never, ever get enough of these kinds of views. Even though there is so much darn water vapor in the air and it's so gosh darn muggy (I really want to use stronger words there) it still takes my breath away every time. It's just so exciting.

Then we rode some duck boats, which I had never done before. It was $20, which I thought was kind of expensive, but the ride was quite relaxing and there was a very much welcomed breeze out on the river, so those factors placated me.

Try not to be overly enthusiastic there JB

And then we when to eat some chickens.

Sorry, vegetarians. 

Yes, that water is actually boiling.

 "Wow," you may say. "Did they give you a fork and knife to eat that with?"

No, my dear Westerner, no they did not. I ate that whole thing with nothing but a spoon and a pair of chopsticks.

Well...maybe the term "whole thing" should be used loosely in my case.

I ate a Buckeye! OSU represent!!

It was okay. JB had ordered the "original" recipe for me, and I thought it was kind of bland. Also, I'm pretty sure that I have never had to devote that much concentration to eating something in my entire life. It was a little exhausting.

(By the way, if you're wondering what happened to JB's chicken's bones, he swallowed them whole we were provided with a bowl to put them in.)

On Saturday we kind of lazed the morning away and then went to help out at JB's dad's "golf range" for a few hours. You may recall my earlier confusion involving their owning a golf range in the middle of Seoul.

This is how it's done:

It's actually pretty cool. And accurate, I guess? I had never played golf before so I don't really know. But the program does a lot of things that being out on a real green can't do, like tracking your ball and showing you where it lands and highlighting its trajectory and all of your past trajectories in the bottom left of your screen. There is also a camera pointed at you, so you get an instant replay of what you looked like during your swing.

I could hit the ball about 45 yards........ so, basically I'm on par with professionals...

On Sunday I went to BB's church! It's in Gangnam (if any of you know the song Gangnam Style, yes, it's that Gangnam) (also if you don't know that song I recommend looking it up) which is a really rich part of Seoul. There are about a million places to eat, and a billion places to shop.

Also, nifty buildings.

And sweet, heavenly, delicious bubble tea.

Bubble teaaaaa oh how I've missed youuuu

I also got to meet another friend, Ji-seon (like, "gee, I saw the car go by"). She's BB's high school friend, and she's probably one of my favorite people I've met so far. She's super super duper nice, and I don't know. I feel like we just get along really well. Actually I bet a big reason I feel that way is because we had a bonding experience this past Tuesday, but that'll be in the next post. I suddenly realized yesterday that I've only known her for a week, but honestly I feel like we've been friends for years.

Also, she studied and had an internship at the State Department library in DC (no big deal) this past year, so her English is really good. Actually, I think it's as good as or better than JB's, and he's been in the States for three years. Slacker!

Now that it's the swing of typhoon season there are umbrella vendors everywhere. Also, I've gotten really good at walking through crowds with an umbrella without poking out someone else's eye or losing my own.

I liked BB's church a zillion times more than JB's, for many reasons. It's specifically for foreigners, so I was surrounded by other Westerners (which actually felt kind of weird at first, to see so many non-Asians) and also the sermon was in English, and also the pastor had a good sense of humor. Also there was a lot of singing and clapping, which is always a good thing.

After the service we went for lunch at a Japanese restaurant.

We got there right before they stopped letting people in so that they could all take their breaks. That was great timing on our part! However I've never heard of all the employees breaking at once, so I was kind of surprised by that.

After eating, the afternoon was turning into evening, so we parted ways after making plans for Ji-seon and I to meet up on Tuesday.

And that was my second week! Hopefully the post about my third week will be coming earlier than week five...!

Hope everyone back home is doing great. :)