Hanging out with my friends

Last weekend, some friends of mine were visiting Korea, so I met up with them in Seoul and spent a day and a half with them, which was great. They weren't from Texas, so I haven't seen them in 2 or 3 years, so it was fun hanging out with them.

On Thursday night, we went to the Hongdae (the nightlife) district, which wasn't as big as I thought, but maybe we weren't in the main areas. We went to this spicy seafood stew place for dinner, which might've been a mistake because it was too spicy. In fact, we were dunking the red-coated shrimps and rice cakes into our water before eating it, and even then, our lips were on fire.



After breathing fire, we decided to hit up a nearby Noraebang (aka Korean Karaoke) for some singing fun, and even though I've been here for like 6 months plus, I haven't done it, so off we went. It was really fun, in fact! They had a TON of English songs as well, anything from oldies to pretty new stuff. We were singing old 90s pop songs like Spice Girls, TLC, and Savage Garden - it was so much fun!





We sang for quite awhile, and by the time we got back to their hotel, it was already 1, so we went to bed ready for another day.

The next day we were pretty lazy in the morning, but we did manage to hit up Insadong during the early afternoon. So after that, one of my friends' relatives came visiting from China, so we all went out for lunch, which was Bulgogi - two kinds in fact. One was grilled on the grill thing, and one was boiled in a soup, which later the broth was made into a noodle soup. The meat was tender and oh so delicious.








When our bellies were full, I wanted to show them Dr Fish, so we all went to that cafe where they bursted out laughing as soon as they put in their feet, since it was an oddly ticklish sensation. Still, we had a pretty good time.





The friend with the relatives left with them after that, so me and my other friend, we walked around the lights of Gangnam a little bit, before taking the subway to Dongdaemun, where they are supposedly some night markets. We didn't find too many stands, but there were some little stages with shows like belly dancers, and even a nausea-inducing looking ride. We stopped here for dinner, of which she had tofu stew and I had galbi (beef short rib) soup, delish! We just walked around the area and finally went back to the hotel.












The next day, I had to leave and come back to my apartment, and so that was my weekend. Click here to read more

Seoul - Irish Festival, Insadong, and Costco

Today, since it is Saturday, we decided to take a trip to Seoul, since it's not too far.

First, we took the local bus to the Anseong Bus Terminal to buy our tickets to Seoul. We were having a little trouble deciding between the different buses but this Australian man with his son and son's friend helped us get on the right bus and helped us out a little, for which we were grateful.

The bus ride to Seoul from Anseong took about an hour, not too long. When we got there, we caught the Subway, which was pretty crowded but not too bad. It was actually pretty smooth, unlike the buses here, which jerk and move so much that it's hard to keep balanced if you're standing.

So first we went to this Irish Festival thing at Marconnier Park. It just started so there wasn't too much yet - there was a face painting place, a beer booth, and a stew booth. They had some shows too, we saw some Korean drummers and dancers. The free beef stew was pretty good as well, especially since it was pretty chilly (for our Texan bodies).

free soup!

We didn't stay long since we wanted to do some other things, so we high-tailed it out of there and headed towards Insadong. Insadong is this street that has lots of little art places, teashops, lots of little souvenir shops and stands, and food stands and stalls as well. It was pretty nice just walking down the street, which was filled with color from all the little pieces of art and knick knacks that are just lying around, hanging around, or displayed in their own little ways. We did have some snacks, first we had a hot cake filled with honey. It was pretty good. Aaron accidentally spilled some of it on his sleeve because it just oozed out. We also had this hot dog thing, which was wrapped in fish cakes and seaweed. For lunch, we went to this little restaurant and we had some dumplings and beef soup, which was delicious as well. Of course it came with three types of kimchi and seaweed.

yummy beef soup!

delicious dumplings!

Mickey's twin brother, "Mickel"?

hot dog wrapped in fish cakes and seaweed, topped with ketchup, mustard, and something white?

fluffy!

hot cake filled with honey!

hot cake stand

After Insadong we decided to go the Korean Costco, and boy, what an adventure it was. So we got off the right subway station, and then we realized we had to take a bus to get to Costco. So we jammed pack into a bus (literally, we had like no room to breathe) on a busy stopngo traffic. When we finally got there, the Costco was pretty big, but there was lots and lots of people WITH THEIR CARTS, so it was nearly impossible to move around at all. We could just walk around a little without our cart but with it, you could barely move to navigate anywhere. We did manage to a buy a few things to fit into Aaron's backpack and another bag, as well as holding a few boxes. We ended up spending 155,000 won, which is about $104, on bread, cheese, deli ham, canned beef, canned clams, canned anchovies, canned shredded beef, instant oatmeal, these cracker stick things, and walnuts. Not too bad.




So then we headed back towards the bus station in Seoul to catch the bus to Anseong. From costco, first we had to get back on that superjammedpack bus to the subway station, take the Subway to the bus terminal, and then take that bus to Anseong, and then another local bus to our area, and then a 5 min walk in the cold and dark to our apartment. Whew! We kept on getting lost in the bus terminal/subway station/shopping mall place, but eventually we found it and went on our merry way. And so that was our long day in Seoul.



In other news, on Wednesday both Aaron and I went to get our ARC card, but of course they say it'll take a week or two so we are just waiting for our cards so we can have a bank account and all that good stuff.


Also, I uploaded more pictures here, so if anyone is curious, go check it out. Click here to read more