Weekend Adventure

For our first weekend in Korea (well, really our second I guess, but this one feels like the first actual weekend) we decided to explore the mass of people and buildings that is Seoul. On the advice of our fellow teachers we hopped on the subway Saturday morning and headed for a portion of town called Insa-dong. It’s a pretty popular neighborhood on Saturdays. There’s an open air market with all sorts of fascinating goodies and treats for sale. There’s street food there too—we ate some pretty amazing spicy chicken and a freshly fried pancake with cinnamon sugar filling. It was delicious and cheap! Who could ask for more? There were other, less appetizing foods for sale as well, including boiled silkworm larvae. Ugh. They smelled as disgusting as they looked… so I don’t think I’m going to be trying those any time soon. I’m excited about stocking up with Christmas presents there come December!






Whenever I spot a Westerner amongst a large crowd of Asians I’m always reminded of how much David and I actually stand out. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m actually a little startled to see another Caucasian on the subway or walking down the street. Another strange thing is that I’m startled whenever I overhear another English conversation. I’m so used to not being able to understand the buzz of the world around me. It’s something I take for granted already! Imagine how ridiculously overwhelmed I’ll be when I get back to the States!
Another strange observation I made on Saturday was the attitude of Koreans towards Americans. South Koreans are such an incredibly hospitable people! They are very welcoming; we’ve had several older Korean men approach us and ask us where we’re from. When we reply that we’re from America (or Miguk in Korean!) they smile and nod and say, “Thank you! Welcome to Korea!” It’s been a rather common occurrence.
One culture shock I had occurred in transit on Saturday. There were no seats on the subway so I was forced to hold onto one of the little handles that hang from the ceiling. There was an older gentleman in the seat in front of me who kept tapping David on the shoulder and pointing at my stomach. Apparently there was an inch of skin showing because I had to reach up. I was a bit flustered by the encounter.
Anyway, back to Saturday. After exploring the open air market in Insa-dong we toured the nearby palace of the royal family from the 18th century. It wasn’t very large and looked like something you might see out of the “Last Samurai.” Our next stop was the Buddhist temple in the neighborhood. It was a really beautiful structure. The Koreans paint their sacred buildings with beautiful, bright colors! It makes for some great pictures. There was a service going on while we were there. It was a bit strange to see all of these people bowing before the Buddha—although I had experienced the same sights in Cambodia.




On Sunday we met up with Snyder, our friend who’s been in Korea for 14 months now. We had a really great day running around different parts of Seoul. We toured another palace and walked through the prison from the early 20th century which the Japanese used to torture the South Korean independence fighters (there’s a lot of enmity between the Japanese and the Koreans for this reason). After an exhausting day of walking and touring we went down to Itaewon… a neighborhood which is the foreigner’s hub… and ate a Moroccan buffet. I’d never eaten Moroccan before, but it’s pretty delicious. It made me want to visit the country! We visited a really great bookstore (all English books! There aren’t many of those here…) and bought a Lonely Planet guide to our new home country. The subway ride back took a good while. That’s the problem with living on the outskirts of Seoul… It takes at least an hour and a half to get anywhere into the city!
Overall it was a busy but restful weekend. So far I’m really soaking in our experience here… although there are the occasional spurts of homesickness. I miss all of you of course.
Much Love!