My weekend--Seoul and Chinatown

So on Saturday, one of my colleagues who lives in Seoul offered to show me around a little bit. While some of the other EPIK teachers had already planned to go into Seoul on Saturday, I decided to go with my colleage, Ms. Kim, because I thought she'd know of some better places to take me!

So I met her at Bugae station, which is where my school is, at 1:00, and it took us about an hour to get into Seoul because we couldn't catch the express train for some reason. The train just kept getting more and more crowded the closer we got to Seoul, and by the end of it, I was ready as all hell to get out and explore.

Our first stop was Samesung station (sp), which is where Coex Mall is. Apparently it's one the nicest and biggest in Seoul, but it pales in comparison to Siam Paragon in Bangkok. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed in it. I mean, it was nice, it just wanted anything to ride home about...Anyways, we walked around the area for awhile, and talked a lot about Korea and its relationship to (North) Korea. It was very interesting to hear a South Korean's perspective on this issue. To her, there is no issue, and it's basically just fabricated by the press.

We then travel to the National Museum of Korea, and again, I'm a little let-down. It just seemed to be lacking SOMETHING that thailand didn't. I feel like I need to go into Seoul on my own and see the things that I want to see in order for me to have a better understanding of this city. I was impressed by the subway system though, haha. There are 9 lines, and you can get to basically anywhere. And it's extremely cheap...

Then, on Sunday, a girl named Natalie from CT, Stephen and I decided to head into Chinatown and explore that area a bit. Chinatown is located at the end of the Incheon Line 1, and it only took us like 20 minutes to get to. It was pretty sweet though. The moment you walk through the "paeru" or "gate", it feels like you're walking in China (hence Chinatown, hah. wow....) We grabbed some traditional black noodles which were delicious, and just walked around the streets. We saw Confucious too, which was pretty sweet.

We then decided to head to Wolmido, an area by the sea. There's an amusement park and boardwalk there. The rides looked a little old, but definitely fun, hah. AND you guys won't ever believe this. There was this "ride" there that like catapults you into the air and you do like flips and shit like a hundred feet in the air. And guess who did it?!? Stephen and I. It was by the far one of the best things I've done in a long time. It was so exhilarating and I about pissed my pants when we were first launched into the air. But the views we got were incredible and frightening at the same time. It also felt like we were free-falling multiple times, which I'm guessing is what bungee jumping feels like. That's the next thing on my list to do while in Korea, hah.

All-in-all, the weekend was a success. Got to travel into Seoul, explored Chinatown, and did something I never thought I'd do! Wow.