Walking around Seoul

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Arrived at 530am on Thurs morning, very blurry eyed and pleasantly surprised to see Jino and his Dad...

A few garbs from my 4 days there:

• Stayed at Royal Hotel, Myeong Dong. Was elated when our room was upgraded! The room is very comfortable.
• The weather was so nice. It was 13 degrees celcius in the day. So you see girls in stockings, boots and layers. Lovely. Guys look good too with their own dress up. So much that I was inspired to purchase a pair of boots and stockings. Many trees were in shades in yellow and red. Very picturesque! However at night, it was below 10 and not very bearable for someone who lives in the equator.
• Walked an hour from Myeong Dong - Gyeong bak Gong - Jino's house on day one. Was very soporific throughout. Did not manage to go to the palace but did go to a nice street near there!
• I addressed Jino as Opa meaning elder brother. I did not know how I should be addressing his dad so I asked if I could call him Uncle. After some discussion between Jino and his dad, I wounded up calling him Mr Lee. I kinda like the rhyme.
• Mr Lee is one interesting person. He was a Chemistry Professor. Now that he retired, he is a farmer. I ate pears, apples from his farm. When I asked "won't the insects eat your food since you do not use insecticides?".. his response in return was "that is not an issue as I will eat the food before the insects eat the food". Out of the world answer! I like Mr Lee a lot. He treated all of us to a nice lunch on top of a mini hill.
• Jino's bro, Sungho looks just like him.
• Primary objective in Seoul was to attend Jino & Liz's wedding. There were 3 parts. First, a Catholic Church ceremony which entire session was in Korean. Second, the traditional wedding very akin to Chinese style of serving tea to the elders. Another interesting point which is unique to their culture is their parents throwing fruits to the newly wed couple. The couple is supposed to catch as many as they can using a piece of cloth. Each fruit represents a child. Apparently my friends are going to have 6 sons and four daughters. haha. Third, we had a winebar session. I suspect this is not part of the tradition. Rather just a session to get drunk.
• The Koreans are very good in Karaoke. Jino's cousin was rapping, singing and dancing. At one point, he was imitating the dance in the song titled "it's raining". Very hilarious I must say. I gave him a standing ovation.
• I like the food. I had this very spicy kimchi, I only tasted garlic and next, my entire mouth was on fire. Not a good experience. Neither do I appreciate kimchi-radish in ice cold soup. I love Korean BBQ.
• Shopping. I mainly shopped around Myeongdong, went to Lotte too.
• Went to Grand Hyatt for a drink to catch a glimpse of Seoul Skyline. There is a club there but you have to be very well dressed to get in. Most clubs work this way in Seoul as I heard. Truly, the ladies I saw were all so gorgeous that I felt embarrassed for myself.
• I got shoved quite a few times in Seoul for blocking the way. Was kicked out of the cab once at 1 am. Still not sure what we did to this day as Sungho (only Korean on the cab) was totally drunk and could not explain to us. He was ranting vulgarities in korean and english to the taxi uncle. To clarify further, most of the time, the people there are smiley and nice.
• People rarely speaks english and the signs were in Korean. I felt quite lost...! I went to a few places but i really do not know the names. How sad for thyself!
• I remarked to Liz that I could live in Seoul as I love the weather and space. However I must pick up Korean!

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Overall, I enjoyed my stay in Seoul! I would love to go there again to see Mr Lee and his farm. I want to go to a club too! Whoeever who is going to Seoul...prepare the boots, stockings and makeup!