J.Low's Got Seoul!

It's already day 3 but I'm only on my first full day in Seoul, South Korea, and back at Senem's place and eating some beef dumplings which are called mandu. The reason why I've pissed away my first two days in Seoul is due to an unhealthy combination of jet lag, no sleep, and hangovers.

We see a guy on his knees with his hands behind his back, head bowed and CRYING. His girlfriend was beside him, arms crossed and head turned away and what....punishing him??

The night I arrived, Senem picked me up from the airport and we took an hour long bus ride into the city. It was the night of Senem's Last Weekend (yes, it is a capitalized event) in Seoul and a gong show was in order. We went out for dinner at this buffet restaurant called Carne Station, a place where the clientele is 80% foreign English teachers. My old friend Phil from U of C is also teaching English here and is now Senem’s friend, so he came out too. Carne Station defines the true meaning of buffet. For about $25 Cdn, you get free Korean BBQ, appetizers, soups, etc...AND FREE BOOZE. All self-serve. So of course the night went uphill in terms of FUN (but perhaps downhill in other respects) from there. Senem was drinking double vodka on the rocks and after a slower start (to “wisely” try and compensate for jet lag), I started drinking double vodka-sprites. The floor was slippery, people were bailing and we were all very very messy and loud. It was only about 10:30pm Seoul time. After the poor restaurant host-man finally got the restaurant cleared, off we went to a club – Senem drunkenly greeting everyone we met all along the way. I still thought I was doing ok at this point. We arrived at the first club where they played cool stuff like the Hip, Blur, Bon Jovi, etc so all us foreigners were singing and dancing around. There was also tequila and jag shots readily available for about $1 Cdn which made things worse. I felt rich so I bought many many rounds. Long story short, we got home around 5am and were not the most coherent.

Day 2 was supposed to be my first touristy day but turned into my jet/drunk-lagged day. I slept until about 6pm and could've slept more. I now thought drinking was not such a good idea. After I recovered, we went out for some delicious noodle soup and the best mandu I've ever had at a neat little restaurant in Myeong-dong. We then walked around the trendy neighbourhood of Myeong-dong which was full of lights and shops and people for a short while before heading home. Myeong-dong kind of reminded me of Ermou Street in Athens but with more street meat.

After the fiasco of those one and a half days, my 3^rd day was going to be a busy one since I was trying to do everything I wanted to do in the 1^st and 2^nd days into one. I successfully got an early start, wandered onto the train, found and ate some bi-bim-bap (rice with veggies) and went to see some an old Korean village replica site. There were many traditional houses and palaces which were replicated and decorated inside. The buildings were all traditional Asian style with very intricate painting on the exteriors and the sloped and flipped-ended roof tops. It was neat but way too touristy for me. After the village visit, I attempted to walk (and failed) to the Seoul Tower which is on a mountain in the middle of the city called Namsan. I decided to grab a cab. You have to hail a cabbie with your hand down and to your side here. So I finally get picked up and off we went to Namsan. Cabs can't drive up to the tower, so after a debacle of cabbie trying to explain this and me trying tell him, 'Yes, I know!' he dropped me off at the bottom. Apparently there is a bus you can take right to the top, but another parking attendant guy said I could walk, so I did. Bad idea. It probably took me almost an hour of uphill hiking on a narrow road full of Korean hard-core hikers and random trucks/buses on their way up. When I finally made it up, the views were really cool. The tower was really modern and you could see the whole city. I cleverly took the bus back down and decided to go to Namdaemun Market, which is a huge block of streets and windy alleyways full of counters selling everything from clothes, electronics, food, shoes, cloth...very neat but I didn’t like haggling or getting harassed on my own so I didn't buy anything. It was a really chaotic atmosphere but still, nowhere near the Grand Bazaar in Turkey. Next on my list was a bike ride from Yeouido Island to the World Cup Stadium. I never made it to the stadium. The Lonely Planet sucks and had crappy directions and I also ran out of time on my bike rental because of the detour. My bike, however...Worst. Bike. Ever. It was a one-speed rusty lime green piece of metal that had a weird squealing sound from the back brake. Despite my jalopy bike, the ride was really nice and Seoul has the most amazing bike pathways that go along the river and I saw some fishermen, a beach, some basketball courts, soccer fields, baseball fields and some weird exercise equipment that it seemed only old Korean ladies used as stops on their walks.

That night Senem, Phil and I planned to eat dog meat soup. There is a lot of controversy around eating dog and we heard that in order get the best quality dog meat, they hang the dogs so their adrenaline is pumping before they kill them. This could be a rumour…I hope so. The dog soup is supposed to be really good for guys with ED too. Our cabbie yelled at us when he figured out where we were going. We couldn’t understand him but I think he said something about the devil. We ordered 3 dog soups. I had 3 small pieces and mind did not win over matter. I didn't finish the rest of it. I was way too creeped out thinking about all the Fido pet dogs back home. Senem and Phil finished it because they were hungry to begin with but afterwards, they also were disturbed. After that, a quick trip to Dongdaemun Market where Senem haggled me a watch and we saw...my favorite tourist attraction yet. The Korean girls here are princesses and expect to be treated as such. This means if you're a Korean girl's boyfriend, you never win. From what Senem and her friends have told me, Korean girls expect their boyfriends to text/call them after everything they do and a million times a day for the stupidest crap like 'I just finished dinner', 'I miss you', 'I just got home'....etc. We're not sure what this guy did but right in the middle of a busy intersection, we see a guy on his knees with his hands behind his back, head bowed and CRYING. His girlfriend was beside him, arms crossed and head turned away and what....punishing him?? So of course I took a picture. We did some shopping and came back and he wasn't kneeling anymore but still had his head down and crying. I hear the reason the guys put up with this drama is because there are waaaay more guys here than girls so guys feel fortunate to even have a girlfriend. You guys back home are LUCKY. For me though, this drama was hilarious and made my night.