S-Oles!

Spoiler Alert: Korea-based Ole Reunion coming up!

Seoul, Day 1


The sun rose in the Land of the Rising Sun - while we waited in the airport. Here, Jacob eats a sandwich after waiting for an hour for the Narita Airport cafe to open. Mediocre but sustaining. Our flight was uneventful (or, we were asleep and didn't notice the events) and we landed in Seoul around 10:30, cleared immigration (another new stamp for both of us!) and got on the A'REX express train that takes you from Incheon Airport (way west of Seoul) to the city center in 50 minutes! I seem to keep mentioning transport in these blogs - figuring out the local transport took some effort but was also pretty rewarding - you feel so successful, plus you save a ton of money that would otherwise go towards taxis!

We saw cabinets like this in every train station - 
unsure if the masks inside were for protection from
fire or gas protection (or radiation? Though I'm thinking a
gas mask won't help there). It was clear that there were
not nearly enough masks for everyone if there
was an emergency though!

Following the excellent directions provided by the Kimchee Myeongdong Guesthouse, our digs for the evening, we dragged our suitcases through the rain and up a few flights to the guesthouse. Great place - highly recommend! Great for backpackers - provide maps and tour booking, computer and internet, great price.

The rain makes my hair look good!

Then it was back to the train station to meet up with Clara Jung ('12), a fellow St. Olaf bandie and recent (like, the day before) immigrant to Korea. Ok, actually she technically has South Korean citizenship, despite the fact that you can't actually have duel American and Korean citizenship. You'll have to ask her about it. We managed to meet up even without the use of phones (!) and we decided to immediately find a place to eat. The rain had picked up so we dodged down an alley and into the first restaurant we found - which worked out great! Jacob got Spicy Pork Nuddles (yes, 'nuddles') and I had Kimcheejeon - a fried Kimchee pancake, accompanied by pickled radish and kimchee (fermented cabbage - much better than it sounds!). We caught up and tried to plan some indoor activities for the afternoon. Fortunately, after lunch and a stop for coffee (at Miss Americano's), the rain let up and we went back to our original plans.



We first tried to look at a Hanok (traditional) village site where you could try out handicrafts and go to a tea ceremony, but it was closed on Tuesdays! Alas. We walked around the grounds a bit, then took the train to Gyeongbokgung Palace. The rain gave way to steamy heat, but we checked out all the beautiful architecture and tried to ignore the blisters forming on our first-soaked-and-now-sweaty feet. From there we walked to the Bukchon Hanok Village Cultural center, then wandered through the neat little area which was a mix of traditional housing, guesthouses, boutique-y shops, and cafes.

Shhh..it's a Samurai!

Caution falling!

It was too bright, I didn't even try to keep my eyes open!

Jacob then headed back to the guesthouse to practice trumpet while Clara and I went to Insadong, a very touristy (but still fun) shopping street. I bought three small flower and bird paintings, and we couldn't resist trying one of the bizarre (and definitely tourist-trappy) street foods on offer - ice cream pipe! Clara manages to look cute, while I look horrified. Don't make me eat it! It didn't taste especially great, but it was amusing. And it contained ice cream, so...

Amusing store name - it was a chain,
we saw several.
Shhh...it's skin!

We went to the appointed meeting spot to catch up with Jacob and - yes - another Ole! Zach Pietryla, who was living in Singapore and working at Duke-NUS when we first moved to there, is now living just outside Seoul and teaching English. So great to have the chance to meet up! Clara, Zach and I were all Sociology/Anthropology majors at St. Olaf too.

A strange egg-cake we bought in
Myeongdong - the egg felt like
plastic, but the cake was good!

Look at all those side dishes!

Cooking action shot

We explored Myeongdong, one of the happening night spots of the city, before locating an excellent Galbi (Korean BBQ) restaurant - they brought the stove to our table and cooked the meat in front of us, and then we ate while cooking a bit more. After the meat is cooked and cut, you take a lettuce (or sesame) leaf, fill it with some pieces of meat, kimchee, and any other combination of the half dozen or more side dishes on the table. Meat and vegetables - and no rice! Good meal. Along with our food, Zach introduced us to Soju and Magkeolli, two types of Korean liquor. Both are primarily rice and/or wheat alcohols, and were quite tasty. And easy to sip on...and pretty darn cheap.

Sometimes food looks bad but tastes great.
But food that looks THAT bad...it tasted like you'd expect.

From the restaurant we went on to a small bar near our guesthouse, where we got another bottle of each. Clara's native Korean language skills were immensely helpful in all aspects of the day - and hence she was able to understand that the surly waitress was insisting we also buy some food item. We bought the special - King...something - because it was ₩1,000 ($1USD). Mistake. They brought us nasty whole fried fish - it was like eating fishy leather. Poor Zach somehow couldn't stop eating it though. We were joined by Clara's boyfriend Sean, a Northfield native (and a Gustie, but it's ok guys, he's cool) who is also teaching English in Seoul. 

Soc/Anthro Oles!

Whole crew!

That giant sign above our heads was advertising
the disgusting fish, pictured above.

Fantastic night of chatting and laughing  - even if by the end we were all feeling less than fantastic physically and were wishing there were fewer empty bottles on the table. Still, when we left at closing time, we had clearly outlasted the owner! Our friends found taxis (too late for trains) and we found our guesthouse - I'm actually pretty proud of my navigation skills on that one, that was definitely me and my map reading skills at our best. And we immediately fell asleep.





Unlike the last several mornings, we did NOT pop out of bed early - but I gotta believe we were still feeling better than THAT guy!