Itaewon and the World Cup Stadium

Another day of aimless wandering. I went to Itaewon, basically the international district. It was full of American brand names and probably a lot livelier at night.

One interesting thing I noticed was that there were a lot of advertisements for “Big Size”. Korea does after all have one of the lowest obesity rates in the developed world, and the U.S. has the hightest.

Then I decided to go to the World Cup stadium.

Bikes for rent outside the stadium

It has been turned into a shopping mall, with a giant Home Plus, the Korean equivalent of Walmart, and a Spa Land built in. I ate lunch, bibimguksu, mixed noodles, in the store for 3,500 Won, just over 3 dollars.

Mixed noodles with a side of soup and pickled radishes

I tried to find the river Han, but ended up wandering through a few parks and along one of its tributaries for a while. There were hundreds of ajummas and ajeossis walking, running, and exercising. I got to the river eventually, but the day was too hazy for it to be all that impressive.

A few kids goofing off near a frozen lake

Another exercise park

A tributary of the river

The river Han

Heading back to the stadium, I found a giant indoor market. There were fruits and veggies of all kinds and fish and seafood laid out on tables and in tanks.

There was also a bakery. To purchase items, you put them on a tray and take them to the register where they package everything up for you. I also got a free sample of something sweet.

Namsan Tower

Yesterday I went to N Seoul Tower.
The journey to the top was rather strenuous with 1.2 km of stairs, but I had a much easier time of it than most everyone else. It sure pays to be an athlete.

The view was gorgeous. It really hit me just how large Seoul is. There was nothing but buildings up to the mountains in the far distance.

Namsan Mountain is traditionally a place for lovers. They go there to place a lock, a symbol of their love, onto the guard railings.

When the sun started setting, I attempted to take a video to make a time lapse of the lights turning on in the city. I lasted for 40 minutes and had to quit long before full dark when I started shivering uncoltrollably. The wind chill was probably way below freezing.

You can sort of see lights turning  on at the end.

I got some okay pictures of the city lights afterwards though. (My camera isn't so great at taking nighttime photos.)

Ondol

When I sat on the floor of my hotel room to eat my delicious Korean pastries from the ironically titled Paris Baguette,

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread

Red Bean Doughnut

Filling on the inside. These definitely tasted better than they look or sound.

I discovered that I do in fact have ondol, Korean floor heating.

You have no idea how good that feels after a day of wandering about in the cold.

First Days

Yesterday I finally landed in Korea after a 15 hour plane ride, half of which I thankfully slept through. Everything went smoothly except the lack of escalators or elevators on the subway. I took a train from the Incheon Airport to Seoul, and then I had to transfer to the number 4. I proceeded to get on train number 4, but thankfully got off after realizing that everyone else had assigned seats from their tickets. At the ticket counter, a helpful lady pointed directed me to the subway, and then the torture of the stairs ensued. It had already been hard enough to get my two suitcases onto escalators, but carrying them up and down stairs was not fun at all. I also got stuck in a turnstile, not realizing that there was an entrance for handicapped persons and idiot foreigners like me with too much luggage.

Everyone was very helpful in assisting me. I had an old man tell me to watch out for my luggage while I was purchasing a ticket (I had left it behind me); a kind young woman held my suitcase for me after I pushed it through the turnstile and got stuck on the other side; and a young man carried one of my suitcases up the last and longest stretch of stairs.

My hotel room is tiny but comfortable, more than I expected for under $40 per night. The bed is rather hard but sufficiently large, and as expected, the shower isn’t separated from the toilet. Basically you flood the whole bathroom when you take a shower.

Today I got myself well and truly lost. My plan was to go see the Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral and then wander around Namdaemun Market. I walked to the Cathedral, which was less than a mile from the hotel, and discovered that they have English mass on Sundays.

 Getting to the market was a lot harder though and took me almost an hour. Street corner maps are a lifesaver. On the way, I came across a small river in the middle of the city. I imagine it must be even more beautiful in the spring when the trees bloom.

The market wasn’t as crowded as I had expected, but was still quite busy for a Monday morning. The narrow corridors were lined with merchandise from shoes and blankets to pots and wristwatches.

I wandered around for a while before I found the alley with restaurants. They all had their dishes lined up in front, and I was herded into a restaurant by an ajumma touting an English menu. The place was quite cozy, and I ordered manduguk, a soup with dumplings.  It was delicious.

I then tried to find my way back to the hotel, but failed miserably. I wandered around for an almost two hours before giving in and taking the subway. 

Along the way, I found an exercise park, where a few old men were working out on the equipment. I took some stalker photos of them because they looked hilarious.

T minus 36 hours

I have less than 36 hours left in Lubbock.
How am I not panicking? I've somewhat started packing, but have tons of stuff left to do.
I worked most of the day even though I said I'd take the day off to get ready. The time was well spent though. I've been working on a project at Tech in which I use alternating current through a coil to crush a soda can. It has been my first ever engineering project which I had to design from the ground up, procure the parts for, and finally put together. I got it up and running this morning after taking part of the assembly apart after it flashed over during firing. (There was a big bang, a flash of light, and quite a few curious grad students who came running. Not good.)

I also ate lunch with my mom for the first time in a while and repaired a mascot costume for the Mathnasium. After attempting to be refined and sewing the thing together, I decided it would take too long and improvised. Staples work just as well as a needle and thread if it doesn't need to look pretty.

I should probably go pack now. The clock's ticking.