new adventure = culture shock!

A couple of weeks ago I decided to go and visit Dani down in Yongin. When she left Ilsan she informed me that it only took like an hour and a half to get there by subway... well she counted wrong... way wrong. I ended up on the subway for a good three hours. With a track change in Bundang, I thought I was home free. Will I got to the Jukjeon station, in which the train announcer said that this was the last station the train was going to and that if i wanted to go to the Bojeong station (the station I was to meet Dani at) I needed to transfer trains. Since this was the first time traveling alone, I freaked out. Transfer trains ?!?! What was i supposed to do? I make my way down the elevator to look at a map. I apparently took extremely lost because a very nice girl came up and told me I just need to catch the next train that is going to Bojeong. Apparently there are some trains that go all the way to the end and some don't. I was supposed to meet Dani at 7:30pm... I walked through the gate at 8:54... 6 minutes before Dani said she was going to leae and find a way to get a hold of me and direct me to her apartment. Thankfully she was still there.

While on the subway I had one interesting encounter. 3 stops after I got on, two drunken old men get on and of course they sit right next to me. I had my headphones and was reading my Kindle and they refused to leave me alone. They kept bothering me and tried to ask me questions. I tried to ignore them but it just wasn’t working. I made it to the point that was going to get off the train and switch just to get away from them and luckily they stood up to leave. Thank god. As they were standing waiting for the train to stop, they still wouldn’t leave me alone. So luckily a man standing across from me came and stood in between us and started talking to me. I was so grateful for this. His first question… “Do you love this football team?” (As he pointed to his Denver Broncos sweatshirt) I laughed incredibly hard and said, “No I don’t, but a very good friend of mine absolutely loves them” It was very entertaining. We talked about football until he got off. Very grateful.

Once we made it to Dani’s apartment, we were both exhausted and decided to just find dinner and crash. We got dinner at an Italian place and then went for beer at a German bar that only had Korean beer, Cass. Cass is the Korean version of Coors. We ended up crashing at Dani’s apartment and then got up to make plans for Saturday.

There are many differences between Dani's place and mine. I live in a nice apartment in a high-rise building that has a car show room on the first floor, many government offices, a convenience store inside the building and an awesome dress shop. I have a killer view of my neighborhood and can see for miles. Dani on the other hand does not live in a high-rise. The one thing I am jealous about is that she lives in an actual neighborhood. The kind of neighborhood where you actually get to know your neighbors (and see them on a regular basis). Another major difference is the bathroom situation. I sort of lucked out in that area as i have a standing shower that isn't extremely short and I have a door that separates the shower from the rest of the bathroom. This is not the case with her bathroom. One room with the shower attached to the wall right in front of her toilet. There isn't much water pressure and you get hot water for about 4 minutes or so. So basically you take the quickest shower of your life and hope it doesn't turn cold. We made our plans to go to Seoul later in the day rather than staying there ALL day walking around... something that later bit us in the butt.

We had "lunch" at a super cute cafe that is right down the road from Dani's apartment. It was absolutely adorable. We grabbed the bus to Ori station, and realized that traffic was awful, so we took the subway instead. First stop was to Seoul station, where Dani's Lonely Planet told us it should be a 20 minute walk to the North Seoul Tower. Lonely Planet lied. The short walk turned into about a hour from the station. Most of which were stairs or giant uphill paths. We did make good time and the view once we got to the top was sooooo worth it. The transition from night to day was awesome to see.

So many steps...

The North Seoul Tower all lit up

The North Seoul Tower is known for it's locks on the fence. Couples in Korea bring their locks, sign them and attach them to the fence. Some messages are short and sweet, while others are very heartfelt. There were locks everywhere. They even had Christmas tree shaped statues that were covered in locks as well. The also have these awesome benches that look broken in the middle, but are really made for snuggling. :) Once it was dark, we walked down the other side of the giant hill and we checked out Namdaemun (a giant street market), which is 24 hours. Pretty much knock-off of anything you could possibly think of, bags, purses, clothes, watches, socks, hats etc. I was able to take my glasses into one of the shops to try and get them straightened (since they are slightly bent). We thought they were fixed... not the case. Still bent, but tighter.

So many locks everywhere

We are officially on the wall at North Seoul Tower :)

Dani had heard of a fundraiser for a women's rights group in Itaewon, the multicultural area of Seoul. There was to be a burlesque show and dancing. So that was our next stop... turns our every other foreigner in Korea had heard about this show. The place was packed and we all had to get pretty friendly with one another. Basically at one point I was sitting in a girls lap. The best part of the show was the girl with the hula hoops. She rocked it! Check out the video of Better Hoops (courtesy of Dani):

After the show was over, everyone exited from Bedlam onto the streets of Itaewon. It was about 11:30 or so, so Dani and I figured we could catch the last train and head back towards Yongin. We got on the subway and were running to try and transfer to the right line, when we ran into a terrible dead end. The station was closed and they weren't letting anyone through.Yaksu station... what's there? Absolutely nothing. A taxi from there was going to cost at least $50 to get back. We were stuck. Dani then suggested we find a "jimjilbang", which is basically a spa, but open 24 hours and you sleep there. Now to find one... We walked around for what seemed like hours. Since we did all the climbing my legs were dead. I was wearing flats (not the smartest choice) but I was ready to find some place to sit down. The logo for a jimjilbang is basically like a soup bowl with three steam things coming out from the top. After talking to a random Korean man, he was about to show us the way to one.

After finally finding it we checked in at about 2:20am or so. We were given what looked like a prison inmate uniform. Orange and stretchy. After walking into the ladies area, we were bombarded by 4 completely naked middle ages Korean women. They must have seen our complete confusion as to what to do, because they tried to help us out of our shoes and show us to our lockers. Once we were changed we walked around looking. Through some doors there was a couple giant tubs with a couple women scrubbing the life out of the skin of each other. There was a mother and her daughter sitting on the ledge of another just chatting.

Once downstairs, there was a large common room with about 40 sleeping mats and foam blocks for pillows. At first we didn't see any women at all. Dani was a little apprehensive about sleeping in the big open common room , but once we saw another woman walk in and sat down near the TV, we figured it would be fine to sleep down there. We found a couple mats and crashed... and by that I mean Dani crashed. I already sleep awful in areas I am unfamiliar with. Add in awful mats and rock hard foam blocks and that makes for me sleeping about 2 hours.

Once morning came... Dani was rudely awakened by a guy grabbed her foot and tried to snuggle. It was rather entertaining. We made it back to Yongin at about 9am, where we immediately crashed yet again, this time including me. We said a short nap, which turned into about 3.5 hours of nap. We spent the day being lazy, though we did find an awesome shop called Daiso. It's like the Dollar Tree back home... only 100 times better.

Around 4pm I headed back home to Ilsan. The 3 hour subway ride was so tiring. Luckily it's pretty easy from Yongin. Bundang line and then switch to the Orange line where I ride it until the very very end.

Weekends have been awesome in Seoul, but I am hoping this weekend to stick around Ilsan. I finally met some people in my area, so here's hoping for a good weekend.