Seoul-fulfilling Weekend

I know it is a cliche, but I had to say it: we had a "Seoul-fulfilling weekend." Get it? We went to Seoul, capital of Korea! One of the great things about Wonju is its location. It is only an 1 1/2 to the beach, or an 1 1/2 to Seoul. Having already visited the beach, on Saturday Jason and I decided to take advantage of our proximity to Seoul. Buses leave Wonju every 15-20 minutes and only cost 6500 won each. Saturday morning we hopped in a taxi, hopped out at the Express Bus Terminal, stumbled over to Dunkin Doughnuts for some nourishment, quickly bought our tickets and soon settled onto the 10:30 bus to Seoul. 

Although Yahoo weather predicted "sun and 75 degrees F" it was severely mistaken as the day was cool and most definitely cloudy. We both conked out on the bus although I did wake up soon enough to the see the entrance to "Everland" Korea's most famous theme park. When we arrived at the Seoul Express Bus Terminal we knew we were in the big city! There were tons of people, tons of buses, large streets and lots of big buildings! I was so excited to finally get to see what this city was all about!

One of our main goals for this trip was, bashfully, to visit the newly opened Taco Ball in the district of the city known as Itaewon. We had heard tale of lines out the door with an hour wait and already one of my coteachers was talking about how she hoped to visit it next time she went to Seoul. Jason was super thrilled as he had been missing home a bit the day before. We easily found the entrance to the subway, easily bought our affordable 1000 won tickets, and again quite easily found our way to the correct line and entrance. The Seoul subway system is super easy to use, very clean, very fast and affordable. To our benefit everything is also written in English. Inside the metro system you can find not only the subway, but many shops and vendors! Things were crowded and very rush-rush (but still not nearly as much as in Tokyo!)

Our first stop was Itaewon. As soon as we emerged we spotted Taco Bell. It is within eye distance of the metro entrance, a good location. We suddenly realized we were in foreigner heaven as we spotted: Quiznos, Subway, KFC, McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, etc. Plus lots of other ethnic restaurants including Thai, Indian and more Mexican. We hurried over to Taco Bell but were disappointed to find no line. Inside the place was three stories, but not nearly as swanky and large as we'd hoped. The menu is pretty much exactly the same as home, as is the worker's attire and the cost of food.

Has Taco Bell ever looked this good? Are YOU ready to combo?! 

Do you notice that Jason got a haircut?! Everyone at school told him "OOOHHH handsome man!"

 Regrettably, Taco Bell was -gasp- not as satisfying as we thought it would be! The best thing about Taco Bell is the sauce and both the sauce in the meat and in the packets was slightly different than home. Don't get me wrong, the food was good, but not -exactly- the same as we thought it would be. Who were we kidding? Surprisingly Jason was not as thrilled to eat his stuffed burrito as he originally thought he would be. He was super excited when we arrived, but half way through the burrito he confessed that maybe he didn't miss Taco Bell as much as he thought. I told him we'd come back in six months.

Additionally, our mood came down a little when we noticed that at least half, if not more, of the Taco Bell patrons were Americans. We started to feel super lame for eating there. Not surprisingly most of the Americans were dressed down. One overweight American lady was super rude to us on the stairs and was wearing a solid colored sweat suit with her hair pulled up in a messy bun. But it was pretty funny to watch some Koreans try to figure out how to eat the tacos they ordered! The couple next to us was obviously on a date and the girl kept daintily picking up her taco and taking little bites, the whole time looking super confused as to if she was doing it right or not. Nachos were similarly puzzling for she and her boyfriend. Jason and I realized that Korean's don't really eat many things with just their hands, or if they do, they usually have a towel or wet wipe to clean them off first. The Taco Bell was neat, but we'll pass on it for now. I still hope that it will do well in Korea though! Read the article I posted in my last blog for some good insight into Korean dining culture.

After eating we browed the main street of Itaewon, which was filled with many souvenir vendors, American chain stores, men trying to sell Jason custom suits and a cute shoe store that I had to go in. At the end of the street was a large brick wall, we started to walk by it and got to an almost hidden door, we realized it was a US Army base! We didn't know anything about Itaewon before, but since than have read that the US base has been there since the Korean War, as have some other foreign embassies. Thus it made sense why there were so many American chains and why we kept seeing so many Americans!

We call this "girl on cellphone" plus Itaewon in the background.

Maybe we are still in the "honeymoon" phase of culture shock, the phase where we think everything in Korea is really cool, because Jason and I really started to resent all the Americans we saw. They were getting in the way, they were loud, they were (we thought obviously) only staying close the base and then hurrying back in. At one point this overweight family of eight stopped in front of us on the sidewalk, blocking everyone's way, they were looking at souvenirs, with cameras around their necks, sweatpants and t-shirts. We were so annoyed. We started to realize why American army personnel sometimes get bad reputations. We did see lots of young families though and tried to be sympathetic to people who, most likely without choice, had to move half way across the world to a place that is totally foreign to them. In six months I will be comforted to see them, but now, so early on, many people just seemed to remind me of the things about America I don't like.

New hat and umbrella! 

By the time we had finished browsing Itaewon it had started raining, I had bough a pair of shoes, Jason a hat and bag and both of us two new umbrellas. (Curse you Yahoo Weather!) We decided to head back underground and travel to a part of town I had read was filled with back alley galleries and artists. But, when we emerged from the metro it was raining hard and all we could find was a coffee shop, for which we were thankful to relax in. There we poured over the new tourists maps I had got from the metro tourist center. We realized we were in a very posh area of town (and the people around us definitely looked the part!) We were going to head over to the National Museum of Korea to beat the rain, but decided to run into the huge Hyundai Department Store before we left. We had seen on the tourist maps that it was something to see. And boy was it!

High fashion. And when I say high, I mean prices.

We thought South Coast Plaza in Orange County was something special, but this place was amazing! It was the most high fashion mall I had ever visited! And the metro entrance led right into it, we didn't even have to go out into the rain! They had every major designer label from the US, Europe and Asia. And I mean EVERYONE! Each floor got better and better, there were wood pianos, gowns, suits, real furs, alligator purses... Each floor was different, one was just makeup and jewelry from the likes of Chanel to Cartier. The store was six floors, the top having individual boutiques devoted to individual designers. One floor was the fanciest "food court" I'd ever seen with designer cheeses and wines mingled with international cuisine (plus the Apple Store!) -- we ate some gourmet chicken wraps (mmm tortillas!) The top floor contained just one store that I longed to go into it looked so posh and exclusive: Chanel. Everything in this mall was literally thousands of dollars. Jason picked out a Calvin Klein jacket $2,500. I didn't even want to look. The rest of the top floor was filled with really nice restaurants, Korean, Japanese, Italian.

As we walked by the Italian place I looked longingly inside, it looked and smelled delicious. We checked out the menu and most pasta dishes were about 20,000 won. Jason was a true gentleman and said firmly that we were going in!! We decided to split a dish because we weren't that hungry and it was a little pricey. They had a great set menu that we went with. The food was amazing, the best Italian food I have had out of Italy! For only 28,000 won we received impeccable, polite and attentive service (and you don't have to tip in Korea, yay!) -- our glasses were always full, we had the full array of silverware by course, our plates were always cleared. Our meal started with something to snack on, sweet pickled cucumbers and a variety of fresh bread with oil and vinegar. Next came the fresh salad with Parmesan cheese coupled with a cream soup. Then came our scrumptious pasta cooked perfectly in a olive oil and garlic sauce, mixed with steamed clams. This was followed by steak and grilled vegetables. To top it all off we had high quality chamomile tea plus fresh tiramisu and fruit for dessert! I can definitely understand why people get used to this kind of life style while in Korea! Our dinner was an example of how service and product should always be, regardless of how much you tip or how inflated a price is. The place was simply yet cleanly decorated and the manager was on hand the entire time to make sure people were being served properly. You could also see the cooks cooking right behind the counter!

After stuffing ourselves with dinner we were ready to head back to Wonju. We took the short metro ride back to the Bus Terminal, bought our tickets for Wonju and made it home by 10pm. It was definitely a fun day and I am so ready to go back to Seoul for many more fun visits! There is so much more to see!