Hello from Seoul! It’s currently 6:15 am on Tuesday. And it’s August! Oh, man! We first arrived after a 14 hour + flight from JFK International airport to Incheon. We were exhausted and it took us two hours to get out of the airport alone. A Korean grad student greeted us just outside the airport. She got us on the right bus to Seoul. I fell asleep on the bus – as did everyone else as Clare tells it.
On Friday night, we got settled into our dorm. Unfortunately, the hill to our Muak dormitory is steep! No one was kidding. I’m going to have calves of steel after two weeks of climbing that hill. When we got here, I found that my legs were swollen from the flight. It looked like elephantism, we all joked. With all the walking we’ve been doing in the past few days, it has only gotten a little better. But it was so weird to not have ankles! That’s never happened before and it freaked me out. Lori is my roommate, fellow earlier-riser and foodie. We have been getting along just fine.
After we put our stuff away, we walked out the North gate looking for something to eat. We finally settled on a Galbi restaurant, where Chris and I were the grill masters. We cooked delicious pieces of beef for everyone, although Helen ate the pickled dishes and vegetables. Clare can probably recount the whole experience for you, so check out her posts as well.
On Saturday, Lori and I had about four hours of sleep before we woke up at 6:00 am Seoul time. We got up and decided to explore the Main gate and campus. We walked right out the Main gate (a thirty-minute trek downhill) onto Yeonsu-ro (the road right outside the Main gate). We got an amazing honey buttered bread at a cafe called Holly’s. Then we walked all the way back around the campus to the North gate. Oh man, did it get hot! It must have been in the 90s as the sun was rising and the humidity just took over. We met up with everyone at 10:00 am at the dorm and headed out to show them what we had figured out about the campus and the subway location. Clare broke away from the pack to met with the dean of Yonsei’s library school and professor Kevin Glick.
Meanwhile, Lori and I led Chris, Katie, and Helen to a Paris Baguette bakery and the Hyundai department store. The B1 floor is amazing. It is a huge grocery / food court floor. Lori and I had tempura, shumai,and pork buns. It was great. Then we headed off the the subway. It is so easy to navigate. I led the way for everyone. We decided to go to the Gyeongbok-Gong palace. It was sweltering by that time but we managed to tag along with an English-speaking tour. We learned all about the palace lay-out, the King, the Queen, and the concubines. We stopped in both the National Korean Folk Museum and the National Palace Museum of Korea. It was a little frustrating to see all these interesting artifacts, but because the explanations weren’t in English, we really had very little idea what we were looking at – the placenta jars of the Kings were … so strange.
Then we headed of to Namdaemun market. It was so completely fascinating. Lori and I watched a lady chop up what looked like a pig’s knee. She sliced the dark meat so easily. Lori regrets not trying it then, and she says that we have to go back. There?was food, clothes, and trinkets all through these narrow bustling streets. I definitely want to go back. While I was there, I found baozi! I was so excited. I had seen Anpanman earlier in the day at the Hyundai deptartment store, but then I found baozi. I am dying to find Meronpan. I think I miss that the most from Japan. I haven’t seen any dango yet either!
On Saturday night, I was too tired to stay?up from all the walking and I crashed early. But on Sunday, I was up again and rolling out early in the morning. Clare came with us on Sunday. We stopped at Namu cafe in the morning and had waffles. We went to show Clare the Hyundai department store. We had squid and egg stuffed rings, shrimp rolls, sweet potato honey fries, and buns. It was fun. I know how to ask for things pretty easily in Korean now as well as ask for the check and to thank people profusely.
Then we slipped away and my group headed towards Dongdaemun market. Unfortunately, it appeared that Dongdaemun was closed on Sunday. So we walked down the stream, Cheonggye-cheon. It was very pretty, even in the pouring rain. We regrouped at Doota department store (these aren’t stores like Macy’s, these are entire skyscapers). Then we headed off to Insa-dong. That was an excellent idea! It’s a very kitchy and neat artisan area and shopping place. We watched these guys make a tradition Korean candy of honey strings and nuts. We stopped in a traditional tea shop and had some tea. It was awesome. Clare has a few pictures on her blog from the tea shop (I took the one of Lori, Clare, and Chris).
While I was there, I picked up a few gifts for people back home. It was a great experience. We headed back to meet up with Helen at 7:00 pm at the Main gate. By then, though, I was feeling sick. My stomach wasn’t agreeing with me, especially after all that we ate. We had spicy chicken but I couldn’t eat much of it. It hurt too badly. I will next recount Monday’s class experience, but first I have to go to Tuesday’s class. Today we are headed for a site visit to the university’s library and then to a traditional welcome dinner. It should be great. See you in a bit!
(I’ll upload pictures when I can, but we have been experiencing serious technical issues, especially trying to get wireless or LAN access. It’s been frustrating to say the least.)