Seoul Adventure

This past Saturday I was finally able to make it out to Seoul for the first time!!

In this story though, the good comes with the bad as well. I might have gotten my first true taste of culture shock, ironically in one of the more internationalized cities in Korea (how did I get through Jeonju, reputed as one of the most classically Korean cities, without any odd encounters!!). The train was actually great and the ride there was fantastic. I expected the trip to last close to an hour, but it really only took us about half that. Low expectations for travel turned into a rather pleasant surprise.

The five of us who came into Seoul that day happened to all have a pretty late night on Friday, so we were all lacking some energy. We did however run into some friends we hadn't seen since orientation, and that gave us a second wind of sorts.

The only tourist-y thing we did that day was to visit the N. Seoul Tower (it is incredible!! I'll have some photos on fbook soon but there are some tagged of me already). The bus driver was incredibly cranky though and was yelling pretty harshly at us in Korean to be quiet; we had a friend with us who speaks fluent Korean who was able to act as translator. He was actually on a rant for the duration of the whole bus ride up the hill, going on about how foreigner tourists are terrible. It is worth noting that he picked an interesting form of employment considering his disdain for us (a bus driver on a route of probably the biggest tourist attraction in Seoul). But!, we were in the wrong and we pretty much quieted down when we figured out he was aiming his rant at us. No big deal, we moved on quietly and forgot about it for a while.

The tower was amazing by the way, and it purports to have the best view from a bathroom in the world, and I believe it!! I bought some postcards along the way as well. Outside of my friend Joe, we all skipped out on the adjoining teddy bear museum. It was strange that the TB museum was more than going into Seoul tower, but only later did I find out it was Korea's history via teddy bears, complete with breakdancing TB's (a return visit is in order!!). We made our way down the hill, onto a new bus with a much gentler driver and into the subway....

but then!! A friend of mine named Ramsey actually got caught in the subway door as it was closing. We had to pry the thing open, and it ended up closing on him twice with the first one landing on his neck. Although it was a pretty scary event, we did end up getting the door open and him in without tooooo much trouble. However, enter Rant #2: An older Korean gentleman was reaaaaaaaaaaaallly not happy that we caused this scene and proceeded to go on a fairly mean spirited rant about how we should have split up and had some people wait for the next train. This would have actually been a fine idea if any of us knew where we were going (if you are lost in a big city, don't split up!!). He gave us some means looks along the way and gave us all a stink-eye. This one was a little bit more frustrating because our predicament had no adverse effects on anyone else and we delayed the train's departure by about 20 seconds tops. I was well aware coming into Korea of the power of age, but I let a little Americana slip out anyway. I didn't fight the 75 year old man and I certainly didn't say anything to him either, but I maintained eye contact with him until he looked away when his gaze came my way (I regret this a little now, because I have been so good about falling into Korean etiquette, but it happened and I can't go back in time). A lot of our frustration really came from remembering the experience on the bus. Most of us tried to keep to ourselves but we were yelled at anyway.

Luckily, a decent dinner put us back in tiptop shape. Let's fast forward a few hours because not much happened from here to there, outside of us deciding to catch the first train back in the morning (5:30 AM) rather than the last train out at night (10:30 PM) - bad idea! We ended up at a dance club for a while but were through with that by 2 PM and had some time to kill.

Time to kill.... enter me getting hit by a car!!
And I will say that I have only played it up because the actual story pales in comparison to the technical translation. We were walking down to a convenience store down a narrow road when a car came up behind us and happened to clip me in the side. I bounced off of it like a pinball and was about 1000x more confused than I was injured. It didn't hurt, but it really caught me off guard. In all actuality, I probably would have destroyed the tiny car before the car destroyed me, but I can now check that off my to-do list - getting hit by a car! I actually happened to have to walk next to the car, which was already doing about 2 MPH, for a good block or so, which is as every bit awkward as you might imagine!

On a side note, I was blown away by how many Americans there were that night! We were in Hongdae-Seoul, a huuuuuge place for foreigners, but there were times where the English speakers outnumbered the Koreans. It was less than ideal, because I have really enjoyed being one of the few Americans engulfed in a sea of Koreans.

All in all, it wasn't my ideal trip to Seoul, but I'd put the odds on favorite that I might be back as soon as next week. I know it is an amazing place, I think I might have just gotten less than an amazing experience (though the car thing was actually a pro, not a con). I should probably add that despite the few crazy events, it all pales in comparison to how amazing this country and how much neat stuff there is around me. I am sure I will get a decent share of both good and bad throughout my year, but I will say that the good outnumbers it 10 to 1.

I'm out!! G'night everyone!