Another Seoul-ful adventure

It's Chusok. That means I have nearly a full week off. We had lots of great plans for how to spend the holiday. Tuesday we would go to Seoul Tower to view the city from 356 meters. Wednesday we'd have a nice little Chusok dinner at my place. Thursday we'd go shopping at the international district in Seoul. The rest, we'd see.

You know what they say about the best-laid plans.

Tuesday Nadia and I got up early to head for Seoul. The tower was Kevin's idea. It was a bad sign that we didn't get ahold of Kevin until after we'd already been waiting an hour. Of course he and his friend had been out really late in Itaewon so they were in no shape to meet us for a day of touring. Nadia's friend Fiddy (yes, Fiddy. She's Irish) met us and we decided that since it was rather overcast and the boys weren't coming, we'd make it a girls' shopping day. Great idea, right?
So they showed me the 'Big and Tall' store they like to shop at, which sadly is the kind of place I belong here in Korea. We got a few tops and dropped off some things for tailoring. Then we decided we'd head for an Irish pub nearby for a late lunch. By this time (1:00) it was POURING rain. And I mean a freakin deluge. Torrents. Buckets. Sheets. Whatever analogy you like. It was raining hard. We stopped to buy larger umbrellas because the compact size ones were just worthless at this point. The big umbrellas helped a bit but only to keep the tops of our heads dry. The water was splashing and blowing too much for the umbrellas to do much else.
We walked up the alley, which is on a hill, towards the pub. The water was rushing down incredibly fast. The hill's incline was actually rather significant but the water still was well above our ankles. It was literally a waterfall. We finally got to the pub, which luckily was on the second floor. And we ordered an amazingly delicious stew for lunch. It was the perfect comfort food for the day.

The torrential downpour did not stop for 5 hours. At one point after about 3 hours there was a 15 minute lull, but then it started up again. I believe it was the eye of the storm. I have never seen so much rain at one time in all my life. We were holed up in the pub the entire time, because we did not want to go out in that crap again.

Finally after about 5 or 6 hours the rain stopped and the sky lightened significantly. By this time our clothes had mostly dried out, we had drank several beers, eaten lots of homemade mashed potatoes, and sampled from the martini menu. We decided to check out the bigfoot shoe store and then head home. But when we got down to the street we found that many stores were closed due to flooding. Our shoe store unfortunately was on the basement level and we could see they had a large amount of standing water on the floor. So we went down to the subway to make the 45 minute ride home.

We rode the subway until our transfer stop, where Nadia and I got off and Fiddy continued on. By this time her cold meds were wearing off and she was starting to feel sick again. We were tired and a bit tipsy. But we got to the bus stop and hopped on the first bus going in our direction. It was standing room only but it was only supposed to be a 20 minute ride so we didn't mind. Well, 20 minutes turned in to 2 hours as the highway was completely flooded in one spot and only one car at a time could try to inch it's way through. Fiddy called us to let us know the subway system shortly after we got off was completely shut down due to tunnel flooding. She was stuck there longer than we were. A kind old man who had a seat held our shopping bags for us so we could hang on to the rail with both hands, which on Seoul buses is absolutely necessary. After we made it past the floods the trip didn't take long. but we still had to go to the supermarket to get supplies for our dinner the next day, since much like American Thanksgiving, everything is closed on Chusok. We didn't get home until 11pm. It was exhausting.

Don't believe me about the rain? here.

So Wednesday we had the boys over to my place for dinner. Nadia cooked. It was amazing. We baked chicken drumsticks in my oven, with a garlic honey glaze that I had. She also deepfried potato wedges and made the most delicious salad I have ever eaten in my life. It was pretty fun for the most part. We ate, listened to music, played games, and drank.
The one guy I didn't know who was there lived up to his reputation unfortunately. Long story short, he decided at one point it would be a good idea to pull the emergency 'i've fallen and I can't get up' cord I have in my bathroom. Even though I explained to everyone earlier what it was. Even though I also explained that since this is government housing it's techinically illegal for me to live here. So we were all in the living room when an alarm started going off and I could not for the life of me figure out how to turn it off. My control panel screen lit up and i found a way to enter a code, but of course i didn't hvae the code. He came out of the bathroom as if he hadn't done anything. Of course I knew. I confronted him about it and he just slunk out of the apartment and went home. (He didn't even own up or apologize for it when I saw him today. I am really pissed!) Anyway shortly after he left we get a knock on the door, and it's the security guard. We explained it was a mistake and he showed me how to turn off the alarm. He seemed good-natured about it so I think it's ok. But like I said, i shouldn't be living here and while for the most part they can look the other way, if I'm shoving it in their face like this it could become problematic. I was not impressed. That guy is not welcome here ever again. And like I said, he never even apologized or even owned up. What a coward.

Ok so anyway, today we decided to go to Seoul again and actually go to the tower, since it was a gorgeous, cloudless 70-degree kinda day. We bused all the way into downtown Seoul and had lunch. Then we cabbed it to the mountain where Seoul Tower is. The cab driver dropped us off on the wrong side so we couldn't catch the cable car up, and had to walk the 1.2 km up the mountain. And it was a STEEP mountain. We got part of the way and Nadia, our resident smoker, decided she was not going to continue. But Taekwondo has strengthened my legs and my resolve so I was all about continuing on. It was painful though. We finally made it to the top and Liam (emergency cord boy) had to leave because his train left for Daegu shortly afterward. I was not sorry to see him go. But Kevin and I remained and I said damnit I walked all the way up here and I've been through a lot to get here so I'm going up the tower with or without you.
So we bought our tickets, and had 1 hour before we could go in. So we looked around, played some games, fought the crowds, got some ice cream, and headed in. It's only about half the size of the Sears tower, if that, but it gave amazing panoramic views of Seoul and the surrounding mountains.

Finally we went back down and caught a cab back to Itaewon where we met up with Nadia again. Then we went to dinner in a Mexican restaurant, then got coffee, then caught the train/bus back home.
At the bus stop I ran in to the Korean woman who just quit/was fired from my school on Monday due to extreme unnecessary drama. That was awkward. Only time I have been happy for a language barrier.

But now I am home, in my apartment. Haven't been kicked out yet. My roommate arrives on Tuesday so I hope to utilize this time wisely. I am apprehensive about it. The truth is as much as I enjoy meeting people and going out, I really am an introvert and need my personal space. After a whole day of being with people I just need to be alone for a while. And i'm used to having my own space! Hopefully this roommate situation will work out. Time will tell.
Tomorrow I'm planning my first solo bus ride so I can go to Home Plus and stock up on groceries, supplies, etc. I need for my apartment. maybe even try to find some clothes, although I don't know that there will be anything to fit me. Then I have taekwondo tomorrow night and maybe I'll see if Hannah wants to get together. Then i still have the weekend!
Holiday weeks are great but so far it's been kind of crazy. Hopefully the rest will go smoothly.

Finally, here are pictures from today in Seoul. Enjoy!

Palace Entrance in downtown Seoul



Downtown Seoul where the 2010 G20 summit is to be held.





Here are images of the path up the mountain...






Here is a picture I tried to take of me with Seoul in the background. We were at the top of the mountain at the base of the tower. There was a fortress-type thing there with smoke stacks that were used as signals to warn of invaders.




There was a Peruvian Flautist, for some reason, entertaining the crowd with renditions of 'Dust in the Wind' and 'La Bamba'.


There were these creepy wire sculptures hanging around all over the place.




Here's a photo of the tower from the park at the base.



So we finally made it to the observation deck! There were windows all around. They all had a city on them, depending on the direction you were facing, with the distance to it. I'll just upload them all. You can clearly read the cities when I took a photo. Otherwise just notice the huge urban sprawl and beautiful mountains all around. This is Seoul.





















Here is the park at the base of the tower...there was this pagoda, and then you can see the smoke stack/fortress thing I mentioned.





Here is the tower from close to the bottom of the mountain, while we were on our way down.




Here is a shot from the bottom of the mountain. Viewing the cable car we never caught. And a beautiful moonrise.




Here is a short video I took of our cab ride back to Itaewon. It's not the greatest but thought you may be interested.


Finally this photo is from Wednesday night actually but it's a great shot of what I see out of my apartment at night. There's a beautiful full moon right now. And you can see the streetlights and office buildings/restaurants right outside.