Seoul Part 1

During the Golden Week holiday break, I took a 6 day trip to Seoul, South Korea to visit Soojeong. I flew out of Osaka and landed in Gimpo airport. Soojeong came to meet me at the airport, and stepping out of the gate and seeing my girlfriend for the first time in person since she had returned home, was something that is hard to put into words. Before going to Korea, I knew that it was beautiful, but now I can honestly say now that I have been to Heaven. What a beautiful country! Seoul itself is a modern megalopolis like Tokyo, but there are cultural monuments that you kind find on almost every street, wonderful food, friendly people, romantic and cute neighborhoods with almost Paris looking cafe's.. I can't wait to move there.

To write everything we did would take a lot of time; we went to 3 different castles (palaces), saw the presidential "Blue House", went shopping and out on dates a cute little restaurants all over the city, and just spent time doing the things we love. For me it was so interesting getting to see Soojeong's home country and city. Every street offered new sights, smells, and experiences. Learning about the history of Korea was very interesting and there were a lot of great museums we visited that had everything from the creation of Hangeul (the Korean language), past kings and wars, old weapons, pottery, and information on the festivals and traditions of the country. Korea has a different feel to it than Japan..to put it in words is kind of difficult, but I guess it is has a more homely feel. I am a nature lover, and being able to see the mountains from almost everywhere in the city was so wonderful. This is the hostel that Soojeong found for me to stay at: http://bangranghostel.com/room_rate.html
. It was beautiful and cost around $15 USD a night.


Another thing that I really enjoyed about the trip, was getting to meet Soojeong's friend Goeun and her older sister Sumi and boyfriend Joe. Soojeong and I met Gouen for a dinner of fried chicken, beer, and talking. It was a lot of fun to meet her and since she is able to speak Japanese as well, we were able to communicate about many different things. After we finished our dinner, we went to a cute little cafe in the area and drank delicious drinks as we joked. On a different day, Soojeong and I met up Sumi and Joe for dinner, and then a drink at a bar. It was nice to meet them and I was very surprised to be treated to dinner. Sumi is fluent in English, so so it was very easy to talk to her. It is interesting that at one table Korean, English, and Japanese were all being spoken. Everyone was so kind. I can't wait to apply to work in Seoul next year. Moving from a town the size of Stillwater to a major city like Seoul will be a different experience, but it is one that I am looking forward to more than anything.