Here There and Everywhere

The past few days have taken me to so many different areas in and around Seoul. A few days ago, Soojeong and I took a trip out to her university so that she could turn in some final documents and so that I could see what her campus looked like. The Catholic University of Korea is located on a really hilly and wooded area just outside of Seoul. The layout of the campus is a bit different than OSU, and the buildings are not all made out of the same colored brick, but I thought it was very pretty. While we were there we met up with our friend Chisato who is studying Korean there as an exchange student. We also met some of Soojeong's friends and juniors. For dinner that night we went to a shabu shabu restaurant that Soojeong likes a lot. It was really good and there were a number of things to eat there.

Another place we visited again is one of my favorite areas in Seoul; Insadong. Although it is a very touristy location (a place I typically try to avoid), there are a number of antique shops, cafe's, restaurants, and neat galleries to look at. We stopped by a Buddhist temple just a block or two away from there and that is where the picture of all the lanterns was taken. I can imagine at night that it looks very beautiful lit up. The lanterns reached all the way up to the topmost branches of the tree.

Yesterday, Soojeong and I went to a place called Aiins World. It was a theme park of sorts with minature versions of famous buildings and landmarks from all across the world. There was France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Russia, Egypt, England, Morocco, Japan, Cambodia, America, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, and the lost city of Atlantis. We must just have really good luck because there were virtually no people there at all except for a mother and her two children. The trip out there took a while by bus, but it was good to get to see some different towns on the outskirts of Seoul.

Today Soojeong and I will go to the Han River and I will fulfill my promise to Sean about eating grilled squid like they do in the movie "The Host". I like grilled squid and the area near the Han River has been done a lot like the river park in Tulsa; fountains, exercise areas, and food. I think we will also go to a more traditional neighborhood here in Seoul that still retains a lot of the old style architecture. The rest of the week is pretty busy with meeting friends and going out to play. Next week we will take a trip with Soojeong's best friend Goeun to the southern city of Busan. Neither Soojeong and I have been there, so we are pretty excited to go. There is a famous beach there and it should be just the right weather to hop in for a swim.