Seoul: Good For the Soul

It is true, we get by with a little help from our friends.  In this case, our five days in Seoul were greatly improved, and many difficulties eased, because of our friend LC.

Jeff and LC had a class together in college, and she was kind enough to reach out when she found out we were coming to Korea.  Months before we came to Seoul she offered to show us around, and she did not disappoint when we finally did come to town.  Her kindness took the form of a night out to sample the Seoul nightlife and a full-day tour of the city the following day.

LC has lived in Korea for the past four years teaching English and had a lot of observations, experiences, and perspective to share. Our first night in Seoul we met up with LC and some of her friends for dinner, drinks, and dancing. We learned a lot about Korean culture, through the eyes of Westerners.  We talked at length about their views on education, plastic surgery, social pressures, and dating a Korean as a Westerner. Dating sounds fraught with issues and almost too complicated to enjoy - as parental pressure to wed before age 30 is extremely high.  We had noticed plastic surgery ads and offices all over the place in Korea, especially in the big cities.  LC and her friends confirmed that plastic surgery was routine in Korea, noting that Korean women they had worked with had mentioned that they were going to have bone shaving to make their face thinner, or an eye-lid procedure to create a more "Western" look in a few days as nonchalantly as we might mention a trip to the beach or the purchase of a new shirt. The societal pressure to fit a certain standard of beauty, whiter skin, thin face, wide eyes, etc., is HUGE in Korea, according to the LC and her friends.  Two of her friends are Korean Canadians and they had a unique perspective on Korea.  We really enjoyed the whole evening - as dancing and late night drinking binges are not usual for us at home or abroad - and felt the short time with LC's friends helped us discover (second-hand) aspects of Korean culture we never would have seen.

The following day LC took us around Seoul for no less than 9 hours.  We met up with her just after lunch and left her long after the sun set and we had enjoyed some coffee and pastries.  She took us to Gyeongbok-gung [경복궁,景福宮] (the most famous palace in Seoul), a wonderfully artsy and alternative neighborhood called Insadong, to a traditional Korean tea house,  the magnificently romantic and charmingly refurbished Cheonggye Stream park, and to a great dinner.  We had more enlightening and interesting conversations with LC throughout the day, and left her that evening happy, well-fed, and better cultured.  We would not have been able to truly experience Seoul without LC!  We walked and took the subway so we also saw a lot of downtown Seoul on the LC tour.  We suggest you take it if you are ever in town!

The next day we continued to get over tummy troubles, saw the second most famous palace in Seoul, ate a comforting BK lunch, and found ourselves drawn back to Insadong.  There is a three-story building in Insadong where almost all the shops sell super awesome handmade items.  We nearly bought these cool and unique (and very heavy) clay tigers.  We may buy them if they are still there when we go back to Seoul during our 12 hour layover between Bangkok and Seattle in December!

Our five days in Seoul presented us with the big-city version of Korea.  We saw a young man too drunk to walk or do anything outside of a club when we went out our first night.  We attended a Catholic mass (in Korean) in a very gothic and out-of-place looking brick church.  We ate an over-priced waffle and ice cream with kanoodling young Koreans in Insadong (apparently, Koreans love to go out for coffee and sweets - one need only walk down a major street in any city and note the Seattle-like proportions of coffee shops for proof). We danced and drank with Westeners and Korean-Canadians in the most happening neighborhood in Seoul (this included drinking at a very Capitol Hill-like bar called Vinyl, where all drinks are served in plastic bags with straws--think adult Capri Suns). We saw Korea's two most revered palaces, and held hands along its favorite new/old park.  We watched a very touristy, and very entertaining, changing of the guard at the Palace we went to with LC.  We left Seoul feeling like we had just visited one of the world's best cities.  We left Korea feeling like we had discovered a less-traveled jewel in a modern world where most amazing countries are totally pillaged and overrun with tourism and tourists.  If it wouldn't ruin the gem that is Korea, we'd tell you to go there.  So, shhhhh.





Notes

We stayed at a unique and slightly bizarre guesthouse in Seoul.  The location was fabulous!  The concept perfect.  The guesthouse was, in reality, kind of a bummer.  It was called Mr. Kim's Friends Guesthouse. Mr. Kim is a younger man with a dream:  He wants all of his guest to feel like they are at home.  He even has a bed in the front room and routinely fell asleep in the common areas out of apparent exhaustion. The common areas at Mr. Kim's felt awkward because they were so cramped and cluttered.  Our room was fine, but the noisy. Coming down the stairs around noon to a sleeping person in the bed in the front room was a bit uncomfortable.  And, although we applaud Mr. Kim's dream, we never felt liking hanging out in the common areas because doing so made us feel as though we were invading his (and possibly his family's) privacy.  We noticed a small, typed sign on the front door practically pleading for a new staff member to help out, and all we had to do was take one look at the totally tuckered Mr. Kim to tell that his dream was waring him out.  We wish Mr. Kim the best of luck, but can't recommend his place to any light sleepers or those with more sensitive sensibilities.

Our day-trip to the DMZ turned out to be a strange and fascinating thing.  The next post on our blog will be a quick re-cap of our visit to the DMZ.