Arrived in Seoul around noon today, just in time to escape the Expo chaos beginning in Shanghai. I had an argument with the airport security lady about my contact solution bottle being bigger than 100 mL, so I ended up pouring it into an empty pill bottle. There are NO signs saying you can't bring bottles on the plane and this was honestly the first time I had trouble getting things through security. We also had to take off our shoes. I think it's because of the Expo they've ramped up security, but it really is all a disorganized farce, like the security down in the subways. Anyway, the pill bottle isn't filthy or anything, but I hope I don't give myself eye problems...I just didn't know if I could find the solution I use for the corrective night-time lenses I wear.
That annoyance aside, everything has been great. I started picking up the Korean alphabet right away. Hangul has 24 letters, and I read somewhere that the shape of the characters mimicks the shape of your mouth when you say it. With Susan helping me learn the characters and sounds, I can basically read signs now, although I don't know what they mean--unless they're English words that have been Korean-ized. This is the first time I've been in a country where I don't understand the language, and it's kinda exciting.
The hostel is really clean, nice, and has wireless internet. We were all a little too giddy at how quickly websites were loading...a clear sign we've been stuck behind the Great Firewall for too long. Since we were all pretty tired, we just walked around the area we're staying in, Hongdae. Several colleges are here, including Ewa and Yonseh, two of the top universities in Korea with interesting histories. We walked over there and just explored the campuses. Since they were both built by American Christian missionaries, the architecture is very American. Also, the campus life feels very American too, compared to Chinese universities. It was so nice to see students out and about, club banners and posters everywhere, and people just having fun outside. University life in China is very dreary, at least at Nanjing.
As for food....For lunch, Sue and I had budae jjigae, or "army base stew", which has ramen, tofu, dok (niangao), hot dogs, and Spam. Sounds strange, but it was delicious and very filling. I was happy to see the many plates of different banchan. Afterwards while walking around, we tried some street food, even though we were still full. We paid 1000 won (90 cents) for a little bag of bungeoppang, which is a fish-shaped waffle pastry filled with red bean paste or custard, with some of the dough still a little gooey inside. We also had hotteok, which is like a thin pancake with cinnamon, sugar, and honey in the middle. The kind we had was all puffed up so it was a hollow pastry with a crunchy, cinnamony exterior. After a short nap at the hostel, we went back out in search of dak bulgogi, chicken barbeque. We ended up at a self-serve BBQ place, which was decent for 9000 won. Afterwards, we had Baskin Robbins ice cream. We were back in the university area, and again, I was struck by how many young people were just out and having fun.
Miles always says Chinese people are miserable people who don't know how to enjoy themselves, which is a sad comment...but I'm starting to see where he got that idea. I feel like China's spirit really was broken in the past 100 years because of both internal and external causes, and that has left a legacy on the society and spirit that exists today. South Korea also rebuilt themselves out of nothing, but the political and economic circumstances are so different... this is a complex issue that I am too tired to think about now.
Anyway, pretty much all we did today was eat, walk, and eat. But I am ok with that, because I love Korean food and everything is still relatively cheap, compared to the US. Tomorrow, we'll try and hit up some museums, have lunch with Susan's professor, and eat some more delicious food!
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