At the station I also met Hector, who is a soldier at Camp Humphreys, the American base outside of Pyeongtaek. He’s from San Diego, super friendly, and very charming. Apparently he used to be a marine, but now he’s at Camp Humphreys as an air traffic controller, which is the job with THE highest suicide rate. He promised that he wasn’t planning on offing himself anytime soon, though.
Took the train up to Seoul – the tickets sell out really quickly, so we had to get “standing room” tickets, which means basically that you stand wherever there’s space. It wasn’t so bad – eventually we were able to snag seats – but the train was really hot. Apparently Koreans are always cold, hence they crank up the temperature inside, which I find weird, since they don’t really have deoderant here. I guess Koreans just don’t sweat as much as we westerners – or “wey-gooks” (not actual spelling) – do.
From there, we checked all the people who were staying overnight in Seoul into a motel. It’s only a three minute walk from Seoul Central, and is run by this sweet old lady named Ann who lived in New York for 11 years. Nick apparently found the place – it’s super cheap, only 40,000 won a night – and then Jenna bonded with Ann over their mutual New York-ness.
Lynn and I elected to take the train back rather than staying overnight. It was a tough call for me, because I was very excited about going to the ice bar, but realistically it was a bad plan. My partying skills are a little rusty to be staying out till 4 in the morning – by which I mean I would have collapsed by about 1 am – and I have big plans to go to the Lotte Mart (Korea’s version of Walmart) tomorrow and clean my apartment so it’s habitable. Hopefully I’ll be able to work myself up until 4 am partying, but until then I’ll just have to miss out on all the drinking shenanigans.
From there we took the subway over to the Han river, which is one of two rivers that cross Seoul – the other is the aptly named Seoul river. We got some fried chicken and pizza – both of which aren’t things you’d think to find in Korea, and yet they are crazy popular – and they were delicious. The pizza’s crust was sort of purple, which was very strange, but Sacha thinks that it’s because of some spice/herb they put in the dough.
The cruise itself was fantastic. We were supposed to meet up with Nick and his teaching friend, who I can’t remember the name of for the life of me... wait! Jodie! Who is a guy from South Africa, and certainly not a girl as I had previously suspected. Anyway, the boat was all set to pull out and Nick and Jodie hadn’t arrived yet, so we boarded and met up with them later. The boat was your basic river cruise boat – open sides, chairs, two levels, the usual. We sat on the upper deck and took in the sights of Seoul at night along the Han river and drank beer. Well, I drank beer – everyone else drank wine, which is apparently the thing to do when you’re on a boat. And yes, we broke out into the song “I’m on a Boat” at least three or four times over the course of the trip.
After that, we met up with Nick and headed back to their hotel for recuperation. A couple of people were tired, so they had a lie down while the others (read: the girls) got ready for their ice bar night out. Then around 10 pm, Lynn and I bid the others fare well – the last train is at 10:55, but it was sold out so we had to get tickets for the 10:20. We grabbed burgers from McDonalds, which was at the train station, and I had a “bulgogi burger”, which is basically a pork pattie with marinade. It was very strange, but not at all bad.
Because the train was almost sold out, Lynn and I had to get first class seats. This is not as bank-breaking as it sounds, because economy tickets are $4, and first class are $10. As Lynn said, very expensive for Korea, but very cheap for America/Canada. Well, when in Korea...
We took the train back, and then I managed to get a taxi to take me to “stadium”, which is a big, free stadium built a block away from the apartment that apparently has a track and a swimming pool, open to the general public. I may go check it out tomorrow during my adventure to the Lotte Mart, which Lynn thinks may have stuff like sheets and pillowcases for my bed. I also need to go shopping again, because apparently living off ramen is bad for you. Who knew?
Oh Shelli, what fun! And yes, living off ramen is NOT good for you! lol
ReplyDeleteAt the price, I feel like I would always want to opt for first class seats!
ReplyDeletelol