Going to Seoul and Korean Halloween

On Saturday, I had major plans to go and meet up with Sacha and Sean in Seoul – more specifically in Itaewon, which is a foreigner-friendly part of the city that purportedly has a wide variety of cheap knockoffs. Since I needed a winter jacket, Sacha suggested that this was an excellent place to get one.

Actually getting to Itaewon turned out to be quite the adventure, however. Because Sean and Sacha had gone to Seoul the night before to attend a friend’s birthday party, I would have to meet up with them in Seoul. The problem with this is that I don’t have a cell phone, so I had to first get to AK Plaza, find a phone, call them, figure out where they were, and then arrange a way to meet up with them.

The first part of the plan went smoothly enough – I got to AK Plaza without a hitch. Well, I ended up sharing a taxi ride with an ajima (old lady) who got dropped off at a hospital – possibly pharmacy – on Jungang-ro, which is a major road that leads to AK. Anyway, once I got to AK I wandered around looking for a phone, but came up empty-handed.

Then the heavens parted, and out of the golden mist came a sweet lady named Soon who offered to let me use her phone. It turns out she’s a Jehovah’s Witness missionary, and I listened to her spiel on “Where is God Now?”. Sacha and Sean turned out to be in Itaewon when I called, and Sacha warned me that by the time I got there they probably have already left. That was fine with me, since I’m more than capable of shopping alone, so I told her that I would call her again if I had any questions on how to get there.

I got a ticket to Seoul and got on the train. However, when we hit Yongsan, the loudspeaker claimed that this was the “terminal” stop, meaning the last stop. Everyone got off the train, so I shrugged and followed along.

For the record, Yongsan is technically in Seoul, it’s just not the main station where I had intended to end up. Since I was to all intents and purposes stranded in a random train station, I wandered around for a bit and looked for a phone. No missionaries came to my rescue, so I decided to just hang around Yongsan for a while, and hop a train back when I was bored. There was a subway I could have taken into the city, but I figured that it probably wasn’t a good idea to get lost on the subway when I didn’t even have a phone to call for help.

There was a really cool ski and snowboard exhibit right outside the station, which I watched for a while. It consisted of people skiing/snowboarding down an artificial hill, doing tricks off a series of ramps/bars, and getting cheered on by the crowd. They weren't very good, but it was still fun to watch, and I got a video shot for my vlog.

Back into the station, and I discovered Ipark mall, which has no affiliation with Apple. It’s a massive mall that had about five floors devoted to electronics. I found a book on learning Korean from the book store, as well as James Patterson’s “Wizard and Witch”, which I have not read but thought sounded interesting. I also found a really plush silver jacket that I splurged on and bought, since winter in Korea this year is rumoured to be freezing.

Back to Pyeongtaek – no difficulties this time! – and the day was complete. I stopped by Sean and Sacha’s to let them know I survived, then kicked back and read Purity. That would be an Inuyasha fanfiction I read... gosh, it has to be at least 6 years ago now. Anyway, I rediscovered it, and it has kept me quite entertained so far.

Sunday was more successful – success here being defined as me doing what I intended to do. Since it was Halloween, Sean and Sacha planned out a scary movie night at the AK cinema, since they don’t really celebrate Halloween in Korea. Well, there was apparently some kind of party in Seoul, but I didn’t go to that, so it’s irrelevant. Anyway, I went early with Sean and Sacha to get tickets – you get to pick your seats in Korea – and we bought ice cream from Baskin Robbins and chilled at the AK “Skygarden”, which is basically a really nice garden on the roof of the building with a view of the city.

Then it was time for dinner, and what an experience it was! We decided to have Pizza Hut, which is a much bigger deal than it seems, because in Korea, Pizza Hut is considered fine dining. A large pizza is about $25 – no joke – and the inside of the restaurant is very fancy. It was all very civilized, although I have to say that the pizza itself was nothing to write home about. Which is ironic, considering I am currently writing home about it. Meh.

The movie was... interesting. We met up with Jade and Nick, then took our seats. Paranormal Activity 2 started out kind of slowly, but once the devil-worship, poltergeist stuff got under way, it was scary enough. Sudden movements, loud bangs, etc. I quite enjoyed myself, and spent the rest of the evening jumping at small noises.