Yesterday we went to Seoul with one of our students, Ester, and her brother, Jae Hoon. To get there, their father picked us up at 7:00 AM and took us to the nearest train station (about 20 minutes away). We got on a Bullet train that went up to 270 KPH, making the trip to the city about 2 hours shorter than usual. After we got to the city we took the subway to a stop close to the Gyeeongbokgung Palace, where we got to see the traditional change of the guard ceremony and got to have our pictures taken with a guard. We then wandered around the palace, looking at the different buildings and going into the Korean Folk Museum.
After wandering around there, we found our way to a market, where we shopped for souvenirs and other fun things. We then stopped at a nice Korean restaurant, where we had dumplings to eat. After that we walked about 25 minutes to another market (I don't know how to spell its name), where we promptly found a coffee shop to sit in a warm up. After relaxing for about 30 minutes or so, we found our way out to the market where we spent the next couple of hours shopping and looking around.
We then found a Japanese restaurant, where we ate pork and chicken for supper. It was delicious! We then caught a cab to Seoul Tower. Seoul Tower is not the biggest tower in the world, but it does have the fastest elevator. We started out by taking a cable car to the top of the mountain, where the tower is located. We then walked around the Teddy Bear Museum, which has the history of Seoul displayed using teddy bears. It was random, but interesting. We then went up in the tower, where we could look out and take pictures. I was surprised that on each window we could look out, it told us which major city we were looking towards, including Rome, Paris, Chicago, Sydney, and Tai Pei. For those of you have been in the Sears Tower, it is nothing in comparison to Seoul Tower. It was beautiful.
After spending time in the tower, we caught a bus, then a subway, and then the bullet train, to get back to the station where Ester's father picked us up. We got back to the school around 11:30, and almost immediately fell asleep. We were glad we planned our lesson Saturday night because we were too exhausted to do it when we got back last night. It was a great day. If anything could make me want to stay here long term, it would have been the visit to Seoul. Even though I only know a couple of phrases in Korean, I think I could manage to get around Seoul and live somewhat happily.
The thing that surprised me most was the amount of American companies present in this country. We have seen McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, KFC, American Eagle, Addias, Nike, Sketchers, and many others. I could stay here and never venture out of my comfort zone, if I didn't want to, but thankfully, I have.
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