Soul: post from the past

Ok, one more post before I go to China.  Olive had the drawings from our fantastic night of telephone pictionary a few weeks ago and I wanted to post them.  Remember, our contestants were from Ireland, China, France, America, Korea, and Canada

Round 1:

 Round 2:

 Round 3:

 Round 4:

Seoul: Wrapping up

Getting Lazy about my blog posts over the last few days.   I've now moved back to the Bebop house.  In the last few days I've tackled some shopping for a few warmer articles of clothing, attended a Korean rock show at the University, gone out for delicious Chimdack Chicken with Miyoo and her lovely Mother, went to a house part celebrating the opening of a new hostel,  and bought my Ferry ticket.  Last night Olive, from Bebop house, took me to a cafe she used to work at.  I got taco rice and a ginger ale (that was literally ginger drink mixed with ale).  The cafe was super cool, with huge planks of wood as tables, hip employees, and a soundtrack of The Smiths greatest hits.  This is going to be my last post until I get to China, which means it could be my last for a while, because Blogger is apparentally blocked over there!

oh yea. I totally forgot about this.  It was a blueberry latte and it was incredible.  Served with waffles, that became waffle ice cream tacos.

Chinatown in Incheon

The Korean Walmart.

Seoul: Funny people at the hostel too

I made some new friends at the hostel last night.  Andy, from Canada (but Korean born), Martina from Switzerland (also Korean born), and Rae from Taiwan.  Rae gave me some tips on Taiwaneese food.  In the morning I woke up to find an Australian guy that seemed to have been bitten by a sleep zombie.  Unfortunately he arrived at the hostel too early so he couldn't check in for a few hours.   He was just kinda walking around, half awake, a quarter drunk, and a quarter wierd.  Later that night while he was sitting on the couch he spasticly interrupted the conversation, said something non sensical, declared his need for recycling his beer, walked off, and never came back.  But it gets better.  The next day he managed to lose the key to his storage locker, which contained all his stuff.   It was just a bad few days in the Northern Hemisphere for this guy.
My cell phone was out of money, so I went with Andy, who speaks a fair bit of Korean, in hopes of purchasing another card.  This was not meant to be.  I swear, you would think that if you went into a store with the SAME name (and logo) that is on a product you need, you would be able to buy it, but all the guys at these SK telecom (the only cell phone company in South Korea mind you) just shrugged their shoulders as if they were two pistons on a robot made of soup cans.  A phone isn't that necessary, but it woudl be nice.  I'll just have to arrange visits with friends over email.
Hung out in the hostel again tonight. Really enjoy the company of the people there.  We watch Korean (or possibly Japanese) cartoons.  Martina was determined to not be jet lagged, so she was trying to keep her sleep schedule to Swiss time, which means staying up incredibly late.  I couldn't keep up, so I went to bed at around 2 AM, and found the 8 person dorm room to be booming with the most wonderful snoring.

Seoul: Teenage Playland

Today I pretended I was a teenage again and went to the Lotte World amusement park.  It's the Lotte company's version of disney world, except Mickey is a Bear in a Raccoon suit that forgot to put on the Raccooon face paint.  You even have to walk through a pinkish castle to get to the main them park area (hello Cindarella castle).  The park was still neat, despite being packed.  I was taken by my friend Miyoo (who lives in Seoul).  The 2 rides we got to go on were both fun.  The lines we waited in were kinda interesting too.  I noticed that Korean teenages like to throw their friend's food on the ground and then hit them in the shoulder in the most non apologetic way.
After the them park Miyoo and I went bowling without having to go outside.  The theme park, a mall, a department store, an ice rink, an arcade, and a subway station are all hugging like care bears on ectasy in a subterranean playpin.  You would never know how many days had passed.  Perfect for an interstellar spaceship.
Miyoo showed me some cold noodle dish for dinner.  It was excellent.  We also got super giant mandu (dumpling).  I just had a brilliant idea for a mandu themed food truck name: supermandu.  The logo should be obvious.

these girls took a surprise picture of me, so I returned the favor

Seoul: A Magnificent Return

I came back to Seoul today.  I caught what the refer to as the "KTX" train, which is supposed to be some super speed demon, but the reality is that South Korea is a tiny country and the train doesn't have to go very fast because it really isn't that far.   Overall the journey took 3 hours, most of which I spent watching some Venture Brothers episodes I had downloaded.  I think the lady beside me was not feeling it, based on her facial expressions.  I don't think they have adult cartoons over here that aren't pornographic, so maybe that is why.

I checked into the Banana Backpackers Hostel near Insadong.  The hostel was pretty cool: large, artsy, young, and hip.  It kind of reminded me of the Green Tortoise hostel in SF.  The location wasn't quite as good as Bebop House, though (it was full and I'll move over there in a few days).
Another random moment of coincidental hilarity occured at this hostel.  I ran into Pieter from Belgium, whom I had met in Sokcho, who was also going to be taking the ferry to China around the same time as me.  "Ok, guess I don't have to email you, since your right here".  Pieter was going to take the ferry the very next day, to Qingdao.   I had planned to take the ferry to Tianjin (in about a week).  But we thought we might be able to meet eachother up in Beijing.  It's actually quite a small world when you are constrained to backpacker hostels.  I've had at least 5 surprise run-ins at this point.

Seoul: End of the Fellowship of Awesome Bebop Guests

Well I got my Hostel booked for Sokcho so, relief is there, although that was a very difficult conversation.  My last day in Soul for a while was quite nice, but quite not like that of a tourist.  I hung out with Selin from Luxembourg for a while in Myeong-Dong.  We walked around and then found a great spot at a coffee shop and sat and did artsy drawings.  We also had to stop for lots of snacks, like Octopus Jerky.  Selin and I were the last of the original fellowship of awesome hostel guests at Bebop House, so it was a bit somber (ok it was just really all the people in our dorm room, but we all made friends with eachother so it was something special).

octopus jerky

After getting back from Myeong Dong we found Olive and decided to all go out to dinner together.  Because we wanted noodles, and because the best noodle place, according to Olive was in Myeong-Dong, we went back to the same place. Dinner was great and I invented Korean spaghetti (Kim-Chi + Noodles).  After dinner we went to see a Korea film!  I don't remember the name (I should it was subtitled), but the parts I saw while I wasn't sleeping were great.  Honestly, why would you make the seats so comfortable in the theater and not expect people to fall asleep.

My laptop battery is low so I will post pics later