First Day in Korea!

Hello all!

My first email as a foreigner in a country where I'm not familiar with the language: Korea!  Yes, the long awaited trip has finally come.  Wanna hear about it?  Of course you do (that's why you're reading, right?).

The trip really started the night before.  I finished packing and helped Cat pack up her room, took a 30 minute break, and headed out to the airport at 4:30 a.m.  Bryan, being the sweetie he is, gave us a lift.  It was a "parting is such sweet sorrow" moment as I passed through security into the hotel.  I was on the verge of crying.  I miss him so much right now.

After a total of 13 hours cooped up in a plane, we finally made it to Korea.  Changing a TON of money for Korean Won, we did it at the exchange rate of W1042 = $1.00 USD.  We then rented out a phone at $1.50/day, 50 cents a minute per call.  The catch was, we didn't have a credit card, so we had to place a $300 deposit.  I freaked out a little bit, but I was assured I would get it back upon the return of the phone (which, for the record, was not worth $300 USD).

We took the Airport Limousine (aka bus) to Hongdae/Hongyi University before we set foot towards our Hostel, the Yellow Submarine.  Yes, it was humid and hot.  Yes, we walked like 7-8 blocks.  YES, we each carried 2 huge bags, weighing over 40 lbs each.  It was exhausting, but we made it to this cozy little hostel where we instantly made friends with the residents and the host is pretty cool.

After unpacking a bit, we met up with Tina Truong along with friends MK and Lee.  We did a bit of sight seeing and window shopping at Insadong, walked down the Cheongechong stream which was really coooooooool, and tourned around Guangdemun.  Took some photo-booth pics,  grabbed some cheap cheap gelato (flavors of melon and grapefruit), then went out for unlimited Korean BBQ!  The restaurant was called Self Serve, and you did just that- grabbed your own meat/veggies, BBQ'd at the table, and we pigged out!  I never knew dipping meat in salt, white pepper, sesame seeds and sesame oil could be sooooo good.  :)  We even ate it the traditional way, with lettuce, turnip, pepper paste, and meat.  YUM.  <3

Me, Cat, Tina, Lee @ stream

Insadong Shopping Area

Lee ready to BBQ meat, MK stuffing his face lol

We then went to this reggae bar nearby with amazing interior decorating like I've never seen before.  Seriously, this giant mushroom was suh-weet, especially in black light.  We hookah'd (yes, it is now a verb) before we headed back to the Submarine.

I must say, I was really excited for everything, but right now jet lag is starting to hit me hard.  I need to go to bed for my brain to function- sleeping in an airplane doesn't count as much sleep.

Peace out, adventure plans for tomorrow are to visit different palaces and maybe the Seoul tower.  ;)

PS- it's cool to see all those K-pop stars' ads, music videos, songs played on the streets... yeah, so exciting!  Pictures of places we've been will be posted when I have time... or when Tina has time.  :)