Well first I'll catch up on anything that happened this past week....on Thursday night I took my first public bus trip. The Seoul subway system is so efficient and easy to understand, but the busses are really confusing because they everything is in Korean and it's hard to find the bus routes on the internet. I was able to map out my route from work to school on one website, so I decided to test it out Thursday after work. I walked to the bus stop, which is literally around the corner from my school. Unfortunately, I was standing on the wrong side of the street so I missed the first bus. By the time I had caught the second bus 30 min had passed. I got home an hour after I had left my work building, so it was definitely slower than the subway trip. It also costs almost double the price of the subway. I decided to try the ride again Friday after work. The trip was much more successful, and it only took 40 min door-to-door. Maybe I will consider taking the bus when it starts getting cold to avoid walking to the subway or having to transfer twice on the trip home. On Friday night, Danny and I went out to dinner with his coworkers and some English teachers from another "hagwon" (a private language school). We went out for galbi again, which is Korean barbecue. We had about a dozen people at a long table, and all of the food is shared. Everyone eats out of the same dishes spread out all over the table. Two of Danny's coworkers are Korean, so it was interesting to talk to them and ask them how to say things in Korean. We had some "soju" (Korean rice liquor), and the word for cheers sounds something like "cambay!"
On Saturday, Danny and I decided to check out Itaewon in Seoul. It is known as the international neighborhood in Seoul. It is very close to the US Army base, so there are lots of places that cater to foreigners. There also seems to be a huge Muslim community in the area, because they had tons of Pakistani/Indian and Middle-Eastern restaurants in the area. There were tons of clothing and antique shops and restaurants. We were a bit disappointed though, because we are more into history and culture than shopping. But it would be a cool place to go for ethnic food. We ate at an Egyptian restaurant called Ali Baba. It was my first time having hummus in over a month!
After dinner, we decided to see how Seoul looked at night from North Seoul Tower. It is Seoul's version of the Empire State Building, but it is located on this mountain. Mt. Namsan Park has tons of trails and gardens leading up to the tower, but since it was getting dark we chose to ride a cable car up to the tower. There was a really long wait for the cable car, but it had some nice views. At the tower, there were restaurants and cafes and an elevator that you can take up to the observation deck. We went up there to see the city skyline. I think we may try to go back to Mt. Namsan Park next weekend to hike up the mountain to the tower and visit a traditional Korean "hanok" village on the way up. Annyeonghi Kaseyo! ("Goodbye!")
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