My Friends, the Visitors

(September 2009)
Back to back visitors coming to Korea to visit me! This is great! Friday afternoon I take the bus from Busan back to Seoul. I'm worried I'm going to be late to meet my first visitor, Desta. This would be the same Desta from Istanbul that took CELTA with me, though this time she is visiting from Manila, Philippines. Desta booked the lovely Bebop Guesthouse, and I'm so glad she did. Definitely a place worth staying at if you are ever in Seoul. Because her flight was delayed, we were forced to eat dinner a bit late. I'll never forget this meal, and to this day I still don't (and don't want to) know what I ate. Fortunately, it was really the only bad meal I had while there, bad first meal for Desta though!

After backpacking through Korea for almost two weeks, and Desta having just completed a whirlwind Japanese trip, neither of us were anxious to go out and explore. Every morning consisted of toast, eggs, and coffee at Bebop accompanied with sitting on the couch and good conversation. The afternoons are when we actually explored, but often included more coffee breaks at random coffee houses.
We did successfully visit:

Gyeongbok Palace and witnessed the changing of the guards (I think)

Cheonggyecheon Stream (which is a stream they unearthed smack in the middle of Seoul)






Ate Korean BBQ many times, including one time where we befriended three Korean girls in their early 30's who were so excited it was Friday and they were free of their children and husbands that they consumed entirely too much soju, and one girl ended up on the floor. If I only had snapped a photo!

Met the famous Hongdae Makgeolli Man

Discovered mural alley, with new friends, through pure happenstance

We also visited Bukchon Hanok village, the open air market, the National Museum of Korea (where Desta was thought to be a gypsy by an old Korean woman), ate dak galbi in Gangnam, did a lot of perusing, more coffee, and meeting lots of other random travelers at Bebop including an Italian guy bouncing around the world, an American girl teaching English in Japan, two Canadians girls teaching here, a Mexican girl visiting here, and some US military boys enjoying their weekend off. Thanks for visiting Desta et à bientôt! Worth noting that Desta almost couldn't make it back to Manila since they had their huge flood as soon as she had left the Philippines, but fortunately she did!

Goodbye Olympic Parktel and the Best Job I'll Probably Ever Have!

The two weeks working at the Olympic Parktel camp went by very quickly! On my one day off, I was able to visit Hongdae with one of the TA's, Raven. We took Raven's car (Hyundai, big surprise) to the area, and at the end of the night we hired a driver to drive Raven's car home effectively parking the car at the hotel, giving us the keys, and walking off to drive the next person. The service only cost about 15000 KRW (about $11 to $12), but the experience is one I will never forget. The driver coasted from Hongdae back to the Jamsil area at a measly 150 to 160 kph (93-100 mph). Sure, on the interstate of the United States, this isn't that big of a deal, but around the crowded streets of Seoul, South Korea, this was a huge deal. I couldn't find the backseat belt buckle (the thing that offers the gratifying click) so I, instead, wrapped myself around the strap, literally!

The Karaoke Fiends!

On the last day of our camp, we had our farewell staff dinner, which is always fun and sad, but I had to duck out early. I had a date with my previous Chosun camp colleagues around the Hongdae area. It was great to catch up and sing karaoke with Jonny, Jessi, Misuk, and Sora after not seeing them for two weeks. At the end of the night, we parted ways agreeing to have a UK reunion at some point, but the subway was already shut down for the night. One thing that I think Korea has a bit backwards is that on weekdays the subway runs later (to cater to people who work late, very late), but on weekends it closes early (so revelers are not able to use it). In all honesty, it's probably more intelligent but a bit frustrating. Instead of cabbing it, I made a few new random friends outside the subway entrance near a convenience store, while we sipped beer, munched on snacks, and exchanged stories. I boarded the subway at 5:30am to arrive at Olympic Parktel just in time to say bye to Lauren who was heading for the airport to go back to the US. A fruitful evening/night/morning indeed!