Wow, the weather was killer this week. Every day was over thirty degrees and Mel and I started to dream up big plans for our sunny weekend. On Saturday was Korea's first game in the World Cup (and trust me, that is a big ass deal here. You can even watch the game in the movie theaters!) so maybe we'd go to the big party around the COEX. We thought the weekend might also be a good chance to go to Doekjeokdo, an island near Incheon, to spend some time at the beach. We also thought we might go south to Jeonju and check out Maisan Provincial Park and the Hanok Village. And then it rained. And then it rained a little more. Memo to the sun: stop wasting yourself on weekdays!
So, on Friday night we did what any other Canadian couple does during inclement weather: we went to the mall. Seoul has exactly
one proper mall, the Coex, and it's not too far from our apartment. We've been there approximately 1,000 times in the last three months and it's so large that we're still finding new stores every time we go. It's so big that it's cleaned with a Zamboni. We went to see "How To Train Your Dragon", a movie that my 7-year-olds have been recommending to me for quite some time and it really was great. The dragon character is basically like a cute, giant cat with wings and probably influenced Saturday's hour long "should we get a cat in Korea?" debate. Ultimately, we decided we don't just want a new cat, we want
our cat. So, Dayna, can you mail him to us?
So, like I said earlier, Saturday was Korea's first World Cup game. If you're like me, you only have a dim awareness that the World Cup involves something about a soccer ball and lots of teams. Living in Seoul during World Cup season is like a crash course in soccer fandom, because everybody is crazy for soccer and is patriotically dressed in red to support their team. Picture the Super Bowl times 10. Because of the rain we didn't check out any of the soccer craziness at the COEX and instead went for some perma galbi and then shopping in Dongdaemun. We went to the Doota shopping complex, which is 8 or so floors of cool clothes and extremely annoying salespeople. There's nothing quite like being heckled the entire time you shop, and as soon as you pick up one shirt at Doota there are at least 2 or 3 salespeople on you. It's terrible, but on World Cup night the salespeople were so entranced by their cellphones watching the game that it was actually kind of tolerable to shop.
On Sunday the rain cleared by lunch time and we had a pretty decent day ahead of us. We decided to go to Myeongdong so I could buy a new wallet... my treasured Domo wallet is falling apart... and I walked away with a new wallet that says Louis Vuitton, but the price would suggest that it probably isn't the real deal. After this we walked to Namsan Park, where Seoul Tower is located. The Korean graffiti in the picture says "Nam-San", so we knew we were going the right way.
The giant tower in the sky also suggested we were going the right way. There are cable cars to go to the Tower but the line looked too long so we hiked it instead. This was my bright idea. It was only about 25 minutes of hiking, but it was straight up and felt like an hour.
I just asked my co-teacher what these things outside of the tower are for and she has no idea either. They look cool though.
We'd visited Seoul Tower once before, and though it's not nearly as impressive as the Taipei 101 or CN Tower, it's a decent place to hang out for a little while for only 8,000Won. The last time we were here was over 3 years ago when we were new to Korea, so this time we were able to point out some places we knew and it was a little more interesting.
Probably not a good idea to hang out in this window for too long.
Just realized I can see up Mel's dress :P
There was a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream shop outside of the tower, so we undid all of our exercise from the hike with two big bowsl of ice cream, which we ate on an awkwardly shaped bench near a fence full of locks that couples have bought and hung on the fence over the years, with love notes written on them.
And if your hike up the hill wasn't enough or Cold Stone got to you (like us), there's an exercise area to work out in.
So, on Friday night we did what any other Canadian couple does during inclement weather: we went to the mall. Seoul has exactly one proper mall, the Coex, and it's not too far from our apartment. We've been there approximately 1,000 times in the last three months and it's so large that we're still finding new stores every time we go. It's so big that it's cleaned with a Zamboni. We went to see "How To Train Your Dragon", a movie that my 7-year-olds have been recommending to me for quite some time and it really was great. The dragon character is basically like a cute, giant cat with wings and probably influenced Saturday's hour long "should we get a cat in Korea?" debate. Ultimately, we decided we don't just want a new cat, we want our cat. So, Dayna, can you mail him to us?
So, like I said earlier, Saturday was Korea's first World Cup game. If you're like me, you only have a dim awareness that the World Cup involves something about a soccer ball and lots of teams. Living in Seoul during World Cup season is like a crash course in soccer fandom, because everybody is crazy for soccer and is patriotically dressed in red to support their team. Picture the Super Bowl times 10. Because of the rain we didn't check out any of the soccer craziness at the COEX and instead went for some perma galbi and then shopping in Dongdaemun. We went to the Doota shopping complex, which is 8 or so floors of cool clothes and extremely annoying salespeople. There's nothing quite like being heckled the entire time you shop, and as soon as you pick up one shirt at Doota there are at least 2 or 3 salespeople on you. It's terrible, but on World Cup night the salespeople were so entranced by their cellphones watching the game that it was actually kind of tolerable to shop.
On Sunday the rain cleared by lunch time and we had a pretty decent day ahead of us. We decided to go to Myeongdong so I could buy a new wallet... my treasured Domo wallet is falling apart... and I walked away with a new wallet that says Louis Vuitton, but the price would suggest that it probably isn't the real deal. After this we walked to Namsan Park, where Seoul Tower is located. The Korean graffiti in the picture says "Nam-San", so we knew we were going the right way.
The giant tower in the sky also suggested we were going the right way. There are cable cars to go to the Tower but the line looked too long so we hiked it instead. This was my bright idea. It was only about 25 minutes of hiking, but it was straight up and felt like an hour.
I just asked my co-teacher what these things outside of the tower are for and she has no idea either. They look cool though.
We'd visited Seoul Tower once before, and though it's not nearly as impressive as the Taipei 101 or CN Tower, it's a decent place to hang out for a little while for only 8,000Won. The last time we were here was over 3 years ago when we were new to Korea, so this time we were able to point out some places we knew and it was a little more interesting.
Probably not a good idea to hang out in this window for too long.
Just realized I can see up Mel's dress :P
There was a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream shop outside of the tower, so we undid all of our exercise from the hike with two big bowsl of ice cream, which we ate on an awkwardly shaped bench near a fence full of locks that couples have bought and hung on the fence over the years, with love notes written on them.
And if your hike up the hill wasn't enough or Cold Stone got to you (like us), there's an exercise area to work out in.
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