Seoul Vacation Part II

Sunday, 7/31

After church and dinner, I found my way to my hostel in Hongdae.  Here's a link: http://bebop-guesthouse.com/ .  I paid $22/night to stay in a 4 person room.  It was the college dorm type atmosphere and the owners are really nice.  I HIGHLY recommend this place!

Anyhow...thank GOD for iPhone/pod apps and wifi - and bartenders with cell phones.  My friend Alex who I went elementary school-college with and was roommates for a year was in Korea with 5 other WI people on their layover from China.  I was able to get ahold of Alex through the Textfree app (if you have an apple product, this lets you get a local number from the area code you want and you can text people for free on their cell.  Thank you Lauren Arendt for the suggestion ^ ^ ) and he called me from the bartender's phone and told me to meet them at a bar.  After needing to ask for a lot more directions, I finally got there.  I was sooo happy to see my friend!! We spent the night exploring Hongdae, talking, discussing interesting China stories, and getting rejected from entry to a club because the guys had sandals on : /

Me and Alex

Monday, 8/1

The next day my group headed to the Insadong area to visit a traditional market.  We all found some souvenirs and good Korean food but the most interesting find.....

you can laugh. yes, Koreans eat dog.

  Later we headed to Itaewon which is known as the foreigner area of Seoul.  What we also didn't know (well I think Alex did) is that Itaewon is also the SKETCHY area of Seoul.  Example A - if you walk down the wrong street...good thing I was with 4 big WI guys.

transgender hookers. yup. SCARY!!!

Anyhow, we found some decent normal places to drink in Itaewon and had a good time.  I also got to say good-bye to my friend Jess who I met at Mudfest.  It was so great to meet her and I wish her the best of luck as she starts grad school in London. Hmm, I have an excuse to go to Europe now!!!

Jessica and Me

Tuesday, 8/2

We were all pretty tired out the next morning but started the day off with screen golfing.  These things are all over Korea.  The guys had fun hitting balls and even convinced me and my Malaysian roommate to try it out.  The guys were also to see Gatorade in a can...but I guess it looked better than it tasted.

screen golfing group

happy men to have an american sports drink

check out our golf swings!

Later we all wanted to go somewhere but more relaxing so I took my friend Don's advice and suggested that we go to Cheonggyecheon River walk.  It was really peaceful and beautiful there and we finally got some good pictures there.

Cheonggyecheon River

Me and the UW Madison Med/Pharm students

Just two Port people in Korea : )

Alex really wanted a city view of Seoul to get a picture so I asked a friend living in Seoul and she suggested the Namsan (North Seoul) Tower.  It was such a gorgeous view.

Seoul Skyline

Namsan Tower=Korea's Space Needle??

Wednesday, 8/3

The next morning, the group had to leave really early to go back to WI so I got up before 6:30 to say good-bye.  It was sooooo hard!  I had so much fun with these guys and wished they could have stayed longer.  They really made my vacation amazing!

Later I met Hyunwoo in the Sincheon area and we visited a palace and this really pretty area called Samcheon that had many cute cafes, restaurants, shops and traditional Korean houses called hanoks.  It was good to catch up with Hyunwoo since even though we live close to each other, we are both so busy!

me and hyunwoo at Gyeongbokgong Palace

Thursday-Friday, 8/4-5

I made my way back to Gumi and I was definitely ready for some sleep and just bumming around and relaxing and skyping.  And that is what I have been doing since then.  ABSOLUTELY NOTHING...and it is wonderful.

Saturday, 8/6 [happy birthday mom!]

Ok, I lied.  The last 4 days of my vacation have been spent skyping. And figuring out scary, confusing, risky situations.  And coming to the realization that it's best to seize the moment while you can, stop overthinking things and just do what makes you happy. I was right all along...after 2.5 years of being single, I would finally meet someone right before leaving for Korea.  But it was worth the wait and it's worth the long distance.  I've had some really beautiful examples of making long distance relationships work in my life thanks to family and friends....so if they can do it, I may as well give it a try too.

So as of Saturday, I can officially say that this lady is off the market and has a boyfriend...I am one happy girl and it was the best way to end my summer vacation : )

me & bob - i think after spending the rest of my $1000 bar tab @ A house..