Discovering Seoul

One of the best parts about having 50 other UW kids here is that I get to travel and see cities in the Gyeonggi-do Province that I would never have thought to visit otherwise.  Last weekend, I made a trip to Guri (where my friend Eric lives) and to Uijeongbu (where my friend Joanna lives).  This weekend, I went to Bucheon where two of my good friends, Chris and Sam, are living.  Each city has similar restaurants, shops, and neon lights, but they all have a distinct feel to them.  Guri has an awesome outdoor market where you can literally find anything that you can think of.  Uijeongbu is crawling with army men and women, but has the cutest pedestrian only walkway/shopping area.  Bucheon is a city that has a population smaller than my city, however it felt enormous!  All of the buildings in Bucheon seemed to have been built for giants, and of course, giants who love to shop because that what it seems all Koreans love to do.  Also, these cities are not close to each other.  I live between a hour and a half to 2 hours away from most of my friends.  I have just adjusted what "far" is here because now a 45 minute ride on the subway or a hour and a half long bus ride does not seem like a big deal.  Last Saturday, the amount of travel I did in one day amounted to about a road trip from Madison to Chicago.

This weekend also brought a couple new adventures into Seoul.  The first stop was the the War Memorial, which I compared to an outdoor Air and Space Museum.  It featured some of the planes, vehicles, and boats used during the Korean War.  It was actually pretty cool to climb on and look at some of the features of these war machines.  It was also kind of sad because many of the cars had bullet holes and other visible damage of how real the war was.  The second stop was the Seoul Lantern Festival.  There is this one area in the city that has a little river running through it surrounded by many bars and restaurants.  The lanterns were set up either in the water or by the water and it really was a magical view at night.  The only issue was that we all went on the last night of the festival and so did every other person in the city.  It was very crowded, but still worth the trip.  We spent the rest of the evening eating a delicious meal of galbi (Korea bbq) and hanging out by Konkuk University with many young, Korean, college students.  It is really fun to discover the areas where Koreans actually go because those areas just have a different, and sometimes better vibe to them.  All and all another great weekend in Seoul!