Seoul

Sorry for the long delay everyone! Vietnam was busier than expected and I couldn’t access the internet as easily, so here’s the update on Seoul. I’ll get a post on Vietnam up ASAP, so get ready for a lot of reading.

Early on March 16th CC Chen took Will and I to a bus stop so we could get to the airport in Taipei on time. We got to the airport at 6:30am for our flight around 8:00. The airport was incredibly crowded due to the amount of construction going on but we still managed to get to our gate with time to spare.

After the two hour flight to Seoul we were picked up by Avery Jeong, another St. Olaf grad. We caught up over lunch before heading to the Jeong’s home where we stayed for the duration of our time in South Korea. Avery had to go to teach hockey so Will and I rested and got in touch with Mike Perich, another Ole who moved here to teach English and study Korean. As it was a Friday night, after work he took us to a bar where we met some of his coworkers and reminisced about our time at St. Olaf. Seems to be a trend for all of our interactions with friends from school.

Avery Jeong

Mr. Jeong, Mike, me, and Will

The next day Mr. Jeong took us out to a grill your own meat place, which I think I like more than hot pots. He ordered Soju, a rice vodka-like liquor, and beer. You mix the two, which at first I thought was pretty gross, but it was actually surprisingly good. We didn’t really have the option of saying no to our host. For the grill he got pork belly that was served with a ton of side dishes, which are a big deal in Korea. Kimchi, spiced, pickled vegetables, usually cabbage, is served at every meal. Every restaurant and home has their own recipe that they take pride in.

Mr. Jeong pouring our drinks

Pork belly on the grill

Pickled radishes and kimchi

On the 19th we went to see Gyongbok Palace before heading to Insadong, an art market in the same area. It was our first time taking the subway and we didn’t anticipate it taking as long as it did, so we got to Gyongbok a little too late to go in. After quickly taking some pictures of the courtyard we headed to the market.

A majority of the things there are hand made crafts, so we weren’t allowed to take many pictures. It was about two city blocks long lined with art and it made me wish I had more space in my bag. While walking down Insadong, we were called over by a group of guys making a pastry out of honey. They took a ball of honey, covered it in corn flour and then stretched it out like pasta until it was very fine before wrapping it around a filling of nuts and chocolate. They were quite entertaining and we figured we had to try it. They were pretty tasty, but really dry due to the flour.

On the 19th, Jake Jeong, yet another close Ole friend got his first break from the military. As a South Korean man, he is required to do two years of mandatory service. It was strange seeing him in full uniform decked out in cammo when I last saw him at St. Olaf. Very different environment. He told us about the military and how different his life is now that he’s back in South Korea and we told him about our trip. Mrs. Jeong cooked us a feast in Jake’s honor that we grilled in the center of the table. Definitely want to do that at home for a fun dinner party!

Jake and I

The next day Jake took us to a pork cutlet restaurant across Seoul. At this particular restaurant, they have a “death sauce” that if you order it, they first test you with one bite of it and decide whether you can eat it or not based on your reaction. They also hand out bites of the death sauce pork if you want to just try it. If you’re able to eat the two large death sauce pork cutlets in under 10 minutes the restaurant gives you free food for 6 months. Of course, we had to try a bite. The woman came by offering the death sauce pork and she said that we weren’t allowed to try it until after our meal as it would “ruin our stomach.” Intimidating. We finished our meals and then Jake, Will, and I each got a bite and took them one at a time, filming each other’s reactions. The woman was right and my definition of spicy will never be the same. At first it tasted sweet and a little smokey, but you could tell it was going to get bad. As soon as I swallowed, I got dizzy and started sweating. Intense! I think they put capsaicin extract in the sauce.

Afterwards, we headed to Itaewon, a younger, more touristy area of Seoul. We sat and grabbed coffees because we were all drained from the heat of the death sauce. From the cafe we headed to the Samsung Art Museum and first went through the ancient art section with Jake. It was pretty helpful having him there because he was able to teach us things about the Korean dynasties that we’d never learned about in the States. One of the things I took away from that was that if a dragon has three fingers, it was made for the lower class, four fingers, royalty, and five fingers was for the king.

The next day we went to meet up with a foreign exchange student who studied at St. Olaf for one semester, Colin Wong. We walked around his university and looked around before going to one of the other four universities in a small area. When Colin got out of class at 5:30, we went to grab dinner and catch up. It was a great time and afterwards we went to meet up with Mike again.

Overall our time in Seoul was spent catching up with good friends and seeing what they were up to. It was colder than any other place that we’re going to be on our trip which made going out less appealing, but we were able to see a fair amount at least. It was a nice change of pace after the more intense sightseeing we had been doing in the few weeks prior to our visit and hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to go back when it’s warmer there in the future.