Pictures, or, the things I have been doing

So here is my official recap of Thomas' visit. Unfortunately, I took no pictures of New Years, but the rest of his visit is fairly well-documented. So here goes.

The 63 Building: This is one of the tallest buildings in Seoul, although not the tallest. Built in 1985, it was the tallest building in Seoul, located on Yeouido Island on the Han River, until the Hyperion Towers surpassed it in 2003. The building, honestly isn't that tall, but it has a few interesting things to do in it. There is an aquarium, a wax museum, an art gallery, an imax theater, and a small observation floor. It has 63 floors, 60 above ground, and 3 below ground. We only went to the aquarium, which was pretty sweet, with a really cool otter area and lots of penguins.

The 63 Building

The headless penguin. Actually, it's just bent over to pick at its back, but it does look creepily like a headless penguin.

Go Gators!!

On Saturday, we went to the Coex mall, the largest shopping mall in Seoul, and the largest underground shopping center in Asia. We only went to Coex to go to On the Border, the deliciously American Mexican restaurant, for my friend Woody's birthday. Then went to a Canadian bar in Itaewon for drink which resulted in the single worst public transportation experience of my life. Basically, we missed the last train back to Incheon, so we took the train to Guro (but thought it was going to Incheon), and then had to take a taxi. The taxis were wildly expensive. They wanted to charge 10 dollars more than what a taxi costs from Hongdae, a full 6 subway stops in the exact opposite direction of Incheon. I bargained with the taxi driver to get 30 dollars (what it usually costs from Hongdae which is still a bit of a ripoff), and then when we finally got to my apartment, the skeezy driver said he never told me 30, but 40 dollars. I called him a liar, in Korean, and wanted to just get out, but Thomas paid him the extra 10 dollars, which was dumb, in retrospect. We should have just gotten out and left. But yeah. It was awful.

Happy Birthday Woody!

Sunday, went to ICE SKATING! They have an outdoor rink right in the middle of the city, and it was really really crowded but really really fun. I want to go again really sooooon. The famous statue of King Sejong (the most famous of all the Korean Kings) was right next to the rink, as was a really pretty Christmas tree. We also went to the King Sejong museum.

King Sejong, on a beautiful day

Me and the Christmas Tree!

Monday marked the heaviest day of snowfall in Korean history. Incheon received just over a foot of snow, nearly shutting down bus and above ground train services. Luckily, everything was just really delayed, not cancelled. Thomas and I tried to go see an Andy Warhol exhibit, but the museum was closed. Instead, we threw snow in each other's faces, and then went to Namdaemun, a huge traditional market area, where people ripped us off because we were foreign. We also went to the world's largest department store, a Shinsegae store located near Namdaemun market. It really was quite enormous. We went up to the 9th floor, but didn't go much farther. I got a Coach wristlet (Madison op art sateen wristlet, but in a different color than what they have online) on sale for 50% off, and almost a kickass pair of Nike Airs, but decided not to.

So much snow!!!

That night we went to Gangnam to meet up with Ara and Seonghwa, which was nice. We went to get dinner at this really good samgyeopsal restaurant in some backstreets that I could never get to on my own. This is when I fell in the snow. It was really embarassing because Gangnam is really busy and kind of ritzy and I ate it. Then we went to a Korean style bar which was also quite good. I finally tried dongdong-ju (rice liquor that is way way more delicious that soju), and a type of bamboo liquor that was served in a real piece of bamboo. It was cool. We had queran jjim (an egg dish that is quite tasty) and paejeon (Korean pancakes). I love Ara. She is positively wonderful and I am so thankful to her here.

The boys

DongDong-ju & Paejeon

Tuesday, Thomas' last day, we kind of just hung out in Incheon. We went to Chinatown and had overpriced Korean-Chinese food. Then we tried walking up a hill, but there was this car that looked like it was going to slip in all the snow/ice and come barreling down at us, so we avoided that, and in so doing, Thomas fell. It was awesome. Then we finally trekked up the hill to the numerous beautiful monuments located in the area. First, a statue of Confucius, then a look out over much of Incheon, then the monument to 100 years of allied work with the US, then the General MacArthur statue, then a statue commemorating the student soldiers from Incheon that fought in the Korean war. It was a beautiful, but frigid day. Also, an old man told Thomas he was very handsome, but that I, on the other hand, was nothing to write home about. *sad*

Statue of Confucius

100 years of Partnership with the US

Me at the monument!

I know it's long, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed it was still moderately interesting.

xoxo
A

Bonus Picture: This is what I look like these days. I am this Korean. Also, I'm inside and I'm wearing: tank top, long sleeve shirt, sweater, cardigan, scarf, earmuffs, jeans, tights, sock. It's not that cold inside, but it's what K-girls do. Also, GIRAFFE EARRINGS