Teaching, Learning and Other Adventures Around the World: Seoul: An Escape from Korea

I spent this weekend in Seoul with 7 of my friends. It was my first trip there, and I really had no expectations for the city. I knew it was a city of 10 million, with a metro area of 24 million, so I expected a big city! That was about it. We didn't have anything specific on our agenda, but we all had a huge appetite for western food! In Pohang, there is one American restaurant, and two Italian ones. That's all the real western food available. So when I heard that Seoul has all the ethnic foods I miss from the states, eating became my #1 priority. Here's the rundown of our trip:

We took an 11pm bus Friday night, arriving at 3:30am in Seoul. We found a neighborhood that has a lot of cheap motels (known as "love motels"... I'm sure you can figure out why), and got rooms in the only motel with vacancy. Unfortunately, there's a reason it was the only motel with vacancy. The rooms were TINY (the bed took up 80% of the room), with a bed barely bigger than a twin (and we all slept two to a bed), and a small glassed-in shower with the toilet in the middle of the shower. No toilet paper, no sink, no keys for the doors, and paper-thin walls. Other guests were up until about 6am laughing, yelling, slamming doors, and drunkenly stumbling up and down the halls, so I only got about 1 hour of sleep. Needless to say, we did not decide to stay there for Saturday night!

After a rough night, all was redeemed with breakfast! We took the subway to a neighborhood called Itaewon (ee-tay-won), which is the main hub for foreigners. You might as well be in America in this neighborhood! So since Koreans aren't big on breakfast, and Pohang has no restaurant open for breakfast, we jumped on the opportunity to eat a real western breakfast in this neighborhood! And boy did we find the perfect joint! I had french toast made from sweet, fluffy brioche bread, with bacon, strawberries, marmalade, and ricotta cheese! I could have eaten that for every meal this weekend! I never expected to miss breakfast so much, but I think it's what I miss most about American cuisine. (I would kill for a breakfast joint like Mothers, Stepping Stone, or the Redwood Cafe in Pohang!)

Next, I was pleasantly SHOCKED to find a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf! For those of you unfamiliar with this establishment, it's a coffee chain in Southern California, and one of the few things I miss about living in LA. It's not even in San Francisco, so to find it in Seoul of all places was mind blowing. So of course I had to partake in one of their caramel ice blended drinks, despite the cold weather.

From there, our group split up to do different sight-seeing activities. I decided to check out the war memorial with three other guys. It was a beautiful, large building that not only memorializes the Korean War, but also is a museum of the history of Korean warfare. They had models of old weapons and ships, statues of fallen soldiers with plaques telling about their heroism in battle, and real tanks and planes outside. Although I've been to war museums and memorials in the states, this one felt different to me. Not only was the Korean War somewhat recent, but it's not officially over. And the South Koreans were fighting to save their country and push back a full-blown invasion. America hasn't been invaded since the War of 1812, and we've never had a serious threat of being taken over, despite the threats of Japan in WWII. As Americans we just have no idea what it's like to have our entire country threatened like that. South Koreans today still fear a continuation of war with the North and have to partake in drills in case of attacks. There are even gas masks in the subway stations in case of an attack. A completely foreign mentality from ours in America.

Our group reconvened later that afternoon and headed to the North Seoul Tower. There is a tall hill right in the middle of the city, and on top of that hill is a tall tower that overlooks the whole city. It's a very famous landmark and tourist destination, so we decided to check it out. There is a tram that transports people to the top of the hill, but we couldn't find it, so we ended up walking all the way to the top. It was quite a hike, but in the end we were all glad we did it. The views were great from the top, but we also realized that Seoul really doesn't have a skyline. Despite it's huge size, there's no downtown, no central location of skyscrapers. We got a great view of the vastness of the city (there was no end in sight), but I can't say there was anything beautiful to look at. Just a sea of lights.

For dinner, we went to a Mexican restaurant called Amigos. I had been craving Mexican ever since my second week in Korea! Unfortunately, Amigos was comparable to a Chevys, so it wasn't quite the Mexican I had been yearning for. At least our server was hispanic, so it felt a little more authentic. Luckily for us, we tried a different Mexican joint on Sunday for lunch which ended up being EXACTLY what I was looking for! It was more of a tacqueria than a restaurant, and I had the most delicious chicken burrito, with avocado, cilantro, cabbage, beans, chilies and salsa! Words can not describe how satisfied it made me feel.

Sunday was spent being mellow and mostly just eating. We found a significantly better motel Saturday night, and we all slept in a bit. So after the fantastic burritos, we found a charming coffee shop called "Thank You Nature" that had two sheep penned up outside, and we just set up camp there until about 2:45 when we had to head to the bus terminal to go home.

As you probably noticed from my title of this blog entry, this weekend in Seoul was like an escape from Korea for us. It dawned on me this morning that the foreigners who live and teach in Korea are really not getting an authentic Korean experience, and depending on where they live, can be maintaining a fairly western lifestyle. Seoul felt like Korea-light. You can eat the same foods as in America, shop at the same shops, and there are SO MANY westerners there that you can always find someone to talk to. The Koreans in Seoul even speak a lot more English than in other cities. It made me more grateful to be in Pohang. I have a great foreigner community here to keep me sane, but I also feel like I'm having a truly Korean experience here. Seoul was fun, but I would not want to live there. I feel like Pohang is an ideal location.

The War Memorial