Suj and I drifted out on our own for a few nights in Seoul. Here’s some highlights!

Wednesday

On a quest to find the Dr Fish Cafe, we wondered the streets of Hongik University (yep! went back to the same hostel I stayed at for the first few nights cause I loved it so much!) lost and confused, only to realize that the place had closed about a year ago.

Fortunately for us, we stumbled into this restaurant:

I discovered my new favorite kind of Korean food: “dook-pae-ki bul-go-ki” as well as our new favorite Korean friends: Kai (who was the owner) and later, his friend Cloud. More on that in a bit.

Kai pointed us in another direction to find dr fish which led us to Times Square. This was a huge, really nice, shopping center. We also encountered some Morman missionaries who gave us directions. Directions on both geographically and ugh…emitonally, religiously, and spiritually. True story.

Then we discovered the video game arcade. On the left, we realized why those photobooths that all those Japanese people rave about, are so fun. On the right was a really hilarious video game where you throw balls at the screen to knock out guys in trench coats on the subway:

Then, on our way home, we stopped at a local 7-11 to pick up a sampling of beers to enjoy back at the hostel. I’d also like to add, that most 7-11’s here have some tables set up outside for people to enjoy said beer. Take that! expensive Chicago patios! Here’s what we came up with:

My thoughts? They like the word “fresh”. If you want good beer, don’t go to Korea. They were all very plain pilsner types. Except for the soju. Stick to the soju!

Thursday!

Lotte World! It’s like Disneyland but with these squirrel things instead of mice!

Part indoor theme park:

It’s part department store, part ice rink, part food court, part theme park, part tourist trap with no visible exit. (It took us an hour to get out of the place!).

Outside: more rides, sweet castle!

(Note the Gyro Drop in the background. They drop Greek pita sandwiches on your head.)

Left: This is a pic of my cheese sticks and ketchup in this handy cup that slipped right over my strawberry smoothie, complete w/ convenient straw hole! Right: Me messing w/ Korean people on tv!

This is our hostel crew. ALL the girls here were wearing these funny ears. So we tried some on in the gift shop, took some pics, then put them back. Done and done.

Suj and I decided to head home a bit early to take a nap and then stop off for some classy American-style dinner:

The pizza we had came with a ring of sweet potato paste around the outside and was surrounded by the most buttery-delicious-awesome cheese crust. It was almost one of the best pizzas I’ve ever had. Almost. Also, the salad bar here was weird.

This brings us to one of the most fun parts of our trip so far. Hanging out w/ some real Koreans (who just so happened to speak English) and having them show us what it’s really like to party like they do.

Meet, from L->R Kai, Carol (that’s me…), Suj, and Cloud.

Sorry about the blurry pic. There wasn’t much light, and no Cloud isn’t that bald lookin! Kai was the owner of the restaurant above. While we were there, we had asked him for some help with directions and got to talking with him. He asked if we had any Korean friends, and of course we didn’t, so he gave us his info and offered to take us out! First we went to this really trendy design cafe for beer and dessert. Next a Turkish place for some hookah and bottle service w/ some Korean food. After that a chill, sit-on-the-floor type bar for Mud Shakes (like a mud slide) and some Cass…and more food. Then we went to Ska Bar to dance the night away to “Western Rock” and that was completely full of English teachers. (Note: almost everyone here assumes we’re English teachers as well. Cause most young people, expecially the western-lookin’ ones, are. If you’re Korean and visiting, they assume you’re adopted and looking for your birth parents. Also common.)

We ended the night w/ a round of Tarot Cards with Kai and Cloud translating. My future does not look good, but they insisted everything will be ok! Then by the time we wandered home at around 5am, you can still see the masses of people still out!

Our new friends are great, and I think you American boys could learn a thing or two from them! They took us out, insisted on paying for EVERYTHING, made hilarious jokes all night, and even walked us home in the wee hours of the morning, expecting nothing more than to gain some new friends from the experience. Thanks new Korean friends!!

Ok readers: are you ready?

Friday:

We finally found Dr Fish! It was at this place called RestTree. You go in and buy a $5ish drink and for an extra 2,000 won (less than $2) you get 20 min in the tank. It was mostly Koreans here and as soon as we walked in, they knew we wanted to do the doctor fish tanks. Suj was a bit squeemish at first, but managed to dip her fit in about 2 min before our time was up. For me, it felt weird at first. VERY ticklish, but once I got over that it was fine. It felt like small fingers scratching at your feet. It was cool!

I wish this place sold sushi too. So that while you’re eating raw fish, they’re eating raw you!

Suj and I having a good time!

So after a long day of taking it easy, we did what we came to Korea to do: NORAEBANG!

This place was super fancy and although they served us non-alcoholic beer (EW GROSS!) and we were a small group, we still had a blast!!

Saturday:

“Kay” means dog. And there’s LOTS here!

“Anyoung-ah-say-oh? Collect call from Cutesville? Of course I’ll accept the charges!”

“Kaygogi means dog meat! Where’s the bunz!?”

“Who’s talking? It’s not my fault my eyez have not grown in yet!”

“Let me out of this cage so I can LOOOOVE you!”

“Irish I had a puppy!!” (note: her dress matches her rosy cheeks)

Native Woodland Puppy

Kluster of Kittehs!

“It’s my puppy in a box!” - These puppies and kittehs were outside of the subway station ready to be owned straight from the box. It was all “OOOOH! PUPPIES!!! HOW CUUUUUTE - wait. where’s my wallet. ok, it’s still there….OOOOO CUUUUTE!” Could have been a brilliant means of distraction!

There is a song to accompany this pic, that goes something like this: “I’m in love with this puppy, and I don’t even feel weird about it!” Video coming soon.

That’s all for now folks. I assume there will be a sequal to this post at the rate we’re going.

That’s Korean for “SueJanna’s Friend!” It’s funny AND true!

Since I’ve become a proxy member of the Truscott family, I’ve gotten a taste of what true Koreans are like. They like to eat. They are SUPER friendly. They also like to rush around and get things done in a no-nonsense sort of way. I’ve learned that “bolly bolly!!” means “hurry hurry!” I’ve heard a lot of that.

The computer at Suj’s Emo Aunt (“emo” means “aunt” in Korean!) doesn’t like my camera so if you’re friends with Suj on FB just look at our adventures there.

It’s interesting comparing Korea to China since that was my first trip to authentic-Asia, and it is pretty fresh in my mind as well.

They spit less here. Western style toilets are more readily available here (as is toilet paper). It’s a lot more clean. The busses are just as scary but less crowded.

“SueJanna and SueJanna Chingu!”

Here are some things I got over today:

1. Fear of having my lips ripped off by a pack of wild piranhas.

2. Fear of being eaten by a shark.

And then big Jaws says to little Jaws, he says “So whatter ya feelin for dinner tonight, huh? A little Korean maybe?” - This kid crawled through the “face hole” of this sharky photo-op. Luckily I had my camera good and ready.

3. Fear of living forever with no heart problems whatsoever…

(Bacon Roll Omurice…that’s an omlet w/ rice and breaded bacon rolls and the brown stuff tastes like bbq sauce. oh. yeah.)

4. Fear of having my nasties and bits seen by a spa room full of elderly Korean ladies. (This was in the Korean sauna or bathouse aka “jimjalbang”! First you go sweat in a sauna, then you shower off and play around in various massaging pools. If you’re brave enough, after a bunch of soaking in the water you have these old ladies in lacey bras and panties scrub all the dead skin off you and you get a massage. Since I hate people touching me, I opted out of this last part.)

[ picture removed due to NSFW-ness ]

And here is a picture of some sissy fish that was in a tank made out of a fire extinguisher:

(His gills are puffed up cause he scared of my red camera. Like I said…sissy fish.)

Yet!

As I anxiously await the arrival of Suj and her Dad,  I’m gonna go exploring. I woke up at the butt crack of dawn this morning and decided to walk around the area my hostel is in (hongdae - which Mary, the hostel hostess with the mostess, informed me is a combo b/w the Hong from “Hongik University” and whatever “dae” means.)

There’s a TON of trendy shops a and bars. Including one called “Wabar” which is a “western beer bar”. Sold!

Also, I’ve noticed Koreans aren’t big on sunglasses, I’m not getting stared down as much as I was in China, and they LOVE fish here and there’s restaurants all over w/ their tanks outside. It’s like an aquarium every few blocks. I can’t wait to eat them.

Speaking of fish. I think I’m gonna go to the Aquarium today. And probably NOT eat a fish that I pick out of a tank there.

PS. I got a Suntory Highball while at TYO. It’s in a beer can but it’s actually watered down whisky - 7%abv. It made for a good flight to Seoul!

Remember Showbiz Pizza? The ‘Rents took me a few times when I was a kid before Chuck E. Cheese ate the franchise and took over.

After watching this: “The Rock-afire Explosion” it brought back all of these nostalgic feelings of being a kid again and feeling proud of my straight A’s (you bring in your report card and get a free token for each A!).

Turns out this dude, Chris Thrash (fueled by Mountain Dew and DJing at the local roller rink):

decided to keep the dream alive by opening a Showbiz Pizza Zone in Phenix City, AL.

Ok. Now for the backstory.

Suj, Peggy, and I have recently come up with the idea of adventure-seeking. After the showing last night, we had a hearty meeting where we brainstormed about a zillion things that we’d like to do in the near future. A Facebook club was formed. It’s happening.

I’ve been jonesin’ for a road trip for quite some time now. I’ve also been jonesin’ for a trip to Atlanta to visit the new-biggest-in-the-world mega-aquarium:

Turns out Atlanta is on the way to Phenix City!

And guess what’s on the way back?

Hoggle! From The Labyrinth. On display at the ultimate resale shop: Unclaimed Baggage in Scottsboro, AL. Totally fits into the theme of seeking out monsters on the road.

Now I feel like I have a purpose. None of these locations would really be worth it on their own. But when their forces combine: best. road. trip. adventure. ever.

Oh. Aaron Fechter, the brains behind the animatronics, takes bids on popular songs and reprograms one each month. Check out this MGMT one that pulled in $1200 for him.

So yesterday I decide to save myself 3RMB and take the hostel’s free shuttle bus to the Yuyuan Gardens. Sounds lovely, right?

Silly me, I assumed “gardens” meant some sort of green area. Ha! Nope. Shopping center. Some rich dude bought out these ancient buildings, had them all gut re-habbed, then turned them into..yep..you guessed it….shop after shop selling the same crap as the shop next to it!

Regardless I got me some last minute souvenirs. Had some fun w/ a Canadian woman and her son who had moved to China so she could teach in a Canidian school over here. They also had a Chinese friend with them who finally tought me how to say “no thank you!” to all the people that run up to you and shove some crap in your face “Hey Lady! You want?!” So now I can just say “Shay…boo lao!”

They needed to head back to their village early so I went to the Shanghai Museum which is free and pretty nice. Funny thing is, soon as I get there I notice that one of the dudes on my Great Wall trip was there! Small world. At least when you’re travelling w/ a bunch of tourists…and going to a bunch of touristy spots. He was finishing the museum, I was just starting, so we did like the old timey days and set a meeting time and a place and met up later that evening.

We were pointed by a Chinese guy with perfect English, who responded to our “help us, we’re lost” signal of opening the biggest map Shanghai could offer, to a very cute but trendy bar area. It was one of those areas where a Coke costs $5. FIVE DOLLARS. Remember I’m in China here….so imagine what the beer cost.

Since drinking and wandering around the streets at night is completely legal and not frowned up on here, that’s what we decided to do. Stopping off for 50 cent giant beers along the way. We found a karaoke bar…and after much confusion of where to actually go in the building to get there, we realized it was private room karaoke. Not so much fun for 2 people.

Regardless, Philip is Swiss. He saved up, and quit his jobs (mainly a gym teacher, also worked at a fittness center and teaches skiing), to travel the world for a year. He was 5 weeks into the trip. Already did a trans-siberian trek on the train and went camping for a week in Mongolia. The idea of this made me very jealous. I wonder if I could have done this too, if I didn’t have to pay rent.

Right now, I’m just killing time till I leave for my flight. I think I’m really gonna miss travelling. I was worried about being able to entertain myself alone for 10 days, but I’ve really gotten to like moving around, not having any specific plans, not knowing who I’m going to meet or go out w/ that night…and basically doing whatever I want, whenever I want!

Butt at least I will soon be able to poo in comfort once again. :D

PS And for the record…I can officially say I’ve made it the entire trip w/o a drop of the squirts!! Nevermind the cold….

I’m back in Shanghai! Crisis averted. After asking around enough, I finally got the answer I wanted: “You’re allowed to leave the hostel, so you can go to the train station for your train, but you’re just not allowed to come back in!” I’m fine w/ that. So that’s what I did. They had the whole area blocked off w/ police tape. However as I passed each area the officer kindly held up the tape for me to cross through.

So. Soft sleeper arrangement. MUCH nicer. I’m talkin posh. Diolies under the free water bottles in each room. Private TVs in each bunk (that I couldn’t hear b/c my headphones had a different plug). Free slippers. A western toilet AND a squatter option. Both sparkling clean and fully equipped with TP.

However, my back still hurt like no other when I woke up on the super hard bed. In the long run, I don’t think it was worth paying double for. This train was 3 hours faster though. So when I got in this morning I actually still made the free breakfast in the hostel and had a whole day to enjoy.

While I was in Beijing, and while we were being quarantined in the hostel, everyone naturally fled to the bar. I had a few hours to kill and met some really interesting people. I spent a lot of time with my dormmates the previous night, two girls from Norway. Also really cool, interesting people. I think I might do a separate post of just the people I’ve come across on the trip. Maybe one on just the food too.

The aquarium that I was looking forward to going to today was merely mediocre. Not bad. Not the best either. However, having a fancy $10 sushi dinner next door was great!

I finally found the Hayatt. And I”m SO glad I did. I ended up spending a whopping 112RMB on one drink. It was amazing though. Like a mojito but w/ lychee too! The view was awesome. Place totally swanky. I feel like I could totally live it large here if I was going off the USD.

So the boring/dead hostel bar last week is now overflowing w/ lots of unfamiliar languages. I think I’m gonna go try to meet more folks!

I’ve gotten a few Facebook comments on some of my posts, which is fun for me to hear from people. However, this is why I can’t respond.

In case you didn’t know, fun is not allowed in China. This includes Facebook, Twitter, and even Tumblr. All of these sites are blocked.

So to get around this…Dan had to hack into my Tumblr account and set it up so I could just email posts so it. (Luckily Gmail isn’t considered fun..and therefore is not blocked) Then Tumblr posts my post to Twitter, and Twitter in turn, updates my FB page.

However I’ve exchanged lots of info w/ foreigners here for plenty of FBing when I get home. The order of questions for everyone new: Where are you from? Where have you been/are going? What do you do? Do you Facebook? What’s your name? No. Joke.