Well, I’m back in the States, and trying really hard not to be depressed about it.  Seoul was wonderful.  I’m already scheming a return (more on that later).

I didn’t blog as much as I’d planned.  Two weeks is a short visit, so the days were crammed full.  Virtually all of our time was spent visiting family, and taking care of grandma.  She’s in the beginning stages of alzheimers, so she swung back and forth between complete lucidity to asking who we were.  She can’t walk on her own, although she tries to, so someone had to be with her at all times.  And now she has heart failure.  So, it was a wonderful and meaningful two weeks, but blogging wasn’t something I was in the mood for.  Plus, I never got a chance to hang out with Elaine (booo!).  Anyways, here’s a summary of the Korea visit….

Just like NYC, only cleaner:
We spent most of the time in Seoul, at my grandmother’s apartment in Myeong-il-dong, Seoul on the east side of the city, a bit past the Olympic Stadium.  The area was a good mix of young families, students and retired people.  My grandmother’s lived there for more than 20 years.   And thanks to Seoul’s super-high living costs, her ~500sqft apartment is now worth 5 times its original price.  Hello?? 

 
One thing that really struck me about Seoul was how CLEAN everything is.  Although it’s the world’s 3^rd most populous metro area, the streets, sidewalks and subways were remarkably clean and free of litter.  Trash cans were hard to find – yet, no one tossed their trash into the streets.  Even the subway tracks were clear of litter. 
Korean saunas (목욕탕/moguktang & 찜질방/jimjilbang). 
I was so addicted.  Every morning, my mom and I took turns going to the moguktang/jimjilbang across the street (one person staying here with grandma) to spend an hour or so in sheer heaven.  The sauna had different baths, like a hot seaweed bath, warm saltwater, extremely cold fresh water, and my absolute favorite - the green tea bath.  Every morning, I spent at least 15 minutes soaking in a warm mix of green tea and other minerals.  Plus, there were four hot steam rooms - my favorite was one that was lined with salt stones, and there were herbs added to the steam - the room smelled like cinnamon and some other spices.  mmmmmm All this for only 4,000 won (about $4.50)!! I did a daemido (?konglish), which was basically a full body scrub/massage.   There was also a gym, beauty salon, snack bar and free shampoo/soap.  I’ve been in total withdrawal since I got back.

Shopping & Prices:
With the exception of the moguktang, things were pretty expensive.  A medium cup of coffee at a cafe in Budang cost me $7.25.  A cup of green tea cost the same.  Of course, the coffee at Dunkin Donuts was cheaper (maybe….$2.50?), but it tasted like coffee-flavored water.  bleh.   Clothes weren’t any cheaper.  in Apujong and Myeongdong, there were chain stores like Ralph Lauren, and pricey Korean and European boutiques…..but bargains on wholesale clothes, socks, purses, etc were in the open-air and bargain shopping markets of Dongdaemun and Namdaemun.  And talk about chaebol, Samsung totally runs Seoul.  It was almost impossible to walk two blocks without seeing something branded by Samsung…..Samsung cars (one of my uncles drives one), Samsung bakeries (Paris Baguette), Samsung grocery stores (GS Mart), sports teams, movie theaters, life insurance, even a huge Samsung medical center. 
 

Outside Seoul:
We also spent some time in the country – at my oldest aunt’s house in Cheonan, and another aunt’s vacation cottage near Chungju and Danyang, in ChungCheongbukdo.  Both cities were several hours outside of Seoul, and had gorgeous views.   I never got a chance to run while in Seoul, so each day in Cheonan and Chungcheong started with a 5K run.  The photos above were taken during those morning runs (sure beats the Memorial Park loop….).

Korean Food: 
What can I say?  The food was awesome.  The absolute best meal was in Suwon, at a restaurant next to my mom’s oldest sister’s apartment.  Suwon is known for its galbi (BBQ), and this particular restaurant was rated the best in the city (top left picture).  The meat and namul were so good, my mom grabbed me at one point and whispered, “Ya! Take a picture!”  The top right picture was at a small restaurant in Danyang, next to the Gosu caves.  On the right is acorn jelly (think acorn tofu) with veggies and hot peppers.  It was delicious.  The fried things are whole fish dipped in batter.  We ordered the fish, and the owner walked outside to the front of the restaurant.  There was a huge tank full of small live fish.  She scooped up a bunch with a net, walked straight to the kitchen, dumped them into batter and oil - and five minutes later, they were at our table.  We ate them whole, bones, fins and all.  I don’t know what kind of fish they were, but they were delicious.

The Gosu caves in Danyang are these huge, dark and creepy limestone caves.  Touring them involves climbing up and down these extremely steep staircases with 100+ft drops.  My fear of heights kicked in big time, and I ended up shuffling along the staircases verrrry slowly.  My mom and aunt were behind me, followed by a group of Korea tourists.  The walkway was too narrow to let the tourists go ahead of us, so unfortunately, everyone had to shuffle along at my pace.  One of the Korean men got grumpy and started mumbling under his breath, “come on, let’s go! what’s wrong with you?”  Finally we reached an opening, and the tourists scampered past us.  It was pretty embarassing. 

The fruit in Korea rocks.  I gorged myself on pears, peaches, persimmons and grapes.  The peaches and grapes, in particular, were like crack.  The peaches were huge and soft, with white-flesh that was so juicy and sweet.  Crack, I’m telling you.  And of course, I got my jjajjangmyun fill.  Three times, in fact.  The best place was at this little hole-in-the-wall diner on the ground floor of a shopping mall (right photo).  The noodles were handmade, and the sauce was delicious. 

Bakeries. 
There’s this fascination with french bakeries (or more specifically, bakeries with french names) in Seoul - two of the big chains are Paris Baguette (owned by Samsung) and Tous les Jours.  Paris Baguette has these butter lemon-flavored buns that are sooooo good.  I bought a bag to eat on the plane, but they were finished by the time we were over Hawaii.  mmmmm

American Fast Food:
Spotted McDonalds, Outback Steakhouse, Smoothie King, Krispy Kreme, Popeye’s, Burger King, Subway, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.  The few times I saw white people were when I’d pass by one of these fast food restaurants.  heh.   The exception was Starbucks – the ones I saw were always multi-storied, and packed full of Koreans - there was a 4-story Starbucks near Sejong Arts Center, and my mom said an even bigger Starbucks (the biggest in the world, in fact) was located in Gangnam.

Coffee:
The coffee in Korea is either insanely expensive or so weak it barely passes as tan colored water.  So, every morning on my way back from the mogeuktang, I bought a Maeil Caffe Latte.  Too thick and sweet, but the cup made it worth the 1,000w.  It read:  “Scent of Love, Latteheart….Loving you loving Caffe Latte.”  Awesome.
 

Technomart:
I bought a new dica (konglish for digital camera) - a red Canon Ixus.  Two cousins took me to TechnoMart, a ginormous electronics mall made of floors and floors and floors of gear, gear and gear….cameras, mp3 players, handphones (cell phones), gps devices, computers, monitors, tvs, etc.   I was speechless for the first 20 minutes - I had never seen so many electronics in one place.  It felt like I died and went to gear weenie heaven (above photos aren’t mine).

Korean handphones:
The cellphones in Korea rock.  Even the most basic Korean handphone lineup makes the high-end US cell phone selection look pretty depressing.  I think the US is waaay behind in cell phone technology.  When I got back, all the cell phones suddenly looked big and clunky.  So, I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile for the new Samsung t629, since it resembled the small, high tech slider phones I saw everywhere on Seoul.  Ahhhhh……love it. 
So, Seoul was awesome.  I’d love to live there, even if only for a year.  *sigh*

More pictures of my Korea trip are in the gallery.