Feckin Tourists!

Roomies: Adriana, Beka and myself!

Woot! After my first week of working I was very happy for Friday to come and to go out drinking with the ladies in Itewon (the more international district of Seoul) and boy what a night that was.We started the night eating at Mr. Pizza, a slightly overpriced pizza place, but well worth it. We had an Indian-inspired pizza with chicken, spices on it and the crust was to die for , cheese covered stuffed with sweet potato. They we headed out on the subway to Itewon were we first went to this pretty awesome latin bar where the floors were covered in sand and the maragartias were delicious! Then we meet up with some friends of the roomie and then proceeded to another bar to meet up with some more Americans. And at bar #2... FREE DRINKS for the ladies all night. I have no real clue what the marketing plan was in that move but hey, I'm not complaining! Out till 3ish, then home to bed.

Saturday we were off to a late start, but eventually got moving and went out to near Dongdaemun for lunch. We went to a resto called Everest, an Indian place that was sooo goood! Beka and I both had Chicken tikka masala. Really spicy but so good.

After that we walked to the Western gate that also marks the beginning of Dongdaemun market and took some photos, but after that we were pretty tired to headed to E-mart (basically a Walmart-type store with a lil of everything) to get some groceries and some room decor, and then went back home. I rearranged my room and it is now starting to look much better... still need somethings but getting there!

Sunday we decided to go to Deosugung Palace in downtown Seoul. It was such a beautiful campus... we got there a bit early to watch the changing of the guards and listen to their demonstration and then meet up with Adriana and took a tour of the inside.

There was also a free Korean traditional concert at 4om so we stayed and watched.... awesome music. Some really interesting and different musical instruments that combined create a very moving sound. Afterwards we went in search of food and ended up eating our favorite Ttockbokgi, a spicy red sauce and rice patty dish, some fun rice balls and some fried mandu dumplings... very yummy!

After that we headed down the main strip, looked at some awesome building structures and walked down Cheogyyi River. Above is a picture of some of the beautiful and almost oddly placed things in the city.

This river had been covered up and built over, but in the early 2000's during an environmental push, they city and uncovered it and turned it into a beautiful rest area for people. We stayed there for a long while, grabed some street food and sitting talking until it started to get dark. There were some pretty awesome light shows that went on as it got darker as well. We then explored some very interesting streets with tons of lights and little shops... bought some honey candy that came with a great explanation of how it was made... by the end of the day we were very tired!

Today and tomorrow we don't have school because of a flu scare so we are off to explore more! Will post again soon! I think today we are gonna go explore the city and bit more and tomorrow we are going to go and look around at some Shamanistic Temples in the mountains.. go for a little walk and picnic of sorts!