Thursday, November 17, 2011

Back to Seoul

The beginning of October I went back to Seoul, South Korea. I stayed with my friend Min, and we had a lovely time. Min always gives me great insights into my character and kindly helps me move toward improvement(I love you Min-Jung!)
The second time in Seoul, I felt at ease using the transport system and finding places I had been to before. I also traveled to Seoul with my good friend Letizia from Shenzhen, we met our friend and former schoolmate Suly Lee on her home turf and she made sure we had a ROCKIN time. We had a picnic in Hangang Park and watched a fireworks display, ate raw fish and wriggling Octopus legs at Noryangjin fish market, danced to the fountains and music at Banpo Bridge, and indulged in the Kimchi museum. Seoul is a city that is extremely bike friendly. I REALLY like that about it, I was sorely tempted to buy a bike in Seoul and bring it back with me, however - that would probably be a silly decision(even though there were SUPER cool bikes there). I enjoyed the early Autumn air and the ability to wear a jacket and scarf most days. I also ate meat. I ate A LOT of MEAT. For those of you that don't know Koreans know how to cook MEAT, and I definitely took advantage of that.
The BEST thing I have eaten in Asia aside from Tim Hou Wan Dim Sum, would have to be Pumpkin Duck. My high school friends from Kansas, took me and some others to a famous place north of Seoul, they only serve one dish.
It is duck meat cooked inside a pumpkin. It is eaten with a variety of Korean side dishes and it is HEAVENLY. I would go back to Korea just for this dish. I am not joking, I am completely serious. If I didn't absolutely dislike teaching English, I would move to Korea quick quick and live there in happiness with my friend Min :) However, I do absolutely dislike teaching English and I currently am quite happy to live in China, even though at times it is difficult and frustrating, I absolutely love my life. I will embed some videos here as well, the first is of the octopus legs that we ate, I LOVE these, I had them the first time I went to Korea and they were AWESOME. So I'm really glad to have had them again. The second is Leti eating the octopus for the first time. The third is me at Banpo Bridge, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banpo_Bridge. It is famous, read up.