Seoul- Light up the Sky

Well, it's been a few days since you heard from me, and big developments are taking place.
1.  I have a bank account.  I'm like a person now.
2.  I have internet.  I'm like a korean person now.
3.  I have a sweet smart phone.  I'm like a young korean person now

4.  I have a working webcam annnnnd.....a CAMERA.  You got it.  that means pictures finally.
These were all accomplished in the last two days, and have made my life so much better.  I have some basic photos of my apartment and my work and whatnot, but let's save the important information for next post, and look at the specifics of my trip to Seoul instead today.
My weekend began on tuesday of this week when the co-owner of CNN academy invited me to stay with their family for the weekend over the coming Chuseok vacation.  She told me I should go to Seoul witht her son, and thtat he would take me shopping.  She told me he was very handsome.  With no other plans in mind, I agreed. 
Saturday, I met him around lunch time and we hit the trains for Seoul.  As we rode, my hand started to hurt, and I looked at the grab handle I was holding and, to my surprise, saw a set of miniature plastic spikes staring back

Traditional Korean hand massage, he told me.  My delicate American skin couldn't handle the massage, and I had to look for softer handles.  Well, we made it through the trains to the Seoul Station (a massive, multi-level underground complex with trains of many different varieties running under and above and across each other.)  I had no idea how to find our way out of there.  Good thing he did.

These maps were all over the subway.  sattelite views that you can move via touchscreen to find the exact address.  Once found, you can actually go down to street level and look around and walk down the streets to actually walk into location before you went there.  They didn't have the app yet where you could order in the restaurants.  Virtual Takeout.  It's gonna be a thing
After we left the station we hit the malls, and I have to tell you, Seoul malls put american malls to shame.  They open at 10 a.m. like American malls, but run til 4:30 in the morning.  You shopped til you drop?  SHOP SOME MORE!  Inside was incredible, floor after floor after floor of criscrossing escalators taking you to new floors for sportswear, casualwear, shoes, shoes2, childrenswear, shoes3, pets, volcanoes, churches, intangible enlightenment, and restrooms.
and SUITS

And let me tell you, the Koreans know how to tailor suits.  Holy cow.  Wearing a korean-cut suit adds about as much to your attractiveness factor as if you stepped out of your diamond ferarri on the back of a chocolate horse.  But it's a good thing they got suits right.  Because they don't do everything right.

Go cowboys.

So we left the malls (or rather, he dragged me away) With me buying only a backpack (Which I'd foolishly forgotten to bring to Korea from the States) and an $8 tie.  The salesman warned me that koreans like their ties cut thinner than westerners.  I was so disheartened that I bought it on the spot.
After searching forever to find a store that would sell a smartphone to a foreigner on a contract, I finally got one, and now I can Google chat anyone in the states any time for free!  Its like we're in the future...
Anyway, as we waited for the phone to be activated, my friend took me out to his favorite type of korean restaurant for a dinner of grilled pork and vegetables.  You grill the pork yourself, dip it in sauce, and put it in a leaf of lettuce with vegetables and rice, then eat the whole thing in one bite.  (yeah.  considered polite here.  yeah.)  It was, quite honestly, delicious.

I tried to pay at the end of the meal, but he got to the waiter first because he could speak the language and I couldn't.  Defeated.  I would be ready next time.  We stepped out into the beautiful night of Seoul, and he said we were going to the most beautiful spot in the city.  I asked him where, and he pointed.  Up. 

Seoul tower.  High on a mountain on the edge of town.  Above all the lights of the city, Seoul had to find a way to put up even MORE lights.  The obvious solution was a Jetsons' house on top of a mountain.  To get there, we took the NamSan cable car.  A railcar went up the side of the mountain, and after that, a line wound its way around a small tower that went up to meet the cable car.  The line was ninety percent couples, gazing into each others' eyes and whispering into each others' ears and taking pictures together. 

The night air was hot, but the air conditioners inside were so powerful that I was almost disappointed in him for not bringing a jacket to put around my shoulders.  The cable car drifted down from the mountaintop, lights winking, giving the impression of some futuristic airliner touching down.

It fairly flew up the mountain, so quickly that I caught myself holding my breath as we went over each set of support poles (heights...not my favorite) (in retrospect, this trip...what was I thinking?).  When we "landed", I was suprised to find that after the railcar, tower, and cable car, we still had climbing to do.  We had a traditional korean drink made with ice and sugar and rice (I could tell you it really isn't as strange as it sounds, but I have to represent the truthful integrity of bloggers everywhere).  As we neared the top, the tower loomed over us, and I felt a little dizzy just looking at it.  As ivory towers go, this one was an ivory tower.

Hundreds of feet up.  He offered to pay for me to go up there, but I said no thank you.  We were high enough as it was.  And besides.  The view of the lights of Seoul from the top of the mountain wasn't too bad.



Seoul

On the mountaintop, there were other notable things to see.   First of all was the proof that this was THE romantic destination in Seoul:  a set of trees made entirely out of padlocks.  Each lock attached to a plastic heart with the names of the couple on it.  Some looked like they had seen the years, and some couples were

putting on new ones as we watched. 

Also of note was a set of lit up ghostly wire figures floating through the treetops over the heads of the people who walked on the plaza at the top of the mountain.  Beautiful in an Are You Afraid of the Dark sort of way.

Also a lit up fountain with dry ice smoke.  Because you can never illuminate enough things.

So after enjoying the sites around Seoul Tower, I realized what the cable car tickets had meant when they said One Way-- we were climbing back down the mountain.  Am I a young, healthy specimen of a red blooded American?  sure.  But I was carrying four days of clothes in my backpack and the suitcase I had brought to carry them in before I bought the backpack.

While the climb back down the mountain over an hour's worth of lamp-lit winding stairs was TECHNICALLY not endless....

I was very glad to see the bottom. 

Bonus Features!

Upon reaching Seoul once again, we saw a movie being filmed in the park! 

No movie stars were present.  Or maybe they were.  Who knows?  not me.

Exhausted and hungry from the climb down, my friend and I went out for a late night snack

For those of you who didn't read last week's blog and don't get it- Look!  Cute Puppies!

For serious, though.  He showed me to a super-cheap hole-in-the-wall place that was frequented by young, loud university students who could put away their Soju.  We had Paja (korean squid pizza) and rice wine slushies (brilliant invention, by the way).  It was a fun little restaurant.

This time, I made sure to pay. 

That's all for today, tune in next time for the exciting conclusion of Chuseok!
Til then,
Jeff