Busy, busy, busy

Hi, everyone. Sorry for not updating frequently. Every day is spent outdoors wandering around Seoul, so when I come home at night I'm too tired to write an entry. However, I do try to post pictures on Facebook as often as I can. I apologize for not showing them on the blog, however.

I can't believe that I've only been here for 19 days. It definitely feels longer than that. I think it's because Chris and I have an established routine where we wake up, shower, eat breakfast, and then immediately head outside to find something to see and do. Usually, we get our ideas from the guide book Chris purchased back in the states. It's been a lot of help, especially with sight-seeing and restaurants (though the latter isn't something we need to worry about.) 

Chris bought me a pair of jogging sneakers in Dongdaemun Market a few days ago for 18,000 won(!), or $11.95 U.S. dollars. It was originally 20,000 won, but I haggled a bit. :) He was going to buy a matching pair, but it didn't fit him comfortably. So, I actually went jogging this morning! I hadn't been in over three weeks so it was a bit tough, but I kept a steady pace and I ran around a stadium that is near Ben's apartment. I may look into signing up for a gym, but I don't know because Chris and I are looking for an apartment to rent and we probably may not live in this area. I would jog outside but 1) the air quality is normally not too great, especially with the yellow dust that flies in from China and the constant smog and haze, and 2) no one really jogs here except for old people who swing their arms to-and-fro, so people tend to do a double-take. Seoul is just so congested; I'm really not a city person. I miss jogging in my quiet neighborhood. Hopefully, I'll keep jogging, though.

I came back from my tutoring session around 8:45 p.m. I'm alone in the apartment; the boys are at a friend's place playing Street Fighter 4. -_- It's nice to be here by myself, though. I can update my blog and pictures, and read.

I hope you enjoy some of the pictures that I put up. These are from today. Chris and I visited Changdeokgung, another palace. We have a bad habit of eating lunch really late so that we aren't hungry for dinner. We ate lunch at this place that our guide book said has "the best side dishes in Korea." We ordered a lunch set that comes with 7 (!) appetizers, an entree, and a dessert. Needless to say, we were pretty stuffed! It was, as usual, delicious. Dessert was a simple cold, cinnamon tea. We wanted to go to this cafe that had waffles with ice cream so badly but it was packed to the maximum: there were no open tables, and anyway we were being gluttonous so we just went to another cafe where we ordered cafe mochas and a chocolate mousse cake.. eek. 

Ben's new apartment!

We spent a good part of the afternoon to help Ben move his belongings into his new apartment. The new place is a bit more spacious, and actually has a separate shower stall with a glass door (in the last apartment, the entire tiny bathroom was used as a showering area as well, with the shower head on the wall.) The door access is also a keyless entry which means that Chris and I don't have to come back to the apartment by 6pm so Ben can get in. Although, this is our last week here. Ben has been really gracious allowing us to stay with him, and now Chris and I are looking into affordable guesthouses to stay in for the remainder of the trip. To save money, I wouldn't mind staying in community hostels or maybe even my relatives' places.

It seems as if I may need to find another photo uploading site in addition to Flickr because the aforementioned only allows 100 mb a month, and I already have over 25 mb. from the aquarium.

Since we just moved in today, we don't have internet but we're "borrowing" from a neighbor, again. It's actually pretty fast, except that we can't download shows or music.

Pictures on Flickr

Hey, everyone.

I just created a Flickr account. I'm not sure if this link will work. I think you can search for me on the website. My username is nay0ungee83. That's a zero, not the letter "o".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35529444@N02/

It's been awhile!

Hey everyone, sorry that I haven't updated in a week - my friend, Ben, doesn't have internet. We actually steal it from a neighbor, so it's usually absurdly slow; a pain because we're trying to download "Lost" episodes. I actually had to come to a PC room to watch an episode of "America's Best Dance Crew".

I'm at the PC room right now. I just uploaded a ton of pictures on Facebook, so check them out. I'm going to create a Flickr or Photobucket link too for photos, too.

Anyway, the weather in Korea has been pretty cold after a very mild week. Yesterday was also our first day of the sun shining brightly during our time here. Since we landed, every day has been cloudy, misty, or rainy: very depressing. Today's really bright and sunny out too, but it's also super cold.

Two days ago, Chris and I met my now-deceased uncle's family for the first time. My aunt came with her three grown children: Hwa-young (33), is married with 2 boys, and a girl on the way; Eun-young (29) is still single much to her family's dismay; and the boy, Sung-jin, is 27. My eldest cousin also brought along her husband and kids. It was a bit awkward at first, but food and alcohol helped loosen things up, naturally.

Here are some pictures, and I will look into photo uploading sites.

Gangnam

  Today, Chris and I met up with some friends from back home that are now in Korea. We met up at Gangnam, one of the best districts in Seoul for eateries. Lately, I haven't been eating dinner because we've been eating late lunches. I figured I would be more hungry because we walk around so much but I guess I eat too much :( Anyway, my lower back and my calves have been hurting because of the constant walking. Yesterday, my hips actually were in pain... Hopefully, I get used to this. Maybe this is why the girls here are skinny even though I see them stuff their faces, although Korea is a diet-crazed country. I guess they eat whatever at a certain time and then abstain from food.

I think I'm going to just post the pictures directly onto the post. We're stealing the internet from a neighbor so the connection is usually frustratingly slow; it takes forever to upload pictures. I'm also upset because I can't watching streaming shows: I miss ABDC, Grey's, Lost, and The Office.

I haven't bought too many things in Korea yet, but everything's so cheap it's awesome! Also, there is no tipping which is great. I can't wait to go to Dongdaemun, this famous shopping district where you can get great bargains and find basically anything there. I was told that the best time to go is after midnight; these shops are open until the wee hours of morning.

Waiting outside Gangnam station for our friends

an office building

the side dishes 

eating lunch at 3pm - dead hour

soondae aka blood sausage. It was Chris's first time, and he liked it

pieces of meat from a pig's face

soondae stew

Cafe Pascucci

Chris and CK

Japanese sweet potato latte - thick and creamy

SJ got an iced mocha

all this makeup cost $16,600 won which equals $12.04!!! I did get a few free items, too.

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I added the slideshow gadget so everyone can look at all of the pictures I take - I know not all of my followers (mwahaha) have Facebook. Anyway, I have yet to add pictures but random ones keep showing on my slideshow; it's very strange. I hope that they are sample pictures that came with downloading the gadget because I have no idea whose pictures those belong to.

*update: now it says "feed could not be uploaded" because I haven't uploaded pictures onto Picasa yet. Much better than displaying a stranger's photos..

Gotta love sticker pictures

Still getting over the jet lag...

Dinner!

Walking around..

Waiting for Chris to get out of the bathroom at the subway..

Tissues, gum, and strawberry-flavored condoms.

Milk chocolate bar!! It's good!

I've been up since 5:25am. It wouldn't be too bad if I hadn't gone to sleep past 1am. Ben, Chris, and I watched "Gone Baby Gone" (really good!) last night and then went to bed. So, while the boys were sleeping I was trying my hardest to be quiet. I remembered that I had selected to purchase Red Sox-Yankees tickets at face value, and that the sale had been going on for about 6 hours. I took Chris's macbook into the bathroom, sat on the toilet, and fought with the internet to purchase 4 Roof Box tickets for the June 9 game. Pretty exciting! Then, I tried to go back to sleep to no avail. So, I ate a banana, and played Brain Age 2 and Sudoku on my pink DS. :(

Today's agenda: we're going to Myeongdong, one of the most famous shopping districts! I'm not really good at bartering, but I'm going to try. Goals: a pair of sneakers and a purse.

In the motherland!

  

Farewell, Boston!

Sun rising...

Somewhere over Midwest USA

Beautiful

San Francisco - see the Golden Gate?

San Fran Bay

The fries were awesome - San Fran

Ben eating woodong!

Yummy... I really liked the colorful snack balls.

This is how Ben does it...

Cheers!

Reunion

The view from Ben's window - dreary day today (2/7/09)

We are here!!  And, it was not without drama...of course. We get to Logan around 5am for a 6am flight; yes, we were running behind. The check-in counter at United Air proceeded to tell us that we cannot enter Korea because we purchased a one-way ticket and do not have proof that we are leaving the country within three months (the maximum amount of stay without having a visa). This might have only applied to Chris since I have a work visa, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, we purchased two one-way tickets from Seoul to Tokyo to show that we're leaving the country. United Air assured us that once we get to Incheon Airport in Korea, we can find the United Air desk and ask for a refund on the tickets. Then, we had to bolt to security since it was already 5:30am.

Everything's pretty much peachy keen until our layover in San Francisco.  We went to Singapore Air to acquire our boarding passes before grabbing lunch. As we walked away after obtaining our passes, the guy from the ticket counter called us back to check my ticket. On Orbitz, I had signed up as "Jacqueline" but my passport says "Jackie" so they needed to prove that I was the same person as this Jacqueline person. I showed my driver's license because that says "Jackie", too. My name was changed on to the boarding pass to "Jackie", printed, and given to me. I used to dislike my given name "Jacqueline", so I would write "Jackie" when filling out forms. Now I see that this has caused a lot of problems (for everyone) and headaches (for me). After this little incident, Chris and I got lunch at a brewery: the last time we will have decent burgers and fries. The garlic fries were so delicious.

Next is our 12-hour flight to Seoul. I'm so happy that we, at least, got to ride on Singapore Air, one of the best airlines. Impeccable service, decent food, better seats and comfort, and personal tv's. We read, listened to music, slept on and off, watched movies (Chris watched "Burn After Reading" and I watched "Rachel Getting Married" and "Romeo and Juliet" -1968 version), and played Tetris and Trivia. We land, claim our luggage, go through customs, and attempt to look for the United Air desk. I finally ask an employee and am directed to the Information Desk. The employee here informs me that United Air office is closed right now and that it's at the other end of the airport so I can try going there to see if anyone may be there. She also writes down their number so I can call them the next day if they're closed. I have Chris sit with our luggage because mine are really heavy, and I run around the airport looking for the office. It's closed. I grit my teeth and run to look for United Air check-in. After consulting a map, I located the K terminal to find that no screens display United Air. I ask someone at a different airlines and they say that United Air isn't expecting any flights so they are closed. Wow. At this point, I'm overheated and parched so I purchase two bottles of water for Chris and me. Defeated, I make my way back to Chris. I call up my friends to let them know I've landed, and then we purchase tickets at a bus stop to get my friend Ben's place. It's only 9,000 won which is about $9 US dollars and it's going to take more than an hour to get to his place - Seoul is so huge. I fall in and out of sleep on the bus, and after we get off we wait 5 minute for Ben to show up with a futon mattress for us. After settling in his place, washing up and changing, we actually go out! I'm rather surprised at myself. I thought I'd just pass out once I arrived at Ben's apartment but Chris and I figured "why not?" We're in Korea; might as well live it up. We meet up with about eight of Ben's friends, and eat and drink at a soju bar. I only did one shot - I really abhor soju with a passion - though I did have beer and apple and grape soju. We went to bed around 2am - Chris and I have been up since 3:15am on Thursday - and I woke up at 8:15am. 

Ben was told to come into work today for a few hours, so Chris and I are going to just relax until he gets out at 3. I brought 4 boxes worth of Kashi oatmeal to Korea so I'm going to make myself one in a few minutes. But not before I call United Air - ugh, what a pain... I hope everything works out.

*Sorry about the picture layout. I'm new to blogging so I'm not sure how to move them around. I wanted to put them at the end of the post.. any tips?