Week 9: Seoul, South Korea

A weekend whirlwind through Seoul, the capital and largest city in S. Korea.

Seoul Stats: -N.W. of S. Korea, near the DMZ between North and South Korea.

-Around 12 Million people live in Seoul. It’s a big city to say the least! There may even be more (or tied) number of subway lines as NYC.

-However, the water is na-as-ty! Didn’t drink it but rinsing was enough to make me thankful for living in Busan (and I don’t even drink the Busan water straight from the tap, either!)

-KOREA IS RIDICULOUSLY HUMID DURING JULY AND AUGUST–reaching 100% humidity! ! ! It was SO humid that, during the night as the cars were driving with their lights on, one could LITERALLY SEE THE mist!!! It’s like living in a sauna and steam room both! Makes me super thankful for the dry heat in which I was raised in good ‘ol P-town, Oregon.

-90% of the females in Seoul wear high heels–with shorts, jeans, even at the beach (in Busan)! It’s completely ludacris! Climbing stairs, running, taking strides, going to baseball games, hiking…most woman partake in any and every event wearing heels! I try but (i’m flatfooted) heels kill me! It’s crazy what women put themselves through here to look ‘beautiful’. But I’ll go into more detail on this topic in another blog another day.

Willamette Alumni Reunion: Dani S. ❤ Kyle E., c/o 2008

and me sandwiched between them. At the ICE BAR!!! Stoke!

The $15 was worth the cold, cold experience. Hey, they even treated us like royalty, dressing us in Parkas with fur hoods and ugg style boots. Plus the complimentary drink–it seriously was about 99% juice. lolz.

How Maia and I kept warm in the sub-zero ICEBAR!!! Brrrrr

Gemelas (Phoebe and Maia) posing outside a Temple adjacent to Seoul’s City Hall (HUGE MAD COW PROTEST took place…I knew the Koreans were staring at me because it was an anti-American protests–I just got this feeling I was in the WRONG place at the wrong time so we bounced.)

 

Our Mani’s. Mine’s the turquoise french tip hand. Yes, those are our real nails btw! ;p

Saturday night Maia and I went to a jimjil-bang (public bath house). It was by far the most ghetto jimgil bang; somuchso I refused to enter the spas–wasn’t trying to leave with some kind of fungus b/c that place smelled fu-un-ky! It was a great weekend, though. Although I only stayed in 4 neighborhoods or so (there are dozens of neighborhoods), my time in each was great and definitely eye opening (again, every time I see a female running in heels without a hint of pain I gawk in amazement. It’s truly a phenomenon!)