Church, and they all speak English!
All the members were so nice in this ward. Most of the people are here with their families for a military assignment. One couple works for the embassy. And there are a handful of English teachers, like me, who work at Hagwons and public schools (though, most of them live in the Seoul area). I was almost to church, following Google maps, when a cute family in a van pulled up and asked if I was trying to find the church. I climbed into their van, between two carseats, and they drove me the rest of the way (which was only half a block, haha...). But it was nice to make some friends and walk in with people who knew where they were going. Because check out the size of this massive building:
I think it is the biggest church building that's not a temple that I've ever seen. It's beautiful. Kind of juxtaposed from its surroundings (ok, I've never used the word "juxtaposed" before, so the grammar may be incorrect...don't judge me, ahem, Josh).
I stayed longer after church to socialize with some of the English teachers. Actually, a handful of them have ukulele lessons after church with one of the senior missionaries. So I just listened. And sang some of the songs when pressured to by the senior missionary, haha. Also, I learned that there is a single's activity/overnight thing next weekend with some spiritual fireside-y stuff and games and meals. I'm going to go! I'm so excited. And one of the girls is letting me stay at her apartment so I won't have to sleep on the floor (because all the beds are already taken at the house where it's taking place). Also, she let me know that I can stay at her apartment anytime so I won't have to have anymore of my jjimjilbang-under-maintenance adventures. :)
Lunch...I broke the Sabbath, I know...shhh...
Mmm...Indian food. And I didn't have to speak Korean! The chicken masala was extremely spicy. I choked on a jalapeno before realizing that's what it was and almost died. I was crying. But it was so nice to eat in a non-Korean restaurant. (But still no tipping...gotta love that.)
Yeouido Park (how many more vowels can we cram into "Yeouido"?)
...it's technically just the romanization of the Korean word...but it's just one example why learning this language is so difficult. Seriously, pronouncing my kids' names is the hardest. They say the sound "aw" so I say "aw." "No, teacher...aw." That's what I said!
Anyway...back to the park...
A paradise in the middle of a big city...reminded me of Central Park, a little bit. But Asian.
King Sejong, the Great. He's the dude who created Hangul, the Korean writing system, and did lots of other important monarch-y stuff. In the Joseon dynasty, according to Wikipedia.
This little girl on her tricycle riding around Sejong...haha.
I don't know what any of this is. Because all the plaques are in Korean.
Josh, I think you should tattoo this on your back...or a bum cheek, whichever you prefer.
Hibiscus flowers...
Such a fun Sunday atmosphere...families picnicking and couples canoodling and children playing...
Isn't this amazing?! I've never seen lily pads before. I know I probably didn't need to travel halfway around the world to see them, but, well, it's one way to do it.
I love seeing traditional Korean architecture.
And then there's the new and modern artwork:
But I think this one is really cute. :)
Next stop: Ankara Park (because why not?)
This park was built as a measure of goodwill between Korea and Turkey. Or something like that. So, this is a Turkish house, not Korean.
Much less crowded than Yeouido park, not nearly as exciting or hip, but still very beautiful and relaxing. Which, from the looks of my sweaty, tired face, you can see I needed it...
"I'm like what the what, seriously, seriously." (for Josh)
Churro and ice cream, because TravelAdvisor made me do it (peer pressured on the Sabbath)
It was delicious, but entirely too small.
Views of Seoul and the Han River
I hiked up to the highway, onto the bridge a little ways to check out the view. Pretty cool. I wasn't sure if it was like the Golden Gate Bridge, where you can walk or bike (I only saw bikers here), so I didn't venture too far.
Laurie should come water-ski in Korea. Just because. ;)
I booked a ferry cruise online a few days ago. (One reason why I was randomly hanging out at parks earlier--because I had to wait for the cruise which was at 7:30.) There was a wide range of tourists and Koreans who rode the ferry with me. But definitely a lot of couples. You could even walk through this cute love tunnel and take pictures, like this Korean couple:
Nope. Not me. I rocked that solo walk through the tunnel of love!
This was the ferry I was on, just an earlier group.
We went under some cool bridges. My favorite was the one with the metro going across.
As nice as the city lights were (though, not as exciting as expected, to be honest), I was a little distracted. See if you can spot why:
Yeah, an early Happy Halloween to you! Part way into the ride, I realized I had chosen a seat right in front of some lovely spiders. I was kind of fixated watching them spin their webs. But, also, it gave me the heebie jeebies. I felt responsible to monitor them, too, because people would come and stand against the railing--little kids, too.
At one point, a little bug flew into the web and almost got stuck. The spider got so excited, but then the bug got away. Aw...I was looking forward to the spider mummifying the bug and sinking his Korean spider teeth into it...
Um...yeah, of all the things to see and do in Seoul... Yeah, okay, you're right. Traveling by yourself for so long and not speaking to anyone outside of the occasional Korean who wants to shout "hello" at you...maybe isn't the healthiest... Haha.
There was a water show at one of the bridges. Kind of cool. Not spectacular.
The floating stage. You can go and see live performances here. Concerts on the weekend are free, but I didn't go to anything this weekend. I got Turkish parks to visit, bro.
Well. Ta-da! That was it. My long 2-day weekend in Seoul. I rushed back to the subway (2 transfers) and caught my 10 pm ITX back to Chuncheon. I'm becoming so pro at this public transportation thing. Ah, so independent. So mature.
And then I came home and lesson-planned 'til 3 am. Er, not so mature or responsible...
No comments:
Post a Comment