Day 3: the conquering

I can't wait for tomorrow to go back and take a picture of what i experience this morning. on my morning jog through the city, i discovered a mecca of elderly fitness addicts that were doing some kooky version of line dancing for aerobics. I'm starting to guess if that is where everyone is in the morning, since they aren't working. It is a little park full of pull up bars, circle things, jumpy things, push down things, weight benches, and a courtyard for hitting birdies for badminton. (you actually can't play badminton, you can only hit birdies to each other... simply amazing!) Sneaking a photo might be like sneaking into Tibet, though. Its definitely doable, but highly tricky.

after the stores opened, i made my way to get some school supplies for Jean. i don't know if its because i'm white, but every store i walked into, i had somebody follow me around like i was going to steal something right off the shelf. at first it made me uncomfortable, thinking that they couldn't trust me and all that jazz, but then i made a game of it. when i was in the shoe section, i asked them if they knew what kind of shoes the president of korea wore, because i wanted to buy the same kind; when i was in the electronics section, i asked where the typewriters were (that took me a while to translate typewriter); and when i was in the bakery section, i asked them if they thought that i'd gain a lot of pounds if i ate cookies everyday. seeing the looks on their faces was priceless!

Jean showed up on time and we studied for a couple of hours. we got hungry, so we made ourselves some ramen noodles... korean style. (thats actually how they are supposed to be since the koreans have mastered the art of the complex ramen noodles) Jean is a pretty good cook. he added just the right amount of water to the mix and it turned out perfect. during lunch i found out that he has a girlfriend that he has been dating for 2 years. she goes to some university, but they both don't want to get married until they are atleast 30. (i guess thats a normal thing here.) so they are betrothed to each other until then.

after lunch we packed our things and went hiking. but first we had to take the subway. i saw my first white person today down there. i'd love to hang out down there more, but its so stuffy and crowded, plus people think you are weird if you hang out in the subway. it took us about 40 minutes to get where we were headed, and then we had to take a 10 minute taxi drive to get to the mountain. its called NamSan. it is actually an old fort that the chinese built in 1280. from the NamSan tower, you can see all of seoul. it was awesome. i bet it would be even more beautiful at night, where everything is lit up. multiple people told us to come back with girls so we could get some action. ha ha. what you do is you grab a lock, and there is only one key. the lock is supposed to represent your unbreakable love for each other, and the key is the only key to your heart. real sappy, but there are thousands of these locks at the top that are locked to wires from the look out. i felt like i was some korean dimension of sleepless in seattle or something.

The mood soon changed when we saw an old fashioned beheading for us! (that, i wouldn't take a girl with me, but it was still sweet!) there were these people that acted like traditional fighters for the army and they cut stuff up, including a fake person. It was like the last samurai, but more real and less blood. what else could someone ask for?





on the walk down from the mountain, i figured that koreans love to be extremely close to whoever they are with - meaning that they are pushing you wherever you go. not only was Jean leaning into me, but everyone was shoulder and shoulder. when we got to the bottom i felt like i had been rubbing against a wall for a couple of miles.

We ate dinner with Kim Young and her husband. it was a 5 course meal that was super weird and super expensive. we had everything from crab (head, claws, body) to moss/algae soup to clam stew to halibut to swordfish. it was disgusting; it was amazing; it was indescribable.