Part 2: Seoul, Korea

Last Thursday, after a tearful goodbye in Beijing, I flew to Seoul to meet up with brother Kevin & his university friend Eunice. She grew up in Seoul and now visits her folks during the summer - fortunately while we were there! Friday we met up, drove all around, saw an open air market and went to a mountain which has at its top the 'N Seoul Tower'. A healthy hike up to the top, the views were great and we took many many photos. We strolled back down, had a delicious lunch at a fusion restaurant in Eunice's neighborhood and she showed us around, her church, her elementary school, some local shops. We ended our day with a vegetarian 'Buddhist temple food' restaurant for dinner followed by a stroll in the park. Next day, Saturday, we had a late lunch and hopped on the city tour bus, getting off at the historic village Namsangol. We had a late dinner at a restaurant famous for their oysters - and with good reason! Beautiful, delicious and large! It was the first two-bite oyster I'd ever had! Sunday morning Eunice saw us off and we were on our way to Singapore.

Couple of thoughts on Seoul (I was there for about 48 hours, so apply many many grains of salt to the following..)

Coming from Beijing, Seoul seemed really really clean. And orderly and polite. Perhaps it really is, or perhaps it is in my mind when compared to Beijing.

Exchange rates took a minute to get used to. The current rate is about $1 USD to about 1,200 Korean Won. Right. So a cup of coffee may cost you 4,500 Won. Dinner for two? About 36,000 Won. Souvenir magnet? 2,000 Won. The iTouch calculator feature? Priceless.

Stepping off the plane into Korea I knew two words of Korean: yo bosay-o (which is a greeting when you answer the phone) and kim-cheewhich is one of my favorite dishes. Completely my fault for not learning more prior to my trip. So I asked Eunice for some basics.
Thanks = Kam sa Ham nee dah (phonetically)
Hello =ahn Yong Ha say-o
Yes = Neh
No = Anio

Now, I'm no linguist. But these seemed like a lot of syllables. So I asked Eunice, do you ever abbreviate? No, you always say the whole thing. It took a full two days for me to remember all the syllables of KamSaHamNeeDah and make my mouth say it at the right time. For the first 36 hours I was like a happy mute, nodding and smiling because I knew no words!