Lone Star Reunion in Seoul

One of the biggest differences in my second round as a teacher in Korea are the number of people I know here. Of course there are familiar faces from my first time around (Liz, Adam, Rick, etc) but I didn't think some of those familiar faces would be from Texas! Surprisingly, I know quite a few people from the Lone Star State ( and a few more are in transit, or on the way!) that now reside with me in the Land of Morning Calm. Lauren, Jon, and Jacob are currently in South Korea and these 3 are from my circle of friends originally in Plano, Texas. Lauren was my roommate at the Venue in Richardson. No lying, our apartment was fabulous. Unfortunately we both found ourselves victims of the recession at the same time. Lauren and her boyfriend Jacob went to Daegu in March and yours truly headed back to Seoul in May. It's been awhile since we've seen each other and this past week, Lauren and Jacob took a train up to Seoul from Daegu and we had a nice Texas reunion with another good buddy Jon. Jon is actually teaching at my first school, living in my original apartment building. We're about a 20 minute subway ride from each other, and luckily I have been able to meet up with him a couple of times since I've been here. Oh and we're planning on Bali for Christmas, too!So with Jon and I as the official tour guides, I had tried to brainstorm all the things we could do in Seoul for the weekend. My only problem, how were we going to fit all the fun and amazing stuff to do in just two days??? I attacked a city map with the strategic focus of a general planning an attack. Should we start in Insadong and work our way out? Start the day in Itaewon and move east? Maximize the activities and reduce the time spent commuting as much as possible. I sent possible itineraries to them to get their input. However, there are two realities:

1) Fun things you can do in Seoul

2) Fun things you can do in Seoul when it rains.

As Jon mentioned, Seoul is an amazing city but so much of what makes it amazing are things that you enjoy when you're outdoors.

Friday night: torrential downpours (thanks monsoon season!) but it managed to turn into a light sprinkle as Lauren and Jacob came into Seocho. They dropped off their stuff and we headed to Gangnam. Went to Woodstock and Rainbow. Met up with Michael Sharpe and he introduced us to bucket juice at Rainbow. Rainbow can only be described as a poor man's Nabi. The bucket juice got the best of me and by 4:00 we were stumbling out and someone had the awesome idea of Burger King at 4:00 am. We got back to my place and like old times, Jon crashed on the sofa (although this time, the sofa was the floor).

Flying Pan for breakfast in Itaewon. The weather only took a turn for the worse once we were inside. It was coming down in buckets (this is an expression my students are learning). After enjoying a nom nom nom breakfast (I had cinnamon and pear pancakes with walnut ice cream. What, mom? I'm a grown up now) we went to the Leeum Museum. This place is so amazing. I had seen a special exhibit for Andy Warhol previously but never took a look at the permanent collection. Love it! Afterwards went shopping at Express Bus Terminal and everyone went to their respective places to freshen up for the evening.

After having a delicious galbi dinner in Hongdae we went over to Vinyl in Hongdae. Vinyl is a fun place to go to start the night. It's this small bar that also serves streetside and you order alcoholic drinks in ziploc baggies! ZIPLOC BAGGIES! ALCOHOL! What a winning combo! I don't even know if Korea has open container laws but it's perfectly acceptable to walk down the street drinking alcohol out of a clear, plastic, ziploc bag. It's also perfectly acceptable to sit outside of a 7-11 and drink beer and soju for hours. Doesn't have the same connotation as back home.

After Vinyl we headed to Nabi and then to Nomads. We were all exhausted by a late Friday night and a full day of running around on Saturday so it was a pretty early night (relative... early is about 2-2:30 here in Seoul and back in the states that's when the night is usually over).

On Sunday we met up for Gyeongbuk Palace. But it. was. hot. After Gyeongbuk we went to Insadong, unfortunately I realized I left my handphone in the taxi. So I bid adieu to the Texans and went to retrieve my phone. After paying 15,000 won to get my phone back I headed to CoEx to meet Mikey (another fellow Texan) and end my perfectly Texan weekend with some On the Border. Oooooooh quesooooooo I love you!

Going to Busan tomorrow!!!