Soshified Korea Trip Part 2

Here is Part 1
http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/viewblog.php?id=257332

That first full day in Seoul was so packed we were dead tired by the time we got back to the hotel. We woke up early again the next morning and headed out to Namsan Hanok Village, which has traditional Korean residences and buildings. It was really interesting to see all the old style architecture and how the buildings were laid out. Also interesting was learning why everyone sits on the floor over there. Back in the day the heating system was done by heating the floor, so people sat on the ground to stay warm. From the village you can see Namsan Tower as well.

Close to the village was Namsan Park. This was a nice park up on the mountain a bit pretty much right below Namsan Tower. You could see a lot of the city even though it was still hazy. If you watch any Korean dramas you'll notice the staircase here. It's been on a lot of them, and variety shows, too. It's pretty cool to see these places in person after you've seen them on TV.

After Namsan Park we went back down the mountain into the city to Namdaemun Market. This traditional market was so packed with people and vendors it was incredible. It was like a maze in there and you could easily get lost if you weren't paying attention. Just walking around was an experience. You would walk by some vendors and hear Kpop coming out of the stores. The smell of the street food was everywhere and made you want to stop all the time and eat everything you saw. As we were walking back to our meeting place a Korean ahjussi(older man) grabbed my arm and pointed at me saying "migook migook!" which means "America". It was hysterical. He had this big grin on his face. I told him that I was from America in Korean and he almost fell over and asked if I could speak Korean so I told him a little bit but I needed to go. He waved goodbye as I left. That ahjussi was awesome. It was kind of surreal being such an extreme minority there. White people are exotic in Korea. White people who can speak Korean are even more exotic apparently, considering how surprised every single Korean I met was when I spoke their language to them.

Next stop was Music Core at MBC studios in Islan about 30 minutes outside of Seoul. This was an awesome experience. I wrote all about it in the first blog linked up top, check it out if you haven't seen it yet.

After Music Core we headed back into Seoul to eat dinner. We went to this restaurant in Insadong and had a full course meal with side dishes. The main dish was haemultang which is spicy seafood soup. It was so delicious. There was crab clusters, mussels, clams, shrimp, everything in there. I accidentally bit into one of the peppers though, holy god in heaven was that thing hot. Some of the side dishes were bulgogi(delicious meat) and japchae(the clear brown noodles, SO good). After dinner we walked around and shopped for a little bit, hit up Innisfree for more Yoona goodies.

Having just stuffed ourselves on amazing Korean food and looking for something to do, we went to Myeongdong, one of the biggest shopping spots in Seoul. For our group, this was because of two stores, SPAO and Everysing, which conveniently are in the same building. We walked right there and spent our entire time in Myeongdong in that building. Luckily we got to see a lot of Myeongdong anyway because it was kind of halfway down the main street. I write all about these stores in the first Korea trip blog up top, read it! For now here are some pictures of Myeongdong. The Shinsegae department store is owned by Samsung. Samsung owns a LOT of stuff in Korea. It was so busy and crowded, but that is what makes the experience awesome. It was so lively seeing everyone shopping around at all the cool stores. Shopping at night in Seoul is one hell of a good time with all the people and street food.

We all went back to the hotel after Myeongdong. We had to rest up because the next day we would be going to the SNSD concert. We woke up early and in the morning we went to breakfast at this place near the Korean War museum. There were so many tanks and planes used in the war, it was incredible to see this stuff up close. My great aunt served in the Korean war so it was remarkable to see all this stuff in person. I can't even think of the stuff she must have seen.

After breakfast we went to the concert venue. Please read all about the concert in the first blog linked up top. I went into extreme detail. I almost want to write about it again just to relive it because it was so amazing.

Everyone was completely blown away by seeing SNSD live in concert. It was a magical experience that nobody will ever forget. We went to dinner right after the concert to this awesome Korean BBQ restaurant and had Korean style grilled duck. Oh my God this stuff was so good. I don't know how the Koreans do it, but their food is freaking amazing. You put the duck on the grill which is on every table and then when it's cooked you put it in a lettuce leaf with a bit of garlic and this red pepper sauce. It's spicy but delicious. I got our table a bottle of soju to celebrate the concert. We got Jinro soju(gotta represent e-sports, LiquidJinro fighting!). This stuff is cheaper than water, literally. 3,000 won for a bottle(~3 bucks) and it's maybe the equivalent of a bottle of wine in alcohol. It was really good. You pour it in a shot glass and sip it, or you can one shot it. The flavor of the soju meshed so well with the bbq. Coupled with the other tables drinking their soju and makgeolli and cooking the bbq, everyone was in such a great mood and having a fantastic time together drinking and eating as one big sone family after the concert.

The party continued back at the hotel where are our amazing trip leader(seriously, she was a complete and total boss) got us all a bunch of cakes to celebrate. She got a lot and after everyone had finished and gone to their rooms there were still a few of us in the lobby hanging out raving about the concert and she practically force fed us the rest of the cake. We sort of complained, but not really because it was damn good cake.

The next morning we woke up early and had a delicious breakfast at the hotel then left for Lotte World! This is an amusement park in Seoul that is half indoors and half outdoors, attached to the absolutely HUGE Lotte department store. It's an entire city block and maybe 15 stories high. Lotte World itself was actually a lot of fun. We went on some rollercoasters, some rides, one "Adventures of Sinbad" was a lot like Pirates of the Caribbean. We went on the Gyro Drop outside, and I wish I had time to take a picture from the top because you could see so much of the city from way up high, but the ride drops you unexpectedly. This little Korean girl next to me was so scared screaming the entire way up and down, but had the biggest grin on her face after the ride was over, it was so cute. In line for one of the rollercoasters, people had written stuff all over the walls. We spotted quite a few cheers for various Kpop idols. We made our mark though, letting everyone know we were there that day. Lotte World was a cool little fantasy land with the ice rink and various actors in costumes. There was a marching band playing Kpop songs on the stage as well. One of the traditions there is to wear headbands with bows, bunny ears, cat ears, or other cute things on them, and a ton of the girls were wearing them. Guys get dragged along by their girlfriends into doing it too. A few of us guys in our group played along with it, getting bows and bunny ear headbands to wear. When in Rome right?

After Lotte World we went to an area to learn a bit about Korean ginseng and what makes it so special. Apparently 6 year old ginseng is the best and you can only buy it in Korea since they don't export it, and it's ridiculously expensive. Then we went to KBS studios in Yeouido, which is in the financial area of Seoul. We went to the filming of a tv show called Immortal Song 2, which you can read all about in my first write up on the trip up top. We walked around for a bit in Yeouido before the filming started. It's a very nice area with restaurants all over the place.

Immortal Song was a blast and afterwards we went out to our last dinner together. We had bulgogi and it was delicious. Everyone was having a great time drinking soju and makgeolli(rice wine) and enjoying everyone's company on our last night. We had a few toasts to our tour guides and trip leaders and organizers, as well as to our girls in SNSD a few times. The party continued back at the hotel late into the night as we celebrated a successful and amazing experience in Korea together.

Our last day was upon us, and some of us wanted to make a last ditch attempt to find one special item that we couldn't get the other day when we went to SPAO. We all wanted a certain hat that was very rare because it's very popular, so we went back to Myeongdong early in the morning. Unfortunately we got there too early because SPAO didn't open until 11am and we needed to be back at the hotel by 11:30am to get on the bus to Incheon to make our flight. It was pretty funny because I was able to explain in Korean to the SPAO guy that we didn't have a lot of time and asked if he had the hat we were looking for, and he said they did. So we decided to take our chances and stay til SPAO opened and get our hats, and haul ass back to the hotel in a cab as fast as possible. We walked around Myeongdong for a bit and went into this music store to buy some albums. The nice ahjumma(older lady) was kind enough to give me a couple free posters for buying stuff in her store. This added to my quickly growing collection of SNSD goods after Intel gave us a ton of posters and DVDs and other stuff I bought and got for free from nice ahjummas and ahjussis throughout the trip. SPAO opened and we got the hats that they had in the back and got back to the hotel just in time to get on the bus. Mission successful. The hat in question is the 309 hat up front. Taeyeon is extremely popular and all of her stuff sells out ridiculously fast.

When we got back to the hotel we said our goodbyes to people who were staying longer and got on the bus to Incheon. At the airport we had one last meal together. The food in the international terminal was actually ridiculously good. I had been wanting naengmyun the entire trip and I finally got the chance to have it. It did not disappoint.

Our flight was actually shorter coming back, only 10 hours. I was sitting next to this Korean ahjussi along with a bunch of other people from our group. This guy actually recognized us from the news in Korea and he was a fan of SNSD too so we were all talking to him about the girls. He loves Yoona and Seohyun, not bad ahjussi, not bad. It was awesome, one to be recognized by some random guy on a plane, two that he was a fan of our girls. It's true, SNSD is the nation's girl group. They are national treasures and extremely important to Korea.

Once we reached San Francisco the group of us still together said our goodbyes and went to our respective gates. This group of people on this trip, were some of the most amazing people I've ever met. We all had instant connections and became friends almost immediately. Over the course of our week together in Korea we became friends that continue to talk to each other almost every day now. Going to Korea with Soshified was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and to think how close I was to not going, I would have regretted it more than anything. Sones are amazing people, from all walks of life, all ages, genders, nationalities. And yet everyone is the same, we all love our girls. Visiting Korea would not have been half as fun were it not for the amazing people that joined me.

Korea is an absolutely amazing country. The people were incredibly nice and welcoming. The food was some of the best I've ever had, in any country. The sights, the smells, the sounds of Seoul were truly unique. Seoul is without a doubt the single greatest city on the planet. If I could go back right now, I would. Since I've gotten back I've had actual withdrawal, and actual depression because I wasn't in Korea anymore. I've done a lot of traveling to a lot of very cool places and I've never felt that way. Most other people who went on this trip say the exact same thing. Seoul is magical. If you ever get the chance to go, you must. You will never want to leave.