So far, Seoul is nothing like I expected it to be! We have been here for only 7 or so hours and it resembles nothing like a K-Drama! Of course if someone in another country only watched our afternoon soap operas and then was dropped into our neighborhood they would also have a rude awakening! It has been harder and easier at the same time to communicate with people here. They either speak perfect English and are willing to help, or they speak none at all. We realized that our guesthouse does not offer sheets for our little futon on the floor, and in our hast to pack and make it to the airport when we left the states we forgot our much planned for duvet to sleep in! So I have been freaking out about sleeping on a dirty futon! We searched the streets for a place that sold sheets, but we could find nothing. We did find the Lotte department store, but it was so high end, and only had really nice bedding. It seems that people in Korea do not use sheets or linens. They just have a thick futon mattress that they wash out and then they cover up with a thick comforter. Our guesthouse assures us that they wash these everyday, but that doesn’t fit for me. In the US the washing machines would have to be very big and powerful to wash something as bulky as these, so I am not sure. But Kyle has tried to reassure me by discounting the effectiveness of a sheet protecting me from anything gross on a western style mattress! I tried to tell him it is a lot easier to wash sheets as opposed to the thick futon mattresses, well when I say thick I guess I mean about an inch thick (see picture) Needless to say I will not be sleeping naked tonight! So much for being the planning queen! I guess I am good at planning but need to work on the execution part!
We ended up wandering the streets of Seoul aimlessly looking for sheets, but what we found really caught us off guard. I expected Korea to be a lot like Japan in the feel and manners, and overall look, but there are little shops on the sidewalks with men shining shoes, and all sorts of huts that are selling something or other. There are mopeds and motorcycles on the sideswalks, and people walking in every direction seemingly disregarding any traffic laws. There is such a contrast of people with the way they are dressed and the way they are behaving. We saw a homeless man sitting crosslegged on the sidewalk, and as a woman in a skirt walked past him, he started hitting her with a plastic bag in his hand! The things we saw in our first few hours made me think of the things we might see in Vietnam, not Seoul! It easier and harder to communicate here, than in Japan, either people speak perfect English and are super willing to help, or they can’t speak any! It has been a challenge so far. I think Kyle and I were a little over confident in our Korean, and we were not as prepared as we should have been. I can’t even imagine how hard it is going to be to communicate once we get to Southeast Asia. Well more on all this later, we are going back out to brave the streets and find some wonderful street food. So far all we have had is Kimbop (street snack food, like a sushi roll, but with ham, egg, veggies, and who knows what else, but super yummy!) down in an underground market, and some chicken nachos (random, I know!) at a soju restaurant where we had to wait about 20 mins for the waitress to arrive to take our order, we didn’t know what was going on the entire time, the older woman there, just kept telling us to wait, but we didn’t understand why she didn’t just give us some soju (kind of like sake).
While we were walking on the streets we noticed that a lot of people were staring at us, and this did not happen so much in Japan. We later read in our guide book that men in Korea don’t usually wear shorts even if it is really hot outside. Kyle was wearing shorts! And our guide book also mentioned that if you were a blonde woman with blue eyes you should dress even more conservative than normal, because usually Korean men will think you are a Russian prostitute if you look like that and are dressed too provocatively. So the little dress without a bra was probably a bad idea! Anyway we got a lot of looks, but also many people were willing to help, and a couple of times we didn’t even have to ask for the help, people could just tell that you were lost or needed help.
We finally gave up our search for sheets and headed back to the guesthouse. We relaxed for a bit and then headed out to hunt for some more food. We found fried chicken and beer, I think the place is actually called Fried Chicken and Beer. We ate and then started talking (well trying to talk) to the two men at the table next to us. They ended up [paying for our meal! Crazy, apparently if you are American and willing to try to talk to the locals they will pay for everything. This trip is becoming quite cheap! Hehe As stated many times before I get cranky when I am hungry or tired, so
Kyle is still out with our new Korean friends while I am back in the room. Hopefully he doesn’t get into too much trouble. Oh and I should also mention that every single time we have eaten anything here, shortly after we get our food, the server will bring over complimentary! Not just in restaurants be at other station
There are so many first impressions I have of Seoul, it is hard to capture all of them. So far I have noticed very many contrasting things, there seems to be a lot of wealth here, but the streets are dirtier than I thought. Of course what Kyle and I know about Korea comes from K-Dramas and from friends. What we have seen so far doesn’t resemble a K-Drama at all, but I suppose that if someone from another country only watched our American Soap Operas and thought that that was what all of America was like, they would also be surprised if they came to my neighborhood for example!
Well I am super tired and so I will write more tomorrow! Miss you all.
