An Evening in Seoul

On Saturday morning, we all got up for our physicals. Basically, to get a Korean identity card, you have to get a thorough physical done. This includes urine samples, blood tests, x-rays, and even a tooth checkup. The power went out in the middle of the physicals, putting us back an hour while we waited for the construction to finish. Then, after physicals (also meaning the ending of our fast!), we ate lunch and a group of 8 of us headed to Seoul for the evening. We arrived in Seoul about 1.5 hours later, and that's when the adventure began.

Now, before I continue this story, remember that none of us have cell phones, only one of us speaks Korean, and we have no idea how this city works. Ok, continue.

To get taxis from the train station to our hostel, we obviously had to split up into two groups. The address to the hostel wasn't exactly accurate, so we decided to meet somewhere and then walk to the hostel from that meeting point. Of course, none of us know how to say, "Follow that taxi", so we were at the mercy of the drivers. They both took us to where we asked, which was the subway station nearest our hostel. However, we didn't realize that the subway station had 20 exits. So, we were seperated. After waiting a while, we decided to head to the hostel. We showed the taxi driver the address, only for him to drive us like 400 yards, turn down a back alley, and then say, "Ummm, no hotel here". We got out and walked around and somehow ended up finding someone who knew where it was.

Our hostel name was "Mr. Kim's Friends", and it was exactly just that. Mr. Kim had two very large apartments filled with bunks and he had it completely packed, including floor space. It was cheap, so no worries. The other group did show up about 15 minutes later, and we all headed out for dinner. After dinner, the night began. A brazilian and an american joined us on our ventures, and we headed to the club district known as Hung-dae. Wow, what a place. The amount of neon lights in these streets reminded you of a small Times Square. It kept going and going. We stopped at a place called Club Cocoon, which ended up being like 4 stories underground. Wow, this place was huge. The music was mostly house music, and the sound was excellent. On top of that, the consistent light show made for a great atmosphere. At some point during the dancing, our entire group ended up on stage, and that was quite an experience. Jon took some footage while we were up there, make sure to check it out.

So, after our clubbing experience, we stopped at a classic KFC for some chicken before calling it a night. The next day, we went to some shopping sections of Seoul to see what we could find. We took the subways around town, which was very easy to use and very quick. The shopping experience was different, but not too bad. One of the girls in our group needed some formal clothes for work, but finding stuff in her size (She is about 5'8") was nearly impossible. Then, we turned a corner, and we couldn't find the other half of the group. In the large crowds we got split into 4 and 4 again, and for the second time we had no communication whatsoever. After looking around, my group decided to head to the hostel. When we got there, the other group had already left, so naturally we thought they were headed to the train station. We took a taxi to the station, boarded a train, and got back to the university, just to find that the other group wasn't there, haha. However, they did end up showing up about 2 hours later.

Life in a big city can be tough to navigate, but without cell phones it is just about impossible unless you are basically holding hands the entire way. With huge crowds, losing someone and never seeing them again is so easy, as we discovered this weekend. We are all looking forward to buying cell phones once our identity cards come in, but that isn't for another 2 - 3 weeks. Anyway, that is a very quick summary of our weekend in Seoul. Overall, it was a complete blast and we saw a lot of stuff just walking around Seoul exploring (in the rain). Check out some of our footage and pictures! Jon was our group photographer, so all the videos were filmed thanks to him. Thanks for reading.

Just arrived at the station. Found some other TaLK students there.

Dinner that night.

The boys.

The girls.

The group. Plus Mr. Kim. 

Club Cocoon.

Lunch the next day.

Gas masks at the subway stations just in case North Korea goes berserk. 

On the way to Cocoon with our very multicultural group.

On stage!

The amount of construction is this city is crazy. Take a look.