Seoul: Round 1, Part 2

     ...Picking up right where we left off, on that nice, crisp Sunday morning in Seoul.  After bumming around the Sinchon neighborhood near our hotel, waiting for the boys to wake up for the day, Aaron and I headed to Itaewon, which is Seoul's main foreigner district, you might say.  Erik was feeling a little under the weather to say the least, suffering from what could have only been some wicked food poisoning from the day before.

     Itaewon, which is just due north of the Han River not far from Seoul's bustling city center, is the neighborhood in Seoul which most resembles what we've come to know as commercial North America.  Lined with shops full of familiar styles, restaurants and supermarkets with familiar food, and even pubs that carry decent micro-brew beers for a pretty penny, Itaewon, by and large, isn't far off from what one is used to seeing back in a vast majority of the Western world.  Unfortunately, given its large foreigner presence and the location of a United States military base extremely close by, Itaewon has developed a bit of a reputation--not only as being a hotbed of foreigner nightlife, but also for being that rare part of the city in which one might feel similarly unsafe, as one might in a comparably large city in the United States--New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston, etc...the list could go on.  The point is, more or less, that one might be more cautious about what they're doing and where they're going at any time of day in Itaewon.  Put simply, the United States (with which I'm most familiar with in the West) is, by and large, a much more dangerous place than South Korea across the board.  So Itaewon, for all its attractions by day, is not often an attractive place at night for that very reason.  Shopping and having a taste of home during the day is a great reason to check out Itaewon, while exploring the nightlife isn't as pleasantly understood and smiled upon.  Regardless, it's always interesting to exit the subway at the street level and literally see more foreigners than Koreans, and, truth be told, it's clear you can find some pretty cool stuff there!

Like Subway. Aaron was a 7-year-old boy in a candy store for the roughly 20 minutes it took for him to devour a nice chipotle chicken sub and a few cookies.  I myself made a nice purchase of which I'm proud in Itaewon, but that picture is coming up soon.

The next great sight we checked out was the Korean National War Museum. Aaron and I, both being total history nerds, knew this was a place that would be perfect for the two of us to kill 3 or 4 hours at.  The setting is absolutely stunning--I can't quite remember where in the city this was located, but there seemed to be very little around it--for being tucked into the middle of the city, the museum had done well for itself, possessing some amazing grounds of parks and water to walk around and check out just how immense the museum itself actually is.

Here are the stairs that lead to the main entrance of the Korean National War Museum.  Just when you think this is more or less going to be about the Korean War (1950-53, or 1950-, we might recognize), it turns out this is literally about Korea from day one.

And here's proof enough of that.  This hallway stretched on for about 200 yards, with a new famous general, king, or important military figure in Korea staggered every 5 yards or so.  Beautiful bronze (I think they were bronze?) busts of each figure identified faces, while descriptions identified distinctive military campaigns or achievements for Korea throughout the years.

Two such military studs...I want to say, just by looking at their swag, that they hail from an era hundreds of years ago...

This might have been the most powerful picture I remember from the museum, and really, one of the few that I had to take a picture of just to be sure that I could remember.  Just a lot of intensity here in a 21st century Korean soldier's face.

Can you name all of the nations that participated in the Korean War/conflict? Me neither. I'm close. Promptly give yourself 100 points at home if you guessed "Colombia" as a participant.

A shot of the airfield/battleship outside of the museum.  You can actually climb around the ship, and check out all the cool rooms, as well as board many of the planes and experience a little bit of what it's like to be a pilot or a soldier.  Aaron and I were giddy; absolutely in our element for 4 hours.

A parting shot of some cool Seoul skyline and the water fountains that surround the museum grounds.

...And here, ladies and gentlemen, is my major purchase of the trip from Itaewon (with the exception of a few saucy flannels, if I do say so myself, but you could have guessed that).  As some of you may know or refuse to acknowledge, I am a recently converted Packers fan--it has so much less to do with the Super Bowl hype than it does the fact that it's an extremely classy and old school football team of which I've grown very fond for the last 4-5 years of my life.  I've realized that to be a Packers fan is to be a fan of all that is good in sports, and figured a Bart Starr jersey might be a good place to start.

Dinner in Itaewon.  As advertised, plenty of Western cuisine, but also this: Thai cuisine.  Here we see thai curry, with cashews, shrimp, and chicken, over rice, mixed with cucumbers, tomato, and cilantro, all served in a giant pineapple.  Tough life.

A busy street in Sinchon, as we prepared for a final night out on the town.

Zach and Julia at one of the well advertised Ho Bars in Seoul--I believe this one was #7.  A smaller crowd joined us on Sunday in comparison to Saturday, but we had a great time.

One of my happiest moments in Korea thus far--found some Wisconsin folks!  The girl on the left is Mikayla, a teacher in South Korea who hails from none other than Bloomington, Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  We met at school freshman year, and both found our way to Korea as teachers.  Mikayla, along with Shruthi and Scott (pictured), are alumni Badgers teaching amongst a Wisconsin contingent based in Pyongtaek, which is about an hour's subway ride south of Seoul.  So great to see some familiar and relatable faces!  Oh yeah, if you hadn't noticed, Monti is also featured here with his signature bottle of Jack Daniels.

Bear hugs.  Not complaining. 

     So we had a great final night in Seoul.  Although it can be an expensive weekend if you let things get a little out of hand and find ways to stay out until 5:00 am (which seems to happen without fail in Seoul), it's always worth it.  I'm blown away to see how convenient travel is in Seoul, how much there is to do and see, how walkable it is, as well as how clean it is.  Two huge thumbs up.

Here's a final shot of the weekend, taken from the balcony of our motel.  There was a cool little section of roof onto which you could climb and get a nice look at the other rooftops in the neighborhood--here, as advertised, we have some straightforward, traditional-looking Korean building in the foreground, with the vertical, modern apartments in the background.  Seoul is full of this--fusion of old and new.

     A 3-hour KTX train ride later, and we were back to Gwangju.  Erik and I crawled our way back to Hampyeong, and went on with the semester.  One always needs a few days to recuperate from Seoul, whether it's the travel time, the late nights, the overwhelmingly urban atmosphere and utter shock of returning to the sticks (as is the case with Hampyeong) or a combination of all these.  We made our way back to Seoul a few months later, but that will be logged in due time.

     Thanks again to all for reading, and I'll be back with a new post very soon.  All the best, and love to all,

     -Sam Teacher