So, Angela, Chris, Eric and I headed to Seoul on the KTX (the bullet train) on Friday morning bright and early. We were all excited about the trip because we would be off work Friday-Tuesday, and I was even more excited because trains are my favorite way to travel. When I was riding, I wished I could call my little brother circa 1991 and rub it in his face. Man he used to love trains, but did he ever get to ride one? And across the magical faraway land of Korea, no less? I think not. It would have been even better if I had remembered to wear my Osh Kosh Begosh blue-and-white striped overalls.
Anyway, we got to Seoul in about 3 hours, and I was doing that thing where I revel at the fact that I have never stood in this exact spot on Earth ever before. I think I was annoying my friends, but that's what I like to do when I go new places. It doesn't get old. We rode the Seoul subway to the school where we were staying and checked into our rooms, where I met my roommate Jami. Luckiest roommate pairing ever! Jami is from Canada, and we all know I love Canadians - after all, my beautiful favorite friend in Barcelona, Holly, is from Vancouver. By this point, it's about 12:45 and we don't have anything going on until dinner time, and then after that we just have the opening ceremony in the morning, so we are free to explore the city.
So instead of doing that, we just take the group of about 12 of us who are there by that point and go looking for a place to grab a beer. As I'm sure I said many times that day, there are few things better than day-drinking. The reasons are countless, but included in them are the fact that if you're drinking during the day, you're definitely not at work, and it means you're ready to have fun. Basically, you are 100% guaranteed a good time, and this day was no exception. Plus we were with new, cool friends, in a new city on the other side of the globe. What's not to like?
The little nuances of different countries are fun to discover (most of the time), and what seemed like an unfortunate one at the time was that bars don't open until night, like around 6pm. But when the Universe closes a door, it opens a window. This time, the window was the fact that while unlike at home, bars are not open at 11am, also unlike at home, you can drink in public. So we just went to the Family Mart and got some 1600ml beers and hung out in this random alleyway, getting to know each other.
I met Jake and Tori, also Canadians (that seems to be the biggest foreign contingent here in Korea because apparently it's pretty hard to get a job in Canada, at least in teaching), and very fun kids. I also met Chaz and Kate, Iowanonians (that may not be the correct expression), who are so super fun and who live near Angela and Chris here in Busan. Then there was of course the roommate Jami, then Ashlea and Hope, our next-door neighbors in the dorm. And we were just the early-comers, there were dozens of more people to meet, but these were the people we spent our first few hours in the Seoul with. It was a great start to a fantastic trip, and I'll not forget the afternoon spent in a random alleyway in Korea with some of my new Seoul mates. :)
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