Sunday, August 9, 2009

Today was my free day to explore so after reading for a bit in my room I walked to Tous Les Jour and tried a couple more pastries - a croissant-like pastry with almonds on top and another light, flaky bread with a sweet, crispy top - like the crumbles on coffee cake. I then took the subway to City Hall Plaza and did a walking tour from my travel guidebook. It brought me along the wall of one of the palaces, which was very quaint and tree-lined. I also saw a few of the museums and a palace. Most museums in Seoul are free or very cheap ($1 or less), but many were not open yet since it was Sunday so I just looked at their outsides. I also got to see Seoul Plaza and City Hall Plaza, which are massive, open plazas in the center of the city. You could spend hours just strolling around them and it was quite hot out so I took a few pictures and then kept walking.

I happened to get to the palace in city hall plaza right as the changing of the guards happened outside the entrance gate. About 50 men dressed in traditional costume preformed a ceremony that involved drumming and exchanging a box. I'm not sure what was in it - perhaps the key to the palace?

Next I went to Itaewon for some shopping. It's near a US army base so there are many foreigners in the area. The predominant stores were those selling leather goods, suits, and clothing in big sizes. Every other store advertised "Big Sizes." This is where Rich would have to shop if he lived in Seoul because most of the other shops only offer clothing in one size and that happens to be small. It's good for me because I'm not much bigger than most Korean women, but if you're not small, it's very difficult to find clothing that fits. According to my guide book you can get a custom-made suit for about $250. The shops seemed to have all sorts of fabrics and that's a pretty good deal. Since I was in a somewhat American area, there were mostly American restaurants so I ate at a burger/sandwich shop and had a grilled vegetable sandwich with fries.

After more shopping I headed back to Sinchon, the area where Yonsei is located. Something nice about Korean subways (besides being fast, clean, large, and reliable) is that each station has a bathroom. And it's well-marked, clean and people actually use it. I used subway bathrooms the entire time I was out today. In general, bathrooms are well marked in Seoul. Back at Sinchon I did a little more shopping and then got some frozen yogurt topped with fruit, like I did the other day. This time I had blueberry sauce, strawberry puree, peaches, mangos and coco puffs.

I got back to the dorm around 4:00, drenched in sweat (it was sunny and 90 today, though not very humid) and did some school work until dinner. Tonight the cafeteria was serving rice, cabbage kimche, dumplings and carrots, sweet, pickled radish strips, sweet/spicy chicken stew, and miso broth with seaweed and wide noodles. The radish strips were a light green color, but I can't figure out what was added to them to turn them that color. They were good, though, sweet and tangy at the same time.

After dinner I got an ice cream bar that was like a chocolate elcair bar, except the crunchy outside part seemed to be rice-based and the vanilla ice cream was filled with raspberry flavoring. Quite yummy and only 630 won (about $.50). The food on campus is all very cheap (about $2 to $4 a meal) and much of the food off-campus is under $8 a meal. In general the exchange rate is on our favor and goods and food are cheap to begin with so you can really buy a lot for very little money. I spent about $120 today shopping and got a ton of stuff - about 10 pieces of clothing and a bunch of necklaces, earrings and other accessories. I will definitely miss the shopping when I leave Seoul. I'm hoping to get out one more time during the week.