Note: some of the words in parentheses are easier synonyms
of more difficult words, which should hopefully make this easier to read for
non-native speakers.
I had thought that I would need to check out of the guesthouse
by 10 AM, but luckily I didn't need to leave until noon. I was going to meet Soee's mom and Hyun at 2
PM, so I had some time to myself that morning.
I managed to find my way back to Namdaemun Market by myself and bought a
surprisingly large number of souvenirs for my family. The box of Christmas presents I had sent
hadn't arrived yet, and I was starting to worry that they would never show up,
so I kind of felt like I needed to buy Christmas presents a second time. Out of the 245,000 KRW I brought with me, I
spent 120,000 KRW on souvenirs. With
souvenirs in hand, I went out to try some of the street food that I had seen
before. I got a delicious (very good)
deep-fried sausage with some kind of wrapping on a stick first (I don't know
what it was called.) It was very similar
to a corn dog, though I'm not sure what the outer wrapping was made of. I also tried a hotteok, thick, chewy pancake
filled with cinnamon syrup. I was told
that they're both common winter foods, and while they weren't healthy at all,
they were very good!
Once I finished eating, I went back to the guesthouse and
packed my things just in time to meet the 12 PM deadline. Since I still had some time to kill (wait,) I
stopped at a nearby café and got a sweet potato latte (it was purple, and very
sweet.) I hung out in the café until
1:30 PM, then walked to Myeongdong Station to catch a taxi. Unfortunately, there was a lot of traffic, so
the trip ended up taking close to an hour instead of half-hour like I'd thought,
so I was late again. It was very
frustrating (annoying) being late a few times this trip, and always when people
were waiting for me. I'm usually always
very punctual (on time,) and I hate being late.
After paying the taxi driver 13,000 KRW, I realized that I only had
about 15,000 KRW left, which became a bigger problem the next day. I ended up meeting Soee's mom and Hyun at 2:30
PM, and went back to their apartment for lunch a little later than expected.
The family apartment (condo really, since they own it,) was
very nice and felt spacious (big,) though it was, of course, smaller than a
Western home with six people would be.
Soee's family, and in particular her mom, is very religious, so there
was a large collection of Catholic art on the walls and in the rooms. I'm not religious myself (one of the only differences
of opinion Soee and I have,) but some of the pieces were very nice. It was a little surprising to see so many religious
symbols, though; it really made clear the depth (strength) of her family's
faith. They don't have a couch right now
(they're working on getting a new one) and instead have a large electric mat in
the middle of the living room, giving the room an open, airy feel. Their home is on the 19th floor, and they
have a great view of the city through the many windows. Soee shares a room with Hyun, and I stayed in
her younger brother's room (he's away for required military service at the
moment) while I was there.
Soee's mom was very nice, though she didn't speak a word of
English, so we had to communicate (talk) through Hyun. Lunch consisted of (was) bulgogi, dak albi (a spicy
chicken dish with tteok and sweet potatoes) and
black rice, with kimchi, dried squid, dried sardines, crunchy black beans, and
kelp on the side. The kelp came in small
squares; you put a little rice on the kelp, then ball it up and eat it. When they asked me which dish I liked the
most, I surprised them again by saying that I preferred the dak galbi
because it was spicy and had sweet potatoes.
They had expected me to like the bulgogi more like most foreigners!
When we had had enough to eat, Soee's mom put out apple
slices, oranges, crackers, and chips for us to snack on. I got out some sweets from Greg and Claire
that I had brought along to share (because it was too much for me to eat by
myself!) – homemade chocolate peanut brittle and chocolate salt water taffy,
spicy Mexican chocolate, and gourmet lollipops (vanilla, chocolate,
butterscotch, and café latte flavors.) I
also gave them a small gift of some ginseng peppermint herbal tea. The candy was a big hit with the family
(though they thought the spicy chocolate was a bit weird,) so thanks again to
Greg and Claire for their delicious gift!
I also got to meet Taggu, Soee's dog. I had honestly been more concerned about
Taggu liking me than Soee's family, and the little guy did bark up a storm (a
lot) when I first came in. Soee said that
he's very timid and easily scared, so he usually barks a lot at anyone who
isn't close family, including their relatives.
Fortunately, he calmed down and stopped barking at me surprisingly
quickly. He did keep a close eye on me,
though, and if I went somewhere he didn't want me to go he let me know in a
hurry! Shortly before my trip, Taggu
peed on the bed, and also the mattress while they were cleaning the sheets. They had to throw out the mattress and
weren't able to get a new one before I came, so they set up some thick blankets
on the floor for me to sleep on. Taggu peed
on those as well while I was there, and after that we made sure to keep the
door shut. There were no problems with
any of my things, thankfully.
After lunch, we took Taggu for a walk by the Han River, a
huge river that runs through all of Seoul.
There is a small campground on the banks of the river, and I was told
that it's very popular to camp there or have picnics by the water during
summer. I was amazed (surprised) that
the campground appeared to be in use at this time of year – I can't imagine
camping in the middle of the city in the freezing cold! There was also a small snow park set up next
to the campground, with a big snow slide for children to go down. Taggu was very cute in his little doggie
jacket, alternating (switching) between jumping on Hyun's legs and her mom's
legs and barking at everyone we passed.
The cold was too much for us after about an hour of walking,
so we went back to wait for Soee to get home from work. She managed to leave work a little earlier
than we had expected, mostly because her boss was out of the office that day,
and she got back around 6:30 PM. We had kimchi
stew and some of the leftovers from lunch for dinner. Soee's dad came home from work in the middle
of the meal, so I was able to meet him as well.
He spoke a tiny bit more English that her mom, but not much. He was friendly and soft-spoken, and Soee
said he was a good family man. Her older
sister didn't, Yeoung Hee, come home while we were there; I didn't meet her
until Saturday night.
Around 10 PM, Soee and I departed (left) for the jjimjilbang,
a Korean-style sauna. The jjimjilbang was
close to the Cheonggyecheon Waterway, which Soee had said was even more
beautiful at night, so we walked along the waterway a short ways and then
circled back to the sauna. It was on the
15th floor of a very large building, and we had a little trouble finding an
elevator that would take us to the right floor, but we finally found it. We checked in and each got a set of loose-fitting
sauna clothes (a T-shirt and shorts,) a sweat towel and a locker key. The outfits were color-coded – blue for men,
red for women and green for children – and the key had an elastic band that you
could put on your wrist or ankle. Soee
gave me the rundown on (explained to me) how to do things in the men's-only
area, and we separated to get changed.
The first step was to put my shoes away in a small shoe
locker. Next, I put my clothes and
belongings in another locker and changed into the sauna clothing. After that, I was free to go to the main room
of the sauna, which was mixed-gender again.
It was a huge, open room with tons of (many) thin mats strewn (laid) all
over the floor. Along the walls were a
number of different heated rooms, each with a different temperature (60° –
70°C) and theme (salt, gold, stone, wood, etc.)
There was also a chilled (cold) room, though I didn't end up going into
that one. One wall had a row of low,
arched, brick-lined alcoves big enough for one mat. The jjimjilbang also had a wall-mounted TV,
snack bar, restaurant, public bath, arcade, karaoke room, computer room (for a
fee,) exercise room, and coin-operated massage chairs. Hallways on either side led to the men's and
women's sleeping areas, as well as the restrooms.
One very odd (strange) thing about Seoul was what people did
with toilet paper in the bathroom. Most
of the restrooms I used had signs saying to put toilet paper in the trash
instead of flushing it, and every one had trash cans full of used toilet
paper. From what I've gleaned (learned)
from my research, the people in Korea think that the toilet paper will clog the
toilets (even though they have one of the newest and best sewage systems in the
world,) so they put it in the trash instead.
I have no idea what I was supposed to do if I had to, ahem, go number
two, but luckily that didn't end up being a problem.
I met up with Soee, and we decided to try the 70°C salt room first, the hottest room they had. We had brought our phones with us to help us find each other, but shortly after entering the room Soee thought that the heat might not be good for them, so we put them back in our lockers and then came back. 70°C is awfully (very) hot, of course, so we didn't stay in there too long.
We tried
out each room in turn, taking long breaks in-between to chat, explore the
jjimjilbang and watch a little TV (Soee's favorite comedian won an award!) Soee wanted to try one of the karaoke boxes,
but although my throat hadn't bothered me much during my stay in Seoul, I
didn't want to risk making it worse by singing.
She told me the next day that she had sung a few songs by herself after
I went to bed; I was sorry that I missed it. She also pointed out (showed me) Namdaemun (South Big Gate, or Great Southern Gate,) which is the number one national treasure of Korea. There was a huge fire in 2008, and the gate is still being renovated (repaired.)
I also wasn't used to staying up as late as she was, so I was ready to call it a night around 1 or 1:30 AM. I had crawled into one of the alcoves earlier and very nearly fallen asleep, but I thought the sleeping area might be more comfortable, so I said good night to Soee and went to check out the sleeping room. It was darker, but also a little cooler, and the bunkbeds were all occupied. I settled for a mat on the floor and a firm square cushion for a pillow, though now that I was actively trying to fall asleep this just didn't do it (work) for me. I generally have a hard time sleeping without some kind of blanket, and while other people had blankets, I couldn't find any. (I found out the next morning that blankets cost extra.) To make matters worse, the man next to me was snoring loudly. I went back to the main room to see if the alcove I had been using was still free, but sadly someone else had taken it. I returned to the sleeping area and tried to make the best of it, using a second mat as a sort of blanket, but sleep did not come easily. Needless to say, it was a long night.
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