Kimbo in Korea: Exploring Seoul

We are starting to get used to our surroundings, and have started to explore Seoul a bit more. It's a long subway ride, roughly 1 hour, but fairly cheap (a round trip costs less than a one way in Toronto). We decided to brave the weather (it's pretty cold here, we didn't expect that!) and head to Yongsan market. Sam is keen on buying another flatscreen TV, as we obviously couldn't bring his along from Canada. Yongsan market is the electronics market, a huge building with roughly 7 floors. First floor is camera's, second floor is computers, third floor is TVs, etc etc etc. It's quite interesting to walk in and have multiple vendors shouting at you in broken English, "Hello! Camera? You need camera?!" We explored the different floors, and found out that TVs are not at all cheaper in Korea, as we assumed they would be. We also found a tiny little pet store, with tiny little puppies! It makes sense that the dogs are so small here, considering the apartments are so small. Actually, we haven't seen anything that wouldn't fit into a purse. Sam won't let Chloe get one :p. We also found a little music section, and priced some saxophones as Sam used to play in high school, and Chloe is dying to hear it! Anyone want to chip in? ^^

After our trip through Yongsan, we traveled to Gwangmyeong for dinner with Chloe's friend, Katie. We picked her and her co-worker up at their hagwon (private school) and walked to a nearby restaurant for Shabu Shabu. Mmmm, delicious. Picture a big bowl of broth on a burner in the middle of the table. They heat it up and toss in a bunch of veggies, thin slices of beef, anything you want really. Halfway through, they add dumplings (mandu) and noodles. And at the end when you only have bit of broth left, you add rice. Koreans do love their rice.

After dinner we decided to check out the night scene in Hongdae. It's a university area in Seoul, and really popular for drinking and dancing. We started at Ho Bar III with a "set." Firstly, the bar names aren't always creative- they have Ho bar I, II, all the way until XIII I think. Same happens with Goldrush I, II (you get the idea). Secondly, a "set" is kind of like the "meal" you would order at McDonalds. Instead of buying one drink each, you buy an entire bottle of vodka, or rum, or whatever you want. It comes with little side dishes, like peanut snacks, and a plate of fruit, and a couple kinds of mixes. It's a good deal when you split it with friends. And afterwards we went dancing. The cab ride home seemed expensive, but again, not compared to Toronto taxi's.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing; we met Chloe's co-worker and his girlfriend in the foreigner's district, Itaewon, and ate Mexican food. Itaewon is a good place to try different foods from all over the world. They even have a Canadian bar that serves poutine! It started to snow this weekend too, but snow rarely stays on the ground for more than a day. We were really amused by the Koreans sweeping up the snow with these funny neon green brooms. One department store, a centimetre of snow, and 8 people with these small brooms sweeping it clear. Customer service is clearly important.