Chloe and Sam joined up with friends Katie and Peter to have some Indian food in Itaewon (Seoul's foreigner district). There is a fantastic buffet at the Foreign Restaurant for 15$, including french fries (!?), butter chicken, dahl, chicken tandoori, spring rolls, naan bread, lamb korma, papadum, a variety of vegetables, chutneys and pickled mangoes, you get the idea. Katie had never had Indian food before (shocking!) and was delighted! It's a really nicely decorated restaurant with great servers who clear your plates immediately and refill your water right away. Strangely, Chloe didn't get any pictures of this place (sorry!) or the food. But don't worry, we'll definitely go back. Bursting at the seams, we wandered around Itaweon a bit.
Katie wanted to show us some foreign grocery stores so we could find all those little things we might miss. Chloe bought raspberry jam, and Sam looked for orange pekoe tea, but had to settle for ceylon. We did find the junk food (doritos and red bull) but we avoided all the temptations. We also made a point to check out What the Book, what we believe is the only English bookstore in Seoul. Sam wanted to find a good tailor and get some suits made, so we wandered around the backstreets for a little while. Finding nothing, we headed over to Namdaemun.
Namdaemun was packed as usual, and full of funny Koreans. Sam made a comment about kimchi chocolate, and some salesperson jumped out of nowhere and said, "kimchi chocolate, you want some?
We have!" They are also obsessed with ginseng here, and half some VERY strange pictures advertising it (left). Chloe was here to buy a Hello Kitty hair dryer she'd seen a couple weeks earlier, and also picked up a Baby Milo hoodie. Yes, we've only been here for a couple months and she's already been affected by the cuteness culture. Peter was looking for earmuffs that weren't covered in adorable animals or flowers, and never ended up finding anything. Katie needed to buy another animal hat, because she'd given hers to her sister. We should explain. Picture a hat in the shape of an animal, with animal paws as mittens. That doesn't help, does it? Ok, just follow this link:
We walked from Namdaemun to Myeong Dong, and saw some interesting ice sculptures on the way. They created a kind of mini park out of ice, slides and everything. We also saw a lot of Koreans giving away free hugs in Myeong Dong, the shopping district next to Namdaemun. That place is also always busy, but really fun. Lots of things to see, lots of stores to visit (they've got Forever 21 and Zara's if you ever feel homesick) and a bajillion restaurants to eat at. We didn't stay long though.
After our day of shopping we traveled back to Gwangmyeong where Katie lives, and had dinner at Nolboo. This Nolboo chain was a different kind than the one in Ansan, and sold large bowls of soup. Not like Shabu Shabu. You can add meat, but it's spam and hotdogs. They also throw some cheese slices in there, lots of veggies which kind of makes up for the spam, noodles and spicy red broth. Chloe didn't like it, but Sam enjoyed the mini hotdogs. Later that night we met Katie's friends in a small apartment, and the group of us (about 15) traveled to Itaewon for a night out. 5$ to get in, but free drinks for the ladies! We didn't enjoy ourselves too much, so we went home early. The best party was the shwarma we got on our way to the taxi stand.
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