Seoul Patch

The "keep off" sign on this bridge was comically small. It was more a dare than a warning.

South Korea was a series of firsts for me. We have bounced through eleven European countries with ten different languages, but they all shared a similar alphabet so if necessary we could slaughter our way through a word, plus thankfully "kebab" is basically universal. Seoul was my first experience with a language that used a completely different set of characters that I had absolutely no handle on. But the reason we made this stop was to see our friend Jessie, who has been teaching English in Uijeongbu (just outside of Seoul) since June. Fun fact. Uijeongbu has two American military bases nearby and was the setting for M*A*S*H*. Jessie became our window to understanding not only the language but also the country and the culture.

This is Jessie. She insists that throwing up the peace sign is "The Korean Way." We would hear that phrase a lot this trip. Some would say too often.

Katie spoke on the difficulties we had feeling comfortable in Istanbul, but what's strange is that, physically, we fit in. If you didn't hear our American accents or hear me refer to the Packers as a "football" team, our dark features (and killer mustaches) would make you assume we could be from Turkey or a number of nearby places. But we still felt like we stuck out like sore American thumbs. Compare that to Korea, where we were often literally the only white people on a crowded subway, but never did we feel unwanted or out of place. Growing up in central Wisconsin, at a school whose diversity left every year with our foreign exchange students, this was the first time in life where I was solidly in the racial minority. But there were no glances. No aside whispers. Instead people were eager to talk to us, the most notable was a man who was terribly excited to use the very little English he had to talk to me about the LA Dodgers. It was nice to feel so welcome in a place that seemed so foreign.

Although to be honest I did stand out a bit. Mainly because I kept sitting on the ground in the middle of the street.

Thanksgiving was tough for me. This was the first year Katie or I wouldn't be with our families, but being with a friend made it feel much more like we were home. The three of us and our new friend Heather went out for a big thanksgiving dinner that night. Since Thanksgiving isn't celebrated in Korea, we had to substitute fried chicken for turkey, sausage and peppers for potatoes, and egg rolls for stuffing. The food didn't matter as much as being surrounded by loved ones. Afterward we went back to Jessie's and stayed up til 5am talking about our families and futures. The highlight of the night was when I pulled up a stream of the Lions Bears game, and Heather went into near hysterics in the joy of seeing football for the first time all year. It's amazing how the little things mean so much to you when you're away from home. Plus the Bears lost, which always cheers everyone up.

Normally I'd be in Marshfield punishing my siblings in Mario Kart, but I'll settle for heart to hearts on a heated floor.

Staying up late became the norm since Jess worked until 10pm every night, so Katie and I would often sleep in until 4pm, (Jess had to be up at 11am because she's a chump) but we would be out until 5am every night. One night around 3am we found a special karaoke bar (called a No Ri Bong) where instead of listening to strangers mangling country songs, you pay $20 to rent a solo room and mangle whatever songs you want. So we spent the next 60 minutes belting out the few English songs they had, which was mostly Frozen, One Direction, and the occasional Savage Garden (arguably one of their deeper tracks too). We left with our voices ravaged and cameras full of blackmail videos of each other.

Good friends don't judge

Speaking of mangling your body, throughout this entire trip, we've been adventurous when it comes to trying new and strange food, often by just ordering something randomly and hoping it isn't terrible. However, having Jessie as our safari guide in Korea was extremely helpful because we would have been helpless. For example, if you walked into a Korean restaurant and sat down by yourself you probably wouldn't be served because the waiter would have assumed you were waiting for someone else as people don't eat in restaurants alone. Tough break, lonely people.

We also met my former coworker in Seoul to perform important international Comcast business.
(He's the one with the weaker mustache)

She was also there to teach one of us what was a soup and what was a dipping sauce (in my defense they look identical). My favorite experience is the Korean Barbecue, where a group of 3-4 people share a table grill to cook up various types of meat, which are then covered in sauces and wrapped in leaves of lettuce and typically only costs about $15 total. It DID however ravage its way through your digestive system. Jessie later told us that we tried the amount of foods in 5 days that she did over the course of two months. Oh and many restaurants don't have bathrooms so you need to grab some toilet paper from a roll by the door, and then walk half a block away to a dark unmarked hallway with a one person stall at the end of the building. If you go to Korea any time soon, bring Imodium. Also probably toilet paper.

South Korea is known for their corn dogs. They're like normal corn dogs but they're also dipped in sugar. Basically diabetes.

Jessie also taught us about how to drink. In Korea instead of ordering individual drinks, you order ONE bottle of beer (makju) and ONE bottle of liquor (soju) for the table. Soju tastes like a watered down vodka and is consumed in shots or by mixing it with your beer (the combination is called somek) kind of like dropping a shot glass in an Irish Carbomb. Before you open the soju, you elbow the bottom of the bottle and then swing the bottle around in a tight circle until you see a little tornado develop inside. Once you crack it open, it's customary to dump the first bit out (often on the restaurant floor) because it's bad luck to drink the beginning of the bottle. That or Jess was just messing with us. Either is possible.

We are also much taller than everyone here so we must have looked like giants in this pic. 

We had a great time trying new foods, exploring the country, and climbing 1.4 km straight up to the highest point in Korea, but we could have spent the whole week inside Jessie's studio apt eating Pringles and dried squid, and it still would have been one of the better parts of our trip. 

CM