Seoul Forest + Han River

On Sunday a group of us (30 strong) international students were invited to go on a trip to Seoul Forest and a boat tour of the Han river.  An RA downstairs is one of Seoul's 'honorary ambassadors' and was able to make a request for the city government to sponsor this trip for us.  The weather wasn't that great; there was a fairly thick layer of haze hanging above Seoul, but there's not much to complain about a fun, free trip.

My initial impression of a 'forest' was a densely lush, thick wilderness.  Instead, we arrived at a park called "Seoul Forest" (서울숲,) which was predominantly a very large area that consisted of sprawling lawns, small ponds and paved paths appropriated with neatly planted trees.  It was a really nice environment, but it all seemed somewhat planned and manufactured compared to what I had expected.  Still, it was a great place--I didn't get to see enough of it so I'm definitely paying it another visit.

 

There was this large water fountain for kids to play in.  

I'm pretty sure most of them had a thoroughly fun time.

 

There was this one small boy who stood off to the side, watching the big kids play. 

  

There was a cool small gallery in the park too

The Korean spells out:
dee / ja / een / seo / ul / gael / leo / ree

It's a funny and embarrassing process when reading Korean slowly and figuring out it all adds up to be an English word.  I often read things aloud, and hearing myself as I start understanding is always hilarious.  For example, when I read out "Paah Eee Naah Pull" I feel like an idiot after realizing I simply said "pineapple."

 

  

I don't have many good shots from the boat tour, or a group picture from my camera.  The poor captain had a large pile of point and shoots (plus a dslr) to deal with and I didn't want to add mine to the pile, so this picture's from one of my shipmates.

An unusual but fruitful day

Today was really strange.. it started off normally with an awesome Product and Brand Management class.  The professor was really cool and exercised his right to claim that his English was the purest (from New Zealand, of course.)  His course seems really interesting, probably since his first lecture was well constructed with an in depth analysis of the history, corporate identity and branding of M&Ms.

I went back to my apartment after class to sleep since I had to wake up early and didn't get much sleep the night before.  The day progressed and started winding down with a casual early dinner in a local restaurant where the owner's adorable daughter graced the customers by running around and blowing bubbles.

After finishing dinner off with coffee at a cafe next to the restaurant I thought that was it for the day.. but I felt lucky once I got home, randomly went on craigslist and stumbled on an advertisement posted by someone moving out of Seoul who was willing to give away all of the things he wasn't willing to bring back with him to the States.  He had been here for 9 months teaching English and had to leave since his school closed.  Random things like blankets, hangers and other general things were up for grabs.

Geoyeo station happened to be pretty far from our station, Anam, but the metro's really cheap in Seoul so we figured it'd probably be worth it.  The base fare is 900 won, which is 90 cents.  If you're in the metro for a fairly long time, you'll be charged more.  It took us about an hour to get across the river and southeast towards the other edge of Seoul.  I'd never been so far from home, but the journey there proved to be a lot simpler than going to several local stops.  The whole hour-long trip only had 2 transfers.

My beat up and overused Seoul metro map

When we finally got to the guy's place, he had already packed most of his things so nearly everything else that was strewn all over the apartment was what he wanted to get rid of.  There were also two girls from the States who had come as well; they were going to be in Seoul for a year to teach English and seized the opportunity to stock up on free essentials as well.

One of the goods that we brought back from the apartment

We lugged several pounds of loot back on the metro, probably looking like traveling hobos.  It was a pretty tiring ride back, but it seemed like we weren't the only ones exhausted..

Arriving home deeply satisfied with lots of stuff and only 2,600 won missing from our metro t-cards, we agreed the whole venture was definitely worth it.

Everything you see on the table is from the generous guy's apartment.