Sunday, August 9, 2009

White Devil, Metro, and Internet Friends

So I've been exploring the city I'm living in (Bundang which is a suburb or gu of Seongnam City) and have encountered a wide variety of things. First the actual city seems to go forever and the buildings are large and plentiful.



As I was walking out of the local 7/11 (yes they have them in Korea also) there were 3 older Korean men that began shouting something at me while throwing up devil horns above his head. Don't really think it was a term of endearment. I just put my Ipod back on and continued walking.

Sunday morning I left my apartment about 9am to meet some friends I had met online in Seoul for the UFC fight. I'm not a super fan of UFC but the idea of actually speaking English for a bit was very very appealing. I had downloaded 2 mapping program to my Ipod Touch that helped decode the Korean subway system. I stopped at the 7/11 again to pick up a phone card and a T Money card which is a rechargeable subway pass. This is pretty important if you plan on riding the subway often because you get a nice discount on fares with it. I boarded the metro at the Sunae station bound for Noksapyeong and off I went to Seoul. There were two transfers to different lines that went very smoothly. On one of the lines I came across a boy who kept growling at me. He must have been 6 years old and was very entertaining, not only was he growling but he was rocking a beautiful mullet. This was my first mullet sighting in Korea.




I arrived at the Noksapyeong station and met up with Frank who was waiting at the top over the 3 story station for me. We walked over to Josh's place which was in Itaewon. His place is right in the middle of a ton of embassy's which was cool to see. We hung for a bit and watched the UFC fight, ate pizza, and they gave me the run down of how things worked for a few hours. After we left we walked down to Itaewon where they have a westerner market that was owned by 2 Indian men. The place was packed and had a lot of imported goods. I stocked up on lots of diet coke, shampoo, peanut butter, and crackers. After a bit of exploring I got back on the metro and began the journey home.

It took about a hour to get back to the Sunae station. Outside of the station was a guy selling bootleg movies which struck me as funny. It reminded me of the Santee alleys in Downtown LA.



Thats about it for today. Tomorrow I go for my medical check up to make sure I didnt bring the swine flu with me. Should be entertaining.

1 comment:

  1. Ha, small world! One of my brothers-in-law is a business executive in Seongnam-si. He put us up in the Sheraton Walker Hill in Seoul, during our visit last month.

    Hope you enjoy your adventure!

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