Alright, so here's another update on my life in Korea (so far!) and I promise to keep this one a lot shorter for the benefit of everyone's eyes haha

Despite this being a vacation for me, Shawn does actually have to go to work in the morning. So it provides me the perfect opportunity to sleep in and write my updates. For example, its about 7:30am here (that's 5:30pm Wednesday at home!) and I'm not the best sleeper, so when he gets up, so do I. I'm just trying to figure out my breakfast situation. I usually have a bowl of cereal, but yesterday I used up all the milk! I wanted Shawn to go to the store before he went to work, but the one across the street is closed. Grrr. I might venture my way over there in a bit, it just depends on how confident I feel about my seriously lack of Korean-ness.

Anywho, I want to give you an update about the other day. After Shawn came home, we relaxed a bit and then decided to take the subway down to "Cheonggyecheon", a famous 6-11 km (yes, there is a debate about how long the stream actually is….silly tourist books!) stream near the downtown area. I know it doesn't seem to exciting at first, but it actually has a pretty unique history. It used to run underneath a truck bypass for years, but then was restored and opened to the public in 2005. Its sort of hard to explain how surreal it is. The city has made it possible for people to walk right down next to the stream (a perfect photo-op!).

I did a bit of research prior to leaving for the subway using Shawn's three Korea tourist books….which do come in handy quite a bit for me. I had seen pictures of this stream before on Shawn's blog and I was excited to actually see it in person…unfortunately this didn't happen.

We go off the subway and proceeded to walk down what reminded me of downtown Toronto…lots of buildings, people everywhere, a lot of people-watching going on. This was probably one of the first times where I realized that this place is just like home, only in a different language. People here do the same things that I did with my friends back home…they go out eat, go to the movies, play sports, shop. Its all the same.

Back to my original story, we turned down the street that leads to the stream and were confronted with nine billion catrillion police officers (okay, maybe not that many….but there were A LOT). Police buses lined the streets and officers were lined up everywhere, fully armed with guns and shields. We both looked puzzled. We looked around to see if we could figure out what the commotion was about, but all the locals were walking around like it was no big deal that this giant police army lined the streets of the city. Its funny because while Shawn was at work, I read about how protests are fairly common in Korea and sometimes turn violent (hence, police are there to act 'just in case'.)

That's exactly what was going on here….some sort of peaceful protest. We walked down the lines of officers and who woulda guessed that the protests BLOCKED the stream with their shenanigans! I was so pumped to see the mini-water fall all lit up with colours and what not….and I got nothing! Mind you, the stream is very long so I was still able to see it and take some pictures, but the main focal point was out of sight. I'm hoping to make it back there at some point to see it, after all that was the whole purpose of this outing.

I still enjoyed the adventure though, we walked down by the stream and I acted like a total tourist, camera in hand….but you know what I noticed here? EVERYONE carries a camera around, even the locals…so taking random pictures of things doesn't necessary make me stick out….I stick out solely because I do not have any Asian features. I usually feel pretty welcomed everywhere I go here, sometimes I get the odd stare…but I think its more about curiosity than mean spirited feelings.

So I documented my first Korean protest….the pictures didn't come out the best though…as a result of my camera and the hustle and bustle of all the people…but I tried my best. So enjoy!

We then managed to walk (what seemed like forever) down into their shopping district…however, we had to walk through a very SKETCHY area first….a bunch of random stores all locked up and shut down…and we only saw a person every few minutes of so…it did make me pretty nervous, even Shawn admitted it probably wasn't the best place for us to be….we picked up our pace and eventually found a map to point us in the right direction. Finally Shawn recognized where we were and we ended up in one of their shopping districts. If I had to compare it to something, I would say it was similar to the Eaton Center in downtown Toronto. It looked similar to the malls back home….but I must say they have much better architecture here. The buildings have all kinds of crazy designs on the them and its all lit up at night…super pretty.

We walked around there for a bit and even encountered some taping of a of Korean reality TV/game show going on right in the middle of the street. Shawn told me that its pretty common for Koreans to build stages randomly and then get the audience to participate in the show. The one we saw had some random girl sing a song…and guess what?! I KNEW the Korean song….it was one by the Wonder Girls! Haha Ann from Admissions showed me this group just before I left for my trip. I was pretty impressed with myself for recognizing it. Mind you, the part I knew was in English, but still!

Eventually we made it to the subway and headed back to the apartment. The night we went to the pub underneath his apartment and….well, that's basically it.

Oh, interesting fact: last night we ordered Pizza! I was secretly so excited to have Western food…and also curious to see if the Koreans knew how to make it…..and I must say, it was better than I thought. Its weird though, I noticed that they put the toppings on first, THEN melt the cheese over top. Interesting way of approaching it. I am also happy to admit that this pizza wasn't my most favorite meal here…which, considering how nervous I was about the food, is pretty impressive…I do try almost everything (minus the fish). My only complaint is that I wish the food wasn't so spicy! Everything has a red-hot sauce on it (at least it reminds me home…ahem, Lino!)
Well, that's it for this Korean adventure.

I should probably go have a shower and get ready so I'm good to go when Shawn gets home….we have a few options to explore today, depending on the weather.

I will keep you posted!

Xoxo

Ps- THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO WRITES ON MY MESSAGE BOARD, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO ME <3