2010년 11월 22일 월요일

Brother Mark in Korea 2010

It's sort of funny how it's been over a year since my oldest brother, Mark, came to Korea - and yet if you scroll down just a little bit you can see a blog post about the last time he came, as though it were recent.

Seoul, Myeongdong, and Namsan (Seoul Tower)

Well, Mark had business in China. Since he was in the neighborhood, he flew to Seoul just for the weekend to visit me. We had a good time catching up, and he stayed at my place in Bucheon. We ate Bulgogi for lunch and it was good. In the evening, we went to Seoul We met up in Myeongdong and, from there, we went and took the cable car to the top of Namsan, the location of Seoul Tower. The cable car ride was not spectacular, but we had a great time up top. It was a cool night and the view was nice. We walked down the road a ways, past the bathrooms, to my favorite look-out. It takes about 5 minutes to walk there. It's down a bit, but the view is well worth it, as it's comparable to the peek.



On the way there, we walked past some walls. My brother commented that they must be very old walls because they weren't built with mortar in between the rocks. Later, we checked on the internet and learned that some of the walls on Namsan are roughly 600 years old.


















That night, we ate galbi in Myeongdong. It was the same restaurant Chain that President Obama ate at during his stay in Korea for the recent G20 summit. The lady at the restaurant said, "Obama liked it!". lol - it was very delicious.

The Homeless, Crazy, and Drunks in Korea

We were tired when we took the subway back to my home. While we waited, Mark interacted with a crazy homeless woman. She was crazy in a nice way, but crazy all the same. He was surprised when she walked up to him and poked him in the gut with her pointer finger. What my brother DIDN'T know, which  I DID know (and I had found out the hard way), was that the homeless, drunk, or crazy people in Korea behave a bit differently than the ones you might see in USA. IN USA - it's generally harmless to engage with them. You just talk, then say goodbye, and that's that. In Korea, however, I've had guys give me food, put their arm around my neck and harass a nearby Korean girl to translate his words to me (despite the fact that she was adamant several times that she did NOT know any English!), and another time a man started kissing my hand. He wasn't even homeless, just drunk.

Our Meals

With each meal, of course we drank Soju. Mark is quick to fall in love with this traditional Korean alcohal. It has a very smooth taste that compliments Korean food well. You'll notice that our first meal was Bulgogi, and our second was galbi. The next day, we woke up and had a late lunch. Sangyupsal, of course! To westerners, it's basically just thick cuts of bacon - but there are many qualities and ways of eating it. The place we stopped was pretty good and very filling.

I know - that's 3 meals of heavy meet! Plus soju and rice and kimchi, of course! But... hey, when my brother is here for just a short time, gotta live it up!!!

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Joseph :
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