The Newest Olympic Sport: Puddle Hopping

**I am still catching up on my posts, so neither this blog nor the previous are dated correctly.**


셋 주 (set-joo) (week 3)


          This weekend was football time in Tennessee. I woke up early on my birthday to listen to the first UT game of the season on internet radio. We won 50-0 and my birthday was off to a good start. Later that Sunday, Allie and I took our first trip into Seoul, Itaweon specifically. Suwon has a subway stop, but we hear it's much quicker to take bus 5100 to Gangnam Station, a bus and subway station on the south side of Seoul. From Gangnam, we hopped on the subway to Itaewon, which is one of two foreigner neighborhoods that I know of. It is a tourist trap with lots of shopping and non-Korean restaurants. Yes, they have many American restaurants, but there are Turkish, Afghan, Indian, and many other types of food available. It does not feel like Korea because of all the English signs and diversity among visitors. Many Middle Easterners, South Asians, and Africans wander the streets of Itaewon.
          The shops all seem to be the same: souvenir shops with old Korean ladies wanting to sell their mother-of-pearl mirrors and jewelry boxes for 50,000 won~ 300,000 won. (1000 won~ 1 dollar). The little ladies also highly promote their amethyst necklaces, rings, earrings, cell phone ornaments, and barrettes for the same amount of money. They claim the amethyst comes straight from the mountains of Korea and even have a huge block of raw amethyst (is that the right word?) to prove it. These ladies hassle you to no end offering you "cheap price" or "discount for my special customer". You can bargain your way through Korea, or so I hear. I have yet to be successful.
          Allie and I got lost in Gangnam Station because we took the wrong exit out of the subway station on the way back. The result was frustration, but it was soon made better because, while lost, we ran across a street vendor selling shoes for 5,000 won. JACKPOT. It's a bummer those shoes only lasted a week, but I guess that's how far a 5 dollar pair of shoes will get you. My day was soon ruined because as soon as we stepped off the bus in Yeongtong, my umbrella broke and it was pouring. This was the second or third of many more nights I would be soaked walking home.
           It rains so much here that puddle hopping should be a sport. Umbrellas are all fashionable, as well. Men don't really go all out, but women's umbrellas are frilly, lacey, sequiny, and they all have the curvy handle that you see in the stores in America but never actually see anyone carrying.  They are used during rain and shine because Koreans simply don't wear sunglasses.  Every store has an umbrella stand at the door, rain or shine, because it's bound to start pouring at any moment. However, as much as I hate the rain sometimes, those are the moments where I really feel like I'm in Asia. :-)

My current umbrella isn't frilly, but I got it at the local gas station, it was cheap, and it does the job.  This is me recently in Gyeongju, Korea, which I will tell you about later. :-)