"Hongdae, Hongdae imnida"

That's what you hear when the subway arrives at Hongdae station. Every subway line has it's own special... for lack of a better word, ringtone. When the train arrives on the green line, there's the sound of trumpet fanfare. When the train arrives on the blue line, a beautiful piano ditty plays. It's nice.

Today we went to these places:

Hapjeong-dong Presbyterian Church - This was my first time being in a Korean church. Bo said a lot of churches in Korea have early morning prayer meetings (you were thinking 7am weren't you? No, Koreans are serious. These meetings start at 4am) and this church had its own labeled side entrance for such things. We went inside and then went up to the third floor, where the sanctuary was. Inside, the church was laid out like a traditional protestant church, with pews facing the front and a pulpit centrally located. There was also a section for the choir next to the pulpit. In this church, we sang hymns, read scripture, prayed (I took my cues from the teenagers to my right who buried their noses in their Bibles when it was time to pray) and heard the message. It reminded me of Clearbrook MB to be honest. During part of the worship service, the choir was singing a beautiful song and I started crying a little bit. Not from what they were singing, but because it was a very moving moment. I started to understand deeper the plan and desire God has for bringing His people back to Him, no matter where in the world they are. Christ died for all Koreans! Being among a body of believers, separated by language, but united by the Spirit, was an absolutely beautiful thing. After the service was finished, everyone was invited downstairs for lunch, a common practice among churches in Korea. Bo suggested we go somewhere else though, so we went through the receiving line (shake hands, bow, say "anyeongi-geseyo" (good-bye), and get a puzzled look) and walked through a crowd of flowery-blouse wearing, Bible-toting, middle-aged women.

Churches. Churches everywhere.

Hongdae - This is sort of a neighbourhood, but "Hong" comes from the "Hongik" in "Hongik University" and "-dae" comes from the first part of the word for university. In other words, you could call this place HongU or something like that. This is yet another trendy district with shops, restaurants and crazily angled streets with DIY parking stalls. We went to a chicken restaurant here (I forget the name, but it has something to do with the countryside) that served all sorts of chicken-esque dishes. Bo let me pick, so I ordered boneless BBQ chicken with medium intensity spice. The spice in this dish comes from something called "Gochujang" which is a pepper paste, and should be added to the same amount as you like Japanese wasabi. In other words, sparingly. The dish we ordered, however, was liberally seasoned in both BBQ and gochujang. Hot! Bo likes spicy food and even she said it was spicy!

Seoul City Bus Tour - If you are thinking of coming to Seoul for a visit, I would recommend you do this. It`s a good way to take in the sights and get some good photos, but without getting lost in the subway :) It`s pretty cheap too, at around $10 for a few hours worth of bus trip, an audio headset guide, and a ticket that lets you get off the bus and back on again all day. We went from Gwanghwamun to Namdaemun (this was the oldest thing in Korea, a huge gate, but someone set it on fire in protest. They are rebuilding it now), to Seoul station, Yongsan station, the USO (an organization that helps American army personnel and their families stationed in Seoul), some other things, and Itaewon.

Me enjoying the tour guide's accent:
"The neksu stahp eezu Yongsan, Yongsan"

Bo laughs at me because I think Korea is exotic :)

Itaewon - This is the foreigner`s district, haha. There are many shops here which cater to minorities in Korea (i.e. Turks, Arabs, Indians, Pakistanis, Tajiks, Azeris, Russians, White people, and Africans), and walking the streets, you might think you were in Toronto ;)

Seoul City Bus Tour - After Itaewon, we got back on the bus (we were actually standing at the wrong bus stop, so when our bus arrived it drove past us and we were too slow to catch it) and continued driving. We went up a big hill in the center of Seoul (similar to Montreal`s Mont Royale) and stopped at Namsang tower, which gives a good lookout over the city. The bus continued and we drove by Dongdaemun which is a multiple-malls shopping complex (keep in mind these malls are skyscrapers!). Finally, the tour ended back where we started, at Gwanghwamun.

Namsang Tower. Beautiful view, beautiful at night.
You have to take a cable car to get there from the top of the mountain.

KFC - Ah western food. Mmm, delicious. This is where I had my first taste of Korean Coca-Cola. It`s less sweet than Canadian Coke, and it tasted...a little bit blander.

Some cultural reflections:

- I should have written this down yesterday, but it slipped my mind. You`ll like this story:
Yesterday, Bo and I finished eating lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant (sitting on the floor). We got up, paid the bill, and went on our way. We had gone about half a block away when someone from the restaurant came running after us. Apparently, when Bo stood up, she must have dropped a 10,000 note (about $10) and didn`t notice it. However, the wait staff did, and he came running after us to return it! Only in Korea!

- This morning, on my way to get breakfast at Paris Baguette (a bakery), a woman on her cellphone walked past me, wailing.

- Drivers here are very squirrely and exercise their car horns regularly, and that makes me wonder if this is why Asian-Americans get bad reps as drivers :)

- In Korea, there seems to be an underlying theme of convenience. Most everything is made to be convenient. For example, whenever you buy something, the tax is included in the sticker price!

- Salespeople are aggressive here. In Itaewon, a young, female, coupon-giving, Korean salesperson wanted Bo to come into her cosmetics shop so badly, she grabbed her arm! Bo shook her off like a pro though, without even making eye contact.

- 97% of Korean people (at least in Seoul) are thin or average. There is no obesity epidemic here, despite the immediate (and cheap!) access to fast, processed food.

- Most of the people you see in advertisements are celebrities. Bo said if a company wants to sell their product, they`ll have to get it promoted by a celebrity (not cheap!). Think about the last time you saw a famous person in a commercial or billboard.

This is IU, a famous Korean pop singer

- For those of you who have read the novel 1984, you will know that the setting of the book takes place in a nation constantly at war. In this nation, everything has been branded "Victory" - Victory Cars, Victory Cigarettes, Victory Apartments, Victory Sardines, etc. Well, it's kind of a stretch, but Korea seems similar. Everything is branded either Lotte, Hyundai, LG, or Samsung. Chaebol in Korean, zaibatsu is the Japanese word, but we would use conglomerate. They control everything, including the lives of so many young Korean men and women whose career aspirations is to get a job in these huge companies.