New Year's Day

On New Year's Day we had to check out by noon. You'd think that would have been an easy thing to do, but it was a pretty late evening for the majority of us. We barely made it. Here's a view of Seoul from our window on the morning of 1/1/10!


Naturally, the only things that sounded good to us (in our tired and hungover state) were fried food and fried food. Half of us went to Dunkin Donuts, the other half to McDonalds (again). Bear busted our her chocolate, of course, because it's all she ever eats.



After lunch, Betsy and Dustin went back to Dongbaek to sleep the day away, and the rest of us went back to Jonggak to see the damage to the scene the night before. Here is the pavilion that the huge bell lives in, and the five siteseeing troopers still standing:



Marissa and Karen decided it would be funny to re-enact our near suffocation experience from the night before.

After, we walked to Insadong to assist Marissa and Karen with some souvenir shopping. Marissa tried to make friends with every Korean she met, and Bear got interviewed by two university students who had an "interview an English speaker" assignment. Here she is with her interviewers:

We decided we were going to Mass at Myeongdog Cathedral at 4 pm. The only English Mass is offerend at 9 AM daily and we clearly didn't make that, so Mass in Korean it was. We made a brief stop at Insadong's Starbucks (the one whose name is in Korean), then walked to the church.

They have Mass every hour on the hour on Sundays and obligation days. So everyone is coming in and out at the same time.

Yeah, we didn't speak or sing much:

After Mass, we walked around Myeongdong to find some dinner. Saebomi directed us to a Jim Dalk restaurant. It was a dish of chicken and veggies cooked in a soy-type sauce. They brought as Coca-Cola, too!Look how good it was (we licked the plate clean after this pic):

After dinner, we walked around Myeongdong to shop. Karen finished up her souvenir shopping, and bought herself a new, red winter coat! Here's a view of Myeongdong at night from inside Forever 21:

We decided to make a huge day of it and go to Seoul Tower (Namsan Tower) after shopping. On our way to the lift, we passed a group of young Koreans passing out free hugs. Who doesn't love hugs?

When we got up to the lift area, it was PACKED with people, so we took some night shots of the tower, and decided we'd try to go up again on Sunday. Here's a pic of Seoul Tower at night:


On the journey back, we found a women's restroom with a urinal AND 10,000 won (about $10). Here's the urinal, and Bear's new coat:

It was a perfect(ly exhausting) start to 2010. The next day, we had plans to go to the Korean Folk Village, so that's what you'll see next. Ciao!