South Korea's got Seoul (and live octopus and karaoke

Question: What do you get when you combine 16th-century palaces, live octopus sashimi, traditional tea services, open-air markets, and the hustle and bustle of 10 million very busy people?

Choose one:
a) a very wacky Broadway musical
b) the new, obnoxious gap commercial
c) the central imagery of a little-known play by William Shakespeare
d) the highlights of my first 3 days in Seoul

If you chose a, b, or c, well...I can't help you. If you guessed (d), then hopefully I have successfully enticed you into reading this blog entry. Luckily, I don't think you'll be disappointed with what I've got to share.

Sunday: The Trip

After what may have been history's post epic round of marathon packing, cleaning, and email-sending, Kiosh and I were driven to the airport on Sunday morning by my parents. After a tearful goodbye, during which I cried an impressively little amount for someone with roughly 6 hours of sleep under her belt during the previous 72 hours, we cleared security and secured the obligatory Last Tim Horton's. This which consisted of Cafe Mochas and sesame bagels with herb and garlic cream cheese (I don't even like Tim Horton's, but in ways I don't fully understand, this seemed fitting). Shortly afterwards, we boarded a 90-minute flight to Vancouver - sometime during the safety announcements, I shut my eyes, and I awoke as we were beginning our descent. After a short, jaunty stroll around the terminal, we stretched out in the Asian departures lounge and took advantage of Vancouver's free wireless internet until the time came to board our 11 hour ride to Inchen International.

The long leg of the journey was as good as we could have hoped for. Kiosh, in a moment of genius, had registered us for bulkhead seats (the ones at the front of economy class with more legroom). There were complimentary pillows and blankets on our seats, a great selection of newly released films on the entertainment system (I watched The Hangover and Star Trek, ) and decent food and complimentary wine, frequently delivered. Between sleeping, trip planning, and film-watching, it didn't seem like long at all before we were looking out the tiny airplane windows at a huge expanse of green-blue water studded with tiny islands - South Korea.

While we're in Seoul, we're staying with Greg Kim, who had roomed with Kiosh while both of them were attending an internship program in Washington, DC last fall. Greg very kindly picked us up from the airport, and after reclaiming our meager baggage, we drove through the city to his parents' beautiful apartment. The Kims have been extremely kind and gracious hosts, and I hope that we can return the favour to Greg if he ever makes his way to our neck of the woods.

After we arrived, we were the lucky recipients of a wonderful traditional Korean dinner prepared by Greg's mother: jelly noodle salad with chicken and spinach, radish soup, beef bulgogi, rice cooked with Korean black beans, and of course, Kim Chi. And after tea, we slept.

And slept. And slept. And slept. In total, I clocked about 17 hours of ZZZs, a feat for which I am not remotely apologetic. Seriously, trip planning - even for a week or two at a time - is a time-consuming endeavor. Trip planning for a year ? Time to stock up on the Red Bulls. But I digress.

Day 1: Tuesday

The next day (Tuesday - we arrived on Monday), we had an obviously late start and then trekked with Greg to his university campus, using the Seoul Metro in the process. It's a lot like the New York metro, only cleaner. All the 'official' signage is replicated in English, which is extremely helpful for traveling - I don't even want to think about how hard getting around would be if only Korean characters were listed. After hiking up hills to rival those of San Fransisco - seriously, the city is literally built on and in between mountains - we sat in on one of Greg's classes. The class was in English, and the topic was Southeast Asia, two factors which immediately endeared it to us. Greg's professor had done some work on reforming the Korean constitution, and he was very knowledgeable and interesting both during and before the lecture. After the class, we met up with Greg's lovely girlfriend and some of Greg and Kiosh's other mutual friends from DC, and walked a short distance around the University district, down a back alley to a plain restaurant with traditional Korean seating, which served one thing - spicy sauced pork that is cooked at the table, along with rice, lettuce wraps, and other traditional accompaniments including spicy tofu soup, kimchi, and spicy gelatinous raw crab legs.

And then, our hosts heard that we had heard about, and wanted to try, live baby octopus sashimi. And that was how we found ourselves headed down a dimly-lit, salt-water smelling back alley at 10pm that night. Our destination - a local fish market - was fantastic: a huge building filled with small stalls all selling live fish, eels, sea snakes, octopus, crab, and a dozen other things that I couldn't even begin to guess the names of. Finally, about halfway down the line, Jake, Kim and Mike located a suitable fishmonger and began to haggle, a process that made me unduly glad that I was with Korean-speakers. "We" (I include myself only in principle) agreed on some fish and octopi, and then they were sliced into sashimi while we were led by the fishmonger to a restaurant at the rear of the huge building. There, we sat on mats at traditional Korean tables and were served the fresh sashimi, along with copious amounts of Sanju (traditional Korean alcohol) and beer. Although the fish was delicious - definitely the freshest sashimi I have ever tasted - it still didn't feel quite as fresh as the octopi, which wriggled on the plate and stuck to our tongues even an hour after being sliced. Despite the relatively disturbing movement, the taste was relatively agreeable (little different from sautéed squid), and the texture was quite pleasant.

Apparently, a Korean "bombshell" is a shot of Sanju poured into a glass of beer. Let's just say that, during our second dinner of the night, a few bombshells were downed - maybe, even more than a few. Anyways, suffice to say that after the plates of seafood were picked clean, we were all a bit soused. And in Korea, there is only one thing to do when drunk: traipse down to a private basement karaoke booth and belt out "livin' la vida loca."

I have to say that although I had considered the inevitability of singing horribly in front of relative strangers while in Korea, I had never fully realized the merits of doing so after imbibing. For the new initiate to Korean culture, I heartily recommend this alternative - between a horribly off-seasoned rendition of "All I want for Christmas" and several nostalgia-inducing Backstreet Boys songs, I actually had a wonderful time, and thank Greg, Kim, Mike and Jake, whose 'real' names I cannot remember and certainly cannot pronounce, for making the first 'real' night of our trip one we will never forget.

Since then, we've been to a few palaces, seen a few markets - you know, the usual. You'll have to check in later for all the nitty-gritty details, though, because the night is middle-aged, and we have to get up early tomorrow. What for, you ask? Oh, just a little tour we're going on to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world, and the line in the sand between North and South Korea. It's exciting - for political science buffs - but if you don't get my smugness, I won't blame you. ;)

J :)