Last night/day in Seoul.

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I feel fortunate to have once again cheated death and successfully flown over the Pacific Ocean. The boyfriend and I are back in our apartment, which did not burn down in our absence. Illinois looks dark and flat compared to hilly and neon-filled Seoul.

I will write about meeting my birth mom and aunts soon as many people have expressed interest in hearing about my experience. However, 1am after a 12-hour flight and 2-hour drive is not the time to address my reunion.

For our last night in Seoul, we met up with Kim and Mark, who had just returned to take Korean language courses as Sogang University. Kim is also an adoptee, and I lurked on her blog for awhile to read about her reunions with both of her birth parents. It was really great and fitting to meet Kim right after seeing my birth mom because she could understand and appreciate a lot of things that had happened from an adoptee’s perspective.

After wandering around looking for a “Dr. Fish” spa (where hundreds of tiny fish eat the dead skin off of your feet), our unsuccessful search led us to a café for coffee and green tea lattes. Poor Mark was really hungry after a few hours of conversation, so we headed across the street for samgyupsal, which is pork belly that we cooked on a grill in the table.

A grill, filled with burning coals, inlaid in our wooden table. Yeah, you don’t see that in the US um…ever.

Samgyupsal apparently translates to “three layers of fat.” It is fatty and delicious when cooked over live coals, something like really good bacon.

I asked one of the restaurant owners (?) to take a photo, but he was baffled by the DSLR. I had to show him how to use the camera, and I caught everyone off guard:


Group shot! Two adoptees and two…white guys!


On Friday morning, the boyfriend and I did our last runs on Namsan. I managed four miles, and the boyfriend ran up the entire freakin’ mountain. I will miss that running path, and I am sad that my legs will get weak now with Illinois’ lack of hills.

For lunch, we headed out to Myeongdong for some last-minute shopping and street-food consumption.

I finally got a giant green tea and yogurt swirly ice cream cone. Note: I am not sticking it in my nose; it just looks like I am.


Delicious!


The boyfriend finally got his delicious “corn dog.”


Why does that “corn dog” look like some kind of gnobbly medieval club/torture device? Because it is covered in French fries and re-fried, of course!


Check out the fried-to-hot-dog ratio:


After eating this, the boyfriend made a lot of “corn dog burps.” Gross. Here is the experience in his own words:

“It was delicious, but I wouldn’t eat two.”

We departed Korea from Incheon airport, which is new, clean, and beautiful. It even has a little Korean history/culture room where you can do crafts. Ladies in hanboks walk around and assist all the tourists in butchering Korean traditions beyond all recognition.


We decided to make traditional headbands. They were supposed to look like this:


The process involved a lot of ribbon-folding and double-sided tape:


I think they turned out okay…



The flight itself was relatively uneventful…minus some weirdo Chinese woman who started speaking to me in Chinese. Later, she wedged in front of me during baggage claim and whacked me with her backpack. She sucks.

Also, the boyfriend would like me to mention that a little Chinese boy was running around the baggage claim area…without pants. I love being greeted back in the US by tiny wieners!

On that note, time to go unpack and go to bed. Thanks for following along in my travels.

14 thoughts on “Last night/day in Seoul.”

  2. glad you've arrived back safely! it seemed like you had quite the trip and got a lot out of your two weeks abroad! (you missed nothing here…save for us finally catching the thief who's been taking crap from the labs)

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  3. oh man that is one tall ice cream! i want it…how come they don't do that in the US?

    Glad you're back safely, I've loved seeing all that you've done in these countries, and can't wait for your next post!

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  7. "A grill, filled with burning coals, inlaid in our wooden table. Yeah, you don't see that in the US um…ever."

    Come to Palisades Park, or Fort Lee, NJ. You'll have no problem seeing that. You just have to order the bulgogi for two. Order it for one and they'll cook it in the kitchen and give you a slight attitude.

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  10. Welcome home! so g lad you make it back safely – looking forward to hear your story of meeting your birth mom!

    That corndog/fried thing is crazy… love his comment. Your yogurt looks SO good! Very cool that you have your friend with the same situation.

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  12. We have restaurants with those built in grills here in LA! Will that convince you to visit So Cal yet?

    I can't wait to read your story about meeting your birth mom. Hopefully you'll get caught up soon so you can post about it.

    And…welcome back!

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