In Seoul... again

Last weekend, I decided it was time to step outside of Yanggu -- on my own.  I hopped on a bus as soon as the last bell rang on Friday and, just after dark, was dropped deep back into the heart of my old stomping grounds.

In mid-November of 2011, I moved into a brand new apartment near Olympic Park and began teaching at my "permanent" location.  As it turned out, I was only there for a total of 10 months.  Still, though, that was the first apartment that I moved into without having a move-out date already set.  So, on the 3rd floor of a small "villa," I stayed there for the longest period of time that I've stayed in any one place (in Korea), to date.

 Olympic Park 

A couple weeks after I moved in, a down-to-earth, outdoorsy spirit from Seattle settled on the 2nd floor.  We had a lot of good times together and, when I was shipped off to kindergarten the following August, she stayed.  She has been there since, and that is where I, too, was last weekend.

So, as you can see, by old stomping grounds, I really do mean old stomping grounds.  Several of the stores in the area had changed, but many were still the same.  One delicious little underground restaurant was replaced by a fad diet company.  The small, independently-owned supermarket now had an big business label added to its sign.  The rice cake store, the soup shop, and the bus stop hadn't aged an ounce, and there had been built a brand new, big, bright Starbucks on the corner of the main intersection.  (A welcome addition, if you ask me!)

 Back in old stomping grounds 

Saturday morning, I strolled around Olympic Park and somehow my intuition got me to where I wanted to go to meet a friend who I'd met last summer in Portland.  Over lunch with coffee, her and I got caught up on the happenings of the last few months, cracking jokes about how it used to be and throwing around suggestions for how it will continue.

 Lunch with Sunny 

Now solo, I subway-ed to the heart of Seoul: the shopping district.  I'd been there several times before, but suddenly the buildings seemed taller, the lights brighter, the music louder, and the crowds thicker.  I was suddenly a tourist, an awestruck foreign tourist -- all -- over -- again.  So I wandered the street and bought a snack from a vendor and popped in and out of a few shops, following the beckonings of salesmen and signs and sometimes just swaying with the massive human swarm.

 The subway is to be ridden in style... 

 If you don't know what style is, just look around; they've all got it. 

 Myeongdong: the shopping district 

Finally, evening approached.  Exhausted from a day of chit chatting and mob surfing, I decided that dinner with co-workers (fellow foreigners who had come to the city on accords of their own) didn't sound too appetizing, so I grabbed a slice of pizza to-go, replied, "yes," not realizing that I'd been asked if I wanted it warmed up, and sat down on the subway with a shopping bag, a condensation-covered piece of pizza, and two sore feet that realized they weren't as used to doing all this everyday as they must have been a couple years back.

The following morning, I slept in, sipped a cup of coffee, and boarded the bus back to Yanggu.  Passing through the tunnels and staring at the all-so-similar farmland, I didn't realize, but finally reaching the 3rd floor, dropping my bags on the bed, and opening the window to see one single road and a solitary row of single-story houses, all surrounded by billowing, tree-laden mountains, I realized that this is why I chose to live in the type of town where there's only one bus an hour, and sometimes less.

 The Yanggu Skyline 

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Thanks for reading :)