Korea - Day 8 - Dinner in Seoul Is Better When Shared

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Today class went rather smoothly. Students finished their labs and had time to redo their favorite lab. Upon completing their labs they all filtered out back to the office to catch up on some work prior to the weekend. My contact was gracious enough to drive me back to the hotel. There, I was able to use the Internet to make some plans for the weekend.

Tony is a friend of the family who lives in Livonia, just a few miles from us in Michigan. I caught wind that he was stationed here in Korea. After reaching out to him earlier in the week we made plans to meet up in Pyongtaek, which is about an hour south of Seoul by train and roughly 2+ hours from where I’m at in Daegu. I boarded the KTX train in Dongdaegu and transferred to a “regular” (slower) train in Asan. By 6:45pm I was in Pyongtaek looking for Tony.

It didn’t take long. As I came up the stairs from the platform and rounded the corner, there he was to greet me. After a big hug we made our way over to Dunkin Donuts for a quick snack before getting train tickets to Yongsan, an area just south of the Seoul City Center. On the train ride we caught each other up with family news and plans for the future.

Once we arrived in Yongsan we walked around, noting the street vendors and their dizzying assortment of Korean food. Eventually we hopped in a taxi and headed for a shopping area a few miles away. Once there we found a really cool Korean Bar-B-Que restaurant, where they bring the hot coals and put them in a special holder built into the middle of the table. A grill was placed over the coals, and the meat was placed on the grill. We ate our fill of meat, rice and side dishes enjoying every last little bit of kimchi they brought out for us. We strolled back to the subway stop, and from there we went our separate ways – he to his post and I to the Hilton, where I hoped to get a room for the night.

I got to the Hilton at around 1:00am. Once there, I sat down in the lobby and charged my nearly-drained cell phone while trying to get Internet access. (I know that I can get a better rate online.) After about 30 minutes of nodding off I realized it wouldn’t be worth it to spend all that money for just a few hours in a hotel room. So I hailed a taxi and headed for the airport.

Right now I’m in Seoul’s Gimpo Airport waiting for the check-in counter to open. When it does I’ll be heading over to Tokyo to watch my brother play in a Rugby World Cup qualifying match: Arabian Gulf vs. Japan. If they win they’ll have the inside track for earning a spot in the Rugby World Cup finals in 2011. Tune in tomorrow to find out how they did…

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