Staying Busy in Seoul

Almost every person in Seoul likes to stay busy. Whether it be working, studying, or trying to get a job; the people of Seoul have a very strong work ethic. I have concluded that the main cause for this work ethic is because everything is very competitive here. You have to be the smartest and the best looking to succeed in Seoul. This is probably why they are also obsessed with vanity. There are the same amount of convenient stores as there are cosmetic shops, so there is one on every corner. Nonetheless, I feel very lucky and honored that my busy friends take time out of their lives to meet with me.
I have basically seen every famous area in Seoul within this past week. And I have gone to many of the same areas multiple times, but each time I visit I find something new about it.

My friend brought me to a great mural village in the district of Ihwa-dong. 

 I visited my friends' university, Chung-ang University. Its not a very large university, but very charming.

CAU is very close to the Korean War Memorial/Museum so I visited there next. It was very well put together museum and was surprisingly entertaining for being a free museum!

The photo below is of Namsan tower, also known as "Seoul Tower". Its a tower on top of one of the mountains surrounding Seoul. You can get great views of the city from that area. One thing that I have noticed in Seoul is that they try to incorporate modern with traditional. For example, the tower is a fairly new piece of architecture, while the pavilion below it is traditionally designed.

One of the strangest foods I tried while on this trip was live octopus. I watched a few videos on Youtube before coming to Korea, and I was intrigued but also a little frightened to try some. My friends made sure that the octopus was cut into small pieces so the suckers wouldn't get stuck in my throat and suffocate me (this has happened to others before). The restaurant cuts up the octopus for you but the cut up tentacles are still moving and sucking while you are eating it. So, the key to eating live octopus is chewing it very hard and thorough before swallowing. Once you get that down, live octopus is not too bad. 

I have visited a lot of markets in Korea, but the most traditional one was the market in Anyang (a suburb of Seoul). The most common findings in a traditional market is some street foods, old lady clothes, and a lot of fresh produce, like ginger.  Korea is semi-famous for its ginger, and its people believe ginger is very beneficial to one's health.

I'm not sure if they have these in the U.S. but Seoul has many puppy and cat cafes. I got to visit a puppy cafe where you sip on cafe drinks and play with puppies. It helped me to not miss Kobi (my shih-tzu) as much. 

I have one week left of my trip! I have definitely learned many things about Eastern culture, and even some of my friends even say I'm kind of turning Asian. We all laugh at that because I am so clearly Western looking. Anyways, soon it will be time to come home so I must enjoy my last days in Asia!

Alix