Han River Park

A little bit of backstory first...

So SNU sends out emails for various things (acceptance, housing, placement testing) without using BCC, so you can see everyone's email addresses quite easily. When I received my acceptance notification in the spring, that thread turned into a huge introduction chain. Unfortunately, since I'd already been accepted in the spring, I didn't get another acceptance letter and thus missed out on the winter introduction chain. :( But there were still a few other mass emails. From there, a girl named Rui from China got my address. We'd sent several dozen emails back and forth before either of us got to Korea. But now we're both here, and live a few blocks apart... It's nice to have a friend. :) I know a couple other people from emails I sent out as well, but they are both going to be late for different reasons.

Anyway, today we decided to do something ("hang out", if you will). I wanted to go to Han River Park myself yesterday, but by the time the rain ended and I got moving, it was nearly dark, so I suggested to Rui that we go today. She doesn't know any Korean yet (not even the alphabet, I don't think) so I was in charge of everything. Luckily, I'd been to Han River Park last year. I'd say it's one of my favorite places in the city,... not that I've been to many places yet.

From Daehakdong, it's about 20 minutes by bus then 40 minutes by subway (10 minutes of which are spent transferring lines) then a few minutes of walking. During the summer, there are all kinds of activities going on. Even today, there were kids flying kites, playing in a jungle gym, walking or riding bikes with their parents. I'm looking forward to going there without freezing my butt off.

Some pictures:


Left: The 63 Building on the left. We went up to the top of that last year. I thought about doing it
again today, but it was really hazy and seemed like a waste.
Right: The rocky "beach" and the Wonhyo Bridge in the background. (By my count, Seoul has 28
bridges -- 23 for cars, 8 for the subway, and a few that are both.)


Left: Birds that came to us as we sat by the water. This isn't zoomed in at all.
Right: The Paradise restaurant and swan boats. Someday, I will ride one. Gangnam Style (1:10-1:40 in the video).


Left: Rui and I sat on swings at a kids' park. Until a little Korean boy came up and glared at us.
Right: Our shadows as we were reading books on a bench. Rui's got a fat book to learn English.
I admire her initiative (to keep learning after school). And her handwriting is definitely better than mine.


Rui took this picture of me prior to the wind picking up (as the sun went down), causing me to
break out my hood, hat, gloves, and scarf.

After the park, we went to dinner... We ate at this chain restaurant on our road called Mapo Galmaegi. Mapo is the district across the Mapo bridge from Han River Park. ("Po" means "port" or "harbor" in Korean... so lots of places along the water end in "po" -- Mapo, Banpo, Gimpo...) Galmaegi is a cut of pork. So anyway, it's a do-it-yourself (as all are) barbeque place. We tried to go there for lunch, but it was closed. Thankfully, it was open for dinner. We ordered one serving of samgyeopsal (literally "3 layer flesh"). With all the additional side dishes, that was more than enough for both of us. The whole meal cost ~$6 total.


Left: The side dishes that arrived before the meat. Along the bottom left to right -- kimchi, beef seaweed soup,
some sort of delicious onions to go with the meat. Pickled garlic and some red sauce in the white dish.
Top left is some salad with an oil and vinegar dressing, and a brick of soft tofu (hidden behind the salad).
Around the grill, they put some herbs in the bottom then poured in eggs to cook while the meat was cooking.
Right: Rui cutting the eggs into flippable tong-length pieces while the samgyeopsal cooks. So tasty.

Tomorrow is the first day of class. It doesn't start until 1:30pm, but I'll probably go to campus early to find food.