Gally in South Korea: Photo Intro to the ROK

Hello from South Korea (aka The Republic of Korea), badasses!

I finally made it to The Land of the Morning Calm and I’ve got to much to share of my journey here, so strap in and enjoy the ride~

My final days in D.C. were a spent hanging out with badass people, like my good friend E Woo. We’re at a rooftop party in D.C. here — so much food and booze, so many people I didn’t know, but so much fun!

That badass in the middle of all that alcohol is my good friend Z. He loves the Bacon and the Bowie. Don’t try to tell him they’re creepy like I did :D

RAWRRRRGH!

Hot Asian girls with ass-kicking boots — god’s gift to humankind

\m/

When the food and booze rooms got too crowded with 80+ minglers, we went outside where there was a huge rooftop pool and a great view of the D.C. skyline.  That’s the Washington Monument back there.

Thanks so much for the awesome memories, E and Z!

Also check out E Woo’s film debut~

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I’m having so much fun in Korea!

In my first week, we explored Songtan, Osan, and Seoul.  We also went to Dynamic Korea 2011 — a special Geocaching event in Seoul for the unveiling of the Korea souvenir.

Songtan at night — bright lights guiding you to tons of places to eat and drink.  Korea has such a low crime rate, even school girls can walk home alone down alleys like this without being bothered.

We <3 Korean food, especially the freshly grilled kind! This cool little buffet is among the fantastic mom-and-pop shops with uber low prices all over Korea. One of our favorite local places to eat makes their own fresh mandu (dumplings). The Korean philosophy on food is to make everything as fresh as possible, so a lot places cook food in front of you and actually make everything from scratch with ingredients bought from local markets down the street, something that rarely happens in the States.

Super-duper-make-your-head-explode-with-candy-cute stuff for so cheap! All these metal earrings are $2.50 each; when I got cute earrings in the States, they were at least $5 for plastic ones. Nick got me that cat and fishies set in the middle =^_^=

I have a bunch of insanely adorable socks with poofy lips now XD  There’s also a crap-ton of Hello Kitty stuff everywhere; we even found a big vendor at the Dongdaemun Fashion District in Seoul who sold only Hello Kitty merchandise.

Ladies walking through the markets in Songtan with parasols. A lot of Korean women use parasols in the summer so they stay cool and keep a fair complexion. Tans aren’t considered attractive in Korea.

Cute/creepy bunnies at an indie cafe. There’s actually quite a few indie cafes around as an alternative to Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. They sell everything from coffee, espressos, juice, smoothies, and milkshakes to little cakes and Belgian waffles. Want something stronger? You can add alcohol like Baileys to your drink for only 50 cents more!

Cute little figurunes at an indie cafe. I thought it was hilarious that they put the tiny pig in a toy wok in front of a Lego chef XD

Whenever you place an order in Korea, you can expect a large portion for a good price. Nick got a fancy caramel macchiato while I sipped on cherry lemonade. Places also do what’s called “service,” where they give you something for free to show appreciation for your patronage. In this case, we got free cookies. At our favorite mandu place, we get free extra mandu every time. At a pet store, we got free canned cat food.

Songtan Station. Our stuff won’t get here till September, but Korea has awesome, cheap public transportation. To ride the subway to pretty much anywhere in Korea is only 90 cents, and to ride a taxi to wherever we need to go in town is only around $2.30. Korea also has bullet trains, but I haven’t ridden one yet.

Here’s another example of the “service” I was talking about. They sell alcohol packaged with food like ramyun and chips here! How cool is that?! Korean beer is pretty good and it’s so cheap. You can buy the equivalent of a pitcher at a football game for $4. The only alcohol that’s not cheap here is the harder stuff imported from America, but why bother when you have…

… Soju! This stuff is harsh. It’s a little like sake, but the alcohol content is unregulated in Korea so you never know how strong it’ll be until you drink it. In fact, I haven’t seen labels on any drinks saying what the alcohol content is. Most people take shots of this then chase with beer. In this case, they give you a huge bottle of soju and water so you don’t get dehydrated as “service,” all for only $3.50.

Korea also has Germanic/European influences when it comes to alcohol. Heineken is popular here, and bars are called “hofs.”

A monument to the turtle ship in Osan. Korea and Japan have had strained relations for centuries, primarily from Japan’s numerous attempts to conquer Korea. In the late 1500s, Japan’s naval forces suffered heavy losses when they tried to invade, in part from Korea’s turtle ships. Invented by admiral Yi Sun-sin, the turtle ship boasts five different cannons, including a dragon head at the bow which launches flames, a covered deck which deflects cannon fire, and iron spikes to discourage boarding.

Riding the subway across the Han River into Seoul. Those tall buildings are apartments; most people live in these so they can be seen all throughout Korea. Whereas America tends to build out, Korea builds up, and I think this’s better because you can see nice tall buildings with lots of greenery inbetween. Some people actually keep vegetable gardens between apartments and railways.

One of the malls in the Yongsan Electronics District with everything computer-, appliance-, and game-related. These big buildings go underground too!

Awesome entrance inside an electronics mall. Yongsan is one of the coolest places on the planet for geeks. This mall boasts many floors of various electronics, as well as a theater.

A Razor mouse for all your gaming needs, and a cute seal mouse for the rest of the time ^^

We found an actual arcade! This is a machine I’ve never seen before. A couple stands in front of the machine and each of them places a hand on the metal pads. The machine will judge how compatible you are! I wonder if any dates have been ruined by this thing?

House of the Dead 4

Master Chief in front of a massive Xb360 specialty store

A giant Fallout 3 stand in front of the massive Xb360 specialty store

Gundam Base, an all-Gundam model store!

This entire store has HG, MG, PG, and RG models from all Gundam series!

1/100 scale Master Grades

A huge 1/60 scale Perfect Grade

Real Grade Gundams are built with a complete skeleton first, then the armor, weapons, and accessories are added over the frame.

They event had 1/100 scale gold-colored Gundams!

They also had Gundam golf bags XD

But wait! There’s another Gundam Base at a different store within walking distance. Yongsan is geek heaven!

And no Gundam store would be complete without little portable keychain Gundams :D

Dongdaemun, “Great East Gate,” in Seoul. Originally called Heunginjimun, or “Gate of Uplifting Mercy,” it was built in the 1390s by King Taejo as part of the wall that surrounded Seoul. It’s the first landmark you see stepping off the subway.  Namdaemun, “Great South Gate,” was chosen to be Korea’s Geocaching souvenir.

Welcome to Dongdaemun Fashion District — tall buildings and underground pathways with nothing but clothes! This particular skyscraper is Doota. Each above- and underground-floor is dedicated to clothing and accessories, with fancy food courts on the top floors selling tasty goods like coffee, fruit-cheesecake-and-ice-cream crepes, pasta bread bowls, a rotating sushi bar, and lots of Korean and Japanese food. Instead of department stores like you’d see in America, each floor has like 60 different vendors set up side-by-side.

The front section of Doota displays windows seats of the lower-level food courts and escalators going to the underground shopping areas.

The Maxstyle clothing mall across the street from Doota. I took this picture from one of the top floor food courts. All the buildings down that street sell clothes!

Maxstyle at night has rain made of light falling into glowing stars!

That colossal golden skyscraper far behind the apartment buildings is the 63 Building on an island in the Han River, so named because of its 63 floors. This was the world’s tallest building outside of North America when it was completed in 1985. Inside, you’ll find a shopping mall, restaurants, a world-famous aquarium, Imax theater, convention center, banquet hall, wax museum, and more. On the 59th floor is the world’s tallest art gallery.

Welcome to our new home! Our bathroom has been made badass with a bloody shower curtain and bath mat.

I made Devil’s Food cupcakes with my new NOMskulls cupcake molds ;D

Geek pride — George R. R. Martin’s fifth book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons; Nick’s Astray Gundam models and my Deathscythe Hell Custom model; and official Takara Tomy Arcanine, Absol, Empoleon, Raikou, and Entei Pokemon we got for cheap at a vendor in Seoul who had a ton of them XD

Next weekend, Nick and I are headed to Suwon for a Blue Wings football game.  In the meantime, we’re geeking out on Dungeon Siege 3, Trine, and The Guild season 5.

I hope you all enjoyed a taste of the Republic of Korea!

+X+ Gally

Photos © Christine Lines 2011
Blog post © Christine Lines 08.03.11

http://lestismitethee.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/the-r-o-k/