Seoul Train

This weekend I went to Seoul for a wedding. It’s the 3rd largest city in the world with over 12 million people. It is absolutely ridiculous. I live in a city of 3 million, and just looking at Seoul’s subway map made me want to throw up. The parts I saw were A LOT more spacious and westernized than Daegu. I think living there would be like cheating. It’s not really Korea. We ate at The Outback for crying out loud.

The first night we went midnight shopping, which was the most overwhelming and ridiculous night of my life. You can seriously find any piece of clothing or shoe you could ever imagine, and then bargain for a deal. There was too much stuff, so I just walked around looking at people instead of clothes. We shopped from about 11pm-3am and then went to a jim-jil-bong. Jimjilbongs are kind of like bath houses that are open 24 hours a day. They cost about $7-10 bucks, so people stay in them all the time.

When we got there, they gave us clothes to change into and a locker. Then, we walked around this huge, very warm room looking for a place to lay down. It was pretty much a gigantic lock-in where everyone wore matching pajamas. It was warm, so no one had blankets, and people were precariously sprawled out everywhere. As I walked around, I heard every kind of snoring imaginable. I saw every sleeping position ever made comfortable, and many that weren’t. Let me tell you, sleeping people are really funny becasue when you sleep, you have no inhibitions. You are vunerable. You look like a gigantic baby. I think men are funnier sleepers than women. I might like to start a photo journal of sleeping people.

We finally laid down on the wood floor and tried to sleep. I was in a bad place and people kept stepping on my toes and making little breezes when they walked by. The girl next to me alternately snuggled with me and her boyfriend throughout the night, so I only slept about 3 hours.

In the morning, everyone was up and about enjoying the baths, saunas, and public showers. I wanted to keep my eyes shut, not because I was tired, but because there were naked ladies everywhere and there was nowhere for my eyes to rest. Awkward. They might not have cared, but I did.

We went to a palace downtown and then visited with Jessica’s friend the rest of the day.


Sunday we went to the wedding. American style weddings are all the rage here, but this wedding was not really like an American wedding. It was a wedding and reception all in one. Everyone talked, answered cell phones, and poured each other beer through the ceremony. So rude. From start to finish, including pictures, the whole thing barely took an hour. It was the fastest, most lavish wedding I have ever been to. It was so dumb. But Lisa and her husband sure were cute.