Seoul

Yesterday I made the move from Suwon to Seoul, and I think this is where I'm going to end up spending most of my time. I love my uncle's family, but Seoul is just beyond awesome! I met the family I'm going to be staying with. Kris is the friend of a friend that my Mom was in contact with, and luckily she speaks excellent English. She's very nice, and she's showed me around a bit. Her husband is Sung-hun, and her son is the cutest kid ever, named Eun-hyuk. He went nuts when he saw that my Mom had brought him M&Ms, and he likes me now that I've played soccer with him and let him beat me up. His grandma also lives with them as a sort of nanny.



I also met Drew, who is the son of one of my Mom's friends. He's been in Seoul teaching English for two years, and he's promised to introduce me to his Korean friends and show me the city.

We met up with him at the Paris Baguette, which is this beautiful French bakery. Apparently there's a chain of them all over Seoul. It looks like a good hangout spot, considering that there's free Wi-fi and lots of American teachers hang out there.

That is a wonderful mushroom tart thing, and a croissant with cream and strawberries! I know, I know, I'm cheating by eating French food in Korea. But Drew also made me try squid and those tiny whole fish, so I think I'm doing okay.

Speaking of those fish, they actually don't taste half bad. I just can't get over how they STARE at you while you eat them. Ugh.

So I think I've figured out why everyone wears those little face masks. Somehow I've managed to catch a bug. My throat is sore and I feel sort of weak and uncomfortable. Still, it's not too bad, and I've got a city to explore! So I popped some Ibuprofen and I'm back on my feet. Hopefully once I'm over this, I'll be immune and I won't have to worry about it for the rest of my stay.

One more thing - I've been seeing advertisements for Phantom of the Opera. Apparently it's playing in Seoul through September! I'm going to drag Eun-mi to go see it, because I haven't seen it live since I was nine! The actors all look Korean, so we were speculating about whether or not they'd translate the songs into Korean. I don't think that's very likely, but I kind of hope they do! It would be fun, and I know all the words in English anyway.