Our sixth day in Seoul. We were advised to get out and see the city on our first weekend; we went to Deoksugung, which is the palace nearest my work.It was not as unbelievably hot and humid as the last few days have been, but we had a number of drinks from the vending machine nonetheless. It turns out that J. likes fruit pop. A lot. The crushed pear beverage is 800 won (less than 75 cents).
We also had lunch at the 11th floor food court of Lotte department store. There are about six Korean restaurants, each specializing in a different type of food. We went to the tofu one.
In Korea, what have we noticed so far? Many things we might have been concerned about (old stereotypes) have yet to materialize. For me, I find it funny to see so many Western fast food chains here. These almost remind one of New Jersey or New York.
But the reality is that Westerners are quite few and far between. English is very little used. So we definitely feel that we are in a different place. And it is true that the kids are a hit wherever they go.
