Today, I saw the side of Seoul that I had been waiting to find. I knew it existed but I was too lost in surveyland and the snobby standard Westin hotel to see where its’ life was hiding. I decided to take the “economical full-day tour of Seoul” and it was very nice. The tour included a Buddhist temple, 2 palaces, lunch, 2 Korean outdoor markets, and special amethyst and ginseng shops that they take you to in order to rip you off. I met two Guatemalan women during my trip. The amount of people were scarce because the weather wasn’t that great, it poured during the first half of the day. So, it was just me and the two Guatemalan women who worked for Save the Children. The first stop was seeing my first Buddhist temple; I was able to take pictures of the temple and everyone in it. The colors, and the feel of it were beautiful. We went to the National Museum of History after that and walked through a few of the exhibits. A Chinese guy a little younger than me asked me something in Chinese relating to his camera… could I take a picture of him? I didn’t know what he was asking me. He clearly was getting frustrating and I was too so I just said OK just to see what would happen. With his whole family behind him, he started focusing to take the picture of just me in the National Museum. I was a bit shocked, I wasn’t sure if I should feel flattered or shy or surprised. But regardless, I walked away smiling. We stopped to have a typical Korean lunch at a pre-arranged tourist restaurant but it was nice. We took off our shoes and had lunch sitting on the floor the way a Korean family would normally. I ordered bibimbap and the two ladies had beef bulgogi and we shared a little of everything. Our tourguide and our driver sat at a separate table but the tourguide frequently came over to take pictures for us and check to see how we were. I liked our tourguide, he was a very nice guy who tried his best to make sure we were very happy. After lunch, the two Guatemalan ladies and my tour guide left me, that part was over and only I was continuing on for the second half – a tour all on my own! My tourguide was a young girl who had actually studied in Boston at Berkeley. She was psyched to have a fellow Bostonian with her, (never in her history of tours had she gotten a Bostonian in a tour) and she really took me under her wing and took care of me.
When in the ginseng snack store, I didn’t want to try any of the snacks in fear there may be nuts involved. My tour guide (Heather in English, or maybe she just likes that name because in Korean it’s something like Surin) told one of the workers (who was insisting that we try the snacks) that I was allergic to nuts so I didn’t want to try anything just in case. So, the girl replied, very confused – why are you allergic? Shows how normal allergies are here!
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