Full Weekend

It is already Wednesday! So before the new weekend starts (and I forget all that transpired this past weekend) I'm gonna write really quickly about the weekend of the 13th and 14th. The Itaewon Global Festival was taking place, so I spent a lot of my weekend in my neighborhood eating delicious food and taking some not so great photos (I need a new camera). While the festival had stuff going on other than food (including concerts and information booths), I just focused in on trying some goodies. Yum yum. It also was a great time to hang out with friends.

Since I live in HBC, it isn't too difficult for me to try new foods. However, a lot of foreign restaurants are rather expensive, especially compared to their Korean counterparts, so it was nice to try smaller portions at cheaper prices. The crowds were massive (especially Saturday night) and mostly Korean. Itaewon has been becoming increasingly popular with Koreans and really is definitely shaping up to be a nice area of the city with really good bars and restaurants (Oh how I love you Vatos Tacos). Despite the increasing popularity of Itaewon, during the festival I definitely saw way more Koreans than usual, including many families and children.

Of course the best time to do some welding is at a festival

 The rest of the weekend was spent enjoying the weather. Fall is the best season in Korea, and there is no excuse to stay in your house on these amazing days. Saturday evening was spent on the Han River, where Chris and Josh played the guitar while we all sang along.

With such great weather, we've decided to make it a point to visit new areas of Seoul. Sunday brought us to Seoul Children's Grand Park, which, surprisingly, I had never been to before. There were some cool animals (I loved the kangaroos) but the cages left a bit to be desired. Zoos are harder to enjoy when you spend half the time wondering if their cage is big enough. 

^^

So that was the weekend! Better head back to work.

Seoul's greenery

The weather has been ridiculously fantastic lately. Almost too hot. Summer is probably the worst season of Korea, but right now I'm enjoying the warm weather of spring and the crazy amount of flora in the streets of Seoul.

Although I wouldn't say Seoul is the greenest city in the world, there are some spots that are really nice. Children's Grand Park, Seoul Forest, and Olympic Park come to mind. Wikipedia has a list of parks in Seoul so you can find the one closest to your neighborhood. Up here in Suyu we have North Seoul Dream Forest, which I haven't been to since the flowers started blooming. I'll have to check it out again. 

 What I am really enjoying, however, is just wandering around the back alleys in my neighborhood and all of the flora I see. For some reason, most Seoulites want to live in the giant apartments of Seoul. Of course, they provide probably better services, more reliable electricity, cleaner facilities, but the small two-story villas are so much more appealing to me. A lot of them have patios and and backyards, and in the spring time they are bursting with flowers and trees. My walk home from school is down one of these narrow alleys with a view of beautiful Bukhansan, which everday becomes greener and greener. I love spring. Almost as great as the beauty of a Korean fall.