White Day [Seoul - Day 3] 14-3-10
A knock on my door in the early morning from Rosalie, asking me to eat breakfast with her family. I probably managed to sleep for around 5 hours but feel a lot more rejuvenated. I look in the living room and see a guy thinking it was Rosalie's boyfriend but he is her older brother. I was surprised to see him as the day before I asked her how often he comes home and she said not often because he goes to a university in the country side. I always imagined her brother being tall and well-built like a army soldier because going to the army is compulsory for Korean men. Her brother is medium height, has dyed long hair wore glasses and looks like your typical cool Korean. When people say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the Koreans take it literally. Eating a full on meal with rice, meat, soup and vegetables plus kimchi of course is normal for breakfast. I normally eat cereal or bread so this was a new experience for me. I didn't really touch the kimchi but Rosalie's mum said it was Sinmei's favourite so I'm guessing it was a hint for me to eat some.
Coming from a Chinese background, I'm use to raising my bowl to my mouth and using chopsticks to push food into my mouth. I picked up my bowl but luckily I remembered studying Korean etiquette, so I placed the bowl back down as it is considered ill-mannered to Koreans. Using chopsticks to eat rice is also considered ill-mannered, the spoon is used instead. I find it easier and quicker to eat food the Chinese way so eating like a Korean took a little time getting use to. Rosalie's dad asked me what my plan was and asked Sung-Ho (Rosalie's brother) to be my tour guide. Sung-Ho's English is quite good and whilst talking to him, his mum made me laugh by wishing she could join in the conversation as she wishes to learn English. Her mum really wanted me to go see her conduct a service at the temple so I agreed to go because it would be a good experience.
A couple of days before coming to S. Korea, I went searching for white chocolate box sets to give to Rosalie and Lime for White Day. I couldn't find any so I ended up buying them a chocolate block set which looks like a bookshelve once place in a gift box. I didn't wrap the gift like I did last year [White Day 2009] because I was busy so I payed to get it gift-wrapped. I gave the gift to Rosalie and she thought that I wrapped it because the wrapping was not great. She said she was lucky to receive a gift from me for the second time on White Day. On White Day, male friends and colleagues will give chocolate to their female friends whilst boyfriends are expected to buy more expensive gifts.
Sung-Ho was taking long to get ready so me and Rosalie went to the temple first as we were running late. It's a shame I didn't take a photo of the temple as a memory. The temple looked small from outside but is actually quite big. Walking up the stairs you have to get some praying beads and then enter the main room where there were around 20 middle aged - elderly women. We go to the front of the room and put a donation in a box which Rosalie's mum prepared. We then have to place some incense, bow to the Buddha statue and then bow to your elders. After we listened and prayed to Rosalie's mum's service. Sung-Ho came in late. We stayed around 15-20mins in total and as we were just about to leave, her mum ask us to come up to the stage to introduce us to the members of the temple. Going to the temple was a good experience. To this day, I still do not follow a religion as I believe it's a big decision to make and I believe to follow a religion, you should follow it with your full faith.
After the temple, we went back to Rosalie's house and then I went with Sung-Ho for a long walk and was wondering why we didn't take a bus or the subway. He said there was no transport to where we were going and I guess we were meeting his girlfriend after hearing him speak on the phone. He said he met her after doing volunteering work in Africa where he taught Maths and Yeji taught English. I was telling him that he didn't have to give me a tour as it's White Day and I didn't want to get in their way from dating. He said it didn't matter as she was surprised that he was with a foreigner and wanted to meet me. We met Yeji at a bus stop and then made our way to Dongdaemun Market. Yeji was carrying a big tool which I was really curious about. To this day, I still don't know what it's called but she uses it for her City Planner course. I never knew a course like that existed which was interesting. Sung-Ho and Yeji was not sure where the market was as it's not a popular destination for young people. With the help of mobile internet we arrive at the market. The majority of the things sold in the market are cheap clothes which I wasn't really interested in buying as I prefer to buy something quirky.
Sung-Ho brought me some snacks to try. It cost only 1000 Won for a choice of 8 snacks. The snacks tasted good apart from the green one which I kind of force myself to eat.
After shopping around we went to look for a place to eat. We ended up up eating at this restaurant because Sung-Ho said it's the best option around the market.
Sung-Ho ordered a seafood Korean pizza for me to try but I realised I've ate it before but I always call it Korean pancake.
Sung-Ho recommended me to try the fish as I've never tried it before. It tastes okay I guess, but I would have preferred it if it had more flavour, or if it was marinated in a sauce because it was a bit dry.
After eating we went to Myung Dong which is where all the young people hang out and do their shopping. Being in Myung Dong made me feel like I was under-dressed as there were a lot stylish and trendy dressed Koreans here.
It was busy and a little crowded. It's like the Korean version of Oxford circus in London. After a while, Yeji had to leave as she had to go to class. I was surprise to hear that she has to attend class on a Sunday and not only that, it was until 10PM. -_-'
There was a Korean boy band having a signing later on the day at a store. Sung-Ho made laugh as he was saying we have to get out of here before 5PM because it'll be crowded by lots of girls. I didn't end up buying anything because I didn't see anything quirky that I wanted. It was raining so we went to a coffee shop to dodge the rain. To my surprise, coffee is actually more expensive than London but the Green Lattes are simply irresistible! Sung-Ho kept insisting to pay for the coffee, he even paid for lunch but didn't want me to pay him back as his dad gave him his bank card to use to take me out. I told Sung-Ho that his parents are really kind to me and for letting me stay at their home. I always thought the typical Korean family wouldn't allow an outsider to stay at their home. He told me a touching story about the reason why his parents don't mind. Back when he was traveling he was stuck in Turkey because of the snow and he didn't have no warm clothes or a place to stay. A Turkish man took him to stay at his home and looked after him. The man spoke no English so they couldn't communicate with each other but what he done for Sung-Ho was really kind. After going back to Korea he sent the Turkish man some gifts but after that they lost contact as they both can not speak the same language which is sad.
On the subway, my stomach felt a bit queezy. I noticed Sung-Ho was carrying a bag, he brought it to buy candy for Yeji as it's White Day and will meet her later. We went back to his home after as his mum prepared dinner for us. She knows I like Samgyupsal so she especially made it for me. Sung-Ho said thanks to me he can eat it as he enjoys it too. Whilst eating dinner we watched a Korean TV show where a bunch of male celebrity's were playing table tennis and the two losers would have to shave off their hair. I started feeling a bit ill and couldn't eat much which was a shame as the food was tasty. -_-
After dinner, Rosalie took me to the bus stop so that I could meet my friend Jinhee who I've not seen for around 2 months. She had just recently moved to Seoul from Busan. She was surprised to see me so soon, it felt unreal for both of us. I was craving for dessert so we went to eat at Baskins & Robbins. Jinhee was suppose to guide me when I'm I go to Busan but she got a job and moved to Seoul. I always jokingly call her Om-ma (Mum) as she always looks out for me and is caring. She arrange for a friend to show me around in Busan which was kind of her. I couldn't stay for long and was a little sick in the toilet. I basically got food poisoning, I guess it was from lunch. -_- Jinhee brought me a drink to help me with my digestion and took me to the bus stop. Arriving back to Rosalie's home she was surprised to see me back so early, I told her I felt ill so her mum made me a honey drink. Damn, I always seem to get food posioning when I go to an Asian country. -_-
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