Fun with friends in town.
I had the wonderful privilege last week of hosting one of my best friends in his visit to Seoul. His name is Jesse (on the left in the picture), and we used to be coworkers and roommates back in the days when I lived in Orlando. His good friend Colin works for AirCanada and received free tickets direct to Seoul, so he decided to bring Jesse along and visit me here. Colin is a really nice guy and I’d met him a couple times before.
To be honest (and I don’t think he’d mind me saying it), Jesse was a little apprehensive about coming. He had the usual concerns about people staring, not being able to find his way around, what there is to eat here, etc. So I was very glad to show him what Korea is really like and how it’s not actually some scary or strange place where he will feel like an outsider, haha.
It’s a little difficult to sum up their trip here, because they really did a lot of stuff. I think the highlight would be visiting the noraebangs here. Noraebang literally translates to “singing room”, and I’m sure those of you who are familiar with the movie “Lost in Translation” have heard of them before. They are everywhere in Korea. You go in and are escorted to your own private room where you can order drink and food to be brought up in a cart. Then you and your friends proceed to have your own karaoke show.
I took them to a nicer one where the walls and furniture is all a tacky Barbie Doll them, and we had a window room where we could dance and sing while people walking around on the streets below could watch us, haha. As foreigners, there were a few moments when we had a crowd of smiling onlookers down below.
Our room actually had a loft that you could climb up by a ladder and chill up there if you wanted. It proved to be the ideal spot for Colin and Sandra to pass out near the end of the evening, haha. One of the first things we all said the next morning was how much FUN we had at the noraebang the night before!
Well, they enjoyed the palace, went shopping in the fashion district of Dongdaemun, went to the big touristy markets in Insadong, all of which probably wouldn’t mean much to you unless you’re familiar with Seoul. One of my favorite things we all did together was head up to the Seoul Tower at night and have dinner at an Italian restaurant on the top. I had been up the tower before, but only during the day. It proved to be much more spectacular at night as you can view the sea of lights below you that go back miles and miles until they reach the mountains. It was a full moon and couldn’t have been more perfect.
Playing host to these guys was really enjoyable, as it was when Aubrey came to visit me in March. The more I get to know this city and country, the more I fall in love with it and want to share that passion with other people. I know they both left Seoul wishing they had more time to spend here, and they mentioned quite a few times how badly they want to come back. Mission accomplished, haha. I wonder who my next visitor will be? Hmmmm….
