Weekend at Lindsay and Nicoles
12:38 Thu 2nd Feb 2006 (GMT +9 Seoul)
)
Before I start, the following are links to the latest additions to my photo album
Weekend at Lindsay and Nicoles
Seoul City Adventures
Well its the end of our first of hopefully many long weekends here in Korea. Last weekend was Lunar New Years, a time where Seoul literally becomes a ghost town. It's very strange. One day all you hear is traffic and horns, and the next nothing. Shops close, apartment buildings seem empty, and of course there is no school.
As I have just come back from Thailand I decided a quiet 4 day weekend was in order so I organized to go down and crash the night with Lindsay and Nicole as their contracts end at the end of February and I wanted to hang out as much as possible before they leave for their 3 week tour of Asia.
So earliesh Monday morning Chris and I jumped the subway to the Ansan area where we met Linds who had just dragged herself out of bed (midday). After a quick tour of the neighborhood and a bunch of gossiping we decided to make the most of the mild weather and check out the local attractions by heading to a Vietnamese restaurant, which by the way was extremely tasty, and going for a considerable walk.
After an evening shop at Home Plus we sat down to a fantastic evening supper consisting of roast chicken, cheese and hummus. As a side note due to an intense craving for hummus I have taught myself how to make it, and after about 10 batches I'm not doing to bad. Later that evening Chris had to head for the subway as unlike us, he had to work Tuesday. Now Lindsay for those who know her is rather amusing after a few wines and so as we came out of the elevator of the apartment it was no surprise that she let out an enormous scream EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK A MOUSE. I'm sure my heart skipped a beat and everyone in the surrounding 10 or so apartment buildings peered out to see what was going on. Nice one Linds.
Tuesday saw Linds, Nicole and myself head to Seoul for a day of window shopping in Namdaemun market followed by an adventure around the City Hall, Gwanghwamun Palace area basically just taking in the wonders of the big city as you will see in my photo albums. I quickly browsed over the price of real estate just for curiosities sake to find that an apartment my size in Seoul goes for around $1000 USD a month, after a $140,000 USD deposit. Yep deposit not payment for the place. For those who don't know how things work here, you have to pay what is called Key Money for a place (around $5-10000 USD in my area) which is refunded at the end of your lease. Still who has a spare five grand to put down for a place.
Anyways so that was how I spent my four days off. This weekend we're having a bash at Chris's involving a few rounds of the board game Cranium I do believe.
