An Nyoung from South Korea

We arrived in Incheon International Airport on Sunday after a very short flight (2 hours) from Tokyo. We really enjoyed our last WWOOF host- we have already befriended and are staying in touch with the family via facebook so that is really nice. We finished our bench (pictures soon) and planted signs that say our names on them in front of the chestnut trees we planted. Mariko-san (our host mother) said we have to come in five years when her fruit garden is more complete and so we can see how much our trees have grown. I really want some or all of their family members to visit the states someday.

Anyway, we have been staying at this really awesome hostel in Seoul for the past three nights. It is definitely my favorite place we have stayed so far. The guy who runs the hostel, Mr. Kim, is awesome and cooked traditional Korean barbeque for us. His friends come and hang out here every night, so we end up just staying here and not even going out- it is great. Yesterday we visited the Korean War Memorial Museum which was really neatly done and very interesting. I didnt know much about their war history and it turns out that they have been pretty much warding off attackers for the entirety of their existence. A really neat museum, definitely a worthwhile museum if you find yourself in Seoul.

Seoul itself is a really really beautiful city. It is situated in a valley basically with mountains surrounding it. Driving from Incheon Int'l airport you would not think that the city could be so close, because you literally see NOTHING driving up to it. It was very weird on the bus from the airport to the city- completely desolate land with the exception of some power plants. However, the city itself is really interesting- it feels very futuristic in some aspects, much more so than any Japanese city I saw which is unexpected. THere are huge rivers running through the middle of the city, which means large and long bridges for cars and thte subway system that are intertwining and just a really neat site. We have explored a few really neat areas but I feel like there is a lot more to see. i think we are going to head south to Busan for two nights, before returning to Seoul for the last night before we head to Vietnam. Mimi's friend invited us to his Christmas Party with his korean friends which should be fun. Who knew that nearly fourty percent of koreans are christian? i certainly was not expecting that. I also didnt expect Koreans to be so into fried chicken and beer. There is literally a type of restaurant on every corner that sells a variety of fried chicken options and huge pitchers of beer. Mimi's friend Dobs took us to one of these joints on our first night here and I have to say I loved it. Hopefully our friends at the hostel wont keep us up too late tonight, a five hour bus ride south is in our future in the am!