Itewan

Hi!
This last weekend was a bit more relaxed than others.  I went to Seoul on Saturday to check out Itewan.  It is an Expat haven.  There were a lot of Expats there.  Usually the people on the street are 99% Korean, but in Itewan the Expat population is significantly higher, more like 30-40% instead of 1%.  The neighborhood is mainly one street with stores and restaurants that cater to tourists and expats.  There is an English bookstore, a Mexican restaurant, larger sized clothes, and a Canadian bar.  The bar was closed so we didn't go in, but it made my weekend to hear that I would not have to go a whole year without fries and gravy.  They have poutine, but it isn't made with curds, and I hear it is somewhat lacking.  I saw a few Middle Eastern men selling their traditional foods on the street.  It's not just popular among Westerners, but people from all over the world.

Later that day, after some delicious Korean Mexican food, we went to Dongdaemun.  It has a lot of shopping malls.  We only looked at two.  The first had mid-ranged clothes, $40-100, and was 8 floors.  Their malls seem so disorganized compared to ours because the use up every possible inch of floor space.  It was more of a vendor style than an actual store style of mall.  So, the vendors did not have much space, and they were all crammed together, and not in the usual grid pattern we are used do.  I found it somewhat challenging to get around, and I think it will be difficult to find my way pack to a particular vendor, if I had wanted to come back for something.  They did have a lot of really good things there.  The other mall was much of the same but cheaper and of less quality.

On Sunday one of the teachers invited us over for Easter supper.  It was so nice to have food I recognized.  I'm starting to recognize a lot of Korean food, but there is something so nice about seeing and eating something so familiar to you, even if you've never had that specific dish before.  After supper we played Crimes Against Humanity.  It was so much fun.  It is like Apples to Apples, but really inappropriate.  All in all, it was a great night.  We had a lot of fun.

That's all that really went down.  It was more of a relaxed weekend.
Take care all!