Venturing Out to Common Ground...

After spending most of Sunday in bed, we finally felt well enough to venture out in the early evening. Ashlynn was glad to finally get to check out Common Ground, a pop-up shopping center made of 200 shipping containers built in 2015.

It was very cool! It consisted of over 50 stores, some the size of a single container and others quite large selling a variety of crazy stuff, and a bunch of restaurants.

As you can see, I really liked the lights. 

We were finally getting our appetites back, but were still nervous to eat, so enjoyed a smoothie next to this lovely lady.

Found the signs in the restrooms quite humorous.

I Seoul U...

Much like Amsterdam’s iconic I Amsterdam signs (which was removed last year from its most prominent location at Museumplein), I Seoul U was in more than one location.

When we came across a protest on a major road, we were surprised to see American flags mixed amongst the Korean flags.

After talking to several participants, we surmised that this group felt that the presidency was stolen from impeached President Park and they hoped that President Trump would talk with current President Moon about reinstating her. 

Eventually we made our way back to Konkuk in search of dinner.

Unfortunately, finding vegan food wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped.

We ended up at an Indian restaurant, where I got a laugh at how they used scissors to cut the naan. Unfortunately, we weren’t laughing later when we both ended up with food poisoning which kept us home for most of the following day.

Namdaemun Market...

After the hash, I met Ashlynn for an afternoon of wandering around Namdaemun Market. Along the way we passed Sungnyemun, the South Great Gate, one of eight gates built in the fortress wall surrounding Seoul in 1398. Before a devastating fire in 2008, the pagoda was Seoul’s oldest wooden structure.

Dating back to 1414, Namdaemun Market is one of the largest and oldest continually running markets in South Korea. The surrounding streets were built before cars were common, so goods are still mostly transported by motorcycle and carts. 

I couldn’t resist taking a photo of a ginseng shop as I recalled being yelled at by the shopkeeper for aiming my 35mm camera at many years ago. Oddly enough, that was the one blank photo on my roll, so he likely wasn’t yelling, but rather cursing me.

There were a large variety of interesting food stalls...

...but Ashlynn and I were excited to try some of the homemade veggie pancakes. 

Downstairs we discovered what appeared to be a busy black market of imported goods.

Seen on Trail...

We came across some photo ops with a bunch of funny characters made of straw.

I also spotted some yarn bombing...

...and some lingering Santas.

The pack was small; apparently the group shrunk once the army base relocated south. There were several beer breaks along the way, all of which consisted of sharing one or two cans of different beers at each stop. This stop was particularly weird as hashers were supposed to take turns smashing the can against their forehead in hopes of popping it open. I opted out of this one...

...concentrating instead on photographing the unusual mix of snacks and detergents offered outside this mini-mart.

I also stopped to take a photo of this bike shop. Luckily there was always someone for me to run with, but the trail was well marked in case I had ended up on my own. We circled up at the start— down-downs were quite entertaining—and then went our separate ways.

Yongsan Kimchi Hash House Harriers...

It was a bummer that Ashlynn didn’t want to join me the next day, but that didn’t stop me from going to the Yongsan Kimchi H3 trail. It was actually my second time running with them; the first time was in April 1992, starting on Yongsan US Army Base. The instructions were to exit the Mapo-Gu Office Station, near the city center, and follow the trail to the start...

...which was along a tributary of the Han River.

I loved the pre-run brief which included this reusable banner with pictures of the marks. YKH3’s mascot was a dinosaur named Dick that someone was nominated to have to carry around on trail. This trail was definitely a lot easier than the last one, which went up Mt Namsan.

Another visiting hasher and I popped into a wholesale fish market for a quick glimpse...

...which happened to be near the first scheduled toilet stop. Since there are free, clean public toilets at subway stations and scattered around the city, the trail incorporated a few pee breaks, which was very considerate of the hares. 

I Seoul U

First Night in Seoul...

Ashlynn popped into the apartment for lunch and then went out for more castings, which gave me a chance to nap. Later we walked about 15 minutes to a large and very impressive grocery store, unlike any I saw during previous trips to Seoul. I had a good laugh when I saw this large gift box of Spam...

...which is apparently quite popular in Seoul as we also saw Spam in other stores (according to Wikipedia, South Korea is second only to the US in Spam production and consumption).

That evening we bundled up and headed to Konkuk, a neighborhood surrounding Konkuk University.

We had dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant with a group of models (Taya, 15, Australian; Eugeniy, 21, Russian; Simon, 20, Finnish; Josh, 18, British; and Meika, 14, Australian) and the girls’ mothers. I had no idea at the time that I’d end up hanging out many evenings with these kids and several other models at the boys’ apartment which was on the rooftop of the building housing the agency. 

Although we couldn’t actually order vegetarian BBQ, we gave our meat away and ate a ton of delicious tofu and greens.

That evening I was reintroduced to soju, a Korean liquor. Beer and wine were expensive, but soju was super cheap and easy to buy at the mini-mart near the apartment in a variety of flavors, so it was a favorite of the models and me, too.

Heading to Seoul...

Two weeks after Ashlynn left Holland, I also left Schiphol on a one-way ticket to Seoul, but in my case Seoul would be the first leg of my first trip around the world. Along the way, I had a stopover in Warsaw.

When searching through our currency collection, I found some Polish zloty which I thought were worth around €40. The waiter had a good laugh when I handed him old currency that was no longer accepted. Ironically one of Ashlynn’s closest friends in Seoul was from Warsaw and was thrilled to take those old bills off my hands.

Seoul had previously changed my life; it was where I was first exposed to international travel and the idea of living as an expat. Dad and Ann lived there in the early 90s and I got my first passport to visit them in 1991 when I was 27. Over my five visits, I spent about eight weeks in Seoul and was looking forward to experiencing the city with Ashlynn.

The international airport had changed locations since I was last there in 1995. I took an airport shuttle directly to Ashlynn’s neighborhood: Gwangjin-gu District, southeast of the city center. The ride was much calmer than I recall in the past; I remember that Eden and I were in tears before we even pulled out of the airport parking lot on that first trip because it was so chaotic.

I was a bit overwhelmed when I stepped off the bus but luckily I was able to find Ashlynn’s agency pretty easily. Instead of renting her own place, Ashlynn was staying in a model apartment managed by her agency; sharing was more affordable in this overcrowded city. She was a bit apprehensive about living with total strangers,but quickly bonded with the other girls. The biggest drawback was that she was constantly having to watch good friends leave. 

I was quite surprised and pleased when her agency offered for me to stay with her for the ten nights at no charge. Not only would this save me lots, but I could spend a lot more time with Ashlynn. She was at a casting when I arrived, so someone walked me over to the apartment.

The apartment was set up to sleep five in its three bedrooms, but while I was in town there was just Ashlynn and one other model, so we all had our own rooms. We were spoiled by having a housekeeper that even did the dishes. The downside was that Diana, who was a 20-year-old Russian living in Tel Aviv, left plates with unfinished food laying around.

It wasn’t a fancy place and would probably seem crowded with five, but was a nice size for the three of us. 

The bathroom was quite compact and got soaked whenever anyone took a shower since the showerhead was above the sink. 

This was the view from the apartment. The immediate neighborhood wasn’t very interesting, but it was an easy walk to the metro or vibrant areas filled with shops and restaurants.