The Traveling Monkey

While in Seoul, I was able to go to the Thanks Nature Cafe, located in Hongdae. This cafe was unique in that it has two sheep that you can spend time with:

They’re super fluffy and adorable, but I wasn’t able to pet them unfortunately since it was so hot and they stayed near the fans to keep cool. Still worth going to see them though!

In order to actually be near them, you need to purchase something from the cafe. I ordered the Blueberry aide and a Cookies and Cream Bingsu, both of which were delicious:

MyeongDong Cathedral was built in 1892 in the 19th Century Gothic style. It’s definitely an impressive landmark with a long history.

So my friend and I found this place by accident, but it was a very good accident. The entry fee was 7,000 won, but it’s definitely worth it once you see the adorable raccoons:

This one was the trouble maker (the one on the guy’s back):

It kept trying to escape, haha.

There were also dogs at the cafe, which were also super adorable!

Now that it’s getting close to the end of my trip, I’ve decided to do more sightseeing! I started with Changdeokgung Palace:

Unfortunately, my camera died partway through my trip, so I couldn’t take many photos. :( But I did get one of the elusive monkey:

One of the large attractions in Seoul is the Lotte World Amusement Park! I was able to go during my first week in Seoul and it was definitely a fun time. There are two main sections to the park.

An Inside area that has rides, merchandise and live performances:

They also had some interesting snacks for sale, like this strudel ice cream cone:

And some questionable decorations:

The other area is located outside, which mostly features rides, food stalls and the iconic castle:

When I read the reviews about Korea University before I came here, I didn’t completely believe that the campus was on a mountain. But now I realize how wrong I was.

This is the view from just outside the front doors to my dorm:

And here’s the stairs I have to walk down to reach food/convenience stores/shopping/the subway:

And that’s only about the bottom half of the stairs. Yeah, it sucks. But hey, I definitely get a good workout everyday.

Here are a few more pictures of the view from the common area of the dorms:

If you look in the background of the above picture, you can make out Namsan Tower, an iconic landmark in Seoul.

It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve already been in Seoul for two weeks already! The weeks have gone by fairly quickly, especially since I have been busy with school work and readings. They’ve been a great two weeks though. While on weekdays I mainly focus on studies, I have been able to do some exploring in the city on weekends. (I’ll upload the photos for those excursions in separate posts.) Yet, the food I’ve been eating here still sticks out the most for me.

I’ve had ramyun tteokbokki (rice cakes and ramyun [instant noodles] in spicy sauce):

Cold buckwheat noodles, which are perfect on a hot day:

Korean BBQ with grapefruit Soju:

bingsu (shaved ice with red beans and condensed milk):

And even a burrito:

After an almost 14 hour flight, I finally arrived in Seoul, South Korea. Since I was awake for almost 29 hours, I skipped dinner to sleep and did not have any time to explore the area. One of the main downsides to traveling so far from home is having to adjust to the time differences. Although I only slept 4 hours last night, I still woke up at 5 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I wasn’t the only one to have this issue though, so a few of us decided to go for breakfast at Handsome Bagel (핸썸베이글). I had the smoked barbecue salad and a plain bagel with potato and bacon cream cheese.