Anyway, on sunday we spent the whole day out and about! We met up with Soomin, another IU student doing the internship. He's from Korea, but went to high school and undergrad in Bloomington. He took us to Shinsa, the Manhattan of Seoul. We ate at a charming little Italian restaurant Naso & Goya (but on everything it was printed naso& goya, I wanted to fix it!) Soomin and I both got penne with vegetable sauce and Kraig ordered salad with mozzarella and tomato rockets. I think he mostly got it because he wanted to know what a tomato rocket is. What is it?
Just a tomato slice, which was kinda disappointing, but Kraig still enjoyed it. Like most fancy restaurants, we thought they could have added some more food to our plates for the price. But we didn't complain because Soomin treated us (how generous!)
After the meal, hard guy to get a smile out of:
After lunch, we headed over to the Hyundai Mall via cab. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but whole monopoly! LG, Samsung, Lotte, and Samsung own just about everything over here. Even the couches in our favorite lounge are made by LG and the apartments by the school are also LG owned. Anyway, we went to Hyundai Mall to try out the best patbingsu in all of Korea. The restaurant, Meal Top, is at the top of the mall and serves about 6 types of patbingsu and maybe 2 other types of dessert. What is patbingsu? It's possibly my favorite thing in Korea yet. I know that isn't saying much, but in other words, it's something I actually like in Korea. So, patbingsu is a dessert made with shaved ice topped with sweetened condensed milk, fruit, fruit puree, and sweetened red beans.
Mine, minus the beans:
But before we could try out the best patbingsu in all of Korea, we had to wait an hour! We walked through the 6 floors of stores and also went up to the sky garden at the very top of the mall.
A nice little retreat in the middle of shopping.
After the delicious patbingsu, which only lasted for a wonderful 5 minutes, Soomin took us on a tour of the area. We went to Rodeo Street, which is known as a wild, lively place for bar hopping and clubbing. However, it was sunday afternoon, the hottest day yet (with no shade to hide under), and not much to look at on Rodeo Street. We parted ways and we headed to Itaewon to find dinner.
Shinsa is south of the river, it took us about an hour to get from our campus to Shinsa. But on the bright side, it was a beautiful day to pass over the river.
We have found that these beautiful sunny days are very rare in Korea. When they do occur, the mountains are more visible and everything seems nicer.
We thought we might try out the new Taco Bell, but decided against it when we saw this line!
Instead we went to a Kebab place. But kebab here means stuff wrapped in a tortilla, kinda like a Middle Eastern taco. Mine had baked potato wedges, lettuce, and some tasty sauce.
On the way back to campus, the sun was setting and making pretty colors.
Go, Taco Bell! Haha
ReplyDeleteI think I would have skipped the beans, also. :)
We bought almost all lg appliances...aka we sponsored your favorite couch/or couch in your favorite lounge. :)