Creepy animals, Tiny Toilets and Bookstores

Yikes...Once again, I have not been blogging as I should. I have yet to blog about going home and it has now been 3 1/2 months since I came back to Korea. I cannot promise that the blog is coming anytime soon.

Elaine has abandoned me.

Aka, she has taken an awesome university job in Japan. I must go visit her immediately. Elaine was my Sunday touring buddy, so I was a feeling a little forlorn for a bit.

Before she left, I spent a lot of time wandering around with her. One Sunday, we decided to check out the museums near Gwanghwamun, which turned out be museums I'd already been to but didn't remember. But, there was an interesting art exhibit at the Art Museum, so it was ok.

We began our day at Starbucks, of course. We were slightly sleep deprived and frozen. Remember, this is back in the times of 20-25 degrees on a good day. But that is 25 feels like -2. We met a nice former alcoholic American, then moved on to looking at the various statues of King Se Jong and there was a small museum about King Se Jong underneath the statues of King Se Jong.

Here we are.

Ice on the stream. The same stream Ben and I walked just a few short months ago.

We then wandered aimlessly attempting to find a specific museum, which we later discovered I had been to. They were having a special exhibit by Yann Arthus Bertrand who took those pictures of camels and their shadows. His exhibit is called "Earth from Above." It was pretty cool I must say.

They had a second exhibit that featured pictures of animals and people that would not have been out of place on the Ellen Degeneres "Bad Paid for Photos" segment.

Well, they were actually pretty cool, but some of them were a little awkwardly posed. Case in Point, courtesy of google images since we couldn't take pictures.
Hey look, I'll put my hand on my hip and make this picture look completely normal.

Look at those muscles!

AHHHHHHHH
I mean, look at that creepy stare. Who is that woman/man??

After we marveled at the muscles and detail of the photographs, we headed to Samcheongdong and got lunch at a hamburger place that I tend to end up at. But it's delicious so that's ok.

We saw this poster for a drama that was almost as large as the building:

We found some Buddha statues.

Then headed home.

A few days later, Carrie and I went to a cute neighborhood that I believe is spelled Garosugil but I could be making that up. We got some Thai food (which is still not the same as Thai Food in Washington, which is annoying. It's not even the right color!) then I basically wandered around and irritated Carrie by taking a ton of pictures with my new camera.

AHHHHHH CREEPY ClOWN FACE!!! OH WAIT AHHHH CREEPY BUNNY!!! I MEAN AHHH I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO YELL ABOUT!?!?


My very own store in Seoul.
Why yes, that dog does have pink blush dyed onto her face.

A few days after that, Ben J and I wandered over to Gwanghwamun to Kyobo bookstore.

First, we stopped at this wonderful statue:

Then we headed to the bookstore. This basically involved me running around in a claustrophobic mess, because it was horrendously crowded which I attempted to capture by picture but couldn't.

Then I headed to Myeongdong because I was taking the bus to Suwon with Carrie to meet Elaine. We passed by the ice skating rink:

I took the subway, but once on the bus, discovered that the subway station and the bus stop were approximately a block and a half apart. Things look really far away on the subway maps!

We met up with Elaine, got Indian food (yumm) wandered around the mall near her apartment, I bought a smaller case for my new camera that did not involve me carrying around a mini-duffel bag and then headed home. All in all, a very productive time.

We also saw this cute baby toilet:

Elaine came up to my street one last time to eat at the awesome Shabu Shabu place near my apartment. We enjoyed ourselves, ate lots of food, then said goodbye which was very sad and bittersweet. Then I watched "The Help" with J and Ben which made me feel a bit better. But still.

Also the Shabu Shabu place disappeared and was completely torn out of the building within 3 days of Elaine leaving. I know because I tried to eat there and it disappeared. Within a week it was a phone store. It was rather shocking. Things get torn down, rebuilt/remodeled soooo quickly here!

there, I finally wrote! Took me long enough. Hopefully I will write the next one a bit faster than this one!