Weekend Adventure-Seoul City Hall

Date: June 1, 2008 (2nd week in Korea)

Today I decided to take an adventure and see if i can find a church with an English service. So I decided to go to Seoul, since i have no internet at home and no phone, i couldn't look up the info or directions, so i just told God the things i wanted to accomplish and basically just went in faith.

I knew i needed to take a subway to go to Seoul, and i've heard the Gunpo subway station is not too far from my place but i don't know where exactly it was, so i just started walking, and went into a 7-11, fortunately, the store clerk was able to POINT to the direction i should go when i asked him "where's the Gunpo subway station." The station was pretty easy to find after I followed the direction he pointed, so I got to the station, and the ticket clerk was pretty nice, he spoke moderate English, so i was able to get a subway/bus card and a map. The subway/bus card here is called "T-Money Card", there's a very cheap application fee when you first get the card (around 3,000 Won) and then you can just recharge it after that. Places you can recharge the card are subway stations and/or any convience stores with the T-Money logo on it. The T-Money card can be used for subway, and also buses in Seoul and around Seoul areas.

It took about 45 min from the Gunpo Station to the Seoul city hall station, and i now know where the US Embassy is. Since i had no idea where i was going, so i just kept walking and saw an inter-racial couple along the way, so i asked them if they knew a church around there. They didn't give me distinct directions, just said keep walking that way, you should see it on your left. So i kept walking, and walked into a Presbyterian church. they didn't have an English service, just the translation. The kind that you put on the head set and listen to the translation, but i think i only understood about half what the translator was saying b/c of the accent and also it's just hard to translate live. It's a very formal Presbyterian church, with the elders wearing the white robes, and the choir wears the long choir gowns, def. not the kind of church i was looking for, but that's the first church i happened to run into.

After church, i started walking again, i wanted to get some DVDs since i have no TV and internet at home, so the donut place girls were able to tell me where the bookstore is. It was a HUGE and famous bookstore in Seoul and it's called "Kyobo". The stuff were a little pricy there; I managed to get couple Korean DVD movies with Eng. subtitles. later on, I saw bunch of DVD vendors along the streets for much cheaper prices, and of course it's because those were the "copied/burnt" ones instead of the copyrighted original ones at Kyobo.

Seoul City Hall area reminded me of NYC a little bit, but not as modern and glamorous. There were lots of street vendors for food, clothes, just all different kinds of items, very crowded. Subway/buses were very crowded as well, i stood all the way from my station there and back, and people were like fishes in a jar, the air was definitely not pleasant. Also, because recently, there are a lot of protests going on against importing the US beef into Korea due to the concerns with Mad-Cow Disease. The Korean new president (President Lee Myung-Bak) signed a treaty with the U.S. to promote the Korea economy, which includes allowing the imports of the U.S. beef; therefore, the Korean people are very concerned and angry with him and the whole situation. Lots of people were gathered around the city hall and near the U.S. Embassy; also, there were tons of military guys surrounded the Embassy and on every corner, many roads were blocked as well (Quite a different view).

It was a fun adventure, God was totally with me the whole way and helped me accoomplishing the things I went for. I have to say I'm glad that I don't live in Seoul, becuase I wouldn't want to face the crowd and the stuffy air on a daily basis. It's nice to be back to Gunpo!