A promising start.

Arrived in Korea about a week ago.  I had roughly a 1 O'clock flight out of SFO, and things were going good.  My departure terminal was moved around several times due to some confusion. Other than that my time in the airport was quite boring.  Even more boring was the flight itself.  Thirteen hours of nothing.  I only got up once during the entire flight because I had a window seat and I didn't want to wake up the grumpy old man that I would have had to climb over.  I actually was hoping for a rough flight because it would have made things more interesting.  But I didn't even notice when we took off and when we landed.  The airline movies are much better than before and I had a huge selection.  That being said, The Social Network seriously sucks. Oscar worthy my ass.
    I was greeted by HeeJun only at the airport, due to his mother being ill and Heeyoung having a broken foot.  But they were at the house when I arrived.  The next three days were long and tiring.  HeeJun showed me all around Seoul.  It was good the first day because of the excitement but I soon realized that not sleeping on the plane, not sleeping the entire day before I left, and not sleeping when I got to Korea because of jet lag actually takes a toll.  But its all good.  I got to ride one of the easiest, cleanest, and most comprehensive subways in the world. 
   We got to visit COEX mall, which is one of, if the not the largest underground malls in the world.  They have an aquarium inside the mall.... They have an entire floor that is a food court that is larger than a Walmart.  They are open stalls so there are all kinds of fresh and gross food to look at.  Shopping is pretty big here, especially for the women, as shown where they dedicated four floors to women's clothing, another for women's cosmetics, and another for whatever crap women use.  They had one for all of the men's needs. 
   We then went to Myeongdong, which is a huge shopping district.  It looks like one of the places you see in pictures of Japanese streets with tons of people and tall buildings with neon signs hanging off.  Except bigger.
That night we went to HeeJun's family's summer home, which was nice.  It was fun catching up with their family and getting to know HeeYoungs wife, who can understand what I say, but is a too shy to speak English to me. After dinner there, we went to another enormous shopping district, this time was a place that has malls that stay open 24 hours.  Yeah, I said malls.  10 malls that are all over 12 stories high are all placed right next to each other.  Competition is stiff.  Along with that the entire street has smaller malls and stores loaded with clothes and fashion stuff.  Wa'fool's would like it here.  Unfortunately by this time I had started to become tired, as it was my first day and I hadn't slept much yet.  But I did happen to take notice of the area where HeeYoung lives. Roughly a quarter mile long strip lined with high end brands.  Armani, Gucci, ect. are the low end brands of the area, while Rolls Royce are on the upper end. 

Thank god the next day was more mellow.  I got to visit drive by the Samsung company headquarters, which occupies a whole block and has its street named after itself. I saw HeeJun's work building. Also watched some funny guy's make candy who sang what they were doing, and when they found out I was from the U.S. they asked me where I was from and I said California they in unison said ' Oh! Kelriponia!' and began singing in poor english. so funny. We also went to a building that is a subway station, yet it has been converted into an above ground mall.  With a food court, the equivalent of a Wal mart, and an IMAX theatre. HeeJun wanted to watch a movie so we watched Tangled in 3D.  HeeJun liked it.  We ate at both a famous Japanese restaurant and a  famous Chinese restaurant, both were Korean style.  And a really nice Italian restaurant. The Japanese food was some sweet rice stuff, with pork cutlet and a fried egg.  The Chinese restaurant was a spicey mussel soup that is so famous that celebrities come to the restaurant frequently.  American style asian food is awful compared to Korean styled asian food.

Unfortunately, after three days of commotion and enjoying the food, which for the most part is soo good, I found myself quite ill.  I will never eat cold noodle soup again for as long as I live.  It was from a restaurant that is also famous and had visitors such as the William's sisters.  Two trips to the hospital, four days in bed, and eating plain rice soup later, things are looking up.

Actually its going good enough that I ate a Choco Pie, which was once one of my favorites when I first visited Korea.  Also we visited the Lee's new apartment.  They have three, and a large summer house.  The new apartment is in the center of the city and is extremely nice.  It was built by Kumho, while HeeJun's father was president of the company.  Im not really allowed to go outside to much right now because of the fear I might regress another time.  But I actually like the hospital, its peaceful.  Actually I got my first ever shot in my ass, and my first ever IV. The US should copy the health system because its so good and cheap.  Some 15 dollars for the visit, shot/IV, and a bunch of medicine.

Current Apartment

Kimchi fridge

Hotdog sandwhich.  so funny

olympic apts.

new apt

new apt.

Mmmk, tommorow I go on the KTX high speed train down to Kimhae.  It'll be a change from the high pace of life here in Seoul. Although I've come to like it, aside from the driving.  Seriously, I can't tell you how bad it is.  They even have a nightly segment on the main news channel where they show 5-10 minutes of the day's bad driving and accidents.  A lady put her car in reverse and closed the door and it crashed into a bus... So much for stereotypes just being stereotypes....

*Note for my mom, they have an underground bookstore that is so large you have to squint to see the other side of the building. Seriously.