I am finally paying for all the gorgeous weather I enjoyed during my stay here in Korea. It began raining yesterday afternoon and when I woke up this morning it is still pouring rain (and is forecast to still be raining tomorrow) /sigh. Since it was raining I slept in then bundled up to go fetch breakfast from somewhere outside. Dunkin Donuts is a HUGE chain here in Korea for some reason. My friend even said she had originally thought DD was a Korean chain haha since it's so popular here and not so much in America. It's like Starbucks; they're everywhere! I finally caved and got breakfast there (I've been trying to avoid chains I can find at home and try new Korean places). I got a jalapeno bulgogi ciabatta roll, an almond mocha donut, donut holes (Bavarian cream and oreo chocolate crumble!), bagels, and a walnut pastry cake. Since it's so rainy I wanted to stock up for lunch too, so I don't have to suit up to go back out into the rain again :) I also got a green tea latte. I will SERIOUSLY miss the wide availability of green tea / sweet potato lattes when I return to the States :(
I had some thank you letters and postcards to mail so I asked Jessie to find me a post office on her phone yesterday. Turns out there a large one not far from my hotel so I ventured out to find that as well. It was HUGE. It looked like one of those huge business towers, with lots of floors and two sub-basement floors. After wandering around lost for a bit I located an information desk and she directed me to the correct floor and station number for my needs. Hilariously, they have a ton of GLUE STICKS on the packaging tables! They glue the package flaps closed and the stamps on. It was so fun haha, and different from the US. I plopped my mail stack in the 'International' mailbox and went on my way!
The rain was only getting harder and it was starting to get windy so it wasn't as fun walking around in the rain as it had been when I first set out :/ I passed a bunch of street vendors on my way back and one caught my eye...
Probably the BIGGEST thing I had a desire to try when I came here was the popular hot dog on a stick deep fried in batter or french fries. They eat it with ketchup here or mustard but I hate both so I got it plain. Somehow in Gangnam they didn't have street vendors with this so I had never had it! I can't even explain my excitement when I got back to my room to eat these haha; it was an EPIC moment ladies and gentlemen. FOR REALS :))) They were so good! Just like how I imagined they would taste, all warm, crispy, and delicious...ah heaven on a rainy day.
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/2/9/13295515/7180526_orig.jpg?1)
Bottom left: I've noticed that here in Korea, every single hotel and resort I've seen has towels with their name woven on it. I don't know if I never noticed or what, but American hotels don't do that lol. They are usually just plain white towels...while here, ALL the towels, from hand, to washcloth, to bath towels have the names neatly on them. It gives a nice little professional charm to it :) --- Also, the room slippers they gave me ALMOST FIT. This is novel. Usually (like in Vegas) when they give you room slippers they are always massively huge haha because they are accounting for the tall males and its one size fits all. Here however...the one size fits all is roughly a women's size 8 apparently haha. I feel like a Big Foot giant.
I had planned to go to Myeongdong (the central area) to do some sightseeing and exploring today but the rain has effectively put a damper on that...so I'll kick back, drink my tea, and watch movies today. It's a shame because I am leaving Korea so soon, but I don't have an umbrella and don't want to buy one since I can't take it with me. Ah well. I'll be back :)
Post office - oo-cheh-kook 우체국
It is raining - pee-gah oh-neh-yo 비가 오네요
It is raining - pee-gah oh-neh-yo 비가 오네요