My Korean Summer 2013: Day 6, Field Trip Day 1

[DAY 6]

I still want to write about my class but since my field trip is still fresh in my mind I'll pen this down before I forget! It is still monsoon season here in Korea and the rain had no mercy on us the entire trip. I don't think I've seen the sun properly since arriving in the motherland. Anyway, we all met up bright (not really) and early at 7:30AM to depart from school. Three large tour buses gaudily decorated with lace and pinkish curtains greeted us. I'm not sure why all the tour busses in Korea are seemingly decorated by the same person.

It wasn't long before we were off to our first stop on our itinerary: Samyang Ranch and Wind Plant. Apparently a decent number of Korean dramas and movies have been filmed here. We did not have ideal weather for seeing the views on the ranch (windy, cold, wet) but I did get to snap a couple of pictures in our very brief time there (maybe 10 minutes max at the view point).

After getting cold and wet we hopped back into the humid bus to go lunch.

With full stomachs we were off to Ojukheon and Gyeongopdae Pavilion. Unfortunately my pictures and memory have a hard time remembering which is which but here are some pictures of both (?) stops. Again, it was damp and windy. 

The hotel for the night was a brand new building of hotel suites at the DEL PINO resort. We had the option of using the water park/pool facilities or just enjoying the hotel amenities. A friend and I retired to the billiard room for a bit and stopped by the convenience store for ice cream. We later found the arcade and played a few games before having to return to our building for dinner.

Our tasty dinner at our fancy resort accommodations, romanized it is called "Bulgogi Jeongol". It is basically beef in a broth with a bunch of different vegetables. I enjoyed it!

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Korea Day 10: Lotte and visiting the office

In the morning, my friend and I decided to pay a visit to my local office to share a cup of coffee and talk about our trip so far.  We headed downtown and easily found our way to the office high-rise.  We sat and chatted around Korea.  They treated us to lunch, see the pictures below!

Banchan and Veggies

The Spread

The Spread

Doenjang

Kimchi Jigae

Naengmyun

After lunch we hit up the LOTTE department store...

The LOTTE Department store in downtown Seoul is ginormous.  There are actually three different buildings that make up "Lotte Town".  There is the Main Hall of LOTTE Department Store (14 floors, 3 basements), AVENUEL (Premium brands, 10 floors, 3 basements), and LOTTE young plaza (Youth Fashion, 7 floors, 1 basement).  A grand total of 31 floors and 7 basements, granted some of the basements are parking but still...huge is an understatement.

The images of USA department stores like Macy's, Nordstorm, and Sears may come to mind initially.  This is sort of what you would expect in Korea.  However, in Korea it seemed the actually floors of the store did not extend outwards as far as American department stores.  They had many floors instead of a few floors with a lot of square footage (or square meters).

Some floors in LOTTE would only feature one main brand or one style (i.e. Men's Outdoor, Young Casual, Watches & Jewelry).

My friend and I went to LOTTE for really only one store.  It wasn't even a Korean brand...it's Japanese.  The brand is MUJI and they make some pretty cool, simple but elegant things for the home and office.

After making our purchases (mainly notebooks) in the MUJI section, we wandered around the 'young plaza' building until we had had our fill of fashion.  In general, the merchandise was not cheap.  The prices were very similar to prices in American department stores.

I can't remember if we did anything eventful that evening...probably not :)

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