Reunited with Rhee

On Aug. 27, I was happy to be reunited with a friend of mine named Rhee (family name). We were roommates on my last dig in Khirbeth Qeiyafa, Israel in Summer '09. I tried to make sure that I could see her before she leaves on Sept. 4 for the States for college. Praise God we had a 4hr. block of free time--and I used it all up, and then some.

In order to meet her, I had to walk about 5 min. to the train station, ride for about 20-25 min. and then had about 5 min. in the station to find the exit we were supposed to meet. It really wasn't difficult, once I got the hang of it. We met and rejoiced and decided to take care of a very important issue we shared: hunger.

Behold, our lunch. We ordered Bi-bim-bap, which is a mixture of several vetables, rice, and fried egg, and whatever else you can recognize on this picture. It was a bit spicy, which I appreciated. Rhee gave me a few pointers on how to eat it, since apparently I was eating it wrong or using the wrong utensils or what-have-you.

I appreciate the lesson.

Where we got our Bi-bim-bap. I believe I was the only foreigner in the room . . . It was an interesting feeling . . .

Where we ate (this was a very densely populated food court).

It was an experience.

The directory. The food court is on the 5th floor. We took escalators for about 3 floors, then steps for the remaining 2.

I wonder if this shopping complex has its own zip code: it's sure big enough!

We were looking for a nice cafe for dessert. This sign caught our eyes.

The actual cafe.

On the 2nd floor. It was really full and we really wanted to stay. We were even willing to sit at the smoking room; thankfully that wasn't necessary. As soon as 1 table was available, we were there and Rhee ordered. Thank God for friends who can speak the local language!

What we ordered. I expexcted larger waffles. Oh well, it was still delicious.

The red/pink is strawberry and the green is green tea (not bad).

After we were done. We killed'em!

So, Rhee wanted to take me to a kareoke, but the only ones we could find were bars and looked sketchy. It also started to rain heavily (again). I mentioned that there was an underground mall somewhere and we started to look for it. Well, we didn't exactly find it, but we went to Namdaemun market instead.

At a train station (I believe Jongno 5(o)-ga), waiting to get on the train to Dongdaemun, to transfer to Line 4 to get to Hoehyeon (close to Namdaemun market).

I love the trains in Seoul.

Let's try this again, from Rhee's angle . . .

I appreciate these maps on the road.

As we leave. This reminded me of the shops in the Arab section of the Old City (Jerusalem). If you like to haggle/bargain, this is your place. We found just about everything here: including shoes my size and even bigger! (that was a challenge, but I don't need any so I'll leave that alone).

We had to part ways as we were in the train: she to the dentist, me to kitchen duty. Time went by quickly but I did enjoy that time. I hope we can meet up again when she visits Korea again during summer break or whenever . . .