Live loose, don't lose!

Everyone woke up late this morning since we drank pretty late and took the last subway back to our hotel last night.

As a result, we went having brunch together this morning, more precisely, at noon. :P

Brunch is all the same around the world, I guess.

There are lots of beef cuisines I can't eat so the brunch didn't satisfy me very much.

However, since I only eat little in breakfast usually, it's ok~



The most funny thing is that we ordered a ice tea which apparently should be hot; we totally understand why the clerk looked surprised when we said we'd like it iced. :P

Why do they put the ice option on the menu anyway!?

On the subway we saw that river Hankang is really frozen, which resulted in the fact that our original schedule to take the tourist boat to visit Hankang must be canceled.



Rosa needed to study for her upcoming exam so Adela will be our host today.



We seperated into boys' group and girls' group today since it's shopping day today!

Boys' first goal is to find a place to exchange money; Steven and I kept borrowing money from Thomas since we didn't change the green back into Korean dollars.

Different from Taiwan, there are private currency exchange places in Korea and the most interesting thing is that they provide better exchange rate; an interesting system which I still can't figure its mechanism. :P

Then I gave Thomas "150 thousand" I had borrowed from him so far................luckily in Korean dollars, which is about 160 U.S dollars. :P

It's time to start the boys' shopping tour!

After Steven bought a hat at the underground shopping center, we started exploring 南大門 market.
(Actually we walked to 明洞first without realizing it since these two location looked distant on the map but actually took a ten-minute walk)

We bought seaweed, one popular Korean souvenir and enjoyed the joyfulness of bargaining. :P

But we bought them too early that we had to carry these light in weight but heavy in size goods with us for the rest of the day.

南大門 is famous for clothes, bags and glasses; a little bit like the combination of 五分舖 & 西門町 in Taiwan.

The truth is, however, stores for women's clothes are always much more than those for men. :(

Luckily 南大門 is also famous for vendors selling local Korean snacks so we modified our group plan a little into trying these cuisines!



Among all the snacks, hot dog with fried french fries (combined together rather than what we order in fast food restaurants) is number one in my ranking.

But the best deal today should be the pigs legs; Korean restaurants always provide unlimited side dishes and in this restaurant they offer sooooo many delicious side dishes- what a good deal it is!



The thin chopsticks may be the only thing needed to be improved here; Thomas and Steven used their own chopsticks- how could they remember to bring that with them all the time!?

Later we went buying some mroe souvenirs and I bought a wooden-like frame but I really should have asked for a better price......but anyway I like it!

We went to the nearby department store to use its extravagent rest room. :P

The buildings here are so beautiful here but my camera cracked during ALC program by Thomas started shaking again so I couldn't take vertical pictures. :(



Another interesting phenomenon here is that the most popular scooter seems to be GSR, exactly the same one as mine in Taiwan!



We met the girls @ the biggest uniqlo in Korea in the evening.

Still I don't understand why people want to buy clothes from a chain store that is all over the world; doesn't this mean that there's a higher chance one bumps into someone else that wears the same cloth as he does?

Chris, James, Flora, Wen and his girlfriend arrived this evening but Sujeong and Cindy weren't able to meet them at the airport.

Though we are a little bit worried about them, since there's nothing we can help, however, we decided to continue our schedule to visit Seoul Tower.

We took the cable car to the hill where Seoul Tower is located.

Seoul tower is white so it will turn into whatever color it's cast by.

Steven's super camera recorded the gorgeous view from outside.



However, the night view from the top is not as splendid as I expected, probably because it's located on a hill so the surrounding is mostly black.



But some interesting designs inside did surprise me.

I like the idea to let tourist stick bricks on the walls, despite they'll remove the old ones when running out of space. :(

Since it's a columned-shaped building, @ every direction there are words on the windows showing the name of other cities.

We found Taiwan and Sanfrancisco, where stories began.



It's amazing that we're visiting foreign friends we acquainted almost two years ago.

ALC is still just like what happened yesterday- amazing!

There's a Teddy bear museum introducig Korean culture but replaces human with teddy bears in Seoul Tower.

Teddy bears are so cute so I bought several postcards in addition to the ones of Seoul Tower.



The late dinner tonight is beef soup so I had to skip again, luckily they served pork dumplings while I think when it comes to dumplings..........Taiwanese ones seem to serve me better. :P



Other Taiwanese amazingly arrived at the hotel without Sujeong and Cindy's guide and they are now in 清溪川 so we took taxi to go meet them.

Speaking of Taxi.....Is it a common phenomenon that taxies are the fiercest existence on road in Asian countries?
(So far I have experienced thrilling taxies rides in Taiwan, Japan and now Korea!!)

清溪川 is one of the original rivers in Seoul city which was covered with roads during the developement of the city but recently renovated into open space to the water. (I learned this from civil engineering courses, yes I did learn a little something in my major!!.....:P)

We saw the model of night view of 清溪川 in Teddy bear museum and we decided to come take a look immediately.

However, we arrived so late that those beautiful lights had already been turned off so we only felt freezing cold and left here soon.



Cafe is always the best place in chilly nights, especially when it's minus five Celsius degree outside!!



Then it's another crazy taxi ride back to our hotel.

Now we have 11 people in one room which contains three bed rooms.

Five girls and six boys.

Since Wen brought his girlfriend, the rest of us decided to let them two share one bed room as honey moon.

The rest of four girls lay vertically to share one bed, like three boys did in the other room. (Originally there should be four boys but Steven was kicked out due to his bad sleeping style:P)

As a result, James and Steven slept on the couch in living room, like Thomas did in the past two days and what Kazuki and I did during the great summer in Stanford. :P

===============================
睡的好晚後的Brunch (不能吃牛肉 哭哭)

結冰的漢江

民間換錢所好酷 & 湯瑪士銀行倒閉危機解除:P (欠人十幾萬真是特別的經驗....希望這輩子就這麼一次!!)

南大門海苔殺價 小吃特賞團!

買了新鏡框 不過應該再殺多一點@@

超高級新世界百貨公司

相機又開始叛逆了 不過韓國路上好多GSR!

首爾塔不太漂亮&原來韓國人的祖先是泰迪熊?

宵夜又苦手於牛肉了....&韓國計程車.....厲害!!

夜遊燈關掉的清溪川...有點弱&好冷!

台灣人全員集合~!

咖啡店夜未眠

更大的房間 一樣糟糕的的網路 & 有趣的房間配置!