Crowded places, shrinking spaces

Let me just say now, street food is teh rad. Don't even deny. People standing around huge vats of freshly cooked food, doing most of the cooking before your eyes, vendors yelling the price of their goods of awesome, and locals huddling around the warmth of what was held on these rickety old - but surprisingly sturdy - carts. So far I have had these scrummy fish cakes scrumpled on a skewer, scrummy fish cakes scrumpled on a skewer and cooked in crab water and dipped in chilli, little roasted sweet potatoes, interestingly shaped (and interestingly delicious!) biscuits, and twirly sweet potato on a stick (muchos yum). Everything is on a stick!! And the best of all: hot pastry slash breadsies rounded thingies with deliciously hot brown sugar within. Freshly cooked, Oh My Godfather. Best thing ever. I could eat these all day. Literally. One day I most likely will.

Although...not all of my food experiences on this trip have been this crazy good. In fact, I would surmise that they were crazy bad extraordinaire. After posting yestermorning, we walked around Ewha Woman's University, which is exceptionally huge and had a delightfully awesome Tudor/Gothic-revival quadrangle-type building in the middle. Oh how I love you, architecture! ^__^ It was such a gorgeous university to walk around, corners that appeared one could (I didn't!) tryst within, a monumentally huge boulevard stretching from the entrance to right within the grounds, and the amazingly striking reds and oranges and purples of autumn that occur here (damn you two-seasonal Sydney). Anyway I digress. To the bad food moments, I do continue. It was after that nice walk that we "decided" that it would be a "good" "idea" to get "Greek"..."food". Oh man. I almost took the food in my hand and tried to slit my wrists. But then again, Gyros aren't particularly sharp. I cannae say much. I may try to inflict some sort of self-harm again. Let's just say that to Koreans, Greek food = Korean food + yoghurt. -____- And to make matters worse, I thought that I would have learnt my lesson. I got excited when I was presented with a sign that said "Traditional Artisanal Gelato". Yyyyeah. After running up and down stairs, opening broom closet cupboards in echoing stairwells, which was actually quite funny in itself, the end result did not end in laughter but rather I learnt that pistachio is not always pistachio. It was more...not pistachio. We even had the same sort of experience just half an hour later when Mintie, in mindless desperation, "Freshly Roasted Beans" as well. Lawl. I am putting this in writing now, just to try and sear it more in my mind. Do Not Have Food In A Country That Is Not Traditional, That The Country Does Not Contain Significant Minorities Of, Or Is Not In The Near Vicinity To. Oh man. Can I please learn now and get over my severe cravings of my usual foodnosities?!

So last night we got to know the Seoul Metro more when we met the uncle with whom we will be spending this weekend with. We were led to possibly the best Korean meal we've had this trip, a nice feast in a restaurant with pork cooked on our table and an extreme amount of side dishes and dips to accompany. It was nice, we had a bit of Soju, and then we were weaved through a series of dark and curious alleys up a goddamn mountain. I certainly worked off any alcohol that needed burning in my system...because that's how alcohol works, right?! Anyway, we are staying in possibly the smallest place I have lived (the house in Samoa is comparable, though), privacy is not exactly the top of the pops, and the bathroom is apparently built for dwarves. Which, luckily, means I can stand perfectly straight and not have to worry at all.

Today, and for the first time this trip, I felt more like I was with people who were culturally similar to me. After wandering around a really cool area for something like two hours this morning we headed over to a little arts student-run market. I love arts students. I saw so many things that were of extreme awesome. I bought some porcelain zebra earrings, a painted bottle-cap badge, and two pairs of decorated canvas shoes. So cool. I also realised that I have no practical way to carry these back to my actual luggage, about two hours away. Thanks, irrational buying mind.

In other news, I feel happy to know that there is a train station (and so I presume, suburb) named after me. Yes, friends, the station is indeed called Mia. or 미 아. Actually. Hehehehe... *grins*. Maybe we shall make a trip there for the novelty of it. And so I can take a million pictures of me being all ^___^ v in front of my own name. And so I can make sure that my people are maintaining order in that wondrous land. Work people! *Whip crack* Bring me more twirly sweet potato on a stick!

/dictatorie overlordness

Eeek! Am I usually like that? Dunnae matta anyways! Love to all!

NB: Some more photies postied!