Koreans Play Russian Ruoulette.

Today was my third day in South Korea. Only 12 months, 28 days left until my visa is up. During my time here I have certain goals I wish to achieve. First, become as fluent as possible in the Korean language (yes the same kid that hated Spanish is trying to learn one of the hardest languages in the world). Second, be able to go out alone, order food, and purchase/barter for goods without using any English. Third is to order food on the phone. Easier said than done. When going to the market or restaurant I can order my food simply by saying the name of the meal followed by "jew-say-oh" (bring me please)(ex: "Nuke-Cha-Jew-Say-Oh": Green Tea Please). However, when ordering on the phone there are tons of questions and options which I am not familiar with. It is a work in progress.
Today, Sungjoo, his friend Hagew, (she is awesome) and I went to Seoul. Let me start by saying driving in Korea is an art form. It is comparable to Russian roulette. People make lane changes and merge without knowing what is around them. They just know where they want to be. Room or no room I am coming over, all in the way be dammed. It is insanity. However, people do it all the time and hardly anyone gets upset. If people drove like this in America road rage would turn into the leading killer for all demographics.
Seoul as a whole was a beautiful modern city with nice shops. Other parts had open air markets with bikes and scooters blazing past you. Some are just obnoxious. They blast their horns if they are held up by anyone. I really had the urge to knock a few of them off their scooters. They are a foot shorter and 30lbs lighter so I restrained myself. The markets are exactly what you have seen on TV and movies. Think about when you have seen ppl on the Travel Channel. It is just like that. People here also have microphones and yell at you to come into their stores. You walk around with people screaming in Korean to come purchase their stuff. Annoying, yet really funny because some of them are dressed up as big animals dancing around or provocatively dressed women selling clothes to other women.
Something really neat about Seoul is the small creek running through the heart of the city. It is a little oasis surrounded by beautiful huge modern glass buildings. These people over here know how to build. The little tower going up in downtown Cincinnati has taken forever to get started and completed in comparison. Seoul has buildings 30 floors higher being finished in 3 years from design table to final ceiling tile.
There are tons and tons of stores and restaurants in Seoul. Everything you could ask for is here. I am going to purchase 2 custom tailored shirt's tomorrow with custom fabric for 40,000 won, $40 American (with my name embroidered on the cuff). The suits they make here are equally as impressive and cheap. Custom fabrics, embroidered names, detail oriented service all started and completed in a day. Deff going to get a few of those before I leave.
The city is so huge and so different every block has something new. It is really hard to describe as a whole. New York is the only thing I can compare it to. It dwarfs Chicago, and I am willing to bet it gives NYC a run for its money on population and size.
My favorite part is the food. It is delicious and cheap. You can not really go wrong if you get the locals to tell you where to go. I eat so much here I am happier than a pig in shi*t come lunch time.
Well, I am off to bed.  I hope to meet a friend from Cinci tomorrow. Thanks for reading.