Confounding revelations

I spent my first full day out in the heart of Seoul, South Korea and I must say that the funniest thing I noticed was that the city is struggling to be young. It may sound weird or maybe I'm just not articulating myself correctly but the city is really quite interesting. There is such a profound difference between high school teenagers and those who are beyond that stage in their lives. It's almost as if there is this internal buzzer that activates as soon as they leave high school, telling them that they need to grow up. This in itself is weird because in my experience, Korean high schoolers (or really all levels of schoolers) are the most mature and independent youths I have ever encountered and it's all due to their nature of schooling. Who knew there was a higher level where they were expected to look and act accordingly to "young adult" behaviour? And then there are those are past the peak of young adulthood and are considered to be too old to be acknowledged by the youth. Some oldies accept it while many of them try to find their lost youth by dressing like them. Needless to say, it is definitely an interesting dynamic.

On another note, I completed a whole slew of errands and am now technologically HOOKED UPPPP. If any of you want to call me (which I'm positive you won't because let's face it, I'm now even more long distance than I was in Toronto), my new Korean cell phone number is (010) 9339-7135. I spent the day out with my cousin, SaRang, which means "love" in Korean and we visited her campus at Korea University, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in South Korea, and it really is a sight. I didn't take any pictures because I was a loser and left my camera at the apartment but I'm sure they would've looked like the ones you can see on their official website HAHA :) My uncle is definitely very insistent on "showing me the ropes" in Korea and keeps asking me questions like, "Do you know what this is? Do you know what that is?". It's sweet in thought but I think he thinks that I know nothing about Korean culture or anything relating to Korea at all :P

Today, my uncle is taking me to a place called InsaDong but I have no idea as to what or where it is. It's apparently a tourist place where you can sightsee a bunch of things. The great thing about Korea is that when you walk down the street in the heart of the city, the grandness of it all really hits you. I'll be making sure to take photos today and I'll post them as soon as I can.

Much love,
SoCho