Heart And Seoul

There is a group of guys that wanted to get off base and out of Dongducheon. There really is not much around here for the guys except for the clubs and they are more trouble than they are worth. Since I am the self professed "Subway Princess" I suggested a trip to Seoul and the Chaplain suggested Bennigan's. We left the chapel walking, and even picked up a few folks along the way. There were 13 in all. Here we are walking to the subway station. This is the same subway station that was just scaffolding in September. I had a picture of it in my "Walk to Casey" blog. Stuff goes up FAST here in Korea!

In Dongducheon, we all got a seat, but it only took a few stops for the subway to get a bit crowded. It was a bit of an adventure for the guys that had never ventured on the Metro. We had to change lines at one point, and while it was a challenge to make eye contact with everyone we were able to work the foreigner angle to our advantage. Four members of the group ended up on the other end of the subway car, so I just hollered one of their names, and when they answered we just let them know which stop was ours. Get off a train - head count - find the next train - head count - get on - head count - get off - head count....sort of like Kindergarten and their first trip to the lunchroom.

As you can see from the pictures - they had fun, but were very careful to not make a spectacle of themselves. One thing the Army stresses is that when you are in a foreign country, you do not want to stand out in a crowd and you do not want to draw attention to yourself. The blonde hair and blue eyes blended in so well, that I am sure no one even noticed we were there. The laid back demeanor of the guys only aided in our efforts to go unnoticed. Like covert agents, we slipped into and back out of Seoul undetected by the general population. (Is it too early for April Fool's?) The food was pricey, but good and there was alot of it. We managed to eat most of it, and the rest was placed in precious little "doggie bag" boxes that none of the guys wanted to carry around. We had two great servers and it would not be a complete blog entry without mention of "Tigger" (Erin sang the Tigger song over and over) and "Cinderella." None of the other servers had such names, but maybe putting us in the "Disney Section" was fitting.

After an extended dinner, it was time to head back. We found these "peculiar" structures all "piled" up on the sidewalk. Like moths to a flame, they were just too irrisistable for our crowd. After a trip back north (Miri joined us in Seoul, so we are now a group of 14) we decided that we would go bowling and that rounded out our evening.