#2. Tourism

Hello hello! Welcome back to the second episode of Cafe Seoul and our audio recording has taken a heeeeee-uuuuggge jump in quality! Woop! This is our new toy! :)

This episode explores the sights, sounds and things to do in Seoul. After all, it is the land of the morning calm and night not calm at all. Fern Inners, a consultant at our Board of Korean Tourism (BOKT) who has Math skills that is worse than mine, share with us what foreigners want in Seoul. A list of things that people do in Seoul, eat kimchi, make kimchi, take a picture of yourself wearing a hanbok, visit Gyeongbukgong and watching comedic taekwondo/acrobatic performances.

In my trip to Seoul back in 2007, I did all of that AND was also dragged around to various TV drama filming locations by ajjumas. The location they totally went crazy at was Nami Island where the one of the classics Winter Sonata was filmed at. Let's just say I was more fascinated by the ostriches that roam the island than the brass statue of Bae Yong Jun kissing... um... Choi Ji Woo... I think.

The filming site that I was stuck at for... at least 45 minutes. Gawd.

Meanwhile back at the headquarters of the Board of Korean Tourism (BOKT), Lee thinks up and idea for branding... thus bringing about the birth of.... KIMCHI KIM! By the way, a kimchi mascot (not commissioned by us) actually exists... and this is what he (I think) looks like!

I imagined Kimchi Kim to look very different... Hmm. Some comments actually mentioned that this looks like a flaming banana doing the hula hoop. I think when I get the feeling in my fingers, I might just doodle a Kimchi Kim! ㅋㅋㅋ­ If you do have an idea, we welcome it too! You can doodle and send in your doodles to cafeseoulpodcast@gmail.com and we might even upload the most creative ones!

You have not completed the Foreigner in Korea rite of passage unless you have visited Itaewon (이태원). This is where all the foreigers hang out. You get foreign food, bars, clubs and restaurants... However, word of caution to the Asian ladies, if you're there, sometimes it's good to not come off as a total softie. My first experience there was horrible. Every Caucasian guy thinks just because you're Asian and they're Caucasian makes you want them. Oh please, I speak English and get over yourselves, jerks. Ugh! Unwelcomed approaches and finding someone humping you from behind are all part of it. Can't remember how many times I rolled my eyes that night. If they weren't in their sockets, they would probably have rolled away. Unwelcomed advances aside, you should go visit the area at least once. Just to have a look see, and eat super yummy samggyeopsal ( barbequed pork belly)!

Final part - communication. If you don't speak Korean, you don't speak Korean. You can't guess words at all either... So it's gonna be a duck talking to a chicken. However! Romanisation these days have helped many foreigners communicate. For example, a computer is a kom-pu-toh and a handphone is a han-de-pone. Easy isn't it!? When in doubt, just romanise everything! ㅋㅋㅋ

However, sometimes English mistakes in Korea are very amusing... Like these I pulled off Facebook. Enjoy!

Oh, beach please.

Spacing, people!

The second episode could use a little more work but hey! I felt that we improved a lot, so props to that! It's a little rough around the edges but no one polished a rock and got a diamond overnight, so we'll get there! :) If you do have any feedback, ideas or comments you could leave it down in the comment box below OR email us a cafeseoulpodcast@gmail.com and we will certaintly take everything into consideration toward our betterment! To those that have sent in feedback, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!! Please continue to support us!!