Breakfast in Seoul

Okay, continuing my story...

Breakfast in Seoul was quite the adventure. Our hotel was charging $23 USD per person for breakfast and since Vinny and I are on quite the budget, we decided to venture out at 7:45 am to find a different place. Our concierge pointed us to a cafe down the street and we decided to check it out. Woohoo...

The menu was entirely in Korean and no one spoke English. Also I keep forgetting that we're in Asia and that Vinny sticks out like a sore thumb, so we received quite a few curious stares. Vinny and I sat at a table in the corner and stared at each other for about 2 minutes absolutely befuddled as to how we were going to get food. Finally I grabbed the food order ticket and walked up to the counter hoping to ask for an English menu (which probably didn't exist). Luckily this very sweet old woman stood up from another table and tried speaking to me in Korean. Of course, I had no idea what she was saying but I motioned that we were hungry and pointed to another table where two men had been eating a bowl of some soup and then pointed back to the food order ticket. After about 2 or 3 minutes, the woman kept pointing to the bowls of eaten food and then the large menu overhead and then the food ticket. I just kept nodding earnestly and prayed that she order something. She did and a couple minutes later, two large bowls of a delicious smelling soup came out.

Wow was it delicious. We had "ordered" a special rice cake soup that is eaten specifically for New Years Day. Vinny and I devoured this soup that was a mixture of egg drop soup bases + Udon soup + miso soup + these delicious oval rice cake patties that were chewy and soft and were absolutely wonderful in texture (think pasta al dente but rice cake style). Yup breakfast was delicious. So delicous that we missed our 8:05 am appointment time for the tour and our concierge ended up calling the restaurant to make sure we were okay and to let us know our tour bus was waiting for us. So how important were we to get a phone call while eating in a cafe in Seoul? We had a good laugh as we happily woofed down our food before our morning tour.

Happy New Year to everyone in the States!

Next blog: Morning tour recap

12:50 am flights to Asia are the best

I've decided that when flying to Asia, any flight after midnight is the best. After an incredibly long day at work on Tuesday followed by a quick stop at the shoe repair store to pick up my boots with new soles, I frantically grabbed a cab to Vinny's apartment to pack. I had the worse cabbie in the world who decided to take me across town using 57th Street during tourist season. What part of go crosstown on 97th did he not understand? Anyways, I saw the pretty lights at Time Warner and frantically packed from 6:30-9:45 pm and then Vinny and I took off for JFK at 10 pm.

We boarded our non-stop flight from JFK to Seoul at 12:25 am and promptly took off at 12:50 am. Needless to say, we were both exhausted so I fell asleep before the plane even left the runway and peacefully slept for 7 whole hours and then spent the rest of the 15 hour flight happily watching the great in-flight movies: Julie and Julia (great movie, thanks Rachel for recommending that I watch it) The Time Traveler's Wife, My Sister's Keeper (yep I looked pathetic bawling my eyes out on the airplane) and my favorite parts from the Ugly Truth (Jess, remember when we went to see that together?)

The flight was completely booked so Vinny and I unfortunately had the two middle seats but it wasn't as bad as we thought. It amazed me that the guy sitting next to me could sleep for 13 of the 15 hours of the flight, and spend the other 2 hours eating two delicious pieces of chocolate cake that he had brought on board. It was very funny watching him spring out of his seat when the flight attendant accidently almost crushed his plastic container when she was helping another passenger put their carry-on luggage in the overhead bin.

We arrived in Seoul this morning at 4:30 am and cleared passsport and customs without any problems. We took an airport shuttle operated by Korean Airlines to our hotel (The Ramada Seoul) and arrived at 7:30 am. There was not a room available for us to check into yet so Vinny and I decided to go book a morning city tour of Seoul and eat a quick breakfast. Breakfast was quite the adventure... (blog post will be continued soon, it's almost midnight in Seoul and I have to run back to the room to wish Vinny a Happy New Years)

Let the adventure begin/continue...

To all my family and friends:

As many of you know, I wasn't quite ready to go to medical school after graduating with my Master in Public Health back in April 2008. Thus began a whirlwind journey that led to me moving to a shoebox albeit a nicely decorated one in Manhattan, New York where I began working as a grant writer and program coordinator for public health obesity prevention programs focusing on youth. A year and half has passed and after much blood, sweat and tears (who knew the real world could be better/worse than the pre-med years), I'm finally confident that I want to and am ready to start on the medical school path. However...

Not before I travel. After an amazing trip to Madrid and Barcelona this past November, I've officially caught the travel bug and am trying to make my way to as many continents, countries, and cities before I officially put on my white coat and start memorizing academic facts again.

So here I go... armed with a passport, visas, a suitcase packed to the 50 lb. limit, my camera and a great travel buddy (three cheers for Vinny), I'm finally going back to Asia! This blog was created to share with you (my fellow reader) the ups, the downs, and everything in between. I will try to update as much as possible and hope that you will come to love Asia and embrace the traveling spirit through this blog as much as I do.

Besos,