Too-Many-Bad-Seoul/Soul-Puns-Can't-Choose-Just-One

So I went to Seoul this weekend (all Seoul/Soul puns were present and accounted for) because I wanted to see Seoul and I was adopting a dog near the Seoul area.  I was adopting the dog on Sunday so I decided to go to Seoul on Saturday and spend the whole day meandering around.

I had to bring a dog crate to pick up the dog.  This proved to be quite amusing because Koreans are terrified of animals.  I've seen grown men cross streets to avoid a teeny little dog.  Yet everyone kept looking in my crate, and not subtly might I add.  No people were bending down and looking in the crate.  And when they didn't see anything they still weren't convinced that there was nothing in there  so they kept looking, like some animal was magically going to appear.

Anyways, so I got to Seoul and after an hour, I gave up looking for a hostel and settled for a hotel (grr).  I went and saw all the famous palaces although I should have just seen one because they are all exactly the same. But they are pretty cool to see; they are the epitome of Korea in my opinion.  (That was such a good use of a semi-colon!  Lynn Truss would be so proud!)  Then I walked down a strip to try and find an art museum when I saw a random door protruding from the ground.  So naturally I went in...

Turns out it was this huge underground museum dedicated to the Korean Admiral leader guy who was all "We are at the height of battle!  Do not tell them I'm deeeeaaadddd!!!!"

Everything was all fine and dandy until I found the "4D experience."  You know those big chairs they put you in that move all around and you wear 3D glasses and water and mist shoots out at you?  That's a 4D experience.  This particular 4D experience (and I have no idea why I thought it would be about anything else) was about the naval battle in which Admiral Sin "don't tell them I'm dead" surrounded Japan's ships and sunk them despite being outnumbered.  Now whoever thought it would be a good idea to give people the feel of being in war is a complete idiot.  This is THE WORST IDEA EVER.  There are bullets flying at you, ships are crashing into you, canons are exploding in your face.  It's absolutely AWFUL and all you feel at the end is terrified,  emotionally traumatized, and that you now might be eligible for some PTSD funding from the government.  I'm not even going to get into the portrayal of the Japanese commander or his maniacal laugh, mostly because there are just no words.

After that permanently scarring incident, I found a Rockefeller center-esk ice-skating rink and went skating at a Dollar Store-esk price.  Korean's can't ice-skate.  I really have stop stop making vast generalizations that have absolutely no support to them.  I retract the ice-skating statement.  I'd delete it, but I don't feel like holding down the delete button for that long.  That sentence is really far away.  Now it's even farther.  "You're older than you've ever been and now you're even older, and now you're even older, and now you're even older.*"

Later on, I walked around downtown, got a free hug from some Korean dudes who were giving out free hugs (I love those!) and then I bought the best purse ever.  Tricera-purse.


The next day I went to the shelter and got Benes.  She's such a good dog.  The guy that runs the shelter, who was dressed in military garb, somehow found out that I came all the way from Yeosu to get Benes and he freaked out.  He hugged me like a million times (Korean's aren't big on hugging, that's not an unwarranted generalization this time).  I was trying to ask him for the number of a taxi so I could get to the train station and he was all "My chingu, he drive, thank you!!!"  So this dude drove me to the station for free.  Normally in life, I have a lot of bad luck, but getting Benes has been nothing but good luck and good timing.  I was scared that I was making a mistake in getting a dog, but this is so right.


*They Might Be Giants