The final week: Korea 21

Despite having been home since Sunday, I'm just now getting around to posting about my final week in Korea. Fair warning though: I may revisit several of these topics in depth at a later point. I just wanted to give a brief overview before I leave for yet another adventure.

Monday passed normally: work, dinner, hang out with friends. Nothing exciting there.

Tuesday was fish pedicure day! After hearing about our first experience with Dr. Fish, several other friends joined in. A total of 10 of us ventured to the Gangnam neighborhood to have our feet nibbled on by fishes once again. Afterwards half of us grabbed a delicious dinner of kalbi tang, or beef rib soup at one of our favorite restaurants (second only to the delicious chicken soup place).

Our week quickly filled with nights out and time with friends. There were final trips to favorite restaurants and bars. There were tons of final photos and the flurried exchange of American cell phone numbers.

Friday we got off work early--around 10:30 in the morning. After stopping for some delicious street food, I cooled off, changed clothes and headed out to Insadong. Insadong is full of tea houses and art galleries. I stopped in at a bird flying tea house. As the name suggests, the tea house has birds flying freely throughout.

After sharing my rice cakes with a tenacious little yellow bird, I headed back towards home for a night with friends. We ended one last evening outside the 7-11, as we had done many previous evenings.

Saturday was a lazy day. I slept in, finished packing and had one last meal from the 7-11 downstairs (no really-- I ate there several times while in Korea. I never intend to have a meal entirely from a convenience store again). We went out for dinner at our favorite chicken soup restaurant and then to Banpo bridge to see the light show. Unfortunately the bridge was broken. Fortunately we were there with friends. We were able to hang out by the river and make the best of a disappointing turn of events.

I promise there will be more details later but for now this will have to do.