A Very American Thanksgiving- In Korea!

For Thanksgiving the whole group got together and we had our own version of a very American Thanksgiving here in Korea!  We all chipped in to rent an apartment to have our dinner at.  We needed the use of a fully stocked kitchen to cook everything, and SK Global House isn't the most festive of locations.  The apartment belonged to an older Korean couple who went to the States to visit their daughter for the holiday.

Jim and Rosie did almost all of the cooking.  They made delicious stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, and many other things.  With the money that we all contributed, we bought many "American" items like dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc. from the American base, as well as an American grocery store that's in Itaewon.  Also, we ordered our turkey from the American Base.  I even made a cheesecake, which despite the doubts of some particular family members, came out great!

I went with my friend Steve to pick up the turkey and the pumpkin pies at the U.S. Army base in Itaewon, Yongsan Garrison.  It was very cool seeing the base.  We had to show our alien registration cards and get checked in.  We ordered the food from the hotel that's on the base.  It was a very nice hotel, very Western looking, with a beautiful lobby and restaurant inside.  It was nice not to be the minority for a little while; we were surrounded by fellow Americans.

When the turkey came it out it was a lot smaller than Steve and I were expecting, we were a little nervous at first, but it ended up being the perfect amount for everybody.  We were 14 people total and we did an excellent job of demolishing all the food, no leftovers for us!  As we ate we all went around and said what were thankful for.  I said I was thankful for my amazing family encouraging me and affording me this excellent opportunity.

Later on in the evening we watched the movie "It's a Wonderful Life".  We all stayed the night since the apartment was still ours until the next day.  The next morning we made scrambled eggs, pancakes, and banana bread, continuing with the American theme.  Around 11:30 we snapped into gear because realized we had to be out of the apartment by noon and we still had a lot of cleaning to do.  We got it all done though, and after a million dishes (the apartment did not have a dishwasher!), many remade beds, and a thorough vacuuming, we checked out of "Hotel Nice-Korean-Couple".

It was a lot of fun spending Thanksgiving with all of my study abroad friends, and it was so much fun organizing our own little American holiday.  I definitely missed Thanksgiving with the family though, and it made me a bit more excited to go home.

Our delicious Thanksgiving dinner made by Rosie and Jim

Jim carving the turkey

Iteawon

This afternoon I traveled to Iteawon with a few friends. Andreas, Kia, Rosie, Jumee, and Samantha from Waterloo, Canada, decided to explore this district of Seoul because we heard that it's very American friendly. And that it was! It took us about 40 minutes with walking and subway time to get there, also we had to make one subway transfer. When we ascended the stairs to the street we immediately saw a Mcdonalds, Coldstone Creamery, Subway and Burger Mart (basically a Burger King) all on the same block. This district was extremely American! Everything from the street vendors speaking English (not common in Sinchon) to the large variety of Western-style hotels, this was definitely more familiar to us. In fact, it basically looked like parts of New York City.

The reason Iteawon is so Western is because the U.S. Army base Yongsan Garrison is located there. We saw a handful of both American and Korean soldiers on the streets and in the shops and restaurants. We realized very quickly that Iteawon was not as great as we were hoping it would be. To be honest, it just felt a little boring after being faced with the culture shock of the much more traditional city-districts of Seoul. We decided not to have dinner there and return to Sinchon to eat. Since it's more of an international-friendly district, everything was more expensive. In Sinchon my rice and egg bowl was 3,000 won or about $3 but if we had ate in Iteawon I would've ended up spending about $8 or $9 (which is still fairly inexpensive compared to American prices).

The coolest thing I saw in Iteawon was a pair of socks for sale on a street vendor cart. Each sock had a huge picture of President Obama's face on it. Very cool, but very American. I know you're all psyched for the interview/bio on my roommate Valerie, but you'll just have to wait one more day because she got caught in the rain tonight and needs to dry off. It's rough times here in Seoul.