Stealing the Seoul of South Korea! Part 7

Day 7

Apparently, unbeknownst to many people, Chinese tourists visiting Seoul really like to take pictures at Ewha Women's University.  It was my first stop of the day.  When I finally got there from Myeong Dong, I wondered what was so interesting about it.  It was a nice university campus, but that was about it. Some of the buildings reminded me of UBC.

After looking around, I ended up stranded at a nearby Dunkin' Donuts because snow was coming down hard.  Luckily, I had some postcards that needed writing in my bag and a wad of cash in my pocket to buy multiple cafe lattes.

By the time I was done writing, the snow did not let up.  I walked back to the nearest subway stop and got myself to Gangnam, a popular but expensive area for the people of Seoul to hang out, learn English, and get a face lift.  Found an Irish pub for my usual Guinness that I drink when traveling, but no one was inside.  Lame...the Guinness would have to wait.  Settled for street food instead.

Getting back into the downtown area, I tried to find city hall, but stumbled over a really quiet palace park called Deoksugung Palace. Normally, I figured if I saw one palace, I've seen 'em all, but the snow made the area really nice. I went in to look around.

It was beginning to get dark, so I went back to my home stay to get ready for my second hapkido lesson. Mama and some other old lady were cooking Korean pancakes and some sort of sweet sauce (I think Mama was trying to tell me it was homemade jam).  They sat me down and fed me well before I took off to Itaewon.

More people were at the school this time.  There was some group activity, but then we paired off for the bulk of the time.  My partner and I practiced various joint-lock take downs. It was a lot of fun and refreshed my skills quite a bit, but Master Kim was all...well...Asian about it...

While trying to execute a take-down from a full nelson, Master Kim comes over and sees me talking my way through the whole affair...


"No! No, not too much thinking. Everything soft...hapkido is about feeling [grabs Paul's arm].  You search for pressure points okay!  [massages Paul's arm]...You feel...[graduates to a vulnerable joint and applies pressure, Paul tries to fight pain] attack...feel [moves up the arm and applies pressure to a pressure point, Paul cringes in pain] attack...feel [moves again and Paul contorts face in even more pain] attack...feel [moves down to Paul's wrist while wrenching at it. Discovers Paul's home stay's bandage while Paul is tapping-out].  Oh! What's that?


After the lesson, I bid Master Kim and the black belts a thank you and farewell.  I also told them I'd be back in summer for another week of lessons. I plan to keep my word on that one.

I got back to my home stay pretty late.  The next day I would leave Mama's home stay for a really nice hotel, so I spent late evening packing up my stuff.