Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. ---William Butler Yeats

This blog is dedicated to a little bit of education about Korean restaurants, food, and the business district of Yeouido-dong. Hope you don't find it too boring. I got really excited learning about it, but then I am going there! (That still blows my mind.)

I have been reading a lot of the information that has come to me through the agency and found I really don't know much about Seoul! I guess I ignorantly thought that having been there once made me an authority--oops, wrong assumption! I wrongly assumed we would be staying in the same hotel in Seoul that we stayed in 3 years ago, and when I found out we weren't--I started to do a little research. You see, I like things familiar, safe and in my comfort zone! Now I find that I won't be anywhere near where we were before so things like finding a good little breakfast place, internet cafe', and mandu restaurant is going to be an adventure all over again.

So....I got on the internet and started looking up the area that we staying in, and I am pretty excited! I think I can feel that fire building. (You gotta know me, I don't like change and this was flipping me out a little.) But now...I am feeling better. I have printed off about 6 pages of cool places to eat within walking distance of the Lexington Hotel.

• There is the Seo-Do restaurant which is famous for it's 5 layers of fat pork barbeque that is cooked on a slate burner right at your table. I guess the norm for this kind of feast is 3 layers of fat!!
• There is the Samgyetang which is famous for it's soup which is very healthy and good for you. (Gonna need it after five layers of fat!) Sam means ginsing; gyae means chicken; and tang means soup. Thus, it is a restaurant known for it's Ginseng chicken soup. But....you get the WHOLE chicken stuffed with rice, ginsing, and other roots and nuts brought to you in a large heavy bowl---all boiling hot! I guess you can get a half a chicken portion also.
• There is the KDB Cafeteria and Art Gallery: Food and Sculptures! It's in a government building that looks very modern and has a cafeteria that was rated as pretty decent food.
• The last place that I read about with some interest was a Western Bar just out the back of our hotel called Wingswing. It's run by a Korean man who spent 20 years in New York City and Atlanta. It's famous for, of course....wings!!

So....now I feel like I know the neighborhood of our hotel. In Korea, the area or neighborhood, of an area is indicated by adding the word "dong" to the end of it. Since we will be staying in Yeouido-dong I checked up on it and found out another very interesting tidbit. Right next door to the hotel is a HUGE christian church, which packs in almost 12,000 people each Sunday. It holds services in a huge stadium. I am pretty excited to try to get to it. It is the Yoido Full Gospel church founded by David Yonggi Cho. It seems to have a pretty good theology although in reading about it, it does seem to have a "health and wealth" spin on it. According to one article I read, that is because of the influence of shamanism on Christianity. (You see, it really got me going and I spent about 2 1/2 hours researching the Yeouido Island that we will be staying on!) I think I will be able to attend one of the services, because most of the tour group won't be arriving until a little later in the afternoon on Sunday, June 25th and I will be getting there on the 21st.

If you are interested in seeing some pictures the Island we will be staying on here is a link. The island looks beautiful and Mike and I were amazed at the size of the church. I tried to get the link to the church to work, but it didn't. If you're interested you can "google" the Yoido Full Gospel church.

• The link for some pictures of the island and some buildings on the island including the church are:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeouido when you get to this one click on pictures of the Han River, the 63 building and many others on that page. It's pretty cool.

Well, this one has been a little more info filled and less "worry" filled or asking for prayers. I still covet your prayers for this trip...but wanted to write about something different this time.

Thanks again for reading my ramblings.

Peg