만나다 = To Meet

Itaewon
The first meeting of the weekend took place on the busy streets of Itaewon, which is very close to the base! One of my friends from Pharmacy school is Korean, and she is visiting for the summer! We met for lunch and ice cream and chatted up a storm!


Hongdae
This district is famous for the nightlife, but we went around dinner time and it was still packed! It was such a happy accident that I made it to Seoul for the opening of the You Are Here Cafe, where I got to meet the hilariously real makers of the website and youtube channel about life in Korea, Eat Your Kimchi (eatyourkimchi.com)! This cafe is a joint project with folks at Talk To Me In Korean (talktomeinkorean.com), who post excellent and entertaining content for Korean language learners. I have definitely benefited from their lessons! I have been a huge fan of both of these groups for a while, so I can't help myself from posting these pictures Seong took. My loving photographer captured these moments so that I could enjoy the meeting unencumbered!



At first, I was so nervous and shy that we walked past the cafe and had a snack around the corner. After a while, Seong calmed me down enough for us to go back and stand in line! And who should we meet on our way in but Simon! I am not ashamed of how red I got because I couldn't contain my excitedness!



After a delicious smoothie, we finally pushed through the crowd to meet Martina! She was so fun and sweet! You can see the TTMIK crew in the background of some of these.



Martina signed the TTMIK "Survival Korean" book I bought. She said to "Go Explore"!! I am determined to do so.



I even got a chance to chat with interns Leigh and SooZee!!



Even though it was crazy awesome to meet these famous people, we weren't done for the day!
Mullae
Next we met up with Seong's friends from high school for dinner and coffee in the residential neighborhood Mullae. Have I mentioned how much Koreans love coffee? From what I've seen, there is a coffee shop on every block and Koreans drink coffee multiple times a day. It is fantastic!



Anyway, we had fried chicken and Chilsung Cider, which is just called "cider". I was really confused because I thought they were saying cider, as in apple cider! It is actually a delicious lemon-lime soda. Seong's friends were a fun group, joking around with each other and even including me in the conversation with English! One of them said that since I am their friends' wife, it is customary in Korean culture for all of them to buy me food at some point. I guess that means we are going out again sometime? I can't wait!