Fourth day, Meeting friends and relatives
This day we had three appointments with people. First one to meet two friends of mine, one Swedish girl who now is studying as an exchange student in Korea, and one Korean girl whom I met when she studied abroad in Sweden.
One of my friends ordered a milk tea, consisting mostly of milk and almost no tea at all, but served in an interesting glass bottle
We shared a Taiwanese mango shaved ice with ice cream on top
Second appointment lunch was with the same Swedish girl from the morning and one of Issac's college friend from the States. We ate samgyopsal, the grilled pork belly I have showed pictures of before. And here is what was interesting about this table in the picture: it has a drawer with chopsticks, spoons and tissues fastened underneath the table so we easily can reach it without having it in the way when eating! And do you see the "call" buttom on the table? Now we were the only guests in the restuarant at that time so we didn't need to use it, but this buttom you can press instead of having to wave your hand and shout to get the waiter's attention. When pressing the buttom, it will silently let them know we want their help. (Maybe through a lamp being lit somewhere, I don't really know since we didn't get to try it). So nice though! All restaurant should get those, and in Sweden too!
After lunch we said good-bye to Issac's friend as he had another appointment, while we headed for the biggest underground shopping mall in Korea!
But the shopping mall was under renovation, so well we could get a feeling of how long it was by walking through it... but we did not get amazed, just tired of the long and plain walk
Only a few stores was open, like this one. Made by Jesus huh? Didn't know he was a fashion designer too!
Aquarium in the mall
And some cool buildings outside
As it was getting closer to dinner time, Issac and I headed to Incheon to meet Issac's oldest uncle and his family. By now, the rush hour had started, with people everywhere and the subways packed. The train we where catching was late, so a terrible amount of people had gathered on the station by the time it finally came. They rushed into the subway and kept pushing each other forward until there was no space left at all, no space at all to move, and hardely even space enough to breathe.... Never again taking a subway in rush hour!
I don't have any pictures from meeting the relatives (I thought that might make it even more awkward if I go all paparazzi with them too on the first meeting...). The relatives was nice though, treating me friendly and kindly. My Korean is really nothing to brag about, or even to mention. I could only understand a little bit, and it took a lot of concentration to just keep up with what topic they discussed. So although it was a bit tiring, I did enjoy the stay. With the first family we met, we went to a restaurant and ate Korean-Asian fusion dishes. We ate it traditionally too, using a traditional table that is very, very low while sitting on the floor. The food was alright, some dishes I liked, some dishes not so much. The family was a bit traditional too in the roles of the people. The husband, who was oldest, didn't say much and didn't do anything else than paying the food. The wife was as active in talking and keeping the conversation up as she was in the kitchen home arranging and fixing things. The daughter was 29 years old, but looked so much younger, and talked like a kid. And that leads me to probably the biggest culture shock here, altough I have heard about the Korean term "aegyo" and understood that girls wants to act cute. But young adults talking and acting like kids is very new for me. This is how the girls make themselves approachable here, a too strict and serious manner would be unfavorable for girls. While in Sweden, an adult (anytime above 15 years probably) talking like a kid wouldn't be taken seriously at all.
We slept over at the first family's house, and before we left in the morning they prepared big breakfast with many dishes for us. It was meat, noodles, soup, side dhishes and rice, so perhaps more like a proper lunch meal than breakfast in western standards. They gave me a dress too and wished to meet us again. Shortly after breakfast we left to travel back to and through Seoul to the other side to meet the second uncle, aunt and both their families. With them we had lunch (grilled duck) and had a nice time too. But they were many in total, and it was a bit hard for me to remember who was who. I recieved a flower bucket from someone, one of the girls I think, not sure...
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