This year’s big 18th birthday for me was by far the best yet. After the long day of school, I was off with my best friend Claudia to get my very first tattoo – Blue Hill Mountain on the side of my ribs, drawn by my very own mother!! I made my way back home on the subway, smiling with excitement. When I got home there was the cab that always took us to and from the airport in our driveway, which was confusing, but I didn’t think much of it. I walked through the door to be surprised by Emma and Charlotte (my best friends from Maine) sitting on my couch, spraying confetti, screaming “Happy Birthday!!”. Now you would think I’d go rushing in for a hug. Instead, I stood there crying and laughing, so happy and taken away by the fact that someone would actually fly 14 hours and 7,000 miles to see me in this crazy world (as you will see in the vid below). I had dreamed, wished, and prayed it would happen, but I knew it was too good to be true.
After lots of excitement and catching up, our evening ended with having some cake, opening presents and planning our next few days.
Our first trip of the day was to the pedestrian street called Myeongdong, where there are millions of little shops to explore in and lots of fun street food to try. Charlotte and Emma happily agreed to taking the small neighborhood bus followed by the subway to get there. After buying too many face masks (having had trouble deciding which ones out of the hundreds to choose from), we ventured to another small pedestrian area called Insadong. There we went to my family’s favorite dumpling restaurant where Emma and Charlotte tried different kinds of Korean vegetable pancakes and dumplings (doing their best to eat with the ridiculously difficult Korean chopsticks). After lunch and some walking around, we headed home for a couple hours to squeeze in a shower, power nap and a face mask. I took them to one of my favorite restaurants in Itaewon (the international part of Seoul) called Un, Deux, Trois, where we shared some appetizers and sipped on Cosmopolitans to get ready for our night out. I showed Emma and Charlotte my favorite bars that my friends and I always went to and had them try the famous SOJU for the first time. We got home, super tired and fell asleep quite quickly.
Looking very special with our rubber face masks on…
Our second day was personally my favorite. We tried on the famous Hanbok dresses (which I had done before) and toured around the palace in the town of Samcheongdong. After taking forever to find the perfect Hanbok outfit, we set out and had a beautiful two hour walk around the palace. For lunch, I took them to my favorite non-Korean sandwich place where we stayed for practically 3 hours laughing and catching up on everything that’s been going on since we saw each other last. Afterwards we went home to regroup again. Watching House the TV show, power napping, showering and doing a face mask became our daily routine before setting off for dinner and the rest of the night. For dinner, I of course took them to Korean BBQ, my absolute favorite Korean meal (which I’m missing greatly now that I’m in the states). I showed them how you’re supposed to eat the meat and what each food was; they fell just as in love with it as I had!
Our next day was the big trip to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea)!! I actually had never been so the trip was exciting for all three of us. We had an early wakeup at 7am to get to the bus in time. We had to sign a waiver that had us agreeing to the fact that we knew we could die on this trip… a little terrifying (being the brave souls we are, we still decided to go). The first stop was a train station that used to go back and forth from North Korea and the DMZ. It is no longer in use but if the two were to ever unify, that train would start running again. Next, we walked in one of the four tunnels South Korea had found North Korea digging, a failed plan to attack the South. They are now all blocked up with 3 large walls, but we still were able to walk through the entrance. Although, Emma, Charlotte and I were all a little concerned that those 3 “large” walls wouldn’t actually do much if there were to be an attack… Our last stop was the look out point where you supposedly see one of the “towns” in North Korea. I put quotations around towns because North Korea actually created a fake town for us to look at in hopes that we would think all of North Korea looks this way. Unfortunately it had been super foggy that day so we saw very little of that town and the rest of the area. After we took our hour and a half bus ride back, we quickly stopped by Crispy Cream Donuts, Emma giving the excuse that she could never get them in MA so we just HAD to go (very Korean I know). Now that we had our dessert taken care of, we went to a Korean restaurant where I had them try bibimbap, bulgogi and kimchi soup. Being so hungry from our long day, we ate a fair amount and quickly. After once again regrouping back home, we went out for a delicious dinner with the whole family at my favorite nice restaurant in Seoul, the JW Marriott. Separating from my sister and parents, I went off to show Emma and Charlotte the second neighborhood that my friends go out in called Hongdae. Considering it was a Sunday, there really wasn’t much partying going on, but we still sat in my favorite bars and had a beer or two before heading back home.
Our last day, we permanently saved this memory of Emma and Charlotte’s visit. We walked up to the Namsan Tower (or Seoul Tower) that is a popular site to visit in Seoul. Similar to the Paris tradition of putting a lock on a bridge, Korea has a similar tradition of putting a lock along the walkway around Namsan tower. So, in addition to seeing Namsan tower and getting to look at Seoul with a 360 degree view, off we went to buy the bright green lock and wrote our initials and the date on the lock. I took the liberty of writing our names in Korean on the other side (which I probably spelled wrong) and then we clipped it on. (I recently went back at the end of my school year with my family and found our lock! We placed our family’s right next to it.)
I will never forget those four days Emma and Charlotte came to visit and I couldn’t have been more grateful to have such good friends. Even being jet lagged, they were always up for exploring and trying something new. They even picked up a little Korean (more than my dad even after all this time)! It was also fun for me to show them around my new world that very few people get to see and understand. I realized how much I had learned over the past two years and how comfortable I was in this second home of mine. That 18th birthday, forever being the best birthday ever, I owe all to Emma and Charlotte. So thank you to them for making the long trip to surprise me and to my mom and dad for helping plan it and somehow keeping it a secret. Love you all.
seoulfulsojourn.net 