Yom Kippur fell on Friday to Saturday, the 17th and 18th. Unfortunatley, my school was not exactly accommodating and didn't let me have the Friday off, but I didn't push it too far either. Saturday morning, I headed up to Seoul en route to the Chabad House services at the US Army Base Religious Retreat Center in Itaewon. There was a good group of fellow "Dae-Jewers" (Jews of Daegu) that were there also. It was a pretty decent turnout - maybe 100 people - definitely more Jews in Korea than I had anticipated. And I could not get over the adorable half-Korean children running around speaking Hebrew at 4 years old - I kid you not, it was amazing. Other than that, it was a normal Chabad service, much like the others I've previously experienced. It did make me miss our Yom Kippur services and the reform nature and family feel, but it was nice to make the journey to the only services in Korea.
On the verge of passing out nearing the "break-fast" point, I finally made it to 7:30 and snacked on crackers, tuna, hummus, veggies, fruit and cake at the Army base. We walked into the Itaewon area and grabbed a beer with the Jews and moved on to an area called Hongdae. It was pretty fun - we got a bag drink from GoGo Vinyl (minus the "GoGo") to keep things like Daegu, got some BBQ Chicken and beers, stopped by a hookah bar/lounge and at 3am headed back to the hotel. We stayed at the Ibis Hotel which was fairly nice but really not near any of the places we were ever at. Not sure how that worked out. I'm still skeptical of all hotels, motels or whatever other type of accommodations. The cleanliness is always FAR below par, and I will never step foot into the shower without shower shoes - even at Ibis, the shower floor was dirty. Just one of those things you have to expect.
Sunday, I spent the day shopping around in the Myeongdong area. There are many Western restaurants and clothing stores, so it was nice to catch some of those once in a while. There was a huge Forever21 and H&M, Nike stores, adidas, GUESS, Outback Steakhouse, CPK, the list goes on - we opted for a meal at CPK, but I enjoyed every bite. I even found Red Mango for the first time since I've been here, despite the fact that it's a Korean chain that was recently named #4 on fastest growing food service chains in the US in 2009 - but nowhere to be found in Korea. It was a fun day regardless of the pouring rain, but I wish I was able to enjoy Seoul a bit more and not have to fast and stay so far from the attractions.
Til next time, Hi Seoul!
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