OMG! RUN! IT'S THE GWOEMUL!

Enough time has come and gone since our triumphant return to Korea, that I feel I need to write something about them. Since nothing really happens during the week, and there are no more days off until Christmas Day (boo!), I present the Weekend Adventures of Joshiebar and Bree Teacher… (This happened a good 3 weeks ago, so some details might be a little fuzzy, and it’s probably not-quite-chronologically arranged).

Volume 1: 63 Building

We decided to meet on Yeouido Island, which is in the middle of the Han River, and is the home of the 63 Building, which used to be the tallest building in Asia, but now ranks 3rd in South Korea and 102nd in the world(!!). We assumed that it wouldn’t be too hard to fine, since it’s (allegedly) enormous, and we were on a tiny island in the middle of the river. Boy, were we wrong— We wandered around for a while, first trying to find the shuttle that was supposed to take us to the building, then once we figured we were close enough, the building itself. Somehow, we didn’t see it in the distance, until we were pretty much right under it, and it was right above us. 63 stories above us.

Well… They call it the 63 building, and it does have 63 stories, but 3 of them are underground. Even so, for some reason they call the ground level the first floor, and the top the 63rd. Some went missing on the way up to the top I guess? The dealy that we read advertised 100 stores, or some such. But when we got there, it had (I think) 15? We counted, but I forget now. Needless to say, I was very disappointed on the shopping front. It does, however, have an IMAX, and an aquarium, and several corridors that have light shows for no particular reason.

Our first stop (as it tends to be when Bree Teacher and I rendezvous) was for food. We saw a restaurant called Buffet Pavilion (oh my God yes please), which sounds like pretty much the best place ever, but we decided to save it for another day. We settled instead for the lady who only wanted to sell Bree garlic bread, and sold me some vile sort of risotto(???) concoction. We should’ve gone to buffet pavilion…

Next, though, we went up to the 63rd floor! The elevator to the top is on the outside of the building, and it’s all glass, so you can see outside. The view probably would have been awesome, too, except that it was so foggy that we could see about 3 feet from the elevator. Once we got to the top, the view got slightly better. We could see the south side of the city (Bree Teacher’s side) fairly well. We could also see…

THE GWOEMUL!!!

Well, sort of. But perhaps I should explain. Gwoemul is the English-ed version of the Korean title of this awesome horror/monster movie (it’s called The Host in English, which is a bit lamer). It is set in Seoul, and the bridge that the big monster (the Gwoemul) lives under is called the Wonhyo Bridge, and you can see it from the top of the 63 Building. It’s labeled, in fact. Gwoemul used to be the highest grossing movie in Korea, but then D-War grossed more. Anyway, Gwoemul is scary and amazing. Rent it.


[I totally took this picture of it...]