And on my 5th day in Korea, I found THE AQUARIUM.

That's right folks. I found the Aquarium last night. Well, Korea's version of "Seaworld."  IT WAS AWESOME. Let's back up.  Yesterday was Friday, and we had the day off because the national holiday was Korea's Independence Day.  They don't really do much in honor of this day except everyone's off work, so Jaclyn and I ventured into Seoul to meet my friend Kate. (From Memphis not Nashville, although it'd be super cool if that one were here too. Just sayin'.) This was my first experience on the Korean subway, and it was definitely an adventure.  So Jaclyn and I stopped for coffee and bagels on our way to the train, and thought we'd have an hour or so to eat them once we got on.  This would have been a perfect plan if we had been able to sit or even MOVE on the train. It was extremely crowded and we weren't exactly sure how to navigate it (me especially) and so we mainly just looked like the lost american girls with too much food.  I made the sad mistake of sitting in an empty seat when someone got off at one of the stops.  It was about two minutes later that a large Korean man started yelling at me, and I thought he was being nice, saying "Yougeyo" which I interpreted to mean "look!" I thought he wanted me to look out the window to see the scenery, so I did, smiling nicely back at him.  He kept yelling, so I kept turning my head to look out the window. He got angry and yelled louder.  Then Jaclyn noticed the sign that had a picture of a man with a cane and a lady with a baby. Apparently I was sitting in the old people or pregnant people section of the train and was being totally disrespectful without even knowing it. awesome. He did not want me to look out the window, he wanted me to move my disrespectful american self out of the seat! so I did. He stopped yelling then. Fast forward through an extremely awkward rest of the train ride with him glaring at me... we made it to our stop.  We got off to find Kate waiting for us at the meeting place and proceeded to check out Seoul.  We walked around Itaewon which is nicknamed "little America".  It had lots of cool stores and street vendors and even an Outback steakhouse. Score.  Lots of Gangham Style stuff.  We decided since it was freezing out, we would go to the Korea National Museum.  It was super interesting with all of its cultural artifacts and pictures.  I began to feel a little more oriented in the country I was living.  After the museum, we decided to stop for lunch at a traditional Korean restaurant.  We took off our shoes and sat on the floor at tiny tables with a burner in the center.  A large pot was brought out with a whole chicken in it, floating with broth and vegetables.  It was actually quite tasty! Like chicken soup, only, less like my mom's.  After lunch we went on an adventure to find Hannuk Village which was supposed to be filled with korean culture and just cool houses from way back in the day.  After an hour of searching, we finally found it, only to see that we'd missed the last American tour for the day, so that was kind of disappointing.  We got to see some of the houses and architecture from the Mulan period hah.  I'll post pictures soon. But now getting to the good part of the day.... We went to the 63 building, which is the tallest building in Korea.  I forgot exactly how high, but it's like their version of the Empire State Building.  We bought tickets and rode the elevator to the top and saw the most beautiful views of the whole city at night, it was amazing! When we came down, we realized that their was an aquarium in the basement of this building.  Yes, a real live aquarium with penguins, fish, seals, otters, jellyfish, eels, sharks, and a GIANT OCTOPUS. I had never seen one before in real life so I was super excited about that.  Again, lots of pictures.  Sad to say, no whales in aquarium, but it was a super fun day, none the less.  After this we were exhausted, found a bulgogi burger for dinner (bulgogi is korean beef remember) and it absolutely tasted NOTHING like a real burger, bleh, and then we went home. Yay for a first day doing something besides school! There is so much to see and do here, and I'm excited I have a whole year to explore.  Some things I miss already: Liquid hand soap, Taco Bell, and Adam. Oh, and all my family and friends :)