We met at Samgaji Station (line 4/line 6) and walked to base. Just to get on base, we needed two forms of ID, a passport and a license. OR just our Korean Alien Residency card. Luckily I always carry around my ARC. Probably a throw back to Chile where you needed to carry around your national ID card by law. I'm not sure if it's the law here or not, but it has gotten me into clubs on the rare occasions that they check IDs. This time it got me on base without hassle. We were given visitor's passes that we had to carry around while we were on base.
We walked around base and first thing our friend brought us to was the "White House". This is the building where all the top military officials in Korea work. Evidently, it's pretty famous. What do I know?
"White House"... really not that exciting looking. There is a parade ground in front for military formations or something...Then we walked a ways and found ourselves at the food court. My friends, who are all English teachers like me, were amazed to see a Taco Bell, an American style Chinese food restaurant, a Burger King with shakes and menus only in English. We weren't even hungry, but we ran to Taco Bell and each got a taco to eat before the movie.
One of the most annoying parts of going to base is that everything on base is in USD. So, our choice was to find some American cash, use our credit/debit cards from home, or use Won and get a crappy exchange rate. Before I went, I dug up all I had in US dollars, which was something like 20 dollars or so... no, probably less than that... I didn't even think to bring my debit card, since I don't have any reason to carry that around in Seoul, generally speaking. Some of my friends stopped by this ATM, which was run by Bank of America... so weird...
My friend was a slightly amused by our fascination with the ATM machine..
In this same area there was a small mall too:
Then we trekked over to the movie theater.... I didn't realize that it would be so far... I had no idea just how big the base really was.... On the way there, here are some of the sights we saw:
Wow... a Burger King with a playground... crazy...We finally got to the theater and were just on time for the movie. Those with a military ID get in for free... pretty sweet deal.... for civilians it's $4... still a pretty sweet deal... We watched 'Gran Torino'. It was ok. I really liked the plot, but some of the acting was a little painful to watch...
We then went to the Dragon Hill hotel to get dinner. Prices were pretty reasonable... well, except for the fact that I didn't have enough USD on me to buy in American dollars. I wound up paying in Won and it was SOOO much more expensive. But, whatever. For a real, good, American restaurant, it was worth it. And what did I order? Chicken Parmesan! Who would have guessed I'd take a photo of chicken parmesan... it's so... not exotic at home... but here... it just doesn't exist in any decent form.
Dragon Hill Hotel
Mmmm... Sooo Yummy......So after dinner we walked back to the exit. There was such a nice view of Namsan. I did my best to get a good photo....
Not bad, considering what I'm working with....Anyway, I had a fun visit to base. It was one of the things I really wanted to do while in Seoul, so I can scratch one more thing off my list.
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