Friday: Jason Mraz and the W Hotel. Obviously, Mraz was awesome. The venue was similar to The Roseland in PDX so it was nice and intimate. The crowd was all sorts of rowdy and Jason even stopped the show to make an "Important Safety Announcement" about the crowd crushing the folks in the front. The band played a full show and 2 encores, probably about 2 hours of music with the opener. My knees are still sore from standing and jumping for so long.
The Venue from outside:
Jason! This is after the show - he came out to take some Polaroid's of the crowd & play a quick solo:
Afterwards we took a shuttle bus up the hill to the 6-star Sheraton "W" Hotel to have a very expensive cocktail. The hotel is incredibly modern and has some very neat spaces, including an ultramodern bar with 70's style pod chairs. My POS camera refused to accept such modern greatness so photographic evidence is slim.
The light sculptures at the entrance:
The individual bathrooms and sculpture garden:
For X - The one on the right is Kettle One:
Saturday: Itaewon & Insadong. The girls from my office took me out for lunch and then clothes shopping in Itaewon. This was possibly the most humiliating experience of my life because I am a chubster and we had to ask up front if the shop carried "Big Sizes." More than a few shopkeepers laughed in my face, but I did manage to find a skirt that will suffice for the DMZ trip.
The rest of the day was awesome. We went over to Insadong and I got most of my souvenir shopping done before dinner. The girls also bought me a few gifts, which was strange but really nice. I enjoyed hanging out with them and hope they are not just being nice to me because I'm from WHQ.
This is where the ring the New Year's Bell. People in Korea celebrate their birthdays at the start of every year (and their actual day!) so it's a big festival:
A man pounding rice for a traditional snack:
Me and Strawberry Girl, a very famous cartoon. Her best friends are Watermelon Man and Dung Boy. I'm kinda sad they didn't have a Dung Boy statue to pose with:
Sunday: Seoul Grand Park & The National Museum of Contemporary Art. I took the subway all by myself out into the country and the Grand Park. The art museum was nice but I can't say I enjoyed most of the art. There were a few great pieces and a lot of strange stuff. The visiting exhibition was a French artist and her work creeped the pants off me - I seriously could not get out of there fast enough. I guess if the purpose of Art is to inspire emotion it was successful, but I am now terrified of stuffed animals.
The open air sculpture garden, where I enjoyed an Orange Juice Soda:
On the way back I passed Seoulland "where happiness & adventure come true":
I'm pooped from all the walking/standing/shopping I've done this weekend. I almost went to see "Once" at the theatre on my way home, but there was only 1 ticket left and I wasn't in the mood to crane my neck from the front row. So, I'm going to be lazy here instead - maybe I'll go have a Stake at Amigo's!
On a side note, Pan's Labyrinth is possibly the scariest movie I have ever watched in Spanish with Korean subtitles - I have no idea what the heck they are saying but jeepers, it is fascinating.
