The Seoulite

The Seoulite is expanding his online offerings… now all kpop fans can unite… and date each other! Tired of so-gae-ting? Want to find someone new? Need to just waste some time online by flirting with fellow kpop fans? Well, well, well… go to my new website: www.kpopsingles.com.

Everything is free. You can chat, send messages, do video conferencing and even browse through the kpop zone. We’re just getting started so if anyone wants to volunteer to update the kpop pages with more recent stars, let me know. I only put up my favorites from back in the day…!

A love like this... how romantic.

Don’t talk on your phone while on the stairmaster. Your phone will get a steam sauna…especially if you’re a hot-head like the Seoulite. And then… it will die. Now I will always write down my phone numbers because messing up cell phones happens more often than we’d like to admit. Compared to some of my friends who lose their phones every two months… I’m more responsible… but this is now the THIRD cellphone I’ve had in Korea in the span of one year. No wonder this country is number one in cell phones!

If you have a Samsung Anycall phone, you can go to the Samsung Anycall center to get your phone fixed. The Seoulite couldn’t even wait one day so of course he got a replacement phone last night at the LG Store (more on this later)… but he wanted to see if they could save his phone numbers and photos! A service/repair center in Korea is referred to as an A/S or after service center.

Go up to the seventh floor to this super sleek service center. Take a number to talk to the information counter. They take your phone... then you wait with a pager that buzzes when your service technician is ready to see you. Most repairs are done on the spot. While you wait they have computers and TVs for your pleasure. The Seoulite completed this blog all in the time he waited for the technician to transfer my photos and phone numbers to his USB.

The Samsung Anycall Service Center is located off of Yeoksam Station, Line 2, Exit #4. Just walk 50 meters and the building, called the Samsung Anycall building, will be on your right. The Seoulite isn't used to meters so he walked 200-300 meters and ended up blocks away. 50 meters is only 1-2 buildings from the subway station exit.

By the way… if you lose your phone and don’t want to spend much money on replacing it… go to the cell phone store and ask for the cheapest phone that has a short required time contract. Most often, they will offer you a ‘free phone’ as long as you stay a customer for 24 months. They are the latest, most expensive phones too. My last phone was 1,000 won brand new and only required a three month contract. This current phone is the same model for 30,000 won (used, but in a cooler updated color) that only requires a one month contract. I think my phone is about done being repaired… so now I have two phones. Good backup if something happens to my phone again!

Seollung Tang may have originated during the reign of King Sejong during the Joseon period. One legend tells that the king visited the Seonnongdan area where the people were praying for a good harvest while plowing a rice field. On the Kings arrival at the site of the plowing, it began raining quite heavily, and the people took that as a sign that the King’s visit had ensured they would have a plentiful harvest. An ox was butchered and cooked in various ways in honor of the King. One of the dishes served to the King was seollung tang which he praised.

The color of the soup is white because it is dissolved parts of the bones - wonderful source of calcium. It has a hearty, rich flavor that makes you feel full. But there’s hardly any grease because most gets extracted through the cooking process.

Go to Seolleung Seollung Tang after going to the Royal Seolleung Park to visit the burial tombs.

It's done in an old style and it's right across the street from the park.

Add scallions to suit your taste.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Then it's ready to eat!

So delicious. All gone!

Check this restaurant out. The soup sure had some soul to it!

Seolleung Seollung Tang
Seoul, Gangnam-gu, Yeoksam-dong, 683-36
02-552-3224
Seolleung Subway Station on Line 2
Walk north towards the park in the direction of the Ramada Hotel. The restaurant is on the left across the street from the park.

Food: 4/5
Service: 4/5
Ambiance: 4/5

Where can you get 10 floors of an electronic retailing mecca? Technomart off the Gang-byon (강변) exit on Line 2. It is directly connected to the subway. You can look for everything from digital cameras, cell phones, computers or robot vacuum cleaners here. This is similar to Yongsan Electronics Market in concept. But unlike Yongsan which is a business district comprised of separate shops, here you have sellers all in one building.

Expect to haggle and bargain. The salespeople are all at various levels of salesmanship skills. This place should be visited only when you’re in the mood. It gets tiring looking at the same stuff and bargaining away. At the Seoulite’s age, it all seems so trivial to fight over the price of electronic goods… that is until he really wants something! But generally people here are very nice and they’re all just trying to make a living.

Cameras.

Phones.

Expect cat calls and people trying their best to make a sale.

Plenty of food and coffee. There's even a grocery store and movie theater in the building.

View from the top. Don't let the escalator fool you. Take the elevator to get to the top floors. Otherwise you'll miss some great stuff.

Technomart
Line 2, Gangbyeon Station
www.tm21.com

Yes, it’s nice to have Google and maybe Yahoo for their Yahoo Finance page in the states. But here in Korea, you must absolutely MUST know Naver.

www.naver.com

There are other portals such as Daum, Empas, Nate and of course Google Korea and Yahoo Korea. But the market domination of Naver is no joke.

This is my favorite page at the moment… the exchange rate page!

What does Naver mean? I thought at first it was a slightly made up marketing word because when you pronounce Naver in Korean… it sounds like ‘neighbor’.

A quick poll of my friends yielded the following theories:
- ‘Naver’ sounds like ‘neighbor’ in Korean.
- Naver is probably some latin root for ‘to investigate.’
- ‘Navigate’ + ‘er’ = ‘Naver’
- It’s just a made-up word.
- I have no idea.

Hmmm….. and all wikipedia says is this. Maybe I should look it up on Naver!
Naver (Hangul: 네이버) is the most popular search portal in South Korea. Naver was launched in June 1999, the first portal in Korea that used its own proprietary search engine. According to comScore, Naver received 2 billion queries in August 2007, accounting for over 70% of all search queries in Korea, and making it the fifth most used search engine in the world, following Google search, Yahoo!, Baidu, and MSN.

One thing to note about Naver is that most of their search results start with blogs or ‘netizen’ answers similar to Yahoo! Answers. Sometimes this makes it confusing to find the real website you’re looking for. But on the other hand, it does empower the netizens of this country like no other.

Okay, so on Naver itself…
The first Netizen says it is a combination of Nagiate + er = Naver.
They also say Empas stands for E-media + Compass = Empas.
Interesting. I think I’ll go with this answer.

This is a picture of my current phone, which cost 1 dollar.
At the current exchange rate that means it cost 72 cents. Score!

But maybe I need a new one. My current phone lacks a subway map, 5MP camera, satellite television, surround sound, dining room set and kimchee refrigerator.

The top three cell phone companies in Korea are SK Telecom, LG Telecom and KTF.

So which phone to choose? Sometimes the commercials are more exciting than the phones. Here are a few. In Korea, commercials are called “CF”s or short for “Commercial Film”. So when you hear “commercial film” don’t think that Koreans are referring to the latest blockbuster!

Rain complains that he can’t eat because he’s on a diet.

LG Telecom CF with Jeon Ji Hyun!

LG Telecom Webisode for Oz

UPDATE: My friend Karen said Jeon Ji Hyeon doesn’t even do LG anymore… and that these are the new commercials for the OZ, LG’s new touch screen phone similar to the iPhone. This commerical is part of a 5 part series of the new ‘webisode’ format that many companies are taking on as an alternative to the traditional CF… it was all the rage for American Eagle when I was working at UTA. In this ‘mini-movie’ there are a group of four ordinary joe coworkers who are terrorized by an unqualified boss who got her post through connections. Of course this is fiction, but dang from my short experience here you really have to watch out for the women who look *just* like this in Korea. Short hair, materialistic, napoleonic and insecure. It’s like they were born with spirits that are totally un-Korean. If you’re gonna be a tough Korean girl, be tough with an enlightened spirit like Jeon Ji Hyun… ah, she’s so cute.

KTF Show!

What’s the best phone with a decent camera (3MP and above)? And does anybody know what’s going on with the blackberry or iphone coming to Korea? When when when?

Hi, I’m Sean Lim, an American expat living in South Korea.  This is my blog about becoming a Seoulite.

What is a Seoulite?
A ‘Seoulite’ (서울깍쟁이) is a citizen of Seoul, just as a ‘New Yorker’ is a citizen of New York. Of course the label ‘Seoulite’ doesn’t simply denote a place of residence [...]