Skating in Seoul

This past week was not very busy for me at school since the first and second year students were writing their final exams for three days. I did find an awesome outline for winter camp on waygook.org that I've been adjusting to fit my students' levels and interests. This week was also Hanukkah and my birthday so Corey and I have been doing a lot of fun celebration type stuff in the evening. We lit the candles in our menorah and although we did not make latkes, Corey attempted to make smashed potatoes with gravy.

Today, we went to Seoul in the afternoon. We had big plans to go skating at the rink outside city hall. When we got there, at 5pm, we were informed that the earliest skate time we could buy tickets for was 8:30pm. We bought the tickets and then went wandering around, but mostly we saw hotels, a few expensive stores, and a lot of museums that were closed for the night.

We bought a couple of Christmas cards and then went in search of somewhere to eat dinner. The first place we went to was Mr. Pizza, but the menu was way too expensive, especially for pizza. We went with the back-up plan--hot drinks and a blueberry bagel with cream cheese at Dunkin Donuts. There are a lot of Dunkin Donuts around Seoul and Incheon. Actually, there's a Dunkin Donuts in the subway stop where our schools are and across the street from our apartment at Juan, but this is the first time Corey and I ate at one since we've arrived here.

It was almost 8pm when we started walking back toward city hall. We got there in time to rent our skates for 1,000 won and then we headed to the ice. Corey tried to take a picture, but the rink guards came over and insisted we had to be wearing gloves. Corey and I had mittens, so we wore them as instructed, but that was the end of our ability to capture skating moments on camera. 

I can tell you though, the rink was very crowded. The lights and the music made us kind of forget that though. We could just enjoy skating around the rink and swirling in and out of the way of people who were trying not to fall over. There were about ten people fallen down on the ice at any given time and it was rarely children that had crashed, but everyone seemed to bounce back and keep skating. Corey kept racing around and lapping me, but neither of us fell. I think that is success.

At the end of our skating hour, Corey and I returned our skates and asked a guy sitting on a bench near the ice to take a picture of the two of us. We got on the subway and came back home to light our eighth Hanukkah candle. Now it's time for bed I think. I hope this entry makes some sort of sense since I'm writing it at midnight.

Tips if you plan to go skating at Seoul City Hall:

1. Check this website for operating hours in 2012: http://www.visitseoul.net/en/article/article.do?_method=view&p=06&m=0003001006005&art_id=59545&lang=en

2. Get there early (City Hall Station exit 5 [on line 1] will take you right to the rink)

3. Buy your ticket at the information/ticket sales desk (you cannot rent skates until you have this ticket in hand)

4. Know your shoe/skate size in centimetres because this is how the skates are organized at the rental shop.

5. Bring gloves. They're mandatory. Or you can borrow them from the information desk, I think.

6. Lockers (to keep your shoes and bags etc. in) require a 100 won coin for deposit, but you get this back when you return the key to your locker.