But first
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Itaewon is known as a place where a lot of foreigners go. There's a big U.S. army base nearby so a lot of American soldiers hung out in Itaewon, and now the mix of foreigners is more diverse. It's very international. There are tons of restaurants, lounges, and bars for dining and drinking. There are many types of restaurants, including Italian, Brazilian, Mexican, Austrian, Turkish, Egyptian, Chinese, Thai, Spanish, French, etc. Itaewon is also home to Homo Hill and Hooker Hill.
I haven't really "experienced" Itaewon yet because the times I went there I just walked around and looked. I didn't eat there yet.
While Itaewon is known as a place for foreigners, I want to point out that it's certainly not the only place in Seoul you can find foreign food. Chains like Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin Robbins, and KFC are not uncommon in Seoul. You can find different types of food all over the city.
For example, there's an area next to my campus that is packed with restaurants and cafes. It gets really crowded. There's a popular street filled with restaurants and places to drink. Among these is not only Korean food, but Japanese, Indian, Mexican, and Italian. When I went to a curry place my friend said it's the best and pointed out that the chefs are foreigners. My point is that you can find Korean, Japanese, Thai, fast food, and other types of food in many places. I think what matters with Itaewon is that you have a lot of variety of foreign restaurants in a small area. There are also foreign language bookstores, but if you go to some big bookstore in Seoul it's likely they'll have an English section. I actually bought a book in English in Gwanghwamun. In addition, in Seoul there's Korean everywhere as well as many signs in English or Japanese. I see many Chinese characters as well. In Itaewon you can probably see signs in languages other than Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese, such as Russian and Arabic.
Since I'm an exchange student and I'm in a club for exchange students and I live in a building full of exchange students, I obviously see other foreigners everyday. At Korea University I've met people from: South Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Finland, Italy, Ukraine, the U.K., Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Norway, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, Peru, the U.S., Mexico, Canada, Tanzania, and Egypt. Aside from that, when I take the subway or go somewhere popular in the city I'll always spot someone who's obviously a foreigner, or hear Japanese tourists. Seeing a handful of foreigners is common (in part probably because Korea is crazy about education and learning English, so there's a big demand for foreign or white people to teach English here). In Itaewon at night on a weekend, however, there are a whole lot of foreigners at once. It seems like they outnumber Koreans.
Aside from eating, drinking, and partying, there are many places to shop.
Anyway, here are some of my photos
A useful store for some foreigners
At KU I see many people with jackets like these. There's a general one you can buy in the bookstore for 70,000 won, but most students have personalized jackets in which their major is stitched on the back. They also come in different styles (red and white, black and white, black and black).
I saw these plates on the ground. I took pictures of a few
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