Halftime in Korea

Janganmun

I have reached halftime on my contract this month and it feels like time has flown by. I have been busy being cold as all hell over the winter and keeping warm with alcohol and warm floors, so I haven’t been working on this here blog that much (as you may have noticed). I decided to just write a few anecdotes of my time here the last few months instead of using the last format I was using. I hope you enjoy.

What I Learned About the West in a Korean Ski Resort Parking Lot

Upon reaching Oak Valley resort with some friends, and meandering through the packed parking lot, it occurred to me that there is something different here. I don’t mean the hordes of Koreans, because that is pretty normal back home – it was the total acceptance of chaos. In the West we love money, but it occurred to me that day that there is one thing we love more than money – order. We have rules for our parking lots (which may cause people to leave if its full) because we love order so much. In this parking lot they were cramming people where there were no spots because they wanted everyone to spend their money. They have accepted chaos as part of the routine. There is no turning someone away because the parking spaces are all filled up – no way sir – park on the grass or in front of one of the lanes of traffic.

I knew it was crazy here in Asia, and it never occurred to me before, but chaos is not a byproduct of being unorganized, it is accepted outright. This is generally true of everywhere I have been so far in Asia. It seems so crazy to us westerners because we are used to order being so important to us, but it is not that important here. It is creeping in like other Western ideas however, but not at the forefront yet. I should point out that I don’t mean class order like social hierarchy, because that has a long history here, I mean simple rules for walking, parking, and other daily occurrences. And yes we have rules for walking even though you might not think about it. We walk on the right, we always choose the right side when passing someone going the other way. If we didn’t we might bump someone and it would be “our fault” or rude. That rule doesn’t exist here. There are not “sides” to walk on here. Driving is only slightly more organized because it’s too dangerous to have it that chaotic. Red lights are suggestions, not so much of a rule. And driving on the sidewalk seems to be accepted, in certain circumstances, especially for motorbikes. Lining up is another example of order that is not important here. When a place, like a bank, wants to have some order they don’t use lines for their customers they use number tickets. Getting Koreans to line up is too hard of a task to accomplish so they don’t even try.

Just my opinion, but perhaps this is partially responsible for Korea’s economy being on the rise. Spending less money on rules and organizing can make a big difference to your bottom line.  Either way it is something I am getting used to now, but worries me when I go back home. I might have to re-learn how to walk.

My Washing Machine Hates Guess Jeans

I have been doing laundry for a little while now, and I have had no reason to fear my machines – I’m not John Conners. Recently, I had a little trouble with my machine. I put one pair of jeans in my machine and they came out with a hole in the knee. At first, I figured this was usual wear and tear. It was on the knee – it happens. I went and bought some new jeans to make up for them. Then, I put another pair of jeans in the washing machine about a week later and they came out with the entire right side of the hip torn off. I have washed t-shirts, towels, everything else in there and had no problems, but both of my Guess jeans were destroyed. The obvious conclusion is that my machine hates Guess jeans. I am buying new jeans (not Guess) and attempting to wash them to test my theory. We shall see how this goes. When I mentioned this issue to my boss she informed me that I should use a bag for them so they don’t get ruined. I wasn’t told this previously, but it turns out Korean washing machines are a little temperamental (or just mental). Now I’m a little worried about being around it alone at night incase it decides to start the uprising in cahoots with my croaking refrigerator.  This may be my last post, wish me luck.

I Can’t Believe People Aren’t Fat Here

There isn’t a place in this town where you can’t get food. At the lodge of a Ski resort, at the top of each lift, and a few places on the runs too (just in case), for example. Every single platform in every single subway station has a minimart as well (this is not a gross exaggeration either). Not just the food being everywhere, but the amount of food served to you each time you sit down is ridiculous. Banchan, or the side dishes, are served with everything you order at a restaurant, and they are unlimited if you want more. The rule here is simple – fill the table and then add a few more dishes just for shits and giggles. Every eating experience here is a constant space finding adventure. While you eat more stuff keeps coming out.

Oh Yeah, North Korea

I regularly forget how close I am to North Korea and the “threat”. The only time I get reminded of it is when the air raid alarms go off, which isn’t very frequent at all. I was teaching my kindergartners when the last one went off and no one but me seemed to even notice. This is very different than the fear put into Americans during the Cold War and we are thousands of miles closer to the danger here. The reason: There isn’t much to fear.

Why Don’t We Have This In America? The Genius of Korea

When you push the buttons in an elevator back home, you have sealed your fate. There is no turning back. In Korea, you can un-click the buttons. I’m not sure how hard that is to make, but I can’t believe we are still living in the stone ages in America without this. We get that little shit who hits all the buttons and runs out the door, so we stop at every damn floor on the way down. In Korea, that little shit doesn’t exist because you can just hit the buttons again and turn them off.

At the ski resort I usually spend a few minutes wiping my board down with my gloves before putting it into the car because of the snow melting inside the vehicle. We all have this issue, but resorts usually don’t seem to care about our plight. In Korea, they have air hoses at every exit so you can blow the snow off you and your board before even leaving the bottom of the run.

Scissors to cut meat, hello! Works like a dream! I’m not using a knife on the grill ever again, my backyard BBQ’s thank you Korea.

McDonalds delivery. Drinking on the street. Safety.

Sights: Part 4 – National Museum of Korea (국림중앙박물관)

Frozen Pond and NMofK Beyond

The National Museum of Korea is enormous. I have been there three times now, and I still haven’t seen everything. It reminds me of the British Museum in London, except I don’t feel like everything housed here should be in other countries. It is located just a minute walk from Ichon station a little out of downtown. It is really a nice location. You can see the N. Seoul Tower sitting atop Namsan just through the open space of the Museum and the whole area is very open compared to the rest of the city, so it is relaxing to be there.

Inside you are in for a treat if you like taking your time wandering through Asian history. If you don’t, then why are you reading this? Most of the first floor is Korean historic artifacts, from Hanbok‘s and pottery to swords and some of the first written documents in Hangeul. The second floor is more Korean history on one side, but in ex-private collections now donated because the person died. The third floor is my favorite. It has more broad asian history.

There is a Vietnamese history section with their version of china, the plates and dishes, that were also blue and white like the Chinese versions they take their name from. Pottery really isn’t my thing, but the designs of the later pottery got more colorful and nice. The craftsmanship on the metalwork is great as well. The Uzbekistani section was a new exhibit that I finally got in the third time I came. The sculpture was great. The faces were unique compared to the other artifacts here as well. The Chinese room had the ubiquitous yet beautiful shell inlayed woodworking. The scrolls and landscape art was really nice too. My favorite artwork was the Japanese painting however. Wonderful portraits of Geishas and peaceful temple scenes.

Buddha (부처)

My favorite wing of this place is the Buddhist sculpture section, however. The statues in the main hall are huge. The one to the right is about five or six feet tall while sitting.  They have about three more this size and a few Bodhisattvas standing as well, this is the nicest one. Some of the others were missing their hands and the gold dot on their heads (or his 32nd characteristic of a great man). What I love the most is seeing the different facial features of the Buddha images change as you see different cultures make them. These Buddhas have Korean facial features, but the ones I remember from Vietnam had Vietnamese features. They have pictures here of Buddhas from around the world and you can see the faces adapt to the locale in them all.

Near the end of the journey every time is the Pensive Bodhisattva made of bronze in its own room. It is a wonderful sculpture and the room has been made to sit and look at it for a long time. What is nice is you see kids trying to copy the pose as they leave.

I think the entire experience of this museum is top notch. The location of the place is very nice, the museums architecture is nice, and the collection is big enough for a few days of wondering. If you do the audio tour it will take even longer. I tried it once but our machine wasn’t working, however, I would recommend it because there is very little in the way of explanation in English. They have little blurbs in each section and they say when and where it was found or came from. Sometime it will say what its made of, but there are a thousand artifacts that just say “jar” and that’s it in English.

For more information and a complete visual of the place you can click on their site here… http://www.museum.go.kr/eng/collection/100highlights_main.jsp

Baby Jesus and Soju Shots in Hongdae

Sometimes the shitter gets knocked over

I am in Korea away from my family and my traditional routine for celebrating the holidays, so I decided to go historic on this years festivities. The Romans celebrated Christmas, before they converted to Christianity, by celebrating Mythra (The Sun [not son] God). His birthday was, surprise, December 25th. The royals would celebrate with drink and orgies, you know the good old days. I don’t think orgies are easy to find in this conservative culture, but the drink flows like rivers over here.

Hongik University is an art school in Seoul, and the area where the students party is called Hongdae. All the schools have a U District area like back home, but Hongdae has developed into the party area for the whole city on a Friday or Saturday night. It is also where people go for the special events. Events like Christmas and New Years.

Christmas: After a long day of watching Christmas movies on TV I meet up with some friends from training in Hongdae for some Italian food. I got what seemed like a Korean invention but too interesting to pass-up – BBQ Chicken spaghetti. It turned out to be BBQ chicken on a salad and spaghetti next to it, not mixed up – and without pickles! It was a legit place after all. It was actually really good too.

After the dinner we made our way into the den of debauchery and got our club passes. 20 thousand won gets you into 20 clubs and gets you a free drink. The first club we went into was nice and modern and all the Koreans were crowded up by the stage. There was some sort of show and dancers breaking on stage. We wandered to the bar for a drink and a drunk Korean dude comes up right next to me and, while leaning on me, tells me we missed the show, then points to a sign on the wall. The sign indeed had an ad for a show which we were catching the tail end of. We got our drinks in time to watch one dance and it then to end. At the end all the Koreans left. I don’t mean most of them, I mean ALL of them. We went onto the dance floor and we were the only ones dancing to the DJ. The place became a ghost town, but we had a big enough group that we didn’t care.

After a little while (I don’t own a watch and don’t look at the time as you will notice in this post) we left and headed to another club. This club was new and wasn’t free with out wristband, but they said it was free to foreigners tonight because they were just opening. We decided to try it out, it was also very modern (mirrors and lighting) but this one had a bunch of stripper poles on-stage. No people, just the poles. We got some drinks and hit the dance floor again, this time we were the only ones at first, but the Koreans opened up and started to join us after a few songs. Our job here was done, so we left.

This is where it is going to start getting fuzzy and my sequencing may be a little off, but I will try and finish the night off. I think this is when we went to Free Birds, which has live rock music. The first band we walked in on playing was pretty good. The lead singer looked like a Korean Jimi Hendrix, but sounded nothing like him. After that band finished they put on a random mix of music that we rocked out to on the dance floor. We were the only ones dancing and everyone was staring at us, but we managed to get a few Koreans out of their seats at one point. We knew every song so we were singing along. It felt like a trivia challenge after awhile to see if we knew it – we always did. The next band took the stage and the crowd gathered around the stage again. They were pretty good too. This time the lead singer looked like a Korean John Lennon. We left in the middle of the set, I’m pretty sure we were doing this thing backwards. I’m pretty sure we should have watched the live bands and not the music in between.

To the FF! It’s a foreign staple to go to the FF. They have shawarmas being made out front, and they are good. We danced there for awhile until we lost a few of our group. They were at Gogo’s upstairs. We regrouped and headed to a chill bar that was like an ice cave. They had a dance floor, but most of us just sat in our cave and chilled. They had hookah too, but we didn’t partake, we were focused on our drinking still.

The last stop was another club on our list so we went in. It was dead, but we were pretty beat at this point to. We stayed for a little bit and left. Ate and headed home. It was about 6am or so if my memory serves me right – which it probably doesn’t.

New Years Eve: Pre-funking is a must here because the drinks can be expensive at some of the clubs. That is pretty true anywhere though. I went to my co-workers place and we drank some beer and soju before we left for the pre-funking party at his friends house. We made our way to Noksapyeong, drank and bullshitted for a few hours.

We had to take three cabs to Hongdae and traffic was re- wait for it -diculous. I was in the last cab a few minutes behind the rest of the crew. When we got close I was trying to look for things I recognized because I was the only one in the cab that had been there, so we could just bail on the cab and walk. That is when we saw the rest of the guys walking past us on the street. Somewhere along the line we passed them, we jumped out of the cab and ran to the Mansion where the party was at. It was about 11:30 when we arrived. Barely made it.

We got out free drink and snagged a table for the first 15 minutes. Then it was party time. We went out on the dance floor and watched the dancing girls until the last few minutes. We all flooded the stage and were dancing with the girl singing and then did the countdown with her. The confetti blew and the night began. Busy P, the DJ we came to see took over a few minutes into the new decade. There is less to report from here than you might think, we had a good time dancing and partying. I will have to see the pictures to see what else happened. We left that place at some point in the night (no watch remember). Take a guess where we went? FF, of course. We got into Gogo’s first for free with our wristband, but they were trying to charge us for FF’s. Then we distracted the guy at the door and snuck into FF’s and partied there until I left to get my Burger King and go home. I got home around 6am.

All in all it was a good holiday season here in Korea. If you were wondering about the toilet picture, that wasn’t me. The guy had to be dragged out of the stall as he was taking his clothes off. He was probably set on the sidewalk to sober up. I never saw him again though.

Happy New Year World!

(note: This post may be updated with more pictures in the future)

Seoul Snow Jam

Big Air Competition in the Streets of Seoul

On December 11-13, for the first time ever, the FIS Snowboard Big Air competition was held in an Asian city, and I just so happened to be in that city for it.

In downtown Seoul, Gwanghwamun Square, they built this massive jump for the big air competition to showcase Seoul to the world, and winter sports to Koreans in the hopes that it would help with the Pyeong Chang bid for the Winter Olympics in 2018. I’m not sure if it worked but it was pretty crowded there on Sunday night. To be fair, it can get really crowded anywhere in Seoul from the 11+ million people living here.

I was working on Friday night, so I have nothing to report for that night, but Saturday I went over to Gwanghwamun at around 12:30pm to check out what was happening. According to the schedule there was practice and other things going on all day. It turns out there wasn’t much going on, and nothing happening on the big jump. I met a Korean friend I met a week before, he is a cop in the area. We watched some small tricks going down on the little jib area. They were all Korean guys and girls on skis and snowboards hitting boxes and doing little airs. When they took a break they let the kids tube down the slope.

The majority of the crowd during the day was lining up for the King Sejong statue pictures and walk through history and the ice rinks they built for the weekend. The lines for King Sejong are normal every weekend, so that wasn’t special, but the ice rinks were pretty nice for the kids and the guys showing off for their lovers or potential lovers. I didn’t partake. We went inside and had hot chocolate because it was freaking freezing outside and nothing interesting was happening. I’m not sure what the temp was, but it was probably -1 or so Farenheit.

At Night

At about 4pm the jump started to see some action. We saw in the distance specks of snowboarder flying through the air. We made our way to a spot to the left of the jump for pictures (pictured above). Saturday night wasn’t any kind of competition that I could tell, but more of a jam, or free for all jump. After we got in position they stopped jumping. My friend left, and my co-teacher who had made his way to us left and I was left with a Canadian Rodeo photographer and his professional sized lens (penis envy, you got me). We waited in the freezing cold talking about Korean women while they prepped the jump for the actual main event for the night. They kept pushing he start time back and we kept lowering the number of people we would stay for before leaving. It was supposed to start at 6pm and we would stay for 8 or so people. Then it was 6:15 and we would stay for 5 people. Then it started at 6:35 and we stayed for 3 people. Did I mention it was Antarctica out there? It was.

After standing in the cold for far too long the day before I decided to get to the area at about 4pm on Sunday. Sunday was the big show. The FIS competition was happening. This was a for real competition. They had the big screens and judges and the whole nine. I was on the other side of the jump watching it getting my warmth from the Koreans leaning against me. Tons of camera lenses in the crowd of bystanders. No one was a pro photographer, they just love their huge lenses in Korea. I, on the other hand, was unable to get a good shot for the life of me Sunday night. I took two blurry pictures the whole night, but I took enough Saturday night for both nights. Anyway, back to the competition.

There were 15 pros competing. No Shaun White, but all the other leaders on the tour were there. Here are the standings, to get that out of the way – “Switzerland’s Gian-Luca Cavigelli won gold with 52.4 points, Austria’s Stefan Gimpl was second at 51.2, and Finland’s Markku Koski was third at 50.4. (Edmonton Journal)”

The beginning of the competition was a lesson on 900′s. I was wondering if there was any creativity in the field, but they were probably trying to get a good number on the board first run. After the first run it got more interesting, a few cork 720′s and double rodeo’s. A double backflip attempt. It was pretty rad overall. It wasn’t quite as cold as the night before so I was having a much better time. My only complaint was that it seemed to end so fast. Three runs and done. As soon as the winner was revealed it was a cattle herd to the subway stations. I’ve never seen so many people comply with the end of something before. It was over so we leave – now.

My co-worker from the night before showed up just in time to see the crowds leaving. It was too bad, it was a good show. I hope it helps the Koreans get more interested in other winter sports besides short track speed skating and figure skating.

Sights: Part 3 – Jjimjilbang (찜 질 방)

Photos Not Allowed

I knew I would see this at some point in my trip but I didn’t expect to get used to it so fast.

The jjimjilbang is the Korean version of Turkish baths. I have never been to a Turkish bath, but I understood the idea. I was about to walk into a room full of naked Korean men and attempt to walk while staring at the ceiling. I was expecting to get into the place, get undressed and get in the showers and then put on the outfits they give us and go into the baths in the coed place. That is what I was expecting.

Right off the elevator to the men’s floor my first sight was naked Korean man ass just chillin’ at the desk chatting up the guy at the counter. “I guess it starts now.”

We went to Dragon Hill Spa in Yongsan. It had a reputation for being kind to Westerners (some places won’t let you in, especially if you have tattoos). It was huge. The men’s floor was on the fifth floor. After the immediate man ass to the eye sockets we entered the floor, sort of a locker room, and walked to our lockers. There were old and young in there. And by young I mean kids sitting next to their dad all naked and normal. There was a place to buy drinks and men’s toiletries. They had a barbershop and massage place with cupping (where they suction cups to your back – get your head out of the gutter), and the showers. We got our lockers and changed into the outfits they gave us, and we felt like we joined a cult. We walked around and checked the place out and realized we couldn’t delay the inevitable any longer – we had to get naked.

After the initial concern, and the long walk through the locker area, I was already used to it. It felt quite freeing actually. We entered the shower area and took a shower. We were informed that it is frowned upon to not scrub the hell out of yourself because of the sharing of the baths later. It made sense, we’ll get to that.

After the shower we walked down a bit to the baths (same room) and saw the temps. There were three different baths – 40 degrees Celsius,  44 degrees, and 16 degrees. We got in the 40 degree tub and relaxed a bit. We saw the sauna near the back of the place and a guy getting a man on man scrub-down (no women allowed of course) in the corner. It was all very odd, but it became normal faster than we both thought it would. The only thing that kept surprising me was the little boys wrestling in one of the other tubs and sometimes a teenager at that very awkward age of growth walking around naked. Perhaps it helps with the self-esteem to get used to being naked and then not having to worry about it? Anyway, after the 40 degree tub we sat our naked asses on the bench in the sauna (hence the scrub in the shower I mentioned). It was nice, it even had a cold pool to put your feet in if you wanted. After sweating in the sauna we made a break for the  freezing cold 16 degree pool. It really wakes you up jumping in to your neck in that thing. Once our bodies got used to it we got into the hottest 44 degree pool so our feet felt like fire. It is not recommended if you have heart problems or anything else that extremes would exacerbate.

By this point the nudity became a non-issue. We had done our rounds and wanted to see what else was here. We weren’t meeting the girls we came with until later, but we went to the coed section to check it out anyway. We got in our cult gear, no shoes or sandals though, and went down to the first floor. There was a few restaurants (always is in Korea) and a huge heated floor (hard) where people were laying down, couples were cuddling, and others were asleep.  They had a nail salon, more massage places, saunas, an ice box, a gaming room (PC), a stage where a magician was doing an act, massage chairs, and TV rooms. There were many families, some holding board games, hanging out together. It appeared to be the indoor place for picnicking. We sat in the hot sauna first. It felt very Holocaust to me, but we made our way in to a huge oven and roasted. Then we went into the ice box where the ice was all over the walls and the roof was crystal. It wasn’t that cold at the time, after the oven it felt great, but it was pretty cold. Other saunas were milder and people were hanging out in them or even watching TV.

We met the girls and got the report from them what was going on in their baths. They had more baths than we did. They had ginseng, salt water, and green tea baths.  It was also noted that Korean women have amazing asses, not my words, but I’m not disagreeing. They have had a better look than I have. We ended up eating lunch there. We thought they had Indian food, but they meant Native American food, not Indian food. It said Indian, however, and had ribs and sausages – nothing I recognized from my days on the res. They even had the dude dressed in his regalia holding a plate of ‘authentic Indian’ food. We ate at the Korean restaurant instead. We had overpriced Korean staples.

After that we needed to digest before another round of the baths and saunas. We grabbed some head pillows and took a quick nap on the floor. Checked out the massage chair (a buck for 15 minutes) and then made our way back into the locker to get naked again. We were pros at this point, showered and got in the 40 degree tub. We made our circuit a second time and showered up. After you exit they have enough towels waiting for you to dry a hundred elephants, so I used one towel for each limb. They also have q-tips and hair dryers for your use. We got our clothes back on and got our view of the bill. Total cost for 5 hours at the spa, (overpriced) lunch, water, and a massage chair was 24,000 완 (about 20 bucks)!

I’ll be back.

Living in Korea – Month Two Review

Soju

Every month I am writing my opinions on different categories of living and teaching English here in Seoul. We shall see how they change. Better or worse, this is Korea.

Living Conditions: My apartment is still small but I have purchased the wood mat for the bathroom so I don’t have to take my socks off after a shower. It has begun to get cold so I am now using the floor heating, which is great!

Still no DVD player, just watching the shows I brought on my computer, however, I do get the UFC pay-per-view’s from home for free here. I am watching UFC 105 in a few minutes as a matter of fact. I have seen every Jason Statham and Steven Seagal movie known to man on the Super Action Network here also.

I purchased a new pillow which is working out pretty good. I still use the other one as well, one is too hard and small and the other is too big, so I go between the two. Otherwise, nothing else to note about the living conditions here.

Food: I have eaten Mexican, Italian, American, Thai, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese and of course Korean in the last month. They are all a little different here, but the most interesting thing is the pickles with Italian food. When you get pizza or spaghetti you get them with pickles. I will admit that I have never been to Italy, but I’m pretty sure those dishes don’t come with pickles there either. I have tried it and it isn’t bad, just weird. It tastes like pickles with pizza or spaghetti, nothing surprising there.

One thing to note is that this month the money being spent on food has dramatically gone down now that I am finding what and where to eat regularly. When I first showed up I spent 15,000 won (about 13 bucks) on fried chicken for two because I didn’t know any better, now I am spending 3500 won (about 3 bucks) on a lunch, that is much better. I haven’t eaten anything weird this month, but keep your eyes peeled for my next ‘Food” blog about just that.

Drink: I have already mentioned all the possibilities of what to drink, so I will just talk about the drinking experience. I was out with a few Korean friends and the rules were being pointed out to me. You aren’t supposed to pour your own alcohol, so someone else will always pour for you, if your glass is empty. If you don’t want anymore, don’t finish your glass. It is also supposed to be the youngest who pours for everyone (except their own, we just went over this). AND you pour with two hands to show respect. Now you can get drunk in Seoul without incident.

People: This is a very safe place, the people are becoming less of a concern to me. I am adjusting and they are reacting accordingly, meaning I am getting less stares or caring less about them. My Korean has come along enough to at least get a nice response when entering any establishment because they respect my attempt to speak to them in their language. I am in Korea after all, I should try. How many people bitch about people who don’t speak English in America? Show the Koreans the same respect for their language and you can get much better service (it’s not bad anyway, but sometimes they will give you free stuff they call “service”). We went out for eel again and my friend John speaks Korean pretty good, so the guy gave us the rice and soup for free. Then he let us pet the live eels in the tanks outside, it was pretty cool, and very nice of the guy too.

The Koreans generally keep to themselves so it takes a little time to start to get them to open up, the Korean teachers at my school are starting to talk to me more, they are helping me much more too. I think it is just the comfort level and their shyness with the language, but it is getting better and better with them.

Location: Seoul is still great! I have been all over the city and seen a lot of places, but there is still so much more to see. The cold weather is coming on quick so I am looking forward to taking some of my pictures again with snow on the ground. It hasn’t happened yet, but yesterday was freezing cold. The city has everything you could ask for, food (as I mentioned before) places to go out, cultural places, museums, etc… I have barely scratched the surface and I have been here for two months now. The hard part for visiting, I would think, is that a lot of the best things to do in Seoul you don’t do fast. Shopping in Insadong, Myeong-Dong, or Dondaemun are places you could spend all day wandering the streets or shopping in the high-rise malls. The places to see, like Gyeongbokgung you could easily spend a few hours at, and the National Museum (which I visited yesterday) took us 5 hours and we still hadn’t finished. So come with the mindset that you aren’t going to rush through anything.

Halloween @ ECC

School/Work: We just had Halloween with the kids at ECC. It was fun for them. I played the Fortune Teller; we also had a haunted house, face painting, and blood punch. Then they had a costume competition, most of the girls were wearing princess outfits, so we had to do two groups. We had some power rangers and witches and all the fun stuff (see Flickr photos for more).

We also had a Birthday Party a few days ago as well. We do it every other month for the kids that have birthdays in that time. I had to do an interview for the four kids with birthdays this time. I asked them a few questions and they seemed nervous in front of the whole school, everyone except little Jenny who turned 5 in Korean ages. She is well loved by everyone at the school, and she has the confidence to back up the attention. We had chicken nuggets and gimbap (Korean sushi) along with the normal cake and drinks. One of the other birthday girls, Alice, wore her beautiful hanbok (traditional Korean dress) for the occasion.

The only other thing of note is that I got paid, on-time and in my account. No issues there, and I needed it. I was down to just over 20,000 won (18 bucks) left to my name over here. Good timing!

Travel: Again, nothing to report, still haven’t left the city. I plan on taking my Christmas break to leave the country for the first time.

Final Note: Seoul has been a very accommodating city for me thus far. I haven’t had any moments of serious homesickness yet, but Thanksgiving is coming and I am already missing my family for that. I think the holidays are going to be the tough part of being so far away, but as far as the city of Seattle – I haven’t missed it yet (sorry). I have been eating well, and partying well, and getting plenty of new experiences so far. The ‘wall’ is supposed to be three months or six months so stay tuned to see if there are any changes in my opinion by next month. Right now I am so relaxed after coming back from the jjimjilbang (public spas and baths) that I feel like I could stay here forever, but that will wear off at work tomorrow, I’m sure.

Culture Shock: Ajumma Sidewalk Wars

Insadong Crowds (Mild)

When the streets generally look like this, or worse, there is a phenomenon that occurs in Seoul – ajumma sidewalk wars. I have read other people complain about these occurrences and I would like to point out that I am not complaining. This is not my culture to complain about, I am pointing out the facts for those thinking of visiting or wondering what odd things I have been dealing with here.

Background: 1) ajumma is the Korean term for an older woman. This is not used in any negative sense. In Korea the older people are respected for their age and assumed wisdom. People want to be older for that respect, so it’s not a negative term to use, everyone uses it and accepts it.

2) The new generation is loosing the respect for the older generations it seems. My best explanation is for you to think of the Cleavers (Leave it to Beaver) raising a wild child from todays generation. That is the kind of generation gap we are dealing with in Seoul. It seems there might be some animosity in the air.

Now for the act itself. When you are walking, standing on a subway/bus, or even standing out of the way of walking traffic you will inevitably get bumped, pushed, or even walked into by ajumma. I have lived with this happening nearly every time I leave the house for almost two months now and I have gotten used to it, but I think this is one very tricky cultural occurrence that most Westerners have to come to terms with when visiting. We are used to it being rude to push your way in front of other people who are also leaving the subway when the doors open, but here it is their earned right to do it, it seems. Old women are the most brutal part of this culture and I find that pretty funny.

The walking here is tricky coming from the west as it is, people will walk right in front of you without notice, they walk on all sides of the sidewalk (The Government is trying to get people to walk on the right – the plan is failing), and that is not to mention the motorbikes and cars on the sidewalk, so to add to all that walking stress the fear of ajumma running you off the sidewalk or pushing in front of you at doors etc… makes Seoul a test of your patience for sure.

My recommendation is to remember where you are at, because it ain’t home, and accept the ways things are. Don’t even use the word ‘should’ when talking about anything here. Statements like these – “They should have a place to park cars that isn’t the sidewalk” or “Doesn’t she know we are all going the same direction if she would just wait” should be eliminated from your word banks before coming here. And remember, this isn’t China – you can’t elbow the ajumma back here – trust me

Happy Traveling!

 

Health Care – Hell Yeah!

This may be uninteresting to the eyes of those from civilized countries that have health care for everyone, but I am not. I am from America and I didn’t have health care for the last three years. Just to see a doctor usually costs about $90 or more. If you actually get anything done it goes up, plus medication costs. How much do you pay even with a co-pay?

I just got back from seeing the doctor here in Seoul. I walked in without an appointment, the lobby/waiting area was very nice and clean – big screen TV’s playing game shows and racks of magazines awaited us (I went with one of the Korean teachers here, Sue). We waited about 5-10 minutes and off we went. I got a check up, and some breathing medication. I just had a cough, but because of the swine flu issues we get checked out just in case. She prescribed three days of medication I take three times a day. It cost me 11,000 won for the check-up and 13,000 won for the medication, most of which I will get back because of the insurance not clearing yet. That brings the grand total to about 23 bucks. My actual payment after the money back will be about 5 bucks – for a consult with a real doctor AND medication!

Ya got change fo a hundred?

Land of Amusement – Seoul Theme Park Review

Lotte World

Coming to Seoul as a visitor you may not consider going to an Amusement park because you think you will be busy seeing historic and cultural artifacts and architecture – and you may be right – but I am here for a year ,and I love me some rollercoasters sucka! I am not interested in the outdated ideas of being “cultured”. I am interested in the present culture of Korea, and they love their amusement parks. So do I, which makes this part of my acculturation very easy.

I had read about the amusement parks in my travel book and was looking forward to going to them. I didn’t expect to hit all three of the major ones already in just over a month of being here. I do still have a large waterpark to go to, but it is too cold for now. I was expecting to have trouble dragging other teachers to these sorts of places because people get very serious about seeing cultures when they travel. I have learned to leave my ideas of what culture is at the airport and see when I get there what is important to see. You never can understand people if you keep assuming their culture is only in their very old buildings and statues.

I will tell you about the first amusement park I went to in Korea, because it happened by accident. I was trying to see a park and do some hiking, but apparently I misread the travel book.

Seoul Grand Park is a subway stop in southern Seoul. I remembered reading about a zoo being attached to the park. I even saw ajumma (older women) in their hiking getups and their walking poles on the subway on the way there. I was expecting some forest and trees and all that fresh nature air to fill my nostrils. I was in for a little surprise. When I showed up there was a huge parking lot and ladies selling food on the walk-up to the entrance. I figured I might not see food for a while so I snagged some water and some doughnuts (three for 90 cents). I walked over the crest of the hill to see huge entrance gates, a tram, and gondolas going up the hill. I figured that was for the zoo and I could go the other direction. I read the ticket info and found no information about a park – just a zoo, tram, gondola, and Seoul Land. I was duped. In my hustle from one counter to the other looking for new information I ran into two Canadian girls, also teachers, who looked to be having trouble finding the right tickets. We had a common confused bond, so I asked if they were buying tickets. Yes. I think we have to get the package. Let’s do it. ‘I’ was now a ‘we’.

We entered the zoo and looked around, had trouble finding the crocodiles (never did find them, even though they have signs everywhere for them), and ate. The zoo was alright, it had some interesting stuff, mostly the Koreans feeding the animals through the cage, but the animals were cool too. We saw everything and decided to hit up Seoul Land, the smallest of the amusement parks in the area. They had a foreigner discount coupon, so we used that. It was only about ten bucks per person.

Seoul Land Entrance

Seoul Land is like Disneyland, but smaller, older looking but not older, and has a small Epcot Center golf ball in the middle of it. Very kitschy and funny. But they had real rides too! We went on both of the big roller-coasters, one had a double loop and a tunnel that sprayed you with ramen flavored mist and the other was larger and longer and had a bigger drop. Both were pretty fun, but we waited for 45 minutes or more each time. It was a Sunday.

They had the staple foods too; Hot Dogs, Churros, Burgers and fries, and ice cream. They also had Korean choices too, like assorted meats on a stick and bibimbap. They had one of those rides that you sit facing front and the whole thing rotates over while the place you are sitting spins as well. Usually the piece you are sitting on is driven by a motor, but this one was gravity-fed instead. It looked like it was jolting everyone around. We watched from about 40 feet away and heard something hit the tree and land on the ground next to us. Someone’s sandal had flown off the ride and landed 40 feet away, next to us.

Overall, this place was worth ten bucks, but had we paid the full 28 bucks I would have been disappointed. If you go on a weekday and the crowds aren’t there, you can ride everything in about an hour. If you want something convenient to get to from anywhere in Seoul that is worth it all the time, you head to Lotte World.

Lotte World is magnificent! It is half inside and half outside on a man-made island called Magic Island, where they have the Disney Castle-esque castle located in the picture at the top. It is inside Jamsil station right in the heart of the city and has food stalls everywhere, but it also has more rides than Seoul Land in less space. I was skeptical at first when I walked in because it looked so small. I figured they couldn’t possible fit good rides here, but they do.

Inside the best ride is the French Revolution roller-coaster. It has a loop that goes around a walkway you can stand on and watch from. It is a little jerky around corners but overall a good ride. And it’s inside, so it doesn’t matter what the weather is like. Outside is where the rest of the good rides are at. They have one of those rides you shoot up in the air and free-fall back down in, plus another one that rotates on the way up and then holds at the top – then falls – which is taller than the other one. They have a huge rotating swing that flings you out over the water and gets you a nice little free-fall rush at the apex. It gets going so fast they put shields over your face so your eyes don’t water (or maybe so birds don’t hit you at the top). Either way its really quiet and creepy, like your the only one on the ride. The best ride, however, is the Atlantis roller-coaster. It looked small while we were standing in line, but it is way longer than expected. You sit like you are on a Seadoo or 4-wheeler and it uses magnets to fling you up hill at the start. It is smooth and fast and has a few good drops that get you the first time.

The major attraction, however, is a theme ride they clearly put a large amount of money into. It was like Disney, in that they themed out the entire entrance and line before the ride began. It was an Egyptian expedition of the olden days theme. It was a neat line to be in, no one was there though, so we sped through it. The ride was a bit like the Indiana Jones ride, bumpy truck going through the caverns of Egypt when out comes the evil spirits to attack. It would be great for kids, but it was actually pretty good for us too. It had a few surprises using smoke and laser lights that throws your vision off before a drop or turn that were pretty good.

We also got to see the parade that goes around the center area inside and it was great. And by great, I mean hilarious. They like to hire white people because that is who is supposed to be in parades at amusement parks, right? We watched them dance around in Egyptian attire and were smiling so much one of the guys even gave us the “I know, but it pays the bills” look.

The big complaint is the layout. It is all very condensed, but getting around can be like a maze sometimes. You end up in back alley stairwells and are wondering if this is the right way, but it is. When we found our way back to the beginning we rode a ride called Sinbad, which is just a rip-off of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was so crowded the girl working the entrance gate was working on homework. She didn’t look up, she just waved us through. They are supposed to be checking if we have the wrist band for rides or just an entrance ticket. Anyway, we were trying to touch all the animatronics. Gord decided to climb over the seats to see the view from different angles. That is how exciting it was, but it was what I expected.

After all the excitement on Sinbad we watched a really lame laser show over the ice-rink, the only good part was the flames and fireworks at the end. Lotte World is worth going to again, I think I might even get season tickets.

The T Express Roller-coaster

Everland is the largest amusement park in Korea. It took us awhile to find the bus, but there are buses from Seoul south to Everland running all day. It takes about 40 or 50 minutes to get there. This park is way bigger than both the other parks, but was disappointing in how many big rides there are. This place is great for kids, but doesn’t have any more rides for us adults than Lotte World.

They have a rose garden and an Aesops Village for the kids. They also have Safari Land where you drive through an area of ‘wild’ animals like Lions and Tigers and Bears – oh my how sad it was. All the animals were behind electric fences except a few of the tigers and bears. They all looked depressed and the bears did tricks, like spinning or waving, for some snacks to get thrown to them. They did have a Ligar though. They also had a pretty huge collection of Monkeys after the safari thing. They even had Guinea Pigs! In a zoo! Now let’s get to the goods.

The rides. The biggest and most exciting was the T Express. It’s the largest wooden coaster in Korea, but that is a bit like talking about the fattest person at an anorexia convention. It does have one hell of a drop on it though. Almost vertical about ten stories or so, but the scarier part was coming back nearly the entire distance after that and dropping again and feeling the negative G’s. Once you finish all that, at high speed, you go underneath the structure and do some ups and downs where it appears you are going to hit your head on cross bars. Scary. The second time it was really fun though.

The other good ride is in the Americana area. The area is set up like a suburban street in 50′s America, so they have burger joints and Rock N’ Roll music playing. One funny thing is an ad for cigarettes. We would never have that out anymore where kids walk around, but they don’t have a problem with smoking here. Anyway, the ride is the Rocksville Coaster. Two loops and two corkscrews in under two minutes. It’s probably about a minute. It’s fun but over so soon. Luckily we were there on a Tuesday and could just get right back on.

Next door is the Twist which spins at an angle with each seating area spinning with gravity. It really messes with your inner compass. It was fun though. Close to that is the Columbus experience, which is the Viking ship that you see everywhere, but bigger and with two ships next to each other. We didn’t get to see that going because there was about ten people on the ride, it would hold 40+ people.

Halloween Parade

On our way to Bulgogi Spaghetti and a second go on the T Express, we were caught up in the Halloween parade. Segways, guys on big tricycles, and gay Korean guys dancing their hearts out while pretty Korean girls could give two shits about it – it was all there. I kicked a child in a stroller and then she started fighting with another stroller, but I got the shot!

All in all the Everland experience was more like what I’m used to for amusement parks; lots of walking, and lots of kids stuff between the good rides. I want to go back because it is attached to Caribbean Bay waterpark, but I’m not sure if I would spend the time to get there again. It was pretty fun, but Lotte World is so much closer and a little cheaper.

Living in Korea – One Month Review

Every month I am going to write my opinions on different categories of living and teaching English here in Seoul. We shall see how they change. Better or worse, this is Korea.

Living Conditions: This is going to be about MY living conditions, not the conditions of the people living here, this is a blog not an op-ed piece for the Times on the state of Seoul during the “crisis” with North Korea (by the way – no crisis).

My apartment is better than I was expecting, but I wasn’t expecting much. I had to get a nice towel or two shipped from home because I can’t find a decent towel here (at least not yet), because the one left for me in the apartment and the one I did buy have fuzz coming off of them every time I use them. I would find traces of them at work in my stubble.

The shower is my bathroom, I have dealt with worse, but I purchased a higher holder for the shower head, so that has made my life a little easier. The water pressure is good and the heating is fast and hasn’t run out yet. I also bought a shower curtain to block the water from hitting the washing machine (didn’t expect that) and the electrical plugs behind it. I still have to deal with the wet floor after the shower when I use the bathroom, but one of the teachers at my school has solved that problem with a little wooden mat for the floor, but I haven’t bought that yet. I usually just take my socks off when I go to the bathroom.

The kitchen has a stove and a sink. That’s it. Luckily I don’t know how to use an oven or pretty much anything else in the kitchen anyway, so it works out fine. I would like a microwave though. I have made due with the kettle for my cup of noodles, however. I have even taken a stab at cooking eggs, let’s just say they tasted like eggs.

I have a sunroom which, in true Korean fashion, I use to dry my clothes – not sip Mint Juleps and nibble on the heads of crawfish. I also have a TV, with about 5 or 6 English language channels, and a few soft-core porn channels late at night, but no DVD player or even VCR. I have two desks, one I believe is supposed to be considered a dining table, but it said ‘desk’ in the catalog no doubt. I have a fridge (which sounds like farts or a frog depending on the time of day) and a tall closet, and plenty of pantry space for the food I can’t find here.

My bed is hard and my pillow is almost as hard. I couldn’t sleep the first few nights, but I have since gotten used to it. I still have a stiff shoulder when I sleep on my side, but I am going to pillage my neighbors rooms when they finish their contracts in a few months – hoping to snag another mattress and a toaster!

The wood floors have heating water tubes under them, but I haven’t needed to use them yet. I do have AC, but it gets too cold fast. The weather is changing fast so I am between machines helping me cope with the weather right now.

So far I am pretty satisfied with my place. It still needs a few things to make it more comfortable, but overall I’m happy.

Food: If you have read my other blog you can see I am trying new things. At first I wasn’t thrilled with Korean cuisine overall, but there were things I liked. Now that I know a bit more about the options and I dropped the attitude about trying to eat “traditional” or “like the locals do” I am finding a lot of good stuff (the locals eat fast food and Starbucks, by the way).

The Korean things I have been eating have been large amounts of meat on open coals in the middle of the table with the usual side dishes. I have eaten kimchi and liked it a few times. It is different everywhere you go. I eat lots of things here though, Japanese is the most common. I have even eaten Indian and liked it (yes, curry, for those that know me).

I have already written a blog about the food I have eaten, so I will keep this part short.

Drink: Beer is pretty cheap here, especially the local brews (Cass, Hite etc..). They are the cheapest at the mini-marts, but when you are in a group the best way to order them is in pitchers. The pitchers are measured in cc’s. A regular pitcher size is about a 2000 or 3000 cc size. The beauty is the 5000 cc choice. So far I have seen a small keg and a Stanley Cup-looking thing come out on our table with their own taps.

5000 cc's of straight beer - and John

The other major player in the drinking world of Seoul is Soju. It’s a potato based vodka-esque sort of drink. The first time I had it, it was made into a smoothie. The smoothie was good, a little too good. Regularly you take shots of it like other hard alcohol. It isn’t as strong as most of the usually suspects though. You will undoubtedly see a bottle of this in the hands of Korean men passed out in the middle of the street, which is immediately followed by you or another group of young people picking them up and laying them on the sidewalk where it is safe. And it is safe there.

The Koreans start drinking early and hard everyday. You will start seeing drunk men on the subway or street around 5pm or so. The older men, the ones in the street or stumbling home, have to work the next day, so they go home early too. It’s the younger people you will see out all night. They will be passed out early in the morning on the street. I may be exaggerating a little, but I have helped pick up two different guys from out of the street already.

Makgeolli is the drink popular with the college kids. It’s a rice wine that comes in a bowl when served, normally. It is white and milky and has little bits of rice in it sometimes. Are you thirsty yet? It isn’t as bad as it sounds, but it ain’t that good either.

People: At first they were indifferent to me. Now they are utterly indifferent to me. That’s not totally true, when I wear short sleeves I get a lot of scrunched faces or plain ol’ staring. Several men have grabbed my arm and given me the thumbs up while standing at a bus stop though (I have a sleeve tattoo, if you weren’t in the know). This is them when I’m not interacting with them though. Whenever I engage them and attempt what little Korean I know they have almost always been nice or even very nice. Only once did I get a grumpy cab driver.

The people who serve us food have almost always been very accommodating. They cut your meat for you and make every attempt to get the food right even though they probably have no idea what we are asking for. People go way out of their way, on occasion, when you ask for directions too. They will walk you to your destination, they won’t just point. Some people will even get off on the wrong subway stop to help you.

Location: Seoul is great! This city has everything you could ask for except cheap peanut butter. It doesn’t have much in the way of iconic locations that are known around the world, but it is a world class city. They have huge parks, large buildings and any kind of shopping you can imagine. If you count food shopping you could find more here than any city in the US I have been because you can get all that plus all the stuff we don’t eat, like baby turtles and dog. They have Louis Vuitton and all the other designers and the people selling cheap stuff on the subway. They have some serious history but not as many buildings as I would hope. I’m guessing that is from the Japanese invasions.

1988 Olympic Games Gate

It was the home of the 1988 Olympics, and the site is still here. It feels a bit like a ghost town of times past, but it is used as a park for tourists and locals alike. The velodrome is still used for sports betting and the pool is open to the public once in a while. That is one example, but I will be writing more on locations in my “Sights” series”.

My apartment is in the Cheongnyangni area of the city, on the east side. Cheongnyangni is a major station on the subway, so getting around is pretty easy. I have two lines from there and a different one from Dapsimni station a few minutes walk the other direction. The food here is cheaper than most places in the city, but I can still get anywhere in the city within an hour. I’m near a university so there are plenty of good food and drink places too. Other than all the kids, it feels very much like the outskirts of the city, even though it isn’t really. It is a pretty quiet area. I’m only a five minute walk from my school as well.

School/Work: After the first few days I have already started getting used to the routine and how to plan for my classes. I have written a little about this already, but the people I work with are nice and the kids are mostly pretty easy to deal with. Now that I have been teaching for a few weeks, I am starting to have my favorites and the kids I look forward to punishing (they deserve it). I only really have two bad classes, two classes that can be bad but mostly aren’t and few that are always fun and good for me. Overall I am happy and I don’t see myself changing my mind, but that is why I am writing this, we shall see.

Travel: Nothing to report yet. I haven’t left the city.

Oddities: Everything you think you know gets turned on its head here. It is a male dominated society, but women run the finances in the house usually. The women’s outfits are supposed to be humble, but they wear baggy tops and high neck lines and the shortest skirts and shorts I have ever seen. The men seem to always dress nice, I have seen only a few Koreans in shorts and they were almost all near their house and young. Also, everyone here is Korean. That sounds pretty obvious, but it is the least diverse place I have ever been. I think it breaks down as 98% Korean here and 1.5% are Chinese or something like that. Don’t quote me on that.

Lotte World

The protection laws are non-existant here, so you can see all sorts of fun names and things. The picture on the right here is an amusement park called Lotte World. It is the second largest indoor amusement park in the world. This shot is from the outside bit called Magic Island. The people here wear Fantasia hats and have songs playing that sound eerily similar to “It’s a Small World.” But it have a few really fun rides so I can’t complain. There is another amusement park called Seoul Land in the city that is a miniature version of Epcot Center. It’s all very kitschy and hilarious, but they also had a few good rollercoasters, so I had fun anyway.

Final Note: Seoul has never been on my list of places I must see in my travels anymore than any other major city, but I have found it, so far, to be a pretty nice place to work and live. The amount of money I make versus how much pay to live here is great. I can save about half of my paycheck every month. The people are accommodating, though the language barrier keeps me from trying certain places to eat or shop in still. It is a very safe place to be and there are plenty of places to hike and sight-see, they just aren’t places you have seen on bookstore travel calenders before.

There is so much still left to do, I feel really good about the amount of time I have left to do it at this point. I’m sure time will be too short at some point in this journey, but now it is fresh and new to me still. I look forward to making a few Korean friends to really set me on the path to comfort and enjoyment. I will get the keys to the city then – Korean! English is everywhere on signs, but very few people know enough to have any conversations with, but if you try a little they light up like you balanced a seal on your nose. More on that later.