What are my obligations? Naturally, I should learn Korean. There are very few excuses not to. So I am. This consumes about 6-8 hours of time outside of work. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I’m scheduled to meet with Minseon from 6:00-8:00, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I meet with Sunny from 5:30-8:00. At every lesson, an hour is spent teaching me Korean, and an hour is spent teaching them English, proofreading a thesis, or any number of other activities that enhance their English ability.

My other obligation? Do things on the weekend. I’ve been incredibly busy on the weekends this summer. Let’s see..my last post was..WOW! Two months ago! Let me fill you in on the last couple months.

I
have proofread Sunny’s thesis for her master’s degree in English Education.
have proofread Yoonju’s thesis for her master’s degree in English Education.
have proofread Lily’s thesis for her master’s degree in English Education.
went to Taiwan for 5 days, 4 nights.
went to Busan at the southeastern tip of Korea for a beachy weekend.
went bungee jumping three times.
have eaten three meals at Lily’s house. Her mom is an AMAZING cook.
have played pool, badminton, and frisbee on numerous occasions.
have been all around Seoul – Yongsan, Euljiro, Insadong, Nakwon, Gangnam, etc.
went to the night parade with glowing floats for Buddha’s birthday.
have finished a few books and started a few more.
have gone spring shopping.
bought another ukulele and learned to play two new songs.
got my netbook fixed and successfully installed Windows 7 on it.
bought some sunglasses.
sent mail to my parents, Kelley, and Joe. (Cat is next)
made dozens of wonderful dinners.
have been running on mountains and working out with rabbits.
have watched five minutes of television.
have taken lots of pictures. A few are in this post, the rest are in my albums. Enjoy!

I got my food, sat down, and things are proceeding as they normally do. Mr. Shin asks politely for the pepper. I misunderstand him and hand him the Kleenex box. Mr. Shin and Hyeseon both say, “No, the pepper.” This time I understand and slide it over to him. He asks me where Song is. I say I don’t know. She’s always late, so I just said, “She’s late,” and in my head I add, “again.”

More ajummas file into the room and the decibel level adjusts accordingly as more exclamations of malcontentedness arise. Namsuk’s unintelligible rant finally stirs curiosity in me. “Hyeseon,” I begin, “Why is everyone yelling?”

“There’s no fried fish.”

“What?”

“The menu says fried fish. There’s no.”

“Ah, I see. Why isn’t there any fried fish?”

“Because some teachers can’t they like fried fish but so and there’s no.”

“Hmm, okay.”

I dropped it after that. Hyeseon can speak English pretty well, so I think that was her way of saying that she didn’t know. Koreans don’t like to admit being in the dark about anything, so they usually try and cover it up. Or maybe she did know, and I just didn’t hear her right. But then things get interesting.

One of the cooks bursts through the door and scuttles up to our table. She looks prepared to make an announcement. The din falls to a whisper. We wait in anticipation. She begins.

“ㅁㄴ이랒ㄷ겨ㅐㅑ키차ㅓㅍㅈ대ㅑㅕㅇ” and so on for 60 seconds. What I typed is the equivalent of “;alskdjfopwieura;vlkmasdl;ku” in Korean. I don’t really know what she said.

There are cries of protest. Ajummas ‘tsk tsk’ with displeasure. Some stand up and cross their arms. The noise level rises once again, and the cook gets into a heated discussion with Ju. Namsuk continues to mutter disquieting ramblings and continues to do so until the cook left.

I smile to myself. Because lunches are usually/always uneventful and boring. What excitement I have witnessed!

I put my empty tray with the others and leave the room. Outside, two ajummas are still going at it with the cook.

Lesson 1: If you break your word to a Korean, there will be hell to pay.
Lesson 2: Never, I repeat, NEVER, under any circumstances, fail to deliver the fried fish.

We had a day planned 1^st WOW

2^nd Video ART

3^rd Concert

None of those plans occurred.

1^st-

Will was to come over ………..1 hr late, then 40 min of him lost in an Armageddon playground.

Granted that was my bad but he was “UPSET” with me. So I tried to win his forgiveness with coffee and delicious Jewish snacks……….. . Due to my previous faux pas I requested he examine the map to Video Art. He did with the greatest of confidence.

2^nd

We got lost on the way to Video Art, so Will suggested we follow ‘the people’. On the way we saw a Wayguk shut down by a lovely Korean as she smacked his hand from her shoulder. But they led us to hens, who had clearly escaped death from a nearby kitchen.

3^rd

So we got hungry and headed to my Opa’s restaurant, a new map was made and we journeyed out again in search of “ Kitchen & Godard” and some indie tunes. But we got lost. We did however; find a record bar entitled “Dylan and Young.” There is nothing like Blonde and Blonde on Vinyl. The next hour was one of indentured servitude as Will tried to liven up the party by forcing me to fold paper after paper in a dimly lit bar. Then my abilities were mocked alas I will never become a professional oragamist.

Next WILL LIT HIS FACE ON FIRE….    The key to the “flaming pussy” is to consume immediately as the fire only burns stronger as time passes proving to be too much to handle

Finally the Foreigner bar……..So many white people it is like a KKK meeting. Nevertheless we trekked on with Will dancing it up to the style of Ian Curtis…. Funny Times

A typical night in Korea and I did it all in Heels

_________________________________________
I’ve been keeping a journal of my traveling adventures, which I’ll be blogging about later. Here’s a little bit from my first few days in Korea:

Thursday, March 18th.

A little woozy after an 18-hour flight, I emerged from customs to see my brother for the first time in six months. He asked me if I had any idea what time it was. (I didn’t.)

“7 AM.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Juuust kidding! It’s about 3:30 PM Seoul-time.”
“Oh, okay.”

Neither numbers meant much to me as I’d been traveling for about two days. (Note to self: cheap airline tickets are cheap for a reason.)

Our first mission: ice-cream. We caught a bus that took us to Bundang. During the hour-long trip I had my first obnoxious-American moment when two businessmen turned around in their seats and spit out a flurry of rapid Korean which I imagined translated to something along the lines of “SHUT UP.” (In retrospect, in our catching up, my brother and I were being very loud and laughing.)

That night, we went out with Will’s coworker and one of her friends, Sunny. Yong joon was a little shy with her English but Sunny was fluent. They took us to a restaurant where we could get a taste of a traditional Korean feast.

My first entire day in Korea

Following Will’s hand-drawn map, I ventured to his school the next morning to meet his 5th-grade students.

“They think I’m a cool teacher.”
“Why?”
“Probably because I don’t discipline them.”

On the way there, I stopped by a coffee shop Will had recommended earlier.

“A small coffee, please” did not seem to make it past the language barrier. Immediately, I felt embarrassed for not taking the time to learn one Korean word, “coffee”. After some failed attempts at placing an order, I spotted the coffee pot and ran over to point and nod. The barista seemed to understand and I left the shop drinking something that tasted almost, but not quite, like coffee.

As I wandered the school halls searching for his classroom, I failed miserably at any and all attempts to blend in. Some students gawked, most smiled and waved, and a few ran to get their friends. When I reached his classroom, Will asked me to introduce myself. He instructed me to speak clearly and slowly. “Just not at all the way you usually talk.”

“Hey guys. My name’s Cat. Will is my older brother. I just arrived in Korea yesterday afternoon. Uhh… questions?”
“Have you been to Canada?”
“I flew in from Vancouver, if that counts.”
“COOL!”

Will began the lessons by playing a dancing video and I graded papers where students were asked to write a brief introduction about themselves.

“My favorite country is Egypt because Egypt has many poor people. Egypt is funny.”

“Hello, my name is Chris. I’m not handsome, but I’m a little bit smart. I like meat.”

“My name is Matthew. My Korean name is Seo bo Sung. I have long hair. But I am a boy.”

I ate lunch with the other teachers. Egg-drop soup with rice balls, kimichi, something transparent brown and gelatinous, and of course, rice. I was praised for my skill at using chopsticks, something I had completely failed at the night before. (It took some getting used to; the chopsticks here in Korea are metal, not wood.)

Friday, March 19th

I went back to Will’s school today at his request to meet the principal. When I arrived, he was out at lunch so I hung out with Will in his classroom instead. He also let me help teach his students the lesson plan for the day, which turned out to be pretty fun. Again, I asked the students if they had any questions for me. A group of kids in the back was beside themselves giggling and “sssssh!”ing.

“Um. Yeah?”
“Do you have a BOYFRIEND?”

At this, the entire class burst into laughter. On a related note, it seems that both “brother” and “boyfriend” share the same Korean word, “opa”. This made for a pretty awkward mix-up at school. So instead of telling students he’s my brother, Will has to tell them that I’m his sister.

I left the school to head for the subway. On the way, I bought a kind of thin, hard cookie from a woman off the street for 500 won. (roughly 50 cents.) She was plopping thick amber-colored globs onto a small heated surface to harden the sweet treat. It had an aftertaste of honey and charred marshmallows. Yummmm.

Five subway transfers (and about an hour & a half) and I’m in Dongmyo, where Will has sent me for flea-market-esque shopping. The instant I was up the stairs from the subway and on the street, I was engulfed in mayhem. Both sides of the street were packed with peddlers selling goods and pedestrians in every nook & cranny.

Bicycle parts, stone figurines, ripped DVDs, wallets, sunglasses, purses, antique lamps, books, sizzling foods, posters, watches, t-shirts… this street had it all. The crowd propelled me forward through an aroma of sweat, burning rubber, sulfur, and spicy meats.

I sidestepped into an alley to cut into the next block over. The road was packed with bikes and small trucks carting long rolls of fabric. Garment district? I had to squeeze between moving vehicles and rolls of fabric leaning against the buildings to get by. Time to move on to the next street over.

The pedestrians had filtered out, and by now the roar of the crowd was muffled enough to hear splashes once I emerged from the side alley. On the ground was a large plastic tub, so thick with small eels slapping the water’s surface that I wasn’t able to see the bottom of the tub. This street was mostly vacant, but lined with tanks of alive & squirming marine life. Octopus, squid, shells the size of my fist, and flat fish the size of dinner plates with scales the color and texture of bark.

Ways I stand out here:
Light hair.
Baggy jeans.
Blue fingernails.
Saying “hi” when people look at me.

First of all, I got lost trying to find Candace’s apartment in Gangnam. I was on the phone with her for 40 minutes trying to find it. Then she came to meet me so she could lead me there. That took another 20. But during that hour I got some good photos!

We had a quick snack at her apartment before heading off to Anguk to see the video art. Unfortunately, we were not only too late, but we couldn’t even find it anyway. Fortunately, I got some more cool pictures.

Then we got to Hongdae and went to Yeti (an Indian food place) to use the computer to find a map to get to the club. Then we got some chow at an Italianish restaurant. After dinner, we couldn’t find the club, so we patroned a little record bar and chilled out to some Bob Dylan. I taught Candace some origami shapes I’ve been working on this past week. For the last eight days or so, I’ve really been getting into origami. I’ve made a bunch of cranes, cubes, ninja stars, a panda, a rabbit, and other little things.

Candace’s friend, Kim Yoon Jung, called so we met up with her and her friend at a hookah bar with the absolute dirtiest names for drinks. We all got Pussy shots, and I ordered the Fire Pussy. It wasn’t on fire, so I asked the waiter to light it up. It sat there burning while he came back with the other shots. He said I should drink it immediately. I tried to, but ended up just pouring flaming alcohol on my face. I blew it out and tried to drink it again, sans fire. Success! But my lip felt kinda funky. I thought I burned it.

We stayed there for awhile, and Michael joined us. Then the five of us went to a club. I don’t know if it was the same club we were looking for earlier, but it was surreal. There were very few Koreans in the crowd. I didn’t even feel like I was in Korea. It was really strange. We did clubby things – drank a lot, danced stupidly, and in general set ourselves up for some massive hangovers. I finally got a cab out of Hongdae around 4:00am. It was definitely my latest night out in Korea.

I felt pretty terrible this morning, couldn’t find my phone, and I had two blisters on the inside of my upper lip. On top of all that, the facial hair above and below my mouth had been singed. I went for a long run, showered, shaved, ate, and felt better. But I did have shaving cream stuck deep inside my ear for the better part of the day after showering. That was frustrating. I’ve spent the remainder of the day editing photos from yesterday and catching up on Facebook.

Wednesday
I met her at the airport in the afternoon. We stopped by the apartment so she could drop off her bags and take a shower, and I could get in a quick run at the gym. Immediately after that, Yoonju (teacher at my school) and Sunny (Yoonju’s friend and my Korean language teacher) picked us up and took us to a traditional Korean restaurant in Jeongja. Well, almost traditional. We took off our shoes and ate a generic conglomeration of Korean foods, but we sat in chairs instead of on the floor.

We were then dropped off in front of Yong’s apartment, met up with him, and walked to a bar/restaurant to get some makkeoli (milky white alcohol made from rice, terrific stuff). Yong was my co-teacher for 5th grade for the second half of last semester. Now he works at another school. He lived in the U.S. for four years between the ages of 6 and 10, so he’s fluent in English and super easy to talk to. I don’t feel like I need to slow down my speech or avoid overusing expressions.

Thursday
I had to teach from 8:40-4:40, so Cat slept in and met me at school at the beginning of 4th period. This would allow her to witness one of my classes, eat lunch, and spend the rest of the afternoon in Seoul with Sunny. So all of that happened. She went to Gyeongbok Palace, and I don’t know about the rest. I’ll let her talk about it on her blog.

Then we went to Myeongdong in Seoul for dinner, shopping, and most importantly, the experience of weeknight nightlife in one of the most popular districts in Seoul. This was exemplified in the form of bright, flashing lights everywhere and a labyrinth of streets filled with young people out for a night on the town.

We wrapped up the evening by dropping by an almost-closed Namdaemun market. I picked up some Ginseng rice sweets, and she bought some things as well. Namdaemun is quite the hustling and bustling marketplace during the day on weekends.

Friday
I spent 8:40-4:40 at school again, so Cat once again stopped by school for 4th period and lunch. Though instead of being an observer, she and I co-taught the 40 minute 6th grade class lesson on the phrase “Is this York Street?” The lesson involved teaching directions for finding local businesses. They know right from left, but when you show them a map, they have a hard time figuring out right from left if the orientation point isn’t straight ahead. Most of them had to turn their bodies to face the same direction as the arrow to give the correct answer. Sounds like they could use some old school Grand Theft Auto (the really old one, in 2D).

After lunch, she headed off solo to Dongmyo to experience and photograph an interesting indoor flea market surrounded by blocks and blocks of an outdoor flea market selling everything from shields to roasted millipedes.

We spent Friday evening in Gangnam. Most of the night was spent at Rainbow, but we spent a half hour or so at Woodstock. Our cab driver back to Bundang set a new record for cab drivers driving me back to Bundang. We hit an astonishing 195 kph, or 120 mph high, though he spared us for most of the ride by driving at a comfortable, paced 160 kph (100 mph). I’ve taken longer to drive home from the grocery store back in the states than this guy got us out of Seoul and to the urburb where I live. I define urburb as a metropolitan suburb just outside a major metropolitan city.

Saturday
Idled around until noon. Met up with Lauren and Candace in Gangnam for some Dr. Fish. I don’t know if I’ve talked about Dr. Fish on this blog before, but it’s a name for the experience of placing your feet into a shallow aquarium built into the floor so fish can nibble away at the dead skin on your feet.

Then Lauren, Cat, and I took a bus to Jongno and walked to Insadong. We wandered past the souvenir shops and jewelry stores for awhile before taking the subway to Yongsan. Yongsan was really something else.

Normally, I go to Yongsan to get hard drives or power cords since it’s the electronics hub of Korea, but the three of us had a different goal in mind on Saturday. Across the street, literally, from the massive mall adjacent to the electronics superstore is an alley-like street just off the main drag where men, and presumably, only men, window shop. What commodity is behind the glass? Why, women, of course. Girls aged 20-26 sit on barstools, their immediate area adorned in a soft, pink light. So basically, it’s a “red light district.” It was quite alarming. I was shocked both at the proximity to what is quite probably the largest mall in Korea and the audacity of the display. It’s right next to the police station. And prostitution is illegal. I just couldn’t fathom how this works. So I googled it. Apparently, 20% of men aged 20-65 solicit a prostitute at least once a month.

Red light districts aren’t the only place to do this. It’s the only place you can window shop, but there are other methods of prostitution available. You can visit a massage parlor, which frequently provide “extra” services. There’s also the barbershops. One spinning barbershop pole means it’s legit. Two spinning barbershop poles mean it’s nearly legit, but not quite. Along with the standard row of barbershop chairs on opposite walls, there’s another chair behind a curtain where you get a haircut and a, well, use your imagination.

After the bewildering experience of walking through the pink light district, the three of us had some tea, took a bus back to Sunae, and went out for dinner. We had galbi, a Korean meal composed primarily of beef. There are different kinds of galbi, and I don’t know what this was. But it was fantastic.

Sunday
Cat and I had breakfast at Butterfinger Pancakes with Sunny and Yoonju, and then they drove us to a Buddhist temple in Seoul. It was built around 20 years ago by a monk who passed away a few days ago. So it was a very popular destination this weekend. Sunny taught me how to sit and breathe for meditating, and we ate the free lunch that was provided at the temple. Cat didn’t finish her rice, and this is a big no-no, so I had to finish it for her. Later, she said, “I can’t believe you ate all that rice.” Then she paused, and reflected, “I’m full.” I just gave her a look.

Sunny and Yoonju drove us to the bus stop where we could catch an airport bus. We went to the airport, she left, and that was it….for me, at least. She began her 30 hour journey back through North America on her way to Germany, where she’ll be studying design for the next 5 months.

I really need to take some pictures of Rainbow. It’s an underground, psychedelic hookah bar with music ranging from live didgeridoo to the fast beats of DJ-provided techno. Black lights, laser lights, candles, tapestries, and posters adorn the place, all covered with images of mushrooms, counterculture icons, cannabis plants, peace symbols, and other hippie paraphernalia. Denizens sit on colorful cushions surrounding small, wooden boxes marked with graffiti in multiple languages. Looking around, you see people who are white, Asian, black, and other shades darker than white whose ethnicities you can’t really place.

There are dozens of hookah flavors. Last night, we sampled green apple and another flavor – I never found out what it was. The alcohol comes in two liter, square buckets filled with straws. They also offer individual beers and cocktails for the selfish drinker.

After going through three to four buckets and two hookahs, witnessing a hilarious dance off, and discussing everything from first impressions and Texas culture to the French Revolution, we left Rainbow and went to Woodstock. Woodstock is a record bar, where the patrons write requests on cards and submit them to the bar. Eventually, your song may or not play. It may be played from a record or it might be played from a CD.

After being there for awhile, I got pretty tired and convinced Michael that it would be a good idea to take a taxi with me back to Bundang. After some haggling, we got a driver to take us back for 25,000. We were there in less than 15 minutes. By subway, it’s a 45 minute ride. By bus, 25-30. This guy was going 150 km/hr the whole way. That’s 93 mph for those of you without calculators. He ran every red light and had to weave between other cars to avoid hitting them. But that’s Korea for you. It’s not really unusual for cab drivers to be insane drivers.

Here’s the abridged version of an e-mail I wrote to my Dad a couple of days ago:

Dad,

I see that you called an hour ago or so. Your status says you are away now though. It’s 12:38 AM so I’m exhausted, but I’ll give you a little bit of news about my day before I go to sleep. I woke up at 10, ready Freakonomics until Noon, took a shower, ate cereal, and immediately after that Yoonju called me. She wanted to know if I had eaten lunch. I wasn’t really in the mood to go out, but I had made her pretty upset on Thursday by showing up for the spring camp class I teach by myself and telling the students they could all go home because I was sick. I woke up that morning with a slight fever, and I had had a sore throat for two nights in a row. I knew some illness was coming, and I didn’t want to exacerbate it by walking around and talking for three hours that morning.

Well apparently it’s a pretty big deal if the teacher cancels class. Korean kids can’t miss a day of education, and I underestimated how much anybody would care. Parents called Yoonju (the head teacher and one of my co-teachers), she called Hyeseon, Hyeseon called me and told me to call Yoonju. It was a big fiasco and caused more stress than would have occurred had I just taught the class that morning.

Anyway, I tell her, “Actually, yeah, I just had some cereal.” She then asks if I would come meet her family in Jeongja for coffee. I give in and she says to meet her in 20 minutes. I get to Jeongja and call her, she says she’ll pick me up. A few minutes later she picks me up in her car while on her cell phone so she doesn’t say anything to me and we drive. We drive and drive. We leave Jeongja. We head south. I realize I’ve just been kidnapped. After we’re far enough out that I have no chance of walking back, she gets off her cell phone and tells me we are going to her house so she can teach me how to make kimchi jigae. This is kimchi soup.

I believe she had four reasons for kidnapping me. She’s been wanting to teach me how to make this soup for awhile now, but I’ve always been busy. She’s upset with me for cancelling class and wants to punish me without making it look like punishment. Her sister’s family is at her house, and her brother-in-law likes hiking and would like to go hiking with me. She believes, as do many Koreans, that kimchi is a magical cure for everything, so kimchi jigae must be the holy grail of healing food for whatever caused me to cancel class on Thursday.

Her sister and brother-in-law were very, very nice. The sister does reasonably well at English, but her husband struggles a bit. For seven hours we snacked on fruit, dessert, made dinner, ate dinner, sat around watching TV, conversed, and I showed them my various photo albums on Facebook involving my time in Korea.

All in all, it was a good day, I suppose. I wouldn’t have done very much productive anyway, so I guess I can’t complain about meeting new people and experiencing some more culture exchange.

Love,
William

I’m going to make an effort to blog more so you actually know what’s going on with me in Korea!

I went to the Kooksoondang facility yesterday. They are one of the largest, if not the largest, Korean liquor manufacturer. The tour was wonderfully sponsored by TheYeogiyo.com, a fantastic resource and social group for foreigners living in or near Seoul. TheYeogiyo.com arranged for two buses of foreigners, one from Seoul, the other from Bundang, to make the three hour trip east to Gangwon-do.

We ate lunch at a restaurant above this interesting business

The first half of the tour introduced the history and functions of the facility. There were many artifacts from decades or centuries-old methods of making makeolli, soju, and baekseju, the three liquors produced in Korea. Rice is to soju what potatoes are to vodka. Makeolli is a milky, white rice wine. And Baekseju, a golden substance, looks more like the white wines we are familiar with in the western world.

Father and son

The sitting, young looking father is chastising his standing, old looking son. The father looks so young because he drank Kooksoondang liquor, but the son drank some other company’s liquor and aged at a much faster pace.

Assorted bottles arranged decoratively

Where we would later be sampling alcohol

We got to see (through glass panels) the laboratory where they create new wines, the production facility where the wine is bottled and boxed, and shelves upon shelves of all the different bottles and wines that Kooksoondang has made since its foundation in 1952. There was even a part of the tour where we could scoop of handfuls to smell all the different spices and herbs that ferment in the wines.

One of the hallways

The Laboratory

Employees happily checking the bottles

Production Area

Shelves of bottles

This guy/technician was happy to pose for us

The second half was the “stand around and drink for free an unlimited supply of many kinds of wine” part of the tour. My favorite was Bookjookbe, a very sweet, berry wine. I probably butchered the name. I got rather tipsy within the first half hour so I slowed my intake down to about a tablespoon every fifteen minutes. We had entirely too much time to drink all this alcohol, so the bus ride back started off pretty rowdy. Eventually people either fell asleep, became hungover, or shouted, “Stop the bus!” when they had to urinate.

Sampling

All in all, it was a great trip. I look forward to more adventures from TheYeogiyo.com!

Just a select few of the bottles we emptied

Want to know the specific changes I’m making? Too bad! It’s a surprise! But I can guarantee you will enjoy your experience here more* than you have these past few months.

*subject to alternative definition under circumstances beyond control