Cat in Korea
// March 22nd, 2010 // 1 Comment » // korea
Well, my sister Catherine just left the country after being here for a few days. It was her first visit to Asia, and she seemed to enjoy herself. I’m sure she has a lot more to say about her stay here than I do, but I’ll give you the gist of our itinerary.
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.
