Homeward Bound

Well, folks, this is it.

I'm writing you from Seoul Incheon International Airport on a laptop that's much too small for my giant hands, overlooking the terrible weather that's hammering the runway at the moment, and yet, despite all that, still a little over an hour away from boarding my plane home.

It's been a wonderful month here; while I wish I could say I met a whole bunch of Korean students who made this such a worthwhile experience, I guess I'll just have to settle for meeting some great people from 'SC and enjoying their company (and all the antics that came with it) for the last month.  Not that that's a bad thing, mind you.

My Korean has, if my ailing grandfather is to be believed, improved considerably.  To that I say 다행이아 (dahengida--thank God).  Although I still have a long way to go before I'm fluent--maybe even another 8 years or so--it's a small victory for me.

I've certainly enjoyed seeing the sights, sampling the tastes, and living the culture for the last month, and I've certainly enjoyed writing about it.  So for those of you who stuck around to the end, I hope you enjoyed reading.  Thanks for sticking around.

But for now, I say 내일 봐 (neh-il bwa)...I have a plane to catch.

Korean Geek Culture

Instead of writing my final paper like I should, I have for you what might be one of the last blog entries from Korea I'll make.

Yesterday Hao-Hua's friend Travis came to visit--initially we were going to go to Namsan Tower, but Hao-Hua and Travis were both paranoid that the heavy rain would trigger a mudslide that would kill us all.  So instead, we went all the way over to Sinjeong station (way the hell over west) to go see a live Starcraft match.

Yes, you're reading that right.  Starcraft.  And televised, to boot.  We wound up going to the GOM TV studios in Sinjeong.  While the outside of the building looks like a small, abandoned school, the studio itself looks a bit like this:

Trojan Vision, eat your heart out.

If I didn't know any better, I would think this looks like some kind of ESPN Sportscenter game show or something.  It really does make an MMORPG look like a sporting event...and I'm told it gets even bigger for the finals.  The audience seating area was only three rows of chairs here...apparently, for the finals, they get a stadium-like arena in which to compete.

As someone who's worked at a TV station before, it was really fascinating to watch the whole production aspect of the show come together.  I could've cared less about how the games turned out (as I haven't played any iteration of Starcraft in many years), but it was interesting to see how each camera was preparing for each shot, how the jib camera nearly killed us with each swing, and how the commentators (who were to my immediate right) were reacting to each game.  Granted, I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but it was funny whenever they started going, "Ohhhhh!  OOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"  (The text really doesn't do that justice.)

There were also a pair of English-speaking commentators who were doing their own thing independent of the Korean commentators, though I couldn't hear a word they were saying--for all I know, they weren't mic'd up at all.  Apparently they do an English edition of the same broadcast, but the Korean commentators were so loud that I don't think it mattered in the end.


And then, of course, there are the players themselves.  They're all little boys (there were no girls playing the day I went), and can't be any older than 18 years old.  They really do take this seriously, even if it would normally earn them who-knows-how-much ridicule at an American high school.  (Don't pretend it isn't true...)


And despite all this, we were all geeking out to some degree, although I bet for different reasons...

Catching up...big time

Apologies for being away for so long--class and day trips, combined with an abnormal amount of fatigue kept me away from the blogosphere for an extended period of time.  Hopefully my memory serves me right when I recount this past weekend's journey...

Last weekend we went to Jeolla-do in the southwestern part of the country, where the city of Gwangju is.  We were originally going to tour the site of the Gwangju uprisings in the '80s, although when we got there, all we saw was a huge construction site and a fountain with a tacky, bright orange inflatable flower on top of it.  Apparently that fountain is all that's left of the artifacts of the uprising!  (I didn't bother with a picture, because there really wasn't anything to see in that area...)


This thwarted our plans for much of the day on Friday, so a lot of that day felt like a lot of walking around aimlessly, hoping to find some history along the way.  We did, however, make our way over to the 5-18 cemetery (5-18 referring to the date of the Gwangju uprising).  People who died in the uprisings, as well as who we presumed to be family members of the victims who died much later, are buried here.  And if this doesn't take the cake as the most peaceful place in the country, I don't know what does...

Just past the main gate

View of the tower from the back, where the graves are

I apparently have a morbidly artsy side as well.

We in the States don't normally associate South Korea with dictatorships, but shortly after the partition (and even as early as the '80s) their government was also very chaotic, and even though a president was elected, it eventually turned into a dictatorship because the then-incumbent wanted to keep his position of power.  Korea--or at least Gwangju--was even under martial law at one point, leading to this uprising.  It was a little...sobering, for lack of a better term.  Quite horrifying to learn the price people paid for democracy, even if their uprising paid off in the end.


From the cemetery, we went over to the nearby city of Namwon and into Chunhyang Park, named for the eponymous folk tale.  It's also a peaceful place, complete with a bridge that's supposed to bless a couple with a happy relationship if they come and cross this bridge at least once a year.  Apparently this is also the park where the events of the story supposedly take place, as the government pavilion where Yi Mongryong first spots Chunhyang is in plain sight on the other side of the bridge.


Saturday (after probably one of the best nights of sleep I had gotten in a long time), we went to Independence Hall (독립기념관).  While an impressive sight from the outside, the museums inside (understandably) had a Korean slant to them, one exhibit going so far as to say how other cultures--namely the Chinese and the Japanese--are distorting Korean history.  I wasn't terribly impressed, although I will say they do make quite the impression on tourists.  I know they mean well by their wishes of reunification and whatnot, but the journalist in me couldn't help but wince at the blatant mud-slinging against Japan and China.  Then again, maybe they have a point if they're saying the other two gloss over the occupation period (~1910-1945) completely...


Having exhausted our weekend trip agenda earlier than we expected, we returned to Seoul via bus around 4 pm.  The next day was completely free, but I met up with my dad's friend's daughter, Hyunji, who will be attending Pitzer College in the fall.  She and I, along with a friend of hers, went to a fortune-telling café in Gangnam.  While it sounded like a load of hokey to me, I couldn't help but be intrigued by the different markings the fortune teller was making on the paper.  Was it bad that I started wondering whether there really was a purpose to some of the markings he was making?


Scam or not, we met up with two of Hyunji's other friends at Coex Mall.  The last time I was in Korea, I complained about the cave-like feel of the underground shopping center.  Except this time, it didn't feel very cave-like at all (probably because there was more stuff open this time around) and, while still crowded, was considerably less so than I remember the last time.  There's a movie theater in the complex as well, and I watched HP 7.2 yet again.  This time, I enjoyed it a little better, although I still have my gripes about it.  (I'll spare you the details...this is already getting quite long.)


This then brings us to Monday, where we took a tour of Incheon--about an hour and a half away by subway.  Shortly after getting off at the Technopark Station (what a name for a station), we were treated to this view:

Notice something missing?  Traffic, perhaps?

Never mind the fact that our plans to take a water taxi were thwarted when we realized the taxi is closed on Mondays.  What startled us the most was the modern look of this part of town (called Songdo) but the relative lack of people.  Even a stroll through what I think was called Songdo Park (pictured right) didn't help matters, as we were wondering why this modern-looking city--built on reclaimed land, no less--had virtually nobody around!  We suspect it has something to do with the prestige of Seoul and what status living there grants its residents.  You can't be just close to Seoul, you have to be in Seoul, I suppose.  Kim Yu-na, the well-known figure skater, invested in some properties in that area, and even that apparently can't attract people to come to this area.  Sad, really, as it looks like this city could have potential.  Apparently at night it gets a little more lively, although with what few people they have there I don't really see how much more lively it could get.


So we spent about an hour and a half walking around before we got taxis to Incheon's Chinatown, which wasn't much to write home about either.  Our plans were thwarted once again when we discovered the cultural center in Chinatown was also closed on Mondays!  (Monday is Korea's Sunday, I suppose.)  So with most of our agenda essentially shot down, we spent another hour or so--you guessed it--aimlessly walking around, although we did find a Chinese bakery out of the deal, so I guess it wasn't so bad.  I did feel, though, that our professor was trying to legitimize the trip by explaining some stuff about a statue of Confucius we found in a small pavilion...most, if not all of us, saw right through it.  I suppose the fact that we were all tired--one of us was borderline passed out--didn't help matters.


I was, quite understandably, wiped out from all these events--I think I was about to fall asleep in class for the last two days.  I spent most of today taking it easy (to think I wanted to hike Dobongsan with Wendy today!  I would've passed out!), although I did have a nice meal with some family.  And yet tomorrow, we're supposed to go on a downtown bus tour of Seoul...although whether we'll be able to go at all is still up in the air, as the rain (sadly) has returned.


5 days until my return to the States.  Time certainly has flown.

Artsy Adventures in Insa-Dong

Or, When Idiocy Strikes Again

Camera troubles seem to be a recurring problem for me.  First the battery dies when I leave the charger in the dorms, then the battery dies on me in the middle of a day trip, then I remember to charge the battery, take the camera with me, but forget to put the battery back in the camera.  So there we have it, I have no pictures for today...

But I'm definitely not short on adventures today!  (A wonder I still had some today, given how wiped out I felt early this morning...)  Class felt like a drag, and I simply conked out for an hour afterwards...then got up again, watched a clip montage of movies (that weren't synced properly, I might add), and then somehow mustered up enough energy to go to a tea house in 인사동 (Insa-dong).  It did revitalize me, somewhat--the cold teas of Jeongtong Dawon Tea House actually did wonders for the soul, even if my cold powdered green tea did get a little bitter near the bottom of the cup.  I should've gone with either the citron tea (which I'm convinced is made from yuzu) or the omija tea (literally "five tastes", essentially a fruit punch of sorts).  We were all addicted to the yugwa (유과), though, which are essentially sweetened rice puffs.  A shame that they ran out of the rice cakes when we got there, though...

From the tea house, we ventured the streets of Insa-dong and did a little souvenir shopping.  I managed to get myself a rather interesting t-shirt (with the design of King Sejong's first Hangul script, or something along those lines), as well as a pale pink necktie for my dad (or, if it doesn't suit him, me).  Jackie and Caroline, who were giving me that extra bit of reassurance as to whether or not to buy it, thought it was the "manly pink" (their words, not mine).

We had a little amusement with the street vendors, one in particular who sold Turkish ice cream.  He kept tricking Julie out of her cone, then pretending to drop it as he handed it to her (only for it to stay perfectly frozen onto his scooper-stick-thing).  I'm not sure what he was saying to her after he finally let up and gave it to her, but the crux of the matter: she didn't know what the heck he was harassing her about, and I chased him off by simply saying "She doesn't speak Korean!"  That shut him up, even if he was a little cheesed off.

Some more ambling around before we finally made our way back to E-dae, replenished our wallets with our latest meal disbursement, and headed for--what else?--a round of Korean barbeque.  We thought we were getting a lot of food (two orders of bulgogi, two orders of kalbi, and an order of samgyupsal), although Hao-Hua decided he hadn't had enough and got a Big Mac (with fries!) afterwards.  To be honest, it was the perfect amount for me...the table was a little too small to accommodate our group of five, though.  At least we didn't smell nearly as bad as we would've, given that there was a...vacuum, for lack of a better term, that sits right above the grill and sucks most of the smoke up through it.

Tomorrow, we head for Jeolla-do and Kwangju.  I promise to bring my camera this time, battery and all.

Time Machine: Destination 1796

We took a little trip back in time today as we made our way to Suwon, a city that's just a 20-minute bus ride from Seoul (provided, of course, that there's no traffic--more on that later).  Somehow I'm coherent enough to write this at 11 PM, seeing as I was probably about to pass out from heat exhaustion earlier in the day.  I'm still a little delirious from that, so if I don't make sense at times, you have been warned.

One of the most impressive sights was Hwaseong Fortress (화성), the still-standing fortress protecting King Jeongjo's palace in the middle of Suwon.  Quite an impressive feat; the wall by itself stands about 20 feet high and runs three-and-a-half miles long, enclosing about half a square mile of land.  Though I tried to capture as much of a traditional view as I could, you can see an interesting side-by-side view of the fortress walls with the high-rises that line the horizon.  Kind of an old-meets-new kinda thing, I guess.  You can actually see it better in the picture below, though very faintly so.  I could've spent the whole day just in this one spot, right under a small pavilion nearby, but there were other (read: more exciting) things to do.

If you notice in this picture to the right, you can see what looks like archery targets near the far right of the picture.  In fact, that's exactly what they are; there is, in fact, an archery range right by the fortress walls.  We got to use traditional bows and not-so-traditional-looking arrows for a short period of time.  Considering 2,000 won (~$2) each got us 10 shots, it's definitely worth it, even if you end up embarrassing yourself when it comes to actually shooting the arrows.  A quick tutorial later, and you're already firing away--I only wish I got more arrows, because I would love to learn how to do this in the long run.

The targets in the above picture were 140 meters away from where we took our positions.  Obviously, since (I'd venture to guess) none of us had ever handled a bow and arrow before, we shot at much closer targets (about 30 meters away from our spot--see left).  That's supposed to be a bear's head we're aiming at.  The video game geek in me got excited at the prospect of shooting arrows just like in the Zelda games, although one thing was soon very clear--I'm just as bad of a shot live as I am in the video games.  Although my accuracy leaves much to be desired, I hit the target maybe four or five times out of my 10 shots, which I guess isn't so bad for a first-timer (considering every one of us overshot the target at least once).  Not to mention the bowstring hit me in the arm a couple of times...that left a mark.

Break the targets!  (Or at least hit them.)

Link, if he were real, would've been disappointed with most, if not all, of us--we had to go scoop up our 10 arrows after our quivers were empty, and discovered that a lot of them wound up well past the targets.  I actually thought about shooting my last one at the far targets just to see how close I could get to them, but I guess I was too absorbed with trying to hit the close ones to worry about that!  There's just something funny about seeing a bunch of arrows sticking out of the ground behind the target, though...

The next few stops after the archery range were a little fuzzy, due to the blazing hot heat interfering with my memory for a little while.  I do remember taking a trolley around the fortress and near a huge statue of King Jeongjo (it had to have been at least 30 feet tall, probably more) and walking all the way down to the main palace grounds.  This was also around lunchtime, so we stopped at a local restaurant to try the famous Suwon kalbi (수원 갈비).  Because the BBQ would've burned holes in our wallets and made us smell like it afterwards, we opted for a much more inexpensive option: kalbitang (갈비탕) and naengmyeon (냉면); short rib stew and cold noodles, respectively.  I went for the kalbitang, which was quite good (if a little labor-intensive to eat).

After lunch, we went inside the main palace, Hwaseong Haengung (화성 행궁), which is evidently the site where they filmed the classic Korean drama "Daejanggum" (대장금).  The heat was starting to get to us, though; on the bus to the folk village (which was another 15-20 minutes away), most of us were completely knocked out!

Yet somehow, we were ambling through the folk village (read: staggering through in a dehydrated stupor...or maybe that was just me) without much of a problem.  My camera battery died (again) about halfway through our visit there, which was another letdown, but by that point I was too tired to do anything about it.  Another downer, too, was the fact that all the performances were finished by the time we got there.

I did, however, manage to snap some slice-of-life photos before the battery fizzled out on me...

In the courtyard of a nobleman's house (?)

Garden view of a part of the village

Traditional wedding procession.  Ignore the person on the far left who managed to get into the shot.

Exhausted on the steps of the local government building

Two Updates for the Price of One

That's right, folks, you're getting TWO updates for the price of ONE!  Chalk it up to me (gasp!) actually forgetting about the blog for a little while I had a little fun over the weekend (and today, now that I think about it).  First, take the time machine all the way back to Friday...

We took a class day trip to Cheorwon (철원), a small town near the DMZ.  It's mostly deserted except for some military outposts and cultural museums, which include an observatory.

Yes, I know I got more sky than I meant to.

Yes, we actually got to creep on North Korea from afar.  You see, this observatory has a deck where you can look out over the DMZ itself and, just 2 km away, the North Korean border (right).  What surprised me the most about the DMZ, though, was that it's not the barren wasteland a lot of people (who haven't been there) make it out to be.  We found out that it "accidentally" (for lack of a better term) became a wildlife reserve, due to lack of human activity in the area for the last 60 years or so.  It's a bizarre juxtaposition, the tranquil wildlife preserve with the observatory, telling of Korea's war-torn past.  It's probably the biggest irony the world has.

We also got to see one of the tunnels (left) the North Koreans dug to invade the South.  I couldn't take any pictures inside the tunnel itself, but it was quite the trek, never mind cold inside.  I wasn't terribly happy about hitting my head on the low ceiling about 10 or 11 times (thank goodness for that helmet they gave us), nor was I too pleased with these Korean schoolkids (probably middle or high schoolers) who were going in as we were coming out...and wouldn't get out of our way.  I mean, the tunnel's narrow enough already, and yet they insist on walking two-by-two anyway?  I was just about ready to pop my huge umbrella open and charging through to the end of the tunnel, bowling over any poor saps that happened to be in my path.

Also of curious note was this sign (right) that was just outside the tunnel.  That's 21,172 days since the cease-fire agreement that ended the Korean War all the way back on July 27, 1953.  (Well, by the time I publish this post, that'd be 21,176 days...)  It almost seemed--to me, anyway--that they're still waiting for something to happen.  Reunification, a northern attack, a plan to invade the north, whatever--just something so that they can stop counting the days and start anew.  I guess this is their way of saying the Korean War really isn't officially over, per se.  Eerie, if you think about it.  Just brought to light how tense the situation really is out there.

Anyway.  A long Friday in Cheorwon led to a day or two of rest (and writing a paper that was due Sunday at noon).  Saturday I got to meet up with my grandparents again for lunch, as well as some family friends who had moved back to Korea a few years prior for dinner.  Though this didn't exactly do me any favors when it came to writing my paper that night, at least I didn't write on an empty stomach.

Sunday itself was rather uneventful, thanks to most of the group going to the Mud Festival in Boryeong.  To Hao-Hua, Caroline, and I, rolling around in the mud all day didn't exactly sound like our idea of fun, so we decided to stroll around E-dae and the surrounding area instead.  We decided to make the trek to Hongik University via subway for lunch--Hong-dae, as it's called, is known for being a more hip hangout for college students.  It's certainly busier at nighttime, although we didn't feel like going at night (when it tends to get pretty crazy, in more ways than one).  We managed to find a pretty good Chinese restaurant in Hong-dae for lunch--victory for Hao-Hua, who had been craving good Chinese food since we got to Korea.  For dinner, we went back to E-dae and went to our reliable sullungtang restaurant--victory for Caroline, who was in the process of getting over a bad bowl of said soup from the day before.  And both of them are hooked on my favorite Korean dish--victory for me, who will eat said dish any chance I get.

(pause to catch breath)


Class resumed today, although most of us spent a good part of the day today in Apgujeong (압구정), a busy shopping/dining district not terribly unlike Hong-dae.  We met up with Esther's SAT tutoring student (who had been taking lessons from her in the States), who took us around.  After much discussion about what to go eat--most of us didn't care, although Matt adamantly insisted we have K-BBQ for the 24,198,687th time this trip--we wound up finding a chicken BBQ place, which actually wasn't too bad--it reminded me a bit of Mom's homemade 춘천 닭갈비 (Chuncheon-style chicken, for the Hangul-challenged).  Although I made the mistake of eating one of the raw Korean peppers; flesh, membrane, seeds and all.  Even though it wasn't so big, needless to say, I was in a world of hurt for the rest of the meal.  How can that puny little pepper be spicier than all the spices rubbed onto the chicken combined...?

Fight on, Wendy.  Doesn't it look good?

The rest of the night consisted of a board game café that smelled vaguely of cigarettes, though I definitely had a lot of fun playing (and failing at) pool, as well as learning some card games from Janina (pictured above, left) and Julie.  I'm pretty sure we were the loudest people in the room, as I was too busy laughing my head off at our ineptitude at some of the games, as well as our rather baffling explanations of the rules.


If there's one thing I can't stand about this trip, though, it's our consistent "what the hell are we going to do now?" meetings that we hold basically out in the open.  Most of the time (after wasting about 30 minutes figuring out what the hell we're going to do) they result in half the group splitting off to go drinking/clubbing/something along those lines, while the other half hoofs it to the nearest subway station back to E-dae so as not to show up to class with a hangover the next morning (or at least not running on <4 hours of sleep).  I'll leave you to figure out which group I went with, although one of the guards was, again, hell-bent on stopping me before I got through the gate, only to be foiled by my key card.


I swear, that guard must have it out for me or something.

Time Zone Shake-up, Movie Night

Sounds like something I should've posted on the first day, except now I feel like we've gotten used to it by now.  As evidenced by me waking up about 20 minutes before class and somehow still making it on time (despite not eating breakfast).

The real reason why I say this is a time zone shake-up: we caught the last Harry Potter movie here in Seoul two days before its scheduled American release.  And while I love that I can brag about having seen it before my states-side friends can, I must say I was...well, I'll keep quiet until it comes out in the States before I say anything.

I will say this, though: the Korean subtitles were distracting, but if I don't learn another speck of Korean while I'm here, at least I've learned "시끄러워" (shi-keu-ruh-wuh) means "shut up," and "미쳤어" (mi-chyuhs-suh) means "Are you crazy?"

Now you can't say I didn't learn any Korean while I've been here.  Nyaahhh.

Also, for our class, we watched "Taegukki," a Korean War-era film.  Easily one of the saddest films I've ever seen.  I nearly cried during this one.  And that's saying a lot, considering I virtually don't cry at all during movies.  There was a rather awkward silence after the film was actually over...our TA, Lucy, was bawling her eyes out.  Some of us were wrecks.

And then Hao-Hua and I each had a bowl of sullungtang (설렁탕) and forgot about it completely.  Korean soul food for the win.

Nothing Like a Day Off...

Much of yesterday was spent doing laundry, writing emails, catching up on sleep, and attempting to replenish the stash of spare change I mostly lost at poker over the weekend.  (Wendy, if you're reading this, just remember...you had to shell out a 1,000w bill.  Which I kept.  So there.)

About money...carrying around Korean cash makes me feel rich, since the numbers are so big...

I'm rich!  (What's that?  Only worth about $100 total?  Who cares, I'm rich!)

So the aforementioned 1,000w bill is, in fact, worth only about a buck.  And I'm still amused by the fact that we refer to them as "dollars" like we're in the US.  But, rule of thumb when in Korea: chop off three zeroes and that's the price in dollars.  So--going strictly by the numbers--I might be a quarter-millionaire at the moment in Korea...but when you consider that it converts to about $250, it's a little less impressive.  So we were throwing around our spare change in poker the other night, and we gasped in horror when someone threw down a 100w coin or two (or three) and won the pot.

And then we realized we only lost about ten cents.  Commence laughter.

We weren't betting with the 500w coins (or if we used them, we broke them down into 100w coins first), because we needed them for the laundry machines.  This led to some amusement on my part, as Hao-Hua essentially wasted 500w on a dryer when he didn't realize he had to push the coin in, and then press another button to set the dryer in motion.  (Needless to say, he was pretty pissed after that.)  As for me, I'm trying to hoard all my 500w coins so I have them readily available for my next load of laundry.  I had quite a few when I came over here, thanks to the subway deposit refund-thingies...guess spending them all early was a mistake...

At least laundry's much cheaper here than in the States!  1,000w (~$1) per load here vs. $2.00 at 'SC...I'll take the Korean price any day over the US price!

Which begs the question...since the 100w coins are the exact same size as the quarter, would they work in our laundry machines and register as quarters?  Inquiring minds want to know...it'd save me a little money...

Oh, and by the way, while in the States we're accustomed to going to find food at 11 PM, there's virtually none of that around Ewha.  Everything closes around 10 PM, and those places that are still open after 10 have a very limited menu.  Hao-Hua was none too happy about that one either.

Now that I mention it, I have never seen the front of a college campus so dead past 10 PM.  The streets are virtually completely empty.  It's kinda scary.

Weekend Trips Are Fun!

Full disclaimer ahead of time: my camera battery died halfway through the weekend trip, and I left my charger in the dorms.  So I'm stuck with only a few pictures of the first half of the Ulsan/Busan weekend trip, and without so much as a pixel of the second half.  But nonetheless, I'm always one to make do with what I have...and also, due to fuzzy memory, I may have some events reversed in the timeline.

We took the KTX train from Seoul to Ulsan bright and early Friday morning (evident by the large percentage of sleepers on the train, myself included).  I actually preferred the train to the plane we took back.  I don't know what it is, but I can virtually never sleep on planes.  Yet somehow, I slept like a baby on the train.  Interesting.

You know you get off at a city known for car manufacturing when you get off the train and the first thing in the station you see is this:

 A new car!  (Rich Fields would've been proud...maybe...)

Anyway.  About that whole car manufacturing thing.  We got to see the Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard and Auto Plant.  Was a little funny to me, seeing as I was thinking about getting an Elantra earlier in the year.  Didn't happen, although one of these days, Hyundai.  One of these days.  That Elantra will.  Be.  Mine.  (If my TPIR check still is holding up by then and if I win big on Wheel, sure.)

After getting our fill of business propaganda (complete with scale model of a Hyundai Genesis), we rested up and made our way to Seokguram Grotto, a tiny Buddhist temple nestled in the mountains.  Or was Seokguram first?  I can't remember.  Anyway.  It was a bit of a hike, but eventually the view looked something like this:

 Hey!  Who told that guy he could get in the way of my picture?!  Let's try this again...

Ah.  That's better.

I don't care what anyone says: it's impossible to hate anything after being in or around a Buddhist temple.  Especially one like this.  We were also mesmerized by various paper lanterns hanging on some poles, with what appeared to be prayer tags hanging from those.  Why, you ask?  If you saw a bazillion colors all of a sudden, you would be too!  See?

After feeling enlightened (slightly), we found our way to the Cheomsongdae Observatory...and then that's when it started raining cats and dogs.  The pathway to Cheomsongdae isn't exactly paved, so getting back to the bus was a challenge as we were all sloshing around wet sand.  Not to mention all the puddles we probably found...my tennis shoes were soaked for the next day or two.

I had to tough out sopping wet sneakers and socks when visiting the UN Cemetery, though...and really, I forgot about them when I was walking through there.  Even though it was still raining, it was actually relatively fitting weather for visiting a cemetery.  Of course, it's also fitting that my camera battery dies...in the cemetery.

This was before the downpour.  Kinda eerie-looking, if you think about it.

The rest is a little fuzzy, due to not having a camera to document much.  I do remember, though, making our way down to Busan after that, and finding the fish market later.  It was rather hilarious watching some of the more squeamish members of our group try to stomach chopped-up octopus that's still squirming on the plate, or watch as the salesman butchers live fish.  (Then it's really not live fish anymore, I guess.)   I've been desensitized to the butchery a bit, having seen such things on the original Iron Chef, but the rest of the group wasn't exactly privy to watching it.  I only wish I had a couple of pictures of this myself...

What was even more amusing at the fish market: Matt, our sole white guy in our group, was getting invites left and right from market regulars to come eat with them!  And apparently they thought I was Japanese, Julie (who's actually part-Japanese) was Taiwanese, and God-knows-what-else...

Sunday we had all to ourselves to do whatever the heck we wanted.  Naturally, we take a day at the beach--Haeundae, to be exact.  Not exactly the prettiest beach I've been to, as all the high rises surrounding the area kinda killed the atmosphere.  Not to mention the sand stuck to you, even if you tried washing it off.  But in the end, it was good innocent fun...even if the water was insanely cold.  I felt my feet going numb, for crying out loud!

The last notable bit from the weekend?  Bath house trip.  Quite amusing going in with a bunch of people who didn't know what exactly was going on (and frankly, neither did I until one of the attendants refreshed my memory).  Although--and I'm going to keep teasing him about this--my roommate didn't want to go into the bath itself, just the sauna (where they gave us robes to wear into the sauna area).  I guess he was a little weirded out at the prospect of completely disrobing to go in.

Wasn't going to stop me.  Screw it, I thought, I'm going in there by myself.  After the initial shock wore off, I found myself in a myriad of different baths...although whoever said a bath house was supposed to be relaxing was crazy.  So many little kids running around shooting their water guns and splashing around...I mean, I know it's a little early for me to be acting like a crotchety old man, but I couldn't relax with all that going on.  Maybe I was just cranky from a long day earlier on, but still...it wasn't exactly my idea of a relaxing end to the trip.

Oh heck, at least my camera's back in action.

Weekend Update

To tide you folks over until my head is clear enough to write a decent entry...

Got back from Busan just a little while ago.  Free day tomorrow, will blog then.  A damn shame my camera died on me while there and I left my charger in the dorms.  Not as many pictures this time around, though we'll see what we can do.

That is all.

The Friday Night Make-Good Edition

Many apologies for not posting the other night, but some friends and I spent quite a while trying to figure out 1) what we wanted to do, 2) figuring out how to do what we wanted to do, and 3) actually doing what we wanted to do.

What I'm referring to, of course, is going to Building 63.  What we didn't realize was that it was pretty far away from where we're used to (on the friggin' OTHER SIDE of the friggin' Han River), and that it was basically one of the places where all the big shots that can afford to toss around 50,000 won bills like spare change go.  We discovered a wax museum inside, though, where we found several recognizable figures made into wax--Obama, Kim Dae-jung, Mao Zedong, even Dracula and a recreation of Da Vinci's The Last Supper.  I forgot my camera this time, but suffice it to say, there was much amusement when Hao-Hua, Caroline, and Julie went inside the "haunted house."  (I have something against haunted houses--I waited patiently outside and laughed when they all came out spooked.)

But that was yesterday.  We took the train to Ulsan this morning and toured the Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard and the Hyundai auto plant.  (Photos weren't allowed in the shipyard/factory, and I'm going to download these photos to my computer when I get back to E-dae anyway, so...)  Much laughter ensued when Matt attempted to mimic the Price is Right models in the showroom, and even later when they made me do my announcer voice on the bus.

We also hiked to Seokgulam Grotto (석굴암 석굴), a "cave temple" (according to the back of my ticket).  Again, pictures to come, but suffice it to say, I think it's impossible to hate the world after coming back from that place.  Or heck, even any Buddhist temple, for that matter.  I could've spent the whole day there, but alas, we had to move on.  Plus, the weather was beginning to act up again.

Busan, the UN Cemetery, and the fish market are apparently on the agenda tomorrow.  Can't wait...

Also, as I forgot my camera charger in the dorms at E-dae, I can only hope my battery will hold up thru tomorrow and Sunday until I return.  Until then, I can't put any pictures up until I get back...and then I'll go back and put them back in.  If you folks behave.

I'm too tired to come up with a suitable title.

I keep saying that Korean movies could be really great if they didn't try to expound upon every single side plot and try (but usually fail) to reconnect it to the main plot. After watching Hwangsanbul (황산벌) for class, I maintain that point of view, and will add on the fact that I feel they invoked a "Forced Happy Ending" trope, which never sits well with me. If you're going to force something...well, never mind.

But after that, I had a heck of a day with some friends just walking all over Seoul. We took the subway to the City Hall station (시청역) and explored the one palace I hadn't yet had the chance to explore: Deoksugung (덕수궁). It's the smallest of the three palaces, and its...unique location right next to the bustling city provides a rather interesting, if a bit distracting, juxtaposition between traditional and modern. While the palace itself is a great example of the traditional era, you can see the skylines lined by the Seoul high-rise buildings:


And that's not even the main throne room, either. Apparently Sejong the Great lived in Deoksugung at one point, although they moved him out of there because it was too small. Something like that, I can't remember. I will say, though, that they tricked me while we were here...we heard traditional music coming from the main courtyard. I thought someone was actually playing, but it turns out it was a sound system all along. Sigh...

From Deoksugung, we made our way further down the street and found the smallest river I've ever seen. See? Look between the white dotted lines...



OK, so it's not really a river, but this pavement nuisance connects to what's called Cheonggyecheon (청계천), which eventually connects to the Han River a little further downstream. While the New Orleanian in me wanted to say it's a glorified, much better-looking version of the many canals in the city, it's also somewhat of a park, as tourists and residents (especially couples) like to walk along the riverbank. Further down from where it starts, it becomes more of a forest along a river:


We also saw a rather neat light/laser show as it was getting dark in the area.  (7/7 EDIT: You can, too, if you click here.)

From Cheonggyecheon, we actually caved and had the equivalent of the Korean McDonald's, called "Lotteria" (롯데리아, which is apparently headquartered in Japan--who knew?). Somehow, the taste of bulgogi while a burger didn't quite resonate with me...I suppose it could've been worse, the shrimp burger sounded even stranger. Suffice it to say there's better food out there (as if I needed to say that!), although this was just to say we did it.

After dinner we paraded down Sejong-ro, the main boulevard that eventually leads to Gyeongbokgung (the biggest palace in Seoul). Along the way, we found a giant statue of, naturally, King Sejong. What we didn't realize was that there was a huge museum underneath the statue. We also found a neat little corner where little kids could draw their dreams on little squares on paper, to be pasted to woodblocks and displayed on the walls, like so:


What we weren't expecting, however, was Matt (our token white guy) getting mobbed by a bunch of Korean schoolgirls. All of a sudden, he was the most popular guy in the room, taking pictures with all the girls!


Hey, I'm an American guy too! How come you aren't clamoring to take a picture with me?

...oh, that's why.

We taxied back to E-dae without much trouble (although I still wonder how Matt's taxi got there before mine did, considering he took the second one...but did he get the cheaper one?).

Although here's the thing about being a guy staying at a women's university: when you come through the gates at 10:30 at night, I suppose the guards automatically assume you're up to no good. They stopped me at the gate to verify that I was actually a student--I flashed the key card and was waved through without any problems, although that's not to say I was scared out of my wits during the brief moment I was stopped.

They don't regulate people this much at 'SC, lemme tell you!

Of Korean Dorm Life

Up until now, I realize I've never said anything about my living conditions while in Korea. They're homely, for sure. Although without the kind of wall decorations I have at 'SC to make it my true home away from home, it actually feels a bit more like an apartment in need of artistry. (Grey skies as of late don't help matters in that regard.)

Anyway, my dorm room itself is, if it weren't crooked, laid out in a similar way to my old dorm room my freshman year at 'SC. Even so, it's pretty similar, as you can see here, although note the glass door in the back leads to a small balcony (please excuse the mess my roommate and I have left in our exhausted wakes):



Also, we have something most of the dorms at 'SC don't have in our room: CENTRAL A/C! The problem (for me, anyway) is that my desk is positioned so that I'm conveniently situated directly under the vent, so whenever it's on I'm always the first to freeze. At least I know it works!

Unlike the dorms at 'SC, where communal bathrooms are common, we have our own, individual bathroom in the dorm room itself. It doesn't look like much, but it's convenient...



You'll notice there's a random shower head snaking out from the sink--this entire space also doubles as our shower stall. Hao-Hua was concerned about privacy, even though the glass wall is tempered to the point where it covers up *just enough*. Problem is, with our (read: his) relatively tall height, we can see over the top of the tempered part and into the back mirror (depending on how close to the glass we are). On the bright side, if we're showering, it usually fogs up the back mirror enough where it doesn't matter. Still...design fail? Perhaps.

Another thing that's a bother (but could lead to possible comedic gold): you turn the sink on, then pull up on a small button to activate the shower. There is, however, a design flaw in the way the shower is laid out. Most of the time, you turn the water off, the shower goes off with it. But if you're not careful, the next time you turn on the sink and expect water to come out the faucet, you might get blasted by the shower head instead. (I'm speaking from experience, can you tell?)

I will say the door locks gave us fits when we first moved in. We were given a four-digit combination to open our door. Problem is, when we got to the door, there was no keypad in sight! It took us about five minutes to figure out that you had to go from this...



...to this...



...punch in the combination, then shut the cover again for the door to open. And then on the other side of the door, it looks a bit like this:



The rectangular silver button just above the green switch unlocks the door. While you could just turn the dial at the bottom, pressing the button just makes it seem even cooler, like something out of a sci-fi movie. Makes lock technology in the dorms at 'SC seem pretty lame.

What is rather counter-intuitive, however, is the keycard access to get into the building. While I can understand scanning the card to get in, you also need to scan the card to get out. Which begs the question, why would you need your card to get out when they know you're already in the system? Wouldn't that be how you got into the building in the first place?

And then there's the visitor policy, which makes 'SC seem completely unregulated in that regard (probably because it is). They have a system of demerit points in the building that you can accrue to infractions in and around your hall. Got more than 10 demerits? You are the weakest link, goodbye. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

And you can get halfway there--5 points--simply by bringing a visitor to see your dorm (even if they're family). They didn't say anything about students visiting other students, thankfully--I can only assume that's okay. If they use any part of the dorm property, that's 10 points. If they stay overnight--significant other or not--you're gone. On the bright side, this would also mean that there's very little chance of locking your roommate out of your room whenever you and the significant other want a little "time to yourself." (I mean, it could happen, but given that the walls are pretty thin, you probably wouldn't want to chance it...) Although given that there don't appear to be what we would call RAs on the hall, I can only assume that the system is enforced by what essentially amounts to tattling on the offender(s).

Ladies and gentlemen, Korean dorm life.

Proof That The Sun Actually Exists

Classes started today. In and of itself, that really isn't anything special, especially since it felt like one of those cut-and-dry history classes. But don't listen to me right now, I'm kinda cranky and need some rest. I'll be surprised if I crash now and sleep all the way through the next morning.

But in any event, the sun actually came out for the first time this entire trip! (Not that two days is saying a whole lot, but still...)

Just...take a look. Stark contrast from the day before (these were taken just outside campus)...





And, later in the day, this one taken on top of the giant staircase.


We also got our official welcome wagon today from E-dae, nothing more than just dinner at a fancy restaurant. The culinary snob in me didn't think the food was anything terribly special, although we were rather amused by one particular side dish that tasted really good. The whole time, we had no idea what it was except for the fact that "it's a root of some kind." Take a look, it's the one in the top dish.

From the top and going clockwise: the mysterious root, kimchi, seasoned sesame leaf(?), bamboo shoots, unseasoned sesame leaf

And I mistakenly dumped a spoonful of sugar meant for coffee over the ice cream they gave us, although no one's supposed to know about that...

So I said yesterday that I felt that I hadn't epically failed at speaking Korean, yet. Well, fast forward to today when I meet my grandparents, and you'll discover that any confidence I once had is (was?) now completely gone. To any casual listener (if there were casual listeners), I must've sounded like a 5-year-old with a speech impediment, speaking in sentences too broken to fix. It also doesn't help that I speak very throaty and mumbly Korean, so I sound like someone yelling in a wind tunnel on top of that.

Anyway, I'm not sure I was making any sense at all when I talked to them, yet somehow (depending on what I was talking about) I managed to get through to them on a few things and left them (and me) utterly lost on most others.

But before that...we got a short tour of campus. And while it's much hillier than anything I've ever been used to, it also (to me, anyway) looks like something straight out of a postmodern Hogwarts.

From the castle walls...

...to the Forbidden Forest...

...there's something in the water if I'm making comparisons like that.

Exercises in Improvisation

Our first full day in Korea was spent walking, waiting, and changing plans over and over again. Is it any wonder I feel utterly exhausted at 8:00 pm?

My roommate, Hao-Hua, and I got up at 7 am and took a stroll around the front of Ewha (E-dae for short), where all the little shops and cafes are. The weather still hasn't improved from yesterday at all. It's muggy, rainy, and humid--in short, a meteorologist's worst nightmare. At least when we started walking, it wasn't too bad, though E-dae itself looked pretty spooky in the...fog? Smog? Haze? Whatever you call this:



We had breakfast in a small little cafe, grabbing some kimbap for 1,500 won per roll (less than $1.50!). The inner college students in us went ballistic--cheap food is good, but even better when it's cheap AND delicious at the same time. Even better, I actually spoke Korean competently! Score one for me...

...and then hold on, scratch everything, it's raining cats and dogs outside. Usually this would call for throwing caution to the wind and running for it, but when your destination is further than your sprint can take you AND down a very slippery hill or two, you change gears pretty quickly. My raincoat was soaked by the time we made it back inside.

So originally, we were supposed to take a bus tour of the city, but we called it off due to the weather. Then the plan was to see Transformers 3 at the nearby theater after lunch. But we were all saying, "no one comes all the way out to Korea to watch an American movie." After much waiting around in the subway station for our TA to get our subway passes (I suspect it was about an hour or so), we were--relieved that we finally had something resembling a plan--headed for Dongdaemun.

Of course, this is when the heavens decide to drop buckets of water on our heads, so we rushed into the nearest shopping center to keep dry while we could. While I'm sure the girls were delighted to get some quality shopping time (3 freakin' hours!), the Fantastic Four were...considerably less thrilled. Don't get me wrong, we were interested to see what they had to offer in the men's department. While I can't speak for the other three, I can safely say that I don't want to be caught dead in form-fitting pants, gaudy shoes, shirts with strings of English words that don't make any sense, or any piece of clothing with Angry Birds plastered all over it.

Also of particular note: the lone white man of our Fantastic Four, Matt, nearly gave one of the shopkeepers a heart attack when he spoke Korean to her. Commence hysteric laughter amongst the Americans.

At the top floor of the shopping center, though, was a small arcade tucked away in the corner nearest the movie theater, and Hao-Hua spent 2,000 won more than he was expecting in an effort to break the day's high score on the basketball game. (He did.)

Of course, what would a stay in Korea be without going to a barbeque dinner? This particular place was different from the ones we're used to in Los Angeles--it's basically a buffet. You pick the raw meat you want, take it to your table and cook it. Even the banchan (side dishes) are served buffet-style. Naturally, we all reeked of the stuff after we were done...I felt sorry for the people standing near us in the subway on the way back. It's a wonder the stench didn't kill anybody. Needless to say, when we got back to E-dae, I showered that out of my hair. Too bad I can't do the same with the searing pain in my feet.

Before I go, the obligatory group shot (taken by me, which is why I'm not in this one):