The title of this post means "Good man, bad man, strange man". It is the title of a movie that kind of parodies "The good the bad and the ugly" and stars one of my favorite Korean actors Song Kang Ho. You can find the entire movie on Youtube if you want to watch it. I titled my blog post this because today I want to talk about racism.
This weekend I was in Bundang visiting Justin like I seem to do on a regular basis. We decided that we would go to Gangnam and get some delicious pizza, which we have done several times before. We meet our friend Sammi Han in the subway and are lined up to get on the red line. As we are standing there in line, minding our own business, a man approaches Sammi. At first it looked like he was trying to hit on her. She is a good looking young woman and he approached with his phone out and open. He was wearing sunglasses (yes wearing sunglasses in the subway) and a sport jacket. He looked to be about fifty years old and was not really out of the ordinary for many Koreans you would see that were his age. I was able to follow some of the beginning of their conversation. He asked her if she spoke Korean, then if she was Korean, then if she was a student, then if she was dating us, then I lost the conversation. It was quite obvious from his tone and Sammis body language that she was uncomfortable with what he was saying. She relayed to us that he was being rude and was talking about us. He walked to the back of the line waiting to get on the subway car and said lots of curse words that I didn't understand. Justin and Sammi were kind of agitated saying "Dude, he is totally talking shit about us." "Let him talk." I said. It didn't really bother me if he was saying bad things about me that I couldn't understand. I would have really only had a problem if he had been up in my face or laid hands on someone. I did however feel my temperature start to rise. Right when I thought I might actually be angry, this guy tried to curse in English. "Fucking balls!" he said directing it towards us and thinking it was an insult. I lost it. It was probably the funniest thing I have ever heard a Korean say, add that to the nervous tension created by all the other Koreans around him and it made me laugh out loud. I imagine he didn't like that, but I dunno. On the subway car he sat on the other side and a seat row over and kept staring daggers at us. Sammi related that he had been telling her that she was a disgrace and that she shouldn't be friends with foreigners. I find this especially funny because she is from right outside Atlanta. He kept staring on and off for about twenty minutes or so and then decided it was his stop to get off. Instead of exiting the door next to him he walked past and towards us. I thought he was going to try spitting or something but instead he walked past and said "Dirty" to Sammi. He exited the subway car and I didn't see him walk away, so I was prepared for him to throw something or shout something right when the doors were closing. Instead he waited till the doors closed and walked up to the window opposite us. He held up his camera to take a video, then gave us the finger. I am like ninety percent sure he wanted us to give him the finger back so that he could post it to some website and make a big deal about how foreigners are trash. Instead I smiled and waved hello to him. It was a dark subway, so if he does post it, he will just have me waving at him with a reflection in the background of him giving me the finger. We met up with Albert, Sammis boyfriend, at the pizza place and he made some comments about how he would have smashed the guys phone or gone looking for him, but that is not an option for Justin and myself in a country who will deport you in half a second.
We laughed and we joked about this because in all honesty it was more funny than scary. It is a good story to tell people, and honestly makes me a lot more empathetic to those at home in Texas who have to deal with racism on a daily basis. The one thing that we talked about though that does seem to stick with me is the reaction of the crowd. Not a single person said anything. There were maybe eight other Koreans in line behind us and not a single one of them said anything. Why? I think there are a few reasons. One, Korea is a pretty homogenized nation and honestly why would you side with some foreigners when you could side with your own people? I think that is the worst explanation. Two, crowd mentality. It wasn't a situation that was directly affecting anyone in that line so why get involved in a conflict that isn't yours to be involved in? Especially if the dude who is starting it is an ignorant belligerent ass hat. I think this is a good explanation but it has one serious flaw, at one point the dude who was cursing kind of nudged the guy in front of him and was like "ya know what I mean?" and the guy in front of him who was much younger but had maybe half a foot in height on me was like "yeah, yeah, sure." If there was any time for anyone to stand up to this guy it would have been when he was soliciting public opinion on the matter of "the dirty foreigners at the front of the line scandal." The third and I think most plausible explanation is Confuscianism. Simply put it is outside of Confuscian standards to even talk to a stranger without reason, much less arguing with a stranger that is older than you. Add in all those other factors and it really is no surprise why that happened. As white people me and Justin would have had no problem telling this guy to go to hell back in America if we saw him picking on some foreigners, and in fact if you go back in my blog you can see instances where I have stood up to Westerners looking like jackasses on a regular basis. It is different here in Korea though. Sammi even said later "I wanted to tell him to stop saying these things but it would have been weird to use that tone with an elder." Granted Sammi is as sweet as a big piece of Georgia Peach Cobbler, but if the girl who is being targeted by the verbal attacks can't even say something, what makes you think that six or seven people who don't even know us and will never see us again want to get involved. Especially because they were even younger than us. I have seen drunk old men on a bus shout obscenities at the busdriver and no one but the old mans wife has even tried to stop him. I have seen babies cry and cry and cry on a bus and no one say a single word. This is a society built around non-interference. You respect your own social responsibilities and most of the time that means turning a blind eye to some sort of conflict or situation.
All of this being said I think it is pure cowardice to not stand up to someone like that. I am only saying I understand the rationale behind the cowardice, not that I agree with their actions. Also I would like to point out here that this is basically the first time someone like that has reared their ugly head in such an obvious way around me.
Now, a conflicting point of view that I want to bring to light. Watch this video to compare it to what I am talking about. If you can't watch it I will give you a brief synopsis. Girls line up to see a band. They are very enthusiastic. At the very end of the video one comes forward and smacks the girl holding the camera. Since I assume you don't understand Korean I will do a little basic translating for you "Hajimaaaaaaa" means "Stooooooop." What the Korean girls are saying from about forty seconds on is basically yelling at this girl to stop taking pictures. Then the girl goes over and films someone who has been knocked over several times (the first time she goes down is 0:38). Korean girls don't like their picture being taken in general much less by a stranger on the street who is seeming to be delighted by their misfortune. Is it right that the girl came out and slapped her? Of course not. Surely you can see how one is provoked where as ours is just some random guy coming up and trying to start an argument. In this case I side with Korea. There is a difference between being an obnoxious foreigner and just being a foreigner. Often times the difference is subtle, but it revolves around observing and understanding the culture and the language, and most importantly, knowing your place in the hierarchy. I am sure if we would have returned a volley of curse words then public opinion would have been in his favor quite quickly. The weekend was capped off with Michael giving me some examples of things that translate but don't translate. This guy Danny who lives above me has a Korean girlfriend and the other day he joking told her to shut-up. She was shocked and had one of those sharp intake of breath moments. Also I have heard this before but apparently he had not, that the word crazy here is like rather taboo. In America if you call someone retarded it is quite the insult and has a lot of stigma. Crazy is that same way here. Apparently Danny said it and his girlfriend was like "that is NOT something that you call your girlfriend." Those stories are just little examples but they bring a point, some words have different meanings within the same language if you were to just go from country to country, some words have vastly different meanings even though the literal translation is the same from one language to another. Over here they sort of throw around the word "pervert" very jokingly, but at the same time they are much more relaxed about the idea of perverts even existing. The other day I was giving out stickers as four middle school girls stood next to me and rubbed my arm hair. Two years ago I would have been totally freaked out by that and noped right out of the situation. Now it happens so often and to so many foreigners across the board that it doesn't bother me. Even some of the other teachers have done it. Back in America you would never dream of hugging a high school student. Over here teachers and students hug the hell out of each other. Back home if you complimented a man you could be mistaken for being gay. Over here you can walk down the middle of the street holding hands with a dude while you both carry rainbow umbrellas and pick the little falling flower blossoms out of each others hair and no one would even look twice. It is just a different culture with different standards and you kind of have to feel your way through it. I am sure there are much better examples of this but I am in a bit of a rush so forgive me.
I want to conclude this by saying for every one old racist dude I have met on the subway, I have met 1,000 excellent and beautifully minded Koreans who struggle every day to learn our language and our culture simply because they are wonderful and curious people. I need look no further than my own co-teachers to find examples of wonderful individuals, and even in the last week I have made knew Korean friends that I am excited about getting to know.
Since this post was a little heavy I am going to leave you with a trailer for that movie ;) Check it out. The director recently made his American debut and it is just a generally well done film.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Maroon 5
So, like I was saying earlier, a lot has happened in the last year. I will try and hit some of the bigger points. They won't be chronological as much as they will be stream of thought so bear with me.
I was able to take Phillipa to her first concert. She had mentioned to me that she had never been to a concert before and I like giving special things for birthdays. I am not the greatest gift giver in terms of remembering, so I try and make sure that when I do give a gift it is a good one. She had previously mentioned to me how much she liked the band Maroon 5 and I found out that they were coming right around the time of her birthday. I decided I would try and surprise her by buying the tickets and then springing it on her but she would have none of it. It was hard enough to convince her to go to the concert.
The week of the concert finally approached (mid September) and we spent it preparing. Well, I did. I looked up setlists and listened to all their hits that I could remember and tried generally to prepare myself for the experience. It is always way more fun to go into a show knowing the songs and being able to sing along than it is to just sort of sit there like "Is this one new? No? Nevermind." I was fully prepared by the time we went to Seoul on Saturday.
The way a Korean show happens is vastly different to America. First of all it was outside near the Olympic stadium. In the distance we could see the stadium where the LG Twins and the Doosan Bears play. A game had just taken place earlier in the night, so the area was totally packed with people. We went to where the concert was supposed to be and after checking our tickets we were let into a holding area. It was a completely general admission concert, but you had to pick which area you wanted to stand in. There were four areas total. We were in the back area which turned out to be a fantastic idea because the tickets were cheaper and the view was still good. In the holding area though you were basically put into lines about four people wide and forty deep. There were easily twenty of those. When the time came ushers would come up to your line and ask you to move into the general admission seating. By the time we got settled in our area it was turning into dusk. The concert stage was a little unimpressive by my standards but still nice.
The opening group went on and were not so great. I can't even remember who they were. They claimed that they had some radio hit, but I didn't recognize it. The lead singer looked like Jesse from Breaking Bad, so that was entertaining enough to make jokes about. When we went over to get drinks the difference between American and Korean concerts became apparent. The beers were about four dollars and were the equivalent of 16oz cans. In America you would have paid more for less beer. Maybe about 8 or 9 dollars for a 16oz cup. Also the lines in Korea moved very fast, considering there was only one place I could see that was actually selling beer. We got our beers and went back for the end of the opening group and had time to just sort of sit around. It was funny taking Phillipa because she just sort of had no idea how concerts work. She expected Maroon 5 to go on stage right after the opening band got off. I told her that they had to switch instruments, make sure everything was tuned and working then prime the audience a bit. I also had to explain to her that when they finish, the band will walk offstage then come back to play the encore. She was so lucky to have such a handsome knowledgeable man accompany her to the show.
When Maroon 5 came out they did not disappoint. I had seen them play live on television and it was obvious they were well practiced. They were able to improvise and were very good showman as well as being very good musicians. Adam Levines first words to the crowd were the traditional Korean greeting of "Annyeong haseyo!" and the Koreans exploded when he said it. Even though it is only one word, I am glad he took the time to learn it. He made a point during the concert of complimenting them on being one of his favorite crowds because, as he said, "you sing along to every one of my songs" and it's true. They did. For a country whose first language is not English they sure did know a lot of English songs. They were very into it and just generally had a good energy. In Korea they like to do this thing where they bring colored sticks or ears or wands and wave them around or wear them. If you look at the video I post at the end you will be able to see. It really gives the crowd a personality of it's own. When Maroon 5 finished their set they said thank you and goodnight and went off stage. The audience started chanting "Encore! Encore! Encore" but the cute thing was that they were mispronouncing it. They were all saying "Incore! Incore! Incore!" Instead of lighters they were all waving their glowing sticks around. Maroon 5 came back out and played a couple of their best songs then just as quickly went away again. The concert was a good experience and I think Phillipa enjoyed it just as much as I did if not more. On a scale of 1-10 I would give it about a 7 or an 8.
Here is my favorite song from the Maroon 5 concert. This video was filmed from about right where I was and is much better quality than the one I have on my facebook page.
I was able to take Phillipa to her first concert. She had mentioned to me that she had never been to a concert before and I like giving special things for birthdays. I am not the greatest gift giver in terms of remembering, so I try and make sure that when I do give a gift it is a good one. She had previously mentioned to me how much she liked the band Maroon 5 and I found out that they were coming right around the time of her birthday. I decided I would try and surprise her by buying the tickets and then springing it on her but she would have none of it. It was hard enough to convince her to go to the concert.
The week of the concert finally approached (mid September) and we spent it preparing. Well, I did. I looked up setlists and listened to all their hits that I could remember and tried generally to prepare myself for the experience. It is always way more fun to go into a show knowing the songs and being able to sing along than it is to just sort of sit there like "Is this one new? No? Nevermind." I was fully prepared by the time we went to Seoul on Saturday.
The way a Korean show happens is vastly different to America. First of all it was outside near the Olympic stadium. In the distance we could see the stadium where the LG Twins and the Doosan Bears play. A game had just taken place earlier in the night, so the area was totally packed with people. We went to where the concert was supposed to be and after checking our tickets we were let into a holding area. It was a completely general admission concert, but you had to pick which area you wanted to stand in. There were four areas total. We were in the back area which turned out to be a fantastic idea because the tickets were cheaper and the view was still good. In the holding area though you were basically put into lines about four people wide and forty deep. There were easily twenty of those. When the time came ushers would come up to your line and ask you to move into the general admission seating. By the time we got settled in our area it was turning into dusk. The concert stage was a little unimpressive by my standards but still nice.
The opening group went on and were not so great. I can't even remember who they were. They claimed that they had some radio hit, but I didn't recognize it. The lead singer looked like Jesse from Breaking Bad, so that was entertaining enough to make jokes about. When we went over to get drinks the difference between American and Korean concerts became apparent. The beers were about four dollars and were the equivalent of 16oz cans. In America you would have paid more for less beer. Maybe about 8 or 9 dollars for a 16oz cup. Also the lines in Korea moved very fast, considering there was only one place I could see that was actually selling beer. We got our beers and went back for the end of the opening group and had time to just sort of sit around. It was funny taking Phillipa because she just sort of had no idea how concerts work. She expected Maroon 5 to go on stage right after the opening band got off. I told her that they had to switch instruments, make sure everything was tuned and working then prime the audience a bit. I also had to explain to her that when they finish, the band will walk offstage then come back to play the encore. She was so lucky to have such a handsome knowledgeable man accompany her to the show.
When Maroon 5 came out they did not disappoint. I had seen them play live on television and it was obvious they were well practiced. They were able to improvise and were very good showman as well as being very good musicians. Adam Levines first words to the crowd were the traditional Korean greeting of "Annyeong haseyo!" and the Koreans exploded when he said it. Even though it is only one word, I am glad he took the time to learn it. He made a point during the concert of complimenting them on being one of his favorite crowds because, as he said, "you sing along to every one of my songs" and it's true. They did. For a country whose first language is not English they sure did know a lot of English songs. They were very into it and just generally had a good energy. In Korea they like to do this thing where they bring colored sticks or ears or wands and wave them around or wear them. If you look at the video I post at the end you will be able to see. It really gives the crowd a personality of it's own. When Maroon 5 finished their set they said thank you and goodnight and went off stage. The audience started chanting "Encore! Encore! Encore" but the cute thing was that they were mispronouncing it. They were all saying "Incore! Incore! Incore!" Instead of lighters they were all waving their glowing sticks around. Maroon 5 came back out and played a couple of their best songs then just as quickly went away again. The concert was a good experience and I think Phillipa enjoyed it just as much as I did if not more. On a scale of 1-10 I would give it about a 7 or an 8.
Here is my favorite song from the Maroon 5 concert. This video was filmed from about right where I was and is much better quality than the one I have on my facebook page.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
One year later
Hello friends, family and everyone else.
It has been exactly one year to the day since I have posted on my blog. I assure you it was not planned this way. Today I was reading someone elses blog and figured I should start mine up again. I didn't realize it had been a full year already, but I guess it makes sense.
The past year has been... strange. I guess I should take you through all aspects of my life to see how they have changed. We will do it in typical Korean form.
"How old are you?" I am now 30 years old. It really doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me because I was 30 years old Korean age when I first got over here, so I have kind of been thirty for the last two years.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Now? I don't know. I will say yes and leave it at that. Phillipa may be on the other side of the world, but she would still be just as angry if I wrote about her in my blog.
"How tall are you?" Still the same height.
"You... suyom... good." Thank you, I like my beard also.
"What is your favorite singer?" Well, I really like 2ne1 just like I did this time last year, but I have really started to like this Korean American K-pop star called Ailee, and a girl who is brand new called Lee Hi. If you want I can post their videos at the bottom, since they are both incredible singers.
"Can you speak Korean?" Well that's a good question. I still am not fluent by a long shot, but I can definitely speak a lot better than I could one year ago. In fact, just today I learned how to say: "Everyday I practice Korean, but I still can't speak it." I think my big breaks in learning Korean were the fact that around summer time I made myself a bunch of flashcards, so now I know about 90 Korean verbs, and that after Christmas break I got myself a Korean tutor. My Korean tutor is my favorite co-teacher Jo Eun A, who I have spoken so highly of in the past. She sits patiently with me while we listen to "Talk To Me In Korean" and I write every Korean sample sentence that they say, then she corrects my spelling and laughs at me. :) My spelling is what needs the most work, as my vocabulary and grammar are actually not that bad. The real test is when I come back from my lesson and Phillipa says "Oh that thing you just learned how to spell, write it to me!" I always fail that test.
"Where are you from?" Texas... still Texas, but if you want to ask where I am from in Korea I will tell you that I am still from the same town Gamgok. It is a completely different town from when I first moved here and met the other Texan, and the Scotsman, and the South African girl. Of that group of the original four, I am the only one still here. In fact, of the people that I mentioned anywhere in any of my blogs previous, I am the only one still in my county. At a year and a half of experience I am by a full year the most experience person living in Eumseong-gun and have now been given the position of Regional Moderator, which is really just a fancy way of saying that I run a training meeting a month. If I had written an entry one month ago there would have been four people who had been here for two years and Phillipa would have been finishing up her third. To think it was about this time in her experience that she met me. A strange thought indeed. Since that time they have added a new position for a TaLK scholar and have gotten a new Hagwon teacher in the town of Janghowon. So I will take you through a quick rundown of the people in my town.
Nate, the Texan, stayed here about a year then moved to Cheongju where he is now a Hagwon teacher. We still keep in touch and he has come back a couple of times. He was replaced by Michael, a very young Korean American from Hawaii. Michael is a good time. He likes to go out and get a bite to eat or go grab a beer. He is really into Reddit and video games and movies and K-pop so me and him get along perfectly. It is nice to see him growing up before my eyes by learning to love beer, getting a tattoo and having a serious girlfriend who got too clingy so he had to dump. He actually hangs out with Nate a lot in Cheongju. He has a good since of humor and is the kind of guy who tries to not offend anyone. Sometimes that actually makes people offended, but as he grows up more he will learn that sometimes those things just happen. Sorry if I sound a little preachy here, I just like the kid and think he has a lot of promise.
Shaneel, the South African who was dating Nate, moved to Cheongju after half a year and they kind of stopped talking. I talked to her a bit and hung out with her a couple of times since then, but once you move to the city, it's kind of hard to bring yourself around to coming back to Gamgok. She dated an Englishman for awhile and I still see him around. Nice fella. She now lives in South Africa. When she left Cris Boronat moved in, and she was dating this guy named Tim who I saw a lot of who lived in Muguk. They were total hippie animal lovers who had hearts of gold. They finished a year and moved to a city outside Daejeon. Last time I heard they had one dog, but I think at one time it was up to three?
Graham finished up his second year here and decided he couldn't do another in the small town, so he made his way to Cheongju like Nate. Whenever I go and visit Graham I always see Nate also. Graham is now living in the town as two of my other English friends and it seems like they have a pretty good network of people living there. It's tempting to think that if I moved there I would already have a social circle set up. When Graham and Cris left they were replaced by a couple from rural Pennsylvania called Jess and Jeff. It is strange being in a town with five foreigners and one of them shares your name. It is also strange having a large beer drinking chain smoking Scotsman who swears like a sailor be replaced with these two soft spoken youngins who don't drink at all, but they are good people so far and I am looking forward to getting to know them.
The new TaLK scholar position was first filled by a Korean Canadian named Daniel Kim. He didn't live in our building but instead lived out at the school where he worked. He was ok with it. The school and the teachers liked him. He liked to come into town and drink and eat with us. Much fun was had. After him was Julie Jang. She was awesome. Another Korean Canadian. She was fluent in Korean and lived at the school also. Living out there kind of drove her crazy, but she would come into town and hang out with me and Phillipa a lot. I liked her so much. She was very quiet, but once she opened up was really funny. Also, there is something awesome about a chick who can sing K-pop songs because she has a good voice and she is fluent in Korean. She was so much fun to noraebang with. Now at her school is a man named Danny Kwak. He is Korean American and 31 years old. He was a lawyer back in LA and is over here to see if he likes teaching and to try and learn a lot of Korean. He is a really musical guy and I am looking forward to hanging out with him a lot more. He is totally laid back and rather chill to talk to. Him, Michael and myself often go out to get a bite to eat or a beer or something on Wednesdays or another day of the week.
Matt is the Hagwon teacher in Janghowon. He is a Canadian and has been here about six months now. He likes to go out and drink and eat and noraebang and all that good stuff. He has a giant black dog named Alfie who is very well behaved and rather cute. He is seriously committed to learning Korean and I think our skills are at about the same level, but he may be better than me already. Matt is dating a girl named EB who is just as sweet as she is Korean, and by that I mean 100% on both. She works a lot and is in another city entirely so we don't get to see her much, but she is a very very sweet girl.
K-pop surrounds me in this country. Music has always been a hobby of mine, and trivia has been a hobby especially, so when I came to a country where I knew none of the music I quickly tried to immerse myself. Over the past year since I wrote this, K-pop exploded around the world with Psy's smash "Gangnam Style" which got so overplayed here I wanted to gouge my own eardrum out, but luckily the days of Psy are over. So, as promised, here is the video for Lee Hi called "1,2,3,4" and you can tell she has a very soulful voice which is awesome. Also here is the video for Ailee called "I'll show you". My favorite part about that video is pretty much... well... everything. These are two of my favorite new artists, though Ailee is not so new. Anyway, enjoy and I will regale you with more tales of the past year when I return later this week or next.
It has been exactly one year to the day since I have posted on my blog. I assure you it was not planned this way. Today I was reading someone elses blog and figured I should start mine up again. I didn't realize it had been a full year already, but I guess it makes sense.
The past year has been... strange. I guess I should take you through all aspects of my life to see how they have changed. We will do it in typical Korean form.
"How old are you?" I am now 30 years old. It really doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me because I was 30 years old Korean age when I first got over here, so I have kind of been thirty for the last two years.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Now? I don't know. I will say yes and leave it at that. Phillipa may be on the other side of the world, but she would still be just as angry if I wrote about her in my blog.
"How tall are you?" Still the same height.
"You... suyom... good." Thank you, I like my beard also.
"What is your favorite singer?" Well, I really like 2ne1 just like I did this time last year, but I have really started to like this Korean American K-pop star called Ailee, and a girl who is brand new called Lee Hi. If you want I can post their videos at the bottom, since they are both incredible singers.
"Can you speak Korean?" Well that's a good question. I still am not fluent by a long shot, but I can definitely speak a lot better than I could one year ago. In fact, just today I learned how to say: "Everyday I practice Korean, but I still can't speak it." I think my big breaks in learning Korean were the fact that around summer time I made myself a bunch of flashcards, so now I know about 90 Korean verbs, and that after Christmas break I got myself a Korean tutor. My Korean tutor is my favorite co-teacher Jo Eun A, who I have spoken so highly of in the past. She sits patiently with me while we listen to "Talk To Me In Korean" and I write every Korean sample sentence that they say, then she corrects my spelling and laughs at me. :) My spelling is what needs the most work, as my vocabulary and grammar are actually not that bad. The real test is when I come back from my lesson and Phillipa says "Oh that thing you just learned how to spell, write it to me!" I always fail that test.
"Where are you from?" Texas... still Texas, but if you want to ask where I am from in Korea I will tell you that I am still from the same town Gamgok. It is a completely different town from when I first moved here and met the other Texan, and the Scotsman, and the South African girl. Of that group of the original four, I am the only one still here. In fact, of the people that I mentioned anywhere in any of my blogs previous, I am the only one still in my county. At a year and a half of experience I am by a full year the most experience person living in Eumseong-gun and have now been given the position of Regional Moderator, which is really just a fancy way of saying that I run a training meeting a month. If I had written an entry one month ago there would have been four people who had been here for two years and Phillipa would have been finishing up her third. To think it was about this time in her experience that she met me. A strange thought indeed. Since that time they have added a new position for a TaLK scholar and have gotten a new Hagwon teacher in the town of Janghowon. So I will take you through a quick rundown of the people in my town.
Nate, the Texan, stayed here about a year then moved to Cheongju where he is now a Hagwon teacher. We still keep in touch and he has come back a couple of times. He was replaced by Michael, a very young Korean American from Hawaii. Michael is a good time. He likes to go out and get a bite to eat or go grab a beer. He is really into Reddit and video games and movies and K-pop so me and him get along perfectly. It is nice to see him growing up before my eyes by learning to love beer, getting a tattoo and having a serious girlfriend who got too clingy so he had to dump. He actually hangs out with Nate a lot in Cheongju. He has a good since of humor and is the kind of guy who tries to not offend anyone. Sometimes that actually makes people offended, but as he grows up more he will learn that sometimes those things just happen. Sorry if I sound a little preachy here, I just like the kid and think he has a lot of promise.
Shaneel, the South African who was dating Nate, moved to Cheongju after half a year and they kind of stopped talking. I talked to her a bit and hung out with her a couple of times since then, but once you move to the city, it's kind of hard to bring yourself around to coming back to Gamgok. She dated an Englishman for awhile and I still see him around. Nice fella. She now lives in South Africa. When she left Cris Boronat moved in, and she was dating this guy named Tim who I saw a lot of who lived in Muguk. They were total hippie animal lovers who had hearts of gold. They finished a year and moved to a city outside Daejeon. Last time I heard they had one dog, but I think at one time it was up to three?
Graham finished up his second year here and decided he couldn't do another in the small town, so he made his way to Cheongju like Nate. Whenever I go and visit Graham I always see Nate also. Graham is now living in the town as two of my other English friends and it seems like they have a pretty good network of people living there. It's tempting to think that if I moved there I would already have a social circle set up. When Graham and Cris left they were replaced by a couple from rural Pennsylvania called Jess and Jeff. It is strange being in a town with five foreigners and one of them shares your name. It is also strange having a large beer drinking chain smoking Scotsman who swears like a sailor be replaced with these two soft spoken youngins who don't drink at all, but they are good people so far and I am looking forward to getting to know them.
The new TaLK scholar position was first filled by a Korean Canadian named Daniel Kim. He didn't live in our building but instead lived out at the school where he worked. He was ok with it. The school and the teachers liked him. He liked to come into town and drink and eat with us. Much fun was had. After him was Julie Jang. She was awesome. Another Korean Canadian. She was fluent in Korean and lived at the school also. Living out there kind of drove her crazy, but she would come into town and hang out with me and Phillipa a lot. I liked her so much. She was very quiet, but once she opened up was really funny. Also, there is something awesome about a chick who can sing K-pop songs because she has a good voice and she is fluent in Korean. She was so much fun to noraebang with. Now at her school is a man named Danny Kwak. He is Korean American and 31 years old. He was a lawyer back in LA and is over here to see if he likes teaching and to try and learn a lot of Korean. He is a really musical guy and I am looking forward to hanging out with him a lot more. He is totally laid back and rather chill to talk to. Him, Michael and myself often go out to get a bite to eat or a beer or something on Wednesdays or another day of the week.
Matt is the Hagwon teacher in Janghowon. He is a Canadian and has been here about six months now. He likes to go out and drink and eat and noraebang and all that good stuff. He has a giant black dog named Alfie who is very well behaved and rather cute. He is seriously committed to learning Korean and I think our skills are at about the same level, but he may be better than me already. Matt is dating a girl named EB who is just as sweet as she is Korean, and by that I mean 100% on both. She works a lot and is in another city entirely so we don't get to see her much, but she is a very very sweet girl.
K-pop surrounds me in this country. Music has always been a hobby of mine, and trivia has been a hobby especially, so when I came to a country where I knew none of the music I quickly tried to immerse myself. Over the past year since I wrote this, K-pop exploded around the world with Psy's smash "Gangnam Style" which got so overplayed here I wanted to gouge my own eardrum out, but luckily the days of Psy are over. So, as promised, here is the video for Lee Hi called "1,2,3,4" and you can tell she has a very soulful voice which is awesome. Also here is the video for Ailee called "I'll show you". My favorite part about that video is pretty much... well... everything. These are two of my favorite new artists, though Ailee is not so new. Anyway, enjoy and I will regale you with more tales of the past year when I return later this week or next.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Jeon Chingu. Chingu Apsoyo
"The police have been called, they are on their way. Seriously, you should get out of here before they show up! They don't appreciate people acting like you are acting in Korea." I said to the blonde haired saffer I had just met in the bar. "Dancing is not allowed here and I have notified the authorities." She didn't seem that scared. Maybe it was because we shared the same circle of friends somehow. Graham, Justin and myself had found ourselves yet again at "The Goldfish." A fine establishment where you could go for a few pitchers and Jaeger bombs. In almost a repeat of two weeks ago we had gone from "Geckos Terrace" to "The Wolfhound" to "The Goldfish" in Itaewon. I had needed to buy shoes for about a month or two now, and with the weather turning nice all of a sudden, I felt that this was the weekend to do it. I went to Itaewon at about noon on Saturday and had to walk around the market there looking for bigger sizes. My shoe size is 13 American, so I had to go in, get a staffer and say "What do you have in size 13?" then weigh my options. I found one that I liked, but the guy said "97K won." "Can you give me a discount?" "I already did man, 30 percent off." Knowing the art of the deal I said, "That's too much, I need to think about it, hold these shoes for about thirty minutes and if I don't find anything better I will come back." "Why even go? You won't find anything better." I wish he hadn't been so right. I found nothing. I was back within twenty and paying the price he asked. "Hey man! Back so soon?" he said, rubbing it in a bit. I did get a nice pair of size thirteen Nikes. The only problem is that they were ghost white, so of course I almost immediately scuffed them.
After the shoe purchase I made my way to Gecko's terrace where I waited for Justin. He had wanted to try the food there, and I hadn't had western food in... I don't even know. We sat around drinking some Red Rock beer and eventually met up with Graham, who had just the previous night been in Cheongju, but is famous for going to sleep in one town and waking up in another. While I was sitting at the bar alone, this foreigner (American I'm assuming, mostly because he was an asshat) came up to the bar. "Hey! Yogyo! Can I get some darts from you?" "Yes. Ten thousand." "I don't have any cash, just my card." "I'm sorry, it's a rule." "Dude, I'm not gonna steal your darts. Just charge my tab." "I'm sorry, cash. It's rule." "Yeah, just mark it on my tab." "Nono. Sorry." "This is ridiculous. Let me speak to your boss." (Girl comes over) "Yeah, can I get the darts, and just pay for them on my tab." "I'm sorry, the rule is cash for darts." "Yo. I'm not gonna steal your fucking darts. I'm gonna stay right here and use them. This is ridiculous. What do you want something for them? Here let me give you this. (I didn't see what it was because I didn't want to make eye contact with that ass.) This is very important to me and I wont leave without it." "Let me ask." "Yeah, go ask your boss." (Guy comes over) "Hey, look. You have my Visa. That's all I have. I don't have cash. I'm going to spend lots of money here. Just let me borrow the darts. I'll buy them. You can charge me for the darts on my card. I'm not gonna leave without the Visa. Bring me over a slip of paper and I'll sign something saying that you can charge me for the darts." It was stupid. Eventually they let him have them as an exception and he goes to play, loudly saying how ridiculous it was that he had to pay for the darts. Justin and Graham show up and we order some food. The food was good. I had not had chicken fingers in forever, and they were quite delicious. The darts guy from earlier comes over and starts talking to us about basketball and how awesome he is. Says something about how I look sad (it was because I shut down conversationally around people that I want to tell to go F themselves) and about how it is so hard to understand Graham with his Scottish accent. This dude has some conversations with other people (which make them get up and leave the bar altogether) and comes back to us before asking for darts again and getting turned down due to a "shift change" that was about to happen. Luckily this makes him so upset that he leaves. We had already settled up to leave because he was there, so we head to the Wolfhound.
The Wolfhound was pretty uneventful and after that we headed to the Goldfish. That's where we met up with a whole mess of saffers. They were really nice, and one of them lived out in the boonies just like me. I had them teach me how to say sweet things in Afrikaans to you know who. Surprisingly that didn't go over very well. Not really sure why, but I'm not exactly sweating it. It was someones birthday, and we bantered and partied for a couple of hours. I like that bar because they play a lot of the same music I listened to back home. It's almost like a top 40 hip hop station. I was able to sing and rap along with most of the stuff being played. Later on in the night they usually get that girl to sing open mic style, but this time she had a guitarist. I remember him playing a version of "Hotel California" and even an acoustic version of "Stairway to heaven." He even rocked my world with "Oye como va." It was a good night and I was in a good social mood. Eventually Chico showed up and we hung out a bit more. Chico was telling me about his friend who had really good grades in school, but through talking to Graham and other foreigners how much better Chicos English had gotten than his friends. Justin and myself left after a bit, because we were given the promise of noraebang in Bundang.
When we finally got out there, it was pretty late. I don't really remember what time, but it must have been closer to 1 or 2. Perhaps even later, because we basically took a taxi across the entire city of Seoul. We went to the bar Dublin's that our friend Aureum owns. We had maybe two beers. Most of the time we were there I was talking to Aureums father, Monticello. What a nice guy! She speaks pretty much perfect English, and taught herself. He speaks English very very well, and I think he was saying he taught himself also. We had a conversation about Korean dialects and he taught me a little bit of Korean, but by that point I wasn't going to be learning a whole lot. He told me all about how Aureums sister wanted to pursue ballet, and how Aureum fought for her to be able to pursue her dream. It sounded like he has a real soft spot for both of his daughters. I liked that guy. We stayed until closing time at five and helped her move all the people out of the bar.
It is here that the story starts to get interesting. We went for a little late night snack at a Kimbap place on the other side of the station from her bar. I need to get some money and a bottle of water, so I walked across the street. I see a random Korean depart from his group and move towards me and shout something back to them. I am half defensive at this point, because it is about six in the morning, and I am walking alone. "Hello. I am June Gunn and I am going to America in a couple of months. Can I practice speaking English with you?" Crazy. I feel like I am going to be mugged and it turns out it's just a kid who wants to speak English. After exchanging numbers we part ways and I am sitting outside the kimbap place drinking my water. I go inside, and as I do I pass this Korean college kid. I sit down at the table, and right as I do, that same college kid kicks the window on the side of the store. He pout a hole in it about the size of a baseball. It turns out while I was outside he had come in to get kimbap and had thought my friends were laughing at him. He went up to them and was like "You got a problem?" then was escorted out by his friend. As he walked by I guess he saw us laughing and just got mad and kicked the window. There was glass all over the place. The poor lady who owned the store called 112 and the police came out to see what happened. They went in the direction of the guy but soon returned as he was probably long gone.
As we are sitting there talking to the police, explaining what happened, this random drunk college kid in a white hat comes across and sits down next to me. He mentions something about girls and about facebook and tries to talk to me, but he can't really hold much of a conversation. When we are done talking to the police, we get up to leave, and he gets up also. At first it is kind of funny, like "hey look at the drunk guy" kind of funny. We go towards the noraebang and he keeps trying to hold on to peoples arms. Every time he does we have to push his hand away and then he goes to someone else. It is apparent by the time we get to the noraebang that he is not going to leave us alone, so we don't go into the noraebang, we change directions. He changes directions also and follows us. We tell him in no uncertain terms that he needs to stay there, and he doesn't listen. The girls, who are fluent in Korean, tell him that he needs to leave us alone and he doesn't. We head towards the taxis, saying that we are going to call it a night, and he heads towards the taxis also. We get one, and a couple of people get in, and he tries to get in also. We argue with him and eventually I get out my phone and start shooting video. The point of this was two fold. First, if the cops did come, which they might the way this was going, they would need video evidence that we never touched him and that he wouldn't leave us alone. Second, people who know they are being video-taped seem to act like jack asses a lot less. Once he realized I was filming him, he tried to snatch my phone, tried to cover his face, tried to take pictures of us, but what he stopped doing was focusing on the girls, and he stopped trying to be all arm in arm with people. I have a good ten minutes of him in an argument with us (none of which I can even understand) until some guys around our age showed up and talked to him. They basically kept him there while we walked away. The cops had already been called by that point, so when they showed up we met them. One of them spoke perfect English and mentioned that he had spent time in America. Upon talking to the drunk guy it was revealed that his story was "They hit me" and ours was "This creep won't stop following us." The other group of guys vouched for us and the cops took his phone so that they could delete the pictures. There was a very surreal moment when the older of the two cops had his phone, where he tried to take it back, and the cop had to run away from him while the drunk guy chased after him. He was putting hands all over the cop and I just couldn't help but think "If this were America, he would have been pepper sprayed, tazed, slammed on the ground and handcuffed." This guy wasn't even arrested. He was pretty much just given a ride home by the officers and we all got in our respective cabs and left. It was quite a shitty end to an evening that was supposed to involve my favorite of Korean activities. That guy really deserved to have his ass kicked, but I don't need to get deported, and don't really enjoy fighting in the first place. The only time I did come close to swinging was when he literally grabbed my arm, pinching with his fingers as I tried to pull away. There were some really nice Korean girls there to help the guys keep a level head though, and we managed to get away.
The only other thing that really happened this weekend was a little party at Laurens place. We got some people together in Daeso and drank some wine and some soju and got some pizza. We played a game or two of charades and just had an all around good time. The new couple from Busan, made up of a South African and a Texan (sound familiar?) came out and we just generally had a lot of laughs. It is really funny trying to see someone act out "French Kiss" or "Toy Story." The weather seems to be getting more pleasant, and pretty soon I won't be wearing a sweater at all. To end the post, I will leave you with a philosophical question by a K-pop group called "Fat Cat." Is being pretty everything?
After the shoe purchase I made my way to Gecko's terrace where I waited for Justin. He had wanted to try the food there, and I hadn't had western food in... I don't even know. We sat around drinking some Red Rock beer and eventually met up with Graham, who had just the previous night been in Cheongju, but is famous for going to sleep in one town and waking up in another. While I was sitting at the bar alone, this foreigner (American I'm assuming, mostly because he was an asshat) came up to the bar. "Hey! Yogyo! Can I get some darts from you?" "Yes. Ten thousand." "I don't have any cash, just my card." "I'm sorry, it's a rule." "Dude, I'm not gonna steal your darts. Just charge my tab." "I'm sorry, cash. It's rule." "Yeah, just mark it on my tab." "Nono. Sorry." "This is ridiculous. Let me speak to your boss." (Girl comes over) "Yeah, can I get the darts, and just pay for them on my tab." "I'm sorry, the rule is cash for darts." "Yo. I'm not gonna steal your fucking darts. I'm gonna stay right here and use them. This is ridiculous. What do you want something for them? Here let me give you this. (I didn't see what it was because I didn't want to make eye contact with that ass.) This is very important to me and I wont leave without it." "Let me ask." "Yeah, go ask your boss." (Guy comes over) "Hey, look. You have my Visa. That's all I have. I don't have cash. I'm going to spend lots of money here. Just let me borrow the darts. I'll buy them. You can charge me for the darts on my card. I'm not gonna leave without the Visa. Bring me over a slip of paper and I'll sign something saying that you can charge me for the darts." It was stupid. Eventually they let him have them as an exception and he goes to play, loudly saying how ridiculous it was that he had to pay for the darts. Justin and Graham show up and we order some food. The food was good. I had not had chicken fingers in forever, and they were quite delicious. The darts guy from earlier comes over and starts talking to us about basketball and how awesome he is. Says something about how I look sad (it was because I shut down conversationally around people that I want to tell to go F themselves) and about how it is so hard to understand Graham with his Scottish accent. This dude has some conversations with other people (which make them get up and leave the bar altogether) and comes back to us before asking for darts again and getting turned down due to a "shift change" that was about to happen. Luckily this makes him so upset that he leaves. We had already settled up to leave because he was there, so we head to the Wolfhound.
The Wolfhound was pretty uneventful and after that we headed to the Goldfish. That's where we met up with a whole mess of saffers. They were really nice, and one of them lived out in the boonies just like me. I had them teach me how to say sweet things in Afrikaans to you know who. Surprisingly that didn't go over very well. Not really sure why, but I'm not exactly sweating it. It was someones birthday, and we bantered and partied for a couple of hours. I like that bar because they play a lot of the same music I listened to back home. It's almost like a top 40 hip hop station. I was able to sing and rap along with most of the stuff being played. Later on in the night they usually get that girl to sing open mic style, but this time she had a guitarist. I remember him playing a version of "Hotel California" and even an acoustic version of "Stairway to heaven." He even rocked my world with "Oye como va." It was a good night and I was in a good social mood. Eventually Chico showed up and we hung out a bit more. Chico was telling me about his friend who had really good grades in school, but through talking to Graham and other foreigners how much better Chicos English had gotten than his friends. Justin and myself left after a bit, because we were given the promise of noraebang in Bundang.
When we finally got out there, it was pretty late. I don't really remember what time, but it must have been closer to 1 or 2. Perhaps even later, because we basically took a taxi across the entire city of Seoul. We went to the bar Dublin's that our friend Aureum owns. We had maybe two beers. Most of the time we were there I was talking to Aureums father, Monticello. What a nice guy! She speaks pretty much perfect English, and taught herself. He speaks English very very well, and I think he was saying he taught himself also. We had a conversation about Korean dialects and he taught me a little bit of Korean, but by that point I wasn't going to be learning a whole lot. He told me all about how Aureums sister wanted to pursue ballet, and how Aureum fought for her to be able to pursue her dream. It sounded like he has a real soft spot for both of his daughters. I liked that guy. We stayed until closing time at five and helped her move all the people out of the bar.
It is here that the story starts to get interesting. We went for a little late night snack at a Kimbap place on the other side of the station from her bar. I need to get some money and a bottle of water, so I walked across the street. I see a random Korean depart from his group and move towards me and shout something back to them. I am half defensive at this point, because it is about six in the morning, and I am walking alone. "Hello. I am June Gunn and I am going to America in a couple of months. Can I practice speaking English with you?" Crazy. I feel like I am going to be mugged and it turns out it's just a kid who wants to speak English. After exchanging numbers we part ways and I am sitting outside the kimbap place drinking my water. I go inside, and as I do I pass this Korean college kid. I sit down at the table, and right as I do, that same college kid kicks the window on the side of the store. He pout a hole in it about the size of a baseball. It turns out while I was outside he had come in to get kimbap and had thought my friends were laughing at him. He went up to them and was like "You got a problem?" then was escorted out by his friend. As he walked by I guess he saw us laughing and just got mad and kicked the window. There was glass all over the place. The poor lady who owned the store called 112 and the police came out to see what happened. They went in the direction of the guy but soon returned as he was probably long gone.
As we are sitting there talking to the police, explaining what happened, this random drunk college kid in a white hat comes across and sits down next to me. He mentions something about girls and about facebook and tries to talk to me, but he can't really hold much of a conversation. When we are done talking to the police, we get up to leave, and he gets up also. At first it is kind of funny, like "hey look at the drunk guy" kind of funny. We go towards the noraebang and he keeps trying to hold on to peoples arms. Every time he does we have to push his hand away and then he goes to someone else. It is apparent by the time we get to the noraebang that he is not going to leave us alone, so we don't go into the noraebang, we change directions. He changes directions also and follows us. We tell him in no uncertain terms that he needs to stay there, and he doesn't listen. The girls, who are fluent in Korean, tell him that he needs to leave us alone and he doesn't. We head towards the taxis, saying that we are going to call it a night, and he heads towards the taxis also. We get one, and a couple of people get in, and he tries to get in also. We argue with him and eventually I get out my phone and start shooting video. The point of this was two fold. First, if the cops did come, which they might the way this was going, they would need video evidence that we never touched him and that he wouldn't leave us alone. Second, people who know they are being video-taped seem to act like jack asses a lot less. Once he realized I was filming him, he tried to snatch my phone, tried to cover his face, tried to take pictures of us, but what he stopped doing was focusing on the girls, and he stopped trying to be all arm in arm with people. I have a good ten minutes of him in an argument with us (none of which I can even understand) until some guys around our age showed up and talked to him. They basically kept him there while we walked away. The cops had already been called by that point, so when they showed up we met them. One of them spoke perfect English and mentioned that he had spent time in America. Upon talking to the drunk guy it was revealed that his story was "They hit me" and ours was "This creep won't stop following us." The other group of guys vouched for us and the cops took his phone so that they could delete the pictures. There was a very surreal moment when the older of the two cops had his phone, where he tried to take it back, and the cop had to run away from him while the drunk guy chased after him. He was putting hands all over the cop and I just couldn't help but think "If this were America, he would have been pepper sprayed, tazed, slammed on the ground and handcuffed." This guy wasn't even arrested. He was pretty much just given a ride home by the officers and we all got in our respective cabs and left. It was quite a shitty end to an evening that was supposed to involve my favorite of Korean activities. That guy really deserved to have his ass kicked, but I don't need to get deported, and don't really enjoy fighting in the first place. The only time I did come close to swinging was when he literally grabbed my arm, pinching with his fingers as I tried to pull away. There were some really nice Korean girls there to help the guys keep a level head though, and we managed to get away.
The only other thing that really happened this weekend was a little party at Laurens place. We got some people together in Daeso and drank some wine and some soju and got some pizza. We played a game or two of charades and just had an all around good time. The new couple from Busan, made up of a South African and a Texan (sound familiar?) came out and we just generally had a lot of laughs. It is really funny trying to see someone act out "French Kiss" or "Toy Story." The weather seems to be getting more pleasant, and pretty soon I won't be wearing a sweater at all. To end the post, I will leave you with a philosophical question by a K-pop group called "Fat Cat." Is being pretty everything?
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
St. Patrick's Day
So this weekend I went to Seoul for St. Patrick's Day. I have to say it was probably the most fun I have ever had on this holiday. I have marched in Dallas parades, drank myself stupid at my home or with friends and been in New Orleans for what looks like an all Irish Mardi Gras. I have to say though that this was the most fun. It is the first time where I didn't claim to be Irish, which I am a large part by heritage, but simply sat back and watched real Irish people make Korea their home away from home.
The day started out like most others, with me waking up on a weekend at home. I decided early on that I couldn't miss this opportunity to celebrate in Seoul, and the decision was made even easier by the fact that all of my friends would be there. I took the twelve o'clock bus out of Gamgok and was on my way. I arrived in Seoul after a short nap and had to get on the subway line 2 (the green line) so I could head to Sindorim station, the transfer station between lines 2 and 1. I got there and had no clue which way to go, so I went out the first exit I saw. Nothing. Back inside I found some people in green heading towards another exit, so I gave chase. I was right behind a Korean business man when I got to the top of the steps and saw the entire throng of foreigners wearing green. He stopped dead in his tracks and I almost ran right over him. He looked around as if to say "I have been through here a hundred times, but never have I seen this many Waygookin in one place, all wearing the same color." I passed him up and saw that familiar wavy red hair that I know so well. I cocked my arm back and was going to clap down on her shoulder when I realized that I didn't recognize the people that she was talking to, and she was supposed to be a stop behind me. Right before I actually hit her shoulder, I pretended like I was stretching and walked on. Sure enough it was not Phillipa. I knew it would be difficult to find my friends who actually were there, so I did a round of the place to get the basic lay of the land, and overheard some people talking about the closest place to buy beer. I headed across the street to a GS25 that had a kimbap restaurant right next to it.
Self bragging time: When ordering Kimbap I did it so perfectly that she thought I spoke Korean :) "Jamchi kimbap han jul chuseyo. Pojang." (one line of tuna kimbap please. to go.) She spoke back a couple of sentences to me, then realized that I didn't speak enough to understand the complexities of what she was saying, but she did say something about it being "jam kon mon ki da ri seyo" (just a second please) and asking about all the people. That's where I lost her. One delicious kimbap roll, a liter of beer, and a soju juice box later I was sitting with my friends watching a Korean U2 cover band called "have no name." They were good. We met up with Phillipa and her brother, sister-in-law and sister when they came, so we had to move to a bigger area. We went up to sit on some grassy place and watch the stuff go down from up there. More people arrived, and then more after that. I was going strong at about four, with a juice box full of soju and a liter of beer. Lauren was, to her credit, keeping up with me and making sure that I wasn't drinking alone. Phillipa could not drink because she was running in a 10K the next day in Seoul. I was not jealous. We gave her a lot of flak because she was paying more to run 10 Kilometers than it cost to get a cab to drive you 15. She left by six, and we all started heading different directions. The others had gotten a hostel earlier in the night, but I knew that I could either find a place to crash, or I couldn't. It wouldn't be worth it for me to pay thirty thousand won for one night where I only got to sleep for six hours or so before I had to get out of there. So like I said many times that day, "I have a card full of won, a head full of ideas, and a schedule empty of any plans."
Me and Graham were hanging around when the crew started breaking up. Jeff and Gareth, both Englishman, were with us, and the first thing we did is get a couple of beers into us. We sat around shooting the shit, drinking a tall boy, then hailed a cab (much more difficult than I am making it sound) and headed towards Itaewon. In Itaewon we headed to an Outback steakhouse, which I thought sounded delicious. The problem was, that obviously it was suuuuuper expensive. We looked around a lot more and decided on a samgyeopsal and galbi place, where we ate some delicious barbecue. After dinner we headed out to get a place to stay. This is where we ran into a problem. All the hotels in Itaewon were booked. We walked around looking for crappy and nice ones, and could not find anything open. We decided then that we might just have to go the distance. Obviously I have been in situations before where I had involuntarily stayed up all night, so it was no big deal to me. Anyways, the night was still young, and we had a long time to go until I would start feeling tired. We started off at this place called "Geckos" which was big. It was also crowded, and noisy, and full of people trying to get to their friends and bumping you every five seconds. I snagged a table off people who were getting up to leave and we found a place to sit down. A couple of beers later and we were headed out of there.
We ended up at this place called "The Goldfish" which was apparently one of Grahams regular haunts. It being only my second time in Itaewon ever, I was easy when it came to plans. We got a table and a pitcher and started drinking some Jaeger bombs to keep ourselves awake. The Redbull in the Jaeger bombs is dangerous when you're going out for a quiet night, but when you are starting things off for a big night, it is perfect. We had some good conversation and some good entertainment in the form of an amateur singer. Poor Gareth was stuck in between me and the singer while I was wailing right along with her. I could see that he was trying to be courteous and not say "dude, shut the hell up," but once I get alcohol in me and there is a song playing that I know, I can't help but sing along. I really can't. Anyways, we have some drinks, sing some songs, then Grahams friend Chico shows up. Wonhyung Lee is his real name, but he picked Chico cause it means "boy" in Spanish. He has quite the fashion sense, and when he rolled in he was wearing a furry hat with knee high socks. We finished up that pitcher and headed over to the Irish pub which was sure to be packed.
Wolfhound is the name of the Irish pub, and as soon as we got there we got a couple of beers and shots. They were playing the Ireland England rugby game that had started at 2:00 A.M. so we couldn't find any room downstairs. Chico happened upon a guy who was passed out on the floor. Face down on the floor. Face down on the dirty, St. Patricks day floor in an Irish pub in Korea. Chico got a picture with him before we helped him up off the floor and onto a seat where he passed out all over again. First good deed. It quickly got waaaaay too smokey for Chico and we had to go outside. Out front Chico produced a massive cigar that would not have been allowed inside most likely so we lit it and smoked it. It was nice. Drinking a beer, smoking a cigar, talking about Graham and how much he sucked. Just kidding Graham. The next couple of hours were pretty uneventful, being filled with hazy heart to hearts and whatnot, but what I do remember is this. While sitting out front of the bar, a guy stumbles out and up to the store across the street. Here they have a lot of these outdoor fish tanks so you can see how fresh the crab or eel or fish is that you will be eating. This drunk guy is pissing next to one of these fish tanks that is covered in a straw mat being held down by a brick. When leaning against the fish tank he put his hand on the mat and I guess didnt like the way it felt, because he grabbed it and thew it backwards into the middle of the street. He finished his piss then stumbled off drunkenly. I walked over, put the mat back on the tank, and set the brick on top of it. "Jeff, you don't have to do that." Were Graham and Chico's response, but if I didn't, who would? Second good deed :) I think I mentioned this before, but I think I get awesome when I'm drunk. Not always obviously. What I think sets me apart from a lot of people is that I like to make other people feel good. Help them out. So when I get drunk, and see a dude who cant find his hat, I will help him find his friggin' hat. Anyways, Chico goes off to give his jacket to his girlfriend or something and about thirty seconds after he leaves we here him yell "Graham! Jeff! Help me out with this guy!" We look over and sure enough it is the same drunk pisser from earlier in the middle of the street, arms wide, yelling something at Chico like "What are you gonna do?" and walking towards him. Chico circles back around to where me and Graham are, who probably put together have the guy outweighed six to one, and it looks like Graham and Chico are ready to go. I make sure and get there first. "What's the matter man? What can I help you with? Are you ok? Whats the matter?" The dude almost instantly goes from threatening to almost crying. "Can you help me find (some African name)? She was in the Wolfhound and now I cant find her! Can you help me find her?" "Yeah, of course man. Let me just go look for her." He ended up walking away not too long after that, and from what I saw, the girl who he was talking about was long gone. She probably left earlier in the night. Probably a lot earlier. Either way, I was feeling good because nobody had to get their ass kicked that night. We go back into the Wolfhound about twenty minutes before closing time, and Gareth was passed out, granted it was about five in the morning. Graham was invited to stay at Chico's house, so they head that way, and Gareth and I head into the bar next door until the subway opened at about 5:30. We could have just taken a cab, but Gareth had locked his bag up in a locker down in the station. Geoff had somehow magically disappeared, but seeing as how he is thirty something and wasn't fall down drunk we weren't too worried about him.
Gareth and I waited around at the bar for about a half hour or more, then took off to go get his bag. After getting it out of the automated lockers, we got the first subway that came, and were pretty much two thirds of the way towards the exact opposite side of Seoul from the terminal. Luckily it was the most deserted I had ever seen the green line or the brown line, which is what Itaewon is on. We got to Dong Seoul station at about 6:20 something and got our tickets. 6:55 was the first bus to Gamgok, and 7:00 was the first bus to Cheongju where Gareth lives, so after standing around for a couple of minutes we parted ways and got on our respective buses. I remember getting on the bus, sitting down, then all of a sudden I am in Gamgok. I had a horrible case of dry mouth from sleeping on a bus with it wide open the entire time. "Gamgokeyayo!!!" The bus driver shouted. I am pretty sure it was only for me, because there was no one else on the bus and it had already been stopped for who knows how long. I gave him a big thank you and walked home, where I passed out for the next six or so hours. Phillipa ran her race with no trouble, and even got a medal for doing it! A little over an hour to run 10 Kilometers. Good work fox! Way to channel your spirit animal. :) Of course the last couple of days she has been walking around like an ajumma because her legs are stiffer than boards from all the running.
I have to admit, I really love the Seoul Subway. It is clean, it is on time, and it is very technologically advanced. The people move quickly and it is easy to pay for and to get around on. I love it. That song in the video is the song they play every time you get to a transfer station. Anyway, you got to hear from me twice in one month, so I hope you feel privileged. I will probably not get into anything spectacular anytime soon, so have a good month!
The day started out like most others, with me waking up on a weekend at home. I decided early on that I couldn't miss this opportunity to celebrate in Seoul, and the decision was made even easier by the fact that all of my friends would be there. I took the twelve o'clock bus out of Gamgok and was on my way. I arrived in Seoul after a short nap and had to get on the subway line 2 (the green line) so I could head to Sindorim station, the transfer station between lines 2 and 1. I got there and had no clue which way to go, so I went out the first exit I saw. Nothing. Back inside I found some people in green heading towards another exit, so I gave chase. I was right behind a Korean business man when I got to the top of the steps and saw the entire throng of foreigners wearing green. He stopped dead in his tracks and I almost ran right over him. He looked around as if to say "I have been through here a hundred times, but never have I seen this many Waygookin in one place, all wearing the same color." I passed him up and saw that familiar wavy red hair that I know so well. I cocked my arm back and was going to clap down on her shoulder when I realized that I didn't recognize the people that she was talking to, and she was supposed to be a stop behind me. Right before I actually hit her shoulder, I pretended like I was stretching and walked on. Sure enough it was not Phillipa. I knew it would be difficult to find my friends who actually were there, so I did a round of the place to get the basic lay of the land, and overheard some people talking about the closest place to buy beer. I headed across the street to a GS25 that had a kimbap restaurant right next to it.
Self bragging time: When ordering Kimbap I did it so perfectly that she thought I spoke Korean :) "Jamchi kimbap han jul chuseyo. Pojang." (one line of tuna kimbap please. to go.) She spoke back a couple of sentences to me, then realized that I didn't speak enough to understand the complexities of what she was saying, but she did say something about it being "jam kon mon ki da ri seyo" (just a second please) and asking about all the people. That's where I lost her. One delicious kimbap roll, a liter of beer, and a soju juice box later I was sitting with my friends watching a Korean U2 cover band called "have no name." They were good. We met up with Phillipa and her brother, sister-in-law and sister when they came, so we had to move to a bigger area. We went up to sit on some grassy place and watch the stuff go down from up there. More people arrived, and then more after that. I was going strong at about four, with a juice box full of soju and a liter of beer. Lauren was, to her credit, keeping up with me and making sure that I wasn't drinking alone. Phillipa could not drink because she was running in a 10K the next day in Seoul. I was not jealous. We gave her a lot of flak because she was paying more to run 10 Kilometers than it cost to get a cab to drive you 15. She left by six, and we all started heading different directions. The others had gotten a hostel earlier in the night, but I knew that I could either find a place to crash, or I couldn't. It wouldn't be worth it for me to pay thirty thousand won for one night where I only got to sleep for six hours or so before I had to get out of there. So like I said many times that day, "I have a card full of won, a head full of ideas, and a schedule empty of any plans."
Me and Graham were hanging around when the crew started breaking up. Jeff and Gareth, both Englishman, were with us, and the first thing we did is get a couple of beers into us. We sat around shooting the shit, drinking a tall boy, then hailed a cab (much more difficult than I am making it sound) and headed towards Itaewon. In Itaewon we headed to an Outback steakhouse, which I thought sounded delicious. The problem was, that obviously it was suuuuuper expensive. We looked around a lot more and decided on a samgyeopsal and galbi place, where we ate some delicious barbecue. After dinner we headed out to get a place to stay. This is where we ran into a problem. All the hotels in Itaewon were booked. We walked around looking for crappy and nice ones, and could not find anything open. We decided then that we might just have to go the distance. Obviously I have been in situations before where I had involuntarily stayed up all night, so it was no big deal to me. Anyways, the night was still young, and we had a long time to go until I would start feeling tired. We started off at this place called "Geckos" which was big. It was also crowded, and noisy, and full of people trying to get to their friends and bumping you every five seconds. I snagged a table off people who were getting up to leave and we found a place to sit down. A couple of beers later and we were headed out of there.
We ended up at this place called "The Goldfish" which was apparently one of Grahams regular haunts. It being only my second time in Itaewon ever, I was easy when it came to plans. We got a table and a pitcher and started drinking some Jaeger bombs to keep ourselves awake. The Redbull in the Jaeger bombs is dangerous when you're going out for a quiet night, but when you are starting things off for a big night, it is perfect. We had some good conversation and some good entertainment in the form of an amateur singer. Poor Gareth was stuck in between me and the singer while I was wailing right along with her. I could see that he was trying to be courteous and not say "dude, shut the hell up," but once I get alcohol in me and there is a song playing that I know, I can't help but sing along. I really can't. Anyways, we have some drinks, sing some songs, then Grahams friend Chico shows up. Wonhyung Lee is his real name, but he picked Chico cause it means "boy" in Spanish. He has quite the fashion sense, and when he rolled in he was wearing a furry hat with knee high socks. We finished up that pitcher and headed over to the Irish pub which was sure to be packed.
Wolfhound is the name of the Irish pub, and as soon as we got there we got a couple of beers and shots. They were playing the Ireland England rugby game that had started at 2:00 A.M. so we couldn't find any room downstairs. Chico happened upon a guy who was passed out on the floor. Face down on the floor. Face down on the dirty, St. Patricks day floor in an Irish pub in Korea. Chico got a picture with him before we helped him up off the floor and onto a seat where he passed out all over again. First good deed. It quickly got waaaaay too smokey for Chico and we had to go outside. Out front Chico produced a massive cigar that would not have been allowed inside most likely so we lit it and smoked it. It was nice. Drinking a beer, smoking a cigar, talking about Graham and how much he sucked. Just kidding Graham. The next couple of hours were pretty uneventful, being filled with hazy heart to hearts and whatnot, but what I do remember is this. While sitting out front of the bar, a guy stumbles out and up to the store across the street. Here they have a lot of these outdoor fish tanks so you can see how fresh the crab or eel or fish is that you will be eating. This drunk guy is pissing next to one of these fish tanks that is covered in a straw mat being held down by a brick. When leaning against the fish tank he put his hand on the mat and I guess didnt like the way it felt, because he grabbed it and thew it backwards into the middle of the street. He finished his piss then stumbled off drunkenly. I walked over, put the mat back on the tank, and set the brick on top of it. "Jeff, you don't have to do that." Were Graham and Chico's response, but if I didn't, who would? Second good deed :) I think I mentioned this before, but I think I get awesome when I'm drunk. Not always obviously. What I think sets me apart from a lot of people is that I like to make other people feel good. Help them out. So when I get drunk, and see a dude who cant find his hat, I will help him find his friggin' hat. Anyways, Chico goes off to give his jacket to his girlfriend or something and about thirty seconds after he leaves we here him yell "Graham! Jeff! Help me out with this guy!" We look over and sure enough it is the same drunk pisser from earlier in the middle of the street, arms wide, yelling something at Chico like "What are you gonna do?" and walking towards him. Chico circles back around to where me and Graham are, who probably put together have the guy outweighed six to one, and it looks like Graham and Chico are ready to go. I make sure and get there first. "What's the matter man? What can I help you with? Are you ok? Whats the matter?" The dude almost instantly goes from threatening to almost crying. "Can you help me find (some African name)? She was in the Wolfhound and now I cant find her! Can you help me find her?" "Yeah, of course man. Let me just go look for her." He ended up walking away not too long after that, and from what I saw, the girl who he was talking about was long gone. She probably left earlier in the night. Probably a lot earlier. Either way, I was feeling good because nobody had to get their ass kicked that night. We go back into the Wolfhound about twenty minutes before closing time, and Gareth was passed out, granted it was about five in the morning. Graham was invited to stay at Chico's house, so they head that way, and Gareth and I head into the bar next door until the subway opened at about 5:30. We could have just taken a cab, but Gareth had locked his bag up in a locker down in the station. Geoff had somehow magically disappeared, but seeing as how he is thirty something and wasn't fall down drunk we weren't too worried about him.
Gareth and I waited around at the bar for about a half hour or more, then took off to go get his bag. After getting it out of the automated lockers, we got the first subway that came, and were pretty much two thirds of the way towards the exact opposite side of Seoul from the terminal. Luckily it was the most deserted I had ever seen the green line or the brown line, which is what Itaewon is on. We got to Dong Seoul station at about 6:20 something and got our tickets. 6:55 was the first bus to Gamgok, and 7:00 was the first bus to Cheongju where Gareth lives, so after standing around for a couple of minutes we parted ways and got on our respective buses. I remember getting on the bus, sitting down, then all of a sudden I am in Gamgok. I had a horrible case of dry mouth from sleeping on a bus with it wide open the entire time. "Gamgokeyayo!!!" The bus driver shouted. I am pretty sure it was only for me, because there was no one else on the bus and it had already been stopped for who knows how long. I gave him a big thank you and walked home, where I passed out for the next six or so hours. Phillipa ran her race with no trouble, and even got a medal for doing it! A little over an hour to run 10 Kilometers. Good work fox! Way to channel your spirit animal. :) Of course the last couple of days she has been walking around like an ajumma because her legs are stiffer than boards from all the running.
I have to admit, I really love the Seoul Subway. It is clean, it is on time, and it is very technologically advanced. The people move quickly and it is easy to pay for and to get around on. I love it. That song in the video is the song they play every time you get to a transfer station. Anyway, you got to hear from me twice in one month, so I hope you feel privileged. I will probably not get into anything spectacular anytime soon, so have a good month!
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Say uncle!
I'm an uncle! My brother and sister in law had a son about fifteen hours ago named Ronin John Wester. A pretty awesome name if I do say so myself. I am very excited to come home and meet him, even if he is still too young to remember meeting me. He already has more hair than mark, and they say he didn't cry when he came out, so let's hope that means he won't be a crier in general.
Things here in Korea have changed significantly since I have last posted. All the old people have left, well, most of them. Thom, Steve, Nick, Wesley, Shaneel, Kevin, Dave, Sean, Cheryl and Adam. All of them have either left the county or the country. We have some good new people though, and I am excited about getting to know them better. Four of the spots were taken by two couples, one coming from Busan that has already been here for a couple years, and another coming in from San Francisco. The one from Busan includes a Texan who can speak Korean, and the other half is a South African. Shaneel, who lived in my building was replaced by the woman of the other couple. Cris is her name, and she seems like fun. She is dating a guy named Tim who I haven't gotten to talk to much, but seems like a stand up fellow. Lauren took over for both Cheryl and Adam, so she has her work cut out for her, but I am sure she will do fine once she gets over the initial stress period and into the swing of things. A new TaLK scholar came into the town right next to Gamgok. Daniel Kim is his name, and he is from Canada. Really nice guy who speaks Korean like a fish swims in water. Already he has come out with us and made talking to our Korean friends a breeze. Jarret is also a pretty nice guy, but it will be hard to fill Steve's shoes. On one of our weekly work night outings Phillipa and myself were walking back home when we spied a white guy who looked pretty lost. "Hey!" I shouted when I saw his hoodie that said "EPIK." We talked to him for a couple of seconds and traded information with him. I wasn't really worried about him because he is in the central town of Muguk/Geumwang, and he already had a phone. I am more worried about Cris because she cannot speak or read any Korean, and was a vegetarian before she came over. She understands that stuff over here is all cooked with meat, but still has a hard time keeping it down. I am hoping to take her and her S.O. out sometime this week and get some Kimbap, maybe some soups, and teach them how to order some things and ask for some things.
Things here in Korea have changed significantly since I have last posted. All the old people have left, well, most of them. Thom, Steve, Nick, Wesley, Shaneel, Kevin, Dave, Sean, Cheryl and Adam. All of them have either left the county or the country. We have some good new people though, and I am excited about getting to know them better. Four of the spots were taken by two couples, one coming from Busan that has already been here for a couple years, and another coming in from San Francisco. The one from Busan includes a Texan who can speak Korean, and the other half is a South African. Shaneel, who lived in my building was replaced by the woman of the other couple. Cris is her name, and she seems like fun. She is dating a guy named Tim who I haven't gotten to talk to much, but seems like a stand up fellow. Lauren took over for both Cheryl and Adam, so she has her work cut out for her, but I am sure she will do fine once she gets over the initial stress period and into the swing of things. A new TaLK scholar came into the town right next to Gamgok. Daniel Kim is his name, and he is from Canada. Really nice guy who speaks Korean like a fish swims in water. Already he has come out with us and made talking to our Korean friends a breeze. Jarret is also a pretty nice guy, but it will be hard to fill Steve's shoes. On one of our weekly work night outings Phillipa and myself were walking back home when we spied a white guy who looked pretty lost. "Hey!" I shouted when I saw his hoodie that said "EPIK." We talked to him for a couple of seconds and traded information with him. I wasn't really worried about him because he is in the central town of Muguk/Geumwang, and he already had a phone. I am more worried about Cris because she cannot speak or read any Korean, and was a vegetarian before she came over. She understands that stuff over here is all cooked with meat, but still has a hard time keeping it down. I am hoping to take her and her S.O. out sometime this week and get some Kimbap, maybe some soups, and teach them how to order some things and ask for some things.
School has started back up. It is fun so far, if not a little hectic. I am teaching two more classes this semester than last semester, but am not sure if those classes actually meet. For the most part it is going well. There are a couple of radical changes. Namely, my main co-teacher has changed. I am now working with the one who got married over break, Kim Hyun-Jung. Woo Jae-Beom has moved to the highschool to teach. That is neither a promotion nor is it a demotion, just a way to mix it up and keep things fresh. I actually teach two classes a week with Jae-Beom, and in fact have not changed any of the teachers I am teaching with. They all pretty much know what to expect out of me... Nothin'! I kid. I kid because I love. In actuality I have done more work in the past week than I did in a month of teaching last semester. I am no longer just a parrot, but am making power point lessons to tell the kids about how to say things. It is fun, I guess. Just frustrating when I spend an entire morning printing out paper dice so that I can cut them with an exacto knife just to have the teacher say in one class "Oh, we don't have time for this game that you thought was dumb but I made you prepare for" and in another class say "Oh, we don't have enough dice, you should make more!" Spoiler alert, I'm not going to. I think if anything I will take a look in a shop around here for dice. I am sure they have them. The students are completely different, with the exception of one class of kids. The good part about that is that it means the honeymoon stage will happen all over again, and that I can re-use all of my materials.
Friday was bad for me. Not a good day at all. Classes didn't go that well, and I had to do a lot of work for them. Before I go into this you have to understand that this place has a sense of what is and isn't acceptable that isn't the same as ours. Also, they are very concerned with appearance. I have to admit I cracked though. It was the stress of being in a new situation, some issues that I was dealing with that I don't want to go into right now, and what I'm going to talk about here. I have a good sense of humor. I usually take things pretty well. I am a big guy, and I know that I am overweight, but over here I seem to hear it every day. Friday just sort of made me feel really down because the day before some of the students had mentioned it when they first were introduced to me. Even though the teacher tried to stifle the comment I still heard it. I mentioned it to Phillipa looking for sympathy I guess and all I heard was "well maybe you should change that." Yeah, thanks for the advice. Later on in the evening we went out with some of our Korean friends who managed to say it a couple more times. "Your face, pretty, diet, girls everywhere." Yeah, thanks again. The next day the P.E. teacher comes over and says something to the extent of "베가고빠요" (my spelling still sucks) which translates roughly into "You're hungry!" then pokes at my stomach. Like I said before, It's not so much that it happened, it was more a bunch of things with that being the icing on the proverbial cake. It doesn't really help that I am actually very hungry every day at lunch. Still, ya know, it's not good for your self esteem to hear several times a day that you are fat. Even if you are, it's just not good to hear it so much. I was having a bad day and all I wanted was a couple of hugs. It's hard to be so far away from friends and family on days like that.
Anyway, I sucked it up and got ready for the teachers dinner. They told me that it was going to be at the place we had it at last time, right near the school, so I walked to that place. No one was there of course. So I texted a few teachers I had in my phone and they eventually directed me to this place that serves duck. If you have never had duck, it's really good. 얼리갈미 (Ori Galbi) is what they call it. I have been to this restaurant three or four times with Graham, and every time it is too much food, and really, really delicious. I was quite embarrassed that I did not know the name of it. I showed up and they started pouring me Soju like it was nobodies business. I think within the two and change hours we were there they must have poured me the equivalent of two or three twelve ounce bottles. Eight shots per bottle. Twenty percent alcohol. Now that I think about it that's like doing twelve shots of vodka over the course of two and a half hours :/ Guess that explains why I was so drunk. They are trying to teach me Korean, but I am very bad at it. I am learning on my own too, working out of a workbook and trying to speak it as much as possible. Phillipa is helping me also, teaching me phrases, and about verbs that are past present and future. We were actually practicing in a chicken place the other week and a Korean dude turned around and gave me the thumbs up :) So the Korean teacher here who has limited English is teaching me about "주도" or drinking culture and etiquette. I learned all kinds of cool things "Hyun Neem! Hana soju cheon deseyo." (I think that is how it goes) means "Older brother! One soju glass I will give you." We had fun though, and I got to eat with the two ladies who know barely any English that are, I think, administrators. Well one is an administrator, I think the other is a full teacher. Pretty sure she teaches Korean also. Anyways, she was really sweet to me on Friday, and every time they would make me take a shot she would say "Jeppurey. Kinchalnayo?" (are you ok?) I don't think she realizes that this sort of drinking is childs play to me ;) After the dinner, and then the subsequent special table, we went for o-beks (500cc's, think full beer stein) at the local bar. After a few of those I had to depart to meet up with my friends, because we were having a "meet the new teachers dinner" in Geumwang/Muguk. By the end of the night I was totally drunk. Like stumbling drunk. Like autopilot drunk. I made it home fine, and I don't think I insulted anyone, but I guess we will find out. When I got home I actually ended up drunkenly venting to Phillipa, and know for a fact that I was crying at one point, but she said sweet things to me that helped calm me down, and I was fine the next day. I had a hard time that day, I'm just glad it didn't ruin my night.
Friday was bad for me. Not a good day at all. Classes didn't go that well, and I had to do a lot of work for them. Before I go into this you have to understand that this place has a sense of what is and isn't acceptable that isn't the same as ours. Also, they are very concerned with appearance. I have to admit I cracked though. It was the stress of being in a new situation, some issues that I was dealing with that I don't want to go into right now, and what I'm going to talk about here. I have a good sense of humor. I usually take things pretty well. I am a big guy, and I know that I am overweight, but over here I seem to hear it every day. Friday just sort of made me feel really down because the day before some of the students had mentioned it when they first were introduced to me. Even though the teacher tried to stifle the comment I still heard it. I mentioned it to Phillipa looking for sympathy I guess and all I heard was "well maybe you should change that." Yeah, thanks for the advice. Later on in the evening we went out with some of our Korean friends who managed to say it a couple more times. "Your face, pretty, diet, girls everywhere." Yeah, thanks again. The next day the P.E. teacher comes over and says something to the extent of "베가고빠요" (my spelling still sucks) which translates roughly into "You're hungry!" then pokes at my stomach. Like I said before, It's not so much that it happened, it was more a bunch of things with that being the icing on the proverbial cake. It doesn't really help that I am actually very hungry every day at lunch. Still, ya know, it's not good for your self esteem to hear several times a day that you are fat. Even if you are, it's just not good to hear it so much. I was having a bad day and all I wanted was a couple of hugs. It's hard to be so far away from friends and family on days like that.
Anyway, I sucked it up and got ready for the teachers dinner. They told me that it was going to be at the place we had it at last time, right near the school, so I walked to that place. No one was there of course. So I texted a few teachers I had in my phone and they eventually directed me to this place that serves duck. If you have never had duck, it's really good. 얼리갈미 (Ori Galbi) is what they call it. I have been to this restaurant three or four times with Graham, and every time it is too much food, and really, really delicious. I was quite embarrassed that I did not know the name of it. I showed up and they started pouring me Soju like it was nobodies business. I think within the two and change hours we were there they must have poured me the equivalent of two or three twelve ounce bottles. Eight shots per bottle. Twenty percent alcohol. Now that I think about it that's like doing twelve shots of vodka over the course of two and a half hours :/ Guess that explains why I was so drunk. They are trying to teach me Korean, but I am very bad at it. I am learning on my own too, working out of a workbook and trying to speak it as much as possible. Phillipa is helping me also, teaching me phrases, and about verbs that are past present and future. We were actually practicing in a chicken place the other week and a Korean dude turned around and gave me the thumbs up :) So the Korean teacher here who has limited English is teaching me about "주도" or drinking culture and etiquette. I learned all kinds of cool things "Hyun Neem! Hana soju cheon deseyo." (I think that is how it goes) means "Older brother! One soju glass I will give you." We had fun though, and I got to eat with the two ladies who know barely any English that are, I think, administrators. Well one is an administrator, I think the other is a full teacher. Pretty sure she teaches Korean also. Anyways, she was really sweet to me on Friday, and every time they would make me take a shot she would say "Jeppurey. Kinchalnayo?" (are you ok?) I don't think she realizes that this sort of drinking is childs play to me ;) After the dinner, and then the subsequent special table, we went for o-beks (500cc's, think full beer stein) at the local bar. After a few of those I had to depart to meet up with my friends, because we were having a "meet the new teachers dinner" in Geumwang/Muguk. By the end of the night I was totally drunk. Like stumbling drunk. Like autopilot drunk. I made it home fine, and I don't think I insulted anyone, but I guess we will find out. When I got home I actually ended up drunkenly venting to Phillipa, and know for a fact that I was crying at one point, but she said sweet things to me that helped calm me down, and I was fine the next day. I had a hard time that day, I'm just glad it didn't ruin my night.
The next night I went out for chicken with Phillipa and her sister Rowena, and that is where I got the thumbs up from the Korean guy. That kind of made my night. Just to know that people appreciate us trying to learn their language, and it's not all people saying "Learn Korean or leave!" like so many people do in America. It was a relatively uneventful night, with Phillipa losing her bet to me about whether she could quit smoking or not, and lots of drinking, but not nearly as much as the previous night. The chicken at Saba Saba is sooooooo good. They have a Jack Daniels and a Hot Chili flavor that we always get, and have recently discovered a Curry flavored one that is delicious. The next night was Lauren Huffs birthday. She is new in town and we all wanted to make her feel welcome. She speaks with the most adorable southern drawl because she is from North Carolina, and is sweet as pie. We all went to Jincheon to get a bite at an Italian place, and I have to say, it was good. It took me maybe an hour or so to get there by bus, maybe just under that, but the country side was beautiful. We got some delicious spaghetti carbonara in a little bread bowl and I drank Budweiser with it ;) There was some good pizza there as well. The bus ride home took about forty five minutes, required us to wait at the stop for about an hour, and was completely packed with people. The bus pulled up and unloaded an entire bus full of people, so when I got on I expected to have my choice of seats. Instead there were only about two or three left, so all us foreigners got one, and the nice girl who let us get on in front of her had to stand. It was a good night, and I'm glad Lauren is so social that I have been able to see her on three separate occasions since she got here.
I know it's been awhile since I updated, but honestly I am just not getting into that much trouble anymore. Perhaps I will travel soon, and when I do, I will tell you all about it. The good news is that being away for a month means that Big Bang came out with new hit songs! Here is one for you now. :)
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Ich bin ein Bearliner
Winter break is over. I am back at school as we speak and things are starting to pick back up. It is cold here, very cold with snow everywhere, but let's talk about the break a bit.
Break started off with a date. Phillipa was going to South Africa for her whole break, so I knew the last time I would get to see her would be the night of my last day of desk warming. We had a surprisingly romantic evening eating Italian food and drinking at a hof. We said our goodbyes for the month and parted ways. Since she has been gone we have not been able to talk on the phone or chat for more than a couple minutes, so any correspondence we have had has been through emails. Call me a sap if you want, but I am counting the days till she gets back here. It is kinda boring and quiet around here without her, and boring and quiet aren't my favorite things. The good news is that in South Africa it is summer, so she is having a nice winter vacation filled with beach trips and barbecues. Ok, enough pining, let's get down to it.
I had decided that I was going to Berlin for the break. One of my former students named Rebecca Buhner was over there for college and we had talked about visiting each other. Me and Buhner had been friends for a few years after she graduated. She was the kind of kid who was just so laid back that you don't think anything could ever make them upset. That seemed to mesh well with my personality, and we had hung out a few times back in Dallas. Mostly our interests revolved around "The Walking Dead" which we were both huge fans of. When my Thailand plans fell through I knew that I just had to make the trip to Berlin. I left on Thursday morning at about ten o'clock, so I went up to Seoul to stay with Justin the night before. We went out and did some drinking so that I would be nice and tired for the plane ride and possibly get some sleep on it. Next thing I know I look at my phone and its three something in the morning. We go back and get a few hours sleep before I wake up at about seven and get the shuttle bus to the airport. While in line to get my ticket I am standing behind this short blonde haired girl (not something you see everyday in Korea) who I don't think twice about. I get up to the counter and they ask if I am going to check any bags. All I had was my backpack, because all I was taking was about six changes of clothes and some toiletries. "Nope" I say then realize that they wont let you take more than 300 ml of liquids on board the flight. "Oh, wait, I have some soju with me. What am I supposed to do with it?" "How much?" the nice young Korean woman behind the counter asked me. "This much." I say as I open my bag and pull out the two liter bottle of soju. Her eyes go wide and her mouth agape she says "Owa!" "I can't take this on board can I?" "No sir." "What should I do with it?" I ask her as my mind turns over the possibilities. Should I find some random Korean guy and say "Service!" as I hand him a giant bottle of soju? Should I just leave it on the ground outside or actually throw it in a trashcan? Ooooh, I have a thought: "Do you want it?" I say to the Korean woman behind the counter. "Me? Nononono." She says with a face that is now blushing greatly. "What should I do with it?" "We can check your bag." "Ok, yeah I guess we should just do that" I say, not too excited about having to check all of my clothes and my phone charger. I send Buhner a text message saying "I am bringing you so much soju that I had to check my bag" and then I hop into the security line right behind the blonde girl. The line is three or four snaking rows long and is full of people with carry ons. In America this would have taken forty five minutes, but at Incheon it only took about five. I didn't have to take off my shoes or anything. I get to my gate a couple hours early and realize that there is no way in hell I am going to be able to sleep in one of those tiny waiting at the gate chairs that they have, so I resign myself to looking longingly out the window and browsing the internet on my phone. I write a sweet message to Phillipa and take some survey about the airport that gives me a free pen. Soon enough I am waiting in line to get on board the plane, and guess who is in line behind me? The nice blonde girl again. I get on the plane and find that I am in an emergency exit seat, so I have as much leg room as you could possibly wish for. I check the in flight movies, then try to get some sleep. No dice. A combination of me having some sort of sickness going on in my sinuses and not being able to get comfortable keeps me awake. I manage to watch a couple of good movies, including "real steal" which was pretty good and "crazy, stupid, love" which was a laugh riot, and had the older Korean gentleman looking onto my screen to see what was so funny.
I had decided that I was going to Berlin for the break. One of my former students named Rebecca Buhner was over there for college and we had talked about visiting each other. Me and Buhner had been friends for a few years after she graduated. She was the kind of kid who was just so laid back that you don't think anything could ever make them upset. That seemed to mesh well with my personality, and we had hung out a few times back in Dallas. Mostly our interests revolved around "The Walking Dead" which we were both huge fans of. When my Thailand plans fell through I knew that I just had to make the trip to Berlin. I left on Thursday morning at about ten o'clock, so I went up to Seoul to stay with Justin the night before. We went out and did some drinking so that I would be nice and tired for the plane ride and possibly get some sleep on it. Next thing I know I look at my phone and its three something in the morning. We go back and get a few hours sleep before I wake up at about seven and get the shuttle bus to the airport. While in line to get my ticket I am standing behind this short blonde haired girl (not something you see everyday in Korea) who I don't think twice about. I get up to the counter and they ask if I am going to check any bags. All I had was my backpack, because all I was taking was about six changes of clothes and some toiletries. "Nope" I say then realize that they wont let you take more than 300 ml of liquids on board the flight. "Oh, wait, I have some soju with me. What am I supposed to do with it?" "How much?" the nice young Korean woman behind the counter asked me. "This much." I say as I open my bag and pull out the two liter bottle of soju. Her eyes go wide and her mouth agape she says "Owa!" "I can't take this on board can I?" "No sir." "What should I do with it?" I ask her as my mind turns over the possibilities. Should I find some random Korean guy and say "Service!" as I hand him a giant bottle of soju? Should I just leave it on the ground outside or actually throw it in a trashcan? Ooooh, I have a thought: "Do you want it?" I say to the Korean woman behind the counter. "Me? Nononono." She says with a face that is now blushing greatly. "What should I do with it?" "We can check your bag." "Ok, yeah I guess we should just do that" I say, not too excited about having to check all of my clothes and my phone charger. I send Buhner a text message saying "I am bringing you so much soju that I had to check my bag" and then I hop into the security line right behind the blonde girl. The line is three or four snaking rows long and is full of people with carry ons. In America this would have taken forty five minutes, but at Incheon it only took about five. I didn't have to take off my shoes or anything. I get to my gate a couple hours early and realize that there is no way in hell I am going to be able to sleep in one of those tiny waiting at the gate chairs that they have, so I resign myself to looking longingly out the window and browsing the internet on my phone. I write a sweet message to Phillipa and take some survey about the airport that gives me a free pen. Soon enough I am waiting in line to get on board the plane, and guess who is in line behind me? The nice blonde girl again. I get on the plane and find that I am in an emergency exit seat, so I have as much leg room as you could possibly wish for. I check the in flight movies, then try to get some sleep. No dice. A combination of me having some sort of sickness going on in my sinuses and not being able to get comfortable keeps me awake. I manage to watch a couple of good movies, including "real steal" which was pretty good and "crazy, stupid, love" which was a laugh riot, and had the older Korean gentleman looking onto my screen to see what was so funny.
Soon enough we reach our destination... Finland. I have a three hour lay over and decide to kill it by hanging out at the bar/grill that they have. I don't have any Euros yet, so I buy a couple of beers with my debit card. The beer, Karjala, tastes delicious compared to the light beers I have been drinking for the past half year. The restaurant is themed around Boston sports, so everywhere I look there is Celtics memorabilia. Who would have thought that the one bar in a Finnish airport would be Boston themed. I use the bathroom and while I am in there I am browsing on my smart phone. I come out of the bathroom and think "Man, I should get a picture of this snow!" and realize that I don't have my phone. I go back to the bathroom and all the stall doors are shut. "Oh, crap, someone is in that stall that I left my phone in." And that's when I hear it. The beeping noise that my phone makes to let you know the volume is being turned up. My phone has this problem that the volume goes up automatically. It is very annoying actually, and I really need to get it fixed but am not sure how to go about doing that. The volume going up usually happens when either the phone is changing temperature (like when you pull it out of a warm pocket and use it during winter) or when you hold it tightly on one of the sides. I politely knock on the door and say "Excuse me, my phone is in that stall, can you slide it out to me?" No answer. "Excuse me. That is my phone making the beeping." No answer. I wait at the stall door for a good couple of minutes, with people coming and going, and not one sound emanates from this stall, as if someone is trying to play possum till I walk away. Well I know better than that, and will not let whoever this is out of this stall without first receiving my phone. Just then a security guy walks into the rest room. "Oh, excellent" I say "Someone is in this stall I had left my phone in there. Here that beeping? That is my phone. Someone is using it!" "One second, I will be right back." I position myself for the would be thief to bolt out at this point before security gets back, but they return rather quickly. A giant nordic man walks up to the stall "Excusemezisissecurity." He says and knocks on the door. No answer. In what is probably one of the most embarrassing scenarios I can imagine, he then pulls the door instead of pushing it, and it opens, revealing an empty stall and my phone sitting on top of the paper dispenser. I grab the phone, apologize profusely, bow deeply from the waist (force of habit) and scurry away quickly. God I felt like an idiot.
Getting entrance into Europe was kind of funny itself. There was another giant Nordic man with a dirty blonde flat top of a haircut and a tattooed arm sitting at the counter. "Vat iz ur purpose in Europe?" "Vacation." "Vere ah you staying?" "With my friend in Berlin." "Ah you going to any uzza countries?" "No." "How many times have you been to Buhlin before?" "None." "Ahh, first time in Germany, eh? Plenty of new experiences and all that. Enjoy your stay here in Europe and eat our delicious food and see our beautiful sights." I then made my way to the gate where I would be leaving from, and guess who was standing right in front of it? Yep, the short blonde haired girl who I had seen a couple of times back in Korea. This time she recognized the coincidence of us taking flights across the globe to get to Berlin. She gave me a big warm smile, and I shot it right back. She put her stuff away, came over to me, and in a kind of soft, high pitched voice said "something something Deutsche?" I made this face :-/ then said "English... sorry." "Hi! Are you headed to Berlin?" "Yes ma'am." "Do you live there?" "No ma'am, just visiting a friend. Why were you in Korea?" "I was working at a school that teaches German." "Oh, there's a market for that?" "Yes, apparently the two countries are very close when it comes to engineering." "Makes sense." We proceeded to shoot the shit about what it was like for her. She had lived there for three months, having to sublet a place, and make it all on her own. She was very jealous of my apartment size, my salary, my Korean language skills and my fire-tressed significant other. She recommended a few places for me to hang out in Seoul, and a few places for me to see in Berlin, but I forgot the names. She helped me once I landed by explaining how to call the number that I had for Buhner and explaining how I should take a bus if I was going to do that. The flight over itself was kind of rough. It was only an hour and a half, but like I said before I had a sickness in my sinuses, so my mouth and throat were totally dried out, while my nose was totally plugged up. At one point a stewardess came around asking if we wanted anything to drink and I couldn't even form the word "water." I had to swallow a couple times and even then it came out as a hoarse whisper. The guy next to me looked at me like I was a leper, but didn't say anything, probably because he had an entire roll of butcher paper that he was trying to do some sort of architectural planning from, and he knew it must have been a pain in the ass to sit next to a dude trying to open a whole roll of butcher paper every thirty seconds. There were two very loud Finnish women sitting in front of me ordering and drinking champagne and laughing very loudly, so sleep was not to be had on that flight either.
I was able to get my backpack ok from the luggage conveyor and exchange my money. I went over with about a million Korean Won. I didn't want to use any of my credit cards and knew that I had plenty of money still in both of my accounts if anything happened. There was a funny moment when the guy at the money exchange window saw a million Won and was like "Woah! Are you sure you want this much exchanged?" "Yep." "Okay, I guess. That comes out to... 660 Euros... oh." He saw all the zeros on the end of my bills and thought they were worth way more than what they were. 660 Euros was nothing to sneeze at though. Quite a hefty sum of cash, but I was also going to be paying for my hostel which I was staying at for the second half of the week, and probably taking Buhner out for an appreciation meal and whatnot, so yeah, I think I had about the right amount of money. Turns out I could have done with about 100 Euros less, but I would rather have 100 Euros too much than 100 Euros too few, ya know what I mean? When I came back I made sure that I had a full set of Euros. I have a 50, 20, 10 and 5 Euro bill, along with a 2 and 1 Euro coin. Then I have the 50, 20, and 10 cent (I think there is a ten cent) coins, so yeah, that is all money that I won't be getting back, but I really wanted to have one of each. It was actually Buhner that gave me the idea, and I think it was a good one. I will do the same with Won before I leave here. Anyways, I hopped on a bus for the "Ring stop" and got off at "Jungfernheide" stop to meet Byoons. By this point it was about 8 something at night and I had been going all day. My day had already lasted for 27 hours and had another five to go. We bought some beers and went back to her place. I was ambitious thinking I could drink three, I made it through one, barely, then straight up crashed. It wasn't even ten o'clock and I was passed out hardcore. I didn't even get a chance to take my pants or socks off. Buhner said that we had a couple of short conversations when she came in to check on me to make sure I was comfortable, but I don't remember a thing.
So began my week in Berlin. I loved it. It was a great city. I had always wanted to visit Germany, and my only regret is that I didn't have more time to get around the country some. Buhner had an awesome roommate named Florian, who was German and spoke perfect English. It makes me so jealous, because as Americans we are only raised with one language. It isn't until at earliest high school that we are exposed to other languages in a classroom setting. I found that most Germans spoke perfect English, with only a couple of people who didn't understand. One of the first things I ate was a Doner Kebab, which was basically shaved meat in a toasted pita that had been filled with onions, feta, yogurt sauce, and maybe some cabbage or lettuce if you wanted it. I don't think I have to tell you how delicious it was, but I will anyway. It was so delicious I ended up getting two or three of them throughout the week I was there, at different places. It was nice to have food that wasn't based around soup or rice. Buhner had to go to school a couple of times throughout the week, so I entertained myself quite a bit, but the first couple of days she took me to a lot of sights. She took me to see the TV tower that had been erected in Berlin back before the wall had come down. We also got to see the Television and Film museum, which was very informative. It covered the history of film in Germany all the way up to the present day. They had many informative pieces that were playing various significant televised events on loops. They seemed to be strangely fascinated with JFK. Apparently he had made quite an impact with his speeches, and he was featured throughout the museum. There was also a theater in which they showed significant scenes from German television shows. All in all I think I would have gotten more out of it if I was more familiar with German television or the German language, but Everything you could read was also in English, and it was a fascinating museum. The aesthetics of the museum alone were over the top beautiful, and then you add the various pieces. It was by far the prettiest museum I have ever been through, and it only took about an hour or so. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Berlin. I was able to see the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Siegessaule, the Olympic Stadium, and like I said before, the Television Tower. Most of those things are right near the Tiergarten. Pictures forthcoming.
I spent a lot of time on my feet, and walked and stood a lot, so for a couple days during the week when I was there, me and Buhner just sort of hung out. It was good to be in the company of an English speaking person whom I have known for more than half a year, and even better to be drinking delicious German beer while I was doing it. After a couple of nights sleeping on her couch, I moved to a hostel that she had suggested. I don't blame her for wanting me out of her hair, as it can be stressful to have another person couch surfing with you for a couple days, much less the week that I was there for. She had also had to put up a couple of other people before me who had apparently pushed the boundaries of being a guest. The whole time I was there she kept saying "It is awesome that you only have a small backpack that doesn't take up my whole floor!" which was nice of her to say. The hostel was ok. The problem was that it only had wi-fi on the bottom and top floors. I had to either sit in the lobby, or in the bar to use the internet. Funny thing about that, my smart phone that I use in Korea has a wi-fi connection, so I was able to text people through Kakao talk and use facebook to communicate and upload pictures. So between the lobby and the bar, guess which wi-fi I used... yeah, you got it. The bar was on the top floor and had a great view of the city. I have already uploaded all my Germany photos to facebook, so if you are connected to me on there you have seen them. They put me in a room with five other people. Two of them were from Brazil, but I am not sure where the others were from. I didn't speak more than five words to them the entire time there. The only time I was even in the room was to sleep. They gave me a nice locker to put my backpack in, and clean sheets to sleep on. What more could you ask for? I hit up some sights on my own and had a good time before I left Berlin at the end of the week.
One thing I liked about Berlin. Public transportation. I am a big fan of public transportation. Dallas only had the DART rail, and that was difficult to use at best. New Orleans had a great street car system, but that didn't work so well in the rain. Korea has awesome buses and subways, but the subways are sooooo huge. Seoul subway map vs. Berlin subway map. It may look like the Seoul subway is less cluttered, but I assure you it is not. The central line in Seoul has 43 stops, while the central line in Berlin only has 27. Seoul and all of the areas within the "Seoul National Capital Area" or areas that fall under the economic and cultural influence of Seoul (this doesn't even include all the places the subway reaches) were said in 2007 to be 24.5 million people, while only 10.2 million of those reside in the heart of the city itself. To contrast that, as of 2011 Berlin had 3.49 million people with 4.4 million in the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. So yeah, Seoul is a little more crowded. This makes Berlin look sooooo nice. Everything about it seems less crowded. The apartments only go up about five or six floors, as opposed to the monstrous thirty something story high rises they have in Seoul. Even out where I live in the middle of nowhere they have high rises that are close to 20 stories. The S-bahn and U-bahn were easy to use and quick to arrive. I had mastered them within a day and was exploring the city like a champ. Also, something very nice about Berlin was the amount of graffiti. I never thought I would say that, but there was graffiti everywhere. Lots of it seemed like it was really really old, but it gave the city a feel that it was alive. Like every inch of the city had been explored, and the person who did the exploring had even stopped to tell you who they were. At first I thought it was a bit trashy, but as I saw more of it, I began to like it. Some of the graffiti was downright artistic.
The flight back was not nearly as eventful as my flight over. The plane was only half full, and the movies were only half as good. I left Berlin at noon on Thursday and got into Seoul at 9 AM on Friday. From there it was a couple of subways and a bus back to Gamgok where I immediately passed out in my bed. I had a couple of beers with Graham trying to decompress, but even now I feel like my jet lag is still present.
To end this post I will put up a video that Joanne Hynes shared with me by R.E.M. It is a perfect example of what the subway map looks like, and not a bad song. Here it is.
So began my week in Berlin. I loved it. It was a great city. I had always wanted to visit Germany, and my only regret is that I didn't have more time to get around the country some. Buhner had an awesome roommate named Florian, who was German and spoke perfect English. It makes me so jealous, because as Americans we are only raised with one language. It isn't until at earliest high school that we are exposed to other languages in a classroom setting. I found that most Germans spoke perfect English, with only a couple of people who didn't understand. One of the first things I ate was a Doner Kebab, which was basically shaved meat in a toasted pita that had been filled with onions, feta, yogurt sauce, and maybe some cabbage or lettuce if you wanted it. I don't think I have to tell you how delicious it was, but I will anyway. It was so delicious I ended up getting two or three of them throughout the week I was there, at different places. It was nice to have food that wasn't based around soup or rice. Buhner had to go to school a couple of times throughout the week, so I entertained myself quite a bit, but the first couple of days she took me to a lot of sights. She took me to see the TV tower that had been erected in Berlin back before the wall had come down. We also got to see the Television and Film museum, which was very informative. It covered the history of film in Germany all the way up to the present day. They had many informative pieces that were playing various significant televised events on loops. They seemed to be strangely fascinated with JFK. Apparently he had made quite an impact with his speeches, and he was featured throughout the museum. There was also a theater in which they showed significant scenes from German television shows. All in all I think I would have gotten more out of it if I was more familiar with German television or the German language, but Everything you could read was also in English, and it was a fascinating museum. The aesthetics of the museum alone were over the top beautiful, and then you add the various pieces. It was by far the prettiest museum I have ever been through, and it only took about an hour or so. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Berlin. I was able to see the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, the Siegessaule, the Olympic Stadium, and like I said before, the Television Tower. Most of those things are right near the Tiergarten. Pictures forthcoming.
I spent a lot of time on my feet, and walked and stood a lot, so for a couple days during the week when I was there, me and Buhner just sort of hung out. It was good to be in the company of an English speaking person whom I have known for more than half a year, and even better to be drinking delicious German beer while I was doing it. After a couple of nights sleeping on her couch, I moved to a hostel that she had suggested. I don't blame her for wanting me out of her hair, as it can be stressful to have another person couch surfing with you for a couple days, much less the week that I was there for. She had also had to put up a couple of other people before me who had apparently pushed the boundaries of being a guest. The whole time I was there she kept saying "It is awesome that you only have a small backpack that doesn't take up my whole floor!" which was nice of her to say. The hostel was ok. The problem was that it only had wi-fi on the bottom and top floors. I had to either sit in the lobby, or in the bar to use the internet. Funny thing about that, my smart phone that I use in Korea has a wi-fi connection, so I was able to text people through Kakao talk and use facebook to communicate and upload pictures. So between the lobby and the bar, guess which wi-fi I used... yeah, you got it. The bar was on the top floor and had a great view of the city. I have already uploaded all my Germany photos to facebook, so if you are connected to me on there you have seen them. They put me in a room with five other people. Two of them were from Brazil, but I am not sure where the others were from. I didn't speak more than five words to them the entire time there. The only time I was even in the room was to sleep. They gave me a nice locker to put my backpack in, and clean sheets to sleep on. What more could you ask for? I hit up some sights on my own and had a good time before I left Berlin at the end of the week.
One thing I liked about Berlin. Public transportation. I am a big fan of public transportation. Dallas only had the DART rail, and that was difficult to use at best. New Orleans had a great street car system, but that didn't work so well in the rain. Korea has awesome buses and subways, but the subways are sooooo huge. Seoul subway map vs. Berlin subway map. It may look like the Seoul subway is less cluttered, but I assure you it is not. The central line in Seoul has 43 stops, while the central line in Berlin only has 27. Seoul and all of the areas within the "Seoul National Capital Area" or areas that fall under the economic and cultural influence of Seoul (this doesn't even include all the places the subway reaches) were said in 2007 to be 24.5 million people, while only 10.2 million of those reside in the heart of the city itself. To contrast that, as of 2011 Berlin had 3.49 million people with 4.4 million in the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. So yeah, Seoul is a little more crowded. This makes Berlin look sooooo nice. Everything about it seems less crowded. The apartments only go up about five or six floors, as opposed to the monstrous thirty something story high rises they have in Seoul. Even out where I live in the middle of nowhere they have high rises that are close to 20 stories. The S-bahn and U-bahn were easy to use and quick to arrive. I had mastered them within a day and was exploring the city like a champ. Also, something very nice about Berlin was the amount of graffiti. I never thought I would say that, but there was graffiti everywhere. Lots of it seemed like it was really really old, but it gave the city a feel that it was alive. Like every inch of the city had been explored, and the person who did the exploring had even stopped to tell you who they were. At first I thought it was a bit trashy, but as I saw more of it, I began to like it. Some of the graffiti was downright artistic.
The flight back was not nearly as eventful as my flight over. The plane was only half full, and the movies were only half as good. I left Berlin at noon on Thursday and got into Seoul at 9 AM on Friday. From there it was a couple of subways and a bus back to Gamgok where I immediately passed out in my bed. I had a couple of beers with Graham trying to decompress, but even now I feel like my jet lag is still present.
To end this post I will put up a video that Joanne Hynes shared with me by R.E.M. It is a perfect example of what the subway map looks like, and not a bad song. Here it is.
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