Part 1 From Suwon…

In an effort to add a little interest to this blog, I will be doing a small two-part mini-series on some of the events this week.  When you take either an entire day or most of a day going or doing one thing, it should be recorded.

 

On Wednesday, we went to meet a former teacher and friend of one of the current teachers.  So Charity and I along with another teacher, Charity’s sister and her sister’s roommate went to meet up with this lovely lady and her young (toddler age) daughter.  The interesting part of this first leg was really the trip itself.  We rode the subway to Sadang and hopped on a bus to head to the specific part of Suwon we wanted to go.

 

The subway is never really that interesting except for the crowded conditions.  The bus on the other hand was very interesting.  First, they have what appear to be washable covers for the seats.  While it may not seem like a big deal, if you assume that there are 48 million people in Korea (give or take a few hundred thousand) and that somewhere between 10 and 11 million of them live here in Seoul (again give or take…), it can be a little disturbing to know that you are sitting on the same seat as so many other people.  Now to all the mysophobes out there getting ready to spray their Lysol indiscriminately, please realize, in order to go anywhere greater than 10 km—and most often way less—you have to ride in some form of transportation and having your own car is a luxury beyond our desires and means.  Besides, germs are a good way to build immunities…right?

 

The next thing I noticed is how warm I felt.  In fact, it is true of everywhere I have been in the last week.  It is HOT!  But no Korean seemed phased by the oven created in the bus full of human BTUs and the solar oven created by the metal bus with the glass windows.  I may be overstating it a bit but it was really hot.  All we needed was an open window to help cool off.  For the first few stops I was standing and had no control over the windows.  Here I stood in short sleeves and jeans in the midst of Koreans bedecked in sweaters and woolen hats who didn’t even seem warm in the least.  Needless to say, my window was opened as soon as I got a seat.  By the way, total trip time via public transportation is about an hour.

 

Ok, so we got to Suwon with little issue and met up with this former teacher and her daughter just fine.  We settled on Outback for lunch.  For those who may not know, South Korea has many American restaurants but if you want something with a nice atmosphere which also has good western food, Outback is a natural choice. 

 

A minor side note here, if you look in the menus of at Outback, they are full of wonderful dishes.  With each dish containing meat they include the country of origin for every meat product in the form “Pork.France” or “Beef.Australia.”  Evidently there have been “Mad Cow Disease” scares with American beef and as a result, no self-respecting establishment will be found without the country of origin for their meat.

 

After nice meal of chicken and ribs, we headed out for the city of Suwon at large.  I cannot say I know that much about Suwon.  However, what I do know is that it was a main battlement and historically a place of refuge.  I was able to find some info about the structures, but it is hard to find a lot of concrete history on the place.  I suppose I will have to continue to look.

 

I guess a few things struck me as interesting there is Suwon.  First, the city is like this growing/morphing organism that expands outward while constricting itself inward.  The old fortress walls barely stand out against the ever encroaching new buildings.  As you look out you can see the old battlements beside new, shiny constructions.  Also, I think advertisers must overwhelm the public at large.  If there is a way to advertise on it, it will have a poster or flyer or some other form of promotion on it! 

 

I have posted some pictures here on Facebook.  Also, you can check the map of our travels here.  I might be adding some info to this map as we go and if you would like to follow along at home, feel free to use this map.

 

Well, that is all I have for the moment.  Please post questions in the comment section if there are any and I will do my best to answer.

 

So until next time…

 

More to Come…

A Puppy, a Train and New Found Friends…

First, let me say that while I thought about giving to you the reader and mega-post over the events of the last week (yes it has been that long since the last new one), I held back and decided that I will try to update you in several smaller posts. Call it the blog equivalent to a mini-series.

Last time I checked in Charity and I were on our way to pick up our puppy. I am happy to say that not only were we able to get that sweet-natured little ball of fur but that she has also become quite comfortable turning our entire apartment into her own patch of terra firma and all that entails.

But we need to get back to Saturday…

View Larger Map

If you take a look at the map I provided, you will notice how far away Pyeongtaek is from Bongcheon. Needless to say, when you have to use the least independent method of travel it also tends to be the most cumbersome. While I was in Toronto I got a taste of how hard it can be to understand train schedules. Now imagine having the complexity of understanding both the express and the regular lines but in Korean.

Well, I wish I could say we traveled from our apartment to Sadang and then to Geumjeong, the train junction and finally to Pyeongtaek. While we were extremely good at making the switch at Sadang and we did make it to Geumjeong, we hit a bit of snag at Geumjeong. I included a map of the basic distances involved:

Between the confusing schedules and our misunderstanding we got on the wrong train and headed away from Pyeongtaek. After our distress became evident to those around us, an extremely nice, English-speaking lady on the train who told us to get off at the next stop and pointed to the right platform. Friend #1.

After waiting for about 10 minutes and being informed…I think…in Korean that the next train was the one we wanted, I stepped onto the train and was rescued by voice saying, “No, no!” It turns out the train I was getting on was the express that wasn’t going to be stopping at Pyeongtaek. Friend #2 or Carol as she told us in very good English. By the way, her Korean name is 서 지영 (pronounced “Seo Ji Young”).

Carol explained the trip schedule to us and stepped onto the correct train with us. She was heading in the same direction to meet her boyfriend and In fact, she wrote out in both English and Korean what train we needed to get back on to head home. To say that we were grateful for her help would be to understate the fact. She basically saved us from wandering aimlessly on the train system for hours.

Also, she gave us some great information about various Korean meals and activities there in and around Seoul.

Therefore, I would like to dedicate this post to 서 지영 and all her help.

A Little Bit of Itaewon

After a relatively quiet night Friday, we arose at a not so early time and Charity, Mylinda, Lisa and I went to Itaewon. 

Saturday's Travels

 

Itaewon is near the Army base and because of the location, there are loads of “Americanized” shops.  Now the Western influence is heavy-almost everyone speaks English.  The problem is that few of them actually are capable of engaging in true American business.  For example, this is a little shop across from the pita wrap place we had lunch. 

 

Which brings me to another bit; the pita place-I wish I could remember the name-was a little joint above some other store.  It reminded me of Chipotle or Z-teca only with pitas and sandwich makings instead of tortillas and Tex-Mex fixings.  Absolutely delicious! 

 

Now you might think that after 2 months in country, the only reason that we went to Itaewon to get some Western food.  However, the true reason lay in something that is eaten less often in the Asian countries than you might be led to believe.  Mylinda had contacted an animal shelter that had one little white kitten up for adoption.  Needless to say their was a huge amount of “ewwwing” and “ahhhhing” when the tiny feline was brought out.  The joys of being a pet owner…

 

Back to Itaewon at large.  The shops around there have many English speakers who seem to have only clothing to sell.  Which was good as I have been needing to find ties that go with a few of the shirts I have.  Being a man, I have very little need to go to a place to purchase clothing (especially when my normal size of Large and X-Large are now 2X and 3X-Large in the Korean standards).  I did find out that for about the price of a shirt back in the States, I could have a shirt made to size and with the fabric of my choice.  I may have to try that as what I would consider feminine colors such as blushing pastels and vibrant shades of pink are considered more than acceptable for Korean men to wear.  While mentally I can justify it, physically and…optically, I have a hard time bringing myself to wear some of those things.  Maybe in time…

 

I let the girls head for the house and I went to Yongson on the way back.  *sigh*  For the nerd in me, Yongson is paradise in silicon and integrated circuits.  It is hard to describe the sheer magnitude of electronics being sold there.  Everything to the smallest of computer parts to the washers, dryers and refrigerators are sold between about 6 different main buildings and hundreds of vendors and shops.  If the world of electronics makes it, it is probably at Yongson.  After I had my fill of trying to convince store owners that what they were trying to sell me I didn’t want and that they did not have what I wanted.  I headed back by subway to Bongcheon and to home.

 

As I got on the subway though, this 230 pound plus 6 foot 2 inch male was squished into a space for someone that was about half my size.  Evidently, everyone in Korea rides the subway between 8 and 10 at night on Saturday.  Crazy. 

 

Well, it 11:30 and I should have been in bed a couple hours ago.  I did add some photos here: Facebook Photos enjoy and I will hopefully write again soon…

 

More later…

Valentine's Day

To all men everywhere that attempt to conjure up the romantic on good old St. V day, you should try and do it in another country! With two weeks to spare I had a plan but had no way of implementing said plan. I wanted an extravagant location for this sweetly special holiday. So, with the help of Miss Yun and Mrs. Kim in the school office, I obtained a reservation for a room at Seoul Plaza Hotel. It was beautiful! More than I was expecting by far. With our room we had free club floor pass that allowed us an awesome view of the plaza as well as snacks/coffee/soft drinks and an amazing morning breakfast.

Now for the far less romantic parts...

Shortly after dropping our stuff at the hotel, we turned around, jumped on the subway and headed to the Dongdaemun Stadium stop. I have been told that the shopping center in Dongdaemun is something to behold, but I was totally unprepared for what we found.

First though, we had to fare on the local cuisine. Everywhere I looked, I saw people eating these...well it looked like a ball of french-fries stuck together on a stick. Upon closer inspection we found out it was a corn-dog with french-fries stuck to the outside. They hose it with ketchup before handing it to you and voila! Something that tastes like a complete country fair meal on a stick!

Now, back to Dongdaemun... The area itself is huge! Expansive in nature and yet it seems that merchants were scraping the bottom of the bucket for their special spot. Everywhere there were clothes, home furnishings, nick-knacks, odds and ends, the kitchen sink and other small appliances to go with it. Now it would be one thing if it were all contained in one area but we literally walked for 3-4 hours and saw store after store after store. You can see the stats on the wiki page, but I am trying to think of a way to relate it to those in America... I could talk about football fields, but I fear I would need too many of them. I could possibly describe it in blocks, but that seems a little ambiguous. So let me see if I can describe it universally. If you have 20/20 vision, then on a clear day you should be able to see things almost a mile away with some distinction and ability. I could neither see the end of the main road, nor do I think that we went to even a quarter of the possible shops. And if I were to guess at the total weight of the all the wares, I would have to say that even a dozen triple locomotive trains with a couple hundred cars could not contain it all!

All that being said, I think that Charity and I were a little overwhelmed at the sheer amount of things available. We spent most of the time simply walking from store to store and passively taking in all that we saw. The most amazing part though, these shops stay open as late as 2 and 3am. I have a feeling we will be back for some more expeditions in the future....

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Chungmuro, where many of the pet stores are, and looked at some of the shops for a little puppy. They were all extremely cute...until you hit the price. Cheapest dog we found was ₩250,000.00 (about $220.00 USD) and the ones we liked were about ₩600,000.00. Needless to say that neither of us are that liberal when it comes to a pet!

That night we enjoyed our wonderful hotel and relaxed to some French/Spanish/Italian/Chinese/Japanese/Korean/English TV (pretty good with only 30 channels...you do the math).

The next morning we let time slip away a little and checked out of the hotel around noon. Right across the street from the hotel is the grounds of Deoksugung Palace. A very interesting place. The grounds had several buildings that displayed the detail and fine craftsmanship of the Korean people. You can check out the pictures here. It is especially cool to note the detail taken on every single beam, rafter, joint and window of the buildings. The colors used throughout were fantastic! Also, they have a water clock and a Singijeon Launcher Carriage. Also, I did not know that they had a sun dial that is intricate in its design and precise in its use.

The last thing we did was take in the National Museum of Art. It was very interesting to see how different the art was from what I was so used to. The paintings were very impressionistic and tended to focus on the mood created by the blurred lines. However, there is a stark contrast to the shadowless paintings that seemed to be 1950's magazine drawings. Detail and precision are brought to the forefront. While the eras of paintings carried through in theme and general makeup from beginning to end, there were points that you could tell Western culture has influenced the Korean people. Highly interesting and well worth the ₩1,000.00 admission fee.

On the way home we caught "a show." Evidently they have subway performances and this young man played "You Raise Me Up" on the saxophone. Beautiful. But hey, don't take my word, see for yourself:



In my opinion, a great weekend...

Maybe the romantic can try again next year...

More later...