More Talk, Similar Action

A month in Korea. I've been letting the days go by and the time has flown; guess I must be having fun. But the less I say about Talking Heads quotations the better, I'll just make this up as I go along.

This weekend started with a fun excursion up north (far enough north to be about 10kms from that other Korea) for some Saturday go-karting. I forgot how fun those things are. I remember when I was a kid too young and scared to ride the karts at Splash and Put and how dad loved them. When I finally got up the nerve to ride them, he gave me tips about the right way to go around turns quickly without slamming into the walls, but there's only so much skill with which a child can tackle a hairpin.

But now age and independant recklessness have come into play, and I had a damn fun day of slipping and sliding around the track. Sure I'm a big kid, but that's news to few. Of course, being too pre-occupied with driving, the only picture I took was of the questionable grammar on the starting line banner. Twost? Secost? I wonder how the firnd turned out.

On leaving the track, some random puppies lured us onto a sidwalk to play with them and take pictures and wonder why they were out in the middle of town like that with no apparent owner. I theorized that it may be kind of akin to the fish restaurants where you get to pick which live seafood you want to eat, but mostly just as a tasteless and culturally insensitive joke. Just so we're all clear though, you can get dog here, to eat. Far be it for me to judge, though - we eat animals that are sacred to some folk. Sacred and delicious. You can really taste the holy.

Mike tried hitchhiking, both as a fun picture opportunity and as a little joke about how long it was taking for us to find a cab driving by. But we caught a cab to the station and trained our way back to Seoul.

That night me and Ben hit the Zepplin bar and got to talking to some Korean guy who took us to meet a supposed memeber of the Korean mafia and we ate cold octopus (or squid, I can't remember) and drank Soju (think cheap rice vodka, for anyone who doesn't know) and the old maybe-mafioso shouted and screamed shit in Korean and was genenrally an asshole and me and Ben got too drunk and I went home and eventually tossed those tentacles out the apartment window.

The traffic image isn't the veiw from my window or anything, by the way. It's just a shot from one of the subway stops on my way home from work, and I like the way it looks, and it's one of the few pictures I've taken in the past week.

Speaking of the relative lack of pictures, I figured I'd share some more images of my happy-but-small apartment. It seems I find myself... living in a shotgun shack, so to speak. Just check out my kitchen here. Or should I say, my porch/kitchen/laundryroom. It's nice to have it in a seperate room though. Some of the other studio apartments here just have the one room with a bathroom on the side. That means sleeping where you cook things, and that's just not right.

Yeah, I said 'cook things'. It seems I'm not the culinary involate that I once was. Despite having the crappiest stovetop in Korea (some electric glorified-hotplate, while everyone else gets gas. Childish giggle.) I actually make my own food pretty often. Taking-out is still a viable option, though. So is delivery...

See, these are all little magnets that delivery places put on my door. I've been collecting them. It's kind of sad, I get a little excited smile when I come home and there's a new one to add to the collage. It's too bad they're completely useless to me, since I can't read Korean nor speak enough of it to try and order food and have it delivered to my house. It's pretty easy to go walk somewhere and get a bite to eat, anyway.

Oh, that little banner image at the top of this entry is from one of my favourite Korean TV commercials. I'm pretty sure it's for a delivery place, but the whole thing is basically just this funny-looking guy stuffing his face and looking very pleased about it.

And that's pretty much it. Funny how the week on which the least happened left me saying the most. I'll have to address that, pronto. After all, this only happens once in a lifetime, right? (I think that's the sixth Talking Heads reference. Sixnd?)

My Name is Mud

Another week passes in Korea. I play in the mud and put my mind in a bottle like some toy ship.

I finally got out of Seoul for a day. That's kind of a milestone in and of itself. I took a crowded train to Boryeong City for the annual mudfest. The whole ordeal was actually a little less muddy than I'd feared, and about as messy as I'd hoped.

In short, it was a pretty damn good time. It was nice to get out of the Seoul smog; and nicer still to get out to a decent beach with nice waves. Really, it was more of a beach fest with pools of mud on the side, which was ideal, really. Party or not, mud should always be an option.

Of course we opted-in, at least for a little bit. We fought through the mudpool for a bit then washed off the filth in the warm and wavy East China Sea. Koreans call it the West Sea. They also call the Sea of Japan the East Sea. They refuse to acknowledge other East Asian countries, it seems.

Then the mostly sunny day gave way to night and light and more of that neon glow makes Korea Korea. On the beach they had one of those awful carousel swings that were banned years ago back home. They also had pretty mood lighting; nothing quite like a blue-green-orange beach at midnight.

Speaking of colourful lights, what would a party in Asia be without fireworks? They had a decent display, and I took many very blurry pictures. But what could go better with nice blurry memories than nice blurry pictures, right?

Between the big official display and us regular folk lighting off Roman Candles and god knows what other hastily-purchased explosives, the reek of sulfur was thick and sweet and smelly-awful the whole night. I was convinced that my clothes reeked of it the next day, but I'm pretty sure that was just some part my mind that overloaded and short-circuited.

We ended off the night with an impromptu game of soccer with some random Koreans. In fact, it was a soccer tournament. Korea versus the world; us foreigners even had a player from Ethiopia. Of course, being from a non-World Cup country, the enthusiasm with which people approach 'fuutbol' is alien to me. Of course, 'alien' is pretty synonymous with 'interesting as hell' these days anyway. We played for over two hours in the middle of the night barefoot in the sand, and I can honestly say that it was the highlight of the weekend, if not my trip so far. A defining moment in a had-to-be-there kinda way.

We won the first game and lost the second, by the way.

After the beach gaming, we limped back to the minibak (think 15-20 people sleeping on a floor fit for fewer than 10.)
That was fun both due to and in spite of its discomfort.

Uncomfortable again was the train, as we had to sit on the floor with three slightly insane but occasionally funny Americans who kept putting things inside the open mouth of their sleepy companion.

Back here in Seoul (and throughout South Korea) there's been a bit of flooding, but nothing too near me. Fear not, friends and relatives, it won't reach my second-floor apartment any time soon.

And that's all that ever happened.

Ever.

Exploring, Employment, Enjoyment

Another week or so has passed here in Seoul, and things are all well and good and solid. I've got more pictures, a more swollen liver, and nothing but another 49 weeks or so of interesting ahead of me.

Seoul is so alive. There are people everywhere all the time. Although I do kind of wish I had a t-shirt that said 'stop fucking staring at me, I'm just white', I guess the city itself should have a t-shirt for me that says 'stop staring, I'm just Seoul'.

Oh, I didn't mention this before, but right now it's what we like to call 'monsoon season'. Which means that:

A) It is always humid as holyfuck
B) It may, at any given time, rain more that you have ever seen before

Really, though, on at least two occasions I've been woken up by the sound of rain and rain only. Rain like I cannot comprehend. And yet it will still be hot as fuck. The rain here feels nothing like it does at home. You can get soaking wet and still not feel cold. And after the rain stops, the streets dry in minutes. But hot and wet are not fun for 3 weeks in a row, I promise.

The other day as I left work, the sky looked so ready to storm that I swear it was threatening me (as seen above). This will all be over in about a month though. Or at least that's what I'm told.

Then it'll just be hot, minus the damp.

I've been doing a little more exploring, of course. One of the things that amazes me is how they integrate history into the monument to moderninty here. The contrast really helps remind you that this place has well over 20 centuries of history, as opposed to four or five.

For example, this palace gate, right next to city hall (and the Picasso exhibit that I have to see before it leaves in September), in a sea of intimidating skyscrapers.



Speaking of old things, I've found a great little bar just up the road from me...
named Led Zepplin, no less.

The place has the best vinyl collection I've ever ever seen. It's owned by a pretty cool guy who's as close to a stoner as Korea has ever seen. He plays some decent (and some not-so-much) stuff, straight off the vinyls.

There are murals everywhere in the place.

There are even some in the bathroom. The bathroom, by the way, is up a flight of stairs (marked Stairway to Heaven, honestly). Aside from murals, the bathroom has no door and no sink, and is located in the corner of a small parking lot.

I've taken to borrowing a phrase from Ben (one of my compadres and co-workers) and I'm going to call this one of those 'Welcome to Korea' moments.

Work is going well. I like working there. I've still got a few kids who are complete jerks, but I've got a few who are awesome squared.

These are some kids from my Kindergarten class, and the girl on the right is probably my favourite student, bar none. If I was home, I'd use the phrase "She's so cute you could pinch the face off of her" (albeit with a touch of irony, questioning the legitimacy of such a saying) but now that I see it written it seems violent, despite the complimentary sentiment.

And that's about it for now. This weekend I'm going to the Boryeong Mud Festival about 3 hours outside of Seoul (by slow-ass train)



That should be pretty fun.

I'll leave with another little hint of Korean strangeness. I pass this poster every day in the subway, and I keep thinking to myself, "Is this the Korean DFA 1979?!"


I have no idea what this poster says or is about, by the way.

(Note: This is another entry I posted on another site, then migrated to this one.)

Arrival

Here I am in Seoul, South Korea.

I love it here and I have too much to tell and too many things to show.
I'm going to try my best to find the happy medium between saying and showing nothing and everything.

Alright, well I've been here for about two weeks now. My apartment is nice, but oh so tiny. Actually, here, have a look at it for yourself (this was last week, pre-unpacking, so excuse the suitcases and mess).

See the bathroom there? I put that there for a reason. See the shower head over the toilet? Yeah, the whole bathroom is the shower. There's a drain in the floor. It's actually not a bad arrangement. Makes it really easy to clean, at the very least.

So what happens when I leave the house? Well here are some snaps from my neighbourhood, all taken just a few steps away from my apartment, basically:

It's a pretty decent area - it's within walking distance of Seoul National, the Korean Ivy League University. It's not right on the main road, either, so I'm spared the constant sounds of traffic. This city does not sleep. Ever.


On my first Sunday here I went out at like 12 to see if I might be able to find a convenience store open, and there were freaking clothing stores still open. Not that everything's open 24/7, but you'd be surprised and confused at some of the hours they keep here.

Speaking of which, bars don't have to close here. And speaking of drinking, Korea loves it. Drugs? Well pot will basically get you thrown in jail and deported. But booze? It goes, anywhere and anytime. You can drink on the streets, in cars, on busses, in the subway. Mind you not a lot of Koreans do those last few, but there's no law against it.

That massive pile of beer is from a bar near work. You actually sit at that table and take beer from the centre. Brilliant. The lame labels are from Molson Canadian. For some reason, it comes imported with those strange labels on the back over here. Oh, and the other pictures are from just outside of a convenience store. They set up lawn furniture and you have your own little makeshift bar supplied by the store.

Speaking of stores, things are, for the most part, crazy-ass-shit-cheap here. A meal in a restaurant often costs like 3 dollars. Bottles of vodka at the convenince store for about 3 dollars, too.

I love seeing familliar products with strange and unfamilliar labels. There aren't all things I recognized, but it gives a good idea of what a store shelf looks like here. Oh, and the juice and pills are for the cold I had the other day.

I'm feeling a lot better now, thanks.

So, exploring near the house a little more, you'll find a pretty neat outdoor market...

Yeah, despite the roof, that is outdoors. It's a pretty popular way to sell things here. There's one across town that's literally about 10 or 15 times the size of this one, and also runs underground. It's quite the madness.

The food here is delish for the most part. They've got these seafood places everywhere, though (that I've yet to try) that have the product outside the store. Still alive. Swimming in tanks.

Some of these fish a fucking huge. Anyone who knows my one true phobia will know how much I love to walk by this on my way to the subway every morning. Also, every time I've seen the guy come out to try and fish a meal out of the tanks, the food makes a run for it, and flops out of the butterfly net and tries to boot it down the street. With little success, of course. I've yet to see a crab try, though.

So I guess I should mention work. The job's not hard (teaching english to kids ages 4 - 14), but some (maybe one) of my younger kids is pure evil. I'm told that in Korea, if there's something seriously like, medically chemically imbalanced about your kids, the parents are generally too ashamed (or rather, proud of their child) to admit it, so the kid is put in with all the others.

On the flipside, however, the majority of the other kids are too fucking adorable to let one jerkoff spoil it. In fact, my favourite kid is in the class with my least favourite. She's aaaadorable and she's only about 4 or 5 I wanna steal her and raise her as my own, but I don't think that would go over real well, 'specially not when I've only been there like a week. I think the contract said something about needing a few months of seniority before you could steal students.

This is around where I work, by the way. Oh, and that neon cross you see in the picture there? They're far more plentiful than you'd imagine. I've looked out on the city skyline and have been able to count 7 at once, just in a little chunk of Seoul. Apparently Christianity mixed well with some of the older eastern religions here.

And that's about it for now. I'll reiterate that I love it here. It's taken on a strange familiarity, like it feels more like home for now, instead of just aplace that I'm visiting. That's good, since I'll be here a year.

I miss you all, and I miss real home, but I'm surviving. Of course I do. Most of the time, there's just so much happening around me that I hardly get a chance to sit down and ponder home. That's good; that's the point. I wanted a year that spun my head. So far this is everything I wanted and expected.

I'll leave with a chuckle. See, knockoff brands are huge here. You can buy Abercrombie and Eitch clothes, for instance. Here's my one counterfeit purchase so far:

Sharkie?

Take care folk. I'll update again when I find enough time away from living my crazy life to write about it.

(Note: I orignially posted this on another website, but migrated it when I started this blog)