Drop me in the Water

click for a bigger panorama

Seoul continues to be great and I continue to leave it whenever possible. This weekend I went outside of the city for some white water rafting (where outside I never even bothered to check, I just hopped on the Adventure Korea bus and went to wherever).

Well, it might be a bit of a stretch to call the water white, as such. It wasn't really The River Wild or anything, but between the paddling and the occasional little rocky bumpride, it was certainly a fun little rafting excursion, particularly for a relative raft virgin like myself. I don't have any pictures from rafting itself 'cause the camera is not water's biggest fan.
Afterwards we headed out for swimming and (for the few souls with brave hearts and empty stomachs) bungie jumping. I was neither brave nor empty enough to take a plunge, but it's something I'd like to do before I leave Korea. The area was gorgeous though, as was swimming while watching people rubber-band their way off that big red bridge (see the panorama at the top of the post).

Back in Seoul, I did a bit more exploring, and found myself at Dongdaemeun Market, the largest and most random outdoor market in the whole damn city. It's also the most random market ever created my people. You can find fridges, powertools, antique cameras, counterfeit watches, sex toys, jewelry and live pets literally within feet of each other. And speaking of the live pets, they were selling chickens and roosters! Like, everywhere, in cages right next to the hamsters, ferrets and budgies. I'm not sure if they're intended as housepets or what, but it's creepy regardless.

What's not creepy is the gorgeous stream that runs through this area. Apparently this was a huge elevated highway just a few years ago, and in the interest of de-industrializing and un-uglifying the city a little, they tore the road up and exposed the natural stream hidden below. Kids wade in it, fountains run, you can cross it by hopping strategically-placed stones. It's a pretty nice break in the hustle-bustle of the mid-city market madness of the area.

Speaking of pleasant changes, my most frustrating kindergarten student has taken a definite turn-for-the-better. On his last report card, I let his (evidently very concerned) mother know that he's improving a fair bit. Then I got a present from the kid (presumably ultimately from his mother, since five-year olds have little disposable income). It was a real nice sentiment, with a really adorable heart-shaped card that says "I love you Peter". Korean kids throw around the word 'love' pretty easily by the way, it pretty much means 'like' in practice. Still, I really really appreciate my little VW Bugclock.

Last night the Canadian Hogwon Trifecta (consisting of me and the other two Canadians from my school - Ben and Mike) had a few drinks outside of the GS, as we're apt to do. Towards the end of the night, we overheard a Korean at a table behind us on his phone, and between screaming angry things in Korean, he started throwing in some random english profanities. It just catches your attention when you hear a Korean shouting "Fuck you bitch!" It's kind of precocious, really. Anyway, the guy eventually came over to us and we talked and drank and he called his wife, who came by with the whole damn family, for some reason. We almost had to go all coyote and chew our own arms off to get away to go home and get some sleep. Koreans can get pretty friendly when they've got a few drinks in.

I've also decided that I'm going to try to keep my distance from odinga jerky. It's basically kind of like beef jerky, but it's a made of squid. It's not quite as awful as you'd picture, I'm just real turned from it at the moment. Somehow squid just seems to seek me out when I've had too much to drink here.

That's all for this week. It's my birthday next Monday, and the day after is a national holiday here. Sounds like it might be a squid night.

I leave you with some more of that beloved Korean randomness. This is the poster they put in the subway with instructions on how to use the little plastic bag gas masks they supply in case of a chemical attack. Not that that's real likely or anything, but the whole thing kind of reminds me of that Fight Club quotation about the illusion of safety. Plus, it shows a guy tying a plastic bag around his head - what the hell is safe about that?