Thursday, September 6, 2012

Traveling From Daegu to Seoul (and my thoughts in between)

Mid July, 2012

Again, I've been lazy about posting on my blog.
Its safe to say that I've hit the second stage of my time here.  The glasses are no longer rosy, the grass here isn't always greener (actually, there's no grass at all), and I have discovered that Korean summers are hotter than the hinges of hell.

I have sweat more this month than all 12 months prior combined.

I've seen more Koreans wearing pants and long sleeved shirts in this weather than I've seen people wearing shorts... and surprisingly, every get up I see has an equal amount of blatant disrespect towards nature as lack of sweat on the persons wearing them.  Koreans don't sweat. They just don't.  I don't get it.

Also, I've learned that when it comes to absolutely anything, Koreans are mostly worried about appearances.  Whether they're going to the local mart to get some ramen or going out on the weekend, you're not going to be able to tell much of a difference, they try to look great all the time.  They will go all out promoting an event, making signs, posters, banners, jerseys, getting cheerleaders, fans, and just about everything you could possibly imagine for a basketball tournament...

and then have two basketball hoops like this set up at opposite ends of the court and expect us to play on them...

But really, here was the court:


 Great idea. Great banners.  Great fans.  Great chee... there were cheerleaders. Great people.
 Disastrous court.

We'll return to this theme later.

A few weekends ago, I was able to visit Seoul for the first time.  I had been putting it off mostly because once arriving in Korea, I found that there are so many things to do in and near Daegu that I had just put it on the back burner and left it simmering. Also, the prices for a KTX high speed train are quite high at 30,000-40,000 won.  Two of my coworkers told me that they were going that particular weekend and that they had decided to take a bus instead, which was about 24,000 won (about $20), so I decided to go.  The bus took longer, but I really dont mind.  Taking the bus in Korea has grown to become one of my favorite things.... it usually means I'm headed somewhere I really have no clue how to get to, what to do when I'm there, and the scenery is very beautiful.  It's strange, because on the bus is the only time I really get a sense of open space.

We sort of have a joke between my group of friends.  When we end up somewhere new we hop out of the bus begin to survey the area.  Usually we'll sort of spin in a circle or two, look down and up the street, and then proclaim to the group something like: "Wow, that's pretty neat...  Looks like Korea."  We say this because it really all looks exactly the same...  its only when I'm on the bus that I see the open rice paddies and the beautiful mountains.

My expectations of Seoul were that it would be bigger and busier than anything I'd experienced in Korea to date.  This was moderately true.  I did notice that the buildings were taller, but on the whole, it had the same feel to it as Daegu, just much bigger.

We started in Insa-dong, which is the "old" part of town.  Apparently this just means that they have a street with a bunch of souvenier stores that sell things that look like they are from traditional Korea.  Medicore at best... I wasn't too impressed, but its all part of the experience, and so it was necessary and enjoyable all the same!

Next, we stumbled upon Gyeongbokgung Palace, which I wish I could tell you a ton about, but I can't, because my memory is about as good as Korea is diverse.  In any case, wikipedia remembers everything, so if you are curious, click here, and get learned!

The palace was incredible, really.  It is in the middle of this incredibly vast city.  Right from an area of twenty some story glass buildings it turns into this brick laid wall.  Once entering there's a vast courtyard and another entrance at the far side.  We continued to go further and further into the palace, expecting it to end, yet it continued on for a long time.  To see this degree of preservation in a city this large is quite amazing, and it was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Here's some photos:
Inside looking out

After going through the first gate you come across this.  Apparently, only the king
was allowed to walk on this center strip!

This is a ring on the ground that they would tie a tent down to in order to protect the king
from less than favorable weather conditions.

These markers indicated rank.  If you were high up in the ranks, you would sit by
whichever stone marker bore your title.  Sorry, no tent for you.


Inside one of the king's various buildings...


This chimney belonged to a building which was made specifically to be warm, and that is all. It was a place where the king could be comfortable in the winter.  They would light fires underneath the house in a stone cavern and the smoke would leave through the chimney.







The queen had her own personal garden in the back of the complex.

It had walls with cool patterns.

This building was especially made for guests of the king.  He would bring them here to
 impress them and have special dinners and entertainment.  It's located on the west side of the palace
 and can only be entered by bridge.








Next comes my favorite part of the trip...

The finding of the beer.

I found out there's this restaurant that brews their own beer outside of Seoul and has it shipped in every day.  Its called Craftworks, and it does not disappoint.  We traveled over to Itaewon, which is sort of the international hub of the city.  Its easily the most diverse neighborhood in Korea and you can find all sorts of things there you can't anywhere else.  The most common thing I heard walking by was "I have big size", "Sir, come here.  I make suit for you."

We found Craftworks, and I was giddy with excitement upon receiving my first ipa since arriving in Korea, and it did not disappoint. If you're in Korea and craving a nice beer, go ahead and google it.  Its not tough to find and it was worth the trip in itself.

After that we decided to go see what Itaewon nightlife was all about so we camped out at a local corner and just people watched for a while.
At about eleven I was ready to hit the bed, so we walked on over to a local jjimjabong.  A jjimjabong basically a spa, which for one floor, divides into mens and womens rooms where you can steam and sauna as long as you like.  For eight dollars we got a nice sauna, a shower, and a mat to sleep on for the night.  It's not the most comfortable place to sleep, but it is affordable!

The next morning we finished off with a little shopping and then headed back to Daegu.

I definitely have not spent enough time in Seoul to get a feel of the city, but it was a nice little vacation.



I wasn't able to finish this post until about 2 months after it actually happened, which I realize is extremely lame.  I'm hoping to keep up to date better with shorter, more timely posts in the future.

Peace and Love!





Thursday, July 5, 2012

Night Hiking

One of my favorite things that I did in the month of June was to hike up a mountain at dusk and watch the city at night.  We weren't sure if this sort of thing would be acceptable, but we weren't that concerned, as by now we are all accustomed to pulling the foreigner card when needed (Step 1. arrange face to appear as if you know nothing.  Step 2. Smile and nod.  Step 3.  Walk away.)

We started by biking to the foot of the trail which was no simple task.  After a furious bike uphill for about a half an hour we started our ascent.  Much to our surprise, there were a significant amount of Koreans on the trail with us.  Let me remind you again that a Korean hiking trail is one of the steepest surfaces known to planet Earth.  

After one soaking shirt's worth of a hike, we found ourselves at the top of an observation platform looking out over all of the twinkly goodness of Daegu.  







After seeing how great it was up there, we thought it might be nice to watch fireworks from there, so last night, we did the same hike again and watched the fireworks from Camp Walker, which was directly in front of us from that platform.  




After fireworks we had an American feast which we hiked up with:  Pizza Hut, Budweiser and Oreos.  
Then we played with sparklers.









The End.


Tuesday, June 5, 2012

I Survived the Yellow Dust!!!!

Three months have come and gone since arrival in Korea!  My time here has been equally fun as it has been fast!  I've been keeping quite busy the past month with busy school days filled with testing, student evaluations, and lesson planning and then traveling on the weekends.

The yellow dust made its comings and goings this past month.  Those of you who aren't familiar, yellow dust is what travels in the air from the Chinese mines over the yellow sea, and makes its deposits all over the lovely Korean country.  Its very real, and very annoying!  Koreans take it super seriously and many wear masks when they go outside so it doesn't make them sick.  Apparently, it was quite bad this year... but I have to say it didn't bother me that much, and I made do without a mask...

Oh yes, very real.


The job is still going good.  My kids have shown significant improvement since I took over their class, and that has been such a treat to see.  It's been nice to settle into a nice routine during the week, and subsequently the weeks have flown by.

Also, it feels nice to be fully acclimated to living in a different country.  I remember the very first day being here, feeling so overwhelmed that it took us 2 hours to work up the courage to enter a restaurant to order food.  The first week, there was so much dread involved in planning a trip to the local mart to buy a carton of eggs... now you could chew me up and spit me out anywhere in the country and in six hours I could be sitting back in my apartment comfortable as ever.  

Each weekend trip this month has come with its own fun story of being lost or clueless, and I've grown to think nothing of it.

The past month, we went to Mt. Biseulsan (map) which is an hour and a half bus ride to the outskirts of Daegu, all of which was spent standing because of the impressive number of ajummas (technically, a middle-aged, married woman... more often used to describe an old, generally crabby lady) joining us on our hike.
Here you can see an ajumma in her natural setting.  Notice this particular one opted for the full facial armor, a popular choice among ajummas nationwide.  Nobody understands the harmful effects of UV rays better than ajummas. Nobody.




Actually, most Koreans regard the sun in the same manner as this guy....
To all of those who don't understand the reference, I congratulate you on having at least an
hour and a half more meaning to your life than I. 

Anyways, this particular mountain is the highest point at which azaleas grow in the world.  We ended up getting off the bus prematurely and found ourselves quite a distance from the actual mountain.  It took an friendly cab driver to spot us on a rural road after about 30 minutes before we were able to figure out where we were.  It was very hazy that day, so the pictures of the landscape don't really do justice to actually having been there. 




On top








The highest point you see is where we actually hiked to.  Yes, it was a long way...

The next weekend, we traveled to Busan (map) for an ultimate frisbee tournament (think soccer with frisbees).  It was quite a fun, long weekend in which we played about 8 games each at forty minutes a piece.  It was a lot of running, but it was so fun to do that on the ocean none the less.  One of my favorite things was the reaction the Koreans had to seeing us play this foreign sport (most Koreans don't know what a frisbee is).
The Koreans walking the boardwalk would look in disbelief not only at the game we were playing, but also at the fact that we were in shorts and T-shirts and it was 70 degrees outside... cold to a Korean.  Also, if I had a chun for each time we had someone walk right across our field without knowing what was going on, I'm pretty sure I could quit my teaching job.  Buying coffee in the morning, Donald enlisted Richard, a somewhat competent English speaker, to help him order coffee drinks.  Little did he know, also enlisted Richard as his lap dog for the rest of the day.  He literally followed him around from 9am-4pm.  It was quite funny...

Dick and Don





The next weekend, Don and I went to Yeosu (map) for the 2012 World Exposition.  We were quite excited for it, and were mildly disappointed when we weren't able to see some of the main pavilions because of the vast amount of people attending that day.  We were still able to see a lot of cool things and it was a great time! The theme of the expo was marine life.



The roof here is one giant lcd tv.








John Legend happened to be there performing.

One of my favorite things: the light/water show at "The Big O"




The next day we took a trip to the beach, and then got on a ferry which took us to one of the southernmost parts of Korea.  There was an amazing temple at the top of a really intense hike.  The temple was built into the mountain.  I only got to spend about twenty minutes up there since the last ferry was leaving, but I got a few pictures.



















Caught a glimpse of the Expo on the way back in the harbor


Winner: 2012 Best Brows Competition

My time here is still going well.  Its becoming hotter and more humid with each passing week.  Daegu is the hottest city in Korea because it's surrounded by mountains and as a result I've reached a point where I can withstand wearing pants when it's 85 degrees outside.  

Well, thats all as of right now... 
We're planning a trip to the Philippines in the last week of July, so that is going to be a lot of fun... I'll try and keep you more updated throughout the month of June.

I'll send you off with some pictures of our school picnic we had earlier this month.



Arial

Eileen

Betty

Chris


Eileen


Kelly... right after I told
her we weren't having rice for lunch...

Eileen and Ryan


The class