Seoul, The “Soul of Asia”

Well, I just got back from an interesting weekend in Seoul and do I have lots to report, so let’s start at the beginning. I got my first surprise early on Friday when my co-teacher told me that rather than taking the train from Yangpyeong to Seoul, another teacher was going to drive me to central Seoul. These people continue to amaze me with their generosity. My co-teacher said the other teacher lives in Seoul, but I really don’t believe that so much, but I’m kinda stuck because these people don’t take no for an answer, let alone the fact that they probably wouldn’t understand me if I told them no. Whatever. So this wonderful woman drove me into Seoul, where I rendezvoused with my friend Hyun. A little background info on Hyun: He was one of my students during my co-teaching last spring, his English is incredible (to the point where I speak to him like I would any other native speaker…he broke out English words like “pagoda”, fucking pagoda, although I did stump him on “postapocalyptic” and “Armageddon”, win for me), and he also is basically fluent in Japanese as well. So we meet and we immediately hop onto the Seoul subway system. It was incredible, you can get anywhere in all of Seoul in no time, and it is so simple and easy to understand, even for foreigners, since everything is in English and the maps are really easy to understand. I hope New York’s subway is this simple, but given its American, probably no. Another early point of notice: Seoul is insanely clean. There just wasn’t dirt anywhere, and barely any hobos. They probably sweep them up with the rest of the garbage, probably. We headed to City Hall, a central hub of northern Seoul, that houses, you guessed it, Seoul City Hall. The lawn outside is home to most of Korea’s numerous protests. Hyun joked that the reason that the Hyatt Hotel right next door is so expensive is because you have a great view of all the protests and riots without fear of harm. We eventually met up with another of my former English students, Jung-Eun, and the three of us headed out for dinner. On our way we wandered along the Cheonggyecheon Stream that runs through central Seoul. Apparently the city decided several years back that they would restore this small stream that runs through the heart of town and its since become quite a popular relaxing spot in a busy town. I’d direct you to the numerable pictures I took of it, but sadly, I forgot it, so no pictures from this trip to Seoul. Guess I’ll just have to go back again soon, darn. Eventually, with some searching, we found a Korean barbeque for pork this time. Can’t remember what they call it, though I know galbi is the word for beef via BBQ. After dinner we wandered around the area for a bit, me amazed by the lights and sounds and utter lack of hobos, while the other two chatted in Korean. Saturday was hectic, to say the least, as we covered much of the town. We started at Gyeongbokgung Palace, which dates from the Josean Dynasty from 500 years, which was a sight for the eyes to say the least, but you can’t see that…hahaha. That was mean. Anyways, we got to see the ceremonial changing of the guards, watched many people take pictures with them (they couldn’t move, just like the British Palace guards), and then visited the National Folk Mueseum, before heading to the traditional market area of Insa-dong. That place was crazy, with innumerable street vendors and weird crazy shops everywhere. Chances are that’s where most of your Christmas presents will be coming from, just saying. After lunch of nammyeon (cold noodles), we headed to the Namsangol Hanok Folk Village, a recreation of a traditional peasant village on our way to Seoul Tower and Mt. in the middle of Seoul. Big mistake. We stumbled onto the village in the middle of setting up for some Seoul Film Festival and its numerous tents, the 6^th Annual Seoul International Walking Festival (yeah, they were celebrating walking…I thought it was dumb too), and an actual wedding, all three taking place within the village’s walls. We escaped quickly only to discover that to get to the peak we would have to walk for over 30 minutes, as there were no buses, and we were certainly not walking anymore, so we headed back towards City Hall, as there was a Buddhist temple right in the middle of town. The most incredible thing about the temple was the mini-industry of Buddhist paraphernalia that sprung up around the temple. For a small fee anyone could buy Buddhas of all sizes, Buddhist beads, even Buddhist robes. Crazy. After that we headed out for samgetong for dinner, followed by the famous Korean film, “I Am Legend” starring Will Smith…wait, no. Samgetong is basically broiled chicken, where they throw most of a chicken inside a stone pot that keeps the food at volcanic temps for a long time, along with rice, surprise, surprise, and various seasonings. Pulling chicken off the bone with chopsticks would be nearly impossible had I not drastically improved my skills with the sticks in the last week. It’s gotten to the point where I feel insulted if the waiter or waitress tosses a sympathy fork in front of me when she sees whitey sit down for a meal. “I Am Legend” wasn’t bad either, though it coupled with my reading of Cormac Mccarthy’s book The Road about a post Armageddon world, had me feeling really glum until I realized I was only in Asia, not some post-apocalyptic world where everyone is 5 feet tall and supple breasts are as rare as fucking white tigers. On that front though, the ladies about town were very lovely and breasts are more common than I thought. Sadly, as much as Brian tried to prep me for the trip (see facebook wall), I did not “get to know” any of the ladies. This trip was strictly sight-seeing, with minimal drinking. Heavy drinkings probably not gonna take place with Hyun as he’s as much of a boring bookworm and homebody as myself. Sunday was a bit slower as we only visited Korea’s largest bookstore, which was immense, and their major tech store, which was 6 floors of wall to wall digital cameras, mp3 players , tvs etc. It was techie heaven. After which, I hoped on the train and headed back to Yangpyeong. In conclusion, this weekend taught me several important lessons: 1) Seoul is very manageable to get around and survive as a foreigner, as everything really is in English, as well as most things in Japanese, if you happen to speak that devil’s tongue 2) Navigation around this entire country is very workable and inexpensive. Subway fare in Seoul was about 1 dollar to go around town, the hour train ride home was only 3.30 dollars, and bus fare to home isn’t really any more. Plus, flying to Jeju Island, the southernmost part of Korea, costs only 150 dollars round trip. 3) The English teacher I talked to last week was right: At times you are going to feel completely alone here. In Seoul, I’m surrounded by millions of people, and I feel alone since no one is telling me how much I suck at everything, how I could never please a woman (or man, for that matter), or how much my haircut sucks. Damn it, I hate you people. I actually miss you guys. Crap.