An Oily Substance?

I think my apartment has been vacant for a while. I looked in the cabinet and the few items left in there from the previous tenant expired in like 07. Even the soy sauce, doesn't that stuff last forever? I was hella about to use it too, that would have been bad...

Today I awoke feeling like an adventure. So I decided to go to the store about 20 minutes away. But then I decided that was boring so I decided to go to Seoul, about 2 hours away. 1 bus and 2 trains away. Pretty ambitious for someone who knows nothing about the language or the transportation system. I went to the local bodega and bought a t-card, a card that you can use to ride the buses and trains in Korea. I told the women working "Bus" and showed her my college id card. She pulled out the t-card but said something and didn't want to give it to me. She talked for like a minute while I looked at her with a blank look. I think she might have said "Son of Sam"! Or, this card takes you straight to hell sir! But she finally handed it over and I was on my way. I got on the bus and "BEEP BEEP". The card didn't work. OH, she was telling me that I needed to put money on the card I guess. So the bus driver let me ride for free to the subway station. There, they have little ATM looking machines that let you put money on the cards. Travel here is super cheap. Like $2 for 1 bus and 2 trains, there and back! I downloaded a Metro map to my itouch and I managed to make it to Seoul station. The doors opened and a flood of people rushed onto the train. Like a salmon I went against the flow and barely made it out before the doors closed. I was in super tourist mode, Lonely Planet Seoul in one hand and a camera in the other. There were millions of people everywhere. I thought this guy was following me but it turned out to be like 5 different people... People were wearing shirts with random English word on them. My favorites were: "An Oily Substance", "Open one's Mouth", and "Fashion Clothes". It makes me wonder what those stupid tattoos people get in America of Chinese characters really mean.

My first stop was Gyeongbokgung, The Palace of Shining Happiness.
It was pretty shiny and fairly happy... I made it just in time for the changing of the guards ceremony, I was standing in the corner and the new guards were walking right towards me, I was pretty scared that I was in the wrong place so I braced myself for battle, but they saw I was ready and turned about 5 feet from me. After the palace, I walked around for hours. I saw so much cool stuff. I was kind of hungry so I went in search of Sushi, since I don't speak or read Korean, I only went on the pictures of food that restaurants had outside. There were a lot of American restaurants, I saw like 5 Bennigans and McDonalds has their own 30 story building right in Downtown. But I was in no mood for that stuff, I wanted sushi. Some other restaurant choices were Nut's Dogs Coffee, The Gruel Shop,
and the Ho Bar (I went in but it wasn't what I thought...)

Seoul was a very busy city. If you stand in the same place for even a second someone will run into you, either on foot or on motorcycle. The motorcycles can go anywhere a person can. There was this super crowded little sidewalk and a guy came flying down on a bike weaving in and out of people, it seems dangerous. Down every little alley way there were stores stacked sometimes 6 stories high. Unlike other countries, they weren't just selling a bunch of crap, this stuff actually was cool and usable. I'm not sure what I'd do with a garbage bag full of dried peppers but at least there weren't a bunch of little kids trying to sell me a plastic guitar. Seoul reminded me a lot of San Francisco, but much cleaner. Everywhere in the city there were older Korean women cleaning stuff, in the subway, everywhere. They had Louis Vuitton pattern garbage bags, I didn't know they made garbage bags...

I walked by this arcade and saw these kids playing the Korean version of Guitar Hero, Drum Hero. I wanted to try it but thought I would look odd.

So around 4pm, after walking over 5 miles, I was in dire need of food. I found a place that a a picture of sushi outside, so I went in. The Sushi chef greeted me with a loud "Aye!" like the do in America. I ordered by pointing at a menu with no pictures, I could have ordered something crazy, but when he brought it out it looked really good. One thing though... The sushi chef's hands I noticed had a greenish tint, like he had run them across a freshly cut lawn... I decided to forget this fact... They kept bringing out side dishes and he kept putting more sushi on my plate whenever it got low. I ended up with a bunch of stuff. A bomb salad, some grilled mushroom that were amazing, an egg thing that was pretty good, and soup veggies (Including a huge whole pepper) and other stuff that I didn't know what it was, it was good though. In the end this feast cost $11. Epic.

So I felt it was time to go home, exactly when all the 10million people in Seoul got off work. I had to stand the entire 2 hour trip home, it was ok though, there were these women in 6 inch heels that were standing in the middle of the train and not even holding onto anything... It was cool, I'm sure I couldn't do that.

I made it home safe, what a day.

Running round the old Patty

Sunday was a chill day, I rested. At night I emerged from my apartment for some exercise. I walked to the park and jogged past that toward the rice patties. There were so many people exercising. In the park, instead of things like merry-go-rounds and jungle jims, they have fitness equipment like in a gym. They're made of metal and look like gym equipment from the 50's. They have an apparatus for every major muscle group. There were ton's of older Korean women doing pushups and situps in the park and whole families were exercising together. This is very different from the US! The rice patties are so cool! They're freaking huge. In between the patties and the highway are little gardens where people are growing peppers, beans and a bunch of other stuff. Even under the overpass there are people gardening. I wonder if you can just start a garden anywhere because they're in like a dried out river bed and right on the side of the highway, within inches of the road.

Ahhh, Gentleman!

Today was full day#1 in Korea. It still feels like a dream, I can't believe I'm here. I woke up this morning and had to tell myself I'm in another country. My 2 co-teachers came over at around 10am to take me to the store, as I have no freaking idea where it is, it could be right in front of me and I'd have no idea. This place was huge. It was 4 stories. It had Sushi bars and clothing stores on the first floor. Second floor was a grocery store and a huge perfume store. Third and fourth floor was electronics. My co-teacher handed me a pair of cheap plastic slippers and asked me if I liked them, because I would be wearing them every day... WHat? In Korea, the teachers and students take off their shoes and wear slippers into the classroom and throughout the interior of the school, I'm glad I brought all those nice shoes! These things look like bootleg plastic karachis. It'll give a weird vibe in the classroom, like i'm getting ready to take a shower or something.

After I got back to the apartment I went for a walk around the neighborhood. This place has a very cool vibe. Everyone seems really mellow and peaceful. They just do their own thing and seem really de-stressed. I walked into the little Korean bodega on the corner of my block and these guys outside drinking all saluted me with their beers in plastic bottles and said, "Ahhh, Gentlemen!" and smiled. It made me laugh. Oh ya, drinking in public is legal here. You can get on a bus with a 40 or walk into a store drinking a bottle of jack and no one really cares.

Later in the night I met up with some westerners to enjoy the Ansan night life. It was pretty awesome. It was like freaky freaky all night long. We ended up at this sports bar and they had a life sized Michael Jordan manikin, but his bulls jersey had the number 32 instead of the famous 23, what the hell? After some Kiwi soju and Gabi I was ready for sleep... Oh ya, it's raining, well past midnight and freaking hot...

Korea Day 1

Stepping off the plane at Incheon airport,
my first thought was
"What am I getting myself into?" and felt
like turning around and getting
back on the plane.  But my second
thought was that I could never think like
that again, because this is going to be
awesome!  The plane ride was
pretty good for an 11 hour flight.
Aside from the budget
airline kimchi and the cramped seat it was as
good as could be.
I had to ride an hour and a half with this guy
from my recruiter's office.
He asked me if it was OK if he rolled down the
window to "change the air"...
I guess I was a little ripe after the plane...
So I took an
Irish shower in the parking lot before I met my
co-teacher and recruiter.
At my recruiter's house there were about 25
people from his family and there were
Korean women buzzing around the kitchen cooking
stuff that smelled pretty delicious.
I ate either dog or donkey... Doesn't that
sound like a German game show,
"Dog or Donkey".  His family were all really
nice and I met my co-teacher.
She is my age and is very nice and kind.  I
really took for granted being able
to speak at my normal pace and have people
understand me.  On my first night
I went for a walk around my neighborhood.
I didn't want to go to far and
get lost because I would be pretty screwed
at that point.  Sleeping in the
park on my first night would be quite a
welcome!  There was this restaurant
who's symbol was a swastika, Third Reich
Pizza maybe?  Also, the fire escapes
here are huge, colorful slides like on
a playground, some 7 stories high!
I hella want to try one out.  I haven't
slept since Wednesday night and it's
Friday night, I thought all the free beer
and wine on the plane would knock me
out but it just made me want to get out
of that plane even faster.  My co-teacher
is coming back tomorrow at 10am to take
me to the market, so now I'm going to
sleep, finally.