Another week, another mountain!

Things have been a bit crazy at work this last week- not too much I can do, but eh. Mostly it's been a lot of remodeling- my desk's been switched with that of the expat teacher in front of me, and they've generally been playing musical desks with everyone else. Apparently this is something they do at the office every six months or so, changing everything up. Just office micromanaging in action, I guess!

And on top of that, we had a field trip on Thursday. Which took me a bit by surprised, as I had it written down...somewhere, but I completely forgot about it 'til I got to school. Pleasant surprise, too- as not only did we take a field trip, but the kids watched a movie for the rest of the day, so I didn't even have to teach 'til later in the afternoon. Slick!

Of course, I wasn't able to take any pictures, as I forgot my camera, but eh. There honestly wasn't too much to take pictures OF. They took the kids to the Korean Securities Depository. Which, admittedly, had a museum on one floor, but still. Strikes me as an odd place to take a bunch of 6-7 year olds. I'm pretty sure the school picked this museum 'cause it was close more than anything, but still. The kids at least paid attention to the girl giving the KSD talk.

Of course, her talk- along with all of the exhibits- was entirely in Korean. So I just got to hang around and look at the occasional stock certificate or document they had on display. Made me wonder if that's what it's like for the kids whenever I'm talking to them in English. Hm. Even still, it was an enjoyable way to spend a day!

Which brings us to this weekend! I was considering hitting up a rock & roll show on Friday night- but I decided against it, as I was still getting over the last of that cold- not to mention the last Friday of every month is a ZOO in Hongdae. So next time!

But, on Saturday, I got in contact with some mutual acquaintances (read: internet people) and decided to get out of my apartment. Headed into Seoul again, at which point I met up with a handful of other expats, and we all hiked up Nansam mountain. 

 

Nansam mountain's in the middle of Seoul, however, and fairly well developed. Honestly, it was less of a hike and more of a walk- I mean, it was concrete steps the whole way up. Which didn't mean it was EASY, as...well, it had a lot of damn steps. Didn't have to do any bouldering to get to the top, either.

The view was...well, nice-ish, but I still like the Gwanaksan mountain hike better. The top of Nansam mountain is really built up- there's various resturants, lookout points, a small plaza, and so on. Had some guys doing tae kwon do demonstrations- unfortunately, we didn't know when they were gonna do a proper exhibition, so we headed off before we could see them do much more than swing some sticks around and what have you.

Another interesting thing about Nansam mountain is...the locks. Lots and lots of locks. Y'see, there's apparently a tradition for couples to hike up the mountain (or maybe just take the cable car) at which point they clamp a lock onto the fence, and throw away the key. Symbol of their unbreakable love (or the inescapabilitly of it).It was honestly ridiculous, as there must've been a good 50 yards of fence decked out like this.

Which led to us musing over the locks themselves- I mean, what if you just used a cheap little lock? Or a combination lock? Or heck, I even saw a couple of cable locks, which had chains of other locks hanging off of them- were those ones for the polygamists? Who knows!

In any case, we headed back down the mountain, got a bit to eat, and then split up. Having a little bit of time before I felt like heading home, I returned to Yongsan, determined to see the REAL market this time. And, after a bit of searching, I managed to find the real deal! Neato.

It...honestly looked a lot like the electronics market I went to last week. Huh. Though it did have a bit more in the way of grubby character- that's where they had the bootleg movie stalls. Though poking around through those was a bit disappointing, I fear. As anyone who knows me can attest, I'm big into...well, cultish movies. Whereas the bootleg dealers had mostly mainstream stuff. This included stuff that's in the theaters right now, such as The Mechanic, or that Battle: Los Angeles movie. They had a pretty big selection of Korean movies, at least- but given I have pretty much no knowledge of Korean cinema, I didn't get anything.

The video game angle wasn't too impressive either- lots of modern stuff (which looked to be legit), which is fine...but none of the older, more interesting stuff. One guy had some old N64 games (in Korean, even!) but he was the exception to the rule. Really, I'm sure you could find a better selection of stuff back in the States by hitting up Slackers or Vintage Vinyl. Furthermore, it was getting late once I got there, and most of the bootleggers were packing up. Ah well! Thus, I decided to call it an early night and headed home. I know, I'm so boring.

Today, I'm being even MORE boring- just hanging around. Did some grocery shopping earlier today, and I'm probably going to start cooking some proper food very soon. I thought about visiting one of the big palaces today- but I'm hearing that it might get kinda crappy later in the afternoon. That, and I've puttered around enough already that I wouldn't have enough time to take it all in.

So that's what you guys get to see next week! Unless I get distracted by something shinier first.

How do you say 'mallrat' in Korean?

I think I've gotten my very first 'working with children' cold. Boo. It's honestly not that bad, but it's a bit annoying. Either that, or I may be allergic to some strange Korean thing. Every now and again the news will mention 'yellow dust' floating in from China- some sort of smog/sand combination, by the sound of it. Sounds like something out of a cheesy sci fi novel. Either way, it's nothing lots of fluids and vitamin C won't fix.

So! Yesterday, I headed into Seoul, with the goal of hitting up the Yongsan electronics market. I'd heard about it in passing, so I figured I'd check it out. I had visions of cheap hardware, bootleg kung fu DVD's, and all sorts of other interesting buisness.

Unfortunately, I never made it. Rather, I made it to a electronics market, but not the electronics market. Pity! I don't feel too bad about it, however- as when I talked to some other expats about it, I learned that the cool stuff is pretty hard to find. You have to know the exact subway exit to take- and I also think there may be a tunnel involved.

In any case, I wound up in the Yongsan mall instead! And really, I suppose meandering around a shopping mall is a pretty Korean thing to do- can't be all museums, right? The mall itself was pretty big- seven floors, though said things were rather compact. There was some sort of courtyard thing in the middle, too.

Note the stage. It'll come up later.

What made me think I'd found the electronics market was a big wing of the store- one floor was computers, one was TV's, cameras, etc. The video game floor was near the top- and a little anemic, but eh. Didn't see anything I probably couldn't pick up in the US. Not like I need any video games at the moment, right? They also had something called an 'Electronic Games Arena' at the very top floor. It was closed, but I'm assuming that's where they do the pro Starcraft matches that're always on TV.

There was a music floor- with stereo systems and musical instruments...which is where I found the following guitars on display. The stars & bars Gibson (or, Gibson-knockoff, most likely) is wonderfully incongruous. In a similar note, one of the Korean teachers at my school has a sweatshirt with a big picture of the Eagle Scout badge on it. When I asked her about it, she had no idea what it meant. Go fig! I suppose it's pretty much the same as American kids wearing T-shirts or getting tattoos of random Chinese/Japanese lettering on them. I don't think I've ever seen hangul in such a context, though. Guess it just doesn't look as cool.

I think the highlight of the mall meandering was finding, of all things, an official Gundam store. Sweet. I have a talent for sniffing out the nerdiest possible thing in any given location.

For the less nerdy amongst my readership (all, like, twelve of you), Gundams are basically robots from a certain group Japanese giant robot anime shows. And apparently, they make official kits of EVERY ONE. They've got a staggering array of stuff- everything from little small-scale kits to big fancy-pants things that go for like a hundred bucks a pop. Madness. They also had some other anime-ish figurines, and even lego kits- but again, gundams are the highlight. I could identify...uh, maybe a third of what they had on display. Craaazy.

 I picked up one of the small-scale kits for six bucks- because why not? Transformers seem to be pretty hard to find here (and the few I have found are just molds from like 5 years ago). As an added bonus, it's also a model from G Gundam, which is the best Gundam ever. Kung fu fighting giant robots!

So we'll see how it goes- I don't think I'll wind up with (another) army of robot-men to bring back home, but it might be a fun thing to fiddle around with. It might be not productive, but it's productive...enough, as another expat put it. Something different from staring at a computer screen or the TV set, y'know?

I left the mall for a little bit- which was kind of surprising, as the mall itself is pretty yuppie (or the Korean equivalent), but the immediately surrounding area...isn't. Not quite scuzzy, but definitely a change. Managed to find a little beer & chicken place to have a drink (as the smoggy air had me rather parched). I think I may have confused the people as I just wanted beer and not chicken (it was the closest thing to a bar I could find), but eh.

As I returned to the mall, I noticed a big gathering at the central stage. It looked like I missed the good part, too. There were some guys, and a whole mess of girls in the audience, and it looked like they were doing signatures. Now, just WHY these guys are so popular, and why the women wanted their signatures, I couldn't say. K-drama stars, perhaps? Musicians? Or maybe they starred in the Korean equivalent to Twilight. Who knows?

After snapping said picture, I headed down to the train station- and as soon as I was about to get on the train, I saw a map that told how to get to the REAL electronics market. Do'h! Ah well. I'd already spent my money on the ticket, so off I went. Not like I can't go looking for it again, right? If I REALLY wanted, I could even go today- but I gotta work tomorrow, and Sundays are lazy for me.

I finished the evening with some socializing and a few pints at Craftworks (happy birthday Carolyn!) and then brought it in early. Again, I didn't want to party ALL night, as there's the whole matter of the train ride home- and the fact the trains stop at midnight! Last thing I'd want is to get stuck in some random neighborhood late at night.

Even if it WOULD be a bit of an adventure. I'd probably see about finding a PC bang or something and waiting out the night there. Which, again, may make for an interesting blog posting of its own!

Settling In!

Okay, to begin, I'd just like to let everyone know that I (along with everyone else in Seoul) am fine. The big Earthquake was, of course, in Japan- and we're on the opposite side of Korea, to boot.

Now, with that said, I'm happy to note that things are going pretty well here in Korea! To begin, I finally got proper internet access- after a bit of badgering and cajoling, yes, but still. The important thing is that I actually have a wire to plug into my laptop, which is far more reliable (and faster!) than mooching off of unsecured wireless networks.

Also after some cajoling, I got a TV, too! I didn't watch too much TV at home (except for Netflix binges...) and I don't imagine that will change too much, given most shows are in Korean. However, they DO have some shows in English with Korean subtitles, which is neat. They've even got Castle, one of the few TV shows I watched regularly back home. Yes, I'm a little bit of a Nathan Fillion fanboy. Me and about fifteen percent of the rest of the internets.

However, here's the thing. I have a TV...but I don't have anything to put it on. There's only the one cable jack in the apartment, and it's a short cord...so right now, I have it sitting on the floor. Classy. My co-workers tell me that I just need to keep an eye out for people getting rid of old furniture, and I'll be able to claim it if they throw it away. Curb couches (or, hopefully, some sort of end-table) for the win.

Probably the biggest thing I've done thus far to get settled, however, is grocery shopping. It's a bit of a challenge, given that most of the labels are in Korean. Still, once I verified my credit card worked at the grocery store, I made it a point to start stocking up on essentials. Olive oil, garlic (Koreans LOVE garlic), some dry pasta, ketchup, orange juice, and I even splurged on some kinda pricey beef. Still, I'd say it was worth it, as it was pretty easy to make the pasta, then combine it with the meat, some olive oil, and some of the spices my sister sent over with me. 

Simple, but tasty. And it was nice to actually eat something I made myself that was more advanced than a sandwich. Just this morning, I made my own improvised garlic bread, but I didn't snap a picture of that. I'm a pretty at food photography- or just photography in general, so you're not missing much. I will have to think of other cullinary endeavors for my teeny little kitchenette, however. Any suggestions?

Finally, I've been finding a lot of resources for expats living in Seoul- Groove magazine, for example. Or this website called the Korean Gig Guide, which is a resource for looking into Seoul's music scene. I'm particularly excited about that last one, as I loved to see live music back in the states. And it's also encouraging to learn about music that isn't K-pop.

One of the things I learned about in poking around these websites was Craftworks. It's American style brewpub in Seoul, which sold microbrew beer made in Korea. Naturally, I had to go. I'm tired of Cass. As an added bonus, they were having something called a 'Fermentation Celebration,' which had a bunch of people giving out samples of their various homebrews- or even stuff like pickles, home made kimchi, cheese, and makkoli. 

But damn if it wasn't crowded. I heard somebody describe it as 'this is the most white people I've seen in one place since getting to Korea.' I talked a little in passing with some of the homebrewers, and got some cards & contact info. I even found out about something called the 'Brewluminati.' 

Best secret society ever. Also, not very secret.

I wound up at the bar, whereupon I had some full-sized beers. First proper pint I've had since getting to Korea (well, second, if you count the Duvel I had awhile back). Delicious- and cheap, too! I had their dark ale, and a kolsch. Which, combined with the various beer samples I'd had before (I'll say it was a pint, pint and a half's worth?) got me buzzed a little early. I had meant to get some food, but the place was so busy and crowded that I didn't bother.

I bought myself a pintglass. too, as I wasn't able to find any in my preliminary poking around in Ilsan's stores. Though the one pictured is actually the second one I had- and it eventually got to the THIRD- as the bartenders kept seeing an empty glass on the table, so whenever I would turn my back, it would disappear. Efficient service, if a bit frustrating.

There was a pair of older (I believe the polite term would be 'weathered') Aussie ladies sitting next to me at the bar, and talking with them was a riot. Of course, they kept telling me I should've just STOLEN the glass, but I refused to do so, on a matter of principle. That, and the bartender was a cute girl from South Africa, so I didn't wanna make a bad impression.

And thus, I meandered home. I stopped briefly at an English language used bookstore nearby. Didn't see anything that really leapt out at me- if anything, the thing that really got me was how many books they had stuffed into that tiny store. I should've taken a picture. There were even bookshelves mounted on rails so you could slide them out of the way to see MORE bookshelves behind them. Impressive!

A train ride later, I made it back to my pad without too much trouble, clutching my pintglass to me like the most precious of macguffins. Since then, I'm afraid I haven't done too much of consequence, but having a day to just sit around and take care of things is nice. I still need to do some laundry, take out the trash/recycling, and generally tidy up the apartment- but that stuff's trivial and boring.

More interesting stuff to come in the future, however!

Me vs. The Mountain!

One of the tricky things about living in Korea is going to be finding stuff to do on the weekends. Not that there isn't stuff to do, mind you. It's just that it takes a bit of time to ride the subway into town. Which, admittedly, is what ipods are for, but I digress. I also don't want to spend TOO long in Seoul, or have too much to drink, as I'd rather not have to navigate the subway system under the influence. Give it some time and I'm sure I'll figure it out, eventually.

What it really boils down to is that I'm not on my home turf anymore, so it's not like I can read about something in the RFT, know the act that's going to play, the joint they're playing at, and even sometimes the bartenders working there and/or the regulars who're bound to be at the show. In St. Louis, I'm spoiled. But, given time, I'll learn!

In any case, I at least had stuff to do yesterday! Namely, I met up with Amanda and some friends of hers to go on a hike up Gwanaksan Mountain. It's a pretty big mountain towards the south of Seoul- and apparently a rather popular destination.

Hiking is big in Korea, and I have to say Koreans are a bit...thorough in their preparation. You can spot the hikers on the subway really easily; they're the ones decked from head to toe in North Face brand gore-tex (complete with matching hat!) and carrying a big backpack with collapsable fiberglass walking sticks strapped on. I wanted to get a picture of some of the high tech hikers, but I kinda felt awkward asking for said picture. Ah well!

In comparison, I dressed like this.

I brought a knife, a nalgene, good socks, better boots, and a bandanna. Minimalist approach. Then again, I watched a lot of Survivorman before I left the States.

The hike itself was fun! Hard, but fun. (A reminder for me that I need to get into better shape)The first leg was just trudging up some rough hewn stairs along the slope of the mountain- kind of steep, but really the worst part.

Another interesting thing along the trail was the occasional helipad or bunker-trench. One of the few reminders I've found so far that there was a war here some 60 years ago. Crazy stuff. Here's to hoping they'll never be put to that use again, right?

 

This, of course, didn't stop Amanda and I from posing. Amanda wanted to climb into every trench she could. Hijinks ensued.

So we plodded on, and the trail leveled out...until we saw...this.

The little white speck towards the right of the picture? That's a hiker who's ahead of us. We were going to have to climb that. A bit intimiding, I admit. I had some second thoughts, but a little cajoling from one of Amanda's friends got us underway! It wasn't a completely sheer climb, but pretty rough in parts. Thankfully, I got to say "oh yeah, I used to be a rock climbing instructor," and clambered up as needed. At at the top of the first peak, there was a flag. Naturally.

Further down the trail, we came to a second helipad clearing- where an old dude was set up selling bottled water, makkoli (Korean rice beer), and boiled silkworm larvae. Huh. We got a free sample by merit of being Americans, and I think he found it funny that we were trying them. I ate one. It was...interesting. Kind of a vegetable-ish texture. Tasted like whatever seasoning he threw in the pot. Not exactly something I'd go out of my way to get, I fear.

The makkoli, however, was pretty tasty. Sweet, but refreshing. And in our little booze-and-bugs-break, one of my cousin's Korean friends told us that a lot of old Koreans use their hiking clubs as a sort of meat-market; they climb up to the top of the mountain, bringing booze with them in their backpacks, have a couple drinks, and then hook up. Not a bad system, I have to say.

We hiked back down the mountain, coming out near a different subway stop. One of my cousin's friends wanted to go to the fish market to some other expat's going away party, but I declined to go. The fact that I was a bit sweaty and muddy and generally disheveled sort of put me out of the mood for socializing. Though now that I think of it, I imagine there would've also been the smell of fish everywhere to offset my personal aroma.

So instead, I hung out with my cousin and some friends of hers! Had a brief breather at her apartment (which, naturally, is better furnished than mine), at which point I got to scroll through the wonders of Korean television. See, I still don't have a TV in my apartment, and the folks at my hagwon are dragging their feet on that. So this was my first real, remote-in-hand experience.

Korean TV could warrant a post of its own, I'm sure. I scrolled through the channels- there's Discover Channel, some sort of American action-movie channel (showing Mission Impossible 3), and Cartoon Network (dubbed into Korean, but Tom & Jerry's slapstick is a universal language), and...then odd Korean stuff. There was some sort of Chinese historical drama which looked kinda neat, some show about old ladies singing Kareoke, and, of course, a televised Starcraft match.

For the record, Starcraft is pretty damn boring to watch.

We wound up hitting up a galbi resturant by my cousin's place. Tasty food, cheap beer- not a bad combination. She and her friends were gonna hit up Itaewon, but I declined- both due to fatigue and smelliness. I'm sure I'll have my crazy nights soon enough. Give it time!

SEODAEMUN PRISON (and other fun).

And now I'm getting into Seoul proper! Sort of. Barely. Then again, I've only been in the country for a week, so it's not like I can't take my time. One down, fifty one to go, I guess?

In any case, March 1st is a big holiday in Korea- it's to honor the independence movement that sprung up during the Japanese occupation. And as a result, no school that day! Bonus.

So, having the day off, I took the subway into Seoul, at which point I met up with my cousin and her friend. Once we made our rendezvous, we all headed over to Seodaemun Prison. This prison was built early on during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and was used to hold political prisoners.

The prison itself is a blocky, utilitarian set of buildings- which is what one would expect. It's since been turned into a museum, which is interesting. It was rather sobering, as there were lots of exhibits devoted to the various cruelties and tortures the Japanese inflicted on their prisoners. They didn't have anything TOO gruesome, thankfully, but it's still a bit chilling to think of such cruelty all these years later.

Of course, the museum also had a heaping amount of nationalism to it. Terms like 'patriots' and 'martyrs' were used quite liberally in the exhibits- or at least in the English language parts. They also gloss over the fact that the prison was used by the Koreans from 1945-1987. On the one hand, I can understand honoring those killed during a terrible time in the country. On the other, there's also the matter of academic objectivity in museums. Heavy stuff, either way.

They also had a rally there, which made sense. I, speaking no Korean, had no idea what they were saying. Of course, my cousin's friend, who CAN speak some Korean, couldn't understand them either, due to the PA system that they had. Whatever they were saying, there were lots of flags.

Big flags.

Once we finished the tour, we headed down to the train station- at which point a couple of young Koreans with a big camera came up to us asking "Interview?" My cousin's friend did what little talking there was, but I can't help but wonder if the three of us wound up on some local news station's broadcast, as we were the only non-Koreans I saw when we were there.

My cousin had a very interesting way of looking at our schedule for the day. She called it a carrot & stick sort of thing. She's been in the country since December, and she's taken on a approach where she'll go see something Korean and cultural in the morning...and then go to bars and party afterwards. It's not a bad plan.

So we loaded up on a bus and wound our way to Itaewon, which is the foreigner part of Seoul. America-town, if you will (even if there's a bunch of other nationalities present- lots of middle eastern sorts). It's a bit touristy, but I'm glad I went.

We hit up some little galbi resturant, which was quite tasty. As I've mentioned before, when you eat at a Korean place, you get a LOT of food. For the most part, you order what kind of meat you'd like, and then all the sides are thrown in automatically. We had some sort of marinated pork, which was quite tasty, and washed it down with some Korean beer, which was...wet. Good with a meal, at least.

This done, we poked around a little more. They showed me an English language bookstore, which has me all kinds of excited. They even deal in used books, so I should be able to turn around some of my stuff once I read it. It was funny, too, as I noted some of the books in the used section: a bunch of Warhammer 40k novels, and what looked like a complete set of the Vampire: The Masquerade clan novels- I'm obviously not the first nerd to come through Seoul.

We also stopped at the foreign grocery stores in Itaewon, where I got to goggle at some prices on foreign food. Almost 15 dollars for a 2lb box of Cheerios! Thankfully, I haven't been here long enough to start craving American food very badly. And if I do, maybe I can convince one of you lovely readers into sending me something, right?

I at least picked up a package of Tim Tams- they're some sort of chocolatey cookie thing from Austrailia. My cousin's friend told me they were pretty much the best thing ever, and can be combined with coffee for something called a Tim Tam Slam. I shall keep you posted.

And after a little more roaming through Itaewon, we went to a foreigner bar called the 3 Alley Pub, whereupon we drank a bunch of Cass and ate a bunch of cheap chicken wings.

I called it an early night, however, as I didn't really want to navigate an unfamiliar subway system under the influence. Rest assured, however, I didn't have any trouble making my way home! Still, it was a bit of a trip, so one of my goals is going to be to find closer places to hang out- at least for during the week. And, of course, cool people to hang out with.

I'll keep you posted on both of these as they develop. Talk to you soon!