Impressions of Icheon

So! I've been in Icheon for a whopping 48 hours now. The move went rather smoothly- the new school sent a driver to get me, we loaded my stuff up, and off I went. Was about a 90 minute drive from Ilsan, which wasn't too bad.

Even though I've only been here a short time, I already know Icheon's going to be very different from Ilsan. It's a smaller, older city- it's not quite 'middle of nowhere,' but it's nowhere near as big and flashy as Ilsan. I think I'm living in one of the quieter neighborhoods too. There also seems to be far more mom & pop style stores, instead of the big chains one tends to see in Seoul- or if they're chains here, they're far different ones. Furthermore, the recruiter (an American, for the record) told me he thought there was about 60-something expats here, as compared to the at least a few hundred living in Ilsan. Suppose going to LePub every week spoiled me.

I'm not too far from Icheon's strip, which is a shopping plaza sort of thing. It kind of reminds me of Myeong-Dong, only, y'know, smaller and far less crowded. There's a farmer's market at one end, so I imagine I'll at least do well when I want fresh produce. I also saw a store that had a bootleg Superion set to match the bootleg Defensor I got a bit ago- I'm definitely gonna pick that up soon enough. Yay nerdery.

My apartment came pre-furnished, along with a lot of stuff the previous owner (the teacher I'm replacing) left behind. Books, shelves, cooking utensils, computer speakers, dishes- I was quite excited to dig through the stuff to see what was being left behind. There's even a 'Learn Korean' workbook which I should probably start working on soon, too!

On the cons side, the apartment doesn't have a dishwasher, and the bathroom is against an exterior wall so it tends to get kind of cold, and I haven't figured out how to use the washing machine yet. Even still, it's a nice little place, and I've lived in rougher conditions.

In any case, I start work at the new school tomorrow! Exciting times.

Another quickie! I honestly don't think anyone's gonna read this entry 'til the World Series is over, though. :)

Yes, I did a lot this past weekend. In fact, I've been busy this whole week, which as made me either too busy/too tired to put in a blog post.

In any case, I have BIG NEWS. Namely, I'm moving!

Long and short of it is, I'm not that good at teaching Kindergarten- so I wound up finding another job where I'd work with older students, for less hours, for more money. Slick!

The rub, however, is this job is in Icheon, which is something like 50 minutes southeast of Seoul. I've heard it's nice, however- and it's honestly not TOO far fro me to make a weekend trip to the big city whenever the coolest stuff is happening.

The Ilsan school was very accommodating, too, and honestly things went off in the best possible way. I'll miss the kids (some of them, at least), but so things go. It's funny, however- yesterday, when I told the kids goodbye, all the kindergarteners went "NoooOOooo!" and were sad. The elementary school kids, on the other hand, were more like 'So?'

So yeah. Moving! Crazy. My ride should theoretically be here in an hour or so, and the teacher they got to replace me in Ilsan will be moving in around the same timeish, I think? I've spent the last while cleaning up my apartment- right now, it's still a bit dusty and such, but it's no longer something that will terribly horrify my successor. It's unfortunate, though, as we all went and hung out a little bit at the other American teacher's pad on Wednesday, and his pad is MUCH nicer than mine, so we kept on telling my replacement that his apartment is the exception, not the rule.

So yeah. Expect reports to come about the city of Icheon, my new apartment, and even a brief report on nerdery in Korea. Woo!

A quickie!

Yes, I've been tardy in blog posts. But here's an update nonetheless.

Last weekend was fairly low key- it rained a ton on Saturday, so I stayed in. Sunday was gorgeous, however. I traded in some books at What the Book (Seoul's leading English language bookstore) for new ones, and then I met up with my Cousin and our friend T at a big flea market thing at Seoul World Cup stadium. I didn't get anything at the market, however- mostly because the books were in Korean, and the clothes were in Korean sizes. It was still fun going, nonetheless! I also saw a bootleg Bruticus- which I didn't get, as I have the actual mold back home in the states.

Afterward, we took a walk along the river and had some galbi in T's old neighborhood. T's been in Korea for a long while, and she had some really interesting stuff to say about the rapid growth and gentrification of that part of Seoul.

And, uh, that's it. Work's been going fairly well. It helps that I get to teach a Halloween-based unit. "Freddy Kreuger" is one of the vocabulary words. I've gotten a lot of mileage out of showing them random clips from Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein (a movie I'd like to see in its entirety, come to think of it).

Went out boozing last night- LePub's a little different under the new management, but I'm sure it'll be fine. Seemed fairly busyish. Ambled home around 2am, and now I'm awake! Mostly.

This weekend's gonna be a bit more eventful, however- in a few minutes, I'm going out on a work-picnic thing with the other teachers, which should be fun. And after that, there's apparently some sort of comics festival thingamajig going on here in Ilsan, which I'm rather excited about. I'm hoping to get a glimpse at a Korean-nerdy subculture, but it may just be a bunch of bookstores hawking manhwa. Either way, expect overthinking analysis to come!

And because it's a short entry, have some pictures of my beer shelf. I like to keep track of what kinds of beers you can get over here. This isn't ALL of what's available- but it's a good part of it. I'd say at least 75% of these were bought at the same homeplus, too. 

That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned!

Man, you were really drunk on Friday night." The Welshman told me.

"I was?" I said. I then took a tally of the previous evening's imbibements. This...was somewhat of a long list. Really, the part where I'd gone awry was having scotch early on in the evening, mostly because whiskey tends to make me a bit...ah, rowdy. And then Gundam Guy started playing lots of Electric Six on the bar's speaker system, which also tends to make me a bit rowdy.

Not that there wasn't occasion to booze it up, though- y'see, LePub, my primary expat hangout, is being sold to a new owner. Who, admittedly, I hear is pretty cool, but it'll be a change in the bartending staff, at the very least. So it goes!

I made it home safely, though- I may have had quite a bit, but I certainly know when it's time to pack it in. Saturday was fairly quiet. I briefly stopped by the makkoli festival that was going on, but I didn't have anything to drink while I was there- didn't feel like boozing it up, y'see.

I had originally meant to swing by Hongdae for a punk rock show at Club Spot, but I was feeling vaguely sick-ish, so I didn't bother. Nothing too bad, but I just didn't want to pull another all-nighter. Instead, I went...to LePub! Again, as Saturday was the last night it was under the current ownership. I took it much easier this time around. Which was funny, as I ran into The Welshman and Co at LePub, and the lot of them had been partying hard since lunch on account of the Rugby World Cup. I'm actually a bit jealous of their enthusiasm, but what can you do?

Sunday, again, started quiet. Had lunch with some friends of mine, and (after a bit of hemming and hawing on my part) I DID wind up going to Hongdae, whereupon I went to two places I should've visited a long while earlier.

The first was Castle Praha! Yay microbreweries! The decor of the place is certainly neat. Service was a little slowish, though, and the beer was a bit pricey...but I will say their witbier is deliiiicious. Though it's hard not to be when you're up against Korean beer. Heh.

The second place was DGBD, one of Hongdae's leading music venues. Or...something. They were having the 24th Kimchiabilly Night there, and I am very, very glad I went. It's been awhile since I've seen a live show, and it just reminded me how much I love seeing obscure live music while drinking crappy beer. It's the little things, y'know. The place had a fairly neat space going on- you actually entered via the balcony and had to take a stairwell down to the floor. I guess the cool kids hung out up top, but the joke's on them, as the bar's down below!

The crowd was mostly Korean, and a bit thin-ish, being a Sunday night- but I've seen some DAMN good shows on Sundays, too. I think it's got to do with the really enthusiastic fans being the ones who bother to get up to stuff on a weeknight, y'know?

Playing that evening was...

The Strikers, a pretty straightforward punk-rock trio. Good energy, though!

Copy Machine- you can tell they're a ska band 'cause the singer's wearing a neat hat. These guys were GREAT- they had a really peppy, fun, third-wave sort of sound. On the one hand, they kind of cheated, as they didn't have a horn section- the keyboardist just had a Korg set on 'horns.' On the other hand, the keyboardist was playing both sections, so that's pretty impressive anyway.

Peppermint Jam- the only non-Korean band on the list, they were Japanese Rockabilly (which made me kind of wish I'd worn my Guitar Wolf shirt, but eh). Was funny, being an American seeing a Japanese band in Seoul- I think the guys from Peppermint Jam knew about as much Korean as I do- which is to say, not much.

And finally, the Rocktigers! This was my second time seeing them, and they're no less kickass after the first go-round. Velvet Geena is still tiny and full of swagger. Honestly, any one of the bands I saw that evening would've been worth it, but the Rocktigers set was damned solid. What's more impressive is that, according to the Korea gig guide website, the Rocktigers & Peppermint Jam packed their gear up and took it to a different club for a 10:30 gig. That's hustle! I s'pose if I wanted to, I could've checked that out as well for a double dose of radness, but I decided against it, opting to get home at a halfway decent hour. Fancy that!

In any case, I managed to survive yet another Monday. Though with Halloween fast approaching, I really need to get a costume put together. Right now, I'm kind of leaning towards 'cardboard robot' or, if I'm REALLY ambitious, 'cardboard Optimus Prime...because if you're gonna go for something, why not go big, right?

I don't care what you say, I'm not calling it 'football.'

I've pretty much given up on a regular update schedule, I think. Still! Obligatory update to let you know I'm still alive!

Things at my hagwon have been pretty damn crazy for the last week or so- the last week of the month is always a bit nuts. But it's Friday now- and a Friday leading into a three day weekend! As per the usual, I'm not entirely certain what I'll be up to, aside from 'something.'

But enough about THIS weekend- it's time to tell you about what I did last weekend! So apparently, it was foreigner night at the World Cup Stadium for a K-league soccer game. Neat!

So tickets were under 10 bucks, and you got a free (warm) beer and a (cold) hot dog. Neat! My Cousin went as well, but she got there before I did and likely got better seats. In any case, I went with some of my Ilsan-based friends (namely, The Welshman, Gundam Guy, Mr. Gyopo, and the Vegan Canadian Girls- all of whom I have arbitrarily given codenames to), and had a good time of it. I'm not really much of a sports fan in general, but I always enjoy going out to watch a game. And really, Soccer's a pretty fun game to watch.

Unfortunately, I wasn't sitting in the super-hardcore fan section- and I kind of wish I had. There was a big mass of black & red (badass team colors, I must admit) where people had flags and drums and all kinds of crazy stuff.

The game itself was kind of a beat-down- Seoul FC beat Daejon 4 - 1. Still, I guess I was rooting for Seoul, as I live closer to them. And, of course, they have the rad team colors. Makes me kinda wish someone was tooling around in a Harley Quinn getup, but I fear most Koreans wouldn't get it. Pity!

In any case, after the game, we puttered around- and wound up meeting up with some other friends of The Welshman's. Neat folks, really! One of them happened to be Iron Maiden Guy from awhile back, which just shows how incestuous the expat community over here is. Worse than living in a small town, really.

By this point, there's like a dozen of us. And we take the subway a few stops over to Hongdae. Unfortunately, this was one of those situations where there were too many people and not enough initiative- personally, I could've taken more of a leadership role, but I really didn't know them that well, and just busting out with 'FOLLOW ME, LADS!' wouldn't have gone over that well. I need to work on my charisma.

In any case, the lot of us wind up at some seafood place in Hongdae, which was actually pretty tasty. Now, my original plan was to eat dinner, then catch the subway home at a halfway decent hour.

...This didn't happen.

As The Welshman, Mr. Gyopo, and Gundam Guy said 'No! We'll hang together! We'll all just pitch in ten bucks and take the taxi home!'

...This didn't happen either.

Again, the lack of initiative in our big mass of people hurt us, as we spent a good while kicking around The Park in Hongdae. Which, admittedly, is kind of a neat place to be- there was some band rocking it pretty hard, but I'm afraid I only caught the end of their set. Not to mention it was hella crowded, so I didn't get a very good view.

By the time the band wrapped up their set, I'd lost track of my little Ilsan crew. I wound up tagging along with the remnants of The Welshman's friend's group, and hit up some club called 'Freebird' where his friend's band was playing. They were called something like 'The Scott Logan Experience' or...something. They were just a cover band...but at least they were a GOOD cover band. Eventually, they wrapped up their set with a pretty good C-Lo Green cover, and that was about that.

There also was a ninja. That happens sometimes.

In any case, around, uh...2:30 AM, I decided to call it a night, 'cause I'm an old man like that. So I meander out of the bar to get some fresh air, give some directions to a be-kilted scotsman, and I wrapped up the rest of the night by holing up in a PC Bang, where I watched random youtube crap in varying states of consciousness 'til the subways opened up again.

Sunday, obviously, was a recovery day.

So yeah. As I mentioned before, the week's been busy, but I survived! Weather's also gotten a bit cooler- some of the Korean folks are bundling up in fancy pants windbreakers and scarves and such. I might even go for the fleece myself tonight. Just a reminder of the impending bitterly cold Korea winter, I guess!

At least I've got good socks.

Two weekends of hijinks!

First, Chuseok! Or, to put it more simply, 'Korean Thanksgiving.' For those who don't feel like hitting up google or wikipedia, it's a typical harvest festival. Lots of family, lots of food, and so on. One of the particular things is that EVERYBODY heads out of Seoul to visit their grandparents in the the countryside. Given how I'm not, well, Korean, I was left to roam a quiet and mostly empty Ilsan (and Seoul, later). It wasn't quite 'I am Legend' empty, but it was far quieter than what I'm used to.

Despite being a four day weekend, I honestly didn't get up to all that much. Which was kind of nice anyway- I'm a big fan of being able to just take it easy. I did do a little bit of exploring anyway. I meandered through Itaewon a bit (because where else will things be open?) and I'm rather glad I did, as I managed to find myself a bootleg Defensor. Yay knockoff transformers! The plastic is pretty flimsy, and I can spot at least a half dozen places where corners have been cut- but at least when you put him together, he looks pretty cool. Funny that it's taken me 7 months in Asia to find good bootleg transformers- guess I'm just not looking hard enough. 

Chuseok itself fell on a Monday. I took the opportunity to meander by Gyeongbokgung palace again, as it was free to the public that day, and they were having some sort of cultural folk festival or something. Unfortunately, the festival itself wasn't too noteworthy (at least the stuff I saw), but it was kind of neat to poke around the museum parts I hadn't seen before. In particular, there's a 'folk village' that's set up to reflect what stuff looked like during different decades. One touch I really liked was that they had a 1970's-ish era comic book shop as one of the exhibits. Neat! Once again, I manage to find the nerdiest thing in any given area. It's a talent.

Perhaps to make up for my boringness on Chuseok weekend, I actually went out and about this previous weekend. More specifically, I went on a big expedition with my Cousin and a bunch of our friends to a little town called Sokcho, out on the east coast.

The bus ride was pleasant- though one of the things I've found in my (admittedly limited) travels in Korea is, well...a lot of it looks the same. Heavily forested mountains, and little towns tucked into the valleys. Sometimes picturesque, but a little repetitive.

In any case, the bus went through a couple of tunnels on its trip...and when we went through the last tunnel...it was raining on the other side. Not...exactly the best beach weather, but what else can you do? Thankfully, I remembered to bring my gore-tex jacket. Be prepared, and all that.

Despite the rain, this didn't stop us from having a good time! It was a little chill, and perhaps a little crowded, but there's something to be said for sitting around, watching TV (SWAMP SHARK), and of course, drinking. Many boozes. We found a new use for the rice cooker, as you can see.

When it got later, we hit up a rather tasty galbi resturant (as we usually do), then we hit up the local Norebang (as we usually do). Really, add in coffee shops, mini-marts, and PC bangs, and you've got the most common buisnesses to be found in Korea. Norebang's by far the most entertaining option. I think it's the required way to end an evening whenever you get a certain number of expats together. Or maybe it's just OUR required way to end an evening whenever you get a bunch of us together.

I guess that's kind of rad, right?

Sunday was a little more low key- we lazed around, slept off our hangovers- and even if it was still raining, we played around in the big-ass waves anyway (I even went sans-gore-tex that time) and finally cleaned up and made the trip back to Seoul. Not much to say there (though I did spy another, smaller bootleg Defensor set at a rest stop on the way back. Who knew?).

I'm not sure what I'm getting up to this weekend, but I'm gonna make it a point to do something interesting. Stay tuned!

Also, it's kinda cold all of a sudden. Ridiculously abruptly so. It's like someone realized 'Oh, it's September!' and flicked on the 'cold' switch. I think that's how things work here.

Beach party!

Yes, I skipped a week. But mostly 'cause "I had to spend most of the last Saturday in August in a training seminar of dubious usefulness" would make for a pretty short (and dull) blog post.

Meh. Work progresses as it shall. Just yesterday, one of the Korean teachers asked me to use smaller words so the students would understand me easier. I thusly jotted "use less extensive vocabulary" in my notebook. This...might be part of the problem. Eheh.

Thankfully, I've been up to more interesting things since then! Namely, this past Saturday, I got together with My Cousin and her friends J and New K (I've decided people get rad codenames on this blog now) to hit up the beach. More specifically, we went to a beach on a little island called Muuido- it's really close to the Incheon Airport.

Unfortunately, despite being close to the airport, it was somewhat difficult in getting there. Mostly because there were two buses that headed in completely opposite directions...despite having the same number. Seriously, it wasn't even a matter of doing opposite directions of the same loop- one of the buses went to where we wanted to go...and the other didn't.

We wound up on the wrong bus. It was a bit unpleasant (if hilarious in hindsight). For the record, this was not my fault.

In any case! We finally did make it to Muuido! (It's the little island to the south, on that map) As far as beaches go, it was alright. I may be a little spoiled, having gone to Hawaii so recently. Still, the weather was nice, and the beach wasn't even that crowded. Though one of the real kickers was the fact that, when we got there, the tide was out. Way out. Ten minute walk across some mudflats out. Huh. 

And so, we were left with little else to do but sprawl out, make idle conversation...and drink crappy beer. There are worse ways to spend a Saturday afternoon, I would note.

Oh, and there was a hovercraft parked on the beach. Rad as hell. I would not object to being able to put 'hovercraft driver' on my resume.

There were a bunch of other expats on the beach as well, and thus it was fun to make some idle conversation with them. A good number of them had arrived for the first annual 'Burning Man Korea.'

For anyone familliar with both Burning Man and Korea, the concept of such a thing is both amusing and somewhat confusing. Mostly because Korean culture is so buckled down, the general craziness expected from Burning Man just couldn't go down.

I'd like to note that our beach trip coincided with the whole Burning Man thing entirely by accident. I didn't know about it 'til the night before, wherein my friend the Welshman said 'oh, going to that Burning Man thing?' and my natural answer was 'Wait, what?'

In any case, I happened to know some of the folks AT said mini-burn (because the expat community is a bit incestuous like that- you'll almost always know somebody, wherever you go), so I steered by to catch up. I will say that the burners were having a good time, so good for them! Sure, there weren't truckasauruses or flamethrowers or naked people painted green, but again, it was the first year (and it was early, too).

For all I know, things may have gotten crazier once it got dark (as things tend to do). But we wound up packing it in around 7pm. Perfectly understandable, given that we'd been there since noon. I could have stayed overnight if I'd really wanted to. I'd taken the precaution of packing the survival essentials: knife, nalgene, matches, towel, etc. Ultimately, I didn't feel like going all Les Stroud, so I didn't. Probably for the best, given how much sand I've got in everything as-is. 

I think this was an important Hite, because I took a picture of it.

Sunday was, as the best Sundays are, 'laze around and work off that hangover' day. And back into the workaday schedule and all that. Though this next weekend is Chuseok- essentially, 'Korean Thanksgiving.' I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do during the holiday, but you can rest assured I will keep you posted on these misadventures.

...once the hangover's passed.