Mud and Mobsters

It's been a while since my last post so I must apologize for falling behind on blogging :(

This past weekend, TH and I took a bus down to the Boryeong Mud Festival and it was pretty epic! The town was very touristy but it was nice to get out of Seoul and drive through a bit of the Korean countryside. I also really enjoyed swimming in the sea! I think the photos describe it best so feel free to check out my album on facebook. Here is one shot of me in my purple and green muddy glory!


One of my reflections about travel in general came from our experience riding the bus down to Boryeong. We didn't know what to do once we got to the bus terminal but sure enough, we met a really nice Dutch guy and a Chinese girl who could speak fluent Korean. It's amazing how quickly your luck can change from being a clueless tourist to making new friends and finding your way. TH and I seemed to have excellent "mojo" with this as we even lost the couple at one point in the crowd and were a bit worried that we would be screwed to get back to Seoul without their help...but we found them again on the beach and everything worked out perfectly. I know that one's luck can just as easily swing the other way and nasty things can happen in an instant but I choose to believe that everything will work out for the better and it usually does!

Today TH, LV, and I tried to go to the Pifan film festival in Bucheon. I think it's still part of the metropolis of Seoul but is technically another city so it took us about an hour and 15 minutes by metro to get there. In the end, we were about 15 minutes late and were told it was "impossible" to enter the theatre. Boo! However we had quite the adventure taking the train there and now I can proudly say that I have been on Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and the Bundangseon line of the Seoul Metro system! I also had the privilege of having my ass grabbed by an old Korean man. Now I can only look forward to being groped on the subway in Tokyo!


Because we were determined to see some kind of movie, we ended up going to a DVD bang and watched a really great Korean film called "A Bittersweet Life". To sum it up in 1 sentence, it's a mobster movie about an enforcer who disobeys his boss and bloodshed ensues. It had some really beautiful cinematography and one of the greatest comeback fight scenes I have ever seen. I highly recommend it if you can stand gore.

As for the rest of this week, my plans are to see a baseball game (Doosan Bears vs. Lotte Giants) and head to Itaewon for ladies night on Thursday. It's hard to believe I've almost been here for 1 month already...I'm really enjoying Korea so far and I could see myself coming back here someday.

Until next time, 안녕!!

Look Mom! I can read!

I have finally somewhat achieved literacy in Korea (well maybe not as good on the writing part but I can read things at a pace of about 30 seconds per sentence!) I think it may be because I learned to read pretty early as a child but I never feel like a full participant in society until I can read. Even though the Korean alphabet is not that hard compared to other Asian languages, I'm pretty impressed that I could pick it up in 3 classes.

Onto more exciting things, my favorite Korean desserts. First is the waffles. They put a bit of fruit sauce and a swirl of soft serve ice cream and then fold it in half. Pure deliciousness. Another excellent dessert is bing su (shaved ice with frozen yogurt, fruit, and red bean). I also had a linguistic realization: bing sui in Cantonese = ice water --> Korean adaptation --> bing su = shaved ice. Just shows you everything can be traced back to China.

I thought I'd close off with some general observations about Korea:

- you can never find a garbage can on the street yet you're supposed to throw out your toilet paper rather than flushing it
- you can buy a 500 mL bottle of soju (kind of like 20% vodka) for about $1.50 at a convenience store but a single apple is about $1.20

Clubs, Canada, and First Day of School!

I left off arriving in Sinchon so I'll just give a brief update on getting settled into the residence here and then more recent news.

June 25: After getting off the bus, a very nice Norwegian med student offered to help me with my bag because it is ginormous and I can barely carry it. He had a wheely suitcase so we balanced mine on top and wheeled it off towards Yonsei University. We had no idea where the International House was and I think he was getting tired of lugging my stuff around so I ended up taking a cab for like 2 minutes to campus and up the hill.

I-House is ok but I'd say even crappier than Lister. It's completely gender segregated and very overpriced for what it is but I guess that's life if you want to live on campus. I live with a girl from Detroit right across from the construction site of the new I-House #2. We are greeted by sounds of hammers and cranes every morning :)

June 26: The last Friday of every month in Seoul is "Club Day", which means you pay ₩20,000 and you get 1 free drink and can get into about 15 different clubs. The cool thing is that they don't ever seem to shut down the bars here...they stay open until people stop dancing. I think I stayed out until 6:30 am and there were still people left at that time. It was definitely a different dynamic with the way Korean guys approach women...will write more on that another time.

June 27: After a bit of sleep, I went out to visit MG's homestay family in Hanam. He has been studying in Korea for a few months now and this was his last night there before moving to a different family closer to the university. It was really nice to get out of the big city for half a day and experience the semi-countryside. They cooked us a really nice dinner with vegetables straight from the garden and kimchi and beanpaste that they fermented in the backyard.

Next door was a dog farm and although we tried, we couldn't get a straight answer from the family about whether they sell the dogs for pets or food. Nonetheless, there were about 7 puppies running around and the little daughter kept stealing pieces of meat to feed them.


One cute thing about the host mother was that she kept calling us her "lovely ladies" and at one point she said it was like there was a Miss Universe pageant at her home because we had women representing Canada, Denmark, Germany, and Korea.


June 29: I checked out Dongdaemun market with some friends and scored a sweet skirt/top outfit for about $9 CDN and some earrings for 90¢! Later on we went to Insadong (more traditional area with lots of teashops and artisans).

July 1: This marked the end of my first week in Korea and I celebrated by....doing laundry! I also went over to visit the off-campus housing DMC Ville and it is BALLIN! For about $150 more, they have a pool, squash courts, free breakfast service, and a driving range in their apartment building. I'm a tiny bit jealous but once again, I try to justify the convenience of I-House to myself.

After dinner in Hongdae, I tried to find a Canadian pub called the Rocky Mountain Tavern. However, my directions were crap and I couldn't find it at all so we ended up just going out in Sinchon. M, S, K, and I went to a really cool rooftop patio bar and then an expat bar called Mike's Cabin. We ended up playing "Guess Who" there and I taught them the oh-so-fun version where you say things like "Does your person have an income of less than $30 000 per year?" or "Does your person have an STD?" based on looks only. I realize that it's completely prejudiced but it's way more entertaining than "Does he wear glasses?"



July 2: Today was the first day of school and finally we have some structure to our days. I'm taking Korean Business Ethics, East Asian International Relations, and Beginner Korean. So far, my Korean Business Ethics class is super cool. The professor is all about giving us ethical dilemmas and asking us to make tough choices. Our first exercise of the day was based on the opening scene from "Vertical Limit" where a father, son, and daughter are rock climbing and the son has to choose whether to cut the father loose to save himself and his sister or not cut the rope and all 3 could potentially fall to their death. Also, our first "mission" is to go out in groups of 8, eat dinner together, and then go to a noreabang (karaoke room). We then have to take 10 pictures and post them to the class portal for a little photo contest. I'm not sure if the point is just to get to know each other better or if there is a hidden message we're supposed to take away from it about business in Korea. We shall see! More to come on the other classes...