Photo Diary #2 - Sinchon

Chronicle of a night out in Sinchon last Thursday. Just Kevin and I; a bit of a quiet night exploring this flourescent student bar region. On a side note, for a little bit of context. I'd like to present a couple of slides for your viewing pleasure. Please direct your attention to the following link and review:


http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/subway_rt.pdf


As I'm sure many of you are quite familiar with, this is a map of our beloved(maybe?) TTC subway system.


Now if you will, please click on this picture to open the larger version. On the far left, highlighted in red is where my apartment is at Gaehwasan station. Pretty evident is the huge complexity of the fair city of Seoul. Makes you realize why they call it the 'Republic of Seoul' sometimes.



On the subway ride to Sinchon I had one of my most interesting experiences thus far. We had planned on getting some food downtown so we left Gimpo around 7 PM. On the underground car with us were about a dozen very friendly ROK Marines. They had just finished Guundae, their mandatory military reserve service for the year and were celebrating before heading home. Some of these guys were pretty intense, there was a paratrooper, a couple mountain rangers, and even a SCUBA search and rescue/demolitions dude. One spoke pretty good english and we had a good twenty minute chat and snapped a couple pictures with the promise that I tag it as "Republic of Korea Marine Corps". So, here we go:



This is in the middle of Sinchon after dinner. It's huge. Probably 6 by 6 square city blocks, with lots of little alleyways between buildings. One block is indistinguishable from the next. It's populated with 4-8 story commercial buildings with restaurants and bars on each floor. Bars are called 'Hofs', from Hoffbrau, the only German loanword (that I know of) in Korean.



Here's another shot of a larger building. Notice the PC rooms two floors apart. I don't know what there are more of in Korea, Hofs or PC-bangs. Halfway up is 'Cafe Room', which has the Korean characters for Norae-bang: Kareoke. Also everywhere. Like a virus that sings cheesy K-pop songs while you drink Soju.



And here is Kevin looking stunned at the last stop of the night. There's a chain of bars in Sinchon known as 'Ho Bar'. The Chinese word for good is Hao (as in Ni Hao!) and the Korean approximation is Ho, resulting in some great cross-language jokes. There are bars I-V within walking distance, so it was a pretty respectable goal for Kevin and I to have a beer in each and head home by 12-1 (It was a thursday night, classes to teach in the AM). We couldn't figure out what the Open~am8:00 sign meant, or if in fact they do close.



Sadly, there were no Marines on the subway back. That's all for this night.
Cheers.

Photo Diary #1

It’s been quite a busy week. Getting settled here at the Academy was pretty easy, everything’s well organized. Apartment is nice, as you can see. My room is pretty spartan, I packed quite lightly. Most Koreans sleep on the floor, on this waterfilled pad about an inch thick. It's hooked up to a water heater and a small pump, so your ass gets warmed in the middle of winter! Pretty cool if you ask me. I might have one of the only western style beds in Gimpo.

Kevin and I spent the weekend touring Seoul. Visited Deoksugung, a 15th century palace. It kept getting destroyed by various rampaging hordes, including Chinese, other Korean Kingdoms, the Japanese, and by Koreans in retribution when the present King at the time capitulated to Japanese Invaders. Rebuilt now with many relics from each dynasty, it's a tourist hotspot. Most of the tourists however are Korean nationals, who seem to visit it with a sense of patriotic duty.

Very Impressive Statue of King Sejong Himself:

Was a King's Residence, now a museum of American art (ironically enough).

Scoping out a nice large Bell. Notice to the left, the 15th century precurser to Nebelwerfers and Katyushas (For Joe and Keith's benefit.

Walked around downtown Seoul for a little while after, there was a large gathering of Evangelical youth in a square just outside city hall. Korea was one of the only SE Asian countries that welcomed missionaries in the 18th and 19th century; as such there's a significant Christian population. You can pick out churches on the Seoul skyline by the red neon crosses all over the place.

They were chanting "Christ-Jesus-God" in Korean to the suited dude on the right. There were groups with diff. coloured shirts representing various churches all over the field.

Headed down to Cheonggyecheon afterwards. Cheonggyecheon is a creek that flows east-west through Korea. After the war is was used as a dumping spot for industry, and was paved over to form a giant pollution culvert through Seoul. President Lee Myung-Bak decided this was not cool, and spent about $1 Billion in reconstruction. It's now a great place to see other white people and courting Koreans.

aannnnd now I'm tired of adding pictures.

Soon to come: Our night out in Sinchon (the 'Ho Bar', meeting Marines on the Subway etc), City Planning in Seoul (For My Father and Mac's sake), Dating Habits of South Koreans, and a brief synopsis of my experiences with Soju.

Cheers,

Evan.

Arrivial and Integration at my Asian Destination

Inaugural post. Arrived in Seoul a couple days ago after a 17 hr flight through Chicago, Tokyo, and finally Incheon. No problems meeting up with Kevin, who showed up with his friend Boram. The airport looked like a space station. No joke, trusses and beams and glass and moving sidewalks and mini-trains to arrival terminals and baggage claims abound. Everything talks to you, escalators, doors, elevators, sidewalks, toilets, sinks, mirrors, fridges, etc. Everything is very clean, but there are no garbage cans.

I'm living in a basement apartment with Donger, nice spacious pad. It's in Gimpo at Gaehwasan station, west of Seoul just south of the Han river.

Still exploring this blog idea. Not sure yet if it'll end up just documenting my activities or more comment on my experience. Probably a bit of both. Quick highlights since I've arrived:

- Food is just as cheap to eat out than cook it yourself. Breakfast-sandwhich thingers cost 1,800 won, about $1.50.

-So is Beer and Soju. An $8 pitcher at a restaurant was criticized for being too expensive. The beer is actually decent, significantly better than American fare even. Soju is consumed with wanton abandon; it has very interesting drinking rules and protocols associated. Will describe more later.

-Seafood, Seafood, Seafood. It's pretty ubiquitous. Octopus and Squid v. common. Went to a huge fish market with several of Kevin's friends. It was, to put it mildly, insane. We were there at 11 PM, and it was still hoppin'. The vendors sling King Crab and Flounder like dealers push coke. Bought a bunch of tiger shrimp and a couple of other kinds of fish. Took it to a large sit-down restaurant where the fresh raw fish is eaten as Hoejip, the Korean form of Sushi. Got my Soju 101 with Kevin, Vincent, Olivia, and Boram.

- I am Ehbuun. There is no V in Korean phonetics.

-Largest dept. store in Korea is Lotte. 10 Storeys of vertical consumer goodness. Every Brand name in North America, and then TONS of Korean and Asian ones you've never heard of. Most over-lit interior space ever seen. No natural light to speak of, but the store is blindingly bright and all surfaces and reflective. Better to see the designer handbags I guess.

-Samgyeopsal is super. Large slabs of uncured pork belly (basically thick bacon) that is bbq'd at your table with Kimchi, soup, banchan (side dishes, they're free, you only pay for the meat), and of course, copious amounts of Soju. Had my first Samgyeops with Kevin and Boram at a restaurant overlooking the Myeondong shopping district.

-The private school across the street here had some sort of festival this morning. Woke up to passionate speaches on a loudspeaker, racous cheering and traditional drumming. Went for a walk with Kevin's Mum Kim, she gave me the lowdown on Korean students and Hakwon's (private schools). Catcalls of "Hi Handsome Man!", "HiHelloHi!", "HelloHowAreYouIamFine?" abound from gangs of teenage girls. They giggle tremdously if I smile and wave, and laugh hysterically if I so much as say "Hi" back.

That's enough for today. So much is worth telling a story about. Heading to an International Club tonight, which means Expats and Koreans who speak english. Apologies for no pictures, there are some on Kevin's phone but he's a plug and can't get them on his mac. I'll do some wizardry and see if I can.

Also, Kudos to Sukhpreet for the blog name. I couldn't think of anything remotely interesting through my Jetlag-Fueled haze.

Cheers,
Evan