One Month Anniversary!!!

Crazy but true, I've been here for a full 4 weeks now. Part of me feels so immersed in the day to day routine that I'm completely at home here, but on the other hand I don't see how the time has flown by so fast. It will be interesting to see if the whole year goes like this or not.

I'm excited to say that in honor of my one month anniversary (not really) two co-workers of mine and I went and signed up for a free Korean language class today. Our section starts in two weeks on Friday nights. We start with the the alphabet and some simple vocab for the first four weeks, then move up to conversation on a different night. And the bonus is that the classes are in the Korean Cultural Center which is an amazing building with art exhibits, movie screenings and a recital hall with tons of things always happening. It might be my new favorite place in Seoul. =) I plan on seeing the Nutcracker here in December...so exciting!

Had another small world met up this week too. Ryan Tsang's cousin was in town on a job interview so we met up for dinner. Obviously it's totally normal to met a guy who grew up in the Chicago suburbs half way around the world for Indian food....

Went for another hike this weekend. Photos are posted, although they are all going to start looking pretty much the same I have a feeling. Two things that are worth mentioning...
1) I met two new chicks to hang with, and Brit and an Aussie, good times
2) I ate silk warm larva. Only one though. You can smell this stuff from a mile away...it's pretty rank. A pretty hilarious sequence of photos was taken to document this occasion.

pictures

Ok, new pictures are posted.

They make me happy. =)

What I did on my Chuseok vacation...

I had a pretty eventful long weekend.

Friday evening - see previous post and I went on a "blind" date with Kay, a girl who went to IU and knows Margaret, Annie and Laura...she lives about 20 mins. from me...small world....

Saturday - spent most of the day "nesting" in the apartment. Read down by the lake and then went to a "Prom Party" hosted by one of my co-workers sister's apartment. Good times...



Sunday - Lotte World = a smaller ripe off of Disney world. $30 for a day of rides and general craziness. I would say that the Gyro Drop and two other rides outside are worth it, but it's not a place I really feel the need to go back to though. But there are certainly more highlights from the day.....


Baseball -Dosan Bears beat the Kia Tigers 12-2 in two and half hours...close to a record for the shortest game of Korean baseball ever. Plus the cheerleaders wore hanbok!

But I would have to say that the highlight of the day was the fact that I got to barrow a friend's bike and ride it around all day. After payday at the end of the month I'm getting my own for sure. I even rode tandem on the way home from the baseball game because not everyone we were with had a bike with them. This is Yan. He told me he knew what he was doing and I trusted him, but he certainly took every opportunity he had to mess with me while I was on the back of that thing. Defiantly not my preferred mode of transportation...I basically feared for my life most of the time.
But Monday was the real highlight. I went to Bukhansan National Park and did the Dobongsan hike. We made it to the Jaunbong pike which is 739 meters up (2,245 feet). It took about 2 hours to get up and was much more intense then any of us had expected. To say I feared for my life on the bike the day before is a slight exaggeration....but for this particular situation it's completely true. Plenty of beautiful pictures were taken, but I still have to steal them from Kyle's camera. Here are a few teasers...

















keep in mind that I went with Krystal and Kyle...everyone else in these pictures are just other hikers. I felt like a herd of cattle sometimes! But I still loved every second. I'm going to become a routine hiker for sure.

Soccer Baseball

There was one evening when I bared my soul to my co-workers and told them about my love for my kickball team. At first they couldn't get over that we called it kickball, because to them the game is called soccer baseball and played with a soccer ball. Of course a heated debate over the better name ensued. Then they realized that I actually played kickball recently, and now there is no living it down for me.

However, I do feel validated after speaking with a Korean last night who said they have the same game here. The translation for them is "foot baseball". I've got to find a game to get in on around here....

I guess I don't speak Canadian yet, eh?

I had a pretty hilarious little run in with my co-workers yesterday after school.

We ended up sitting outside of Rodeo (as usual) because we just didn't really want to go home right away and Kyle brought his yut set for us to play. Yut is another game we learned for Chuesok. Check this out if you want to know more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yut

As Kyle was explaining the rules of the game it accrued to me that it's very similar to the board game Sorry! from home because when you land on a space your opponent is on you knock them off the board. So I make the comment out loud "So it's like Sorry!" and I got a generic "yeah" response from the table and I thought they knew what I was talking about. A minute later Krystal stops and says, "Oh wait you meant the game Sorry!" (pronounced soary). With that Kyle and Maranda understood...only Carolyn knew what I said originally, but she is from New Finland and sounds like a New Yorker, so her accent's all messed up. The way I said sorry they thought I was talking about the type of Indian clothing (sari). Krystal had just spent a minute picturing me playing dress up in a sari and tried to relate it to the game we were playing. I found this to be absolutely hilarious.

Playing the game was also tons of fun. We attracted the attention of some of the locals and received help with the rules from an older gentlemen who didn't speak any English. It was awesome.

Happy Chuesok!!!

Chuesok is the Korean Harvest Moon festival. This holiday is scheduled on the lunar calendar so it will fall on a different day each year. In particular Cheusok is the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar; however, the day on either side is also celebrated. It is a lot like the U.S. Thanksgiving, but with gifts and special games.

This year it falls on Sept. 14th, so we don't have school on Monday. It's a shame because we would have gotten all three days off if they fell in the middle of the week....oh well.

However, Thursday was kind of like a day off because we had Chuesok events all day. All the kids came wearing hanbok (traditional Korean dress) and we did a bunch of different things related to the holiday.

First my class made Songpyeon (pronounced [soŋpʰjʌn]) which is a traditional Korean food made from glutinous rice. It is a variety of tteok, consisting of small rice cakes traditionally eaten during the Korean autumn festival, Chuseok. They have become a popular symbol of traditional Korean culture. Songpyeon are half-moon-shaped rice cakes filled with sesame seeds or chestnut paste steamed over a layer of pine needles, which gives them the fragrant smell of fresh pine trees. They used to be made into various shapes with the participation of family members and were often exchanged between neighbors. They are eaten on Chuseok and other festive days.


Then we went down to the gym to watch a presentation about Chuseok and all the traditions involved with it....too bad it was all in Korean, but I was able to pick up a few things, like how to do a traditional bow and play some games. One game is dak gee (not sure on that spelling and a google search wasn't much help....sorry) which is very much like pogs at home, but the kids fold paper into squares and use them to play. My little ones loved it even though they weren't actual ever successful in flipping the papers.


I even got some sweet gifts for the holiday. I got a nice soap set from the school, cute little Korean folk figurines from a kid and some assorted treats. There were a lot of these floating around the office, but unfortunately the Korean treat standard is not quite what we are used to in the western world.
Many more pictures of the kids can be seen on my photo page, including some from our birthday earlier in the week. =)

Man Love

I can't believe I forgot about this in my last post....

I have seen an unusual amount of man love displayed here. I consider man love to be a display of affection/ general touchy feelyness between two heterosexual men. Granted many of these displays have been when at least one of the parties is visually intoxicated, but none-the-less it's much more prevalent here. The most shocking display I've witnessed was in a bar over the weekend. We arrived a little early, so things were pretty quite inside. Then a group of 4 Korean men came in and started the dance party. I reminded so much of what I've done with my girlfriends have done so many times. We've been a little bored with the evening and really just wanted to dance, so we go out in the middle of the bar and start dancing with each other, often in a very silly way. That is exactly what these dudes were doing. It was an amazing display. The people I was with assured me that this was not an isolated occurrence. In fact, this is usually how these kind of evenings progress.

The friend love doesn't apply to only men either. The women walk around holding hands with each other all the time.

I kind of like it. =)

Wandering Observations

I would like to comment on a couple of experiences I've had/observations I've made just walking around my neighborhood these past two weeks.

1. Women here love high heels.
- This of course is a generalization, but I'd say over 50% of females are wearing them no matter what they are doing. Even when riding a bike....which brings me to point number two.

2. If you don't have a bike you just aren't cool.
- Bikes are everywhere. I love it, but I do find it problematic when they are on the sidewalk with you weaving in and out of pedestrian traffic. And it's not just bikes....scooters, mopeds and even motorcycles can be found on certain sidewalks. All of these vehicles are all most purely functional. Most bikes have a big basket in the front and small shelf on the back. At home I've seen people strap bags to such things to said shelf, but here there is often a passenger sitting back there. I've seen grown men and women riding on the back of bikes like this, sometimes in work attire. Hope to get a picture of that soon.... which leads to point number 3.

3. Koreans LOVE pictures.
- When I went shopping in Insadong on Saturday there were numerous people walking around with cameras. And when I say cameras, I don't mean a little pocket sized digital....we are talking big expensive cameras with hardcore lens and everything. And they were constantly snapping shots of the people they were with or random things on the street. Now I liked Insadong, but I personally didn't find a ton of stuff that I wanted a picture of. It was weird, but it does make me want a new camera. =)

4. Back to sidewalks - I'm pretty sure I will be hit by either a car or bike before this year is up.
- When it comes to sidewalks/streets there are two...OK maybe three types in my neighborhood.
a) Large roadways - 6 lanes of traffic with a stop light every block. This includes relatively large sidewalks with a designated bike lanes that people are always walking in, therefor bikes also ride anywhere.
b) These large roads turn right onto narrow "busy" streets which are technically two lanes, but only on a good day. There are sidewalks, but most of the time a car is parked on it so pedestrians, bikes and cars are left to mix in the madness. There is a lot of polite car honks around here and you get nowhere fast.
c) Even smaller alleys that are mainly residential. No sidewalk and your lucky to get one car through.

5. Not a whole lot of patience.
- If you are in someone's way there is no shame in pushing them out of the way. The subway doors are the most common place to experience this, but I had an even more blatant example happen to me at Seven/Eleven the other day. I was picking up a few things (milk, OJ ect...) and was checking out up front. The clerk didn't speak any English and as I was trying to figure out how much everything was a group of boys came up behind me (on both sides!) and started putting their items on the counter. I felt like I was surronded. It even took a little extra time when I found out that I was being charged for the bag that I just asked for, but they made no effort to back off. An older man even joined in and put his things down. I wanted to scream at them! It sounds silly now, but it was a totally stressful situation at the time. Maybe because it reminded me of all my kids hanging on me while I was trying to get one thing done. Anyway...weird.

My First Hike

This city is crazy

I had a weekend full of firsts....which will probably be happening for a while....first time at the noraebang (private karaoke room), first time in Insadong (a neighborhood known for shopping....amazing souvenirs), first Seoul historical landmark and a hike. The noraebang was good times, but pretty self explanatory. Shopping was fun...but not too much to report other then I plan on going back...many times.

The historical landmark: Seodaemun Prison
This prison was used during the Japanese occupation from 1910-1945 to house Korean freedom fighters. It was like a mini-Holocaust museum. I never realized that the Japanese had such a tight hold over Korean so recently. Needless to say, there is still some hostility between the two.

The hike: Inwangsan Mountain - Shamanist Hillside Walk
Amazing. We got off the subway, walked down a few alleyways and straight up into a "hillside". Beautiful. It was so strange to be in such a beautiful nature environment and turn to see a huge city beneath you. The whole city is like this. There is plenty of hiking within the city and just outside....I plan to go every weekend. =)

This particular hillside had a bunch of temples and small shrines scatters throughout. As we walked by the temples we could hear monks chanting. We walked up to one smaller shrine with a woman chanting in front of it. The most important feature of this hill is a rock formation that is said to have eroded to look like two monks. People come there to pray to have a son. There were two people there praying when we came by. We also encountered a naked Korean dude...but we are pretty sure he was just a little off his rocker. All in all it was an amazing combination of nature, culture and city, even with a crazy naked dude following us around.

Doosan Bears vs LG Twins

So I went to a baseball game. Major differences from the good old MLB are as follows:

1. $7 for an open seating ticket....sweet!

2. "concession stand" = a convenience store (which is called 7eleven by the way) which has chips and pop....no hotdogs or peanuts. The only similar food is beer. The guys walking around sell dried squid. Also, you can bring in anything you want. The chicks I was sitting next to brought in a huge take out bag from Bennigans!!!

3. Last but not least....well, just watch:



Fun Facts: Jamsil Baseball Stadium (잠실 야구장) is a baseball stadium in Jamsil 1-dong, Songpa-gu, , Seoul, South Korea. The stadium holds 30,265 people and was built in 1982. It makes up the Jamsil Sports Complex along with the nearby Seoul Olympic Stadium, and hosted the baseball events during the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. It is the home of the Doosan Bears and LG Twins in the KBO Baseball League.


I saw a game where the Bears and the Twins played each other. I sat in the visitors section for the Bears with my co-worker because he refused to be anywhere else. He in fact threatened to stop speaking to me if I became a Twins fan. I am still very tempted since their jersey look just like the Twinkies...but I do rely on this guy to order most of my food for me right now....