If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home I've ever been

Today marks the seventh week of the winter school term and the start of my eighth week in Korea. It's wild that I've almost been here for two months and that I'm more than halfway through my first term. Things are still going along smoothly and I feel settled here now. So far this is about equal to the longest time I've spent away from home but that was also during college when I was only an hour and a half's drive away. The hardest week I've experienced was Christmas week for obvious reasons but besides that I think I'm doing pretty okay. I wouldn't say I'm homesick really, but rather peoplesick. I'm perfectly content in my new surroundings right now, I just miss the hell out of everyone I left behind.

So it was a wicked nice treat to receive a belated birthday/Christmas care package from home! 

All of my favorite things in one neat little package, glorious. It's expensive to ship things over here but this package was the perfect size for me. The presents were wrapped (Barbie Mulan in Batman paper for my birthday, the HP book in Christmas paper) and my mom also managed to squeeze in the extra towel I'd forgotten to bring along, some facial cleanser I'd requested because I can't find mine here, a bunch of cards, my niece and nephew's new school pictures, and a couple packs of Expo markers since I'd mentioned how bad the ones at school are. Hands down my favorite part was the calendar wall scroll which I was confused over until I saw that it was from the local Chinese buffet place back home and my mom had made sure to tag it as being from my Dad haha. 

I've been keeping myself busy in the chilly weather and trying not to become a hermit though it's difficult when it's so cold out. Two weeks ago I went back to Bupyeong Market on a Wednesday and it was much less crowded than when I'd been on the weekend. I strolled for a while and bought a couple things including a Superman sweatshirt that was only ₩10,000 and is my new favorite comfy item.

I also found a Hallmark-ish type store that had a whole wall of Miyazaki products.

There were some beautiful handcrafted type items that unfortunately were crazy expensive and even the plushies were a lot which is too bad because I'd love a big squashy Totoro.

The best part about this store though was this gem:

Yes, we would all like to know the turemeaning of love. Spelling errors like this are actually pretty common and always hilarious. Apparently one of the other teachers saw a sweatshirt somewhere that says "Boston, Massachubetts". I would buy that in a heartbeat.

Then last week I spent one late morning/early afternoon hiking up the mountain a few blocks from my apartment building with a couple of co-workers. I'm pretty sure it's called Cheongryangsan Mountain and it was a good climb. The paths were still pretty icy and I slipped a bunch but always just managed to keep my butt from hitting the ground which counts for something. There were a lot of steps and thankfully some rope guardrails which pretty much saved me from disaster on the climb down. I'd like to have taken pictures along the way but was more concerned with not wiping out. Here was the view from the top though.

In the distance is Songdo, which is a planned international business district that's supposed to be completed by 2015. The buildings all look futuristicy in the posters and stuff but I haven't actually been over there yet to check it out for myself. One of these days.

See check out that ice! Treacherous!

There are a bunch of paths leading up and down the mountain and I guess some of them lead to temples. I can't wait to hike this in the spring and summer when the ice is gone and the trees are all filled in. I'd imagine the sunset and sunrise are beautiful from up here. It's nice having this so close by!

On Saturday I went with a bunch of people from work into Yongsan for various electronic needs. I didn't need anything particular but wanted to browse the pirated movies section. After looking at cameras and computers in I'Park Mall above the subway station we went outside where there are streets and underground alleys of electronics everywhere. At the DVD booths we flipped through ringed packets of movie covers and whenever you saw a movie you wanted the guy working the booth would come over with a little notebook and mark it down on your own page. I ended up with five DVDs which worked out to ₩10,000 total, an awesome deal. Plus they throw in empty cases and print outs of the cover so you can slide them in yourself to make it look like the real deal. Well, it looks real enough until you notice how pixelated the pictures are and that the cover for Shutter Island is in Korean while the tagline for Jurassic Park is in German. They play crystal clear though so that's all that matters!

Next up was Itaewon and a late lunch at Subway where I got a meatball marinara and oh my god how I've missed meatball subs. It was actually pretty similar to the ones at home though the sauce was a little sweeter and with a little bit more of a kick. So delicious though. I know your favorite version of your favorite food is supposed to be like Great-Grandma's homemade or something but meatball subs from Subway are my favorite. I'm not planning to live off western food in Korea but I'd been craving a sub all week and was psyched I could get one here.

We then went to What the Book? where I scooped up a few more paperbacks to keep me occupied. I think I might be purposely buying only a few at a time so I have an excuse to keep going back. One thing I do miss is not having a bookstore just a hop away. Or at least a bookstore with books in a language I'm able to read.

Yesterday I wanted to do something with my day and spent Saturday night on the search but honestly I was put off by how cold it's been. So instead I slept in wonderfully late and then spent the day reading in bed and watching movies. I do love how walkable this area is and the convenience of the subway but so many of the things I want to do are partially or wholly outside and better suited for warmer weather. I'd say I'm still getting out lots though, at least enough to not feel guilty for having an utterly lazy day once in a while.

I'm not sure if anything is going on for the coming weekend yet but I just discovered the location of the Forever 21 in Myeongdong. Cheap cheap clothes that may actually come in western girl sizes? And today was payday? I see some shopping in my future...

North Korea is Crazy Trivia of the Day: In 1978, actress Choi Eun-hee, recently divorced from Shin Sang-ok, a movie director and producer, was kidnapped from Hong Kong to North Korea. When Shin traveled to Hong Kong to investigate, he was kidnapped as well. The kidnappings were on orders of future leader Kim Jong-il, who wanted to establish a film industry for his country to sway international opinion regarding the views of the Workers' Party of Korea. Kim's plan was to have Shin work as his propagandist and for Choi to be the star.

The North Korean authorities have denied the kidnapping accusations, claiming that they came to the country willingly. Shin and Choi made secret audio tapes of conversations with Kim Jong-il, supporting their story. Shin was put in comfortable accommodations, but, after an escape attempt, was placed in prison. He was brought to Pyongyang in 1983, to learn why he had been brought to North Korea. Choi was also brought to the same dinner party, where she first learned that Shin was also in North Korea. They re-married shortly afterwards, as suggested by Kim Jong-il. 

From 1983 Shin directed seven films with Kim Jong-il acting as an executive producer. The best known of these films is Pulgasari, a giant-monster film similar to the Japanese Godzilla. In 1986, eight years after the kidnapping, Shin and Choi escaped while in Vienna for a business meeting, before eventually fleeing to the United States, seeking political asylum.

Ishkabibble

Happy New Year all!

I thoroughly enjoyed my first ever New Year out of the country. After classes were out on Friday I took a cab with three of my coworkers to Hongdae, an area in Seoul which by taxi was maybe forty-five minutes away. Since we couldn't leave until after work ended at 10:30pm we were making a mad dash to get to a bar somewhere in time for midnight. At quarter to twelve we were on the subway with only one stop to make and at five of we were running down the streets, trying to avoid the enormous patches of black ice that were basically  everywhere. Finally we spotted the bar we'd been looking for, ran to the entrance, and right as we got outside it heard everyone inside yell, "HAPPY NEW YEAR!". Honestly all you could do at that point was laugh. It was a valiant effort but I preferred this turn of events anyway, it was more amusing!

So our night finally started at midnight when we arrived and did not end until I slumped back into my apartment at 8am the following morning. We spent part of the night one of the several Ho Bars in Hongdae. There's something like eight of them and I think we were at number three. We were there for a while and after mocking the costumes of a televised K-Pop New Year's concert and meeting up with some more people, we moved over to Zen Bar which I liked a lot because it was slightly similar to a dance club so that was fun for a couple hours. By that point it was close to 6am and so naturally the next place we wound up was Burger King, along with every other foreigner in the vicinity. Apparently people crave french fries here after a night out just as much as back home.

The perk to being out so late is that by then the trains were running again so instead of paying extra for a bumpy cab ride home we just hopped on the subway and after a couple transfers were back in Yeonsu. I went to bed and slept away the first day of 2011 and it was beautiful.

On Sunday I got up and headed to Suwon to check out Hwaseong Fortress. It's in planning excursions like these that the Korea Tourism website (which I have a link to on the right side of this page) is a huge help. I'm only spontaneous to a degree and if I decide to go somewhere I like to get the details beforehand. Most places you would want to visit have a page on the tourism website with info in regards to admission fees, hours, phone numbers to call for English speakers, and how to get there. I keep a subway map on me when I go out but always look up the route using the site's interactive subway map first. All I did was click where I was starting from and where I wanted to end up and voilà:

It's such a life saver. I love knowing exactly where to transfer and how much the whole trip will cost (dirt cheap) and how long it's going to take me. And at Bupyeong there is an express train to Yongsan that bypasses a lot of stops but does stop at Guro so when I hopped on that one it shaved some time off the trip. I love love love the subway system here. 

So I made it Suwon Station hassle free and having actually managed to nab a seat on the generally packed trains for most of the trip. The station building is connected to the AK Plaza department store so it's ginormous, you can't miss it. 

(Taken on my way back from across the street)

Also there's a tourism center if you exit the station and go to the left and I picked up a couple useful maps and such there. When I came out of the subway there was a big map of the area as well as a list of which bus stops you should go to for carrying on to a particular location. I checked the stops that had routes for Hwaseong Fortress and picked one at random. 

There are tons of bus stops outside the station. It was complete chaos. Literally at any given moment there were five or six buses lined up waiting to get in front of the stop to pick up passengers and the traffic was so thick that merging back in was a nightmare. Several buses were running routes about six stops from Hwaseong so when the first one I saw that I knew was heading there managed to squeeze through the mess I got on board.

So Hwaseong Fortress actually has an awesome sort of story behind it. And by awesome I mean it's disturbing but don't the most interesting places always have the darkest histories? Gather 'round while Grandma Wikipedia tells the tale:

Crown Prince Sado was born as the second son of the Korean King Yeongjo of Joseon. Because his older brother, Prince Hyojang, had died young, in 1728, Prince Sado was born the royal heir. However, it had been reported to his father that Sado was mentally ill, wantonly killed people, and was very erratic. This was a disappointment to King Yeongjo, and with the consent of Lady Yi, Yeongjo finally ordered his son to be sealed alive in a large rice chest (an order Sado obeyed), where he died within eight days. Sado's son became Jeongjo of Joseon after his father's death.

Hwaseong, the wall surrounding the center of Suwon, the provincial capital of Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, was built in the late 18th century by King Jeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty to honour and house the remains of his father Prince Sado.

All of Suwon was once surrounded by the fortress walls but obviously it's expanded since then. There are four gates and I started at Janganmun, the North gate.

I bought a ticket for ₩1,000 (less than a dollar) and headed up to the wall.

In retrospect I probably should have waited for the warmer weather because a lot of the paths were icy but it also meant there weren't too many people out so I had a peaceful stroll up there and it was a pretty cool.

They also have a spot where for a few thousand won you can try your hand at traditional Korean archery.

Wee'uns posing with a snowman aww. I love that halfway around the world I can still count on kids just being kids.

Here's the rear view of an enormous church that dwarfs everything in the vicinity.

Seriously look at this monster.

It translates to Suwon First Church though I don't know if you'd say it like that or maybe The First Church of Suwon. Anyway it's crazy massive. It's probably the first and only church of Suwon, it looks like it ate all the others.

And finally here we have the entrance to the fortress itself!

Except I didn't actually get inside because I'm a dummy and had a late start getting out Sunday morning and by the time I wandered down from the wall it was past five o'clock and the ticket office was closed. Heh.

It wasn't a big deal though. I'm planning on heading back again in the warmer weather anyway because from March to November there are a variety of traditional performances and I'd like to see some of those. And admission is only ₩1,500 for the fortress itself so even if I visit a few times I'll always be getting more than my money's worth.

Plus the rest of Suwon outside the walls seems worth a second trip.

That's Paldalmun, the South gate, in the background. It's under some kind of construction right now so I didn't take too many pictures. 

The first great thing about this street is that there's a Pizza School. There's one a couple blocks from my apartment building and you can get ₩5,000 pizzas that almost taste as good as what you'd get at home. They aren't exactly small enough to be personal pizzas but not really large enough that you'd want to share. Or at least not if you're me. I can eat one of those babies by myself. I think I horrified the Koreans in Suwon who were all splitting a pie among two people. Oh well. I get stared at anyway just for being a foreigner, I might as well eat up!

The other draw for me was the Korean dollar store. Well, it was a bit larger than you're typical dollar store with options more along the lines of The Christmas Tree Shops except not as clean. A Korean Christmas Dollar Shop if you will. Anyway I scooped up a few little householdy things and rejoiced to finally find hand cream that wasn't horribly overpriced. They had those little tubs of vaselline too which I jumped on because I cannot tell you how bad the dry winter here has been to my poor lips. It got to the point that I had to go to the pharmacy and spend ₩12,000 on medicated chap stick and then buy a humidifier to pick up the slack while I'm sleeping. I can't stress enough how dry the winters are here. I've always been prone to chapped lips so it's been especially bad but even still I do recommend getting a humidifier for this weather and should you need to purchase some extra strength lip balm, go with Uriage which you can find at your local pharmacy. I hate spending that much on something so small but it's a great product and completely worth it.

So anyway that was my New Year's weekend! It's been kind of a busy week and it's taken me a few days just to finally get this post off the ground so I'll be catching up soon on the other goings-on in icy cold Yeonsu and possible plans for Lunar New Year. But for now I am off to bed with only two classes tomorrow evening separating me from my weekend. So lovely.

Trivia of the Day: Lotte World is a major recreation complex in Seoul, South Korea. It consists of the world's largest indoor theme park that set a Guinness World Record open all year around, an outdoor amusement park called "Magic Island", an artificial island inside a lake linked by monorail, shopping malls, a luxury hotel, a Korean folk museum, sports facilities, and movie theaters all in one place. Opened on July 12, 1989, Lotte World receives over 8 million visitors each year and is considered along with Tokyo Disney Resort as one of the world-class theme parks in Asia.

Day-tripperish

Since last weekend was spent settling in and getting acquainted with the area in and around work/my apartment, I decided to use this weekend to explore Incheon a bit more.

One of the great things about my late afternoon work schedule is that if I'm willing to get up reasonably early sometimes throughout the week I can actually do a lot in the hours before my first class. So yesterday when I headed out it was also with the intention of getting comfortable enough with the subway that on workdays I won't have to worry about getting lost and being late for my first class. 

And I think I did pretty good for my first time wandering around a new city and riding a subway solo! I am notoriously awful with directions and have no internal compass whatsoever. I once got lost driving around my hometown at night- a town that is five square miles. It happens. 

But there was no pressure to hurry back when I got turned around so I took my time figuring out what exactly I did wrong and how to get where I needed to be. Plus I was armed with an English subway map and the compass that my boyfriend half jokingly gave me as a going away present (it would have come in handy had I actually known which direction I needed to head in!).

The first place I decided to check out was the Incheon Culture & Arts Center. After loading my T money card with ₩10,000 (about $10) I hopped on the subway at Woninjae and went five stops to the Arts Center. When I came out of the station I was across the street from a park so I wandered over to check it out and it was an Olympic Park!

There are few things I love more than the Olympics, especially the Summer Games. Seoul hosted them in '88 and this little park (the stone simply says "Olympic Park") seems to just be a commemorative one.

 This guy, Hodori the tiger, was the mascot for the Seoul Games.

When I left the park I saw a sign for the Arts Center and wandered around some more in its general direction. I went down some quiet sides streets, passed coffee shops and convenience stores and people going about their everyday business. I spotted another park with a bunch of different sculptures and headed in there.

The most I can make out from this is "Centre Park" and even then I may be butchering it. I looked on a map later for the name but couldn't find it.

These tree scultpures surround what looks to be a zero depth water area. I already made a mental note to come back here in the summertime!

I can't say for certain what exactly this park is but the pieces of art all seemed to be celebrating the relationship between Korea and other Asian countries. This piece with Arabic on it had Korean written on the back.

This piece had both Chinese and Korean writing and other pieces had Korean and Japanese as well as Korean and Vietnamese respectfully.

Lots of Korean parks have exercise equipment and I snapped a couple shots of these ladies getting a morning work out in. It's a pretty great idea actually. Not everyone can afford gym memberships and since so many Koreans live in apartments there isn't exactly room for ellipticals and treadmills.

Every time you walk down the street here you'll see someone wearing one of those paper face masks that people were rocking during the height of Swine flu. Koreans wear these when they have just a common cold to prevent other people from catching it. I feel like everyone has been getting sick lately so maybe some people wear them so they won't catch one to begin with? Anyway most are plain but I've seen kids wearing cartoon character ones.

As I was leaving the park I saw a sign for a library and attempted to find it. I never did but I found myself along a residential street with some pretty cool sidewalk wall art.

The women pictured are Kisaeng (기생), who were trained entertainers.

And their crazy heavy looking hairdo comes from wearing a gache (가체) which basically was just a ginormous fancy wig.

This guy and his horse are my favorite. Look how happy they are, aww bffs!

Just a residential street. It was really quiet, not too many people were out and about yet.

Two old fellas in a park playing what was most likely Janggi (장기). It's a strategy game so I guess sort of like Korean chess.

I strolled some more and finally found the Arts Center!

There's a bunch of theater events and whatnot that go on here but mostly Arts Center refers to the entire surrounding area, like the restaurants and shops.

I saw this on a building nearby. Apparently Incheon has an excellent team. This is why you should visit during baseball season Mom!

These things appeal to me in exactly that order.

Turns out it's a coffee shop, and a really cozy one at that.

I ordered a waffle which looked much more appealing than my camera is giving it credit for. Waffles are really popular here which is a-okay by me.

It took me a minute to figure out both the book and the spa parts of the name. On one wall they had some shelves with books and magazines for the borrowing. Everything was in Korean so I took a copy of Vogue Korea to peruse. Turns out it looks a hell of a lot like American Vogue. Western celebrities and models on four out of five pages. Surprise surprise.

The spa took me a little longer to work out. But when my waffle order was called I headed to the counter, looked down and saw this:

Feet as fish food! I've read on a bunch of blogs people mention a place in Seoul I think called Dr. Fish where you stick your feet into a pool of fish who nibble at them, thus removing all the dead skin. Apparently it doesn't hurt, just feels a little funny. I think this is awesome and want to do it at some point but I opted not to yesterday just because I didn't really want fish gnawing on my feet right next to the same table I was eating at. It's on my list though!

Back in the spring when I was still in school I had an assignment for one class where I had to interview someone about fairy tales they grew up with. My friend told me some of the Korean stories she'd heard as a kid. One story she related was about the origins of the Sun and the Moon. In a nutshell, a tiger eats a mother on her way to the market, takes on her clothing, and then chases her two children up a tree in an attempt to eat them too. They plead to heaven for help and a rope comes down which they climb up to safety. When the tiger tries to climb the rope it becomes rotten and he falls to his death. In heaven the sister becomes the sun and the brother the moon. I'm pretty sure this sculpture is a depiction of the key scene in this story.

After taking a look around the Arts Center I got back on the Subway and went up to Bupyeong Market.

The subway here is so nice. Very clean and I like the safety of the closed doors to keep anyone from getting on the track. Also all the signs are in Korean, Chinese, and English so it's super easy as a non-native speaker to navigate. My favorite part is the little tune that plays to signal that the upcoming station is where you can transfer lines.

Outdoor market area in Bupyeong. I found a nice little stationary and art supplies shop here where I scooped up a multi-flap folder for the papers I'm accumulating for the classes I teach. Not very exciting, it was really my only purchase of the day besides snacks, but I have a whole year ahead of me to get the fun stuff.

Bupyeong Market is a huge underground shopping mall. Mostly they sell clothes, shoes, handbags, jewelry and beauty supplies. It gets a bit repetitive after a while and it was crazy packed but they had some nice things.

The land of the free, home of the RoboCops.

One of these things is not like the other. At some point I'll probably devote an entire post to just food. Grocery shopping is an adventure in and of itself.

I wandered around Bupyeong after leaving the market and again was reminded why I'm so lucky to be in Yeonsu. I'm sure for some people it's great but it's too crazy in Bupyeong for my liking. Getting back to Yeonsu felt like having someone turn the volume down. I much prefer the quieter scene.

I lost my way trying to get back to the subway and this was when I was thankful I'd saved this first trip out for a weekend and not a work day. Basically I was on the wrong subway line but realized it right away and headed back toward Bupyeong Station to make the transfer back to the Incheon line. From a native's perspective I probably did look like the clueless foreigner but whatever, I am after all, at least for now.

I stashed my camera while I was trying to find my way back but pulled it out one last time once I finally found my neighborhood. It's so colorful here at night. Bright and fun without being garish I think. I really love it.

I spent today just relaxing but next weekend I'm hoping to hit up someplace new again and perhaps during a morning or two this week as well. Though there are loads of pictures here (too many?) I took way more than this and am working on getting a Flickr account up so I can stash them all in one place for people to see.

Also I updated the link list (on the top right) and for those people reading this who are actually in Korea now there are some useful sites to check out for information as well as things to do.

I'm about to attempt cooking sliced rice cakes for dinner with a side of laundry and prepping for tomorrow's classes. Stay tuned!

Trivia of the Day: Baekdu Mountain, also known as Changbai Mountain in China, is a volcanic mountain on the border between North Korea and China. The Korean name, Baekdu-san (백두산) means "white-headed mountain". Koreans consider Mount Baekdu as the place of their ancestral origin and as a sacred mountain, one of the three "spirited" mountains; the one contained in the legendary foundation of Korea. From the beginning of history through the Three Kingdoms period, to the Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties, Koreans have spiritually depended upon the "divine" mountain. Foreign visitors, mostly South Koreans, usually climb the mountain from the Chinese side, although Baekdu Mountain is a common tourist destination for the few foreign tourists in North Korea.