September I hardly knew ye

Cripes! The start of a new term at work, my internet throwing successive tantrums, a recent trip out of the country, and my general laziness and tendency to say, "Naw, I'll write something tomorrow" has led to an unintended two and a half week hiatus. Whoops. So I figured I needed to sit myself down and get something out before this month just completely passes me by.

First and foremost: Fall is here! It arrived exactly thirteen days ago on a Monday morning. How do I know this? Because fall is just that awesome. It comes with a crispness in the air and a coolness that you can feel even under the remaining summer heat. It's not pushy though like Winter which comes barreling in to set up camp for four months. It pops up, gives you a quick wink to let you know it's in town, and then lets Summer fade out. When I came downstairs that Monday morning I paused for a second and oh hey, there it was. Fall is the best season ever and I'm so so happy I'm abroad in a country that experiences a beautiful Autumn like the one back home.

And to ring in the harvest season, Korea celebrated Chuseok (추석) this past week. Chuseok is a three-day holiday that you'll hear most foreigners describe as the Korean Thanksgiving. Everyone goes back to their hometowns (or as most of my kids said to "grandma's house" wherever that may be) to spend time with family and in the words of my students to "eat yummy foods". It's one of the most important Korean holidays.

The holiday this year was from Sunday the 11th to Tuesday the 13th so a group of us girls from work took the opportunity to take a mini-vacation to Shanghai. You'd think that considering we'd only just started the new term we wouldn't be in need of a break yet but those first couple weeks are tiring so it was a more than welcome stay away. More on that adventure soon! That is when I actually finish up on Vietnam. Heh.

CDI always makes up missed class days though so I had to work both days this weekend which was not too fun. Luckily I only had one class today though that was out by 1:30pm so I'm spending the rest of the day relaxing and catching my breath. Literally. Somehow I came down with bronchitis and I have a real nasty cough and that obnoxious chest pain. Dr. Google and her associates however recommend basic home treatment like liquids and rest so I'm holding off on a trip to the pharmacy just yet. So far sitting next to my humidifier is helping a lot actually. In the event of needing more than just charades and coughing at the pharmacist though, this site seems to offer a decent Korean-English dictionary for medical terms. Or at least it's a Korean-English dictionary for medical terms. Whether or not those terms are accurate I haven't a clue...

So that's that in my life right now. I anticipate the next few months being pretty busy but I want to make sure to share some more of what's been happening lately. My first ever K-pop concert! Flying in style and delicious food in Shanghai! A visit to a house shaped like a giant toilet!

At least one of those adventures means I forever have the perfect ice breaker for awkward situations at parties. This really has been a successful year.

Trivia of the Day: Ganggangsullae (강강술래) is a 5,000-year-old Korean dance that was first used to bring about a bountiful harvest and has developed into a cultural symbol for Korea. It incorporates singing, dancing, and playing and is exclusively performed by women. The dance is mostly performed in the southwestern coastal province of Jeollanam-do. It is often associated with the Chuseok holiday and Daeboreum. Traditionally, this dance is performed only by women at night without any instruments. Young and old women dance in a circle at night under the moonlight. They go outside in traditional Korean clothing, hold each other's hands, make a circle, and start rotating clockwise. The lead singer sings a line and everyone sings the refrain 'ganggangsullae'. The song tempo progressively becomes faster. They sing about their personal hardships, relationships, and desires. During the dance, the women play a variety of games. The dance can last until dawn.

Adventures in Vietnam: Part I

It's a lazy Sunday and I just finished putting away groceries, throwing on some laundry, and blowing up a beach ball that came free with a recently purchased box of cereal (it says "Kellogg's" on one panel and "Special K" on another"). So since I'm hanging in today it seemed like a good time to finally share some pictures and details from our trip to Vietnam!

We left on a Saturday morning and made it to Noi Bai International Airport in the early afternoon. From there we took a cab to our hostel in Hanoi which took a little under an hour. We stayed at the Little Hanoi Hostel Le Thai To which is right on Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi's Old Quarter. I would absolutely suggest this hostel if you're staying in Hanoi. Not only is it conveniently located but it's clean and well maintained and the staff were friendly. They helped book our tickets down to Hue and back which probably would have been a pain to figure out otherwise and someone was always around if anyone needed anything. 

After dumping our bags in our room we set off to explore.

 Turtle Tower.

 The Dharma Initiative is everywhere.

Travel days are always pretty tiring and we'd been up early so after looking around a bit more and grabbing dinner later on we called it a day. The next morning we had breakfast at the same spot we'd had dinner because it was close and we didn't want to be wandering around trying to find food. One of the most awesome awesome awesome things about Vietnam is that they have Western breakfast. Well, lots of Western food in general but breakfast is what interested me most. Finding somewhere in Korea that serves up pancakes or omelettes or french toast is pretty difficult so I was more than happy to indulge in Western breakfast all week long. We realized later, after hitting up a few more restaurants, that this place was a bit overpriced but it was right on the lake and had a nice view so it was worth those two meals.

After breakfast we went in search of a particular temple but when we got there it was closed. One thing to note if you're sightseeing in Hanoi is that a lot of places close from 10 or 11am to 1 or 2pm. Instead of setting out around that time like we did, try to catch places earlier and then spend those hours getting lunch or street shopping. 

Bach Ma Temple.

Lenin Park.

Big old statue of Lenin.

 Flag Tower.

 The Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum. It's only open from 9am to noon but we passed on this because we were never in the area at the right time and seeing a dead body wasn't exactly high on the list.

One Pillar Pagoda.

While waiting for the Hồ Chí Minh Museum to open we checked out the Military History Museum which truth be told isn't really worth seeing. It's small but even still there wasn't a whole lot and everything seemed sort of thrown together. Lots of items were just left out in the open instead of being behind protective glass and most of the labels had been taped up. 

Once it was open for the afternoon we headed back to the Hồ Chí Minh Museum which was one of my favorite stops on the trip.

Before this trip I didn't know a lot about Vietnam's history or even the war. I never read much about it on my own and I'll save my rant about how US schools fail to teach anything past 1950 for some other day. So everything was pretty new to me and I felt like I learned a lot. The Hồ Chí Minh Museum is especially thorough and nicely mixes the history of the man himself and the country with various works of art. I highly recommend making a stop there.

 A cool exhibit that was running while we were there.

More to come soon!

Trivia of the Day: Hoan Kiem Lake (Vietnamese: Hồ Hoàn Kiếm, meaning "Lake of the Returned Sword" or "Lake of the Restored Sword", also known as Hồ Gươm - Sword Lake) is a lake in the historical center of Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. According to the legend, emperor Lê Lợi handed a magic sword called Heaven's Will which brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle God in the lake and hence gave it its present name. The Tortoise Tower standing on a small island near the centre of lake is linked to the legend. Large soft-shell turtles, either of the species Rafetus swinhoei or a separate species named Rafetus leloii in honor of the emperor, have been sighted in the lake. The species is critically endangered and the number of individuals in the lake is unclear.

People, take my advice, if you love someone, don't think twice

This past weekend was my fella's last in Korea. On Saturday we braved the torrential rain with a few of my co-workers and went to catch a movie at the Puchon International Film Festival. Battle Royale was playing at 2pm in newly released 3D and the pop-out blood splatters made it even more ridiculous than I'd remembered. They showed it with both English (on the bottom) and Korean subtitles (on the side) which was kind of cool. I'm pretty sure the festival runs through this Friday so try to catch something if you're in the area. I recommend Om Shanti Om which I know is playing a few times this week, it's so much fun.

Then on Saturday night we went into Hongdae, which I pretty much consider a Korean cultural experience in and of itself. For one, we were able to bear witness to the fact that Koreans are the best dancers because they absolutely dance like goobers and don't care what anyone thinks (which is awesome). Also, that pesky language barrier brought on amusing results when Mike tried to order a glass of Glenfiddich whisky and ended up with a turquoise cocktail that tasted like Gushers (he didn't drink it). His second attempt was successful since he actually pointed it out on the drink menu but didn't realize why the bartender gave him a funny look when he said "no ice" until his expected glass of whisky was presented in a shot glass. This is why I stick to rum and cokes.

The Hongdae night ended as a night in Hongdae always should, with a sunrise and McDonald's. We slept until the early afternoon, packed up a bit, then went to do some last minute present shopping. After ice cream cones and a movie (The Chaser, oh my god, I am still mad at that ajumma shop keeper) we went to have galbi for dinner.

Galbi is probably my favorite favorite favorite thing about Korea. And there are a lot of things that I love here. In particular there is one galbi restaurant right around the corner from my apartment and their galbi is the best ever. I swear I could eat their spicy marinated pork every day and never grow sick of it. They also serve awesome banchan (side dishes). This was where Mike wanted to eat dinner on his last night so I'm pretty sure he's in love too.

After dinner we spoiled ourselves with more ice cream and watched another movie (well half, it wasn't very good). I'd really just wanted us to have a relaxing day at home because when I left in November things were really rushed and I feel like we didn't have time to say goodbye. So Sunday was quiet but in a good way.

Monday morning we were up early to catch the bus to the airport. The lines were long but after he was all checked-in he still had about two and a half hours so we went to find breakfast. We ended up at Bennigan's (they have a few in Korea) and split a delicious Monte Cristo sandwich before heading down to security to say goodbye. One of us might have been a mess.

The security at Incheon has automatic doors that you walk through once they've checked your passport and boarding pass but as long as they're open you can see through to the other side. So I waited until he was all the way through before leaving. The line took about 10 minutes so I had to keep waiting for another passenger to come along for the doors to slide open so I could see where he was in line. In retrospect it must have looked pretty silly, my standing there sniffling, staring at doors that kept opening and closing. Luckily when he actually went through the metal detector a huge group of passengers were just coming up to security so I was able to catch his eye and get a wave. He made it safely back home last night with no problems.

Living by myself I've gotten into a familiar routine. I know exactly where everything is, not just in my "bedroom" but in the kitchen, bathroom, fridge, drawers, closet, etc. When I do laundry, exactly the things that I want washed get washed. I wake up when I want and go to bed when I want. I don't have to be quiet or turn down lights because someone else is sleeping and I don't have to knock on the bathroom door to make sure it's empty.

Having someone else here for a month threw all of that out the window. I was all mixed up and wouldn't realize that we'd run out of butter because I wasn't the one who cooked last or that a certain shirt hadn't been washed because someone else had pressed the start button on the laundry. It was confusing and strange and after seven months alone, very abrupt.

When I came home last night, it was the first time in recent weeks that I had to use my key when returning from work. Things were back to the way they were. I walked into a dark, empty apartment like I always do.

But something- that something that makes all those mix-ups and confusions so wonderfully and completely worth it- was missing.