Solo Adventure to Namdaemun Market

Tonight I head out solo to finally buy the camera I've had my eye on. It's similar to the 5 year old one I have now, only better and with video capabilities. It's come time for proper video in my life.

So I hopped on subway line 9, and already there was hilarity. As I got off at my transfer point, there were so many people (Friday rush hour) that not everyone could fit on the train. I've seen videos of those white gloved men in Japan that puuuuush crowds onto the subway, but in Korea nothing of the sort that I know of. Anyway, so there were stubborn people at every doorway as I passed that clearly wouldn't fit but did not want to get off. The doors kept beeping to signal they were closing, hitting something (something big, it takes a LOT to stop those doors) and opening again. This must have happened at least 5 times, and I saw the culprits as I passed. One guy had only half his body sticking out, one woman her shopping bag, other odd limbs and items and most notably an older woman's ass. The door kept opening and closing on her ass as she tried to squeeze it in, and it wasn't big by any means.

Anyway, so I get to Namdaemun Market, check a few shops. 2 gave me fair prices, the rest thought I was a dumb foreigner and showed me a price nearly 100 bucks more and I immediately left. Decided on my place and made my purchase. An ahjussi (older man) in the camera shop sitting on a stool in the corner was like my own personal peanut gallery during the whole transaction, randomly throwing out his little bits of English:

ahjussi: "Beautiful. Tattoo."

"Thanks"

"So many. American women. Gansta."

Then as the saleman was cleaning my lens the ahjussi laughed and pointed

"Shoe shine boy," he said.

I got my receipt and headed out to try my new baby out. The road from the camera shops to the subway station is a cute outdoor market with stores on both sides and food cart restaurants? food stalls? in the middle.


I stopped at one of the food stalls to get some noodles and people watch. A western guy and a visiting married couple with him stopped in to experience eating the "live" octopus. The vendor lady grabbed the octopus from the tank and started hacking it apart in preparation much to the delight of her watchers, myself included. The married woman started squealing. After it was done and her husband was eating, she squealed some more as the chopped up tentacles writhed on his plate and hung from his mouth for a photo op. The Korean men next to them goaded him on to put down his chopsticks and just eat it with his hands.

I was eying the marvelous 1,000 won pieces of pineapple on a stick on the cart in front of me while I ate and was all set to get one when the vendor reached deep into her pants to scratch her ass. I'm not to squeamish when it comes to germs and street food, but there are some places where I draw the line. I gave my business to the lady next to her. You can see them both in the video. ;)

And there you have it. A Friday night alone and home by 10pm and I still had a great time! :D


OK wasn't going to but, went ahead and made a video! :D Enjoy!




PS: Accckkk! I spelled Namdaemun wrong in the video. Oh well.

Spring Catch-Up

So I've been a major slacker! Here are a couple outtings from the Spring. As it is past 11 and I just made yogurt and kefir after meeting with my long time no see Korean friend Anna who moved to Canada last year... what I'm saying is, I've done a lot today! :D


April 16, 2011 - Yeouido Park to see Cherry Blossoms!



A trash can fire broke out in front of one of the park's many convenience stores. This guy busted a hole in the side... maybe trying to get to the fire? But the oxygen just made it grow!


Kids coming to check it out!


Might I say, it was hilarious to see these grown men haphazardly try to put out a fire. They had no idea.


Hannah and Marcus


Some of the famed cherry blossoms.


Sarah and Hannah









April 23rd, 2011- Super Spring Adventure Hike- Yebongsan

Adventurers: KC, Alex, Me, Hannah, Chad, Brendan, and Mike












This bird just made our day.


Competition...

















It wasn't til towards the end KC thought to try and get the bird closer. Then we all wanted to redo our photos but alas the little bird was full and bored with us after a few more grabs, so no close shot for me!






















The top!!!










Some additional shots courtesy of Brendan! It's nice having another photographer around!



Vendor on the way up.










They took to calling me "flatlander" and also "Gollum" because I was the slowest and most exhausted. I blamed it on being a Floridian so I guess I was asking for it.


Whole group at the top.





The way back down.


Dr. Mulder to the rescue. Chad had a bum knee that day. and the downhill was killing him.

Nonsan Strawberry Festival

Yesterday, Hannah, Maggie, Alex and I hopped a train to the Nonsan Strawberry Festival. It was about an hour and a half train ride out of Seoul. It was a typical festival seen, tents with food vendors selling corn on a stick, fried goodies, noodles, ice cream, and so on. There were no strawberry fields nearby as we anticipated and it was 10 bucks to take a bus to pick strawberries, but you could only eat there, you weren't allowed to bring any home, so we opted out of that.

There was a strange and alarming section showing off animals in cages. Baby bears in a tiny cage, an assortment of birds, snakes, turtles, rodents, a wolf, and a donkey. The most baffling off all there were the 3 cages of house cats and the single caged area with two rabbits, a tortoise, a skunk and a monkey (which was on a very short leash). It was a pretty sorry sight...

Oh and I dressed in my strawberry skirt from a Halloween costume from 2 years ago, I couldn't resist! Maggie went themed too with her polka dot red dress and green sweater. We already got attention enough for that, but when we founded and added on the strawberry headbands, bring on the laughs, photo taking, and gawking. It was pretty funny in the festival, but in the bathroom at the train station after, I did feel a bit sheepish washing my hands with the line of waiting people's eyes on me. Oh my! haha. SO fun though!

Anyway, on with the photos!








Mushrooms!







Poor little baby bears.






Baking contest!!



Of course, cutesy characters abounded!





Entrance to a weird indoor display, underwhelming to say the least. lol.











Thanks Hannah for the shot!




Mags captured some random college students taking photos with me. hehe.





There was a little concert going on outside the festival. And by that I mean 2 old Korean men in flashy suits dancing and singing karaoke style here behind us.

Fermented Rice Drink and a 3 legged dauschhund

I just returned home from my 2nd official week of teaching English lessons to North Koreans at the Durihana church. The first week, was pretty shaky. I came unprepared because I didn't know the levels of the students. Turns out, most were beginners but a couple had studied English a year, and one woman had studied for about 8! So it was a hard balance making it interesting for the more advanced students, but not overwhelming for the beginners. There were about 8 students that ended up coming last week, but this week, only 4 (and the last 2 45 minutes late) because there are some serious exams happening for these students right now and they were all studying.

Today, I was somewhat more prepared, having spent 2 hours in Kyobo bookstore last Sunday shifting through shelves and shelves of crappy English books. Books, books everywhere, and not one to teach. I finally settled on one I found in the kid's section, though after becoming so frustrated and bleary-eyes, I can hardly say it was the best. In any case, it works for now until I get more of a feel for what to do with the students. Hopefully going to incorporate more cultural study type things. Songs, kid books (note to self: North Koreans don't know western stories, see idiot moment bellow).

Teaching adults, you realize more than ever just how difficulty and annoying English is. I was asked about glasses being plural and all I could say was... "Maybe it's because there are 2 lenses? English is weird. I'm not sure." Wonderful teacher I am.

Idiot moment of the day: In one of the exercises the name in the sentence was Peter and a student couldn't read it properly. I said "Peter, like Peter Pan." Doh! They probably don't know Peter Pan. In South Korea yes, North Korean, no. Though the more experienced student did laugh, so maybe she knew.

After class the same woman who laughed at my Peter Pan reference, and another woman who doesn't take English class asked the South Korean TA, Suyeon, and I over to try some traditional North Korean drink called 감주 (Gamju). Suyeon used her phone dictionary to find the right words and explained that it was a fermented rice and barley drink, supposedly good for your digestion in the way yogurt is (probiotics, I'm guessing). We felt pretty excited to be experiencing a piece of a culture very few people do. It was pretty yummy, it tastes a little like rice milk with vinegar. It looks like a sweet rice drink they have here called식혜 (Sikhye) that I drink all of the time in the saunas. They seemed so pleased that I liked it they offered to give me a bottle to take home with me, and ladled some into a spare thermos. Will definitely be sharing some with friends tonight!

On the way home I wandered around my neighborhood. Having finally had my first paycheck, I went into a store where I've been eying my favorite shampoo from the states for sale. It cost the equivalent of $15, so I was out the door pretty fast. No thanks... After that I walked by the Dog & Cat grooming place that is right after my apartment. There I saw at least 5 or 6 small dogs through the window, one of which was a white poodle with ears dyed bright pink, not uncommon here. There was a darling little dauschhund hobbling around missing a front leg. I couldn't help imagining some terrible grooming mishap that left the shop the proud owners of their customer's mangled dog. Hmmm... how grotesque. I'm sure it didn't happen like that at all. I wandered past to find a little restaurant called "Green Salad" making wild claims about its "Big American Brunch" now being available. We'll see about that. On the way back, I saw the poodle taking a mondo crap right on the grooming room floor. Big French Crap...

Capoeira is treating me well. I am doing it Monday and Wednesday afternoons and practicing some on my own because truthfully, I suck. And I really hate sucking. Unfortunately capoeira is at the same time as the Korean classes I wanted to take, so dilema. Guess I'll find a tutor. Capoeira is more rare here than Korean lessons, to the question answers itself in my eyes. :)

My attempt at growing veggies in my classroom is not going well, most of the seedlings have died, save the tomatoes. It was finally warm enough to move them to the roof, so on Wednesday I did that hoping more sun would be the solution. Wonderfully after weeks inside, I moved them out just in time for Thursdays bout of toxic rain! We'll see how it goes. This might be a pipe dream I have to let go to the wayside... but I'm trying!

Tomorrow, getting to the train station with friends by 7:00 am for a strawberry festival! My first time leaving Seoul since I've been back! Can't wait.

Sashimi with North Koreans

Friday nights, starting next week, I'm going to teach English to North Koreans defectors at Durihana Church. A mix of people actually live at the church, mostly adults but a few children as well, perhaps around age 11 and 13, and an adorable toy Yorkie. The church is a modest sized building, that I assume used toe be a small apartment building much like mine. In the basement is the cafeteria and also two study rooms. The main floor has the church mass area (which has a band set up and piano, neat!), the second floor holds the offices and the third floor has a few dorms for the residents. They will have me arrive at 5:30 every Friday to have dinner in with everyone, and then at 6 pm I will begin the English lessons.

Tonight, I met with the organizer who is setting all of this up from the non-profit: HOPE, and a bilingual TA at the closest subway station to the church. The TA is a female student studying English Lit and will be volunteering with me each Friday and is very sweet. This was also her first encounter with any North Koreans. I think we will get along well!

Upon arrival at the church we were whisked off to the cafeteria for dinner which included a spicy radish and fish soup, rice, lettuce fixings (usually used to wrap pork at glabi bbqs in Korea) and, delicious dish of sashimi. I wasn't too hungry, but I don't think there has ever been an occasion where I've turned down raw fish. Wonderful!

The pastor is a South Korean man who knows a little bit of English. I most certainly got the sense of a paternal respect regarding him among everyone there. Not surprising but interesting to me none-the-less, perhaps because I haven't been around a church in a very long time. The manager that was interfacing with us is middle aged North Korean woman. Very proper and poised, she spoke not a word of English but still looked at me when addressing the group, something I appreciate, despite my lack of understanding. Many of the North Koreans eating dinner or working in the kitchen were rather short, I'm assuming from malnutrition. I expected as much, but I suppose I didn't expect the difference to be so dramatic and obvious. A couple of the women had a slight limp as well, though I do not know the cause. They ate quickly, shoveling large lettuce wraps in their mouths and I couldn't help but think about just how much they must appreciate this food. Or perhaps they've already grown accustomed?

Meeting in the offices after dinner, the manager explained, with the help of the HOPE organizer translating, that many of the people living at the church, and who will be attending my class, came without family and are lonely. The goal is to teach English, but really, more importantly they want me to connect and interact with my class. An aspect I am much more excited about than teaching English, though I do love to teach. I asked if there were any cultural differences I should be mindful of. Her reply was that perhaps family is a touchy issue and I shouldn't breach the subject until we are closer. I completely understand. She also warned me that since they had been alone for such a long time, they could be rude. I assured her I'm not easily offended and I think it will be no problem. She gave me a short DVD, an informational video on the camp, laden with Jesus propaganda (such as a clip of the pastor washing someone's feet.). But aside from that, I think they are doing a wonderful, and much needed service, and I feel so happy and privileged to be taking a small part in it.

After the meeting she gave us a small tour of the building and we were on our way. A resident walked us the bus stop and despite the cold, seemed happy to wait and chat, she even tried some English on me. I hope she takes my class.

I have been trying to gain as much knowledge on North Korea as possible. I am mostly through the memoir Aquariums of Pyongyang, written by a North Korean defector who lived 10 years in one of the work camps. I also watched a few documentaries this week. They are indoctrinated very early on to hate Americans and the Japanese, and blame us for many of their woes, including but not limited to: slaughters in the war, the division of the north and south, and the most puzzling: power blackouts. So I think it will be interesting to see how they interact with me.


On the way home, more happy events. I happened upon a flower shop in Nonhyeon subway station that sold hyacinths. I have been wanting some for my kindergarten class since they grow so fast and impressively beautiful. Arbor week is coming up soon and we have a plant project already, but I think this will be a nice addition.

I then found mini garden packets, one containing mimosa seeds, in another store. I was just discussing last night how much I wanted a mimosa plant and how I thought perhaps I wouldn't be able to find them in Seoul and then tada, the very next day! I'm so excited to plant them. Mimosa's are amazing! My kids would flip out if they saw one.

Demonstration for those that are unaware, to the soundtrack of Amelie no less. :)



I was going to make a video blog but my program is acting up so here are a few quick shots. :)

Funny moments...

On the bus ride home today, I clung to the top bar as I stood trying to keep my balance. Bus drivers, in fact almost all drivers in Korea, are aggressive renegades, running red lights, speeding, changing lanes without blinkers or hardly looking, and trying to beat pedestrians (who have the right of way) to the punch of crossing the street.

In any case, I'm doing the usual, and I see in the double seat behind me, 2 pairs of legs in converse and high school uniforms. My arm, encased in puffy jacket blocks their upper bodies from my view so I can't see their faces. They are sort of tangled up like a romantic couple and it strikes me as odd, considering PDA is not often seen in Korea, esp of that sort. You see hand holding and occasional pecks, but nothing ostentatious. So I'm imagining how funny it is in my head, thinking perhaps this new generation is becoming more bold. Making up a story in my head about these 2 high schoolers in their converses in love. I see one rubbing the others hands and I finally turn to get a look at their faces and... well it's two guys.

Not uncommon really. Same sex friends are often more affectionate than couples. In fact I've read that couples only fairly recently started holding hands in public, it was almost always same-sex friends. But the situation, and my assumptions tickled me nontheless. Afterwards I realized it was obvious they are both guys. The girls have to wear uniform skirts, not pants.

Ah Korea.

Mission Pink Bike

So today for the first time, I ventured to the French Village. I'd heard about this way before my first year here from a friend, but never went! It was kinda cute with lots of little coffee shops that I haven't seen anywhere else in Seoul, and thin roads, and French signs here and there.

But this was only coincidental. I went there today because I was buying a used bike for 50,000 won (about 45 bucks).

After realizing that I will shoot myself if I have to keep riding a bus that gets me to school as fast as I could walk, I decided a bike was simply not something I could wait til my first paycheck for(April 7th!). So I rode the subway a few stops and walked a bit to pick it up (after getting lost a few times because of some vague directions) and had the task of riding it home using a map from google I printed of the area.

The mission was a tremendous success. Though bike storage is a bit of an issue. I have the perfect sized back room for it but getting it through the gauntlet of fridge, stove, front bathroom door, back bathroom door, was a little daunting.