This is an incredibly late post, but I've been crazy busy!
Agnes was planning a trip to Seoul on Halloween to meet up with a friend of hers. She invited me along. I wanted to see Seoul and figure out how to get around the city. I also wanted to meet another American teacher I had been emailing throughout my first week for advice and venting.
Agnes took it upon herself to book us on a bus tour to see the sites of Seoul. We had to catch the 7 a.m. bus from Dangjin to Seoul because Agnes wanted to get to Seoul as early as humanly possible to be able to see everything.
The bus left Dangjin when it was still dark outside but the bus only took about an hour and 10 minutes. Once we got to the Seoul bus terminal, we had to catch the subway to the center of the city (fittingly named: Central City) to get to the bus tour.
When we were leaving the subway station there was a little old lady who was the turnstile attendant (wasn't aware an attendant was necessary, but I digress). My subway card was not letting me through the turnstile and Ms. Geriatric (I'd lost all respect by this point) was screaming at me in Korean. Obviously I have no idea was she was saying. She kept yelling and pointing at me. I totally could have taken her, I had a good three feet on her, but I thought better of it considering the international relations implications.
Agnes stepped in and started yelling back at the lady in Korean. The heated banter went on for quite some time with no real resolution in sight, I considered getting some popcorn. Finally the lady just waved us off to an exit that wasn't blocked by turnstiles. Why we couldn't have gone through this exit in the first place is completely beyond me. Still not entirely sure what the problem was either.
We eventually make it to the bus tour and there are only two other people on the bus. The buses depart every 30 minutes so this wasn't entirely odd.
We drive next to the Han River, which runs through the center of the city. There are little shops everywhere selling everything imaginable. It seems like every third or fourth shop is selling florescent lighting of every possible neon color. I will never figure out why one city would need that many shops selling florescent lights and light bulbs.
There are people and cars EVERYWHERE. It shocks me that there are not more collisions. I see a man in front of us on a motorcycle stacked several feet high with cardboard boxes. Taking more than one trip is obviously out of the question. I see an old man crossing the road in front of us balancing a huge wooden door on a bicycle while he walks the bicycle. The bicycle looked like it had shared the same amount of birthdays as the old man. I quietly hoped he didn't have to go too far or up a hill, could have been disastrous.
We get to our first stop, Changgyeonggung Palace, and it has started to rain. A little old lady is selling umbrellas. She wants 30,000 WON for an umbrella. I'm not paying over $20 for an umbrella! Is she nuts? There's also a giant pot of boiling beetles under her little tent of goods. I also passed on the beetles.
We get within the palace walls and there are beautiful fall colors everywhere; very vibrant reds, oranges and yellows. There was a 3,000-year-old tree and an exhibit on sundials and astronomy. The exhibit was in Korean, but I'm sure it was very interesting and informative.
Agnes didn't want to wait for the next bus to pick us up for the next stop on the tour so we decided to walk. By now it's pouring down rain. That 30,000 WON umbrella would be awesome right now. But we walked to a little convenience store and bought an umbrella for 7,000 WON. So there, Bug Lady.
We finally made it to Changdeokgung Palace but we had to go on an organized tour for that and there wasn't another one for 1 1/2 hours. We noticed there was a festival of some kind occurring down a side street, so we decided to check that out.
It turned out to be a Korean culture festival. One of the festival volunteers grabbed us and herded us to a covered tent. He wanted us to have lunch with the cast of the festival performance. Free Korean food?! Hell yeah! We ended up eating with all the performers and volunteers. We had kimchee soup that kicked ass and a whole bunch of other things that I couldn't quite identify and singed my tastebuds. But there was some pork that literally made me gag. It was slices of pork but it had ribbons of lard throughout each piece. I couldn't handle the texture and I almost vomited in the middle of the tent. Not kidding, I was gagging.
Some nice man kept insisting I share his rice wine. It was very good and helped me stomach the pork dish.
After we ate and thanked everyone for letting us eat their food we wandered into a teapot gallery. There were pictures of various Korean dignitaries on the wall of the gallery. There was a picture of the guy who gave me rice wine sitting next to a government official. We had been eating and drinking with someone really important in the Korean hierarchy and we didn't even know it!!! Still have no idea who he was though.
We eventually made it back to Changdeokgung Palace in time for the tour. By this time, it was a torrential downpour. The rain made the experience a whole lot less enjoyable. And what is up with the ancient Japanese destroying beautiful palaces in Korea? In 1592, the Japanese burned down the palace after it had been chillin' quite peacefully for almost 200 years. The palace, after being rebuilt, was destroyed by fire again in 1623 after a revolt to restore King Injo. A-holes.
The Secret Garden was beautiful and peaceful despite the dozens of tourists milling about. I really want to go back in the spring. The garden is very large and blends into the topography of the land. Artificial landscaping is kept to an absolute minimum.
On one side of the garden there is a gate called "Eosumun," which means "a fish cannot live out of water." It was a reminder that a "ruler must always consider officials." i.e. Listen to the little people. The gate led up to a building which used to be the monarchies library. I totally wanted to bust through the gate to check out the library, but getting arrested in Korea is not really on the itinerary.
There are small pavilions throughout the Secret Garden grounds. In one pavilion, there is a tablet with words from King Jeongjo enscribed: "All streams in the world have moons reflected on them, but there is only one moon in the sky. The moon in the sky is me, the king, and the streams are you, my subjects. It is the principle of the universe that the streams follow the moon."
Yeah, slightly ego-centric, but sounds a hell of a lot better than: "There's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, it says 'Fool me once, shame on you... if you fool me... we can't get fooled again.'"
Just sayin'.
There were other stops on our bus tour, but I was soaked to the bone and quite cold; just plain over it. Agnes and I got back on the bus and headed back to Central City. Agnes had plans to meet her friend and I had plans to attend a Halloween party with another American teacher, Michael, so Agnes and I parted ways.
While looking for the correct subway line to meet Michael, I happened upon Tim Tams. Imagine my excitement!! Tim Tams are the best cookies on the planet and I haven't seen them since I lived in Australia!!!! Abby has sent them to me a couple times from New Zealand. I actually, very audibly, exclaimed, "Tim Tams!" I got a funky stare from the clerk, clearly not appreciating my outburst. I wanted to clear the shelves of the tasty morsels, but due to the pathetic state of my wallet, decided to practice some self-control and just purchase one. But, not to worry, I made a mental note of the kiosks' location and vowed to return with my first paycheck.
I've always had an unbelievable knack for getting lost. I'm really, REALLY good at it (or bad at it, depending on if you're a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of person). I have NO sense of direction and when I say, "no" I mean non-existant. It's actually gotten worse as I've gotten older too. It's never really bothered me though, I'd like to think of it as endearing. If I find the correct location the first time I'm looking for it, it actually shocks me. However, getting lost in a country where you don't speak the language, especially an Asian country where you don't speak the language, is a whole different animal and it's quite scary.
Michael told me which subway line to meet him on. I thought I was headed in the right direction, but given my knack for getting lost I thought I better ask one of the younger subway riders. I figured a younger person was more likely to speak a little bit of English. I pointed on the map where I needed to go and the kid pointed at the train heading in the opposite direction of the one I was intending to get on.
Hmmm.
Sure glad I asked him where I needed to go. That's another thing about the Korean language or foreign languages in general, so many words look so similar! One letter or a slight difference in inflection can get you on a train heading to the complete opposite side of the city.
I met up with Michael and we jumped on another train to get to his Korean program director's apartment building. We met up with another American teacher, Karl, along the way.
Here I am in Seoul, South Korea, walking through the streets at night with two complete strangers. I have no idea where I am, no idea where I'm going, next to no money, and no idea who these men are. What is wrong with me? Intuition is a beautiful thing.
We finally made it to Ted & Jane's (Michael's Korean program director) apartment and they had a huge amount of food prepared, both Korean and Western.
Ted's wife, Jane, is the cutest woman alive. She was so friendly and constantly smiling. She's this beautiful Korean woman and she kept shoving more and more food in our faces. I wanted to put her in my pocket (and she'd actually fit) and take her with me everywhere.
I was able to discuss my school situation with Ted & Jane and Michael and Karl and they gave me advice on how to handle a less than ideal school and school director situation. It was just really nice to know I wasn't crazy for feeling overwhelmed and lost in my ridiculously disorganized teaching situation.
We taught Jane how to Trick-or-Treat and it was the cutest thing ever. As we were all leaving to go home, we decided to go back and "Trick-or-Treat" at Ted and Jane's door. We knocked on the door and yelled in unison, "Trick-or-Treat!" She couldn't stop laughing and she ran back into her kitchen to grab candy for us.
I had to catch the last bus back to Dangjin and it left Seoul at 9:50 p.m. Michael made sure to stay with me until I got on my bus. It took running to three different terminals before we finally found the correct bus. I was definitely stressing out, running from bus ticket window to bus ticket window and trying to ask anyone where the correct bus terminal was. Luckily, Michael speaks a little Korean so that was helpful. We finally found the right place with 6 minutes to spare before the last bus left the city for the night.
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