Seoul - Blogabond

The weekend ended up holding innumerable adventures. After the internet cafe on Saturday, Adam and I walked through one portion of the downtown of Yangju to get back to the Lotte Mart from the night before. After taking inventory of my apartment, I realized that I had forgotten some of the essentials, the first being a towel! As much fun as air drying is in the summer heat, my guess is that my feelings will change come the Korean winter. The downtown of Yangju (which actually means 'Western liquor' in Korean) is luckily enough right up the hill from our building. Oh, the location of the building is in a really interesting part of town.

View of the street by our building from the fourth floor

While the majority of Koreans in any sort of urban area live in high rise apartment complexes, we live in a little village within a big city. There is only one tall building, and the rest don't exceed five stories. Some buildings are apartment structures, some are really old, small, one-story houses. My aparment is in one of the newer buildings, on the second floor. And luckily enough, my view is of the windowless side wall of the tall one. I really don't mind, because I still get a lot of light and the windows in the hallway have an amazing view of the neighborhood, but it's still funny! Oh, and throughout all of the buildings are little shops with apartments upstairs. They're all little cafes and markets. But when I say cafe, don't think of a Panera, but instead of a little room with a couple of tables and one person doing the cooking and serving, usually (from what I can tell) to their family members and close friends.

Back to the trek to Lotte Mart. There is a marshy, stream-like river that runs through the city, cutting off what seems to be the older half from the newer.

View of the highrises of our city from the train station

After walking through the older downtown, we crossed the river and managed to get to the store. I bet it was at least a half hour walk. On the way we kept seeing spiders the size of silver dollars (NO exageration) dangling from the telephone wires, and I was so so scared that one was going to fall on my shoulder. Silly perhaps, but I have never in my life seen spiders so big, and was beyond freaked out. We spent a couple of hours at the store, getting necessities like plastic silverware (which we later saw said meant for outside dessert parties) and the like. I wanted to buy shampoo, but was once again accosted by a saleslady who tried to sell me literally FIVE tubs of Pantene Pro-V. She wouldn't let me take anything else, and I couldn't tell her I would never use that much even over a year, so in the end I accepted her generous sales offer (she even shoved a kitchen sponge in the tape as an added bonus!) only to drop the shampoo in the wine section of the grocery store. Oh, and the funniest part is we had to walk past her again to get to the registers, and she looked in the cart, didn't see the Pantene, and scowled as we walked by. I guess not all Koreans will be my friends.

Yesterday we took the train into downtown Seoul for the day. Imagine two Americans trying to figure out the subway system without even a map to guide them! Luckily, we got smart and paged up "map" in Adam's dictionary and managed to the the map that had 'FOREIGNER' stamped in big letters on practically every side. It was only about a fourty minute train ride to the center (or what we thought was) of Seoul, which really wasn't that bad. We quickly saw the Korean culture at work, as the train was practically an example of musical chairs. Anytime a person got on that was older than someone sitting down, the younger person would stand up, the older would sit down, and so the cycle would repeat. So if a still older person got on at the next, the only kind of old person would get up and give up their seat.

They're all Asian...

Hilarious to watch, but a great reminder of the different culture we are in. As a side note, we've been getting a lot of looks for being Westerners. None of them have been in a bad way, but more of like a curiousity.

Once in Seoul, we walked through a random plant market that went on for blocks and blocks before turning to attempt to get downtown. This attempt became an all-day ordeal, as all of the roads kept winding up, down, and around mountains within the city and we had no exact directions on where to go. We ended up climbing a mountain that had the National Assembly of Music or something of the sort on top, along with a HUGE building the specialized in weddings! It even had a photo booth where newly married couples could wait in line to get their pictures taken. Very different from home. Once we got on the other side, after about an hour, we hit an area called Itewon, or something similar, which is where many American military and their families go for a taste of home. Imagine the weirdest place in an American downtown you've been, and multiply it by, a lot. Some of the stores were in English on the main street, still with the winding alleys off of each side, yet there were American restaurant chains at the center. Stuff like Papa Johns, Quiznos, Outback Steakhouse, Coldstone, the list could keep going. Yet the majority of the people were still Korean who apparently come to the area to sightsee. In their own city. There were also a lot of French bistro-themed restaurants, surprisingly enough. We strolled down a street lined with tiny antique shops (Mom, you would have freaked) to get down to the really windy old section of the city. I was so amazed by how tiny many of the streets were, with shops and signs lining alleys that had clothes hanging from one to the other. SO cool! I know that Seoul advertises itself as a modern and advanced city, which is true, but there iss still a large physical history. We never made it to the modern downtown, but I had more fun meandering through the web of the past than I think I could have had in the concrete grid. We ended up getting to the river and strolling in a park that was created directly underneath the highway, but right on the water. I've never seen such a better use of space, but I guess in a city that has no choice to build out but only up, it made perfect sense. The end of the day was spent in search of the coveted metro station that would get us home, which ended up being in no joke, the biggest mall I've ever seen in my life. So big that they had an outdoor concert area on the top. HUGE!

I'm currently at my new school. The one English teacher at the middle school that I will be working with is gone for the day, so I've had a lot of fun learning new Korean words and practicing my international hand sign language all day. I really don't have anything to do, they told me to sit at my desk and amuse myself, and just gave me my official work laptop a little bit ago. So naturally, I'm emailing you guys. They encouraged me to do so. But so weird, get this, instead of each teacher having their individual classroom, all the students have their assigned rooms, and the teachers move around to whichever class they have to teach. So, each teacher has one assigned subject, and they all share a big room with the vice principle for desk space. And I have my very own desk. Oh yeah! Not only a bigger apartment but a personal desk. Obviously moving up in the world! :) They've all tried to be accommodating to someone who can't speak their language. I think I've received five soft drinks from the desks of different teachers, pineapple cookies, a thing of highlighters, and a notebook from different people. Even though I'm learning new words faster than I can remember them, the language thing is a barrier, but one that has only added extra spark to the day. Oh, and the old art teacher showed me all of his drawings! And when I say all, I mean all five full portfolios!

Nam Mun Middle School, where I teach

Both Nam Mun Middle and High Schools

Nam Mun Middle School!

The shared gymnasium in Nam Mum. Notice the mountains in the background

The school is in the countryside, about a twenty minute drive from my apartment. It's so beautiful! There are rice paddies in the fields that run up to the sides of the mountains. Really, even though this is the area in which people live, and not meant to be left natural, the combination of the high mountains surrounding every valley is absolutely breathtaking. The drive over was kind of early (8), and everything was still covered in mist. There were Korean graves interspersed in the hills and along the road with memorial temples dedicated to the wealthy. Everything here is already surpassing any expectations I previously had. And instead of a playground or area in between the middle and highschool, it's a garden. With fountains and well-kept bushes and flowers. Last thing, they have the students to the janitorial work! Bathrooms (that's an entire email in and of itself) to gardens, it's all done by students. I'll never undervalue a janitor ever again.

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