|
  | |  |
The festival for Founder's Day
Entry 4 of 5 | show all | print this entry |
So far everything has been going well here in Korea. I have gotten used to the schedule of school and become more acquainted with Seoul. I have been working everyday Monday thru Friday with not much down time. I get up around 8:30 everyday, sometimes later and take a shower and then head to school, which is about a 15 minute walk. I pick up breakfast on the way at 7-11, usually consisting of a rice triangle stuffed with Korean food. I then get to school prepare for classes, teach, eat lunch, teach more and then get home. I get home at either 8:15 or 6:45 depending on the day. I eat a quick dinner at home than go to the gym for about 1.5 hours. From there I either go to the PC cafe or go to bed. Obviously, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are different.
I got my first paycheck today and will be getting the Internet installed in my place tomorrow morning. There is a morning field trip for the pre-kindergarten students tomorrow that I do not have to go to. This means I do not have to go to teach my first class till 2:50 tomorrow. This will hopefully give me time to go to the cell phone store and get one.
Last weekend was pretty fun. Actually, last weekend was really fun. We did not have class on Friday so that meant there was a three day weekend. I decided to go with some friends to Busan, which is in Southern Korea. It is the second largest city and has nice beaches and stuff, supposed to be real fun. I left work Thursday and went straight to the train station which has a high speed rail link to Busan. I got there and found out all tickets had been sold out, so my plans changed pretty quick. But other friends were still in Seoul so I knew I could go out with them.
I went out to Korean bbq with my co-worker Andrew and his gf Annhang. She is Korean and probably does not spell her name this way, but this is how it sounds. We met a Korean friend of theirs for dinner and had a good time. From there we met Patricia (co-worker) and Woodstock. This is a bar full of white people that has music that is requested by customers. So they play some pretty good stuff. From there Patricia, the other Korean guy, and I went to a club. It was really fun, although the cover was $20. It was also very funny because most all people dont do much dancing. And barely any girls move at all. They just kinda stand there. I think I made it sound very boring and dry, but it wasn't. I don't know how to explain it. We were out till about 4am. Then we were able to walk home. The Korean guy said it was the craziest night he has had in a while.
Friday I met up with some other friends that teach at another school, but I trained with one of them. It was the two girls I knew with one of their Korean bf's and two other Korean guys. We went to a Korean bar and stayed there most the night, till about 3. The difference btw a Korean bar and a Western bar is that at a Korean bar you sit at a table with your group and haver to order something to eat. Usually just an appetizer that everybody shares. Korean culture is to never eat on an empty stomach. I had a real good time, other than the fact that I don't have a cell and went to the wrong station to meet them. After about an hour of waiting and calling several times from a payphone, we finally met.
For some reason Asian guys become very attached to me. Not in a gay way or anything, but in a friendship way. People that I went to Thailand with and are here in Korea with me can vouch for me. For example, the Korean that was dating the girl I knew wanted me to be his foreign little brother. He said to call him if I ever needed anything and would never let me drink by myself. Koreans for some way seem to gravitate towards me at bars that I go to, most the time they are drunk. Its kinda funny, I just wish it wasn't always only guys. Another example is the guy, Jimmy, at the gym who showed me around and signed me up. His English name is Jimmy because he loves Jimmy Hendrix. He is always super excited to see me. He wants my cell number as soon as I get one so he can call me up and talk to me everyday. I am pretty he was joking, I am hoping he was joking. The only thing that gets weird because Asians are much more touchy-feely. It is very common to see two drunk men holding hands as they walk with their wives in front of them.
I slept in on Saturday. The plan was to go to the festival at the park next to the river to watch fireworks for Founder's Day. It was Patricia, Lauren, and me. We took the subway. We had to transfer subway lines at a station about 4 stops away from the park's station. This was the place of my craziest subway experience ever. EVER!!! We got off the train walked downstairs and saw it. Thousands of people waiting in line to catch the next train. We finally found a place to stand and wait. About 4 trains came and left without us being able to get on because they were so crowded. It was finally our turn, I decided to take a video of the process. People were pushing to get in and people were pushing to get out of the train. People were pushing and shoving from all directions, the subway station turned into a mosh-pit every 5-10 minutes when a train came. The train doors would try to close but couldn't because people were getting stuck in the doorway. So people had to ram themselves even tighter into the train. Created a great video, sadly although we were only feet from the subway we did not get it. We made it in the next train and boy was it stuffed inside.
So now we just had to wait about four stops before everything settled and we were there. Wrong! Our destination station was so crowded with people wall to wall that it took us another 45 minutes to exit the station. Normally only taking about 5 minutes. There were so many people at the park, I guessed 500,000. This is a very conservative guess. There was an amazing fireworks show that lasted about an hour that was synced with music. Now its time to leave. Taxi cab maybe? None in sight that are available let alone moving. We got smart and went to another station about 45 minutes walk. So did the other half of the 500,000 people. We finally got the that station after walking is a massive group of people. We would have had to wait another 1-2 hours before getting on the train, so we just walked some more. I felt like I was walking out the gates of a pro sporting event because there were so many people. Keep in mind this was several miles away from the park and about 2 hours after it ended. We finally found some room to walk with a free zone around us. We got a taxi, sat in traffic and finally made to Hongdae.
Hongdae is a club district with several universities around it. It is very popular and fun, people are out all night and morning long. We went to a bar and had a good time. After this we walked and say a salsa dance club. The girls just had to go and check it out. We walked in and saw people salsa dancing. As the night went on the really good dancers came, it was actually very cool to watch. We were the only Westerners in the bar, who knew there were Koreans that knew how to salsa dance. Some of them were very good too. This was the last bar of the night. We took a taxi to our district and got some fried chicken in a bar/club area near our houses.
Outside of the chicken place were about 15 Americans that looked and sounded like they came straight from Oakland. They were being very load and obnoxious. Both Westerners and Koreans were all staring at them but trying not to make eye contact, they did not look too pleased either. It does not help that many Koreans are racist towards black people to start with. This did not help boost the reputation of Westerners in Korea. This type of thing happens every night in Itewon. Westerners that are either in the US Army stationed in Korea, tourists, or fellow teachers tend to make fools of themselves in front of Koreans. It is very embarrassing to see this happen and see your reputation drop right in front of your eyes.
I have written too much and am tired, bye!
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries from Korea Rep. or try a new search. |
| |
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
