Weekend Highlights

Highlights of this weekend include:

1.  Indian dinner with the Suwon Vegetarian Club

2.  Drinks with the Seoul Friends Circle

3.  National Museum of Korea

4.  Dongdaemun shopping

1.  Suwon Vegetarian Club

As you may know, I have been a vegetarian on and off for many years.  But upon coming to Korea I decided that it would be best to give up my vegetarianism in order to participate more fully in the Korean culture.  Koreans are big meat eaters and there are few vegetarian options on any given menu, if at all.  And even though I have been eating meat without a problem (well, without much of a problem) I am still a vegetarian at heart.

As such, I was excited to hear that the Suwon Vegetarian Club was hosting another dinner get-together.  There were about 15 people in total and most of them were also GEPIK teachers like me.  Most of them were from Canada and the US with one from South Africa and one from England.

Dinner was good and I enjoyed everyone's company.

2.  Seoul Friends Circle

After the dinner was over some of the Suwon vegetarians were going into Seoul for something called a Seoul Friends Circle.  I guess it is a group on Facebook.  The name sounds terribly tacky/hippie and I wasn't convinced it was going to be cool but everyone seemed to have positive impressions about it so I decided to go.

The event was at some bar called Beer Hunter and there were about 50 or so people there for the SFC but the set-up was such that everyone was sitting at these long tables and there really wasn't a lot of mingling between small groups.  Mostly, I talked to the Suwon Vegetarians but that good I enjoyed my conversation with them.

Later, we went to this bar called Monkey Beach in Gangnam that was about 1/2 Korean and 1/2 Foreigner.  It seemed like 1/2 of those foreigners were American soldiers.

One cool thing about Monkey Beach is that you get to drink a "bucket" drink.  I didn't get one but I tasted Zenas's.  He got Banana Punch which tasted exactly like a banana Now and Later candy.

3.  National Museum of Korea

I got to go into the entire museum for free because it was celebrating 100 years (of something..?) and today was the last day that you could go for free, so I decided to go back into Seoul for the museum.

The museum shows the entire cultural history of Korea from the Neolithic times to modern day.  Traditional paintings and ceramics are also on display at the museum.

 

The museum claims to be the largest museum in Asia and the 6th largest in the world in terms of floor space, but it didn't really seem all that big to me.

<--- There is the museum behind the tree and red pagoda.

The inside of the museum is really beautiful and covered entirely in marble.

  

The picture above is a 10-story Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda that if my memory serves me right, was built in 1368.  Oh darn, I looked it up and it was 1348-- so close!

Koreans like their PDA.  Look closely at the picture of the right and you can see a couple making out on the escalator.  busted.  

4.  Dongdaemun Market 

After the museum I took the subway north to Dongdaemun market to buy a pair of pants suitable for work.  Shopping in Korea can be difficult because they don't let you try on shirts-- only pants.  This can be so frustrating and you really have to take a gamble if you want to buy a shirt or sweater. Luckily, you are able to try on pants, shorts, and skirts.  I found a pair of black pants that the saleslady said looks slimming and beautiful on me.  Alright sold!

Finally it was time for me to head back home.  A long ride on the subway and bus... and I was back in Happy Suwon.

A good weekend.  Can't believe it's Monday already.  Time has been moving by fast lately.

Visitation Rights

In addition to it being Halloween last Saturday, the weekend was also special for another reason: my mom and step-dad came to Korea to visit!  They flew in from San Diego to Busan and then went to Goeje Island to visit my step-sister Nicole and her husband Sam.  (click here to see my previous post about Goeje)  They were there for the earlier part of last week and traveled west to visit Natalie, my brother's girlfriend, and then north to Seoul where they rented a traditional Korean house called a Hanok.  

Then on Wednesday October 28th my mom and Darrell came down to Suwon to spend the day at the Korean Folk Village (click here to see my post on the KFV).  After a little bit of confusion about my school and the correct time to meet, I was finally able to see them.  I gave them a tour of my classroom and a little bit of the school.  Unfortunately no children were at school that day because of the H1N1 flu and most of the teachers had already left too.  However, they did get to meet Yunjoo who is the music teacher and one of my favorite co-workers at the school.

My mom, Darrell, and I walked back to my apartment ("You have to walk this far everyday?" they asked me.  "Sure do," I replied.  My walk to and from work/school takes about 20 minutes at a casual walking pace so I figure it's about a mile away).

After showing them my apartment (alright fine I'll show you ONE picture of it because you haven't seen it yet and it's been 2 months.  Since the addition of my television though, I've had to rearrange and so it doesn't even look like that anymore.) we went out for an early dinner in downtown Yeongtong.


We ate at the same Galbi place that Nicole and I ate at when she was in town.  The first time I was there with Nicole the waiter ordered for us and he picked out the thinly sliced beef which I think is called Bulgogi.  This time we had some kind of pork Galbi and beef Galbi which are thicker slices of meet, and then later, because we were still hungry we got the thinly sliced Bulgogi.

After dinner we met up with my co-teacher Eunju who was kind enough to give my mom and step-dad a ride to Suwon Station so that they could take the subway back to Seoul.

***

On Friday morning I had a cold and a sore throat so I called in sick.  I wanted to sleep in but because of all cases of flu it was advised that I go to the doctor before 9am.  Ugh.  So I did.  It cost me w2,500 to see the doctor and another w3,000 for pills and meds.  Not too shabby at all!

I arrived in Seoul (Insadong) at around 1pm but since Mom and Darrell were not there I went inside and slept for a little while to feel better.  And by a little while I actually mean 3 hours.

That afternoon my mom and I went window-shopping down the main drag in Insadong (click here for my entry about Insadong) and then out to tea at a cute little tea shop.  Insadong is known for all their tea houses and it's one of the things I didn't do the last time I went and really wanted to.

It's not the greatest picture because I really was feeling sick that day, but going out to tea with my mom remains the highlight of their visit for me.





On Saturday Nicole & Sam came from Geoje to stay at the Hanok house.  That evening we went out to dinner at a kitschy little restaurant in Insasong that is known for their handmade mandu/dumplings and has been mentioned in numerous newspapers and guidebooks.

See? Very kitschy.                                                         The food was great though!  And pretty too.          

Good food = Good times

On Sunday we took the Seoul Bus Tour all around the city.  Here are some pictures from the tour:

 

  

The pic above is Haechi, Seoul's mascott.  Personally I think he looks like a wild thing minus the horns:

Legend has it though, that Haechi can distinguish good from evil and can repel fire and disaster.  All those Wild Things can do is roar their terrible roars and gnash their terrible teeth.  Haechi wins.

We also went up to Seoul tower.  It was really cool!

 

Inside the tower.

Halloween SoKo Style

Saturday, October 31st was Halloween.  Koreans don't really celebrate Halloween the way we do in the US but because of the influx of American English teachers in South Korea, more and more Koreans are beginning to grasp the concept.  They don't go trick-or-treating and they don't even really dress up and eat massive amounts of candy.

Some areas of Seoul (and Korea in general) are known for having a higher ratio of foreigners than others.  Those areas, such as Itaewon (where the Yongsan US army base is located) and Hongdae (where Hongik University is located) which is known for having bars and  nightclubs with fewer army personnel, cater to the crowd and hold big Halloween events.

I met up with Mali at her apartment in the southern part of Seoul (near Seoul National University) to get ready for the night.  Mali planned ahead and had her mother send her a costume from the States.  (Although there are a few costume stores in Seoul, they can be hard to find.)  I decided to go as Robin and pieced together my own costume made from clothes I already had, green tights I purchased at a Subway station a few weeks ago in preparation for Halloween, and a skirt and yellow belt from the American Apparel store in Myongdong).

Up up and Away, Robin!

Robin fights crime with Batgirl

The bar scene in Hongdae was out of control.  I had been there once before with the Hagwon kids from Maetan but I still could not have predicted how wild this was going to be.  There were costumes of all kind and everyone was drunk and raring to go.

By the end of the night the streets were littered with trash, broken bottles, costume parts that had fallen off during the mayhem, and so forth.  It was 6am when I finally made it back to Mali's apartment to crash for the night.

Without the candy corn, pumpkins, and jack-o-lanterns it didn't ever really feel like Halloween, but it sure was a good time.