The Smog Sure Looks Beautiful From Hwaseong Fortress

Through the magic that is facebook I was able to meet with Briana, and old friend who I met in a sociology class freshman year at Chapman University.  Neither of us have a phone but somehow we managed to find each other in this city of 10 Million plus people. 

We decided to do something that the Internet had said was beautiful and free, Hwaseong Fortress.  We took the metro in an embarrassingly indirect rout that took us nearly 3 hours.  After spending a good chunk of the day on the metro we were both super hungry so we stopped at a food place that had fake models of the food outside so that we had an idea of what we were getting.  The menu was in Korean so we ordered Bibimbap for safety reasons.  It was delicious and only 4,500 won (about 4 bucks).  After eating we walked about 10 more minutes looking for the fortress before we saw a  huge wall and wandered our way in.  The fortress was built in the late 1700's and it was my first experience seeing an old Korean historical site that wasn't tucked between skyscrapers (although they were still in the background). 

Overall it was a pretty great weekend and it was fun catching up with Briana and talking about our experiences the first few weeks in Seoul.  More adventures to come. 

And as usual some photos for the readers.

Seoul: Something New Every Day

I spent the last two weeks getting settled at the new school.  Things are going great, I really like the classes, the kids and my coworkers. 

My coworkers took me out to a welcome dinner after school last Thursday and I got a first hand experience of Korean drinking culture.  Let's just say, getting a ride home from my boss at 3 AM on a school night is still kind of a blur.  The dinner took place at a Korean BBQ joint, the food was good and there was lots of it.  There was also a ton of Soju (Korean rice liqour) flowing and it is apparently rude to tell an elder "no" when they offer you a drink.

This Thursday was one of my coworkers birthdays so I went out for round 2.  This time I learned to be rude, although sometime uncomfortable, at least I felt okay the next day.  This time the meal was a bit more adventurous: starting out with a hot plate shared in the middle of the table filled with glass noodles, blood sausage and intestine.   Surprisingly enough I really liked the intestine.  It kind of tasted like spicy squid without the fish flavor (chewy).  Then we moved on to the next place which consisted of soft tofu, spicy sprout soup and raw (just killed) squid).  They pull the squid out of tanks that are on the streets outside of each restaurant with many different types of live seafood, then they take it in the back and chop it up and serve it to you with 2 different types of dipping sauce.  The body tastes really tender and good and the legs taste a bit more chewy than when they are cooked.  It was definitely an interesting experience.  The night ended in an underground karaoke joint where you get your own room with a big-screen karaoke TV.  They love their karaoke.

Anyway did not have my camera with me for most of these adventures but I have also done some walking around the city alone and that is where these pictures come from.

First Weekend in Seoul

I have no internet, no TV, no phone, and no friends (yet), so I decided to brave the subway system and just get out there. I found a couple of spots that the internet recommends for tourists and I wrote down the subway stop and went to all of them. It turned out to be an amazing weekend.

I saw so much of the city in just two days. The subway system was easy and cheap. My agenda for the weekend included finding good street food, walking through the worlds largest electronics market, walking through South Korea's largest fish market and getting lost in the Korean outdoor markets, shopping centers, parks, and palaces.

I accomplishes most of these things and some unexpected things as well. The electronics market was huge; the building I found was 7 stories with each story about the size of a mega Wall-Mart. It was overwhelming and made me wish I had more money. After leaving I found out that there are 20 different buildings and I only was in one of them. The street food turned out to be no problem at all, it is everywhere and there are more choices than you can imagine. I ate spicy BBQ chicken, spicy fresh baby squids, a korean seafood pancake, and some sort of seaweed rice omelette. The outdoor markets were just like Morocco but with nicer stuff and less touting (much less pushy).

Some interesting things I saw along the way were: emergency gas mask stations placed all over the subway system, fruit prices (in some cases $50+ for a melon), Mcdonald's delivery mopeds, and a women shacking a live octopus in my face hoping for me to buy it.

It's been a really awesome couple of days. The overall experience of the city is indescribable so I hope that the pictures can help. I can't wait to see more, do more, eat more and get settled in my new tiny apartment on the outskirts of Seoul.

First Few Days In Seoul

After a great and relaxing Summer at home in Oregon I finally made it to Seoul a few days ago.  The visa took longer than expected, which meant that I arrived on a Wednesday night and had to start working on Thursday.  I had two full days of teaching and both went really well.  The kids are great but I can tell it is going to be a lot of exhausting work.

I moved into my apartment right away and the head of the school told me before hand that he didn't like it but that they couldn't find anything else.  He said if I stay there they will pay me 100,000 won ($100) extra each month.  The apartment wasn't too bad.  It has a very small shower/bathroom but other than that it seems pretty good.

Other than school so far all I have done is wander around my neighborhood.  I've decided that my neighborhood must not be popular with foreigners because in the 4 days I have been here I have not seen a single non-Korean person.  I don't have internet yet but I should have it sometime next week.  For now I have been going to the local coffee house called Coffine Garunaru.  It was pretty difficult ordering coffee the first day but the lady remembers me now so it's easy.  It's my weekend so I am planning to get on the metro and go figure out the city now that I have some free time.

Here are some pictures of my neighborhood.  You can expect more next week after I explore more of this huge city.