Sleeping at the jjimjilbang proved to be (was) my first bad
experience in Seoul. I was constantly
(always) thirsty, even though I was drinking cup after cup of water. It was most likely because I had lost
electrolytes from all the sweating in the sauna, but I only had 15,000 KRW left
for the rest of the trip, and my wallet was in my locker anyway, so I didn't
buy anything to drink. All the water I
was drinking made me go to the bathroom at least three times that night, with
the choice of either walking on the freezing cold tile or using a pair of very
uncomfortable slippers. In addition,
every time I got up someone either took my spot or the mat I was using would
disappear, so I would have to find another place to rest. Sometime in the early morning, I discovered
(found out) that one of the bunk beds had been vacated (was empty,) so I
crawled into it and tried to go back to sleep.
It was only a little more comfortable than the mats on the floor, but I
did get another couple hours of sleep.
I finally woke up around 8 AM and decided that I'd had
enough of trying to sleep. I got up,
grabbed (got) my shampoo, soap and shaving equipment and went to get cleaned
up. The public bath was what I was used
to in Japan: a nude, open area where you clean up before getting into the hot
tub-style baths. I took a shower to wash
my hair and body, then sat down in front of a mirror to shave. Once I was clean, I got into one of the three
baths and relaxed. They had three hot
baths – regular (40°C,) extra hot (44°C) and a 'theme' bath (40°C with green
water.) They also had a wet sauna at 70°
and a cold pool. I briefly (for a very
short time) tried the wet sauna, though it was so hot and humid that I could
barely breathe. I wasn't brave enough to
try the cold water that morning. Soee
and I had agreed to meet at the front desk at 10:30 AM and I was done bathing
around 8:30 AM, so I had some time to kill (wait.) I lifted a few weights in the exercise room,
though I didn't want to do anything that would get me sweaty again. Without much else to do, I got dressed and
played a game on my phone (Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions, a great
port of the PSP version!) until Soee came out.
After we left the jjimjilbang, we wandered over (went) to
Daehangno, a district with a huge number of small community theaters and
open-air stages that is very popular with college students.
Soee told me that many students gather (come)
here to practice the arts (music, painting, performing) in the park, as well as
sell tickets to small student-run shows.
We had breakfast at Paris Croissant, a Korean chain that sells French
breads and pastries, and shared a cinnamon roll, some banana coconut chocolate
bread and some kind of cream filled pastry, as well as some oranges that her
mother had packed. Soee had already paid
for the sauna, and with splitting the bill for breakfast I owed her 19,000
KRW. Of course, I only had 15,000 KRW,
so I gave her everything I had and made a note of what I owed her. We bought a little too much to finish, so we
doggie-bagged the rest and went on our way.
Our next stop was Sungkyunkwan University, Soee's alma mater
(the school she graduated from.) The
school was founded in 1398 and is over 600 years old!
She originally studied urban planning,
thinking that it would be about designing cities and other large urban
spaces. However, she was disappointed to
find out that it was more about replacing one or two buildings and seeing how
that would change the neighborhood. Her
dad got her older sister and her interested in tax accounting, so she changed
her major to accounting. She also
pointed out (showed me) some large banners hanging from a fence; sometimes when
people graduate, their friends put up these banners to congratulate them. She said that her friends did this for her
when she passed her CPA exam, and that she was quite embarrassed that they put
a big picture of her face on it. (Soee
doesn't like pictures of herself, especially close-ups, which is why I haven't
shown any pictures of her here or on Facebook.
I posted some pictures of her at first without thinking about it, but
took them down when she asked me to. I
still feel pretty stupid for having made that mistake.) The university was almost completely empty
(except for the cafeteria,) but we were there during winter vacation. We wandered (walked) through the halls for a
while, though we couldn't go into any of the rooms because they were all
locked.
Our initial (first) plan for after Sungkyunkwan University
was to go to the horse races and possibly (maybe) the World Cup Stadium. However, Soee's dad convinced us that it
would be better to go back to Gyeongbokgung and see what we had missed on
Thursday. We caught a bus at the top of
a hill on campus, and the bus driver recommended that we take a look at a
historic residential (housing) district very close to the palace, so we decided
to check it out first. The whole area
was very interesting; all the houses were traditional Korean homes that have
stood for hundreds of years, and people still live in them. There were a number of signs reminding the
tourists to be respectful of the people living there.
Next, we walked to Gyeongbokgung and explored the National
Folk Museum of Korea, which had reconstructions of traditional peasant
homes.
It also had a re-created city
street from the early 20th century that showed traditional Korean crafts and city
life.
Inside, they had an exhibit on
Korean history with a timeline that stretched from the very beginning to the
modern day. It was sad to see how much
strife (war) Korea has had to endure (survive) just in the past century. The Japanese occupation, the war for
independence, the Korean War, the split from North Korea…it all happened in
such a short time, and not that long ago even.
We didn't want to miss Gyeongbokgung again, so we didn't
dally (stay) at the folk museum too long.
We did, however, make a quick stop at a very cool set of statues of the
Chinese zodiac animals on the way.
After
that, we got our tickets to the inner palace and wandered (walked) around the
extensive (very large) grounds. My
pictures do a much better job of showing off the magnificent (very beautiful)
architecture than my words; a picture is worth a thousand words, after all!
My camera actually ran out of juice (power) halfway through
and I had to switch to taking photos with my phone. The phone was fairly easy to recharge – I
could plug it into a computer or use one of Soee's family's iPhone chargers –
but my camera's charger didn't work with Korean outlets, which are 240 V and
have a very different shape. I was only
able to keep it charged this long because one of the women in the guesthouse
let me use an adapter it fit into.
The palace's closing time was 5 PM, and around 4:45 PM the
staff started to usher (escort) everyone out.
Having seen all that we wanted to see, Soee and I started to head (go)
back home. We had a small crisis with
the subway; I, of course, had no money, and Soee didn't think she had any cash,
which we needed to buy my ticket. We
walked a few blocks to try to find somewhere to exchange currency, but it was
Saturday and New Year's Eve, so everything in the area was closed. I then remembered that I had given her all of
my cash that morning, and it was more than enough to buy a ticket back to her
apartment.
When we got back home, I finally met her older sister,
Yeoung Hee, who is almost the same age as me.
(Soee and my sister have nearly identical ages – Soee is only eight days
older than Jessica!) Hyun was out with a
friend, but the rest of the family and I went out for dinner. Their apartment building is right next to a
massive (really big) department store (a mall, really) with a huge number of
shops and restaurants, so we had a lot of choices for food. Our first idea was to get Indian curry, but
the restaurant had a long waiting list.
I had mentioned (said) that I wanted to try bibimbap, so we went to
bibimbap restaurant instead. Bibimbap is
a rice dish mixed with vegetables, meat and condiments; you're served the
ingredients separately, then mix it together yourself and add seasoning to
taste. I got a traditional vegetarian
bibimbap, while Soee's had tuna and Yeoung Hee's had octopus. I tried both of their dishes, and it was all
very tasty. Soee's father paid for the
meal, and I was again very grateful for her family's generosity. I wish I had been able to express my
thankfulness better than with just 'kamsahamnida' (thank you.)
I guess I looked tired or sick or something, because after
dinner Soee and her family convinced me to take a short nap. The family used to go to Bosingak, a pavilion
with a very large bell that is rung on New Year's Eve, to celebrate the start
of the new year, though the last few years they've stayed home and watched it
on TV. Hyun and Hwan had shown it to me
on Wednesday and told me that Soee would be taking me there on Saturday. Worried that I had caught a cold, they tried
to talk me into staying home and watching it with them. I was a little tired, but I felt that this
was something I wanted to experience while I was here, so Soee and I left a
short while later.
The city had closed off the streets and subway stations
closest to the pavilion, so the streets were packed (filled) with people
dancing, waving sparklers and shooting small fireworks into the air. Some people were dancing while wearing
traditional costumes and beating drums, which Soee said her older sister had
done when she was in college.
We had to
fight our way through the crowd several times, and eventually got to a point
where we were packed in and could go no further. We were too short to see the pavilion, though
I did get a couple pictures of it over the crowd using my phone. When the clock struck midnight, the bells
started to ring, the crowd erupted (burst) into raucous (noisy) cheers and more
fireworks were set off. I honestly
couldn't hear the bell over all the noise, but Soee said she could hear it.
Once the bell-ringing ceremony was over, the crowd dispersed (left) pretty quickly, so we headed back to the subway to catch a train home. Because of the holiday, they were running a few trains later than usual, though we did have to wait quite a long time for the two trains we needed, both of which were packed to the gills (very full.) During the trip, Soee told me about two Korean customs dealing with age: you are one year old when you're born, and you add a year on January 1 instead of your birthday. In Korean terms, this means that I'm now 32! Truly, life is ephemeral (short.)
We got back around 1 AM, and I got cleaned up and went to
bed almost immediately (right away.)
Soee told me that she would wake me up at dawn to go to the roof of the
building with her family and watch the first sun of the new year rise. However, it was 8 AM and sunny when I woke
up, and I later found out that it had been too foggy at dawn to see the sun, so
they had let me sleep. I ate a light
breakfast with Soee and her mom (oranges and toast with peanut butter and fig
jam,) then packed and got ready to go.
Unfortunately, Soee had to work Sunday afternoon, so she wasn't able to
go to the airport with me. Her dad drove
us to Seoul Station, and she came inside with me to buy my ticket to Incheon
and get me on the right train. I had
hoped to be able to exchange a little money at the station, but once again
everything was closed and I only had ¥10,000 bills left. Hopefully I can repay her for the extra money
she spent because of my mistake another time.
We said our goodbyes and shook hands, then went our separate ways.
The flight back to Japan was uneventful. I bought some sweets in the duty-free shop at
the airport as omiyage for my coworkers, the Iwaki Station agents who helped me
get to the airport Tuesday night, and the doctors I've been seeing about my
throat problem. I had arranged to meet
Brian, a fellow AEON teacher that I trained with, for dinner in Mito on my way
back north. WI was looking forward to it
because I hadn't hung out with anyone from our training group for at least six
months. I did, however, severely
(greatly) underestimate how long it would take to get there from the
airport. My plane landed at Narita at 4
PM, and after collecting my bags and going through immigration and customs I
boarded (got on) the Narita Express train to Tokyo station. (Somewhat amusingly, the immigration staff
tried to direct me away from the re-entry permit line and into the standard
foreigners line until I showed them my re-entry permit.) I transferred at Tokyo station and went to Ueno
Station, where I took a limited express Fresh Hitachi to Mito, arriving around
8 PM. I had a little snag (problem) at
the exit gate, as I had somehow managed to get on the train with an express
ticket but not a fare ticket, and I needed both. Brian waited patiently while I sorted the
matter out (took care of the problem) and paid another ¥900.
We then walked a short distance to an Okinawan restaurant
Brian likes. I didn't know the place
(and besides, the menu was all in Japanese,) so I let him order. We got a few dishes – sliced sausage with
mayonnaise on the side, hot dish of diced carrots and tofu, and some incredibly
(very) tender pork – and caught up on how things had been going for each of
us. One of the staff members at the
restaurant surprised us by giving us a choice of handcrafted glass cups, saying
that it was a New Year's gift.
He had wisely checked what time my last train was before we left the station, so we got back in time for the last train back to Iwaki. I got into town about 11 PM, presented my omiyage to the surprised (but pleased) station agent and finally went home. I had planned on going to bed earlier, but I guess I had gotten used to the late-night schedule in Seoul because I stayed up until 1:30 AM unpacking my luggage and packing the souvenirs I had bought so that I could mail them later in the week.
And that ends the retelling of my whirlwind tour of
Seoul. I didn't intend for it to be
anywhere near this long, but I wanted to capture the trip in as much detail as
I could before my memory started to get fuzzy.
I had a wonderful time with Soee and her family, and as much work as it
will be to find a new teaching position and move over there this summer, I'm
looking forward to living there. There
will also be good to be able to experience Korea together at a slower pace, and
to see how our friendship develops when we're living in closer proximity
(closer together.) There were a lot of
ups and downs to this trip, but if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn't
hesitate to say yes.
No comments:
Post a Comment