So as Nate and I sit around in the Native Room, trying with all our might to make six hours feel like less than ten (which trust me, is no easy task when you're locked away in a room with nothing in particular to do yet you're surrounded on all sides by your superiors and monitored nonstop via cctv cameras), Joseph arrives with some interesting news! He tells us that he'll be taking us to the hospital tomorrow morning to have our health check completed so that we may in turn finally apply for our ARC! This is exciting to hear as we have been waiting to go since we returned from our visa run and the date has continually been pushed back! Not so exciting however is the fact that he informs us we are not to eat or drink anything, even water, after 10:00pm tonight.
Now, the most astute reader will have realized that 10:00pm is a half an hour before we are let off work and about 31 minutes before we usually sit down to enjoy our final (and usually only second) meal of the day! While I realize this is not exactly normal, keep in mind that I don't show up to work until mid afternoon and usually don't nod off to dreamland, if I make it there, anytime before 2am. So, telling us that we're not to eat after 10:00pm while we're in school is essentially telling us to skip an entire day of food and water!
The looks on both of our faces must have conveyed this point rather convincingly however as he immediately recoiled with Joseph's oh so famous, "Whhaaat?" We enlightened him as to our problem as asked if it would be okay if we skipped out real quick to grab our last meal before tomorrow afternoon! Before allowing us to go, he asked if we had class that we should be in and we quickly assured him that 'no,' in fact we have not had class for over three weeks now! Allowed to leave we quickly darted across the street to our favorite purveyor of fine, non-American beef, McyD's. While it felt great to escape the binds of the Native Room and it's Flatron l1960TR Monitor connected to an English/Korean keyboard. . .we weren't gone long and are now back. . .awaiting our fast!
Hopefully everything goes well at the hospital tomorrow. Joseph reassured me that everything would be okay once they draw out "this much blood," using his hands to indicate something akin to an old milk jug! Suggesting that I have a fear of having blood drawn, and needles in general, Joseph scolded me for not being more open to giving blood. . .apparently this is a big, big deal in Korea! No worries, I sidestepped the issue by pointing to my recent stint in Africa as the reason that I am not able to currently give blood. . .phew! Thanks to all those that help make up for my absence, I'll do my share in other forms of community service, I promise!
Anyways, that's all for now! Enjoy the few new pictures I've got up! There are always more on the way!
"Welcome," if you're from the K fam just checking in for your first time (after my long winded e-mail)! As always I love to hear from any and everyone!
I'll leave you with this. . . .a vice presidential candidate questioning not only the role of the office but it's "fruitfulness" as well! Happy Monday America!
http://dailysource.org/special/palin/146#as_of_july_31st_2008%2C_palin_did_not_know_what_the_vice_president_does
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Up Till Dawn. . .
Well after completing my fifth week in Seoul life seems to have fallen into some sort of routine. . .or, at least as routine as life in Seoul can be! What this means I guess is that we're just going to have to start making the most of our weekends in order to feel like there's a reason for being here, other than laboring away in an 8th floor fluorescent cell. Ah, which reminds me, I never did show you the view from our Native Room, which we have come to realize is by far the nicest room in the building, if not in all of Junggye! We are higher up then almost all our surrounding buildings and have a corner 'office' that looks out at the nearby mountain Bulansam (which Nate managed to hike up, and down, passed each way by elderly Korean women in heels). . . .check it out!
The View from the Native Room!
In our Office; The Native Room
Although 'normal' as any week we've had here, this past week still involved two work sponsored soirees that only settled down once the sun began to come up. Monday with Mr. Lee was simply absurd as he demanded our presence for a Foreign Teacher 'meeting' in Daechidong, a small neighborhood south of the Han River where we originally made our hour long commute from each day. Having met with the elementary school teachers before heading down there, it was clear that everyone was as unenthralled at the prospect of staying out all night as we were. While David unsuccessfully tried to escape Mr. Lee's grasp, Bryn managed to eek out of the thing claiming that he plans early in the morning. Mr. Lee of course refused to hear this and interpreted Bryn's unwillingness to go out to dinner (involving an hour taxi ride starting at around 11:00pm) as a personal attack! Rather than piss off our boss, who had yet to give us a paycheck or evaluation, Nate and I decided to suck it up and take the night for what it was. . . .a free dinner!
We arrived in Daechidong much later than everyone else as we had our hour commute to take! Mr. Lee was 'waiting' for us the whole time and announced that the party may begin once we arrived. This was clearly not the first time he had made such an announcement however as he was already hard pressed to stand straight and was offering up such threats as "I will drown you in soju," or "if you _________ I will fire you." Dinner was of the bbq style where meat is brought out and cooked right before you on a grill sitting over red hot coals. While this has quickly become my favorite meals in Korea, it is always somewhat less than satisfying as their portions of meat are substantially smaller than what an American is used to!
At one point Mr. Lee insisted we take a break from our meal so that he could talk to all the newest foreign teachers, namely David, Harry, Nate, Daniel and Me. Now Daniel, I don't know if I mentioned him earlier, was a really kinda, albeit eccentric, Mexican American that Nate and I met in San Fransisco as we boarded our plane to Seoul. He has spent a number of years now teaching abroad and seems to have an absurd affinity for picking up languages in that with less than a year in each country he has managed to master Japanese, some Korean, most Chinese, English and Spanish. . .who knows what else he knows as well but I'll tell ya, you never need to repeat anything to him more than once before its burned into his head. . . fascinating!
Anyways, Mr. Lee informed us that he was happy to have all of us on board and that there were two teachers who had been noted as exceptional. . .David and. . . .Daniel. In our defense, it seems a bit biased that the two who speak Korean would be recognized! It's gotta offer some sort of solace and a level of comfort in the classroom if you can actually understand what is going on around you. Still hoping to earn an end of the month bonus, as Mr. Lee said we'd be evaluated for one, Nate and I eagerly inquired into what makes D&D such good teachers. Of course Mr. Lee was unable to offer us anything useful, or really anything for that matter. So, as of now, we are still aware (as the teachers make it known to us and others) of our sub-par teaching ability yet totally in the dark as to how to rectify the situation! Sure seems like if they've worked with 'good' teachers, and we are as bad as they make us out to be, that they'd be able to offer us some sort of advice. . .but alas no, I guess that's just the Korean way!
After finishing dinner, on Mr. Lee's word of course, I was ready to keep eating for another hour, we headed next door to, yep, you guessed it, a norebong. We sung away the rest of the evening with 12 other guys, only two of whom we met (or at least were worth meeting). It appears as though Mr. Lee has some sort of issue with hiring women as there is no shortage of female English teachers in Korea but for some reason DYB seems to have none. . .just an interesting side note. We eventually freed ourselves from Mr. Lee's grasp as he shoved Nate, Harry, Joseph and I in a taxi headed back up towards Junggyedong sometime around four in the morning.
On Wednesday we were approached by Anna who was collecting contributions of 10,000won for Julie's (or Princess') upcoming birthday. When asked what she would like for her birthday, Princess told Anna that she didn't need anything for she was a princess and her life was perfect already, ha! Anna informed us that her real birthday was Friday but that we would be going out together on Thursday to celebrate. . . .why!?!? Still trying to catch up on sleep from Monday's outing we obliged, seeing as how we were promised that the party was to remain within the Junggye area. . .phew!
The next day at work Nate and I were met with a nice surprise. As we have yet to receive our Alien Resident Cards (ARC), because we have not gone in for our Health Check, we have subsequently not been able to open up a bank account. Well, as last week marked the completion of our first month at DYB, we were due for a paycheck that is normally deposited directly into a Korean bank account. Not having one however, we were both presented with an envelope literally stuffed to the brim with cash, as reimbursement for our month of awkward, and seemingly pointless labor. As I checked out our payment receipt, I was surprised to find that only the 3.3% income tax was withheld. This is surprising in that I assumed they would withhold medical despite the fact that we weren't receiving coverage, in which case I was well prepared and willing to argue the fact. No need to however! I was somewhat less surprised to notice that neither Nate nor I received a penny more than we are contractually privileged to. . .no bonus for excellent teaching!
Payday!
While it felt great to finally be paid, it felt even better to get a wad of cash a couple inches thick. . .why you ask? Well because the largest denomination of won is a 10,000 bill, a small fraction of our monthly salary. It was rather awkward however when Joseph gave us our pay and then informed us that not only do we make more than he does but he has to pay $700 a month to live in the same building where we are provided housing free of cost (although we do cover the management fee of around 100,000 won/month). This was a little bit sobering but I wasn't going to let it ruin the fun of having an envelope too full of cash to even fit in my pocket!
After work we quickly ran home to stash our wads before returning to school to meet up with the birthday party! Thursday night went rather well for the most part as we began the evening (ha, at 11:00pm) with dinner at Diony's; a restaurant that is directly beneath me on the bottom floor of Dootavill A. Although a free meal is never bad, this was about the most uncomfortable one I could have ever eaten. Nate and I were slammed down in a corner with Cleo and Julia, the rabblerousers at school, and somehow Anna managed to get stuck across from us. Anna was clearly uncomfortable the whole evening, removed from the majority of her friends and forced to interact with the overbearing Cleo who almost refused to acknowledge her presence at times, in a very, very nontraditional Korean manner. Nevertheless it was a terribly awkward experience. . .especially for Nate!
Halfway through dinner everyone was told that we needed to quiet down. No one paid much attention until it was requested a second time and someone looked over to see who the complainers were. Turns out the group of women at the adjacent table had students at DYB, in Nate's class nonetheless. So, Hannah, Nate's Korean Teacher, went over to talk to the mothers and eventually Nate was encouraged to go say 'hello' as well. This was simply a terribly awkward experience as he stood, towering over this woman, trying to communicate anything to no avail. Eventually he realized that the excitement was over and returned to his seat.
Suddenly, everybody ushered him to stand up again as he had forgotten to say 'goodbye' to the student's mother. . .oops. Someone assisted him by whispering the correct Korean into his ear however the words that came out of his mouth were apparently hilariously offensive to everyone around. His subsequent attempts to correct himself only brought on more rounds of laughter and embarrassment from both the mother and our Korean Teachers. Turns out Nate wasn't saying 'goodbye' but something more akin to 'byebye,' an expression used when ushering someone away from you! Oh well, it couldn't have been that misconstrued! We'll see if the student is still in class this upcoming week!
At dinner, Razr, the friendly, and only, male Korean teacher, continued to harp on the idea of forming a band to compete in the inter-branch DYB talent show at the end of the year. With his beautiful voice, David on drums and my self on guitar we concluded that we were a shoe in for the win. Especially with Razr's homemade "DYB" song which as I can remember simply goes "Deeee Yiiiiiii Be, da da da da Deeeee Yiiiii Be." Oh well, I'll give it a go! Roy's bringing my Tele over tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to pick up an amp, either used or from the Nagwon Arcade. . .a gigantic music store that is really just a giant empty office building filled to the brim with vendors of any and all musical supplies!
Nagwon Arcade!
We eventually made it out of Diony's and lost about half of our crowd on the way to "round two." Joseph led us to a second dinner in the basement of a nearby officetel that reeked of dead fish. I remember walking in to the restaurant and gagging at how bad the smell is but managed to forget about it after we were brought out aromatic bowls of seaweed soup. . . mmmmm! Round two lasted until we lost a few more of the elementary school teachers and then the remaining party, just over a half a dozen strong, headed back towards Dootavill for Nate's long awaited House Warming Party!
Everyone stayed at Nate's way longer than anyone should have and the majority of guests crawled back to bed just as the sun was rising. Well, everyone except for Joseph who decided to take up residence on Nate's floor, using a bookshelf as a pillow. While this might seem odd, we've talked about Joseph's sleeping arrangements with him before and he seems to find that sleeping on the floor is much better for his back than on a bed. . . .perhaps I should give it a try one night as I consistently wake up in pain from my bed!
Friday at work was quite the day as Nate and I both straggled in only minutes before we are expected to who up at 4:00pm. Soon there after Anna came hurriedly rushing in, looking very distraught. She asked if we had seen Harry and we told her no, not since the night before. She let us know that he was late for work (although work doesn't technically start until 4:30pm) and totally out of contact. The bad news came when she told us that one of us would have to substitute teach his class instead of simply sit around in the Native Room for six hour as we had been doing all week. This I don't quite understand as it would seem to make no sense to take an uninteresting, "boring," less than competent English teacher from one branch to fill in for a missing Native teacher when the Korean teacher could simply handle the duties, presumably much more effectively! I guess that falls in to the realm of Korean mysteries!
Finally Harry did show up to school and Anna told us that we were relived of having to substitute. . .fantastic as I'm not sure either one of us were awake enough to take on such responsibility! Anna also told us that she was very proud of us for coming into work on time and really appreciated that we could stay out late and still show up. . . .We later learned that this comment was not in direct regards to Harry but had something to do with Michelle Teacher showing up late and Joseph, who is supposed to open the office, not showing up until well in to the evening! I guess Nate's floor didn't provide him with all the rest that he needed! While we're not recognized as good teachers, it still feels good to know that we're at least looked at as good employees. . .which for now, is all I feel like I am. . .a white, blond haired pawn in the DYB machine!
Friday night was less than exciting as I eagerly awaited crawling up in bed and falling asleep! After work Nate and I decided to treat ourselves to a meal of at-your-table-bbq, a first for us on our own. We managed to order and get everything going by ourselves too without much help from the waiters! Harry eventually showed up after being balled out by Anna for showing up late (although not really late). He asked if he could join and we ushered him to our table as his broken Korean is sure to offer a better sense of what's going on then Nate and my (maybe) double digit vocabulary!
Harry asked if we wanted some beef and we both eagerly agreed, not having anything that resembled real beef since landing in Korea. . .unless you count a Mega Mac! Although absurdly expensive for the amount of meat we were brought, the two small steaks that we split between the three of us were amazing! Fantastically juicy and cooked just to the right temperature over open coals on a grill that has been covered in garlic and oil. . . .mmmmmm! To accompany our steaks Harry also ordered a dozen or so thinly rolled pieces of beef that looked like pancakes of fat with a chocolate chip of meat in the middle. When dropped on the grill however these little sheets of lard quickly shriveled up to a small piece of beef surrounded by just a think crispy layer of fat. . .and boy were they delectable!
We eventually finished up with dinner and decided to blow a couple hours in the Playstation Bong before heading to bed! Harry came with us to relieve some stress via Tekken 5 for a little while before taking off to meet up with his girlfriend; an unknown, highly mystical creature only referred to as "my girl" and never seen, only spoken of! We finally called it a night around 2:00am (very early for a Korean weekend) and decided to head out adventuring the next day with no particular plans other than a stop at the Nagwon Arcade, to check in on the Korean musical warehouse, spoken of very highly across the internet!
Bring on the weekend adventure. . . .
The View from the Native Room!
In our Office; The Native RoomAlthough 'normal' as any week we've had here, this past week still involved two work sponsored soirees that only settled down once the sun began to come up. Monday with Mr. Lee was simply absurd as he demanded our presence for a Foreign Teacher 'meeting' in Daechidong, a small neighborhood south of the Han River where we originally made our hour long commute from each day. Having met with the elementary school teachers before heading down there, it was clear that everyone was as unenthralled at the prospect of staying out all night as we were. While David unsuccessfully tried to escape Mr. Lee's grasp, Bryn managed to eek out of the thing claiming that he plans early in the morning. Mr. Lee of course refused to hear this and interpreted Bryn's unwillingness to go out to dinner (involving an hour taxi ride starting at around 11:00pm) as a personal attack! Rather than piss off our boss, who had yet to give us a paycheck or evaluation, Nate and I decided to suck it up and take the night for what it was. . . .a free dinner!
We arrived in Daechidong much later than everyone else as we had our hour commute to take! Mr. Lee was 'waiting' for us the whole time and announced that the party may begin once we arrived. This was clearly not the first time he had made such an announcement however as he was already hard pressed to stand straight and was offering up such threats as "I will drown you in soju," or "if you _________ I will fire you." Dinner was of the bbq style where meat is brought out and cooked right before you on a grill sitting over red hot coals. While this has quickly become my favorite meals in Korea, it is always somewhat less than satisfying as their portions of meat are substantially smaller than what an American is used to!
At one point Mr. Lee insisted we take a break from our meal so that he could talk to all the newest foreign teachers, namely David, Harry, Nate, Daniel and Me. Now Daniel, I don't know if I mentioned him earlier, was a really kinda, albeit eccentric, Mexican American that Nate and I met in San Fransisco as we boarded our plane to Seoul. He has spent a number of years now teaching abroad and seems to have an absurd affinity for picking up languages in that with less than a year in each country he has managed to master Japanese, some Korean, most Chinese, English and Spanish. . .who knows what else he knows as well but I'll tell ya, you never need to repeat anything to him more than once before its burned into his head. . . fascinating!
Anyways, Mr. Lee informed us that he was happy to have all of us on board and that there were two teachers who had been noted as exceptional. . .David and. . . .Daniel. In our defense, it seems a bit biased that the two who speak Korean would be recognized! It's gotta offer some sort of solace and a level of comfort in the classroom if you can actually understand what is going on around you. Still hoping to earn an end of the month bonus, as Mr. Lee said we'd be evaluated for one, Nate and I eagerly inquired into what makes D&D such good teachers. Of course Mr. Lee was unable to offer us anything useful, or really anything for that matter. So, as of now, we are still aware (as the teachers make it known to us and others) of our sub-par teaching ability yet totally in the dark as to how to rectify the situation! Sure seems like if they've worked with 'good' teachers, and we are as bad as they make us out to be, that they'd be able to offer us some sort of advice. . .but alas no, I guess that's just the Korean way!
After finishing dinner, on Mr. Lee's word of course, I was ready to keep eating for another hour, we headed next door to, yep, you guessed it, a norebong. We sung away the rest of the evening with 12 other guys, only two of whom we met (or at least were worth meeting). It appears as though Mr. Lee has some sort of issue with hiring women as there is no shortage of female English teachers in Korea but for some reason DYB seems to have none. . .just an interesting side note. We eventually freed ourselves from Mr. Lee's grasp as he shoved Nate, Harry, Joseph and I in a taxi headed back up towards Junggyedong sometime around four in the morning.
On Wednesday we were approached by Anna who was collecting contributions of 10,000won for Julie's (or Princess') upcoming birthday. When asked what she would like for her birthday, Princess told Anna that she didn't need anything for she was a princess and her life was perfect already, ha! Anna informed us that her real birthday was Friday but that we would be going out together on Thursday to celebrate. . . .why!?!? Still trying to catch up on sleep from Monday's outing we obliged, seeing as how we were promised that the party was to remain within the Junggye area. . .phew!
The next day at work Nate and I were met with a nice surprise. As we have yet to receive our Alien Resident Cards (ARC), because we have not gone in for our Health Check, we have subsequently not been able to open up a bank account. Well, as last week marked the completion of our first month at DYB, we were due for a paycheck that is normally deposited directly into a Korean bank account. Not having one however, we were both presented with an envelope literally stuffed to the brim with cash, as reimbursement for our month of awkward, and seemingly pointless labor. As I checked out our payment receipt, I was surprised to find that only the 3.3% income tax was withheld. This is surprising in that I assumed they would withhold medical despite the fact that we weren't receiving coverage, in which case I was well prepared and willing to argue the fact. No need to however! I was somewhat less surprised to notice that neither Nate nor I received a penny more than we are contractually privileged to. . .no bonus for excellent teaching!
Payday!While it felt great to finally be paid, it felt even better to get a wad of cash a couple inches thick. . .why you ask? Well because the largest denomination of won is a 10,000 bill, a small fraction of our monthly salary. It was rather awkward however when Joseph gave us our pay and then informed us that not only do we make more than he does but he has to pay $700 a month to live in the same building where we are provided housing free of cost (although we do cover the management fee of around 100,000 won/month). This was a little bit sobering but I wasn't going to let it ruin the fun of having an envelope too full of cash to even fit in my pocket!
After work we quickly ran home to stash our wads before returning to school to meet up with the birthday party! Thursday night went rather well for the most part as we began the evening (ha, at 11:00pm) with dinner at Diony's; a restaurant that is directly beneath me on the bottom floor of Dootavill A. Although a free meal is never bad, this was about the most uncomfortable one I could have ever eaten. Nate and I were slammed down in a corner with Cleo and Julia, the rabblerousers at school, and somehow Anna managed to get stuck across from us. Anna was clearly uncomfortable the whole evening, removed from the majority of her friends and forced to interact with the overbearing Cleo who almost refused to acknowledge her presence at times, in a very, very nontraditional Korean manner. Nevertheless it was a terribly awkward experience. . .especially for Nate!
Halfway through dinner everyone was told that we needed to quiet down. No one paid much attention until it was requested a second time and someone looked over to see who the complainers were. Turns out the group of women at the adjacent table had students at DYB, in Nate's class nonetheless. So, Hannah, Nate's Korean Teacher, went over to talk to the mothers and eventually Nate was encouraged to go say 'hello' as well. This was simply a terribly awkward experience as he stood, towering over this woman, trying to communicate anything to no avail. Eventually he realized that the excitement was over and returned to his seat.
Suddenly, everybody ushered him to stand up again as he had forgotten to say 'goodbye' to the student's mother. . .oops. Someone assisted him by whispering the correct Korean into his ear however the words that came out of his mouth were apparently hilariously offensive to everyone around. His subsequent attempts to correct himself only brought on more rounds of laughter and embarrassment from both the mother and our Korean Teachers. Turns out Nate wasn't saying 'goodbye' but something more akin to 'byebye,' an expression used when ushering someone away from you! Oh well, it couldn't have been that misconstrued! We'll see if the student is still in class this upcoming week!
At dinner, Razr, the friendly, and only, male Korean teacher, continued to harp on the idea of forming a band to compete in the inter-branch DYB talent show at the end of the year. With his beautiful voice, David on drums and my self on guitar we concluded that we were a shoe in for the win. Especially with Razr's homemade "DYB" song which as I can remember simply goes "Deeee Yiiiiiii Be, da da da da Deeeee Yiiiii Be." Oh well, I'll give it a go! Roy's bringing my Tele over tomorrow so hopefully I'll be able to pick up an amp, either used or from the Nagwon Arcade. . .a gigantic music store that is really just a giant empty office building filled to the brim with vendors of any and all musical supplies!
Nagwon Arcade!We eventually made it out of Diony's and lost about half of our crowd on the way to "round two." Joseph led us to a second dinner in the basement of a nearby officetel that reeked of dead fish. I remember walking in to the restaurant and gagging at how bad the smell is but managed to forget about it after we were brought out aromatic bowls of seaweed soup. . . mmmmm! Round two lasted until we lost a few more of the elementary school teachers and then the remaining party, just over a half a dozen strong, headed back towards Dootavill for Nate's long awaited House Warming Party!
Everyone stayed at Nate's way longer than anyone should have and the majority of guests crawled back to bed just as the sun was rising. Well, everyone except for Joseph who decided to take up residence on Nate's floor, using a bookshelf as a pillow. While this might seem odd, we've talked about Joseph's sleeping arrangements with him before and he seems to find that sleeping on the floor is much better for his back than on a bed. . . .perhaps I should give it a try one night as I consistently wake up in pain from my bed!
Friday at work was quite the day as Nate and I both straggled in only minutes before we are expected to who up at 4:00pm. Soon there after Anna came hurriedly rushing in, looking very distraught. She asked if we had seen Harry and we told her no, not since the night before. She let us know that he was late for work (although work doesn't technically start until 4:30pm) and totally out of contact. The bad news came when she told us that one of us would have to substitute teach his class instead of simply sit around in the Native Room for six hour as we had been doing all week. This I don't quite understand as it would seem to make no sense to take an uninteresting, "boring," less than competent English teacher from one branch to fill in for a missing Native teacher when the Korean teacher could simply handle the duties, presumably much more effectively! I guess that falls in to the realm of Korean mysteries!
Finally Harry did show up to school and Anna told us that we were relived of having to substitute. . .fantastic as I'm not sure either one of us were awake enough to take on such responsibility! Anna also told us that she was very proud of us for coming into work on time and really appreciated that we could stay out late and still show up. . . .We later learned that this comment was not in direct regards to Harry but had something to do with Michelle Teacher showing up late and Joseph, who is supposed to open the office, not showing up until well in to the evening! I guess Nate's floor didn't provide him with all the rest that he needed! While we're not recognized as good teachers, it still feels good to know that we're at least looked at as good employees. . .which for now, is all I feel like I am. . .a white, blond haired pawn in the DYB machine!
Friday night was less than exciting as I eagerly awaited crawling up in bed and falling asleep! After work Nate and I decided to treat ourselves to a meal of at-your-table-bbq, a first for us on our own. We managed to order and get everything going by ourselves too without much help from the waiters! Harry eventually showed up after being balled out by Anna for showing up late (although not really late). He asked if he could join and we ushered him to our table as his broken Korean is sure to offer a better sense of what's going on then Nate and my (maybe) double digit vocabulary!
Harry asked if we wanted some beef and we both eagerly agreed, not having anything that resembled real beef since landing in Korea. . .unless you count a Mega Mac! Although absurdly expensive for the amount of meat we were brought, the two small steaks that we split between the three of us were amazing! Fantastically juicy and cooked just to the right temperature over open coals on a grill that has been covered in garlic and oil. . . .mmmmmm! To accompany our steaks Harry also ordered a dozen or so thinly rolled pieces of beef that looked like pancakes of fat with a chocolate chip of meat in the middle. When dropped on the grill however these little sheets of lard quickly shriveled up to a small piece of beef surrounded by just a think crispy layer of fat. . .and boy were they delectable!
We eventually finished up with dinner and decided to blow a couple hours in the Playstation Bong before heading to bed! Harry came with us to relieve some stress via Tekken 5 for a little while before taking off to meet up with his girlfriend; an unknown, highly mystical creature only referred to as "my girl" and never seen, only spoken of! We finally called it a night around 2:00am (very early for a Korean weekend) and decided to head out adventuring the next day with no particular plans other than a stop at the Nagwon Arcade, to check in on the Korean musical warehouse, spoken of very highly across the internet!
Bring on the weekend adventure. . . .
On This Day 23 Years Ago. . .
On this day, a couple of years ago, the world was given a grand surprise!
Not one, but two little Black girls were born, far up in the treetops of the great American Rocky Mountains. . . .Since then, the world has never been the same!
Now residing in Washington, D.C., Kathy and Larzipan are spearheading the effort to make everyone aware that politics is a woman's world. . .oh wait, no, Palin is doing a fantastic job of that for us already!
But anyways. . .
There once were two little girls,
Who were as white as they were Black,
And when they walked down the streets of the Quarter at night
You'd swear they had fins on their backs.
If you don't know what I mean, then I feel I must tell you
Why it would be like these two had fiiins
For whenever they would go out together
They drew great stares and cries of. . . .TWWIIIIIIINNNS!?!?!?
Happy 19th Birthday (with four years of experience)!!
Not one, but two little Black girls were born, far up in the treetops of the great American Rocky Mountains. . . .Since then, the world has never been the same!
Now residing in Washington, D.C., Kathy and Larzipan are spearheading the effort to make everyone aware that politics is a woman's world. . .oh wait, no, Palin is doing a fantastic job of that for us already!But anyways. . .
There once were two little girls,
Who were as white as they were Black,
And when they walked down the streets of the Quarter at night
You'd swear they had fins on their backs.
If you don't know what I mean, then I feel I must tell you
Why it would be like these two had fiiins
For whenever they would go out together
They drew great stares and cries of. . . .TWWIIIIIIINNNS!?!?!?
Happy 19th Birthday (with four years of experience)!!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Chusok!
So, as promised, although a little late, I give to you here an account of my Chusok holiday! I feel obliged to for a number of reasons including a) I've said that I would do so b) I have nothing much better to write about as of now and c) it's one of two holidays that we get 'off' during the year so it better have been worth writing about!
Anyways, early last week, or I guess two weeks ago now, Nate and I were 'lesson planning' in the Native Room when all of a sudden two teachers, Julia and Cleo come running into the room giggling. In a very secretive manner they ask if we want to go out to dinner and a club with them on Saturday, the day before Chusok. Clearly having no social calender to check for availability and no relatives to be visiting over the family holiday, what other option did we have but to oblige! Agreeing to go, they told us that it was very important we did not tell any of the other teachers (odd, but okay) and to await further instructions later in the week.
At first Nate and I believed this was some sort of double date that we had just been roped in to and feverishly tried to devise a way out of what would potentially be a horrendously awkward evening! Luckily, it turned out that we were not the only FT's invited but Harry (New York what!) and David (a former E.L. resident) had been asked to come to. . .with a similar degree of secrecy involved. Not fully understanding why this evening was to be kept so quiet, or really who to keep it from, Harry ended up mentioning it to Bryn (a bloke from across the pond), whom he works with. Turns out that this was not to the liking of the Korean Teachers who were upset, but grudgingly extended an invitation for Bryn to join us as well. Not exactly sure if my observations are correct, but it seems like Koreans (or at least those we work with) adopt a very disdainful attitude towards the English, overtly favoring American teachers. . . I mean, rightly so though!
We hurd little more of our outing until the day before, Friday, when Cleo came into the Native Room and told us where to meet: 7:00pm outside Exit 1 at Hyewha Station. We were again reminded to ensure that the event was kept secret. It turns out, thanks to Nate's diligent investigatory work, that there is a deep divide between the teachers that we work with. Well, more accurately, it's between the teachers that we don't work with and those that we do.
For some reason, the Korean teachers in our branch have managed to divide themselves in to two factions. The younger and perhaps more rebellious group is that lead by Cleo and Julia of which Ji Young, Michelle, and Claire are also seemingly members. For some reason, this first clique has managed to separate itself sharply from the older and more respected teachers that we work with, Anna, Moong Young and Hannah. Why exactly this schism exists and what exactly it means. . .we haven't the slightest clue. . .however now that we have been made aware of it, it is as obvious as day! While the later three teachers seem to care little about such petty matters, Cleo and her 'followers' seem to go to great lengths to avoid contact or interaction with 'others.' For example, sitting in Moon Young's class yesterday, Cleo snuck up to the doorway, carefully peeked in making sure Moon Young wasn't around, ran in, gave me a small gift, and took off again without a word! It really is hilarious and too inexplicable using only words!
Anyways, we had talked to Harry the night before and agreed to meet sometime around five in order to go to Hyehwa together. A few minutes before we were scheduled to meet, I gave Harry a call asking him if he was ready. Interestingly he informed me that he had already left and was with his Grandmother but that I should contact Bryn who we were to go with. Nate and I headed up to Bryns room as Harry instructed, only to find him fresh out of the shower, not expecting to leave for at least another half hour. We told him no problem as our scheduled meeting time was way earlier than necessary to begin with, per request of now absent Harry.
Even after waiting for Bryn, we still made it to Hyehwa Station with plenty of time to spare. In fact, it was enough time for us all to run into the GS25 to grab coffee and soda as the subway ride had just about put the three of us to sleep. Having eaten only one meal at this point, due to our abnormal schedule, Nate decided to lay out a preemptive strike on his hunger by darting in to MacDonalds, just in case dinner posed to be less than delectable.
We eventually met up with everyone else who arrived either by subway, foot, or apparation. All in all the group turned out to be much larger, thank goodness, than we had originally anticipated. Foreign Teachers ended up greatly outnumbering Koreans as Ji Young, Cleo and Julia had managed to pull together a group of six FT's; Me, Nate, Harry, Bryn, David and Andre, Harry's friend from L.A. who works at another Hogwan in the area.
Turning our attention towards dinner, we headed down a back alleyway that opened up in to a bustling street full of restaurants, cafes, bars, and of course, norebongs. We wandered around for a bit following Cleo and Julia as they searched for a suitable restaurant. . .and silly us, thinking that they actually had made plans! Finally, after much discussion and numerous backtracks, they decided on a "Fire Chicken" restaurant. In typical Korean fashion, Nate and I were repeatedly asked, even by the Korea Americans, if we would be okay with spicy food. Insisting that we could handle it we nevertheless were badgered with worried comments about our ability to consume fire chicken.
True to it's name, fire chicken is rather spicy but after four years of Chef Mike and Tabasco laden cooking it really wasn't that bad. Given, you had to stop and take a pause between each piece but overall the meal was fantastic. We washed everything down with a fruit soju ordered by Harry and Andre. While I expected this concoction to be no more than a slightly flavored version of the Korean firewater, it turned out to be a rather pleasant drink made of pure fruit juice mixed with an almost unnoticeable amount of soju.
In typical fashion Bryn left just as we were clearing out of dinner, claiming that he was going to Itaewon to meet up with friends. . .validity? No clue, but after the past few work get-togethers I don't ever expect him to last very long, no matter the reason! Leaving dinner, it was determined by the majority of the party that it was too early to head towards the Hongik University area, also known as Hongdae, where we supposedly had late night plans. Rather than wander aimlessly, we all moved just down the block take a rest at a large outdoor patio. We spent the next hour or so talking and avoiding surprise attacks from the very abundant feline population! Finally, it was decided that our next move should be to none other than a norebong, or Korean karaoke room!
To give you an idea of just how much Korean's love their karaoke, I have been to a norebong at least three times already in only one month. . .the last time being this past Monday night (Tuesday morning) with our boss, Mr. Lee. While I too am I big proponent of making a fool of yourself in public places, norebongs have removed the public aspect of karaoke that I so enjoy. Rather, you have the opportunity to engage in ridiculous singing in a small room accompanied by only those who came with. Being in a smaller room, of course the volume is always near deafening. As an added bonus neon lights, laser shows and Korea music videos are always present to complete the full sensory experience that is a norebong! Oh yeah, and the song list is of course the same from place to place and English tunes are limited to primarily those you would never want to sing! Seriously though, this is a great time. . . other than getting whacked in the tooth (only minor damage, not noticeable until up close) with a microphone from Cleo!
Having exhausted our voices and dancing feet, someone decided that it would still be a good idea to go 'clubbing' in Hongdae. With little idea what to expect, we agreed, having really no say in the matter as saying 'no' just simply isn't an option with KT's. . . .believe us, we've tried insistently before! Claiming Chusok obligations, and using his native tongue Korean, David managed to escape before the remaining six of us piled into taxis headed towards Hongdae.
Nate and I both jumped in the first cab along with our guide, Ji Young, as we both work, and therefore are slightly more comfortable with her as opposed to Cleo or Julia whom we barely know! The ride was rather mellow however as Ji Young explained to us that she wouldn't be returning to Junggye branch the following week as she had been transferred by HQ. While this news was sad, in that Ji Young had actually really begun to open up to us, it was not in fact news as Joseph had notified us of her transfer a few days before. . .sighting some of the same reasons that I had previously gripped about in regards to her class! I guess sometimes you get what you ask for. . .we'll see how it plays out.
Pulling up to our destination we were surprised to see that everyone else was already there. . . hmmm didn't we leave first? We weren't out of the taxi for more than five minutes before wandering up to some street hustlers. This 'date game', if you will, consisted of a stack of plastic sheets, connected in the middle, that the patron is expected to punch down through. If one is able to break all of the pretend boards in no more than two blows, they win a giant plush teddy bear! How fantastic. . .
Now of course given the chance to punch something for a prize in the presence of women Harry immediately jumped at this opportunity. Putting on the soft fabric glove they provide for protection (scam?), he proceeded to make his way through the boards in two blows, putting down about half each time. Cleo immediately accepted the prize bear as her own and attention turned to the next biggest guy in the group. . .Nate! Having no intention, nor desire to play the game, he attempted to refuse for as long as possible. . .however, as I've said before, refusing a request from a Korean, especially ones that you work with, is simply impossible to do. I split the absurd price of entry with him so that we could give the giant novelty to one of the other KT's and claim it as a dual gift (aren't we kind).
Before going, Nate leaned over to reassure me that his hand, injured years ago, would certainly break if he did this. Not heading his own advice, or perhaps simply unable to get away with not doing so, Nate stepped up to the plate(s). BAM! His first punch railed through the majority of the boards, putting Harry's initial blow to shame. Nate immediately recoiled, holding his hand tenderly. . .uh oh! No time to waste, he still had one punch left and a stupidly over sized bear to win! Not able to go again with his right, Nate switched gloves over to his left and and pounded his way through the few remaining plates! Alas, a bear was ours! Or. . .Ji Young's to be more precise as we felt she certainly deserved an overstuffed prize as consolatory gift.
Finally we headed in the direction of loud music and bright lights that must be the Hongdae strip, with our two new furry companions in tow. Again we wandered aimlessly as the girls continued to ask us where we would like to go. . .as if we a) knew anything about where we were and furthermore b) had an opinion on the matter! After poking our heads into a few places, we eventually descended the steps into one of the loud, crowded music basements of Hongdae. Once inside we took up literally the only available room in the club, a short section of wallspace between the bathrooms! Hanging on to two giant bears, we must have been quite a funny bunch, literally slammed up against the wall.
Nevertheless, that didn't last long as I Nate and I decided to head up for air and water after being down in the cavern for no more than 10 minutes! We clearly had no intention of returning, though we might have suggested we would, and were surprised to see everyone else, except for Andre, emerge only a few minutes after we had left. At this point Harry decides it's time to go home and somehow manages to take Cleo with him. . . interesting in that Harry has a girlfriend and Cleo might have at least a half a decade on him. Anyways. . .Nate and I figured it was a good time to make a run for it so we said thanks to Ji Young and Julia then took off with no particular place to go.
Just down the road we managed to find a haven for young men put off by the overcrowded sweaty mess that are the Hongdae clubs. A brightly lit sign led us to a small store front that provided patrons with two options: target shooting and batting cages. We spent the next while taking turns gunning down little targets with high powered, and surprisingly accurate, airsoft guns. Running out of fuel, monetary and caloric, we headed back out to the street to pick a new destination. Just then Andre comes rolling down the street seemingly in an aimless wander as we had been when finding the place. He told us that he had just passed Julia and Ji Young eating down the street. . . hmm and we thought those girls were going to call it a night!
Proud of our find, we convinced Andre to engage in a round of target practice which, as we expected, he enjoyed. Nate then decided it was time to show off his batting prowess in the cage, vi sable to passerbys from the street. So, while Andre and I stood outside watching, Nate entered the cage and gingerly picked up a bat. Deciding that there was no way he could use his 'punching' hand, he grabbed the bat in his left hand and decided to take a whack at whatever came. This turned out to be a terrible idea. One swing and we saw him drop the bat, grab his shoulder and come stumbling out. Not wanting to waste any pitches, and not about to hop in front of the balls myself, I yelled at Andre to get in there and finish the job, which he did.
Meanwhile, I attended to my injury prone friend who had seemingly thrown out his shoulder. This we deduced from his inability to lift his arm past a certain point. As the only one around, medical consultation immediately became my expertise. I rubbed down each shoulder in search of an external noticeable difference. I found none and concluded that everything must be in working order. Nate again tried to raise his arm, still not able to do so more than halfway. Not really believing that he was giving it his all, I grabbed his arm and helped him lift it. As we passed the halfway point, all of a sudden we heard a big pop and. . .well, that was that. Everything was back in working order! I'm just glad I was there to help, ha!
After giving such grueling medical attention I had worked up quite an appetite and the three of us agreed that we should grab a bit to eat. Andre led us to a crowded spot where people were gathered on a large patio, walled and covered with tarp. Using his (very) broken Korean, Dre managed to order us a large bubbling plate of fried chicken pieces which we immediately began to devour. He then insisted on showing us a few 'traditional' Korean drinking games he know, prolonging our quick bite to quite the extended meal. At some point, though we're not quite sure when, Andre manged to get up for the bathroom and never return. . . Interesting.
Never mind, Nate and I were having to good of a time to let a little dine-and-dash spoil our fun. We quickly engaged in conversation with the table next to us playing a seemingly similar game. We invited them over to join us and the two young men turned out to be pilots in the Korean airforce. They ended up providing great company for a rather long while as they not only spoke decent English but had a wealth of interesting knowledge to share! Finally, what must have been hours after we originally sat down, Nate and I decided to close out our tab, that Andre had so kindly racked up for us, and head towards a taxi. It's always good to get home before daybreak, especially if you're not under the control of, and therefor able to blame, your boss!
To compliment our fun filled Chusok-Eve, we passed the majority of Sunday by simply relaxing, as Chusok is meant to be spent! We eventually headed over to the Playstation-bong in the early evening as it was one of the only places open on this national holiday. No sooner had we sat down did Joseph call and tell us not to eat anything! He said that we should meet him at his apartment around 7:30pm and that he was bringing us food home from his big Chusok meal. . .think Thanksgiving leftovers!
We managed to pull ourselves away from comfy lounge chairs and Playstation 3 on HD big screens just before we were supposed to meet Joseph. Arriving at his place we felt bad seeing all the food he had to offer and not having brought anything. No worries, he immediately sent us downstairs to grab some bowls of instant rice seeing as he had none prepared! At least we were able to contribute something!
Joseph spent the next half hour or so cooking up a variety of dishes that he had brought back from his family's big meal. Finally, once everything was ready, and neatly prepared on dozens of small dishes, as usual, we sat down to eat on his couch. Not having the slightest clue where to begin I decided to just follow Josephs lead, taking a little of this, a little of that, a spoon fool of rice and, of course, a bite of kimchi.
While I am now having trouble recalling exactly what all the dishes were I don't feel terrible as Joseph himself was not able to describe them all! He gave a pretty good account of what went into each although he was at a loss for names when I asked. Not wanting to let me down however Joseph immediately called up his mother who helped him name each and everyone of the dishes, which I now have written down! I will try to copy there names using the Korean keyboard at school though I'm not sure if the Korean text comes through to you lowly Statesiders!
Anyways, we feasted on a meal of fish and vegetable patties (possibly held together with egg), meat patties marinated in soy sauce, big chunks of more meat, rice, two kinds of special kimchi, fried vegetable roll thingies and of course, traditional Korean cookies for desert!
The meal was fantastic both culinary speaking and timing-wise seeing as how most everything expect for MacDonald's and ramyeon from the convenience store was unavailable on Chusok day!
So, there you have it! My first Chusok celebration! It wasn't much, but at least I don't feel like I wasted the holiday away! I celebrated with old friends, made some new ones, played doctor and had a traditional Korean feast! Who said Soul is a Seouless city!? Oh yeah. . .maybe that was me, well, not at Chusok at least, that's for sure!
Pictures to come. . .as always!!
Anyways, early last week, or I guess two weeks ago now, Nate and I were 'lesson planning' in the Native Room when all of a sudden two teachers, Julia and Cleo come running into the room giggling. In a very secretive manner they ask if we want to go out to dinner and a club with them on Saturday, the day before Chusok. Clearly having no social calender to check for availability and no relatives to be visiting over the family holiday, what other option did we have but to oblige! Agreeing to go, they told us that it was very important we did not tell any of the other teachers (odd, but okay) and to await further instructions later in the week.
At first Nate and I believed this was some sort of double date that we had just been roped in to and feverishly tried to devise a way out of what would potentially be a horrendously awkward evening! Luckily, it turned out that we were not the only FT's invited but Harry (New York what!) and David (a former E.L. resident) had been asked to come to. . .with a similar degree of secrecy involved. Not fully understanding why this evening was to be kept so quiet, or really who to keep it from, Harry ended up mentioning it to Bryn (a bloke from across the pond), whom he works with. Turns out that this was not to the liking of the Korean Teachers who were upset, but grudgingly extended an invitation for Bryn to join us as well. Not exactly sure if my observations are correct, but it seems like Koreans (or at least those we work with) adopt a very disdainful attitude towards the English, overtly favoring American teachers. . . I mean, rightly so though!
We hurd little more of our outing until the day before, Friday, when Cleo came into the Native Room and told us where to meet: 7:00pm outside Exit 1 at Hyewha Station. We were again reminded to ensure that the event was kept secret. It turns out, thanks to Nate's diligent investigatory work, that there is a deep divide between the teachers that we work with. Well, more accurately, it's between the teachers that we don't work with and those that we do.
For some reason, the Korean teachers in our branch have managed to divide themselves in to two factions. The younger and perhaps more rebellious group is that lead by Cleo and Julia of which Ji Young, Michelle, and Claire are also seemingly members. For some reason, this first clique has managed to separate itself sharply from the older and more respected teachers that we work with, Anna, Moong Young and Hannah. Why exactly this schism exists and what exactly it means. . .we haven't the slightest clue. . .however now that we have been made aware of it, it is as obvious as day! While the later three teachers seem to care little about such petty matters, Cleo and her 'followers' seem to go to great lengths to avoid contact or interaction with 'others.' For example, sitting in Moon Young's class yesterday, Cleo snuck up to the doorway, carefully peeked in making sure Moon Young wasn't around, ran in, gave me a small gift, and took off again without a word! It really is hilarious and too inexplicable using only words!
Anyways, we had talked to Harry the night before and agreed to meet sometime around five in order to go to Hyehwa together. A few minutes before we were scheduled to meet, I gave Harry a call asking him if he was ready. Interestingly he informed me that he had already left and was with his Grandmother but that I should contact Bryn who we were to go with. Nate and I headed up to Bryns room as Harry instructed, only to find him fresh out of the shower, not expecting to leave for at least another half hour. We told him no problem as our scheduled meeting time was way earlier than necessary to begin with, per request of now absent Harry.
Even after waiting for Bryn, we still made it to Hyehwa Station with plenty of time to spare. In fact, it was enough time for us all to run into the GS25 to grab coffee and soda as the subway ride had just about put the three of us to sleep. Having eaten only one meal at this point, due to our abnormal schedule, Nate decided to lay out a preemptive strike on his hunger by darting in to MacDonalds, just in case dinner posed to be less than delectable.
We eventually met up with everyone else who arrived either by subway, foot, or apparation. All in all the group turned out to be much larger, thank goodness, than we had originally anticipated. Foreign Teachers ended up greatly outnumbering Koreans as Ji Young, Cleo and Julia had managed to pull together a group of six FT's; Me, Nate, Harry, Bryn, David and Andre, Harry's friend from L.A. who works at another Hogwan in the area.
Turning our attention towards dinner, we headed down a back alleyway that opened up in to a bustling street full of restaurants, cafes, bars, and of course, norebongs. We wandered around for a bit following Cleo and Julia as they searched for a suitable restaurant. . .and silly us, thinking that they actually had made plans! Finally, after much discussion and numerous backtracks, they decided on a "Fire Chicken" restaurant. In typical Korean fashion, Nate and I were repeatedly asked, even by the Korea Americans, if we would be okay with spicy food. Insisting that we could handle it we nevertheless were badgered with worried comments about our ability to consume fire chicken.
True to it's name, fire chicken is rather spicy but after four years of Chef Mike and Tabasco laden cooking it really wasn't that bad. Given, you had to stop and take a pause between each piece but overall the meal was fantastic. We washed everything down with a fruit soju ordered by Harry and Andre. While I expected this concoction to be no more than a slightly flavored version of the Korean firewater, it turned out to be a rather pleasant drink made of pure fruit juice mixed with an almost unnoticeable amount of soju.
In typical fashion Bryn left just as we were clearing out of dinner, claiming that he was going to Itaewon to meet up with friends. . .validity? No clue, but after the past few work get-togethers I don't ever expect him to last very long, no matter the reason! Leaving dinner, it was determined by the majority of the party that it was too early to head towards the Hongik University area, also known as Hongdae, where we supposedly had late night plans. Rather than wander aimlessly, we all moved just down the block take a rest at a large outdoor patio. We spent the next hour or so talking and avoiding surprise attacks from the very abundant feline population! Finally, it was decided that our next move should be to none other than a norebong, or Korean karaoke room!
To give you an idea of just how much Korean's love their karaoke, I have been to a norebong at least three times already in only one month. . .the last time being this past Monday night (Tuesday morning) with our boss, Mr. Lee. While I too am I big proponent of making a fool of yourself in public places, norebongs have removed the public aspect of karaoke that I so enjoy. Rather, you have the opportunity to engage in ridiculous singing in a small room accompanied by only those who came with. Being in a smaller room, of course the volume is always near deafening. As an added bonus neon lights, laser shows and Korea music videos are always present to complete the full sensory experience that is a norebong! Oh yeah, and the song list is of course the same from place to place and English tunes are limited to primarily those you would never want to sing! Seriously though, this is a great time. . . other than getting whacked in the tooth (only minor damage, not noticeable until up close) with a microphone from Cleo!
Having exhausted our voices and dancing feet, someone decided that it would still be a good idea to go 'clubbing' in Hongdae. With little idea what to expect, we agreed, having really no say in the matter as saying 'no' just simply isn't an option with KT's. . . .believe us, we've tried insistently before! Claiming Chusok obligations, and using his native tongue Korean, David managed to escape before the remaining six of us piled into taxis headed towards Hongdae.
Nate and I both jumped in the first cab along with our guide, Ji Young, as we both work, and therefore are slightly more comfortable with her as opposed to Cleo or Julia whom we barely know! The ride was rather mellow however as Ji Young explained to us that she wouldn't be returning to Junggye branch the following week as she had been transferred by HQ. While this news was sad, in that Ji Young had actually really begun to open up to us, it was not in fact news as Joseph had notified us of her transfer a few days before. . .sighting some of the same reasons that I had previously gripped about in regards to her class! I guess sometimes you get what you ask for. . .we'll see how it plays out.
Pulling up to our destination we were surprised to see that everyone else was already there. . . hmmm didn't we leave first? We weren't out of the taxi for more than five minutes before wandering up to some street hustlers. This 'date game', if you will, consisted of a stack of plastic sheets, connected in the middle, that the patron is expected to punch down through. If one is able to break all of the pretend boards in no more than two blows, they win a giant plush teddy bear! How fantastic. . .
Now of course given the chance to punch something for a prize in the presence of women Harry immediately jumped at this opportunity. Putting on the soft fabric glove they provide for protection (scam?), he proceeded to make his way through the boards in two blows, putting down about half each time. Cleo immediately accepted the prize bear as her own and attention turned to the next biggest guy in the group. . .Nate! Having no intention, nor desire to play the game, he attempted to refuse for as long as possible. . .however, as I've said before, refusing a request from a Korean, especially ones that you work with, is simply impossible to do. I split the absurd price of entry with him so that we could give the giant novelty to one of the other KT's and claim it as a dual gift (aren't we kind).
Before going, Nate leaned over to reassure me that his hand, injured years ago, would certainly break if he did this. Not heading his own advice, or perhaps simply unable to get away with not doing so, Nate stepped up to the plate(s). BAM! His first punch railed through the majority of the boards, putting Harry's initial blow to shame. Nate immediately recoiled, holding his hand tenderly. . .uh oh! No time to waste, he still had one punch left and a stupidly over sized bear to win! Not able to go again with his right, Nate switched gloves over to his left and and pounded his way through the few remaining plates! Alas, a bear was ours! Or. . .Ji Young's to be more precise as we felt she certainly deserved an overstuffed prize as consolatory gift.
Finally we headed in the direction of loud music and bright lights that must be the Hongdae strip, with our two new furry companions in tow. Again we wandered aimlessly as the girls continued to ask us where we would like to go. . .as if we a) knew anything about where we were and furthermore b) had an opinion on the matter! After poking our heads into a few places, we eventually descended the steps into one of the loud, crowded music basements of Hongdae. Once inside we took up literally the only available room in the club, a short section of wallspace between the bathrooms! Hanging on to two giant bears, we must have been quite a funny bunch, literally slammed up against the wall.
Nevertheless, that didn't last long as I Nate and I decided to head up for air and water after being down in the cavern for no more than 10 minutes! We clearly had no intention of returning, though we might have suggested we would, and were surprised to see everyone else, except for Andre, emerge only a few minutes after we had left. At this point Harry decides it's time to go home and somehow manages to take Cleo with him. . . interesting in that Harry has a girlfriend and Cleo might have at least a half a decade on him. Anyways. . .Nate and I figured it was a good time to make a run for it so we said thanks to Ji Young and Julia then took off with no particular place to go.
Just down the road we managed to find a haven for young men put off by the overcrowded sweaty mess that are the Hongdae clubs. A brightly lit sign led us to a small store front that provided patrons with two options: target shooting and batting cages. We spent the next while taking turns gunning down little targets with high powered, and surprisingly accurate, airsoft guns. Running out of fuel, monetary and caloric, we headed back out to the street to pick a new destination. Just then Andre comes rolling down the street seemingly in an aimless wander as we had been when finding the place. He told us that he had just passed Julia and Ji Young eating down the street. . . hmm and we thought those girls were going to call it a night!
Proud of our find, we convinced Andre to engage in a round of target practice which, as we expected, he enjoyed. Nate then decided it was time to show off his batting prowess in the cage, vi sable to passerbys from the street. So, while Andre and I stood outside watching, Nate entered the cage and gingerly picked up a bat. Deciding that there was no way he could use his 'punching' hand, he grabbed the bat in his left hand and decided to take a whack at whatever came. This turned out to be a terrible idea. One swing and we saw him drop the bat, grab his shoulder and come stumbling out. Not wanting to waste any pitches, and not about to hop in front of the balls myself, I yelled at Andre to get in there and finish the job, which he did.
Meanwhile, I attended to my injury prone friend who had seemingly thrown out his shoulder. This we deduced from his inability to lift his arm past a certain point. As the only one around, medical consultation immediately became my expertise. I rubbed down each shoulder in search of an external noticeable difference. I found none and concluded that everything must be in working order. Nate again tried to raise his arm, still not able to do so more than halfway. Not really believing that he was giving it his all, I grabbed his arm and helped him lift it. As we passed the halfway point, all of a sudden we heard a big pop and. . .well, that was that. Everything was back in working order! I'm just glad I was there to help, ha!
After giving such grueling medical attention I had worked up quite an appetite and the three of us agreed that we should grab a bit to eat. Andre led us to a crowded spot where people were gathered on a large patio, walled and covered with tarp. Using his (very) broken Korean, Dre managed to order us a large bubbling plate of fried chicken pieces which we immediately began to devour. He then insisted on showing us a few 'traditional' Korean drinking games he know, prolonging our quick bite to quite the extended meal. At some point, though we're not quite sure when, Andre manged to get up for the bathroom and never return. . . Interesting.
Never mind, Nate and I were having to good of a time to let a little dine-and-dash spoil our fun. We quickly engaged in conversation with the table next to us playing a seemingly similar game. We invited them over to join us and the two young men turned out to be pilots in the Korean airforce. They ended up providing great company for a rather long while as they not only spoke decent English but had a wealth of interesting knowledge to share! Finally, what must have been hours after we originally sat down, Nate and I decided to close out our tab, that Andre had so kindly racked up for us, and head towards a taxi. It's always good to get home before daybreak, especially if you're not under the control of, and therefor able to blame, your boss!
To compliment our fun filled Chusok-Eve, we passed the majority of Sunday by simply relaxing, as Chusok is meant to be spent! We eventually headed over to the Playstation-bong in the early evening as it was one of the only places open on this national holiday. No sooner had we sat down did Joseph call and tell us not to eat anything! He said that we should meet him at his apartment around 7:30pm and that he was bringing us food home from his big Chusok meal. . .think Thanksgiving leftovers!
We managed to pull ourselves away from comfy lounge chairs and Playstation 3 on HD big screens just before we were supposed to meet Joseph. Arriving at his place we felt bad seeing all the food he had to offer and not having brought anything. No worries, he immediately sent us downstairs to grab some bowls of instant rice seeing as he had none prepared! At least we were able to contribute something!
Joseph spent the next half hour or so cooking up a variety of dishes that he had brought back from his family's big meal. Finally, once everything was ready, and neatly prepared on dozens of small dishes, as usual, we sat down to eat on his couch. Not having the slightest clue where to begin I decided to just follow Josephs lead, taking a little of this, a little of that, a spoon fool of rice and, of course, a bite of kimchi.
While I am now having trouble recalling exactly what all the dishes were I don't feel terrible as Joseph himself was not able to describe them all! He gave a pretty good account of what went into each although he was at a loss for names when I asked. Not wanting to let me down however Joseph immediately called up his mother who helped him name each and everyone of the dishes, which I now have written down! I will try to copy there names using the Korean keyboard at school though I'm not sure if the Korean text comes through to you lowly Statesiders!
Anyways, we feasted on a meal of fish and vegetable patties (possibly held together with egg), meat patties marinated in soy sauce, big chunks of more meat, rice, two kinds of special kimchi, fried vegetable roll thingies and of course, traditional Korean cookies for desert!
The meal was fantastic both culinary speaking and timing-wise seeing as how most everything expect for MacDonald's and ramyeon from the convenience store was unavailable on Chusok day!
So, there you have it! My first Chusok celebration! It wasn't much, but at least I don't feel like I wasted the holiday away! I celebrated with old friends, made some new ones, played doctor and had a traditional Korean feast! Who said Soul is a Seouless city!? Oh yeah. . .maybe that was me, well, not at Chusok at least, that's for sure!
Pictures to come. . .as always!!
Monday, September 22, 2008
Just Another Manic Monday
Phew. . .finally finished with work today a half an hour early (hence my ability to post early morning. . .your time). By 'finished' I in fact mean 'released from' as this week is again preparation time for students as they ready themselves for their upcoming midterms. Being primarily the duty of the Korean teachers to help them prepare, my job has been reduced to no more than sitting at the front of the classroom, occasionally listening to students practice their oral exam which they have been memorizing for the past week.
While it's not the most interesting job in the world, I sure have gotten a lot of reading done and would love any suggestions that anyone is willing to share (that means I'm almost out of books, feel free to send old periodicals too, thanks)! Just last week I started, and finished two books, "Messenger" and "Gathering Blue," both compliments to Lois Lowry's fantastic tale, "The Giver." Both books were set in eerily similar yet drastically different worlds from that which we know. The final book of the 'series,' "Messenger," actually brought together the two previous, unrelated books in an incredibly thought provoking manner. Although certainly readable, and most likely aimed at young adults, these books are certain to become timeless classics as they stark warnings of the atrocities that we, as a species, are capable of! The books are both a simple read that you can either breeze through in a day if need be or drag out for vacation pleasure reading. As far as I know they only come in paperback too which means they're both cheap, easy, and worth investing the couple hours in. . .just my opinion!
I also managed to muscle through "Satchmo: My life in New Orleans," an autobiographical account of Louis Armstrong's early life, lived out primarily in the Crescent City. While far from a literary masterpiece, the personal, and very recognizably Naw'lins voice that Louis writes in is absolutely captivating. What perhaps surprised me most about the book is how Louis describes loving New Orleans, almost a hundred years ago, for all the same reasons that I, and many others, still love it today: the smells of Cajun cooking and honeysuckle in bloom, a steaming meal of no more than red beans and rice, the sounds of hot jazz tearing through the Vieux Carre, the blind eye to public vagrancy so long as it is mostly harmless, and of course, waiting to catch a glimpse of the Zulu King on Mardi Gras day!
Reading about the Naw from the perspective of one of Her most well recognized children certainly make me yearn to be back on the banks of the Mighty Miss! It seems almost redundant at times to ask "Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans?" For if anyone has ever been and is not there now, I couldn't imagine them not knowing what its like to miss that wonderfully quirky city. If you haven't yet been. . .well you just don't know what your missing. To those that either fail to, or are unwilling to recognize the abundance of culture, perspective, music, food and down right Life emanated from that city. . .well I pity you, for when you ask, "What would the world really lose if New Orleans was to wash away?" then perhaps the answer is simply something that you could never recognize!
Enough about books. . .I already give you enough to read without demanding you take on other side ventures (as this is clearly your primary literary undertaking for the next 330 some odd days). Why I'm writing, other than the fact that I'm stuck in the Native Room at work waiting for that clock to strike 10:30pm (sounds like a real job right, I mean in terms of waiting for it to be over, not that we finish after our kids should probably already be in bed), is that we were recently informed of an adventure we are to go on this evening!
Apparently, Mr. Lee, second-ish in command at DYB and the man who hired us, has requested the presence of all FT's (foreign teachers) for a meeting tonight, meeting at the Main Branch in Daechidong. Now if you remember, this is where Nate and I had to commute from for our first week in Seoul, an hour away. Soooo, after finishing work tonight we'll go home and change then (hopefully, provided that we are supplied with cab fare) hop in a taxi and take the hour journey in to the city center. From there we will meet up with Mr. Lee and the other FT's. What else the night has in store, I couldn't possibly guess. The only thing I know is that there's no way we're getting started anytime before midnight and there's only a slight chance that I'll get to go to sleep tomorrow before the sun comes up.
Oh yeah. . .but remember, don't let your private life interfere with your work. Wait. . .what if work takes over your private life. . .isn't that interference by default!? Am I absolved of the responsibility of reciprocal interference? Does that mean I don't have to come to work tomorrow? I mean, I could just as easily read books for six hours from the comfort (HA, I use that word liberally) of my own home (HA, that one too)! Oh well. . .I'll let ya know how it goes. . .Hopefully I'll have Internet in my apartment by then. . .just let me go ask Joseph!
While it's not the most interesting job in the world, I sure have gotten a lot of reading done and would love any suggestions that anyone is willing to share (that means I'm almost out of books, feel free to send old periodicals too, thanks)! Just last week I started, and finished two books, "Messenger" and "Gathering Blue," both compliments to Lois Lowry's fantastic tale, "The Giver." Both books were set in eerily similar yet drastically different worlds from that which we know. The final book of the 'series,' "Messenger," actually brought together the two previous, unrelated books in an incredibly thought provoking manner. Although certainly readable, and most likely aimed at young adults, these books are certain to become timeless classics as they stark warnings of the atrocities that we, as a species, are capable of! The books are both a simple read that you can either breeze through in a day if need be or drag out for vacation pleasure reading. As far as I know they only come in paperback too which means they're both cheap, easy, and worth investing the couple hours in. . .just my opinion!
I also managed to muscle through "Satchmo: My life in New Orleans," an autobiographical account of Louis Armstrong's early life, lived out primarily in the Crescent City. While far from a literary masterpiece, the personal, and very recognizably Naw'lins voice that Louis writes in is absolutely captivating. What perhaps surprised me most about the book is how Louis describes loving New Orleans, almost a hundred years ago, for all the same reasons that I, and many others, still love it today: the smells of Cajun cooking and honeysuckle in bloom, a steaming meal of no more than red beans and rice, the sounds of hot jazz tearing through the Vieux Carre, the blind eye to public vagrancy so long as it is mostly harmless, and of course, waiting to catch a glimpse of the Zulu King on Mardi Gras day!
Reading about the Naw from the perspective of one of Her most well recognized children certainly make me yearn to be back on the banks of the Mighty Miss! It seems almost redundant at times to ask "Do you know what it means, to miss New Orleans?" For if anyone has ever been and is not there now, I couldn't imagine them not knowing what its like to miss that wonderfully quirky city. If you haven't yet been. . .well you just don't know what your missing. To those that either fail to, or are unwilling to recognize the abundance of culture, perspective, music, food and down right Life emanated from that city. . .well I pity you, for when you ask, "What would the world really lose if New Orleans was to wash away?" then perhaps the answer is simply something that you could never recognize!
Enough about books. . .I already give you enough to read without demanding you take on other side ventures (as this is clearly your primary literary undertaking for the next 330 some odd days). Why I'm writing, other than the fact that I'm stuck in the Native Room at work waiting for that clock to strike 10:30pm (sounds like a real job right, I mean in terms of waiting for it to be over, not that we finish after our kids should probably already be in bed), is that we were recently informed of an adventure we are to go on this evening!
Apparently, Mr. Lee, second-ish in command at DYB and the man who hired us, has requested the presence of all FT's (foreign teachers) for a meeting tonight, meeting at the Main Branch in Daechidong. Now if you remember, this is where Nate and I had to commute from for our first week in Seoul, an hour away. Soooo, after finishing work tonight we'll go home and change then (hopefully, provided that we are supplied with cab fare) hop in a taxi and take the hour journey in to the city center. From there we will meet up with Mr. Lee and the other FT's. What else the night has in store, I couldn't possibly guess. The only thing I know is that there's no way we're getting started anytime before midnight and there's only a slight chance that I'll get to go to sleep tomorrow before the sun comes up.
Oh yeah. . .but remember, don't let your private life interfere with your work. Wait. . .what if work takes over your private life. . .isn't that interference by default!? Am I absolved of the responsibility of reciprocal interference? Does that mean I don't have to come to work tomorrow? I mean, I could just as easily read books for six hours from the comfort (HA, I use that word liberally) of my own home (HA, that one too)! Oh well. . .I'll let ya know how it goes. . .Hopefully I'll have Internet in my apartment by then. . .just let me go ask Joseph!
Pictures!
Still no internet of my own but I managed to get the majority of pictures up from our arrival onwards!
Make sure to check the first few posts for early pictures by clicking the 'older posts' link at the bottom of this page!
Should have move pics from Japan as soon as I steal Nate's camera! I'll also add some random pics soon that don't fit into any particular post!
Enjoy, thanks for reading!
Make sure to check the first few posts for early pictures by clicking the 'older posts' link at the bottom of this page!
Should have move pics from Japan as soon as I steal Nate's camera! I'll also add some random pics soon that don't fit into any particular post!
Enjoy, thanks for reading!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Visa Run
Well, with a 9:00am flight to catch Nate and I met downstairs between our Dootavill buildings at 5 o'clock Thursday morning. We grabbed our trusty vegetable/fruit drink from the GS25 (for a healthy breakfast snack) and walked out to the curb looking for a cab. Just as we did, we noticed the 1224 bus pulling up to the bus stop directly in front of our buildings. Now we haven't used the bus before but through observation, we have noticed that the same bus that passes in front of our building also seems to make a stop at the nearest subway station, Hagye. We hopped on and hoped for the best as getting to the airport on time required running quite a tight schedule!
All seemed well for the first block until the bus veered off in an unknown direction. Worried but not ready to make a move just yet, we held out bailing and rode out the detour. About seven minutes later we ended up at our intended destination and the automated PA system on the bus was kind enough to reiterate that we had arrived at Hagye Station!
We jumped off quickly, having already paid the fare with our T-Money cards, and dove down into the station, hoping to catch the next, if not first, train. Uh oh! Once down in the station, a grated gate kept us from entering the ticketing and track area. With no clue how long we would have to wait we began to worry; not too much however as a few stragglers seemed to have gotten to the station before us and were waiting on the steps. Well, we figured, if they're waiting, we can too. . .that, and we had no other option! A taxi to the airport would most likely be over $60 (compared to about $5 on the subway) and take probably just as long if not longer due to morning rush hour traffic!
Finally, at around 5:20am, a worker came and opened the gate, allowing the crowd of a dozen or so that had gathered to head towards the platform. In double checking our intended route, planned out online using the interative Seoul Subway Map, I noticed a slight problem. The Incheon Station that we had planned on as our final destination was in fact not the Incheon Airport but Incheon the city, or Seoul equivalent! We had to quickly replan our route and realized that it would in fact take longer and involve more transfers than we had at first anticipated! Oh well, nothing we could do but move as quickly as the trains would allow! We eventually boarded the first train out of Hagye at 5:33am and headed towards downtown Seoul where we changed to Line 5 at Gunja Station.
Hagye Station at 5:30am!
Line 5 took us across the better part of the city as we again transferred, almost an hour later, at Gimpo International Airport. The final subway, the A*REX Express, took us the final half hour or so to the Incheon International Airport, located on a small island just west of Seoul proper.
We were able to find the Asiana Airlines check in desk at the International Terminal without problem. By scanning our passports at the e-ticket self-check in kiosks, having no more than a back pack each, we were able to avoid the inexplicably (for 7am on a Wednesday) long line at the counter. Rushing through the terminal to find food, we were disappointed to find the 'Western Food Court' closed after hauling all the way to the opposite end from our gate. Turning down the subsequent wing of the terminal we were able to grab 'jumbo' subs from Quiznos that anywhere else would be classified as a kids meal! Scarfed those down while walking back to the gate at which boarding had begun by the time we arrived.
The flight went off without a hitch and the emptiness of the plan allowed us to spread out and claim as much leg room as an A-333 provides! I quickly filled out the immigration and customs declaration forms we were given for entry to Japan and closed my eyes. The next thing I remember is being whacked by Nate and looking up to see a flight attendant above me softly pleading, 'excuse me sir, excuse me.' It took me a second but I realized that it was time for me to return my seat back to its full and upright position. No worries, I did so and immediately fell back asleep for the next 20 minutes until the plane had come to a complete stop at the gate.
While we were happy to have landed safely, Nate made the keen observation that it was pouring outside. Great, the information we have said that the consulate is only a 20 minute walk from the subway! Glad I brought a rain jacket! After collecting our only baggage, from the overhead bins (please exercise caution when opening as baggage may shift during the flight), we bolted off the plane only to wait for 15 minutes in the immigration line. Managed to squeak by customs without hassle and head out towards baggage claim.
We looked for a money exchange, as we were again given a 180,000 won (it just sounds cool to say) travel stipend and needed to turn that in to Yen. With only one noticeable exchanger in the terminal we each decided to change enough to get us to a bank where usually the exchange rates are better, or, at least more fair. After Nate gave the woman 40,000 won and was given only 3,000 yen in return I decided not to exchange anything at that particular kiosk preferring to keep, rather than give away, the 20%+ cut they seemed to be taking (this calculation derived from the fact that 10,000 won is essentially $1 and $1 is essentially 100yen). While perhaps financially responsible, this effects of this decision were felt throughout almost the entirety of our brief trip. . .I will explain (just in case you thought I wouldn't).
Collecting the thirty dollars that he had just paid forty for, Nate and I headed out towards the curb to pick up the shuttle bus headed towards the domestic terminal in order to catch the subway into Fukuoka. For 290 yen we bought our tickets to Tojin-machi and boarded the train. No more than 20 minutes later we emerged from the subway, to find it still pouring buckets. Not wanting to walk around in wet pants all day, Nate and I went down a flight of stairs so that we were half in and half our of the station so that we could changed. We both quickly whipped on soccer shorts and manged to do so without drawing anyone's attention. I then grabbed my rainjacket, threw my longsleeve shirt in my backpack, tossed it on my back and covered up everything turtle style, with my jacket on the outside of all. Now of course when you do this you cannot zip the jack up but I would rather have a wet chest than a short circuited laptop so. . .it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make!
We wandered the mall a bit stopping to spend a good deal of time at the Japanese arcade/casino. Now I had forgotten all about these from our Tokyo trip until again venturing into one. This hybrid of gaming is an absolutely hilarious and addicting way to kill an unprecedented amount of time. The concept is simple. You put a small amount of money into an exchange machine and are, in return, given a number of little tokens. These tokens are then used to play any number of 'arcade/casino' games ranging from slots, to panchinko. The majority of the games however are of the variety that have a slide going back and forth, loaded with other tokens, and, by dropping yours in, you hope to knock out more. These tokens are not worth anything and are not able to be exchanged as for example tickets are at Chuckee Cheese. Rather, the goals seems simply to play as long as possible, trading the tokens that you put in for those that fall out. While it seems simple, the entire process of putting in some coins hoping to get more coins is fascinating! Especially when the coins you begin with are free, because hey, everyone drops one or two here and there, right!
We eventually manged to pull ourselves away from the bells and whistles, or more, Nate managed to pull me away, and we headed to the one place in the mall that served food for under 1,000 yen. You guess it, ole' Ronald's place. I ate my favorite double decker meat, grain, and vegetable loaded power lunch, topped off with a good old fashioned energy drink. . .and Nate had the same. Nearing reopening time, we took back off for the Consulate, located directly across the street. On the way however, Nate suggested that he might have read somewhere that the Consulate only accepts yen, no longer won, for Visa applications. While this seemed odd to me (imagine a US embassy in London telling you that they won't accept the dollar, only pounds!?) I didn't want to be stranded with out payment so we asked the security guard where to exchange money. He showed us a little map and managed to point us in the right direction. . .only another 15 minute walk or so. Not like we weren't soaking wet already by this point. At least I had my trusty Sanuks on to keep my feet comfortable, if not dry (for more information on this fascinating footware product please visit www.sanuk.com)!
We finally did find a bank only to learn that they would not exchange won for yen nor did they have ATM's that would accept foreign cards. Great, a pocket full of totally unusable cash! Hmmmmm. . . . maybe that .774 exchange rate wasn't such a bad idea after all! They pointed us across the street to a Post Office where we could find an ATM to withdraw yen at least. This seemed to solve all of our problems as I have been able to use my card with out problem for withdrawals for the past few weeks. Pushing this that and they other button, it seemed as though I was going to have yen in no time. . .until the machine notified me that the transaction had been cancelled by my bank! What!? Wait. . .I'd seen this before! Thailand! Ahhhhh, no I remember, I had specifically requested from my bank that they unblock my card for use in Korea, that's why it had been working. I had, of course, never mentioned Japan, silly me! Nate gave it a whirl however and managed to suck a 10,000 yen bill out of a near drained account to give us at least a little cushion!
Public Art in Momochi, Fukuoka
We slogged back to the Consulate, getting wetter and wetter as we went. By the time we arrived, almost an hour after heading out to get money in the first place, everything was open and running again fortunately. The application process involved no more than filling out a form which I then turned in to a woman behind a desk along with my passport. She took the passport picture that I had provided, affixed it to the form, and handed me a bill for 5,400 yen. . . uh oh! Nate had only been able to withdraw 10,000 yen and we had only a few coins left over from what was initially exchanged at the airport. We indicated to the woman that we needed a second to figure this out while Nate gave her his documents to process. Discussing what could be done and how short we were, only a few dollars, a young man behind us in line stepped forward and offered to cover the balance of whatever we needed. He explained that a similar thing had happened to him on his first visa run and it sounded like he had received quite a substantial amount of financial assistance, as he readily offered us. Turned out all I needed was 200 yen (a mere two dollars) that I tried to pay him back from in won but he refused! I thanked him profusely and agreed to pay the favor forward, just as he was then doing for me!
Having paid in full, we were told to return the next morning to pick up the processed visas. We left the consulate with wet clothes, no yen, no hotel, and no clue where to go next! By this point however I had remembered my emergency cash stashed away in a pocket of my wallet...$100 USD! Without enough money to even take a subway anywhere we trudged another 15 minutes back to the bank where we were told they did not exchange won. Showing up this time however I proudly held up my good 'ole greenback to which I received a greeting of smiles and nods! I sat down across from a teller, excited to finally get some yen and chip in for our rather pricey venture, for which I had contributed nothing!
Handing the teller my bill, I was immediately asked for my passport. . .which of course I left at the consulate. I explained this as best I could and gave him my Michigan drivers license instead, assuring him that it was government issued identification. My license went with the man in to a back room where they remained for at least the next ten minutes. Upon returning, I was asked if I had a drivers license as mine indicated that it was an 'operators' licence. I attempted to explain that operator meant driver and that the person on the ID truly was me! I emptied the contents of my wallet on the counter drawing connections between my credit card, Tulane ID, airplane tickets and license, hoping that somehow this would be more reassuring to the man. Eventually he did comply and I was able to cash in my last American dollars for yen, at a much better rate than was offered at the airport I might add!
After at least a half 'n hour at the bank we were finally freed from the institutional grasp of monetary exchange and headed, again, back out in to the rain. With the downpour ever increasing in strength, we darted carefully from building to building trying to stay under overhands and off the slicked sidewalk (which proved to be a seriously problem for maintaining ones footing). Dodging under an overhang that appeared to be connected to a fire station, we were eagerly approached by an elderly man. He too had just come from the rain but was certainly fairing much better than us due to his protective umbrella. Seeing Nate sitting soaking wet he offered his umbrella outwards towards us, insisting that we take it. Nate tried to refuse as the man would clearly need the umbrella later in the day, however he was relentless in his giving. Showing us how the tip of one support was broken, he conveyed the fact that it was simply unusable to him and that we should take it. We proved unable to deny the gift and again set off, this time with a slight defense against the rain. . .from above at least!
Back at the subway station I took another look at the posted map in hopes of gaining an idea of where to stay. The seaside area that we were in, Momochi, did not seem very welcoming or accommodating to travelers, which seems odd as those visiting the nearby consulates would seemingly provide a great market for the service sector. In scanning the map, I noticed that a short walk in the other direction from the station would land us at the local U.S. consulate. Now I have never been to, that I can recall, a U.S. consulate or embassy and, in all honesty, I'm not exactly sure what services they provide. However, tired, wet and relatively discouraged we figured going to ask around for direction on a small piece of sovereign soil couldn't do anything to hurt our situation . . . .so we did!
At first glance the consulate appeared closed as the front door was locked and only a single guard stood outside in a rain shelter, either unaware or indifferent to our arrival. Just as we were beginning to turn away, and elderly security guard came running to his post inside the building and buzzed us in. We tried to explain to him that we were American citizens (without passports) hoping to get some information on accommodations in the greater Fukuoka area. He smiled and nodded, clearly not understanding the majority of what I was saying. Rather than trying to figure it out however, the man picked up the internal phone, dialed a number and handed me the receiver. On the other end was a young woman who spoke English, albeit with a slight foreign accent. I explained our situation to her and she readily ushered us in. . .although to do so I had to give the phone back to the security guard so she could grant clearance. He then took us out back of the small pavilion through which we had entered, through a covered courtyard and up the steps to the main building where we took a seat in a sort of bulletproof lobby. Accompanied only by two stellar photographs of our fearless (or heartless?) leaders, Dick and Bush.
The woman I had spoken with on the phone arrived moments later with a handful of papers. She offered us a number of different maps, both of the Fukuoka island and the greater Fukuoka (city?) area. She also gave us a great list of inexpensive hotels in Fukuoka, courtesy of the U.S. Consulate! While comforting, this ended up helping us little as we had no idea how to find addresses or makes phone calls within our foreign, foreign country. She gave us instructions to head towards either Tenjin or Hakata in search of food and lodging. We thanked her, put back on our rain gear and once again plodded through the waters back to the subway.
A short ride later we emerged from Tenjin Station to the sights of a bustling downtown; quite different from the near emptiness of the Momochi area. We wandered for a half 'n hour or so until finding the Green Hotel, one that was actually recommended to us, according to the Consulate's printout. We stopped in to ask about availability and amenities. While their price was reasonable (we quickly came to learn that shooting for anything under $100 for a double in Japan is essentially trying to 'priceline' it in real life), we decided to wander for a bit more to check our options. It didn't take us long to realize that simply having a place to rest our legs was worth whatever we had to pay, especially if it meant avoiding any more hiking around. . .so we returned to the Green Hotel. We informed the receptionist that we would like a double room for one night and she handed us a small form to fill out, asking us in return for our passports. Uh oh, we had left them at the Korean Consulate as we were expected to do, we said. I again tried passing off my drivers license as a valid form of international ID but the Green Hotel was not having it. According to them, it is Japanese law that foreigners must leave a copy of their passport at the front desk when checking in. Extremely discouraged, we reshouldered our bags and turned again towards the street.
It would be hard to explain how irritating the next few hours were unless you can imagine walking through the rain all day only to be turned away from a comfortable accommodation because your passport is being processed for a visa, by a foreign country, in another foreign country. What's worse is then wandering for another two hours through the streets, unable to find a hotel that is sufficiently comfortable, a reasonable price, and shady enough to accept our reservation without a passport, as Japanese law stipulates must be done. Nevertheless, we did not manage to find a place that fit these requirements in the Tenjin area. We eventually found ourselves taking a rest in the lobby of a bank we had entered, hoping that they would be able to exchange some of our won. While they could not extend us an exchange, we did gain insight into our accommodation situation. It was suggested to us that we go to Hakata Station where we would be able to find much less expensive and more readily available places to stay. So, back down into the subway we went!
Only a few minutes later, we again emerged from the subway, this time in a much more heavily populated, bustling area: Hakata. According to the numerous maps we had collected throughout the course of the day, the area in the station's immediate vicinity was littered with hotels. With a much greater concentration of lodging, we were able to better carry out our inquiries of price and passport requirements. Having checked a number of places, some too expensive, others full, others having similar passport demands, we continued to wander in hopes of something that would work. Walking south past the station, I realized that we were in the area of a Hostel that had been suggested on Dave's ESL Cafe for Fukuoka travelers. Having been on our feet for hours I figured it couldn't hurt to check the place out.
We took off in the direction that the map print out, which I had remembered to bring, seemed to indicate. Although the proprieters of Khao San-Fukuoka Hostel suggested it would be an eight minute walk from the station, we managed to find the place about 20 minutes later. . .with out taking any detours! Though not entirely sketchy looking, the place was far from the quality of Tokyo Towers where we had found a relatively decent rate posted outside. . .though we had yet to check for availability.
Inside the Hostel we inquired as to availability of a private double room, as was suggested online. Although one was clearly open and unoccupied just off the front hall, we were informed that it was reserved for guests arriving later in the evening. I tried offering double the price for the small room with two bunk beds simply to get off our feet and out of wet clothes. . .unfortuantely my request was denied as "this is not China!" Oops!
We were given (another) helpful map that pointed us in the direction of a bus, guaranteed to take us back up to Hakata Station. A gas station corn dog later, we were on the bus and headed back to hotel central. Immediately after getting off we decided to head to Tokyo Towers and call it a night. Fortunately our reservation was accepted even without passports and we were given a double, non-smoking, aircon room on the second floor with a private bath and television. . .woo hoo! Perhaps the best part however were the beds that felt as though you were lying on something meant to be slept on. . .very dissimilar from our beds at 'home' in Junggyedong!
After taking a few minutes off our feet and throwing on some dry(er) clothes, Nate and I went back out again on foot. This time determined to simply eat, wherever possible. Un-able and -willing to deal with a translation guessing game at a Japanese restaurant, we settled on a burger place where we each got mini chili topped cheese burgers for slightly less than an arm and a leg. . .a steal by Japanese standards. We finished off the night by watching about 20 minutes of English television on a sub-monitor sized screen before passing out from pure exhaustion.
While I hadn't considered putting in a wake up call, mainly because we had until 4:30pm to get to the consulate and until 6:10pm until we left, I needn't have asked for one anyways! At 10:08am, long before either Nate or I planned on waking up, our telephone rang piercingly through what was certainly my first REM sleep in weeks! Grumpily muttering 'hello,' I was kindly informed that check out was at 10:00am. . . eight minutes ago. I reassured the mysterious voice that we were leaving and promptly threw the phone back towards the receiver from my bed. It took Nate and I both a while to rise as we slowly worked out all the kinks in our bodies caused by literally a day of (seemingly) aimless wandering. No time to enjoy that nice hot shower that we had both longed for the day before!
We eventually made it out of the hotel by about 10:45am and luckily were not charged any additional fee as we had used literally the last few coins in our pockets to pay for the room in which we slept! Back down to Hakata station we went, only to emerge another 20 minutes later at Tojin-machi. . .again. We, again, walked the 15 minutes to the consulate where our visa reciepts gained us entry this time. Presenting the reciept to the front desk I was given my passport, with attached visa in return. . .and that was that.
Unfortunatley for those around me, not everything was so simple. I didn't care to get involved, but of course listened to as much as I could of the two travelers whose visa requests had apparently been rejected. An American girl was simply brought to tears that she was not given a visa, for reasons that I was not quite able to determine. A male Kiwi was talking loudly about how he couldn't believe that he was refused a visa premised on the fact that he overstayed his previous one by three days, six years ago. I guess when the government tells you to get out, you'd better get out, at least if you ever plan on coming back! Luckily we both made it out free and clear with visas in hand.
With a bit of time to kill before heading to the airport, Nate and I wandered up to the area surrounding the Yahoo! Dome which was errily reminiscient of the good ole' Superdome! We then headed down the backside and wandered across a highway out towards the beach from which we could see a number of smaller, seemingly very populated islands, off in the distance. Having nothing to do and no real great photo ops (I'll show ya what we did get, nothing special), we once again started marching back to the subway, figuring we could atleast get something to eat at the airport.
The Yahoo! Dome
(Home of the SoftBank Hawks)
Completing our journey by the reverse of our arrival, we took the subway to the Fukuoka Domestic Terminal from which we caught a bus to the International Terminal. We attempted to check in at Asiana Airlines around 1:00pm only to be turned away, informed that check in for our flight would begin at 4:10pm, two hours before departure. With nothing to do we headed towards some benches to play cards and listen to music to pass the time. We managed to kill the next three hours and the remainder of our yen sampling Japanese treats from the souvenier store and playing the card game 3-13 (thanks for teaching me Stef, I still don't lose)!
Frogs in Japan
Finally four o'clock rolled around and it was time for us to check in. A new Asiana trainee did the honors, almost forgetting to check our newly possessed visas that we had 'worked' so hard to get! Security posed no problems as we seemed to have the only flight leaving from Fukuoka that day as our gate was the only one occupied and with less than 50 people at that!
Once on the plane everything went as planned. . .we took off. . flew for a while. . .and landed an hour later safely back in Incheon. From Incheon we again followed our outbound journey in reverse by taking a two hour subway ride back to Hagye Station where we caught a cab to our corner, known roughly as Unhae Sa Codri. . .or Bank Four Corners, alluding to the four banks on each corner of this isolated, yet bustling intersection.
Seoul Subway
We eventually made it back 'home' around 10:00pm, 36 or so hours after we first left, just as our students would be getting out of Hogwan. We quickly hit up the local noodle shack, which is literally a truck pulled on to the sidewalk with fold out tarps to make an encolsure. For 2,500 won however a meal is a meal and that's all we wanted at that time.
Immediately following dinner I headed back up to Dootavilla, flipped off the light (if I even flipped them on) and crawled in to bed. I don't think I have ever been, or might not ever be, that happy to crawl in to my Korean bed as I was that night! Anyways. . . I don't think I'll be returning to Japan during my stay out East. . . a wet day 'n a half in Fukuoka was more than enough for me on this journey!
Should have internet by the end of this week. . .I mean, Joseph promised! Ha. . .who knows, when it's more reliable is when I'll start getting pictures up. Untill then, well, if you made it to here, thanks for reading, but seriously. . .get a job!
All seemed well for the first block until the bus veered off in an unknown direction. Worried but not ready to make a move just yet, we held out bailing and rode out the detour. About seven minutes later we ended up at our intended destination and the automated PA system on the bus was kind enough to reiterate that we had arrived at Hagye Station!
We jumped off quickly, having already paid the fare with our T-Money cards, and dove down into the station, hoping to catch the next, if not first, train. Uh oh! Once down in the station, a grated gate kept us from entering the ticketing and track area. With no clue how long we would have to wait we began to worry; not too much however as a few stragglers seemed to have gotten to the station before us and were waiting on the steps. Well, we figured, if they're waiting, we can too. . .that, and we had no other option! A taxi to the airport would most likely be over $60 (compared to about $5 on the subway) and take probably just as long if not longer due to morning rush hour traffic!
Finally, at around 5:20am, a worker came and opened the gate, allowing the crowd of a dozen or so that had gathered to head towards the platform. In double checking our intended route, planned out online using the interative Seoul Subway Map, I noticed a slight problem. The Incheon Station that we had planned on as our final destination was in fact not the Incheon Airport but Incheon the city, or Seoul equivalent! We had to quickly replan our route and realized that it would in fact take longer and involve more transfers than we had at first anticipated! Oh well, nothing we could do but move as quickly as the trains would allow! We eventually boarded the first train out of Hagye at 5:33am and headed towards downtown Seoul where we changed to Line 5 at Gunja Station.
Hagye Station at 5:30am!Line 5 took us across the better part of the city as we again transferred, almost an hour later, at Gimpo International Airport. The final subway, the A*REX Express, took us the final half hour or so to the Incheon International Airport, located on a small island just west of Seoul proper.
We were able to find the Asiana Airlines check in desk at the International Terminal without problem. By scanning our passports at the e-ticket self-check in kiosks, having no more than a back pack each, we were able to avoid the inexplicably (for 7am on a Wednesday) long line at the counter. Rushing through the terminal to find food, we were disappointed to find the 'Western Food Court' closed after hauling all the way to the opposite end from our gate. Turning down the subsequent wing of the terminal we were able to grab 'jumbo' subs from Quiznos that anywhere else would be classified as a kids meal! Scarfed those down while walking back to the gate at which boarding had begun by the time we arrived.
The flight went off without a hitch and the emptiness of the plan allowed us to spread out and claim as much leg room as an A-333 provides! I quickly filled out the immigration and customs declaration forms we were given for entry to Japan and closed my eyes. The next thing I remember is being whacked by Nate and looking up to see a flight attendant above me softly pleading, 'excuse me sir, excuse me.' It took me a second but I realized that it was time for me to return my seat back to its full and upright position. No worries, I did so and immediately fell back asleep for the next 20 minutes until the plane had come to a complete stop at the gate.
While we were happy to have landed safely, Nate made the keen observation that it was pouring outside. Great, the information we have said that the consulate is only a 20 minute walk from the subway! Glad I brought a rain jacket! After collecting our only baggage, from the overhead bins (please exercise caution when opening as baggage may shift during the flight), we bolted off the plane only to wait for 15 minutes in the immigration line. Managed to squeak by customs without hassle and head out towards baggage claim.
We looked for a money exchange, as we were again given a 180,000 won (it just sounds cool to say) travel stipend and needed to turn that in to Yen. With only one noticeable exchanger in the terminal we each decided to change enough to get us to a bank where usually the exchange rates are better, or, at least more fair. After Nate gave the woman 40,000 won and was given only 3,000 yen in return I decided not to exchange anything at that particular kiosk preferring to keep, rather than give away, the 20%+ cut they seemed to be taking (this calculation derived from the fact that 10,000 won is essentially $1 and $1 is essentially 100yen). While perhaps financially responsible, this effects of this decision were felt throughout almost the entirety of our brief trip. . .I will explain (just in case you thought I wouldn't).
Collecting the thirty dollars that he had just paid forty for, Nate and I headed out towards the curb to pick up the shuttle bus headed towards the domestic terminal in order to catch the subway into Fukuoka. For 290 yen we bought our tickets to Tojin-machi and boarded the train. No more than 20 minutes later we emerged from the subway, to find it still pouring buckets. Not wanting to walk around in wet pants all day, Nate and I went down a flight of stairs so that we were half in and half our of the station so that we could changed. We both quickly whipped on soccer shorts and manged to do so without drawing anyone's attention. I then grabbed my rainjacket, threw my longsleeve shirt in my backpack, tossed it on my back and covered up everything turtle style, with my jacket on the outside of all. Now of course when you do this you cannot zip the jack up but I would rather have a wet chest than a short circuited laptop so. . .it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make!
Not wanting to spend any extra time in the rain, I studied the area map posted outside the station until feeling confident about the direction of the consulate. Once relatively sure where to go, we headed off towards the seaside at Momochi, the ritzy little bay area in which the consulate was located. Somehow we managed to find the place, right around noon, without error only to find it closed, as we had expected. Reassured by the guard that they would reopen at 1:30pm, we headed across the street to the large Hawks Town Mall; a shopping center named after the SoftBank Hawks who play baseball in the adjacent Yahoo! Dome.
The Consulate of the Republic of Korea
The Consulate of the Republic of KoreaWe wandered the mall a bit stopping to spend a good deal of time at the Japanese arcade/casino. Now I had forgotten all about these from our Tokyo trip until again venturing into one. This hybrid of gaming is an absolutely hilarious and addicting way to kill an unprecedented amount of time. The concept is simple. You put a small amount of money into an exchange machine and are, in return, given a number of little tokens. These tokens are then used to play any number of 'arcade/casino' games ranging from slots, to panchinko. The majority of the games however are of the variety that have a slide going back and forth, loaded with other tokens, and, by dropping yours in, you hope to knock out more. These tokens are not worth anything and are not able to be exchanged as for example tickets are at Chuckee Cheese. Rather, the goals seems simply to play as long as possible, trading the tokens that you put in for those that fall out. While it seems simple, the entire process of putting in some coins hoping to get more coins is fascinating! Especially when the coins you begin with are free, because hey, everyone drops one or two here and there, right!
We eventually manged to pull ourselves away from the bells and whistles, or more, Nate managed to pull me away, and we headed to the one place in the mall that served food for under 1,000 yen. You guess it, ole' Ronald's place. I ate my favorite double decker meat, grain, and vegetable loaded power lunch, topped off with a good old fashioned energy drink. . .and Nate had the same. Nearing reopening time, we took back off for the Consulate, located directly across the street. On the way however, Nate suggested that he might have read somewhere that the Consulate only accepts yen, no longer won, for Visa applications. While this seemed odd to me (imagine a US embassy in London telling you that they won't accept the dollar, only pounds!?) I didn't want to be stranded with out payment so we asked the security guard where to exchange money. He showed us a little map and managed to point us in the right direction. . .only another 15 minute walk or so. Not like we weren't soaking wet already by this point. At least I had my trusty Sanuks on to keep my feet comfortable, if not dry (for more information on this fascinating footware product please visit www.sanuk.com)!
We finally did find a bank only to learn that they would not exchange won for yen nor did they have ATM's that would accept foreign cards. Great, a pocket full of totally unusable cash! Hmmmmm. . . . maybe that .774 exchange rate wasn't such a bad idea after all! They pointed us across the street to a Post Office where we could find an ATM to withdraw yen at least. This seemed to solve all of our problems as I have been able to use my card with out problem for withdrawals for the past few weeks. Pushing this that and they other button, it seemed as though I was going to have yen in no time. . .until the machine notified me that the transaction had been cancelled by my bank! What!? Wait. . .I'd seen this before! Thailand! Ahhhhh, no I remember, I had specifically requested from my bank that they unblock my card for use in Korea, that's why it had been working. I had, of course, never mentioned Japan, silly me! Nate gave it a whirl however and managed to suck a 10,000 yen bill out of a near drained account to give us at least a little cushion!
Public Art in Momochi, FukuokaWe slogged back to the Consulate, getting wetter and wetter as we went. By the time we arrived, almost an hour after heading out to get money in the first place, everything was open and running again fortunately. The application process involved no more than filling out a form which I then turned in to a woman behind a desk along with my passport. She took the passport picture that I had provided, affixed it to the form, and handed me a bill for 5,400 yen. . . uh oh! Nate had only been able to withdraw 10,000 yen and we had only a few coins left over from what was initially exchanged at the airport. We indicated to the woman that we needed a second to figure this out while Nate gave her his documents to process. Discussing what could be done and how short we were, only a few dollars, a young man behind us in line stepped forward and offered to cover the balance of whatever we needed. He explained that a similar thing had happened to him on his first visa run and it sounded like he had received quite a substantial amount of financial assistance, as he readily offered us. Turned out all I needed was 200 yen (a mere two dollars) that I tried to pay him back from in won but he refused! I thanked him profusely and agreed to pay the favor forward, just as he was then doing for me!
Having paid in full, we were told to return the next morning to pick up the processed visas. We left the consulate with wet clothes, no yen, no hotel, and no clue where to go next! By this point however I had remembered my emergency cash stashed away in a pocket of my wallet...$100 USD! Without enough money to even take a subway anywhere we trudged another 15 minutes back to the bank where we were told they did not exchange won. Showing up this time however I proudly held up my good 'ole greenback to which I received a greeting of smiles and nods! I sat down across from a teller, excited to finally get some yen and chip in for our rather pricey venture, for which I had contributed nothing!
Handing the teller my bill, I was immediately asked for my passport. . .which of course I left at the consulate. I explained this as best I could and gave him my Michigan drivers license instead, assuring him that it was government issued identification. My license went with the man in to a back room where they remained for at least the next ten minutes. Upon returning, I was asked if I had a drivers license as mine indicated that it was an 'operators' licence. I attempted to explain that operator meant driver and that the person on the ID truly was me! I emptied the contents of my wallet on the counter drawing connections between my credit card, Tulane ID, airplane tickets and license, hoping that somehow this would be more reassuring to the man. Eventually he did comply and I was able to cash in my last American dollars for yen, at a much better rate than was offered at the airport I might add!
After at least a half 'n hour at the bank we were finally freed from the institutional grasp of monetary exchange and headed, again, back out in to the rain. With the downpour ever increasing in strength, we darted carefully from building to building trying to stay under overhands and off the slicked sidewalk (which proved to be a seriously problem for maintaining ones footing). Dodging under an overhang that appeared to be connected to a fire station, we were eagerly approached by an elderly man. He too had just come from the rain but was certainly fairing much better than us due to his protective umbrella. Seeing Nate sitting soaking wet he offered his umbrella outwards towards us, insisting that we take it. Nate tried to refuse as the man would clearly need the umbrella later in the day, however he was relentless in his giving. Showing us how the tip of one support was broken, he conveyed the fact that it was simply unusable to him and that we should take it. We proved unable to deny the gift and again set off, this time with a slight defense against the rain. . .from above at least!
Back at the subway station I took another look at the posted map in hopes of gaining an idea of where to stay. The seaside area that we were in, Momochi, did not seem very welcoming or accommodating to travelers, which seems odd as those visiting the nearby consulates would seemingly provide a great market for the service sector. In scanning the map, I noticed that a short walk in the other direction from the station would land us at the local U.S. consulate. Now I have never been to, that I can recall, a U.S. consulate or embassy and, in all honesty, I'm not exactly sure what services they provide. However, tired, wet and relatively discouraged we figured going to ask around for direction on a small piece of sovereign soil couldn't do anything to hurt our situation . . . .so we did!
At first glance the consulate appeared closed as the front door was locked and only a single guard stood outside in a rain shelter, either unaware or indifferent to our arrival. Just as we were beginning to turn away, and elderly security guard came running to his post inside the building and buzzed us in. We tried to explain to him that we were American citizens (without passports) hoping to get some information on accommodations in the greater Fukuoka area. He smiled and nodded, clearly not understanding the majority of what I was saying. Rather than trying to figure it out however, the man picked up the internal phone, dialed a number and handed me the receiver. On the other end was a young woman who spoke English, albeit with a slight foreign accent. I explained our situation to her and she readily ushered us in. . .although to do so I had to give the phone back to the security guard so she could grant clearance. He then took us out back of the small pavilion through which we had entered, through a covered courtyard and up the steps to the main building where we took a seat in a sort of bulletproof lobby. Accompanied only by two stellar photographs of our fearless (or heartless?) leaders, Dick and Bush.
The woman I had spoken with on the phone arrived moments later with a handful of papers. She offered us a number of different maps, both of the Fukuoka island and the greater Fukuoka (city?) area. She also gave us a great list of inexpensive hotels in Fukuoka, courtesy of the U.S. Consulate! While comforting, this ended up helping us little as we had no idea how to find addresses or makes phone calls within our foreign, foreign country. She gave us instructions to head towards either Tenjin or Hakata in search of food and lodging. We thanked her, put back on our rain gear and once again plodded through the waters back to the subway.
A short ride later we emerged from Tenjin Station to the sights of a bustling downtown; quite different from the near emptiness of the Momochi area. We wandered for a half 'n hour or so until finding the Green Hotel, one that was actually recommended to us, according to the Consulate's printout. We stopped in to ask about availability and amenities. While their price was reasonable (we quickly came to learn that shooting for anything under $100 for a double in Japan is essentially trying to 'priceline' it in real life), we decided to wander for a bit more to check our options. It didn't take us long to realize that simply having a place to rest our legs was worth whatever we had to pay, especially if it meant avoiding any more hiking around. . .so we returned to the Green Hotel. We informed the receptionist that we would like a double room for one night and she handed us a small form to fill out, asking us in return for our passports. Uh oh, we had left them at the Korean Consulate as we were expected to do, we said. I again tried passing off my drivers license as a valid form of international ID but the Green Hotel was not having it. According to them, it is Japanese law that foreigners must leave a copy of their passport at the front desk when checking in. Extremely discouraged, we reshouldered our bags and turned again towards the street.
It would be hard to explain how irritating the next few hours were unless you can imagine walking through the rain all day only to be turned away from a comfortable accommodation because your passport is being processed for a visa, by a foreign country, in another foreign country. What's worse is then wandering for another two hours through the streets, unable to find a hotel that is sufficiently comfortable, a reasonable price, and shady enough to accept our reservation without a passport, as Japanese law stipulates must be done. Nevertheless, we did not manage to find a place that fit these requirements in the Tenjin area. We eventually found ourselves taking a rest in the lobby of a bank we had entered, hoping that they would be able to exchange some of our won. While they could not extend us an exchange, we did gain insight into our accommodation situation. It was suggested to us that we go to Hakata Station where we would be able to find much less expensive and more readily available places to stay. So, back down into the subway we went!
Only a few minutes later, we again emerged from the subway, this time in a much more heavily populated, bustling area: Hakata. According to the numerous maps we had collected throughout the course of the day, the area in the station's immediate vicinity was littered with hotels. With a much greater concentration of lodging, we were able to better carry out our inquiries of price and passport requirements. Having checked a number of places, some too expensive, others full, others having similar passport demands, we continued to wander in hopes of something that would work. Walking south past the station, I realized that we were in the area of a Hostel that had been suggested on Dave's ESL Cafe for Fukuoka travelers. Having been on our feet for hours I figured it couldn't hurt to check the place out.
We took off in the direction that the map print out, which I had remembered to bring, seemed to indicate. Although the proprieters of Khao San-Fukuoka Hostel suggested it would be an eight minute walk from the station, we managed to find the place about 20 minutes later. . .with out taking any detours! Though not entirely sketchy looking, the place was far from the quality of Tokyo Towers where we had found a relatively decent rate posted outside. . .though we had yet to check for availability.
Inside the Hostel we inquired as to availability of a private double room, as was suggested online. Although one was clearly open and unoccupied just off the front hall, we were informed that it was reserved for guests arriving later in the evening. I tried offering double the price for the small room with two bunk beds simply to get off our feet and out of wet clothes. . .unfortuantely my request was denied as "this is not China!" Oops!
We were given (another) helpful map that pointed us in the direction of a bus, guaranteed to take us back up to Hakata Station. A gas station corn dog later, we were on the bus and headed back to hotel central. Immediately after getting off we decided to head to Tokyo Towers and call it a night. Fortunately our reservation was accepted even without passports and we were given a double, non-smoking, aircon room on the second floor with a private bath and television. . .woo hoo! Perhaps the best part however were the beds that felt as though you were lying on something meant to be slept on. . .very dissimilar from our beds at 'home' in Junggyedong!
After taking a few minutes off our feet and throwing on some dry(er) clothes, Nate and I went back out again on foot. This time determined to simply eat, wherever possible. Un-able and -willing to deal with a translation guessing game at a Japanese restaurant, we settled on a burger place where we each got mini chili topped cheese burgers for slightly less than an arm and a leg. . .a steal by Japanese standards. We finished off the night by watching about 20 minutes of English television on a sub-monitor sized screen before passing out from pure exhaustion.
While I hadn't considered putting in a wake up call, mainly because we had until 4:30pm to get to the consulate and until 6:10pm until we left, I needn't have asked for one anyways! At 10:08am, long before either Nate or I planned on waking up, our telephone rang piercingly through what was certainly my first REM sleep in weeks! Grumpily muttering 'hello,' I was kindly informed that check out was at 10:00am. . . eight minutes ago. I reassured the mysterious voice that we were leaving and promptly threw the phone back towards the receiver from my bed. It took Nate and I both a while to rise as we slowly worked out all the kinks in our bodies caused by literally a day of (seemingly) aimless wandering. No time to enjoy that nice hot shower that we had both longed for the day before!
We eventually made it out of the hotel by about 10:45am and luckily were not charged any additional fee as we had used literally the last few coins in our pockets to pay for the room in which we slept! Back down to Hakata station we went, only to emerge another 20 minutes later at Tojin-machi. . .again. We, again, walked the 15 minutes to the consulate where our visa reciepts gained us entry this time. Presenting the reciept to the front desk I was given my passport, with attached visa in return. . .and that was that.
Unfortunatley for those around me, not everything was so simple. I didn't care to get involved, but of course listened to as much as I could of the two travelers whose visa requests had apparently been rejected. An American girl was simply brought to tears that she was not given a visa, for reasons that I was not quite able to determine. A male Kiwi was talking loudly about how he couldn't believe that he was refused a visa premised on the fact that he overstayed his previous one by three days, six years ago. I guess when the government tells you to get out, you'd better get out, at least if you ever plan on coming back! Luckily we both made it out free and clear with visas in hand.
With a bit of time to kill before heading to the airport, Nate and I wandered up to the area surrounding the Yahoo! Dome which was errily reminiscient of the good ole' Superdome! We then headed down the backside and wandered across a highway out towards the beach from which we could see a number of smaller, seemingly very populated islands, off in the distance. Having nothing to do and no real great photo ops (I'll show ya what we did get, nothing special), we once again started marching back to the subway, figuring we could atleast get something to eat at the airport.
The Yahoo! Dome(Home of the SoftBank Hawks)
Completing our journey by the reverse of our arrival, we took the subway to the Fukuoka Domestic Terminal from which we caught a bus to the International Terminal. We attempted to check in at Asiana Airlines around 1:00pm only to be turned away, informed that check in for our flight would begin at 4:10pm, two hours before departure. With nothing to do we headed towards some benches to play cards and listen to music to pass the time. We managed to kill the next three hours and the remainder of our yen sampling Japanese treats from the souvenier store and playing the card game 3-13 (thanks for teaching me Stef, I still don't lose)!
Frogs in JapanFinally four o'clock rolled around and it was time for us to check in. A new Asiana trainee did the honors, almost forgetting to check our newly possessed visas that we had 'worked' so hard to get! Security posed no problems as we seemed to have the only flight leaving from Fukuoka that day as our gate was the only one occupied and with less than 50 people at that!
Once on the plane everything went as planned. . .we took off. . flew for a while. . .and landed an hour later safely back in Incheon. From Incheon we again followed our outbound journey in reverse by taking a two hour subway ride back to Hagye Station where we caught a cab to our corner, known roughly as Unhae Sa Codri. . .or Bank Four Corners, alluding to the four banks on each corner of this isolated, yet bustling intersection.
Seoul SubwayImmediately following dinner I headed back up to Dootavilla, flipped off the light (if I even flipped them on) and crawled in to bed. I don't think I have ever been, or might not ever be, that happy to crawl in to my Korean bed as I was that night! Anyways. . . I don't think I'll be returning to Japan during my stay out East. . . a wet day 'n a half in Fukuoka was more than enough for me on this journey!
Should have internet by the end of this week. . .I mean, Joseph promised! Ha. . .who knows, when it's more reliable is when I'll start getting pictures up. Untill then, well, if you made it to here, thanks for reading, but seriously. . .get a job!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Fukuoka!?
Well. . . .I'd love to take the time to fill everyone in on all the excitement of our Chusok Holiday but it looks like I won't be able to do that for a little while now.
Arriving at work today, Nate and I inquired once again about our trip to Japan, originally scheduled for late Thursday morning. We were given the same, "don't worry, we'll take care of it," response from Joseph that I've come so used to just accepting.
A few hours ago, Joseph arrived in the Native room with two stuffed envelopes, one reading Nathan, the other Adam. . .in Korean of course! I was informed that all our necessary documents were enclosed and that we are to be going to Japan tomorrow. . . .wait, what?! I doubled checked the enclosed itinerary and sure enough, we have a flight out of Seoul Incheon on Asiana Airlines at 9:30am tomorrow morning!
Also enclosed in this envelop are two other sheets of paper (one with the Korean Consulate's phone number and address, the other with information on how to get there using different modes of transportation), my passport (which has been missing for over a week), a sticky note with our Visa reference number on it, and 180,000 won! Now if that's not a James Bond envelope I just don't know what is!
Our Fukuoka Documents
I asked Joseph what we are supposed to do and he informed me that we are to go to the Consulate, show them the number on the yellow paper, and get our Visa. In the past few hours we've been able to do a small amount of research on the subject and it looks like the processing can be done in one day so long as you arrive at the consulate no later than 1:30pm. Not sure if we'll be able to make that deadline tomorrow so it's a good thing that our flight out of Japan isn't until. . .Thursday!? Well, I guess we'd better get everything together before our 6:10pm flight out of Fukuoka the day following our arrival!
Joseph then asked if we knew where we'd be staying. Um. . .well, we figured out that we we're going to Japan an hour ago and still aren't exactly sure where we're going so. . .no.
More from the land of sushi and samurais!
Arriving at work today, Nate and I inquired once again about our trip to Japan, originally scheduled for late Thursday morning. We were given the same, "don't worry, we'll take care of it," response from Joseph that I've come so used to just accepting.
A few hours ago, Joseph arrived in the Native room with two stuffed envelopes, one reading Nathan, the other Adam. . .in Korean of course! I was informed that all our necessary documents were enclosed and that we are to be going to Japan tomorrow. . . .wait, what?! I doubled checked the enclosed itinerary and sure enough, we have a flight out of Seoul Incheon on Asiana Airlines at 9:30am tomorrow morning!
Also enclosed in this envelop are two other sheets of paper (one with the Korean Consulate's phone number and address, the other with information on how to get there using different modes of transportation), my passport (which has been missing for over a week), a sticky note with our Visa reference number on it, and 180,000 won! Now if that's not a James Bond envelope I just don't know what is!
Our Fukuoka DocumentsI asked Joseph what we are supposed to do and he informed me that we are to go to the Consulate, show them the number on the yellow paper, and get our Visa. In the past few hours we've been able to do a small amount of research on the subject and it looks like the processing can be done in one day so long as you arrive at the consulate no later than 1:30pm. Not sure if we'll be able to make that deadline tomorrow so it's a good thing that our flight out of Japan isn't until. . .Thursday!? Well, I guess we'd better get everything together before our 6:10pm flight out of Fukuoka the day following our arrival!
Joseph then asked if we knew where we'd be staying. Um. . .well, we figured out that we we're going to Japan an hour ago and still aren't exactly sure where we're going so. . .no.
It looks like there are hotels in the area although we might just do some wandering to find one once we are there as we have little time to plan and, still no internet in our apartments. 'So how are you blogging then,' you might ask. Well, great question!
For the next three weeks, Korean middle school students are preparing for their mid-term exams. Consequently, their academy lessons focus on test preparation rather than simple 'speaking' and 'writing' lessons. Little time to explain, but essentially this is the job of the Korean teachers only. Meaning for my class today, I simply sat in quiet at the front (as I'm still obliged to do) and read a book. Not the most interesting class period in the world but, hey, I'm not arguing with free reading time.
I've taken the opportunity to ditch my last class on the premise that we need to do research about our upcoming trip. . .which is extremely true! Hopefully we'll be able to get the directions down pretty well so that finding the consulate is not an issue; which, as I foresee, will be of greatest difficulty. Sleeping and eating will obviously come second and shouldn't be a huge issue as we're expected to survive for only a day on a rather generous stipend. Oh wait. . .getting to the Incheon airport might be a bit of a journey as Joseph suggested it takes about two hours. . . .lets see. . .for a 9am international flight leaving from a foreign country to begin with that means we're leaving at. . . .5am. Well that's not bad because work ends at. . . . oh yeah, 10:30pm.
How exactly we plan on staying sane/awake for the next three days, I'm not entirely sure. But hey, they don't call it Adventure Teaching (the name of our recruiter, ha. . .ha. . .) for nothin' do they!
I'll have a computer with me in Japan so hopefully should be able to find i-net at some point. . .just in case any of my avid readers are dying to check in via Skype (Sapeoblast) or g-chat (ACSaper)!More from the land of sushi and samurais!
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