Sunday, August 08, 2004
Back in New York
I'm writing this entry from my apartment in the East Village. Actually, from the back yard of my apartment in the East Village. I forgot how much this place rocks, and I missed it while I was gone.
Anyway, I want to post some pictures from Sangil-dong, maybe some pictures of my trip to Taegu from a few weekends ago, and then maybe one last entry to wrap everything up. And then that's it. Done. Over. Finished.
Anyway, I want to post some pictures from Sangil-dong, maybe some pictures of my trip to Taegu from a few weekends ago, and then maybe one last entry to wrap everything up. And then that's it. Done. Over. Finished.
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
15,000 words
So far, I have written 15,000 words in my two blogs (yes, there is another one, but it's all Korean and only has 6 entries). I checked the stats of my blogs and it said that I had written 15,009 words as of the end of the last entry. That makes the 15,000th word "And" and it's used in a grammatically incorrect fashion as I use it to start the sentence "And sidewalks?"
Sang-il dong
If you find a map of Seoul and then find Mokdong, look on the opposite side of the map. That's Sang-il Dong. I am living there for the next few days until I roll out of Seoul. I moved in today into the basement of Yun Jung's mother's old house. She still owns it, but only Yun Jung's brother lives there. I left work for the last time today (although I have to go back tomorrow to close my bank account and turn in my Alien Registration Card) and got on the subway and took it to the absolute last stop on the line ... Sang-il dong. I made my way through the maze of streets to the house and let myself in (I had a key).
No one speaks English here. No one. In Mokdong, some of the younger people could talk to you in a little bit of English, but not here. In fact, they don't even believe that I speak any Korean at first. I went into a restaurant and said "one person" and the ajumma looked at me like I was wearing a black cape and biting someone's neck in the moonlight. Finally, she realized that I was speaking Korean and she gave me a table. I ordered and ate, and all that she really said to me was "you use chopsticks very well." But that was just what I wanted. I just wanted to eat some food and be left alone.
Yun Jung won't be around tonight, so hopefully I'll catch her in the morning before I have to make the 100 minute subway trip from here to Mokdong. I'm just killing time until I fall asleep. I tried to take pictures of the neighborhood tonight, but I was too hungry to think about anything other than food.
Right now, I'm in a PC Bang and I think I might hop over to a hof for a beer and some "anjoo" which basically means bar food. There's one nearby called "Beer Space" and it's decorated like the night sky. That might do the trick. If there were one called "Beer Monkey" I would move here permanently.
By the way, I have a traditional Korean bed, which is basically just a matress on the floor. All those years I wasn't actually strange, it was just that my bedroom was in the wrong country. In New York, I have a bed for the first time since I moved out of the dorms and into Katrina's apartment. I bought it right before I left.
I took a bunch of pictures, but I don't think that I will be able to post them until I get back to New York. I have some pictures of my students and I will have some pictures of Sang-il Dong. This place is pretty interesting, and has a MUCH different feel than Mokdong. I wish that I would have been living here instead. Mokdong was too spread out and too open and too modern. This place is pretty ghetto-looking with the buildings all close together. The streets are barely wide enough to walk three abreast yet they are considered two-way for the cars. And sidewalks? These people laugh heartily at such newfangled conviences.
No one speaks English here. No one. In Mokdong, some of the younger people could talk to you in a little bit of English, but not here. In fact, they don't even believe that I speak any Korean at first. I went into a restaurant and said "one person" and the ajumma looked at me like I was wearing a black cape and biting someone's neck in the moonlight. Finally, she realized that I was speaking Korean and she gave me a table. I ordered and ate, and all that she really said to me was "you use chopsticks very well." But that was just what I wanted. I just wanted to eat some food and be left alone.
Yun Jung won't be around tonight, so hopefully I'll catch her in the morning before I have to make the 100 minute subway trip from here to Mokdong. I'm just killing time until I fall asleep. I tried to take pictures of the neighborhood tonight, but I was too hungry to think about anything other than food.
Right now, I'm in a PC Bang and I think I might hop over to a hof for a beer and some "anjoo" which basically means bar food. There's one nearby called "Beer Space" and it's decorated like the night sky. That might do the trick. If there were one called "Beer Monkey" I would move here permanently.
By the way, I have a traditional Korean bed, which is basically just a matress on the floor. All those years I wasn't actually strange, it was just that my bedroom was in the wrong country. In New York, I have a bed for the first time since I moved out of the dorms and into Katrina's apartment. I bought it right before I left.
I took a bunch of pictures, but I don't think that I will be able to post them until I get back to New York. I have some pictures of my students and I will have some pictures of Sang-il Dong. This place is pretty interesting, and has a MUCH different feel than Mokdong. I wish that I would have been living here instead. Mokdong was too spread out and too open and too modern. This place is pretty ghetto-looking with the buildings all close together. The streets are barely wide enough to walk three abreast yet they are considered two-way for the cars. And sidewalks? These people laugh heartily at such newfangled conviences.
Monday, August 02, 2004
Some Flash links
I dug these two links up in an email today:
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mikomiko.php <-- I don't remember what's there and I can't get to it right now
http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/tribute/ <-- YMCA, in Japanese, performed by skeletons. Sort of. It's strange. You need sound for this one.
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/mikomiko.php <-- I don't remember what's there and I can't get to it right now
http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/tribute/ <-- YMCA, in Japanese, performed by skeletons. Sort of. It's strange. You need sound for this one.
Just returned from Valhalla
I just had a beer at Valhalla, and now I'm back. I said that I wanted to go there and I went there. It was like any other dark, hole-in-the-wall Hof here in Korea, so it wasn't anything special. They had a pathological menu where all the good stuff was on the "non summer" menu, and they had a bunch of crap that they proudly served in the summer. Someone should tell them that Valhalla was about good, hearty food all year 'round. I also saw a really good place that I NEED to get a picture of before I go. Trust me, it will be worth it. I don't know HOW I missed it yesterday.
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Anyeonghi-gye-se-yo Mokdong
My time in Mokdong is coming to a close. Probably tomorrow, I'll be leaving this section of town that has been my home for these past couple of months. I feel really bonded to Mokdong, since I would literally be in Mokdong for days at a time. Eating, sleeping, working, hanging out, everything all in Mokdong. Also, even though it hasn't been so long, every day has been notable for some reason or another so it feels like I've been here forever. I can't remember what New York was like the same way I could never quite remember Pennsylvania when I was in NYC. Anyway, I'll have the whole story of my departure once I'm back on American soil, as it's going to be an adventure in and of itself.
Let's finish off with a trip to the local market. Here is the entranceway to the market. If you've seen the movie "Bloodsport" with Van Damme (who is a candy-ass, in my opinion), you know "it's time to protect your nuts".
We go in a little further and we realize that the market is a hopeless maze. We walk around for a little while (it looks like one of the tiny malls in Chinatown but MUCH MUCH bigger and with all kinds of stores. Some sell food, some sell shoes, some sell toys ... all sorts of things. There was even a used Korean bookstore) and we inexplicably come out on the same street that we entered, but maybe 20 feet further down.
Anyway, we turn around and forge back in, only to wonder if we should actually change our name to "Captain Nemo" as we come across fresh squid and octopus.
We exit the market after a half an hour or so and go back out into the sunlight. Here is what greets our return to the world where photosynthesis is able to occur:
At first, we're surprised because it looks so strange. Then we stop and remember "yeah, this is Korea where there are little character guys on EVERYTHING. It's cool. In fact, I bet 20,000 won that if I turn around ..."
And we are correct. Turning exactly 180 geometric degrees around we see this:
The strangeness is oddly comforting here in Korea. If normal things started happening, we would panic. It's like in New York City ... when you see some random halfnaked homeless guy wearing a chainmail helmet, clutching all of his worldly possessions and saying "Ants! Ants! They're everywhere!", it's normal. But you take that same guy and drop him in front of a movie theater and watch him say "Ants! Ants! Um ... one for Spiderman, please. I'm a big fan," and you've got yourself a story.
So we pick a random street and walk down it. It is random for two reasons. One is that they all look the same. The other is that it doesn't have a name, so any name that you give it is good enough. Here is what you see:
Notice the ajummas staring at us. Get used to it if you're going to leave the main areas of Seoul. Looking up, all the buildings kind of look like this:
Just when you start to get depressed by the crushing similarity of everything, we come across this gem of a door:
When you think about it, most of Korea outside of Pusan was leveled by 1953. Seoul was taken by the North Koreans and retaken by MacArthur in his famous amphibious landing at Incheon (which is where all international flights arrive and depart from). The Koreans rebuilt their country almost from scratch, so that helps explain why things tend to look VERY similar within each neighborhood.
As we near the end of Random Street, we come across this place, which is inexplicably closed even though it is 7:30pm and the sign on the door CLEARLY says that it is open EVERY day from 5:30pm to 1am.
We resolve to come back to this place, so that we can say that we went to Valhalla and had a beer.
Interestingly, when we reach the end of Random Street, we come to our workplace, which is a 5 minute walk from where we live. So, all of these things that we saw today are within about a 20-25 minute walk from our apartment.
**************************************************
So, so long Mokdong. It's been interesting ...
Let's finish off with a trip to the local market. Here is the entranceway to the market. If you've seen the movie "Bloodsport" with Van Damme (who is a candy-ass, in my opinion), you know "it's time to protect your nuts".
We go in a little further and we realize that the market is a hopeless maze. We walk around for a little while (it looks like one of the tiny malls in Chinatown but MUCH MUCH bigger and with all kinds of stores. Some sell food, some sell shoes, some sell toys ... all sorts of things. There was even a used Korean bookstore) and we inexplicably come out on the same street that we entered, but maybe 20 feet further down.
Anyway, we turn around and forge back in, only to wonder if we should actually change our name to "Captain Nemo" as we come across fresh squid and octopus.
We exit the market after a half an hour or so and go back out into the sunlight. Here is what greets our return to the world where photosynthesis is able to occur:
At first, we're surprised because it looks so strange. Then we stop and remember "yeah, this is Korea where there are little character guys on EVERYTHING. It's cool. In fact, I bet 20,000 won that if I turn around ..."
And we are correct. Turning exactly 180 geometric degrees around we see this:
The strangeness is oddly comforting here in Korea. If normal things started happening, we would panic. It's like in New York City ... when you see some random halfnaked homeless guy wearing a chainmail helmet, clutching all of his worldly possessions and saying "Ants! Ants! They're everywhere!", it's normal. But you take that same guy and drop him in front of a movie theater and watch him say "Ants! Ants! Um ... one for Spiderman, please. I'm a big fan," and you've got yourself a story.
So we pick a random street and walk down it. It is random for two reasons. One is that they all look the same. The other is that it doesn't have a name, so any name that you give it is good enough. Here is what you see:
Notice the ajummas staring at us. Get used to it if you're going to leave the main areas of Seoul. Looking up, all the buildings kind of look like this:
Just when you start to get depressed by the crushing similarity of everything, we come across this gem of a door:
When you think about it, most of Korea outside of Pusan was leveled by 1953. Seoul was taken by the North Koreans and retaken by MacArthur in his famous amphibious landing at Incheon (which is where all international flights arrive and depart from). The Koreans rebuilt their country almost from scratch, so that helps explain why things tend to look VERY similar within each neighborhood.
As we near the end of Random Street, we come across this place, which is inexplicably closed even though it is 7:30pm and the sign on the door CLEARLY says that it is open EVERY day from 5:30pm to 1am.
We resolve to come back to this place, so that we can say that we went to Valhalla and had a beer.
Interestingly, when we reach the end of Random Street, we come to our workplace, which is a 5 minute walk from where we live. So, all of these things that we saw today are within about a 20-25 minute walk from our apartment.
**************************************************
So, so long Mokdong. It's been interesting ...
Kangnam
Kangnam is a section of Seoul. It's a relatively "happening" part of town. It's a cool place to be without being downtown. I guess the closest analogy would be Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It's very close to the East Village and the Lower East Side, but is across the river. "Kangnam" actually means "south of the river" and it is, of course, just on the south side of the Han River. Korean names are descriptive without being creative. The Germans have NOTHING on these people when it comes to the blandness of the names of things.
Here's a piece of artwork in a plaza. There is a lot of art in plazas and parks here, and most of it is interesting:
This is the Seoul World Trade Center.
And here is a shot of some of the local buildings. Not skyscrapers really, but decent sized.
Later in the afternoon, I was in a local restaurant and I saw these guys. I have no idea what their story is, but I assume that they watched X-Men too many times.
Here's a piece of artwork in a plaza. There is a lot of art in plazas and parks here, and most of it is interesting:
This is the Seoul World Trade Center.
And here is a shot of some of the local buildings. Not skyscrapers really, but decent sized.
Later in the afternoon, I was in a local restaurant and I saw these guys. I have no idea what their story is, but I assume that they watched X-Men too many times.
Next-to-the-last hurrah
This was Friday night. Yun Jung and I met SeokHyee and KiSook for some food and some drinks and then off to a NoRaeBang. We went to a bar (called a "hof" .. pronouced Ho-pu here) and had about 3 liters of beer and then we went to a restaurant for some Sam-gyap-sal and soju.
These are "the girls" ... from left to right, Yun Jung, SeokHyee and KiSook.
This is SeokHyee, me, and KiSook:
Notice the suaveness of the McNabb jersey. SeokHyee left right after these pictures and KiSook cut out immediately after we got to the NoRaeBang, but I was lit enough to stay for an hour and do the world's worst rendition of "18 and Life" by Skid Row.
It was a good time, but sad in that this group of people will, in all likelihood, have only ever been assembled one time. This was the first time SeokHyee and Yun Jung met, and I suspect that we might never all be in the same place again.
These are "the girls" ... from left to right, Yun Jung, SeokHyee and KiSook.
This is SeokHyee, me, and KiSook:
Notice the suaveness of the McNabb jersey. SeokHyee left right after these pictures and KiSook cut out immediately after we got to the NoRaeBang, but I was lit enough to stay for an hour and do the world's worst rendition of "18 and Life" by Skid Row.
It was a good time, but sad in that this group of people will, in all likelihood, have only ever been assembled one time. This was the first time SeokHyee and Yun Jung met, and I suspect that we might never all be in the same place again.
