well, i've been meaning to post for so long, but i've been staying busy. since i am so far behind, it would take me days to fill you in on everything. i hope you like lists as much as i do...
- i went to cheorwon with one of the teachers from my school. cheorwon is near the north/south korea border. it took us about 3 hours to drive there from incheon. one of the tunnels from the korean war is located there. we were able to go inside of the tunnel and visit a peace observatory in the area. the entire trip was a bit eerie. it's bothersome to acknowledge that the war never officially ended and is only at a stand-still. the DMZ (de-militarized zone) cannot be photographed and there are still incidents of people walking into it and being shot. read more here. so strange when the world seems to go on as if nothing happened only kilometers from the DMZ. however, the DMZ has become a sanctuary for thousands of birds. a virtually untouched area for 50+ years is the perfect wildlife refuge. it's ironic to think of how much life and beauty came out of such a disastrous area.
- i've been exploring seoul as much as possible. from the station nearest to me, it takes about 1.5 hours to get to central seoul. the best part is that it only costs 1600 won or about $1.25. public transportation is amazing here. not always the most comfortable, but for the price, you'd be ashamed to complain. i spent some time shopping in myeong-dong with my friends. we tried our best to help out the korean economy. i really love the hongdae area which is near hongik university. it is the only place where i can find street art. this is not to say that korean cities are clean, but graffiti is hard to come by. i am assuming the penalties are steep and deter people from vandalizing. there is also an awesome arts & crafts market on the weekend that my friend emily introduced me to in this area. since hongik university specializes in the arts, there are many talented students who sell their work here. i also went to insa-dong which is notorious for selling traditional korean crafts and supposedly attractive to tourists. for that reason, i was not all that impressed, but it was still interesting to browse.
- i won two free tickets online to see a performance called 'karma.' the performance was held at the national theatre of korea. i went with two friends and we really enjoyed the show. it was a non-verbal show that incorporated urban dance and martial arts. more info here.
- shortly after 'karma,' i attended another show called 'NANTA.' NANTA has become famous throughout korea and the rest of the world. there are now troupes performing in europe and the americas. NANTA is also a non-verbal show that can easily be enjoyed by speakers of any language. the performance is interactive; the actors come off the stage and randomly choose audience members to assist them on stage. even though i was in the very back of the theatre, i was reluctantly pulled up on stage to take part in a soup-tasting. in front of the entire audience, i had to wear a silly hat and bib and sample some corn-chowder-like soup. in the meantime, the actors were poking fun at me and the other fellow on stage with me. at the end of the show, a photo of me and the other man, was projected on the stage to announce our supposed marriage! it was humorous and embarrassing...definitely memorable! i have one photo, but no scanner. perhaps you'll be lucky enough to see it one day.
- i went on a weekend hiking trip to tongyeong city in the south of south korea. our group included about 45 people and we hiked on two different islands near tongyeong: saryan-do and yeonhwa-do. both were small, but inhabited. not much to do there though besides hike and eat raw seafood. i did both. look in my photo albums below some special shots.
- i have gone to the movie theatre twice in korea. it's pretty cheap and they usually have several american films showing. the movies are shown with the original audio and have korean subtitles. i saw 'mamma mia' with one of my co-teachers and 'blindness' with some friends.
- i took a day trip to a nearby island with two friends. incheon is on the west coast of south korea, but not known for its beaches. if you want to find anything that sort of resembles a beach, you need to go to one of the satellite islands. we chose to go to jawol-do. we went on a saturday and planned to stay overnight. after discovering that the island was practically deserted, we opted to do just a day trip. it was an eventful day though. we hitchhiked twice and rode around bicycles for free. i am so glad that i have found some adventurous friends. we know how to make our own fun.
- the weekend before thanksgiving, i was determined to make pumpkin pie. with the popularity of hobak (pumpkin) in korea, you'd think that this would be an easy task. wrong. very wrong. i had to travel all around to find the various ingredients. after several trips to seoul, i finally had all of the ingredients, but no oven. ovens are not popular in korea. apartments are too small and most korean cooking is done on the stove top. luckily, some of my fellow teachers had toaster ovens and they worked marvelously. never has pumpkin pie (with coolwhip brand whipped topping) tasted so good. this was the first year that i haven't been with family at thanksgiving which was a bit melancholy, but as i mentioned before, i have great friends who made it special!
- it is sunday night and i just returned from another weekend trip. this time i went to daejeon. on a slow train, it took two hours to get there from seoul. some friends from orientation teach there, so we visited them. we stayed in a hotel that was old and run-down, but worth the $12.50 per person per night. however, the ajumma (korean woman who appears to be about 35 or older) working there tried to tell us that we underpaid her, when we had just counted the right amount of money together. it's frustrating that so many korean transactions are in cash with no receipts. you just haggle the price, hand over the cash, and hope that you got a good deal. the weather was crazy yesterday. within two hours, we experienced all four seasons: it was warm and sunny, it rained, it snowed, it hailed, it was cloudy, it was super-windy, then warm again. so strange! and it made it difficult to do outdoor activities. however, we took the daejeon city tour bus to expo park. there was a huge expo held in daejeon in 1993 and all of the remnants are there. it was like a ghost town though. expo park has definitely seen better days.
i couldn't decide which photos to post here, so please feel free to browse through all of my albums. almost all of my photos are there!
