Holla Back Young'n

The week before my digestive system decided to rebel against me was actually one of the better parts of my summer thus far. On the Tuesday of that week, Jihoon and Brian arrived in Korea, and on Thursday Jihoon's dad took us out for a really nice sashimi dinner. (Possible suspect for stomach flu? I suspect not.)

Friday I took advantage of my four hour lunch break and visited Karak Fish Market with the two of them. The fish market is actually part of a larger market which sells wholesale fruits, vegetables, and other goods. The entire market area is probably the dirtiest area I've seen in Seoul; in fact, it was vaguely reminiscent of the village bazaar in Kyrgyzstan. The fish market itself is a veritable aquarium, only remove most of the water and replace it with plastic baskets and ice blocks instead.




One of the old ladies selling fish randomly stopped Jihoon to tell him that she thought I was good-looking. Pretty bizarre.

For lunch we decided to have, what else but, fish. Rather than get ripped off by the guy at the fish market, we went across the street to a more reasonably priced restaurant.



On Saturday, we ventured out of Seoul for a daytrip to the famed city of Gyeongju. This meant we had to wake up at 6 am to catch an 8:20 train. (Possible suspect for my stomach flu? Quite possibly.)

Man love (assuming the one on the bottom is, in fact, a man)

As I was ignorant of premodern Korean history, Janice had to inform me that Gyeongju was the capital of Korea for many years while the Silla Kingdom was dominant. Korea underwent a Three Kingdoms phase wherein it was divided into three kingdoms, Silla, Goguryeo, and Baekje, until Silla united the three. Apparently the Silla period forms an indelible part of a Korean student's education, one reason why Gyeongju continues to be quite popular.

Our first stop was the Royal Tombs, in particular Chongma Chong. "Chongma Chong" essentially means "tomb of the heavenly horse," although I'm still not sure whether it was just a horse buried there or people as well. I think it's the latter. When our bus driver paid for our admission tickets, he kept insisting that Brian, Jihoon, Janice, Janice's cousin, and I were all high schoolers until we convinced him that we were actually college grads.

Entering Chongma Chong

The tomb was essentially a giant anthill covered in grass. Upon entering, we discovered that Koreans are masters of the replica. All of the artifacts inside were perfectly aged replicas of the actual artifacts which had been excavated in the tomb and taken to a museum.

All that tomb raiding made us hungry, so we stopped off for lunch and ordered some kalbitang (beef soup) and sundubu (first time in Korea, surprisingly). The little old lady working there kept encouraging Jihoon to eat, after all, she told him "you're a growing boy!" Except for the fact that he's twenty four and most likely not growing. Anyway, she brought a free bowl of rice for the "growing boy" and even adjusted the A/C to point directly at us. On our way out, she told Jihoon that she thought I was good-looking. So, in case you're keeping track:

Old ladies who have told me I'm good-looking: 2
Ladies my age (+/- 20 years) who have told me I'm good-looking: 0

I think I was born in the wrong century.

Next up was Cheomseongdae, the oldest observatory in East Asia. It was actually quite short, and seems to have derived its significance from being very old and from being built by Queen Seondeok, a prominent Silla queen. The tour guide tried to convince us that each of the 24 levels of the tower represented one part of each of the four seasons in much the same way he tried to convince us that Korea is currently the most scientifically advanced nation, but we were having none of it. He also told us that the tower was unusually short considering how tall the Silla people were, which might have been noteworthy had the tour guide at Chongma Chong not explained to us that although the Silla people buried large shoes, crowns, and clothes in their tombs, their bodies were actually quite small.

For our third stop, we visited a lake whose name I'm not sure I ever learned. Apparently, archaeologists found numerous artifacts preserved within the mud of the lake, which helped them to "reimagine" the former settlement overlooking the lake.


Look again at the structure two pictures up. Surprise! It's a replica too. Apparently the original wood structures burned down, so people were hired to rebuild a few buildings. For the tourists' sake of course.

Following the lake of replicas, we visited a museum... where we found even more replicas! We did manage to find some originals mixed in as well. Take, for instance, the bell below. Apparently, it emits such a pure sound because a young Korean child was melted into the bell. Urban legend? Perhaps.

The antler crown found at Chongma Chong (real, not a replica)

A common Silla symbol for fertility, the embryo... so did they have a knowledge of what an embryo looked like?

The city of Gyeongju in its prime (replica style, of course)

Finally, after a long day of sightseeing, we decided to have some fun for our last stop- by visiting Buddhaland!

The temple's name actually translates to "Land of Buddha" or something, referring back to the days when Korea was a primarily Buddhist nation. Buddhaland was probably the grandest sight of the day.

The tower of masculinity

These kids were sliding down the national treasure!

Jihoon, spreading swine flu

The three hour train ride back to Seoul

Janice and her gangsta cuz

In other news, my stomach has returned after a long absence.

Laughter

I saw Transformers 2 at the CGV theater by my goshitel this weekend. I love robot fighting as much as the next guy, but was the last hour really necessary? By the 1:30 point I was ready for the climactic battle. And did any character actually have an arc in the movie? Fun but forgettable. The movie also functioned as a study in cultural humor. The theater was basically full of Koreans besides the three of us, and they laughed loudest when-

-Shia's roommate Leo is sleeping on John Turturro's shoulder
-Megan Fox took her pet robot out of the box in John Turturro's basement
-Leo accidentally tases himself in the Smithsonian

Did audiences in the US laugh at the first two points in the movie? The mom-on-pot scenes, the banter between the [possibly offensive] twin robots, and the overt sexual humor all got basically no laughs, with the humor seemingly getting lost in translation. Note to self: if ever making a comedy intended for international audiences, be sure to pile on the slapstick.

The End of the Honeymoon

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR THE SQUEAMISH



Over the past few days, I have become good friends with the toilet at my goshitel.

I've been visiting the toilet at least ten times a day, after all. I hope that the worst is over, but only God knows for sure.

Last week, the Monday after I visited Nam June Paik's TV tower, I thought I had it bad when I woke up with aches and a continuously runny nose.

I had no idea.

This past Monday I was tired and a bit warmer than usual, but I attributed it to lying in blazing hot rooms and soaking in piping hot tubs at the jimjilbang (Korean sauna). When I woke up on Tuesday, I realized it was something more. I awoke to find myself unusually hot. Not only that, but my stomach was also churning like crazy. I figured that I could take a Tylenol and worry about the problem later. When I got to my first class I was soaked in sweat, and as I took attendance, beads of sweat dripped off my hair onto the attendance sheet, despite the fact that the A/C was blasting away. Despite taking an unusual number of trips to the bathroom during that class, I figured I would be fine for the next class. Unfortunately, by the second class the Tylenol had begun to wear off and not only did I feel drained, I had a bad case of the chills. I ended up letting the class work on homework and play games for the last half hour. (I think my students think I'm nicer when I'm sick.)

I took the rest of the day off and rode the subway home, where I basically crashed for the rest of the day. I would wake up every hour or so to rush to the bathroom then fall back asleep. My condition reached a low point that afternoon, when I woke up feeling like I was on fire, my head feeling as though it were both spinning and being stabbed. Water made me feel nauseous, and solid food was hardly any better. I finally felt the full effects of being on my own in a foreign country, as I realized that I was miles (excuse me, kilometers) from any friends rather than being down the block or next door. I tried to watch TV, but it made me want to throw up, so I just slept instead.

My fever eventually broke that night, but my intestinal issues did not resolve themselves. My digestive system continued to spew out anything and everything I took into my body. As many of you know, I typically need food about once every two hours, and without any food in my stomach I began to miss the feeling of having a full belly. On Wednesday, I was surprised to find upon reaching for my stomach that it was no longer there. My belly had receded a good two or three inches from its normal width. Over the next few days I would feel the empty space there and just feel depressed. I imagined that I looked like Christian Bale in The Machinist and wondered if he had given himself the flu to look that way.

Wednesday a fellow teacher told me I was giving her a blank stare, which I explained was not a reflection on her but my own state- the hollowness in my eyes reflected the vacuousness of my stomach. Still, I managed to pull through the full day of work, and was rewarded by a gem from my 6th grade Novel Reading class, which has confoundingly been assigned the age-appropriate "Macbeth." I realized that they would not understand or relate to the play at all (and I wanted to space out in class for a bit), so I gave them a creative writing assignment: "Imagine how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth met". The best story involved King Duncan and Macbeth being college friends who would go drinking and playing billiards together. In this story, they would also go out to clubs holding hands, where people would ask if they were homosexual. If only Shakespeare could have read it!

Each morning, I hoped to wake up feeling good again, but my body only took steps instead of leaps. This morning (Thursday), I did feel better, but I was particularly perturbed by the lack of food in my stomach. Some rice porridge seems to have done the trick, however, and I think I'm almost on the other side.

I told myself that once I was able to blog about this traumatic experience, I would be close to recovery. If I were still under the full effects of the virus, I wouldn't want to relive the experience, much less post a blog entry about it. Tonight I looked up the way to say "I'm sick" and "diarrhea" in Korean, and appreciated the fact that this incident prompted me to learn some Korean I wouldn't have otherwise.

I'm thankful that I had friends here in Korea as well or else I probably would have wallowed away in misery.

There's a lot of good stuff to fill in too, between the first Monday I got sick and the second Monday I got sick. But that post will come when it more accurately reflects my mood. The good news is I haven't had to go to the bathroom once since I started writing this post.

Mannequins and Museums

My working hours have been increasing slowly but surely over the past few weeks, growing from 18 the first week to 25 this past week to 31+ this week. That's proven to be a blessing because it's allowed me to get things settled and also to acclimate myself to longer and longer days of teaching. I feel as though in this month alone I will have talked more than I did my entire last semester at Brown! While that is probably a huge overstatement, I do talk virtually from the second class starts to the second it ends two hours later. Repeat 3+ times and it's obvious that teaching SAT has most assuredly given me ample time to practice the art of speaking. I've found myself verbally unloading everything on my mind on a given topic during class and I've also found myself ending my sentences in upspeak (rising intonation) and reflexively asking "Does that make sense?" or "Right?" I am thankful that the students have grown more comfortable as the weeks have gone on, which makes the class more enjoyable and worthwhile for all of us. Seeing these kids spend every day of their summers at the academy, trying to cram 50 new vocab words into their heads and complete a few hours of homework every night has forced me to reflect on my 10 week course at Han Sam SAT as I was preparing for the SAT. The Han Sam course seems like nothing compared to classes here.

I could launch into a discussion and theories as to why students (at least until college) undergo such intense and continuous education, but I'll save that for another time.

Last Monday, I wanted to try Korean dorm food so I went with Janice and her dad to the school her dad teaches at, Dankuk University. The entire school recently moved from central Seoul to the Bundang area, so everything is brand new- they've even constructed an enormous artificial waterfall.






Dorm food was surprisingly cheap (about $3) and filling so I may be returning soon.


The trip also gave me a chance to visit the mannequins in the museum at the university. The mannequins weren't exactly the most talkative people I've met, but as I was the only one in the museum, some company was better than no company!




Yesterday I ventured out to Seoul Grand Park and the Seoul Museum of Contemporary Art despite the rain and humidity. I'd been wanting to see Nam June Paik's "The More the Better" ever since learning about it in Contemporary Art and finding that it was still housed in Seoul, and seeing the structure in person did not disappoint. I'm not entirely sure as to what Paik intended the tower built from 1,000 Television screens to mean, but I like to see it partly as a comment on the decidedly Asian method of filling the night skyline with thousands of flashy neon signs.




I also took pictures of other works I enjoyed before realizing there was a sign that said "No Cameras". Thank goodness I'm not in another East Asian country where breaking the rules could lead to strict disciplinary action!

Jesus and Buddha riding into Seoul

"Natural Habitat"

Pop quiz:

Is this person Chinese, Japanese, or Korean?




Answer: Chinese



Is this person Chinese, Japanese, or Korean?




Answer: Japanese



Is this person Chinese, Japanese, or Korean?



Answer: If you answered Chinese, you're wrong. According to my students, this person is Korean. They swore I was lying to them when I said I was Chinese.



Let me take this opportunity to give a shoutout to Korean markets. Not only do they offer free samples every hour of every day, they have samples in each of the food groups- breads, fruits, vegetables, and meat! The icing on the cake is the man that stands outside each of these supermarkets and bows to me as I leave. Even when I don't buy anything, I feel like he's thanking me for coming to eat samples!

Last weekend, I subwayed over to the Gyeonbokgung area, which is home to the main Chosun palace. This palace served as the main palace except during the times when it was burnt down. There, Janice and I met up with Pauline who I hadn't seen in over a year. The three of us spent some time in Samcheongdong, an area sporting more of a "village" feel and where some traditional dwellings are still preserved as homes.











Once Wonhoe (who I haven't seen in two years) got off work, he came to pick us up. After dropping Pauline off, we bypassed the Gyeonbokgung, as Wonhoe explained that it would be interesting only to "white and black" people.

Instead, we made our way up a steep, windy road to the top of some Korean mountain whose name I cannot remember at all. It was a great place to enjoy the smog. And the view of Seoul, of course.







From the mountain in the north end of Seoul, we made our way over to Gangnam, in the south end of Seoul. Traffic in the city's bad, but I have to say LA still wins the award for most congested roads.

(Samsung headquarters)

Since Janice had already shown me her favorite things about Seoul, Wonhoe wanted to show me (and Janice) "what guys like to do." The first thing on the list was a trip to the batting cages. I never got to find out what the rest of the list was because after the batting cages, Wonhoe had to meet a friend for dinner.

While we waited for Wonhoe, Janice and I hung out and ate at Dr. Fish. At the Dr. Fish cafe, every food or drink purchase gives you access to their extensive library (all in Korean and unfortunately Chon Hangung marul motaeyo) and an all-you-can-eat bread bar.






The piece de resistance, however, is the eponymous Dr. Fish. In actuality, there's not just one, but nearly a hundred Dr. Fish's. For an extra 2000 won, you can receive your very own treatment by these Dr. Fish's.

Just stick your feet into the pool...




And let the fish eat your feet!



It was one of the most fun experiences I've ever had being tortured.

Wonhoe ended up hanging out with us at Dr. Fish after his dinner, so I'll have to wait until next time for the next installment of What Guys Like to Do in Seoul.