thanksgiving in korea (11/20-11/26).
11/23/10
blogging from a city tour bus in gyeongju (a city in the southeast province of korea, ancient capital of silla kingdom from 57BC - 935AD, houses many historical relics therefore dubbed “museum without walls”)! just had a bibimbap lunch at a restaurant, now on our way to who knows where (the tour is conducted in koraen). this morning we visited the bulkhasan temple (gorg) and kinda got a taste of korean fury when we reassembled to get back on the bus 3 minutes past calltime and at the wrong gate..and the tour guide lady got angry with us. then a minute later put on her happy face and gave us the brochures for our next destination. next was a little culture center/museum that wasnt as interesting but had cool models of ppl doing early astronomical work. then went to another temple, but smaller. this one housed the earliest known pagoda from the silla dynasty (57 BC – 935 AD). after lunch, went to a tomb park where there were grassy mounds of tombs. connie and i ran up one while no one was looking (except the gods. i’m sorry!!!) and tumbled down haha. last night walking around gyeonju in search of food, we stumbled upon their more bustling district (kinda reminds me of old town pasadena but smaller and quainter. had amazing zhou at a famous korean chain restaurant that was featured in “boys ovr flowers” or something.
now sittin on tha train withg COMMIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE back to SEOUL . these koarens are SILENT and STOIC when riding public transportation. but korean we are not, therefore loud and cray cray we are.
tonight when we gte back to seoul, we’re staying at a different hostel than last time (last time wa s alpha guesthouse) . this time is jin guesthouse in another part of town.
whenever we pass by ppl wth suspiciously large eyes, we always turn to each other with wondering faces thinking “plastic surgery?” some ppl are realy obvoius… guess it depends on if the surgery went botched or not. sometimes i wonder if they aer content with the results of their makeover attempt.
my camera went kookooroo. the lens tries to focus but in trying to do so SHAKES LIKE A BABY that needs to be cradled and breastfed. probably gnna have to buy a new one when i get back to taiwan. interested in buying the same one we got for connie b/c it’s a canon, it’s not too pricey, and it’s BROWN
connie is singing “LOOKING BACK ON THE THINGS I”VE DONE…” BSB on this veryvery quite qorean train
11/25/10
our 730 am DMZ tour was cancelled at approx 815am (15 more min and our bus wouldve made it to the DMZ !! ) b/c kim jong il’s son decided to launch his attack on the s. korean island A DAY BEFORE the day we planned to go >( (btw, i was at gyeong-ju train station waiting to go back to seoul when we first saw news reports about the bombings. but of coruse it was in korean so we didnt know what was going on, just that it seemed imporant b/c the kroeans around us seemed grave and the same footage kept getting looped) so instead, we went back to jin guesthouse, slept to make up for the mere 2 hrs of sleep we had gotten the night before, went shopping bought high thick colorful socks for self and a crapload of kpop paraphernalia for my insane friends, ate more kimchi/bibimbap/bulgogi/kalbi… , exchanged more taiwan $ to korean won (spending a bajillion dollars here.. korea’s cost of living is way higher than any of us had expected. it’s pretty much american prices, sometimes higher). also checked out university street. cutesy modern architecture and walkable. exactly what i expected korea to be. climbed up a huge-ass mountain to check out the nightlights. then later went to the top of N seoul tower (atop another mountain in the middle o the city) via cable car and elevator for an even mor eamazing panoramic view of seoul. seoul is a crazy metropolis, far surpassing LA. also visited the teddy bear museum at the top of this mountain/base of the tower. basicaly it’s a rundown of korean history past/future , except the little exhibits have cute teddy bears as models instead of little plastic humans.
this city is bigger and more modern than expected. it seems like LA’s ktown, but way more expansive and way more modernized. like a mix between LA and NY . very cold too.. arctic chillz/siberian winds/idk. also, NO ONE speaks on the public transportations. they just sit there quietly not looking at each other. if anyone speaks, it’s usually a foreigner or a youngin’. it seems to be because koreans come off as very proud and care about face. maybe they think that if they talk, theyre disrupting the people around them, so they naturally know from their upbringing not to be rude otherwise it’ll be frowned upon. the gap between the train and the platform is alarmingly wide. the song that plays when the next platform is about to arrive (when youre on the train) is carefree and upbeat yet the passengers still remain stoic. no one quickly stands up to lend their seat to senior citizens like they do in taiwan. when someone relinquishes a seat, the ppl around them fervently eyeball the empty seat and claw their way thru to it , as if they had blinders on to those in need around them. 3 minutes is usually long enough for many shopkeepers/stallkeepers to get impatient with us for taking too long to make a decision and we have on more than 2 occasions been shood/cussed out of their shop. but, some people are exceedingly nice and patient with us for having minimal knowledge of the korean language. at a model traditional village near the chungmuro MRT station (a traditional korean village preserved in the heart of seoul), an old man of about 70 taught me how to spin a top with a whip. i kept wanting to give up but he kept telling me in korean / gesturing for me to pick up the top and just do it. speaking of memorable inspiring moments, at alpha guesthouse, i was stressing and frantically researching hostel booking information for our 2day 1night trip to gyeong-ju when a fellow boarder (american, male, about 60, talks to self, slightly weird, long-removed from american society, drifter/traveller) started asking me about school, my major changes, why i changed, and in my explanation i mentioned that life is random, you never know what’ll happen, to which he responded with something like: “sometimes a conversation can change your life”
anyway .. obviously these posts have not been well thought out but i’m tired. tomrorow we are visiting the main temples, doing a lil more shopping but nottoo much b/c i only have $50 US to last me our last day in korea, having our korean bbq feast dinner, maybe a little clubbing at night (just too see). then we fly back to taipei on friday morning. korea has been good to me, but i miss my 3rd home taipei (1arc, 2ucla). glad i took this trip though, i will come back with changed perspectives and a greater desire to familiarize myself with unfamiliar cultures.
11/27 (saturday)
soo on thrusday, our last full day in korea, we hit up 2 palaces but couldnt find the temple. sang disney and jaychou duets while trekking across the city to keep our spirits up haha. afterwards went shopping at dongdaemun (largest shopping district in s. korea). the fashions were good but everything was american pricing so i didn’t buy anything and neither did the other girls. only dion got a vest and something else i dontremember. we were all pretty pooped by this day from getting at most 5 hrs of sleep each night, oftentimes less, for the past week in korea. tried and succeeded in maximizing our time there. afterwards, we met up wtih dion’s friend Diane from UCLA who is studying abroad in korea and we went to a restaurant/bar district near Sinchon station to eat all u can eat kbbq. honestly it didnt taste as good as the kbbq back home in LA ktown, but the atmosphere was interesting, eating amongst local koreans, many of whom got tipsy from soju and were very loud. after dinner we decided to try to check out the clubbing scene in s. korea so headed over to somewhere i dont remember. the district had small shops and young (our age) patrons. couldnt really find any clubs but did find a very cute handcrafted goods store and almost blew the last of my money on a $15 sewn and stuffed zebra keychain. thankfully, lele and connie talked me out of it. dion and i thought the korean girl who ran the shop was very cute b/c she would sway along to the music playing on the speakers, and was very helpful and kind when we asked for directions to a coffee shop that was featured in some kdrama that we wanted to find. after the shop, we set out to find said coffee shop. the weather by now was freezing (literally freezing point) so we bundled up like babooshkas in scarves leaving only 1 eye exposed to the elements. found it after 15 freezing minutes, and after hanging out a little more in the freezing cold, got in taxis and went back to jin guesthouse, thus ending our last night in seoul.
friday morning was our flight back to taipei, and many of us got only 4 hrs of sleep, connie and i got 2 hrs from staying up chit chatting and looking at pics. lele got the most with 5 hrs!! bought an egg salad sandwich from the lady who stands by the MRT entrance #2 (we also bought one from her the early morning we tried going to the DMZ). she’s so cute and i love her for coming so early every morning to sell yummy yummy sandwiches. found the stop and got on our airport shuttle, crashed on the shuttle, got popped out at sincheon international airport, went in still dressed in our big coats 5 layers of clothes thick socks double pants and heavy shoes, got in a long line for check-in, and by the time we got to the front of the line, we were all wearing single layers of clothing. thank god for their heaters! b/c it was way too cold outside !! surprised it didnt snow, some korean friends were saying it was expected to snow that saturday but we JUSt missed it. anyway flew back to taipei and slept most of the time. got back, took a shuttle home, ate guabao and zongzi and it was orgasm in my mouth , slept, woke up to eat with lele and connie at gongguan nightmarket near our dorm, then met up with a-hi and a-kio to go watch harry potter a week late b/c the previous friday on openinng day we were planning our trip to korea.
some phrases i learned in korea:
kamsahamida, annyeohasaeyo, ego oelmayeyo, dokkbuki, chul,…
