I haven't updated in a while because I've been too lazy. Also, I've been sort of busy all week. I spent last Monday and Tuesday at the DMZ. I went with a bunch of other English teachers from Chuncheon. We rode around in a bus and saw some sights. Really, there's not a lot to see there. Some derelict buildings, a bunch of farms, some fences, and a lot of soldiers. The soldiers were actually really friendly, and they smiled and waved at us.
We weren't allowed to take photos of the actual DMZ, so I didn't get many pictures.
We went to a few museums, but they were all kind of dull. Mostly just trash from North Korea or artifacts from the war. We went to some random bird museum that was pretty cool.
We stayed the night in a "Reunification Education" school, where kids come and stay for a few days and learn about why it's better to be one country than two. I'm not sure what to make of this kind of rhetoric. It seems extremely idealistic, and I don't believe that most South Koreans agree with it. The tour guide said he wanted us to understand the pain that Koreans experience because of the separation of North and South, and I realize that it's part of their heritage, but I'm sure most Koreans realize that reunification just isn't feasible now, and it probably never will be.
A few weeks ago, during the North Korean "satellite" crisis, I taught a lesson on travel, asking my students to make plans for a vacation anywhere in the world. One group said that they wanted to travel to North Korea ten years ago so they could assassinate Kim Jong Il and create one Korea. Obviously, they were kind of joking, but it gave me a little insight into how South Koreans perceive the north. It's a touchy subject, and as a foreigner, I don't really feel comfortable asking natives about it.
Anyway, on the night that we stayed in the school, we ate a big dinner with beer and soju (I love EPIK sponsered events). I (kind of) learned how to play a Korean card game called Go-Stop (dunno what it's called in Korean). It was so confusing that it took me like an hour to get it (maybe partially due to the soju), but I finally played a few games and won big. Actually, I got a lot of points, but the stakes were so small that I only won like fifty cents.
When I got back to school on Wednesday, I got to sit around all day and do nothing because my kids were all taking midterms. On Thursday night, after Korean class, I went out "for a few beers" and ended up singing in the noraebang until 3:30 AM. I only let myself do it because I knew that I wouldn't have to teach the next day, but it was still not too pleasant going to school on three hours of sleep. Luckily, I didn't have a hangover.
On Friday, I took a 5 o'clock train to Seoul and arrived a little before 7. I went with my friend, Anka, who used to live in Seoul.
Here are some pictures of the city.
I wasn't impressed. The first thing I noticed was the putrid quality of the air. Then, of course, I noticed the crowds and the noise and the filth. If anything, it made me appreciate Chuncheon a little more.
We ate some pretty good street food. It basically tasted like funnel cake in pancake form, and it cost less than fifty cents.
We went to a part of town called Itaewon, which is where all the foreigners go. It was kind of a tourist hell hole, but at least it was full of ethnic restaurants, which can't be found in Chuncheon. I finally got to eat some Mexican food with a bottle of Corona, and it was damn good. We ate at a place called Los Amigos, and it almost felt like an authentic Tex Mex place.
Then, we went to Hongdae, the university area, for some drinks. I was kind of surprised to see how popular American black culture is in Seoul. Every bar we went to was blasting shit like Soulja Boy and 50 Cent. I also saw lots of Koreans dressed in "gangsta" style clothes. You don't see much of that in Chuncheon.
We ended up in some retardedly crowded club, and we had to pay 10,000 won just to get in (it was free before 1:00, and we arrived at 1:15), so we kind of felt obligated to stay. We wanted to dance, but it was almost impossible because we were so tightly crammed in there. Well, we tried anyway.
Gaaaay.
After several hours of dancing, we made our way over to a Burger King, where we found half of the customers passed out.
More sleeping people on the subway. I have to admit that I dozed off a few times, myself.
Finally, we made it back to the train station and took the 7 AM train, arriving back in Chuncheon around 9. I went home and slept until 6 PM.
What's hilarious about these posts is that it seems you're not even working. It's like you're partying every night there.
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