Sean's Summer


Journal Entries - Week Five

 

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Saturday, 12 July 2008

 

            Yup, my feet were torn up. More blisters and sweaty shirts to contend with. I got a later start than I expected. It was almost noon before I found my way to the subway station. If I moved fast and made all the right connections, I could make it to Suwon in time to catch the last bus to the Folk Village, 30 minutes outside town. Well, the trip was about an hour and a half by subway, including all the walking, transfers, waiting for trains, etc… and then when I got to Suwon I had trouble finding the Information Center to get a bus ticket. As it turned out, I got to the Information Center about 10 minutes after the last bus left for the village. That was ok, though, because I could spend all afternoon walking around Hwaseong, the Suwon Fortress. I had to catch a bus further into Suwon to get there, but it was worth it. The city/fortress and the palace walls are nearly completely intact, with some restoration, so about 90% of the original structures are there. It was amazing. I started at the palace and checked out all the buildings, then went up the hill to the inner wall and got a birds-eye view of the palace. That was an amazing sight. After that, I walked up a mountain, literally, to get to the nearest section of Hwaseong. I walked around about 1/3 of the total wall, encompassing most of the downtown district of modern Suwon, and met a German guy working as an engineering tech for a German firm setting up widjets in Korea. I didn’t realize he was German at first, I assumed he was an American G.I. We were stopped along the wall to check for tickets, which we didn’t have (I didn’t know where we were supposed to get them, and apparently the German didn’t either), and we started talking because I could translate for him. We bought tickets at the booth below one of the wall towers and continued on our way together. I tried to speak to him in German, but I’d get about 3 or 4 words out before my brain switched back to Korean and I screwed it up. Luckily, he spoke English very well.

Well, I already had blisters on my feet, it was already after dinnertime, I was on the complete opposite side of town from the subway station, it was threatening rain, I was exhausted from walking all afternoon plus the day-and-a-half prior, and the humidity was now officially miserable, so I decided that once I got to the river that ran through the middle of the fortress I’d just follow the river back to the opposite gate and catch the bus back to the train station. I led the German (I can’t remember his name for the life of me…) back to the bus station, too, and I changed clothes in the bathroom before going back to Seoul. I didn’t want to stink for an hour and a half on the subway.

I found out later that about 6 other people, including Nurul (Singapore), went to Suwon today at the same time I was there, but we never saw each other. They walked the entire fortress perimeter and they said it took about 4 hours, I think. There were lots of people out walking the walls and hanging out in the towers, too. It’s like a city pastime. It’s odd to see all the elderly Koreans out speed walking, or sometimes hobbling, along the walls while you stop to take pictures like a tourist. I guess it’s easy to take something like that for granted if you’ve lived near it all your life.

 

 

Sunday, 13 July 2008

 

Well, I don’t think I did much today. Sleep, reading, laundry, etc… OH! Yeah…

Nurul and some of the other folks in the dorm (mostly Nurul, though) cooked a Thai dinner for a bunch of us that occasionally hang out together. She’s an awesome cook. And she’s cool, too. She’s like a 95 pound, 5 foot tall Tasmanian devil…but in a cute way. If she’s got something to say, she’ll say it. Even more so than the other 30 Singaporeans. Anyway, we all inhaled the food, plus rice obviously, and then had some bean paste filled rice cakes for desert. Yeah, that sounds disgusting, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s kind of sweet. I snapped a few pictures, as well, so it ended up being a good night.

Well, that was about the extent of my day. Recovering from the weekend is probably going to by my Sunday standard, since my weekends start at 1430 on Thursdays.

 

 

Monday, 14 July 2008

 

            I got up and went to the gym early. I’ve been doing well at getting to the gym almost every day. I think my pull-ups are starting to get better, too. I dropped the “assistance” for the pull-up machine from about 40 kg. to 26 kg. if I’m reading the numbers correctly. If that’s true, I’m only getting about 55 lbs of assistance…so I’m pulling up about 150 lbs.

I’d picked up a cold or something over the weekend, so after class finished at 1430 I went to look for Yongsan Army base. I needed to go anyway so I could pick up a ration card, go to the PX, and get my hair cut, so this was an excuse to go find it. I jumped on the subway at the “Koreadae” (고려대/高麗大) station, which is close to my classrooms, and went to the “Yongsan” station. Obviously, Yongsan Army base had to be at Yongsan station, right? Well, I walked around for about 10 minutes before I gave up and asked for help. I actually walked through a building, across a skyway, through and down another building, outside and down the street before I realized it wasn’t actually anywhere near this area. A man gave me some simple directions, which I tried to follow, but the road didn’t go the way he told me it would. I walked and walked, and finally asked someone else. This second man told me that I needed to go to “Samgakji” district and station. That would be the closest to Yongsan Army base. Well, I tried to find the nearest station, but couldn’t find one, so I basically walked in a huge circle back to Yongsan staion. I got back on the subway and went to Samgakji station, got out, and still couldn’t find the base. I figured maybe the base was just small, since it was in the middle of Seoul, so probably not well marked. Well, I walked around and found a Korean War Museum, so I thought I was in the right place, but when I asked the information/security guy at the War Museum where the base was, he said he didn’t know. He must have either been an idiot or just didn’t want to talk to me. I started walking back to the station to go home and happened to run into a Master Sergeant walking out. He set me straight and we walked together all the way to where I needed to go. He was apparently used to walking this route regularly and it was a good thing, too, because Yongsan Army Base is HUGE! The gate was actually another two or three blocks past where I asked the guard for directions, but that was gate 1 of like 19. It only took about 5 minutes to walk to the base from the station, but it took about half an hour to walk across the post to the the ration card office. The ration card office closed at 1600, and it was now 1630, so I missed it. I’d spent 2 hours trying to find this place. Well, I found a place to get something to drink and get a haircut on the way to the hospital, I had to stop and get money, too, so by the time I got to the hospital it was after 1730 and I just gave up. The hospital was another 15-minute walk past the ration card office. When I say this post was big, I mean to say that it’s not a walking post, like the Air Bases in Korea and Japan (well, maybe not Kadena). It’s fairly large. Well, the 3 hour walk made my cold disappear, so I decided to come back another time. I knew where things were located now, and that was a good start. I walked toward the other side of post, another 20-minute walk, to find a subway station and get back home. I still had to stop and ask for directions twice because the Master Sergeant left me at the ration card building. The thing is, when I asked for directions, they said “which station do you want to go to, because they’re about the same distance away…”. Well, that’s saying something. I was headed toward the “Ichon” station and the “SinYongsan” station…but I think I hit the “SinYongsan” station. Well, now I know. The base is in between SinYongsan, Ichon, Samgakji, and Yongsan districts. Unbelievable. I got home after 1900 and the only real tangible benefit I got from it was a haircut and some sweaty clothes…although I guess you could argue that sweaty clothes aren’t really a tangible benefit. So, I worked on schoolwork and got on the Internet for a while before going to bed. What a nasty afternoon.

 

 

Tuesday, 15 July 2008

 

            OK, we can skip the class part of the day. It was my BIRTHDAY!! Oh, yeah, and my mother’s too. (:-p)  Well, I’d told the bartenders at Noi to expect me, and they wrote it on the calendar. I made it there about 2000 and sat with the bartenders. I had invited a few people, but I was sure that most of them couldn’t make it due to work, etc… I was comfortable with sitting there and enjoying things by myself. The bartenders (Endy, Boa, The Owner, and Clark were there, Ari  and Pio were off) usually take time to try talking to me, though it’s usually somewhat painful all the way around.

            Well, about 2100 the ISC student “buddy” president came in to meet two other student “buddies” who’d come to the bar earlier. I didn’t participate in the buddy program because I prefer to go do things myself. You get a better experience and a better reaction from the locals. If you go with a group of people, you’re limited in your potential interactions. Not as many people will talk to you. Anyway, Simon is the president’s English name. We all gathered together when they found out I was an ISC student and then when they found out it was my birthday, Simon went and bought me an ice cream (yogurt) cake. That was cool. The bar owner pulled out a few sparklers he’d been saving and lit them up for us while we lit a single candle for my first birthday in Korea. They sang “saengil chukhahamnida” (birthday congratulations) to the tune of happy birthday. Well, Simon wasn’t content with just getting a cake, he gave me his pocket electronic dictionary, too. I wasn’t going to accept it but he said he had two and the other one was better. It’s really nice, and I’m sure it wasn’t cheap, but I know it wasn’t terribly expensive. I let it go, but that was an unbelievable thing for him to do. The bar owner then gave me a small, commemorative Jack Daniels box with a little bottle in it inside a metal swinging stand. It’s kinda cute, really, and I’m not sure I want to drink it because it’s unusual.

            After about 0001, that group of people left and shortly another couple guys came in and took their seats. I started talking to them, and they were pretty interesting, too. One of them spoke nearly perfect English, though he’d never traveled to an English speaking country. The other had been to Canada as a Korean teacher, but didn’t speak much English anymore. They were a trip. I talked to them for another couple hours before calling it a night. In addition, they gave me some ideas and a contact number for a potential (Fulbright) Scholarship sponsor for me. I was really getting the hook-up in Korea.

            It was really an unbelievable evening. I waited long enough to make sure that JinYoung wasn’t coming out, then I headed back to my room and went to bed.

 

 

Wednesday, 16 July 2008

 

Not much happened today, but I went to Itaewon to have dinner with Robin. She’s a trip. I know if I keep talking to her, she’s going to screw up my Korean speaking/listening ability. She speaks Korean with an Indonesian accent. Anyway, after dinner, I went home and wrote a bunch of this journal stuff.

 

 

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