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In Korea, the family name comes first, which is not surprising given the group-centered culture. My first Korean language teacher in LA told the class that about 40% of Koreans are named Kim (김), Lee (이--the "L" is added in romanization), or Park (박--the "r" is added in romanization), due to the abundant progeny of the kings of old. Wikipedia says it's more like 45%. The fourth and fifth most popular names are Choi (최) and Jung or Chung (정). There are only about 250 family names for Koreans. A family name usually consists of only one syllable.
Given names generally have two syllables. Their romanization can be made into one word, a hyphenated word, or two words, depending on personal preference. There are no middle names. Until about ten years ago, it was common for each generation of a family to share a specific syllable in their names, but recently parents have largely discarded that practice in favor of more individual names. This seems to be one of the ways the country is slowly assimilating Western practices, beyond fashion and food.
Given names are influenced by Chinese names, and can be written in Chinese hanja or in hangeul. Only in the last few decades has naming involved using native Korean words, but it doesn't seem to be very popular. I don't think I've heard a Korean name yet that meant anything in Korean, and they certainly wouldn't mean anything to me even if I had, my Korean vocabulary being so minimal.
When married, Korean women keep their own names, and the children take the father's name. Due to so many people with the same three names, people with the same family name often get married (my boss' parents are both named Kim, for example). One of my other Korean language teachers told me in cases like this, there is an inspection of the family tree to ensure the two aren't actually related before they start dating.
Oddly, it's rude to call anyone just by their name in this culture, except among children and close friends. When referring to or talking to someone with a job title like "principal" or "manager," the title is added to the family name, usually with the suffix "nim" (님). "Nim" can be used without the title, too, though I'm not sure if it's actually for the given name or family name. Whenever I go to the doctor or something, they call me Alia-nim, but I'm not sure if they do that only for lack of a last name, as my boss usually fills out the paperwork for me and she can't remember how to pronounce my last name and just leaves it out. Haha. For people of similar age or rank, the suffix "ssi" (씨) is added to the full name. In addition to suffixes and titles, people are also referred to in relation to other, as opposed to by their names. For example, a woman might be referred to as "Jiho's mother."
Children who are learning English and teachers and staff who work at English language schools in Korea usually adopt Western names for the benefit of us foreign teachers. I've never had a problem pronouncing Korean names, but I guess some foreigners do. It's also fun for the kids to get to choose their own names. They frequently name themselves after movie characters or famous people: Jack Sparrow, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and especially Harry Potter are some examples. Children like to change their names sometimes, too, but I don't allow it in my classes except in cases of two kids having the same or too similar names. Steven, the Canadian teacher who just left, let his kids change their names every month, but I think that's just stupid.
Koreans have a rough time with my name, and with other names Westerners have. Not that my name is really Western. Instead of calling me "uh-LEE-uh" they usually call me "AL-ee-uh," the first syllable sounding like the first syllable in Albert. Due to the lack of certain sounds in their language and restrictions on consonant combinations, some names get mutilated worse. Steven becomes "seu-t'i-ben" (remember, the apostrophe indicates aspiration), Kate becomes "k'e-i-t'eu" and Scott becomes a three-syllable word: "seu-k'eo-t'eu."
Beyond having trouble saying the names, they also have trouble spelling them when they choose their own names. I have one student named Annie, but she spells is "Any." One of the Korean teachers who has just left the school to get married and become a housewife called herself Christine, but she spelled it "Kristen." It's really weird. I also have a boy named Pam in one of my classes. I didn't have the heart to tell him that's a girl's name. No one except his English teachers will ever know, anyway.
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Sseokso
Sseokso is a term the kids throw around a lot, and I've been noticing it the last few months. One time a few weeks ago, I was looking somewhat slyly at the kids and all of a sudden they gasped and pointed at me, shouting, "Aw, sseokso, sseokso!" So I finally asked what it meant. They defined it as a dark or evil smile. (Update: I've now learned that it's a blend of the word for "rotten" and "smile." It's "sseogeun" plus "miso." The "g" sound becomes a "k" sound when it's put before the "s" sound.) Most of the kids are obsessed with the term and the idea. They draw it all the time. Here are some of their drawings of it from our imaginary window:
I find it a little odd that most of the pictures don't even have a mouth, considering the definition, but I guess it's mostly about the expression (or lack thereof) in the eyes. When they do draw a mouth, it usually has kind of an uplilting half smile. It really doesn't seem dark to me. It seems nonchalant. Interesting cultural differences.
I find it a little odd that most of the pictures don't even have a mouth, considering the definition, but I guess it's mostly about the expression (or lack thereof) in the eyes. When they do draw a mouth, it usually has kind of an uplilting half smile. It really doesn't seem dark to me. It seems nonchalant. Interesting cultural differences.
Now that I know about it, I'm able to mention it to the kids when I see it, or express my understanding of what they're saying or drawing, and they seem to enjoy that.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A New Job Site
My school, Kate LA, moved a couple weeks go. Originally it was two branches, each with a few teachers (ours had four, I think the other one had three), about a half mile away from each other. I was in the first branch.
Here's what you see walking into the first branch. The four classrooms are on the right, and two offices, the restrooms, and the resource room are on the left. You can't really see it, but that decorative glass back there has the No Child Left Behind name and symbol, which is kind of Kate LA's platform. It's kind of ironic and appropriate, since the school's ideal is to make sure everyone gets an opportunity to get a quality education in English, but there are still a number of classes that are geared toward just teaching the test. This seems to be half of the Korean education method; the other half is rote memorization.
Our old resource room:
This was my old classroom, the smallest of the four, since I was the newcomer:
The kids below are from my youngest/lowest class. They're first graders. All monsters.
Wendy and Lucy:
The peace sign is pretty much obligatory for Koreans posing for pictures.
Wendy, Lucy, and Albert:
These two are real hams:
Albert, Wendy, Lucy, Martin, and Erin:
All the pictures I make the kids draw:
The only one not yet named is Celina, sitting at the desk in the middle:
Because the second branch is bigger, and Heather was straining herself too much trying to maintain a principal presence at both branches, she and her brother decided to move the whole operation over to the second branch. It's big enough to fit all of us, and it has a big teachers' office and a computer lab. Plus there's a hot chocolate machine, where you can get a tiny amount of hot chocolate, but it's only 100 won (at the current exchange rate, about 8 cents).
Here is the much slicker entrance to my new worksite:
And the teachers' office, pretty much the only room with windows, unfortunately:
Next door, the computer lab:
Here's the entrance from the hallway. That's the teachers' office behind the glass, and the big desk is to the right, out of view.
The resource room, regrettably smaller than the last one, but the other photocopier is in the computer lab, so that's cool:
Outside the resource room is a hallway that leads to most of the classrooms. I hate stupid motivational signs like these:
Then the hallways takes a left turn and you get another hallway. My classroom is the last one on the left, which you can't really see. That's Albert again, in his Taekwondo uniform.
Here's my new classroom:
There's no window, so last week I had all my classes make pictures of things they might (or might not) see outside for our imaginary window:
All these papers you see all over the wall are my learning tools--The 8 Parts of Speech, Irregular Verbs, Useful Sentences (that they always screw up), Regular Past and Present Tense. I try to teach the kids as little as possible and let the wall do most of my work.
Except for having no window and having to walk a lot longer to work (I have a tight schedule on yoga mornings and every minute counts now), I'm pretty happy with the move. The teachers from the second branch are all cool, and it's nice to have a little more room to move around. I also have my own AC in the room. Boo ya.
Here's what you see walking into the first branch. The four classrooms are on the right, and two offices, the restrooms, and the resource room are on the left. You can't really see it, but that decorative glass back there has the No Child Left Behind name and symbol, which is kind of Kate LA's platform. It's kind of ironic and appropriate, since the school's ideal is to make sure everyone gets an opportunity to get a quality education in English, but there are still a number of classes that are geared toward just teaching the test. This seems to be half of the Korean education method; the other half is rote memorization.
Our old resource room:
This was my old classroom, the smallest of the four, since I was the newcomer:
The kids below are from my youngest/lowest class. They're first graders. All monsters.
Wendy and Lucy:
The peace sign is pretty much obligatory for Koreans posing for pictures.
Wendy, Lucy, and Albert:
These two are real hams:
Albert, Wendy, Lucy, Martin, and Erin:
All the pictures I make the kids draw:
The only one not yet named is Celina, sitting at the desk in the middle:
Because the second branch is bigger, and Heather was straining herself too much trying to maintain a principal presence at both branches, she and her brother decided to move the whole operation over to the second branch. It's big enough to fit all of us, and it has a big teachers' office and a computer lab. Plus there's a hot chocolate machine, where you can get a tiny amount of hot chocolate, but it's only 100 won (at the current exchange rate, about 8 cents).
Here is the much slicker entrance to my new worksite:
And the teachers' office, pretty much the only room with windows, unfortunately:
Next door, the computer lab:
Here's the entrance from the hallway. That's the teachers' office behind the glass, and the big desk is to the right, out of view.
The resource room, regrettably smaller than the last one, but the other photocopier is in the computer lab, so that's cool:
Outside the resource room is a hallway that leads to most of the classrooms. I hate stupid motivational signs like these:
Then the hallways takes a left turn and you get another hallway. My classroom is the last one on the left, which you can't really see. That's Albert again, in his Taekwondo uniform.
Here's my new classroom:
There's no window, so last week I had all my classes make pictures of things they might (or might not) see outside for our imaginary window:
All these papers you see all over the wall are my learning tools--The 8 Parts of Speech, Irregular Verbs, Useful Sentences (that they always screw up), Regular Past and Present Tense. I try to teach the kids as little as possible and let the wall do most of my work.
Except for having no window and having to walk a lot longer to work (I have a tight schedule on yoga mornings and every minute counts now), I'm pretty happy with the move. The teachers from the second branch are all cool, and it's nice to have a little more room to move around. I also have my own AC in the room. Boo ya.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
My New Apartment
Well, I was hoping to do this entry once I got one last piece of furniture from my boss, so the pictures would show a finished apartment, but it's been a month and I'm really not sure when she'll get around to bringing the tv stand over. So just ignore the fact that the tv is on the floor.
The other foreign teacher at my branch of the school decided to leave six months before his renewed contract was up, so Heather said I could move into his apartment, since it's nicer than mine. The way Steven made it out to be, I thought it was going to be palatial. He told me he thought Heather must have gone all out for the first few teachers they hired, and they probably realized they couldn't afford that every time, which is why my apartment was so small. I never actually visited the other place until I moved in, but I at least knew that since he lived there with his wife the last six months he was here, it was at least a little bigger than my place. I was expecting something like the videos on the internet that I saw from other teachers in the past, which were one bedroom apartments with a kitchen and living room.
Although the place is bigger, it's not a one bedroom, and really isn't that much bigger than mine. It's maybe 15% bigger, but because the kitchen is a separate room, the living area is actually smaller than at the other place. Steven must have thought I was living in a closet or something. He never actually saw my place, either, so I think his imagination did the same (or rather, opposite) thing as mine did regarding his place.
He moved out the third week of September, and his apartment and mine were supposed to be cleaned professionally, so I could move into his place and the new teacher could move from Heather's into mine. This was supposed to happen on a Thursday, but apparently Steven and his wife left such a pig sty that even after the professional cleaned all day AND Heather's mom cleaned for a couple hours after she left, the place still wasn't suitable for me to move it, so we had to delay a day. The lady went back the next morning and cleaned for a few hours, then went to my place (I bet she was there for an hour at best, ha) and finished up. Heather and her mom were nice enough to move all my stuff into the new place while I was at work, since it would be harder to move at night.
When I got there at 9:30 at night, the place seemed clean enough, but the next morning I realized that it was absolutely filthy. I don't think Steven deep cleaned once in his 18 months there, and probably the only surface cleaning he must have done was washing dishes and sweeping the floor, maybe cleaning the bathroom. I've never seen so much grime and buildup all over a place. I can't imagine what kind of mess it was when he left it, for the lady to not have time to actually clean the place. Heather told me he left so much trash that they made a line of trash bags the length of the building. What a nightmare.
Also, he stole the silverware. He left me with one plastic fork and one tiny Baskin Robbins plastic spoon, which I didn't find out about until I poured my cereal in the morning. So that day I had to go buy silverware and some extra cleaning products so I could tackle this thing properly. When Heather found out I cleaned the whole weekend (and I did clean the WHOLE weekend, except for a few hours to get cleaning supplies and eat lunch with the new teacher), she asked why I didn't tell her. She would have had the pro come back. But a teacher I know told me he saw a bunch of cleaning ladies clean a bunch of apartments, and they never did any deep cleaning. I've since heard it from someone else that Korean cleaning pros only surface clean. That's insane. Anyway, even if she did do some deep cleaning, it probably wouldn't have been to my standard, so whatever. I got sick from stirring up all those germs, too.
I got most of the way through the cleaning before I realized it would be cool to actually post some of the dirt on here, so I took a few shots. This one is all the dirt I found underneath the armoire when I moved it:
This is the groove that the glass doors run on. It's like black in there. It's white now, sucka.
This is probably the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. All the food Steven and his wife ever cooked is evidenced in the little space behind the gas range. You can kind of see the quarter inch thick orange congealed film all over the surface of the counter. I had to dump straight bleach on this and let it set, then scrub for a very long time to remove everything.
This is the balcony floor, where they kept a big potted plant. Apparently the pot left a couple rings. I actually tried to clean this off, but it won't come clean. Damn it.
Once I FINALLY got the place clean, it turned out to be pretty nice. It's a little more run down than the other apartment--there are cracks in the vinyl floor and the walls, and stains like the above and on the walls and windows and such that won't come out, but I'm happy with the change. I get a separate kitchen with a lot of cupboard space:
The good thing about taking over the apartment of someone who is leaving the country is that they leave a lot of useful stuff behind. I now have a blender, a toaster/broiler oven of some sort, a bigger variety of pots and pans (though pretty weathered), a bunch of tupperware containers, and they left a bunch of food and spices and alcohol. I also found an electrical adapter at the back of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. I bet he didn't even mean to leave that. Now I can use my laptop and charge my iPod or camera at the same time, woo.
Heather got me a new bed, too, because she said the other one was sagging almost to the floor. Oh, us fat Westerners. I also get a computer desk and an armoire. Now I don't have to do all my computing on my bed, or with the cords running across the middle of my apartment, and I can put my clothes on hangers and in drawers instead of on bookshelves. The armoire even has room to put my suitcase in it, so it's not an eyesore.
I even got a big armchair, which is amazing. I didn't have anything to sit in except kitchen chairs or my bed at the other place. Now I have a comfortable place to read, and when my cable finally gets set up and I get a tv stand, watch tv.
The door to the kitchen slides closed. It's nice to have that, so I can block the sound of the refrigerator at night. The little red cabinet was a parting gift from Kent. It's really nice. I'm trying not to think what a hassle it will be to get home.
This is the evil mark-making plant. I've named it Oddish. It was kind of sickly when I got here, but it's really perked up and grown quite a bit since.
My bathroom is bigger and a little nicer than at the other place, but the water pressure in the shower leaves something to be desired. It's also connected directly to the sink tap, so I have to remember to pull out the knob after I shower, or else I'll get a nice shot of water across the shoulder when I wet my toothbrush.
Here's my balcony slash laundry room. This is a new-slightly-used washer that Heather had brought in for me. I like this laundry room because the drain isn't in the middle of the floor, like my other one. Korean washing machines have an open pipe, so all the water just goes onto the floor and down the drain. Here I can actually go in there without getting my feet wet when my clothes are done. What I don't like about this laundry room is that I no longer have a ceiling rack to dry clothes on, just a foldable metal one on the floor. It's almost as wide as the room itself, so it's pretty awkward to get around. Oh, well.
So now I'm all settled in, and I just have to wait for the tv stand and try to find something to put on the gapingly empty wall next to my bed.
The other foreign teacher at my branch of the school decided to leave six months before his renewed contract was up, so Heather said I could move into his apartment, since it's nicer than mine. The way Steven made it out to be, I thought it was going to be palatial. He told me he thought Heather must have gone all out for the first few teachers they hired, and they probably realized they couldn't afford that every time, which is why my apartment was so small. I never actually visited the other place until I moved in, but I at least knew that since he lived there with his wife the last six months he was here, it was at least a little bigger than my place. I was expecting something like the videos on the internet that I saw from other teachers in the past, which were one bedroom apartments with a kitchen and living room.
Although the place is bigger, it's not a one bedroom, and really isn't that much bigger than mine. It's maybe 15% bigger, but because the kitchen is a separate room, the living area is actually smaller than at the other place. Steven must have thought I was living in a closet or something. He never actually saw my place, either, so I think his imagination did the same (or rather, opposite) thing as mine did regarding his place.
He moved out the third week of September, and his apartment and mine were supposed to be cleaned professionally, so I could move into his place and the new teacher could move from Heather's into mine. This was supposed to happen on a Thursday, but apparently Steven and his wife left such a pig sty that even after the professional cleaned all day AND Heather's mom cleaned for a couple hours after she left, the place still wasn't suitable for me to move it, so we had to delay a day. The lady went back the next morning and cleaned for a few hours, then went to my place (I bet she was there for an hour at best, ha) and finished up. Heather and her mom were nice enough to move all my stuff into the new place while I was at work, since it would be harder to move at night.
When I got there at 9:30 at night, the place seemed clean enough, but the next morning I realized that it was absolutely filthy. I don't think Steven deep cleaned once in his 18 months there, and probably the only surface cleaning he must have done was washing dishes and sweeping the floor, maybe cleaning the bathroom. I've never seen so much grime and buildup all over a place. I can't imagine what kind of mess it was when he left it, for the lady to not have time to actually clean the place. Heather told me he left so much trash that they made a line of trash bags the length of the building. What a nightmare.
Also, he stole the silverware. He left me with one plastic fork and one tiny Baskin Robbins plastic spoon, which I didn't find out about until I poured my cereal in the morning. So that day I had to go buy silverware and some extra cleaning products so I could tackle this thing properly. When Heather found out I cleaned the whole weekend (and I did clean the WHOLE weekend, except for a few hours to get cleaning supplies and eat lunch with the new teacher), she asked why I didn't tell her. She would have had the pro come back. But a teacher I know told me he saw a bunch of cleaning ladies clean a bunch of apartments, and they never did any deep cleaning. I've since heard it from someone else that Korean cleaning pros only surface clean. That's insane. Anyway, even if she did do some deep cleaning, it probably wouldn't have been to my standard, so whatever. I got sick from stirring up all those germs, too.
I got most of the way through the cleaning before I realized it would be cool to actually post some of the dirt on here, so I took a few shots. This one is all the dirt I found underneath the armoire when I moved it:
This is the groove that the glass doors run on. It's like black in there. It's white now, sucka.
This is probably the most disgusting thing I've ever seen. All the food Steven and his wife ever cooked is evidenced in the little space behind the gas range. You can kind of see the quarter inch thick orange congealed film all over the surface of the counter. I had to dump straight bleach on this and let it set, then scrub for a very long time to remove everything.
This is the balcony floor, where they kept a big potted plant. Apparently the pot left a couple rings. I actually tried to clean this off, but it won't come clean. Damn it.
Once I FINALLY got the place clean, it turned out to be pretty nice. It's a little more run down than the other apartment--there are cracks in the vinyl floor and the walls, and stains like the above and on the walls and windows and such that won't come out, but I'm happy with the change. I get a separate kitchen with a lot of cupboard space:
The good thing about taking over the apartment of someone who is leaving the country is that they leave a lot of useful stuff behind. I now have a blender, a toaster/broiler oven of some sort, a bigger variety of pots and pans (though pretty weathered), a bunch of tupperware containers, and they left a bunch of food and spices and alcohol. I also found an electrical adapter at the back of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom. I bet he didn't even mean to leave that. Now I can use my laptop and charge my iPod or camera at the same time, woo.
Heather got me a new bed, too, because she said the other one was sagging almost to the floor. Oh, us fat Westerners. I also get a computer desk and an armoire. Now I don't have to do all my computing on my bed, or with the cords running across the middle of my apartment, and I can put my clothes on hangers and in drawers instead of on bookshelves. The armoire even has room to put my suitcase in it, so it's not an eyesore.
I even got a big armchair, which is amazing. I didn't have anything to sit in except kitchen chairs or my bed at the other place. Now I have a comfortable place to read, and when my cable finally gets set up and I get a tv stand, watch tv.
The door to the kitchen slides closed. It's nice to have that, so I can block the sound of the refrigerator at night. The little red cabinet was a parting gift from Kent. It's really nice. I'm trying not to think what a hassle it will be to get home.
This is the evil mark-making plant. I've named it Oddish. It was kind of sickly when I got here, but it's really perked up and grown quite a bit since.
My bathroom is bigger and a little nicer than at the other place, but the water pressure in the shower leaves something to be desired. It's also connected directly to the sink tap, so I have to remember to pull out the knob after I shower, or else I'll get a nice shot of water across the shoulder when I wet my toothbrush.
Here's my balcony slash laundry room. This is a new-slightly-used washer that Heather had brought in for me. I like this laundry room because the drain isn't in the middle of the floor, like my other one. Korean washing machines have an open pipe, so all the water just goes onto the floor and down the drain. Here I can actually go in there without getting my feet wet when my clothes are done. What I don't like about this laundry room is that I no longer have a ceiling rack to dry clothes on, just a foldable metal one on the floor. It's almost as wide as the room itself, so it's pretty awkward to get around. Oh, well.
So now I'm all settled in, and I just have to wait for the tv stand and try to find something to put on the gapingly empty wall next to my bed.
Monday, October 13, 2008
DLI 63 Building
There's this cool building in Seoul called the DLI 63. It's a life insurance building, but also a major tourist attraction. It has an IMAX theatre and an aquarium inside, plus a few stores, restaurants, and cafes. It's also 63 stories high (oh, leally?) and has an observation tower at the top. I went ahead and bought the triple ticket and did all three. Here are some pictures and videos I took:
A couple views from the top of the building:
The cool thing about DLI 63 is that, unlike Seoul Tower, the observation deck isn't just a lame deck with windows. It's also the highest art gallery in the world. The exhibit when I went was called Kitty S. and it was all about Hello Kitty. Suite.
I was a little nervous at first about taking photos and video, but no one stopped me, and then I saw other people taking pictures of the art, too, so I went crazy:
Some Engrish at the exhibit, too:
Most of the windows were decorated:
This isn't art, but it's a cool part of the bathroom. There are no sinks, you just stick your hands in the box, and sprays of water come out.
This was interactive art. People could use the shapes and pegs to make art or words. A guy next to me said, "What do you want to describe?" I said an apple tree, or an orange tree, and he seemed to have trouble seeing it. Am I crazy or is he?
Immediately, and I mean immediately, after I snapped the above shot, a dude, who didn't even know I was taking pictures, came and stole a piece of my art. This happened while I was actually making it, too, though I don't think it was the same guy. Koreans tend to be kind of oblivious, I hate to say.
This is the only picture of me for the whole trip. A few friends asked me to take their picture, so one of them took mine afterward. What a dorky looking photo.
This is the only picture of me for the whole trip. A few friends asked me to take their picture, so one of them took mine afterward. What a dorky looking photo.
This one's pretty cool:
Haha, poop cream cone:
This is the ride down from the elevator:
After I saw the art, I went to the aquarium (it's called Sea World). These sharks are at the entrance. This is severe false advertising.
King and jackass penguins:
King crab? I mean, it'd have to be...
The aptly named leaf fish:
Leopard rays:
Sea monkeys:
Snakes:
Shark? Or shark wannabe? You tell me, Dana.
Albino frog:
Albino frog:
Toad of some sort:
Turtles. What a life.
Some water-dwelling snake:
Monitor:
Crocodile:
Upside down jelly fish:
Upside down jelly fish:
Stupid girl getting in the way of my photo of upside down jelly fish:
Tentacular:
More toads:
Eel:
It was pretty hard taking pictures of the seals. Ah, seals, the torpedoes of the sea.
Ah, the playful Asian otter:
Obviously, I don't have any pictures of the IMAX experience, but it was pretty much the same as any other IMAX, except for the language thing. It was a movie about this dude climbing Mt. Eiger in the Alps, and it was clearly originally in English, with Michael Gambon narrating (so the credits said), but it had been dubbed in Korean. Pissa. I had to use one of those audio devices with an earphone that had the English on it. It was out of sync, though, and that was really annoying.
Finally, after tons of fun for like four hours in the building, I was ready to go back to the hotel for a rest and maybe some more shopping in the famous Insadong district. But when I walked out of the building and by the nearby park, I saw this:
This photo shows about a fiftieth of the actual amount of people who showed up. I think half of Seoul was there. I went down to check it out, and apparently there was a fireworks festival going on that night. Well, I thought it would be stupid to miss that, so I hung around for another three and a half hours to wait for it. I walked around for an hour trying to find some food, and ended up walking back the the 63 building and having some Japanese fusion food for not too bad a price. I also got to listen to some stupid American guy try to pressure his Korean girlfriend into going home or to a hotel with him, instead of staying at home with her parents. Apparently she couldn't do that because they knew she was with him, and it would be socially unacceptable to stay with him. She was like, my age.
After wandering around, getting stuck in the throngs of foot traffic, finally finding a spare piece of grass to sit on, and waiting forever, the fireworks started. They were just like regular fireworks, except the second picture below shows this really cool things they did with fireworks flowing down from underneath the bridge. It looked like a waterfall.
This photo shows about a fiftieth of the actual amount of people who showed up. I think half of Seoul was there. I went down to check it out, and apparently there was a fireworks festival going on that night. Well, I thought it would be stupid to miss that, so I hung around for another three and a half hours to wait for it. I walked around for an hour trying to find some food, and ended up walking back the the 63 building and having some Japanese fusion food for not too bad a price. I also got to listen to some stupid American guy try to pressure his Korean girlfriend into going home or to a hotel with him, instead of staying at home with her parents. Apparently she couldn't do that because they knew she was with him, and it would be socially unacceptable to stay with him. She was like, my age.
After wandering around, getting stuck in the throngs of foot traffic, finally finding a spare piece of grass to sit on, and waiting forever, the fireworks started. They were just like regular fireworks, except the second picture below shows this really cool things they did with fireworks flowing down from underneath the bridge. It looked like a waterfall.
After an hour of fireworks, I got up to go, and then so did most of the other people, even though the fireworks weren't done. The nearest subway station was right by the park, probably a five minute walk from where I was. But, since there were soooooooooo many people, it took about twenty minutes to get there, I think. It was like being in the pit at a major rock concert, except without the music, dancing, jumping, and fun. When I finally got to the subway entrance, this is what I saw:
That's like thirty cops guarding the subway, saying it's shut down at this exit. The sign above seems to say go to one of the two closest subway stations, a 15- or 25-minute walk. I didn't really know what to do at first, and didn't know how to get to either, so I just kind of hung around for a few minutes, and watched the fireworks. After a bit, I figured I'd never get out of there, so I started following one of the main throngs of people. We ended up at the next closest subway station, where again I saw thirty cops blocking the entrance, but then I realized that the station was still open, but everyone had to go to a different entrance a few steps away, so they could control the amount of people. Phew. That whole ordeal took an hour, when it should have taken ten minutes.
The subway was like a sardine can. I got to watch an old guy shame a young girl out of her seat, too. There was a twenty year old girl sitting down, listening to her mp3 player, and right next to her was a mother standing with a baby strapped to her stomach and a little kid nearby. Although I didn't understand much of the Korean, I knew what the dude was saying when he started rambling loudly and gesturing to the girl. She got up out of her seat, though, and I think the mother felt a little bad, but she sat down.
I was thinking about writing a letter to the city of Seoul suggesting they get some sort of system for events like that. It seems stupid and wasteful to shut down the nearest entrance to public transportation. They should have the cops there, and make some people go to other stops, but use some sort of differentiation. Seniors and those with mobility problems could use the closest entrance, families with children the next closest, and singles or couples without children could go the the one after that. The city could also subsidize half price taxi fares and have a shitload of taxis waiting at the end of the event. But I don't think they'd take a foreigner seriously, unfortunately.
Anyway, good trip. It took me two days to write this and get all this media up here, so I better get some comments.
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