Its been a few days since I have updated, my dearest apologies. The good news is is that many crazy incredible things have gone on in the time that this site has been dormant. On Friday we finished up our last day of orientation and began the process of making lesson plans for the impeding school session that starts tomorrow morning. I thought I had gotten enough lesson plan work in at Northern, but apparently that isn't the case ha!
When night fell it was party time! Two of my friends and I (better known as the fab three of the power rangers) went to a place called Mr chicken. Not the one you were thinking of though. The old couple working there spoke absolutely no English so we had to resort to pointing. The food came very fast and I must say that the chicken was probably some of the best that I had had in my entire life. That's a big statement. Never in a million years would I have imagined that the best fried chicken I've eaten would come from Korea.
Shortly after that we met up with some other English Village (EV) teachers in our program and we hopped on a bus headed for downtown Seoul. The was my first opportunity to use my T-money card which lets you use different transportation (i.e subway, buses, taxis). I was extremely excited when I got this card. Not because it gave me more freedom to explore but because it has two cute little bears on it.
Once we got off the bus we went down into the subway station which was an experience within itself. This subway was basically an underground mall. There were hundreds of stores lining the hallways with people bustling through jam packed alleyways trying to get to the next station. Traversing the subway system was not hard at all but finding a taxi was almost impossible.
After we had stopped at another chicken restaurant we met up with more EV teachers that spoke Korean. Every time a taxi would stop they would listen to what our translator friend had to say for about 5 seconds and then drive off. We stood on the street for almost 15 before one taxi was nice enough to pick us up.
We finally arrived at the club that we had been looking for and were let in for free. I felt pretty cool I have to say. Not many people can say they got to skip the line at a club in a different country.
The club was very crowded and had some great pyrotechnics and laser lights going on. The best part about clubs in Korea is that THEY NEVER CLOSE. This was actually a good thing because after 11pm the buses and subway stop running until 5 am. So you are forced to stay until the morning, oh darn. Just this one night was an experience of a lifetime. Don't worry though, I am not spending all of my time sampling the nightlife. On this night I witnessed Korean culture happen in real time.
On our way back to the subway in the early morning hours we ran across a crew filming a scene for a Korean drama. Now these dramas are absolutely huge in this country and are comparable to soap opera's back in the states. Now, I'm no Days of Our Lives fan, but whenever there is a Korean drama on the TV out here I find my self sitting and watching it. Its' funny because I have no clue what they are saying but I still get the story. It is amazing how it can cross cultures and still make sense.
I arrived back to my dorm at 815 in the morning looking like i had lost a fight with a train. My mother can attest to this since we face timed as soon as I got back. It was a gorgeous morning that capped off an amazing night and set the stage for what was an adventurous day.
The next day came and my friend Maria and I decided to go on a trail we had found earlier in the week. it said it was 4.5 km. Well, lets just say that sign was wrong. We followed the winding paths until we came to a gigantic cemetery and a cliff that had an amazing view of a city we would ultimately end up in. I can't even describe how big it was. So I'll just give you this picture to try and do it justice by the people that occupy it.
Everything that is light brown in this picture are graves. There are more behind the bush on the left and the hill to the right. On towards what we thought was the end of the trail was a grandiose view of a suburb of Seoul. At this point we were close to I'd say 10 miles where we started, but the view made it worth it.
We kept on walking and asked a Korean cyclist man how to get back to school. he told us that we had to keep following the trail that we were on until we found a little village and they would be able to help us from there. We kept on the trail when we came across the Hyundai Research and Development campus. It was like a palace fitted with a basketball court and full size soccer pitch in pristine condition.
Once we got past the campus we found a bus. We had earned a seat after what I can only guess was 20 miles of walking. The next step was figuring out how to get back to the University. One stop on the route was a subway so we made our way down to the train and got off on the Jukejon exit (the name of our campus). When we walked out of the subway station we turned a corner and rejoiced because we saw E mart, the gigantic store I mentioned in an earlier post. We knew we were home free and made it back to campus easily covered in dust and tired as dogs.
The evening was ended with a meal of blood sausages which was actually very good until I started to to think about what I was eating. All in all, not bad.
And so ended the most adventurous day! I slept like a baby, well deserved rest after a long day.
Until later
- Trey
