Lost in Korea: just another Saturday

And so I spend yet another Saturday running around and keeping myself insanely busy...and despite the hellish heat outside, today was pretty fun! I didn't actually get going until about 2pm but after that I was on the go until about midnight tonight. The best thing about Seoul is that you can go anywhere you want at anytime because the public transportation is just that good.

I started off the day going to Inwangsan, which is a Buddhist temple area built on the side of a mountain just north of Seoul. I spent a while just wandering around trying to find the temples until I finally came to what I thought might be the path up to the entrance. But by that point I had already climbed about a million stairs and was completely soaked with sweat and dying of dehydration so I decided the rest of the hike up to the temples might be better on a day when the temps were a little more bearable. So I trekked back down and headed to the Sookmyung Women's University subway exit for my first Korean lesson.

The classroom was in a small building just next to the Namyeong-dong office so it wasn't that hard to find once I spotted the Namyeong office sign just outside of the subway. I went up to the 5th floor and registered and then went back down to the 3rd floor classroom with another Indian couple who were also having their first lesson. The class was cool though and it really helped me polish my Korean writing and reading skills. I think I'll stay at the beginner level for a couple more weeks and then move up to the next if I feel ready enough. So the class lasted from about 4:30-6:2o and then after that I headed to Dongdaemun Market since I hadn't had enough time to go there last night.

Dongdaemun was a trip! It is so insanely busy on a Saturday night and the deals stretch as far as the eye can see. I ended up buying three super-cute t-shirts for only 3,ooo won each (about $3 each)! Across the street were other various shopping malls that I hadn't seen the first time I visited Dongdaemun so I took the subway tunnel under the street and came out on the other side. Outside the malls there were several stages set up with numerous Korean rock & pop groups performing on each one. There was one that was actually quite decent and they played several American cover songs too, two of which were Tub Thumping and Lady Marmalade. I'm going to try to find their cd tomorrow and buy it since I liked them so much. I spent the remainder of the evening there at Dongdaemun wandering around and looking at all the many items for sale at the hundreds of vendor stalls. At about 11:00pm I borded the subway and headed back to Jungwha.

When I got home I stayed up and chatted with Amanda and Erin, the other two English teachers from my school. Erin had another friend of hers over as well; his name was Mike and he teaches at a school not too far from here. We talked for a long time as we sat and laughed over Korean music videos on the TV, and finally at about 3am I called it a day...and now here I am.

And of course I continue to meet the most interesting people throughout my travels around Seoul. Tonight I met a Korean German who was visiting her native land even though her family lives in Germany now and that's where she grew up. I was only able to chat with her because she also spoke English too. I also met a Korean American who lives with his family in Alaska but was here in Seoul visiting his parents. Pretty cool... I have found that all of these people I've met through such chance occurences are all really friendly, which makes me feel a lot better about being here on my own. I have not met one single person who has been at all mean to me, and for that I am greatly relieved.

Tomorrow I'm going to head back to the Insadong/Myeong-dong area downtown in order to find a bookstore that sells English books so I can at last buy the new Harry Potter novel. There's also a Tower Records around there too that might carry that cd of the band I heard tonight at Dongdaemun. After that I might go try to hike up Inwangsan again, but not until at least late in the afternoon so it won't be so hot. And after that, who knows?