I Live In Korea

I have a bunch of half-finished posts, but due to time constraints, and not having the necessary material (pictures/videos) I couldn’t make entries about them, so let me sum it all up. Some good things in here…

Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That – It’s pretty common to see very young girls walking around holding hands with each other. Actually, it’s common to see girls in their 20s and 30s holding hands. It’s also not out of the ordinary to see two guys in their 20s sitting on the train next to each other, one of them resting his head on the other ones shoulder. Again, “not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Those that know me, are aware I’m a very open-minded person and have no problem with this whatsoever, all I’m saying is that seeing loads of girls in their 20s and 30s holding hands just as friends and guys resting on each others’ shoulders caught my attention, especially in a culture which isn’t known for its tolerance of homosexuality.

Fast Food – Pretty unique things get sold at fast food restaurants here. Cheese fries at Taco Bell, Kimchi flavored donuts at Dunkin Donuts, corn salad at McDonald’s, etc.

Jimjilbang – Wow, where to begin. If you’re familiar with the premise of a Russian bathhouse, then you’ll understand Jimjilbangs better. Jimjilbangs are basically huge bath houses with different types of saunas, steam rooms, hot tubs, massage parlors, etc. What makes them unique is that you are naked, there’s little kids running around, you can sleep in them and even get your haircut. I’ve been to clothed bathhouses before, but naked ones where fathers bring their little 5 year old son? Pretty weird.

I love Jimjilbangs though, for only $3.50 you can have a really nice time relaxing. They come in really handy for me too. On a number of occasions I’ve gotten back from a long hike, gone to the Jimjilbang, showered up, chilled in the hot tub for a bit to relax, got changed, and gone out. I don’t have to go home or anything, it’s amazing. This would never exist back home, too many creeps in the U.S. unfortunately.

PC Bang – Not everyone has computers in their house here, so they go to a PC Bang which is basically an internet lounge, except that everyone in there is playing computer games. These places are like dungeons; they are dark and have a room reserved for people who want to smoke and play computer games (sometimes they merely have a 5 foot wall which does nothing to separate the smokers from non-smokers). The lure of the PC Bang is they have extremely fast internet connection (probably 2-3 times faster than anything in the U.S.) which make gaming great, the monitors are very large, it’s cheap ($0.40-$1.00 for an hour), and they are open 24 hours. Some of my students spend 6 hours each weekend day at these places. It’s insane. They are always mobbed with people that are there for hours on end smoking, drinking soda and eating ramen noodles. People here are obsessed with computer games, there was a case recently about a couple that would go to a PC Bang and leave their infant child unattended at home. The child died of malnutrition. Another case of a guy dying at the PC Bang because he was on some insane bender, played for 50 hours straight.

Skiing in Korea – 24 hours at some places here. They have 5-7 hour ski sessions, and then go on a short break to blow snow at some places which have overnight skiing. I went once with my coworkers and we were skiing from 12am-5am. Something else weird is that most people don’t own their own ski clothes, they rent outfits when they get their equipment. Another funny thing is hearing Korean pop music blasting throughout the mountain. Also funny that 95% of people who snowboard take their board off when they got on the chairlift and carry it on with them. Another funny thing is seeing people in RIDICUOUS outfits, like full body rabbit, teddy bear, etc. outfits. I lost my memory card which had some great clips/pictures of this, I was pretty bummed.

Elections in Korea – I was unfortunate enough to be here in a year where there were elections nationwide. If you think elections in the U.S. are annoying, well, in Korea, it’s worse. On a busy street corner you’ll likely find all 4 corners taken up by various opposition. Each candidate will have it’s “support” on one corner. They are usually women in their 30s-50s who will be wearing neon colored shirts, and singing/dancing in unison. It’s ridiculous.

Korean Cafes – There’s some very interesting cafes here. They might be Hello Kitty themed, they might have birds flying around inside of them, cats walking around. You might have the option to wear various ridiculous dresses, or you can even go to a medical café where a doctor will do a quick checkup. Insane.

Cars Run Red Lights – I fear for my life sometimes crossing the street because cars have absolutely no respect for red lights. The irony behind this is that people will sometimes have to wait 3 minutes for a light to turn green so they can cross, and will wait despite their being absolutely no cars in sight. Not only do they wait, but they wait patiently. Put them in cars, and all hell breaks loose. I’ve been in cabs before where the guy was watching a baseball game when it was dark out, was stopped behind cars waiting for a red light, weaved into the OPPOSITE lane, got to the front of the cars waiting, got back in the lane, and then ran the red light and made his turn. It’s outrageous. Meanwhile, they snicker if you buckle your seatbelt, and many cabs don’t even have working seatbelts as well.

Misc. Facts

Cell Phone Chargers – ever been out and your battery dies? 7-11 and other 24 hour
convenience stores all over the place here, and all of them recharge your phone in 30 minutes for $1. It’s amazing.

Wedding Cards – They don’t really do them here. I had to search near and far for them. I mentioned it to my coworker and they said they usually just throw cash in a blank envelope.

Playing Cards – They run you about $12-15 at the convenience stores, I’m not kidding. I was slightly under the influence of alcohol and actually bought a pack. Good thing my brother didn’t buy me 2 packs of PINNACLE cards and bring them over for me.

All men have to serve in the military - some Olympians who win medals get special privileges and get excluded, or do a quick 4 weeks. Some other celebrities weasel their way out of it too. I think now you have to serve for 20 months, but I think the number will drop to 18 months pretty soon.

High Fives –Haven’t caught on yet fully over here. A number of my students flinch when I put my hand up passing them in the hallway hoping to get some dap back from them.

That's all I got right now.... Almost done here....

Let’s just get ‘fire cupping’ out of the way.

BEFORE.......................................... AFTER

Fire Cupping is an ancient for of medicine which originated over 5,000 years ago. The procedure is as follows…

1. Loosen muscles around the back/shoulders by giving a ‘massage’
2. Place glass cup, with the opening on the back, against the skin
3. Attach a suction pump to the nozzle which is on the bottom of the glass
4. Pump until air is sucked out of the cup. This acts like a vacuum, now a lot of air has been released. This is what causes the ‘discoloration.’
5. Remove cups

As you can see that despite the name, there’s no fire involved, but that’s only because of modern technology. Back in the day, from 3,000 B.C.-2000 A.D., the air would be removed from the cups by applying heat from fire.

People believe(d) this can cure illnesses (ranging from minor to major) and is a way to relax, even invigorate your body. I found this to be extremely painful, both the massage part and applying the cups. If the person doing this to me was deaf I would’ve been moaning louder than I was last weekend when I had food poisoning. The only pleasure I felt was when it was over. What a crock of BS, this does nothing at all.

Food ended up being a pretty big part of the trip…

As you can see from the picture, there’s some pretty nasty things I ate at ‘Snake Alley.’ I’m not sure if she said ‘Snake PENIS’ or ‘Snake PISS,’ either way it’s gross. Nothing was that rancid, I’m pretty sure everything was diluted so it wouldn’t be toxic. Way too much cash to make off tourists, however there were loads of Taiwanese people in the place eating and drinking everything like it was a regular thing they did. Weird. This didn’t taste horrible, but not good either. Some other meals I had were phenomenal though…

Modern Toilet was also a rather unique establishment. A restaurant where everything is about toilets. Everything. From the table, the dishes you eat from, the chairs you sit on, the crap shaped ice cream, etc., this place lives up to its name.

Sure it’s a cheesy place which is an obligatory stop for any tourist, but the food wasn’t bad and it brought some humor to the day.

Din Tai Fung is home to the best dumplings I’ve ever eaten in my life. Hands down. I was in heaven at this place and the only communication problem I encountered on the entire trip was telling them I did want 20 dumplings, 8 wontons and soup. There is always a line outside of this place and for just cause. Aside from going up Taipei 101, I’m going to have to say this is the next on the list of things you must do if you ever go to Taipei.

What else did I do besides eat from toilet bowls, nearly vomit from overeating dumplings, get tortured and drink snake bile? Well, there was going to Taipei 101 which is the 2nd tallest building in the world (no pictures available due to it raining everyday), going to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall (no pictures available due to it raining everyday), the Longshan Temple (no pictures available due to it raining everyday), and Daan Park (no pictures available due to it raining everyday). The weather was horrific. I couldn’t go to the zoo, the National Palace Museum was closed both times I tried to go to it, I was forced to watch a movie (Wolfman was more painful than fire cupping), and rain cut down on the number of fireworks (it was the Chinese New Year). I was most certainly being punished with bad weather by Confucius for reasons I cannot get into.

Going to the top of Taipei 101 was pretty cool because the elevator is the fastest in the world. It goes 60km/hour (37.4 MPH for those who live in America, Burma and Liberia and don’t use the metric system). That means it travels to the top (1,671 feet) in 35 seconds, that’s 55 feet per SECOND. Intense.

I also managed to find a GREAT tea shop and an outdoor thermal hot-spring which was very relaxing even though the weather sucked. As if I didn’t stand out enough being the only non-Taiwanese person there, I got whistled by a 75 year old ‘lifeguard’ for doing something I shouldn’t have been doing. I suck.

Aside from the Taipei 101 elevator, food and the hot spring, the trip was a pretty big failure. Still, I’m glad I went, now there’s only 180 more countries to visit.

Hwacheon, located in the Gangwon-do province, is one of the northern most parts of South Korea. Every January it plays host to the Sancheoneo (mountain trout) Festival for three weeks. During this time, over one million people head to Hwacheon to fish and take part in all of the festivities.

Some guy with fish head. Maybe Mayor of festival? I bet I was being a wise ass.

I actually spent 9 days in Vietnam, but I’m not counting the first day because of a near incident with a guy in a bar we went to. Even though we were minding our own business and just drinking, the guy (must have been a pimp since he was with a group of scantily clad/trashy girls) was looking for trouble because we’re foreigners in “his country” and El Gestapo in the bar was itching to arrest/shake us down but we avoided trouble (this story is true). So yeah, that day doesn’t count…