last days in seoul

so apologies for the delay in updates. a brief synopsis: my last day at the hakwon (the tutoring center) was two fridays ago, and right after class (consisting of parties with my remaining, mostly good students), i took off for gwangju, a city about 4 hours south of seoul. i visited and couchsurfed for a night, then took an hour-long bus to mokpo, and from there, took a 4 hour ferry to jeju island (a prestine island in the south), where i stayed for 3 nights, again through couchsurfing. after that, i took an hour-long plane up to busan, was there for a night, and came back to seoul late last wednesday night. phew!

but the trip wasn’t without some glitches along the way. when i got to mokpo on the bus, i immediately hopped in a cab to try to catch the ferry that was leaving from the ferry terminal in 10 minutes. just as i got to the terminal, the ferry had left. i was exasperated – hands flailed up in the air, heavy sigh (scream?). i went to the ticket desk and asked whether there was another ferry leaving that night. the woman said there was, but that there weren’t any seats left. oh, i begged and begged, nearly cried. told her that i didn’t mind standing, but she explained that there was a limit to the number of people they could have. she told me i could stay the night in the town and catch the ferry the next morning. i told her i couldn’t do that, that i had a friend to meet. and that i didn’t see a lot of people waiting in the terminal, it couldn’t possibly be entirely full. finally, her manager came, and through some stroke of luck, agreed to let me on the next ferry! i don’t know how or why, but i’d finally gotten a seat, and i was soooo relieved, because i didn’t know anything about mokpo or where i would even stay had i had to sleep in the town for a night. phew! i was saved.

anyway, it was a lot of traveling in a very short amount of time. luckily, korea’s only about the size of new jersey, so going from place to place didn’t take too long. speaking of which, some stats. yes, korea’s really that small. there are 50 million people – that’s greater than the entire population of canada in an area the size of indiana. or, in another perspective, it’s kind of like the entire population of california, plus about 12 million more, in an area nearly 5 times smaller than cali.

did i mention how big seoul is (in area and in population)? i think, including greater seoul (the immediate, circular metropolitan area surrounding the city proper), there are somewhere around 16-18 million people living here. and as far as physical size, seoul is HUGE, huge, i tell you. it’s much much bigger than new york. it takes about an hour and 30 min to go from one end of the city to the other on the subway – a complicated maze of 12 lines. and i think the diameter’s about 12 miles. HUGE. very easy to get lost. a web of streets, side streets and alleys.

did i also mention how expensive seoul is? yes. i have to mention this again. i’ve found that it’s possible to seek cheap things but it’s just not that easy to save and budget smartly here. for quality items (in terms of food, clothing, and just.. things), you have to shell out a lot of wons (the korean currency). an american friend of mine put it best, i think – the money runs so fast, you’re almost convinced you’re spending monopoly money – fake money to which you think you have an endless supply. in reality, you can find yourself looking at an empty wallet after having just withdrawn money a few hours earlier. you could easily blow $100 in one night out in seoul. and due to the everpresent capitalist culture, it’s so easy to spend.

not including rent, i’ve spent upwards of $1380 in the entire 7 weeks i’ve been here (NOT including rent). i am dead serious, believe you me. i just looked at my bank statement and i’ve withdrawn $730. in addition, i brought $200 in cash with me from the states, received $350 in cash from my aunt (she gave me a weekly allowance of $100 plus 50 bucks for the first 3 weeks until i insisted she stop), and received $100 from my uncle as spending money before my trip last week. i’m sure there’s other cash i’m forgetting.. again, this is not including my rent for the past month (the closet-sized dorm room was $550, $200 of which the hakwon subsidized). this is also not including my airfare and the other pre-travel expenses before i flew out which was well over a grand, i think close to 3 actually. $1500 in flight, $400 for immunization crap that i should’ve just gotten in korea to save some bucks (health costs are cheaper here), $70 travel guides which i could’ve bought on the road, some travel items and gear like plug converter, etc. that’s an average of $187.14 a week. how?! i mean , i guess i ate out quite a bit (i couldn’t cook for myself) and went out wednesdays or thursdays and fridays and saturdays. but again, i haven’t bought much of anything else. a few souvenirs here and there, but really not much. ah! hopefully, southeast asia will be better to me financially and i won’t continue to run into this problem.

still, i’ve saved up a bit from my teaching job, and i’m hoping it’ll last me at least a month and a half including airfare around that region. but depending on how long i plan to travel for, i’m sure i’ll have to use additional money thereafter, and definitely for my flight back to the states, whenever that is…

daily routine

my daily routine consists of going to the hakwon to teach in the mornings, then coming back to the goshiwon by around 10 am or 12 pm depending on the day (i dropped some of my worst classes, so my schedule’s gotten a lot lighter – had to have another teacher take over and handle the mess). and by around the early afternoon, i have to leave the dorm because it’s frighteningly TINY. probably 8 X 6. it’s only about big enough for a twin bed, a small desk and a minute bathroom (a sink and toilet). i don’t even want to attempt to take a picture of it to show you guys how small it is – it’s really a scary existence. this is a dorm that’s generally for postgrad students studying for bar exams and government exams.. but also, i found out that a lot of other random people, like bar girls, live in goshiwons too (not mine in particular, but in many others) because it’s cheaper than a studio apartment which runs around $1000 at the minimum in this part of seoul.

this is the street right by my hakwon and goshiwon:

i then generally roam around my neighborhood or some other part of seoul by myself, unless it’s a thurs/friday, in which case i might meet up with a teacher-friend. generally, there’s plenty for me to see and do (well, ‘do’ is a relatively ambiguous word; it can consist of shopping if i’m feeling ambitious, eating, or sightseeing). today, i got lost for about an hour, as i wanted to avoid asking for directions both from koreans and americans alike.

on my walk, i discovered a TASTI DLITE! in KOREA? OMFGWTF?!

when i get home, i’ll sometimes watch tv. mostly american shows that i never dared watch in the states (like american idol, america’s next top model, hell’s kitchen), the olympics, or a korean variety talk show called ‘beautie’s chatter’ which features young, 20-something foreign women from around the world who speak korean semi-fluently and talk about the differences between their native and korean culture (stereotypes, lifestyle, etc). this show’s pretty funny actually and interesting. the girls’ korean languages skills are better than mine but i can still generally understand what’s going on.

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the weekends vary dramatically.. only thing consistent is that i hardly ever come back before 4 am. 4:30 or 5 am is standard. as i said in a previous post, people are out at all hours of the night, and because the subway starts running again at 5, they’d rather just socialize and stay out then go home early. also, lights are always on everywhere, and therefore harder to keep track of time.

this past weekend, i went out after hwaeshik (the company dinner) with a coworker named Michelle who surprisingly invited me out that night to a club – i say “surprisingly” because i really don’t know her all that well and as i’d mentioned before, i didn’t think i had any allies at my hakwon (the tutoring center). it involved about five tequila shots at a club called Mass with some other gyopos (korean americans).

it was unexpectedly fun. people don’t dance as energetically (for the lack of a better word) as in the states, but it was dancing nonetheless.

friday was a holiday, although i’m not sure which holiday exactly (heh). that night, i went to a casino for a friend of a friend’s birthday shindig. the casino is only open to foreigners as gambling’s illegal in korea. so with my passport in tow (wouldn’t wanna be mistaken for a local), we went but left pretty soon after to noraebang (karaoke) near my neighborhood. dude, i’ve never been a huge fan of karaokeing back in the states, but once i’m back, i may just come back a karaoke queen.

then saturday, i went to suwon, about 40 minutes south of seoul, to chill with a couple of friends and went out to an expat bar around there. of course, outside the bar, some military dudes were causing a ruckus and gearing to start a fight. they disappeared soon after, thankfully. typical stupid american behavior.

as i said, i’m finally getting used to life here. as far as language issues, i find that i can usually ask for things like food or the subway station or the bathroom, but i have trouble understanding them back. sometimes, i just don’t say anything when i go into a store as the store reps welcome customers, since i just don’t feel so confident about my korean, and then they think i’m weird or deaf or something. i’m getting a little better though. i was really frustrated with my language skills before and was trying to avoid talking as much as possible, but now, i just try to speak in my broken korean whenever i can. i’ve realized, they actually become friendlier and curious to know where i’m from… and luckily, i’m starting to like it here.

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oh, i forgot to share this story. happened a couple of weeks ago..

one day, the a/c was off in my classroom and i couldn’t find the remote (a/cs have remotes here). but a few moments later, it magically, automatically turned on. i looked around trying to see if a student had found the remote, but it wasn’t anywhere to be seen. i asked the class. still no remote. it turns out… dun dun dun, CELL PHONES have remotes! yes! remotes to electronic devices! like remotes to tvs, A/Cs, anything that can be programmed somehow.. hard to imagine, yeah i know! WTF. needless to say, i was awe-struck and couldn’t believe my eyes. jaw dropped for about an entire minute, and i just kept staring at the kids. how can cell phones have remotes that can control a/cs found anywhere nearby??! this place is insanely intense, technologically.

also, in subways and elsewhere, people carry these weird MP3/PDA thingies or nintendo gameboy-lookalikes that aren’t actually gameboys or PDAs, but used as mp3s, dvd players and live tv players on the subway. tvs. on a cellphoney-mp3 thing. on the subway. that wouldn’t happen for like, 20 years in new york. instead of reading on the subway, people watch live tv on their little MP3 ipod-y thing.

this is it for today, i can’t write any longer. i don’t know what it is, but i have these urges to write but then i write in this terrible fashion i’m not happy with and i get really annoyed with myself. yet i’m too tired to think or do anything about it. so with that, i’m going to read eat pray love. or watch tv.