Korean Adventure: Wednesday at Bukhansan

This is a fairly long post as it was a busy day. One of the reasons it took me so long to get to. I apologize for the delay.

So Wednesday was the grade sixes. They were much the same as the fives. Their English was noticeably better however and they were more able to ask me questions beyond the standard ones. They were also impressed by my "Pro Gamer" status. Many wanted to know what my favourite games were, however I don't think there's much crossover between what I like to play and what they do. I don't play Starcraft, or WoW, or really many of the overly popular games here.

Anyhow, after classes, the teachers left the school early for a staff trip and I was invited along. The destination, Bukhansan, a mountain not too far from Seoul. It was a fairly difficult hike; parts of it were simply 40 degree rock faces that we had to climb up. We didn't take the usual path you see, we'd have to pay to get into the park to do that. Nope, the buses parked just outside the park and we hiked in along a service road and then up some back path. It actually seemed fairly dangerous and I'm glad I had travel insurance.

Now, I have to say, Koreans are hardcore when it comes to hiking. I can't think of any workplaces in Canada that would even think of having a staff trip of a mountain hike, let alone one where 100% of the employees go and finish. Also, while some of the teachers had a few problems on the hike, others could seriously put me to shame in a hiking race.

It was awesome though. Quite the view and an awesome bonding experience, not only for me but for the teachers too I think. Anyhow, I took a lot of pictures and also have those taken by one teacher and my fiancee, so despite culling them down, there are quite a few to post.

The Way Up:

Old fortress wall in the mountains and the rock trail we climbed

The Mountain

Buddha shrine

Us and the teachers

Her Co-teachers

The Way down was pretty steep at times

After the hike, we were taken to a nice Korean restaurant in the countryside. We had BBQ there and I had my first taste of Makkoli (a Korean rice wine drink). Also, most of the male teachers migrated to a side table to drink Soju, and my fiancee thought that they'd be impressed / amused if I went over there, asked to have a drink with them, and then told them "0ne shot". So, I did, and they were very welcoming. In fact, they didn't want me to leave and asked me to stay and drink with them. The principal came over, poured me another shot of soju and told me, "one shot". So, there I was doing shots of soju with the principal. We talked for a bit and they were surprised that I had had soju in Toronto and actually liked it. In truth, I can't say I love it, but it's certainly more drinkable than some other things I've had, and in Korea it's the tastiest cheapest way to drink (seriously, it's 20% and the bottles are a couple of dollars). They taught me some of the drinking etiquette, which is somewhat complicated. First, never pour yourself a drink, you'll look like an alcoholic. Always let someone else pour for you. Similarly, if you see someone's glass empty, pour a drink for them (because we are all alcoholics). When someone older pours you a drink, take it with both hands and turn away slightly while drinking it. There's more, and I don't really understand it all but anyhow, they're very forgiving of foreigners.

So, dinner ended and we started the drive back to the city. The bus was equipped with Karaoke, and the VP, who had had maybe a little too much makkoli started the singing. Apparently bus karaoke was made illegal a year or two ago for safety reasons, but it didn't seem to stop the teachers. They were singing and dancing in the bus aisle and really wanted me to sing. Rather than disappoint, I picked a song.

The highs, and the lows.

Bus party!

My Fiancee being awesome

The tip was so successful that when we hit Seoul, we drove off to norae bang ("Singing Room" - Korean karaoke term). We got a very large room that fit all of the teachers (norae bang is big here) and continued to sing and drank beer. The machine rates you on how accurate you are at the lyrics, and anyone who gets 100% is supposed to stick a 10,000 won bill (~$10) to the screen and help contribute to the cost for the night. My fiancee and I scored 100 with our duet, and I pulled out a bill.

When the time was up, we packed up and the group dispersed. However, roughly 10 of us decided to go to a nearby bar for some food and continued drinking. The food was very good, and they kept ordering the soju as the one teaching assistant had started the drinking games. The first is called "Baskin Robbins 31", and the second is "The Game of Death". I'll gladly explain the rules sometime if you ask, but suffice to say, we all got more drunk. The one assistant was impressed enough at my not being utterly wasted that he told me the he loved me. In truth, I think the reason I wasn't wasted was that I had had less than he did, but whatever, I'll take the compliment. It was also quite amusing that the staff had to tell us to quiet down. After a while, we decided to call it a night.

Korean Adventure: Ajummas

So, Ajumma means "married woman" or mrs. or ma'am, basically. So, any married woman is an ajumma.

However, there is also this Ajumma stereotype joked about by younger Koreans, and especially by young foreigners in Korea (who picked up on the joke and love it). The ajumma stereotype is a mid aged woman, probably with a short perm, likely wearing some sort of floral shirt and a type of visor. These visors are popular in Korea mostly with ajummas. Actually, they're pretty much popular ONLY with ajummas. The Ajumma Visor if you will.

The stereotype goes beyond the physical however, the Ajumma is also a commanding personality. She gives her husband a strict allowance and is a terror on the subway, pushing or shoving people from behind to get to her destination. At a crowded restaurant the one night, as we were waiting for a table, a youngish woman behind us in line went over to a table they were clearing to try and take it. "Ajumma in the making," my fiancee remarked.

Finally, the hiking ajumma. She's sporting the same visor, but has a athletic jacket, backpack, and hiking stick. She will also own you on the mountain. I read a joke somewhere about the depressing realization foreigners teaching in Korea face about their own physical shape when they are consistently overtaken on the slopes by ajummas.

The blog Stuff Korean Moms Like, while I believe focuses on the stereotypical Korean mom living in North America, can pretty much double as a blog about Ajummas.

Starcraft in Korea

As I've said, and as you probably knew already, Starcraft is huge in Korea. I turned on the TV one night as saw this on the screen:
"Oh, there must be a national championship going on," I said, as I've seen gaming championships on TV before.

"Oh, it's on all the time," my fiancee tells me.

Seriously, they have a Starcraft channel! You can watch people playing Starcraft on TV all of the time. I just switched it on and saw them congratulating a winner while Chariots of Fire played. In between competitions it also seems to have short bits and new on other video games. It boggles the mind how popular this game is. It will be insane when Starcraft 2 ships.

Oh yes, Korean kids also play a lot of World of Warcraft, obviously.

EDIT: Here's a shot of the Starcraft channel from my subsequent Korea trip:

Korean Adventure: Tuesday

I felt better when I woke up Tuesday morning. Not as feverish, but still very congested. At school I visited the nurse, she took my temperature (which was a little high) and got hooked me up with some Korean drugs. I have no idea what they were really, but they did the trick. Over the next day I my temperature taken every so often, and was given pills or some liquid for after each meal and my cold basically was gone, which is awesome as usually colds stick with me for a while. I also had some herbal medicine a couple of times over the next day. It came in this brown bottle, was given to me warmed, and tasted horribly nasty. There were some students in the nurses office when I first went in, and they stuck around to watch me drink it, knowing exactly how it tasted. Similarly, in my fiancee's office, her co-teachers all gave a "yuck" look when I mentioned it. I don't know if it helped, but I do know that if you're teaching here and you get sick, see the nurse, and the intense drugage will see you better soon.

Grade fives on Tuesdays, they asked many of the same questions as the fours. One class seemed quite a bit interested in our relationship and wedding plans, and asked a lot about that. I've discovered that when I tell the fives and sixes that I'm a computer programmer, they misunderstand me and think I'm saying "computer pro-gamer". Considering the level of gaming love in Korea (ALL the students seem to play Starcraft), this really impresses them until the co-teacher steps in and explains the disconnect.

After school we went out to some of the big shopping places. First up was Yongsan, a huge electronics market. There are over 5000 stores selling cellphones, mp3 players, cameras, computers and peripherals, and pretty much any electronic gadget you want. We didn't look around too much, but it was fairly intense. We were in one of the larger buildings, which is basically 5-6 level department store, like say Sears, but filled only with electronics. I ended up grabbing an wall outlet adapter, router, and a card reader so that I could grab the photos off of my camera. Some things were pretty cheap, others not so much. You're expected to bargain, and I think you could fined some amazing deals there, but you'd have to put in a lot of time shopping around. You really need a full day of it I think.

Next was Dongdaemun Market, a market near one of the old city gates, Dongdaemun (Dongdaemun means Great East Gate). Again, there are a lot of markets around here, but the one we went into was the Dongdaemun Shopping Complex, a very long, somewhat narrow building that basically has two aisles running down it on each floor. They connect to each other at the ends and one or two places in the middle, so it's basically an incredibly long, narrow hallway with little clothing stalls oh each side. I was looking for a few long sleeve shirts, as apparently I brought the cold Toronto weather with me on my flight. One of the other hallways is filled with craft supplies and is where my fiancee finds her wool for knitting. The place closes up early, so most of the stalls were locked down by the time we left.

The market also sits right next to the Cheonggye Stream, a site that's been going through some urban renewal projects and was uncovered a few years ago. It's quite the nice place to walk along in the evening.

The stream with Dongdaemun Shopping Complex behind

Finally we went to Myeong-dong, another shopping district. This one is filled with stores rather than market stalls. It was incredibly busy, with the streets absolutely packed with young Korean shoppers. When we got there, my fiancee tells me, "This is how Koreans shop." There were also a fair number of food vendors on the street, and we picked up a fried potato on a stick. It's basically a corkscrew sliced potato fired into chip form. Very tasty and the vendor was very friendly.

The crowds and me with my chips

Another unfortunate choice of English for a sign

I found the shirts that I wanted at UNI QLO, which seemed to be a lot like H&M. Also, while I'm a medium to large in Toronto, in Korea I need to buy XL for it to fit. Asians are small.

We went to dinner at Om Dristi Indian and Nepali restaurant tucked away on the fourth floor of a building (in Korea, you really have to look up a lot to see all of the signs on the second, third, and fourth floors or you can miss a lot of good places). It was good, but I was too full afterwards.

Oh yes, on our way our of Myeong-dong, see saw a large stage and some sort of grand opening with Karaoke. We filmed this guy doing some sort of rap, even throwing down the N-word.