Cambodia and Korean February

I’ve got to say, the only thing as soul-sucking as February in Korea is February in the US. At least back in Boston I had good company to help keep me sane but I’ve yet to be here long enough to make close friends who live in the same area as me. Went through a mutual break-up, and got so sick that I spent my Chinese New Year dying in my home. Experienced an allergic reaction to the antibiotics I was taking so my body broke out in hives that lasted 2 weeks, and the fluctuation of my body temperature gave me ring worm. Yep; I spent most of February either being too sick to do anything or looking too sick to meet anybody new. On the bright side, I got to eat delicious homemade Thai food for a week before I became sick and single. Being absolutely alone and dying in my apartment gave me a few insights on life though. It’s kind of nice being single so that I can save my cash a bit and get myself outside more. I also realized that Korea is way to tiny and industrialized to traditionally satisfy the kind of wanderlust I’ve been suffering through.

Going to Cambodia in January made me feel alive, loved, and at home again. Seriously something about Cambodia just fills me with life and passion; a feeling I can accomplish something! I meet amazing and awe inspiring people there daily and it’s the one place I ever felt like I fit in. So going back to Korea made me feel homesick again and all the dying which accompanied my return didn’t help. I’ve considered using my pension to buy a Chinese fishing boat and sail it to Thailand. Also considered signing up for the Peace Corps for Cambodia (still may do just that in the not too distant future though!). I need to get myself on the road and see new things, the monotony out here in the sticks is two fold when it is too cold to do anything, and the cafe I would go to to unwind has been for almost two months as the owners are on vacation. Unfortunately all those things I want to do cost too much money and aren’t in my realm of possibility yet. I think with the warm weather coming up I’m gonna invest in an older model tour bike I can fix up. I think being able to bike around the country is going to help me meet other travelers, see new places, and satisfy my need for the road without having to get a license and make car payments. There are tons and tons of bike paths here too. Hiking is a popular sport here too. It’s time this old Ben gets himself out there lest I lose my mind.

That being said, I’ve had absolutely no motivation to write or do my podcast lately. I’m feeling better so the motivation is returning… but don’t worry! There was literally nothing happening this month to talk about. This was a sign that I needed to do something new with my life here. Because of this, I’m gonna take some time to talk about my Cambodia trip since I promised to do it over a month ago!

Trapped in China

The titles is startling, I know; but don’t worry! I am currently back in Korea… I’d say I’ve been teaching all week, but with the exception of the day I lost my voice and the one after, I haven’t really been doing much teaching at all (but kudos to me for not skipping school!)

Traditional cold medicine… about as effective as all cold medicine

It’s been a very eventful week! I’m surprised I’m not in any worse shape than I am now, but truth be told I am doing much better than usual. I’ve been on a health-kick the last month (as I mentioned before) and I am loving it! It’s easy to see why people get addicted to exercise. I’ve mostly been biking and doing home workouts, yoga on Wednesdays to fix my tense muscles up. I beat some of my best records biking yesterday but my Strava app messed up so I lost the data ㅠㅠ. It’s okay though because my next ride will have me beat all my personal bests 10-fold! My muscle gain is visible, same with my weight loss (lost 7kg! 6 more to go and I will meet my goal!).

Imsil is an amazing place to bike. Beautiful and the mountains build endurance.

Although I am in korea now, I don’t think I will be for much longer. A few changes took place over the last month that changed my mind about staying here. First I found out a lot of folks are leaving anyway. The Imsil office of education has been treating teachers very unfairly and it’s only a matter of time before those problems start to effect me too. If it weren’t for some great teachers and friends here who’ve had my back, I would be in the same boat as some of the newer teachers who’ve been getting the shit end of the stick.

With that being said; I’ve been learning Chinese and I am rather good at it. My girlfriend is in Hangzhou, CN, and fate keeps seeming to push me over that way. As much as I love (and I mean LOVE) the nature and mountains here in Korea, especially Imsil, I think It’s time I move on. I’ve got good friends and memories here in Korea, and Korea is an amazing place to start a career as an English teacher, but my heart just isn’t here…. It’s been in Cambodia for 5 years but when it comes to home I can take to a little polyamory. I absolutely love Hangzhou and the parts of China I plan on making my home. It’s a new adventure and I think I’ve got a good shot at becoming fluent in Chinese within a few years time if I stick with it. Yesterday I was given my choice as to whether or not I would stay or go. I think I made the right choice:

As of October 25th my first year as an English teacher will come to a close.

But fret not friends in Korea who may or may not read this! A round-trip ticket between Korea and Shanghai is roughly around the $150 to $220 range. In Korea getting this ticket just means foregoing restaurants for a week or two (which is easy because I cook at home mostly now and now that I don’t pay for smokes or alcohol I’ve been saving that money too!).

And it becomes well worth the saving as well! Shanghai and Hangzhou are absolutely beautiful! I was honestly very shocked at what I had seen. Anytime I read anything about China it was always about the market prices, pollution, factories, etc. Never really a shred of good news. In university I learned about some interesting history and culture, but never really learned much about the present day. Before arriving in Shanghai I assumed I would be spending one more year in Korea. After spending time there (and then later Hangzhou) I realized I couldn’t stay in Korea much longer than my contract would allow me.

other than the air quality it’s so clean and beautiful here.

Right now, China is really pushing to make things greener for their country. There are two key differences between China and Korea that I noticed when it comes to the way people are handling things: 1. Shanghai, Hanzhou, Zhengzou, all different cities I’ve seen, have trash cans everywhere. There is a place to put your recycling and a place to put general garbage. There are people who walk around cleaning the streets of cigarette butts and other such things. The trash cans alone make everything so nice….. Korea doesn’t believe in the existence of trash cans unless it is a national park or something. There is literally trash everywhere. In the cities of Korea, it is normal for one person to place their trash somewhere, and then this place becomes the area where most people set down their trash. someone eventually cleans it up the next day but the wind and foot traffic moves everything around. It kind of makes a lot of places in Korea look a little dirty.

Take this to the countryside where there are less people to clean up trash, and the wind is gonna blow this garbage into rivers and forests where no one will go to pick stuff up. Imsil and a lot of countryside towns have garbage all over the place. The street before my house is littered with trash. The river is full of trash. The woods are lined with trash. I get it’s a small country and it doesn’t seem like a problem now, but what if Korea was the size of China? This country would literally be a garbage heap and I think no one would bother to fix it…. and this bugs me too because Koreans seem to be very clean people. You take your shoes off at the door, recycling seems to be taken seriously, tables are wiped down, you wash everything before eating. It almost seems like if it’s not in their home/business, it’s not their problem. It confuses me.

On the other hand, Korea has less air pollution and there is a lot more nature. wild-life is taken seriously, the mountains, parks, and historic artifacts are regarded with a lot of care. and in the case of peoples homes, they tend to be kept pretty well maintained. Just in my bike rides this is evident: here is a national treasure hiding in Imsil:

The other thing I noticed is that developed cities like Hangzhou and Shanghai have a ton of greenery and diversity of architecture throughout.

Hiking Gayasan (Gaya Mountain)

June and July have been crazy busy months… like most months in Korea. Ever since I started doing some diet and exercise in May, and taking up a veriety of skills, my life can be boiled down into the following:

Wor

Gym
Biking
Chinese Language
Calligraphy.

Sleep is on the backburner, which has gotten me a little burned out (More rest is a big goal though to improve mass). I’ve become one of those fitness-heads that can’t miss a gym day or a day on the bike or I feel absolutely down about it. I’ve got a vacation in a few days with Jinpei on Jeju Island and my mind is torn between relaxation and how I am going to keep fit. Although I know I should just relax for 2 weeks, I’m already practicing calisthenics in case I can’t find time to get to a gym there.

 

Needless to say, despite this burning out, I can’t for the life of me stay still! Recently I had a little more time off than usual but instead of collapsing at home like I should have, I decided to leave Imsil friday night for the 3 hour bus Ride to Daegu… so I could hike up a 1,433m mountain.

I arrived a bit late, just before sundown, and met with Nid from Thailand and her new boyfriend. Had some drinks, attempted some Noraebang, and passed out drunk upon returning to my guesthouse (I barely drink anymore so it didn’t take much). This didn’t stop me from waking up at 5:00am anyway to get started on my quest!

Friends for life. The only familiar face I know in Korea

 

I was in a dorm, but it was by far one of the nicest ones I’ve staying in during my travels in Korea! It’s located next to everything and the prices are very reasonable. The owner went so far out of his way to help me find hiking boots in my size; legit walking around the city in his plastic sandals just to help me. If you want to stay, book with airbnb for the best price. You can find his guesthouse here. It’s new, clean, and I can’t recommend him enough!

Only 50,000w!! The Kovea store in Daegu is the best! (and only one with my size)

Seriously if you need affordable campling supplies, the Kovea store in Daegu is great! The woman there speaks great English and discounts everything.You can take the green line (no. 2) to Kyungpook Nat’l University Hospital Station. Go out exit 4 and walk straight, and you’ll come to the Kovea store on the left a few blocks down. 대구 중구 삼덕동3가 376-25

 

Gwanghallu and the City of Love

Last week I wrote about the many festivals Korea has in May, that occur on Buddha’s Birthday. One of the largest festivals in Korea takes place in Namwon, the city of love (or if you know the movie High Rollers, the city of seotda gamblers!). They call this festival the Chunhyang Festival. This festival celebrates a Romeo and Juliette style story about a noble man called Lee Do Ryoeng (이도령 his royal name) or  Lee Mong Ryeong (이몽룡 common name). He falls in love with a commoner named Seong Chun Hyang (성춘향) at the famous garden Gwanghallu (광할루). Usually when nobles would visit this famous garden, the commoners had to leave. However, when Lee Mong Ryeong saw Seong Chun Hyang playing on the swing, he fell in love with her beauty and let her accompany him.

I’m so pretty. Where’s my prince?

Back in the day nobles, or people who wanted to become nobles, had to take a really crazy exam in order to rank up in society. This exam involved learning 40,000 Chinese characters, and memorizing all the writings of Confucius. This was first introduced in China, but the culture and governance of this practice also took hold in Korea (and remnants of this Confucius culture are still very prominent to this day). This exam could last up to 3 days and the test-taker would not be permitted to leave his room, eat, or drink anything but water until he was finished. This test (I believe) is one of the root causes of the Taiping Rebellion in China, 1850-1864 when Hong Xiuquan failed it three times in a row, went crazy, and was fully convinced he was the young brother of Jesus Christ… but that is a story for another time

I took and failed the test 4 times and started fighting statues that looked at me the wrong way.

Lee Mong Ryeong had to go to Seoul to prepare himself for this test, and a man called Byeon Sa Ddo (변사또) aka: Appointed Governer Byeon, took over Namwon in Mong Ryeong’s leave. Byeon was a terrible person however, and he tried to force Chun Hyang to be his concubine. When she refused him over and over again, she was put in jail and suffered many punishments for it. Back then, soldiers and their lords didn’t mess around either.

tldr: Lee Mong Ryeong comes back after passing the test, frees Seong Chun Hyang, and puts Appointed Governer Byeon in jail. The two lovers live happily ever after.

I thought it was such a sweet story. And although I went to Osu to see the dog festival instead the week before, I spent the weekend after the festival here with my Korean Language teacher, her family, and my Chinese friend from class. Gwanghallu is an extraordinarily beautiful park. It has many bridges, pagodas, and fish. You can buy a cup of fish food for $2 and watch all the large fish go crazy as you feed them. It’s really kind of cute!

Om nom nom

 

The location is romantic too. There are a lot of couple-based things to do (like many places in Korea). I hope one day I can take Jinpei here, but until we suss out the visa problems I’ll make due in China. Below there is a pot that people can throw coins at. If you get it in the pot, it means you will have a lucky love life. I only had a 1 Yuan coin from China with me that somehow didn’t get filtered from my wallet. When I threw it, it landed in the pot, and very loud (and eerie) traditional Korean music started to play. Hopefully that’s a good thing, right? With all my co teachers asking me about marriage, the pressure is on (apparently this is supposed to be the focus in my life right now since I have finished school and have been with someone for 4 months). I also may have started seeing a wooden statue on the side. Don’t judge.

 

The park this time of year is so stunning too! The trees are dropping cotton-like seeds, and it makes you think of snowfall. The green pond-water runs gently in its own current. It was such a relaxing way to spend the day.

If you and a loved one visit Korea, take them here. It’s a good date that will leave a lasting memory; more so than Seoul tower (but why not visit both??) There are quite a few parks and places to see in Namwon other than this park as well. I spent May ignoring most of my social media, studying Chinese, and working out. This long walk was perfect for some exercise too! I’m thinking in another month or two, I’ll write a post about healthy eating and getting fit in Korea (but only when I have some photo-worthy results. Getting there!).

 

Here are some of the other photos of the park, if you wish to get a further peek at the beauty in Jeollabuk-Do’s Namwon city parks. I hear there is a great observatory hiding in the city too. Could be my chance to see some stars!

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May in South Korea

May is an interesting month in Korea, filled with a vast array of festivals and intimate family/cultural events. It starts just as the cherry blossoms fall from the April foliage, and by the end the weather is closer to the summers I know back in Boston- temperatures reaching upwards of 80. My teacher at 대리초 (Daeri elementary) tells me the spring time only lasts for about 3 to 4 weeks… and I believe him now. I can’t complain though; as a old soul who once lived in Cambodia, I concur that hot weather suits me better than most others.

Me with my Korean-language class

Just before the month began, I decided that this would be a month for positive self-improvement. This meant making some changes to my life that would benefit me in the long run and also give me some rest from my life on social media. This meant no facebook, no drinking, no smoking, exercise every day and watch my eating habits more closely…. and fix my posture, and hold things farther away from my face, and try to learn Chinese so I can better speak with my girlfriend who lives in China.

Me and Jinpei!

May has filled me with such productive and positive energy! I’ve nearly finished the first section of my Chinese language program… not chapter but section!! This is a bit of a big step for me because all this time I’ve spent off of facebook I’ve been getting surprisingly efficient and engrossed in the Chinese language. Going to Shanghai a few weeks ago also bolstered this love I never knew I had. Perhaps next year I will be finding a new life there. Who knows? Traveler life is far from predictable. I’ve started selling calligraphy or giving it away as gifts too. I figure I can give some good Chinese stuff to westerners, and then give some Korean style calligraphy to Chinese friends I may one day meet. I also have an article getting published in the Dudespaper soon (more on that later, so check back). So many good things in such a short time! Writing this has been the most time I’ve spent at a computer for non-work reasons.

 

My caligraphy. Not good yet but whatever

Jeonju Calligraphy Museum

I visited the Jeonju Calligraphy museum the Friday before Children’s Day to get a better idea of the styling of traditional calligraphy. Three great ones are below (left: bronze-age Chinese. Middle: Korean. Right: traditional Chinese).

 

I digress; for I mentioned before that May is a time of celebration in Korea! Every weekend I am not out traveling, I am missing a festival. The weekend I spent in China made me miss the 다명(Damyeong) bamboo festival, last weekend was Buddha’s birthday; a day bursting with festivals. Because Buddhism is very traditionally celebrated but the country is now predominantly Christian, the temples will offer a free lunch to laymen during the morning, and every other town will initiate its own reason to celebrate something different (like Osu with dogs, Namwon with it’s love story, etc).

I decided to go to the 오수(osu) dog festival with the Chinese family from my Korean language class, although our region is more famous for a festival in 남원(Namwon), which celebrates a story similar to Romeo & Juliet. They even do a traditional Korean wedding that I am sure is unforgettable. Going to Osu had it’s benefits though!  I got to see so many cute dogs, spend time with my friend and her family, practice more Chinese speaking, and get to be an impromptu member of a Chinese cultural parade.

Other celebrations in May include Sports Day which is a randomly chosen day for students to play sports all day… I love it because I don’t need to teach those days 😀 There are many field trips, family day, children’s day, teacher’s day, and parent’s day. It’s a great day to give gratitude to the people you love… (below are my Daeri students on sports day)

 

If you don’t got a loving family living in Korea, this is a perfect time to travel as all these days happen close to one another. This was the time I went to Shanghai to see my girlfriend. My birthday happened to be the following Monday, so it was nice to be cuddled up with someone I love in another country. Probably the first happy holiday I’ve had since I left the States (Family-oriented holidays like Christmas and New Years were incredibly lonely for me, and filled with bad luck aparently).

Did I mention that Shanghai and China in general is very beautiful. The pollution is a bit of a shame, but the streets and everything all over Shanghai were so clean! recycling was very prioritized and rubbish bins everywhere. This was so lovely because in Korea, I get self-conscious about finding someone else’s rubbish pile to toss my own when I am out in the city (people clean these piles every morning though).

Jinpei and I in Shanghai

 

The Shanghai tower was so amazing, with it’s glass floor, and the food was so good, tea shops everywhere. I just can’t get China out of my head, even though Korea is so beautiful and peaceful now too. The people seem to have gotten a bit friendlier as well. Must be the ice melting off of everyone!

The glass floor seriously freaked me out to be honest

Anyway, if you had to ask me, the best time of year to come to Korea is the Month of May. There is always something going on, good weather, and fun to be had. Here are some extra photos of my students celebrating a day off hiking with me, a birthday gift, and celebrations being had so far this month:

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Korean Buddhism and Songsu Mountain

I just realized it’s been about two months since my last post, but that’s ok. You haven’t really missed out on much. Before I start the post, here is an update on life the last two months (you can skip to the *** part just above to the mountain picture if you want to get right into the content) I spent most of January too broke to do anything because of my Cambodia trip, and February in Korea is a mix of extremely boring, cold, and depressing. In that time my girlfriend and I split (mutually, still good friends but I was still sad over it), I got terribly sick, and I learned that I was allergic to amoxicillin by breaking out in hives all over my body. Doctors didn’t really help much with it. I also learned that February’s Seoullal 설날 is the best time to travel out of Korea because everything is closed. I spent that time in bed with hives, no money, and a sore heart. Desk warming after the holiday was also a pain. I gotta say I’ve never felt so desperate for work to start back up again!

March brought some great fortune though! I finally got my bike and got to take it for a long long ride in the countryside (here is a pic below. I will make an individual post about biking in Korea. the long story short on that is thus: Korea is an amazing place for cyclists!!)

The hills and mountains here make it a tough workout though! no joke! I think there was only one major mountain/hill I had to bike up/ down for my 20km ride (short but sweet hour bike ride. It was a little late), but it added 500km ascent to my Strava stats!

We also got some new teachers who are very social and outgoing which is great! The other teachers here all work in the same building so they socialize a little less with us traveling teachers (they are good folk though! Just different schedules and things going on for em). The weather has gotten better, I started talking to a very lovely girl who lives in China (probably my next adventure after Korea!), and all my new schools are so great and supportive! I have to teach at 6 different schools, but they are all amazing. Finally making friends with teaching staff and being taught great techniques for my lessons. I cut down on my drinking and my initial anxiety over Korea is fading. I have cute students in my elementary schools who either beg me to play a mobile Call of Duty-like game called “Special Soldier” (the boys obviously haha) and the girls try to teach me Korean. I feel like my turbulence is ending, though lesson planning kills me a bit (SO many lessons!!). But my teaching skills have improved so much compared to last year!

****All that being said, I’ve been in need of a little spiritual grounding. Because my Korean is so little it’s hard to communicate, I haven’t really been able to go to a temple and my meditation practice seemed to have hit a wall. Luckily a good friend of mine here, 태구 (Taegu), and his family are very close friends with a head monk at a hidden yet famous temple not too far from me in the mountains of Songsu (성수산).

I’ve been practicing Buddhism since I was very young. I started meditation in 1st grade to counter my ADD problems because I hated taking the medicine for it (thanks 90’s internet and Ask Jeeves search! I don’t even know if Ask Jeeves is still a thing lol!). And from there I piecemeal’d a practice together, met many great teachers from all over. Even still; I spent a lot of time in college still trying to figure out what it is all about. Even my time spent in Cambodia, or the hidden temples throughout MA left me with more questions than answers. I got a lot of different pieces of advice and some lessons from those I was fortunate enough to work with, but never a very precise answer to a lot of the mysteries that westerners encounter when really trying to figure out traditional Buddhism and life of the monks.

Going to this temple, named Sangiam 상이암 (literally “Left Ear”), as a friend and guest gave me a chance to explore a temple complex in a way that I’ve never been able to experience before. I got to walk around the meditation hall, was taught proper Korean prostration, saw the guest house (which I can stay at any time! They are so kind here!), the head monk’s private meditation chamber, and an amazing meditation lesson!

A bit of history:

This temple, although small and hidden, was the temple where the wise King Sejong’s grandfather, King Taejo Yi of Jeosan, went to worship. He renamed the temple when he heard of his grandson’s birth. King Sejong is the scholar-king who created Hangul, thus scattered throughout the temple rocks are carvings in the ancient Korean-Chinse language (since the current writing system didn’t exist yet). It is very beautiful:

This stone below is potentially one of the founding monks (스님). The first character , 태구 tells me, means “3” Maybe it was one of three monks?

There is also a small fresh mountain spring here. You see them all over Korea near the mountains. Fresh water from the streams that continuously pour down the mountains are collected in small pools for drinking if you are passing by. At first I didn’t know what they were or what you do with them. The first time I used one was when I was biking up the small mountain near my town. I felt like I was dying by the time I reached it because I am out of shape. I stopped here and saw that there was a small spring of water and some ladles. Without knowing what they were for, I drank anyway! Turns out I was doing it right! This is the one near my town, 임실:

It’s a little plain compared to the One at the temple, which was so calm in its appearance.

The area around the mountain is very rural as is, so it isn’t spoiled by heavy tourism, thus the nature trails are very scenic and beautiful. The sounds of creeks and small animals fill the air. Guests build small stone towers along the way in hopes that their wishes will come true. There is also an abundance of wild life around the mountains as well.

Not long after arriving to the temple itself, I was greeted by 2 cute black goats which were shy at first, but then came back with a small family of maybe 6. I think it was good luck! My Chinese Zodiac sign is the goat (probably why I look better with a beard). I told my previously mentioned Chinese friend about it and she is certain it is a sign of good luck! I do too. I feel like I am finally feeling more contentment with life here after a very rocky winter. Everything is looking up!

I didn’t get photo’s from when they were all together and coming rather close. You could hear them “mie mie-ing” to each other. Last time I went to a temple, it was in Daegu and I was approached by a wild boar. I swear I am the snow white of mountain animals.

The temple complex itself is small but very peaceful and beautiful. It has a larger guesthouse with a library, a smaller one which is only a single room, a dormitory for the monks, a small meditation chamber for the monks, a smaller one for the head monk, and a room for basic cooking, meeting guests, teaching,and living.

The main meditation/prayer room for laypeople is rather beautiful. Because it was empty and I was there with 태구 I got to, for the first time, shamelessly walk around and take pictures. In Cambodia, the US, and other temples I’ve been in, I’ve never been able to get a good look or photos of a room like this. Always too nervous to disturb people’s prayer or to do something that might be disrespectful… which was always a shame because these rooms are absolutely beautiful!!

I spent the evening meditating in this hall under the training of a monk in red robes (with too many names, so me and another monk there just call him “Red Monk”). His teaching was absolutely amazing.  Friendly yet somber, a good teacher. I was able to make a movement with my meditative slump I had found myself in. During the session I had nearly forgotten where I was, yet while still knowing where I was. I felt this human worldly connection with all living things while contemplating the Koan “This pear, it is not a pear. How is that so?” I don’t know if I found that answer but I found myself closer to the people around me. Less of a clutch on the ego; less feeling of separation from people.

This meditative style is different from Theravada which is mainly focused on an empty mind and breathing in and out. The breath and empty mind is the Koan itself. With Korean style Buddhism, it is more related to Zen. You meditate to gain both focus and endurance.

The world is separated into two sections: the outer gates: sight, smell, hearing, taste, feeling. The inner gate and ego is “thought.” To know one you must know the other.

When you meditate you think
“I see this thing (and it makes me feel___”) Who am I that feels like ___ to this sight?”
“I hear this sound (and it makes me feel____”) Who am I that feels____ to this sound?”
same with the rest of the outer gates.

You contemplate each answer the same way. The idea is to question each thing, and each answer until you find “0” (zero) nothing. and understand it in the context of Buddhism. Being a monk means learning the culture and traditions of Buddhism along with finding a way to always ask each of these questions with every action you take so that you are aware of everything you do. When this can be achieved, nothing you do or feel is automatic, but a conscious and controlled mindful action. I spoke with a monk named 데산 스님, who had been studying for 13 years. He is so open and friendly and everything he said was full of joy, beauty, and meaning. The kind of person you can’t feel uncomfortable with because he speaks to you with the style and sincerity of an old friend. Even he considered himself a beginner, as did the Red Monk.

I had a lesson on our worldly connective state and how existence only exists because of condition. I am only here writing this due to specific conditions taking place over thousands of years. Remove even a single Condition and I may not exist. Remove a single condition post birth and I might not be a teacher in Korea. This too tied into the Koan about the pear. This might seem like something you hear from The Butterfly Effect, but when you meditate on it, you see so much more than an interesting movie concept. Before we departed I learned the word “Inchin” (I don’t know the spelling) but the meaning is “the seed is the condition for the tree” It’s a very important word in Buddhism…. but in Korean it is a slang word for bitch too. There is always humor with monks!

Dharma lesson aside, here are some photos of the monk’s meditation chamber, guest house, and paintings inside of the large prayer room. I’ve rarely felt so peaceful and at home. Next chance I have, I will stay a night there and continue my study 🙂

 

There is much more too, but that would make for such a long post!
After we finished I went out for Chinese with 태구 and his mom. She is excited to show me some pottery and calligraphy next time we meet. She is very sweet! I need to learn more Korean so I can properly thank her for her kindness. 🙂

Korean Medical System (mini post)

Hey all! It’s been quite some time since I posted. Between my time traveling around Korea, hanging out in Cambodia, and then returning to the hectic life of winter camp my time has been all over the place. It’s also tax season and I need to readjust student loan payments because I’m broke and need to keep em low. Long story short; I’ve been up to my neck in paperwork!

So I’m going to do a smaller post because I am currently typing on a smaller machine. I figured out how to get my blog resources to load up on my outdated tablet (which is almost exclusively an e-reader now) so I can do some writing on the go. I’m also gonna do a Cambodia mega-post / podcast for the end of the week. It was such a journey! I will teach you how to Cambodia so that you too can have fun on $25/day or so! Ah I already miss it there! Korea is so cold it makes me want to sleep forever! Why must the world be colder than my bed?!?!

On the bright side, I got to leave Winter Camp early today because all the pipes in our school burst and no kids could come. Despite being a country with superior technology, crazy-cold winters, and humid summers, the idea of adjusting/building your buildings for temperature swings never occurred to Korea. The school doesn’t heat up during the closing-times, and the only rooms that do get heated are the ones that are occupied. The heaters are small and don’t work well. Today it was -23C outside which meant that the heaters were almost useless. Summertime the windows will be locked shut; no fan or air conditioning. Thankfully before the cold hit, I spent an hour learning how this devil-machine below works and now my floor-heating is set on a timer so I can keep warm and not lose all my noney to heating…and my pipes haven’t frozen or burst! (unlike my friends).

So currently I am in a little cafe named “Tom & Tom’s” in Jeonju because I just left the hospital… again… for the same problem as before. I’m eating some garlic bread with my coffee, and the guy drenched it in honey-butter; a substance that is either honey with a buttery taste in flavor…. or very buttery with a honey aftertaste. I got butter-honey ice cream once and it literally tasted like butter and I couldn’t finish it.

Korea is really in a “sweet” kick right now. I mean I’ve got a terrifying sweet tooth but I would die for something savory. I ordered this garlic bread thinking “ah this would be a savory side to go with my coffee!” (bread-based items are popular in cafe’s here… and waffles. so good!). Even pizza is very sweet. Like 80% of pizza places will put sweet potato under the cheese instead of sauce, especially if you get anything other than a cheese pizza. If it weren’t for the fact that cheese here is so unsatisfyingly bland, I would kill for a nice Boston cheese pizza. This pizza below has mashed sweet potato for sauce and is drenched in BBQ sauce. I’m dying for something that isn’t sweet!

Maybe my teeth will rot out and that will be my next trip to the doctors! I have such mixed feelings about the Korean medical system. On one hand it is very cheap, especially with my insurance. I mentioned this in a previous post about how when my back went out, getting consulted, x-rayed, and medicated only cost me $35 or so. I was rather impressed. It was fast, cheap, efficient, and worked out very well. Unfortunately this can only be said for basic medical conditions.

My trip to Cambodia had me come back with some kind of highly violent stomach bug. I was unable to eat anything but saltines and drink Polcari Sweat for three days and I lost 5lbs in a week. I went to the doctor on Sunday to learn that hospitals are closed on the weekends. Yep! If you gotta die, it has to be on one of your consecutive 5 working days. Oh! They also close at 5, so the moment you get out of work you are already boned! The hospital in my town is a smaller (medium sized really) facility. I went into the emergency room, where they keep the doctors in training for the emergency staff. I don’t know why, but the giggly nurses and the nervous intern doctor decided to give me “fluid therapy” which I then learned meant “hooking me up to an IV to chill around bored as hell for 3 hours.” I’ve never been hooked up to one of these before and so it was odd but whatever. I got three days worth of medicine, and three days later I was back to my violently ill self (doctors here don’t give you the amount you need to kick a sickness and it is bullshit. Meds are cheap here but you gotta see a doctor every time you need to refill. Like if the guy gave me a 1 week supply it would have made more sense but in every doctor I’ve visited gives me the same 3 day malarkey!!)

I also asked that doctor to do urine/blood testing but the hospital can’t do that on Sundays. Thankfully Tuesday we had so much snow that we got to leave Winter camp early and I went to see the doctor in Urology. I had some specific things I wanted to check for, and decided I would also do an STD / STI check because it’s something that I’ve been told I should do regularly especially since I’m seeing someone in the country. So first he tells me that he cant test for the things I want to be tested for. Next, he runs around the clinic yelling my name, and the STI/STD’s I wanted checked. Now everyone and their mother in Imsil now knows I’m getting STD/STI screening (which is a scary thing because 1. I am a foreigner and that reinforces negative stereotypes about us and 2. If my boss’s were to learn about this they WOULD question me and my job would be at risk.) Anyway all his yelling was for naught because they can only test for AIDS and he said since I wasn’t having physical symptoms of STDs/STI’s he wasn’t gonna waste his time checking me. I instead got referred to Jeonju Hospital which I was happier with because I was afraid if I did have something, it would only be a matter of time before everyone in Imsil found out and burned me at the stake.

I have mixed feelings about Jeonju hospital too. I went to the emergency room because I was told they will do testing at night. So right off it’s nice seeing a place that is mostly opened. I wrote down all my symptoms and what I wanted to have done in Korean, talked to a doctor (who tried getting me hooked onto “fluid therapy again which I had to refuse once they brought it over to me despite saying no), paid 60,000원 watched as the nurses ran up and down screaming my name and things I wanted to get tested for out loud. Finally they come over with a syringe and paper cup, I give them what they want. An hour passes, the doctor calls me over and tells me all the things I tested negative for… but none of those things include the stuff I asked for. Not a single damn one. I felt like Homer Simpson and he was Bart. Strangling a doctor in public is a good way to go to jail so I asked if he could test again but he just says “come back tomorrow.”

A week passes, and it is today! I only got to go because of the pipes bursting, no biggie. Arrived by 2pm. It was better and worse this time. One of the nurses; a very beautiful nurse whom I would guess was maybe 5 years older than me is trying to help me out the whole time. I saw two doctors before they get me to the Urology department… which I had written on a piece of paper in Korean to avoid this issue. The doctors who I talked to before they got me to urology were awful! Once again an entire wing of the hospital got to learn about how I wanted to check for STD’s and STI’s. He then asked me “why?” “where do you work?” “yeah but why?” “oh personal reason? Want me to send to your boss?” I lied about my town and work place because it was the last thing I needed to worry about. Apparently the idea of regular testing for safety is an avante guard concept here. Apparently my promiscuous life style is bending all the rules of Korean society and my want to be safe is me fighting the man! I don’t know. When they got me to the urologist he was great. Amazing English, no prying questions, closed the door before asking about my symptoms/reasons. Didn’t seem so bugged out about me wanting my junk to be safe and disease free, and was familiar with the parasite I wanted to get tested for from my Cambodia adventure. I have his number now and I’m gonna laminate it and copy it to my google drive or something. For real this has been a journey. I’ll know what’s wrong with me in 1 week so I can finally try to get meds for it.

Don’t let all my negativity err you from visiting/living in Korea (unless you got any mental health conditions or things that are uber chronic because then they wont hire you anyway and Korea doesn’t believe in mental health. Probably one of the reasons the suicide rate is so high too 😦 ). There are many complaints about the Korean medical system, lack of confidentiality being one of the big ones. Despite being very advanced in the medical field, draconian cultural ideals make certain things either impossible to fix or very inconvenient to treat. This also makes things very difficult for any LGBTQ Koreans/foreigners in need of testing.

There are also the pro’s to this system though! They do try their best to be thorough and they want to help you, it’s not gonna break bank if you get ill, and you get a lot of individual attention. Knowing Korean would have made this much easier, and the nurse helping me was very kind and stuck by me the whole time. You may also get the chance to experience traditional Chinese medicine, which doctors can prescribe you for (although it is a little pricier). Despite all the obsticals involved, health is taken seriously here!

Long story short: This country is going to kill me.

Pray for Starwars

Ok. Don’t know where the source of the featured image I used is, but, Starwars is going full throttle in Korea in the same way it is in the US. It hasn’t been spoiled for me yet (Thank glob!) but until now I spiritually wasn’t ready for it. Thankfully I have a movie theater literally behind my house so I will be able to see it somewhat uninterrupted in the coming days.

Last friday, this kind of stuff in the picture above is what I had to deal with. It was my last day teaching at a school that I was so happy to be finished with (I like some of the staff and love most of the students… but this school was both my main school and my most challenging). The students at all my schools had “last day syndrome” so even though I was playing Miyazaki movies and Adventure time with Korean subs, they were going crazy all over the place.

Thankfully, I already finished one of my schools for the semester, so I had 3 free days to kick it anywhere I wanted. Because I have a habit of being poor but my bank account was looking nicer than usual (a rare but welcome sight), I was ready to go anywhere and spend as little as possible in the place I landed. This time, I decided to go for Daegu, or more specifically for the sake of story progression, Gayasan mountain at the Hein Sa (해인사) temple an hour and a half from the city.

This is the gate to the national park. It’s an hour and a half bus ride from Daegu city but well worth the visit.  From Imsil to Jeonju to Daegu to Hain Sa… and back to Daegu, I think I spent most of that day on the bus. I took a bus at 9:30am from Imsil (임샬) to Daegu ( 대구) which took me about 3 to 4 hours, arriving at 12:30pm or so. I spent an hour getting myself to the Hostel (that I spent one night in)….before navigating the subway back to the same exact bus stop as before via subway.

I wish I could say I stayed the night at the temple… which you can do! It is so peaceful and beautiful (as you will see). The price isn’t as bad as those in the city. Unfortunately I already paid for my accommodations at the guest house. As I write this however, I am in a love-hotel in a part of the city where I think it is safe to say I am the only foreigner lol! The price is right (finally learned to be assertive and barter where I can. Wrestled the price down by 20,000won). It’s very garish though. I like it because I know I can get it cheap enough, the rooms are cozy, and it is near where my girlfriend lives… but it is soooo sleazy! I didn’t bother taking photos of the room. It’s covered in all sorts of butts and things… It’s a very funny environment. Here I am, alone, in a room covered in butts watching the 6 starwars episodes on TV, just enjoying the heat and nice whirlpool tub (hahaha)! It also does not have a 4th floor because the number 4 is bad luck here. Not the only building I’ve seen that didn’t have a 4th floor.

To make up for the lack of sleezy pictures, I’ll show you the instructions for sharks trying to use the toilet and some photos of the Hostel I stayed at the night before. The hostel was very nice and probably the only one (or other one) in Daegu. No other travelers there though! Everyone was from Korea. I think Daegu misses out on some love because it is the 4th largest city, it’s midcountry, and although people say the nightlife is cheaper than Seoul, I dunno if I agree. Don’t get me wrong. It is a huuuuggeee city! However, I think Seoul takes the cake because it is so populated and diverse that it just happens to have more plentiful and cheaper venues as a result of how many people go there and the competition.

 

With that being said, other than seeing my girlfriend again, the temple was probably the most amazing part of the trip. I’m planning to go back very soon.
A brief history of the temple before I get into more photos: Hein Sa is one of the most important Medicine Buddhist temples around. It contains a collection of over 80,000 wood blocks containing the Korean Buddhist cannon: The Tripitaka Koreana (the largest cannon in the world). Unfortunately this temple has constantly been under attack and burned down by invaders. I think it’s been burned down three times. The first time was by the Mongolians who also managed to destroy all the woodblocks (about 700-800 years ago). Then the monks spent another 16 years re-carving the blocks using more advanced techniques of preservation. Then the Japanese burned it down (but the library remained intact), and then it got burned down again by accident (and yet again the woodblocks were kept safe by some miracle). The last attempt was during the Korean war, but a really dedicated fighter pilot who was probably also pretty annoyed at how many times this place kept getting burned to the ground, valiantly shot down all those who tried to destroy it. There are no smoking/fire signs everywhere. I think the guy putting them up was like “I swear on me mums life, if this place burns down ONE MORE TIME!”

This turtle-dragon gravestone was about 1km from the temple itself. Once you get there, there are more. I think the dragon on top is guarding one of the Dragon Balls.

A small retreat of some sort outside of the temple area by 0.5km

This is the first gate leading into the temple complex

A path leading to the second gate. I don’t have a photo of myself but as you can see from my shadow I’m decked out in my cloak and cowboy hat. I stuck out like some kind of wizard. Kids and adults gave me stares looks of awe as I walked around the complex.

A tree with wishes on it.

One of four important bells hiding around the country. In my Seoul Searching post, I showed a photo of the bell in Seoul. I think there are four towers too. Maybe if I ascend all four towers and see all four bells I will gain magic powers.

A cool dragon hiding next to the bell

Beautiful view next to a sign written in ancient Chinese

Decorations like this are all over the rooftops around the temples. The intricacy of some of the paintings and carvings is breathtakingly ornate. You can find something beautiful in almost any direction.

One of many small houses filled with very ornate Buddha Statues. I think head monks sleep in here

Here is one of them. I didn’t get a photo of the large Buddha inside the main hall of warship because it was a more auspicious place. I didn’t want to be disrespectful and take photos of people praying, especially before doing so myself…. on that note, I need to learn how things work here. I am versed in the Theravada tradition and Khmer style of prostration… Here they are Mahayana and they have their own way of prostrating. I probably looked funny doing it the way I knew, so I’ll need to learn more of the customs involved!

This is the gate to where the woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana are stored

And this is a close-up of the inside. It wasn’t open today so I could only observe from a distance. The construction of the building is so advanced and astounding to engineers even today. It has the windows stilted in a specific way for humidity control, with charcoal beneath floorboards opened at very specific lengths. The government tried to make a new room for the woodblocks using the most advanced technology for temperatures and humidity adjustment available (which you know must be nuts because Korea lives in the future)… unfortunately the whole thing was scrapped because the test-blocks started to get mildew and they couldn’t fix it.

These are some pictures I took just outside the “photo area” where you could stand in front of a picture of the wood blocks so it would look like you were actually in the room. I thought the view outside of it was nicer

This tree has an interesting story to it. One of the important Buddhist scholars spent his last days on this hill, playing lute and attracting beautiful birds. He hit the ground with his cane and in its place this tree sprouted. There really is a very mystical energy coming from it. They call it the hill of the Scholar. I felt like I was being wordlessly whispered to as I stood on top of it.

I don’t know what this is, but it’s pretty.

After climbing down the mountain I bought some Reishi Mushrooms… but a wild boar wanted them more than I did! I think I made a friend!

I later left the mountain and crashed for the night at the Hostel. I did look around downtown for a bit but I got kind of bored from being on my lonesome. Found a bus bar though!

There are two more topics I want to touch on before ending this post. One is how awesome the names of places around here are. Because English is sort of a lingua fraca here and not tied to any of the cultural value we put on it, you see total disregard for interpretation of language. This means a lot of stores end in the word “story” like “jazz story, tea story, jacket story” etc. You also get some rather…amazing names too like these below. If I open a business, I want to do it in Korea so I can give it a name of utter nonsense. It’s a lot like how Americans get Chinese/Japanese tattoos without knowing or caring what they mean. You might have “water” inked on you in Chinese, but it’s the same character used in words like “sewer system, bottled water, toilet water, hose, lake, puddle, etc”

I love it though.
The last thing I want to talk about, because I didn’t get much of a chance to in my Seoul Searching post, is the subway systems in Korea.

The subways here are outstanding. I’ve only seen two of them; Seoul’s and Daegu’s. The one in Seoul at first glance will make your head spin but after a minute or two of figuring it out, you see what makes it so great (I use an app to help me with Seoul since it is so massive). Daegu’s is a lot smaller but SO efficient! I’ve taken a taxi which took me an hour to go where the subway took me in 20 minutes. Daegu’s subway system is what Boston’s should be. Everything is nice and clean, bathrooms available, directions laid out. As an enthusiast of hating Boston’s subways, I can say this was very pleasing. I miss absolutely nothing about the cold dingy slow and terrible Boston subway system. One of my first memories of the Boston subway was bringing my friend’s little brother with us there. The smell had him dry-heaving.

One thing that caught my attention is how subway stations act both as modes of transportation and shopping malls. Most of Daegu’s station stops are pretty simple, but the one in the downtown area is literally a sprawl of underground shops and food stores. It’s incredible when you are looking for your gate and you run into this:

FOR SHAME BOSTON! FOR SHAAAMMEEE!
Imagine what could be done if private investors could transform our terrible system into something this beautiful and convenient. Everyone in the city goes down and through here. Why hasn’t this opportunity been taken yet??

Other than that, I will leave you with some photos demonstrating how easy they make the subway to navigate, how cozy it is in there, and how safe it is. Words can’t describe it. The rails run so smoothly that you don’t even need to hold onto anything when it moves. My days of a rail surfer in Boston are over for now it seems. It takes no skill to stand up in these things while they zoom around at redonkadonk speeds.

Stairs going down one of many numbered gates so you know where in the City you are going to:

First the gates are closed, and a screen / intercom tells you when it is coming. The same systems are inside the train too, in English. You always know where you are going.

Train arriving

people get on and off

There are plates in the ground with color-coded arrows going all over so it is hard to get too lost.

 

It was an exciting trip! At the end of the day, I got to cuddle up with my Dahkling (Thai for “monkey butt”.. it sort of sounds like the word “darling” when you say it… Yeaahhh it’s a great pet name 😛 ) and sleep off the day… and then I went to a bar

 

I’ll be going back today! (It took me a few days to finish writing this). but then later I’ll be off for Cambodia so my next post will be more about returning to my home away from home in South East Asia. No podcast this month, but I’ll have a good one coming up this January!

Seoul Searching

Hello all! Man it’s been a long time since I posted! The end of November through mid-December gets awfully busy! Students have exams, my schedule gets pulled everywhere, and I come home most nights wicked tired and ready to go to bed. It’s so nice that things are starting to wind down a little bit. I’m currently in school right now; classes ended early so I have three hours to kill which means it’s time for a belated update!

As I’ve mentioned before, I live in the town of Imsil (임실) which is famous for cheese and being a lonely place for a guy who can’t speak Korean (yet!!) or properly fit in culturally. This means when my friends are all busy, I spend my days unable to communicate with people. I stick out like a sore thumb and folk around here tend to be very shy about speaking to me, which I understand… and there isn’t much to do in my town but sleep and hike the local mountain. I spent two weeks in isolation and I was ready to beat my loneliness in Seoul. As you can see in my above pictures, I had no problems finding Ho’s and Cocaine not long after arriving in the university party district, Hongdae (홍대). The party started well!

After enjoying the rich drinking culture of Makkoli (막걸리) I went to find my hostel, The Lazy Fox. Their slogan is good thinking in my opinion. “Just be lazy” and I was pretty lazy about getting there… at midnight. The poor girl who owns/lives there waited so long for me. I was very very grateful! It’s very cheap too and a five minute walk from Hongdae; nestled into a very quiet area a minute from the subway.  I had a bunk in a cozy men’s dorm room for 18,000 won per night (something like $12-$15 USD with the current exchange rate. They also have women’s dorm and mixed dorm).  I got to know the staff and other travelers very well in the morning over breakfast. I think this is going to be my go-to spot for whenever I visit Seoul in the future :). If you wish to book with them, Their website can be found here!

If the outside doesn’t catch your attention, the cool art inside might. If I had to describe what it felt like staying here, it was a lot like being able to chill at your cool aunt/uncles house, and your other cousins chilling there come from all over. I can be a somewhat shy person but I felt nothing short of friendliness here.

 

Considering how much I had to drink the night before, I woke up surprisingly early with no headache; ready to explore the unknown. I also paid to stay a second night here because although my original plan was to drink until I crashed at a Jimjilbang (찜질방), I had second thoughts about stumbling into a bath house at 5am to get naked and pass out in a pool. Doubt they would let me in, especially if they saw my huge back tattoo (some places won’t let people with tattoos stay. Old minds relate tattoos with being in a gang).

So, a good decision later I was looking at a map. One of the guys (from Canada!) I talked to who I shared a room with suggested I go to the war museum. Museums are a great thing to do when it is early and you have no plans, I thought to myself. And it’s true! I came here with no plans for the daytime; just nighttime shenanigans! I grabbed the subway and got off about a mile away from the museum (next time I am in Seoul I will take photos of the subway for the seoul purpose of making you cats down in Boston hate me for being here). As I walked, using my GPS, I missed the war museum entirely and found myself at the national museum instead.

I gotta tell you; IT IS SO HUGE!!! I looked around found the information center and was like, “Hey, how much for a ticket for the museum?” and the girl there looks at me, confused, and tells me “It’s free.”

“All of it?” I inquire.

“Yeah…”

“Like, all of the museums, the garden…all of it?”

“Duh…”  I’m sure she would say if she were versed in the preferred American nomenclature. But she just said yes. I was there (at the museum, not the info center) for five hours… FIVE HOURS! Didn’t pay a dime. I didn’t even see the whole thing because I was exhausted by the end of it. Like, I barely even got to see inside of the main museum. I spent most of my time nerding out in the Hangul (한글) museum and the large absolutely beautiful garden. See for yourself how big it is; I barely do it justice.

A view of the reflective pool

Me near the gazeebo (a gift from someone to the museum…with the massive pool that has koi fish in it).

Closeup of the traditional style gazeebo

Some of the statues all around the garden. There were many more but I only had enough room for these pictures.



A bell from 1,000 years ago. I forget what it was for but it was a very important artifact (please message me if you know!)


And some nature and natural water and birds around the museum.

I think I spent two hours taking it all in. It isn’t super huge (it is big though) and if you were to speed through it you might see everything in 30 minutes but I like to take things slow and really soak it up. It was much more beautiful than I could give justice to here.

From this point I decided to go to the Hangul Museum because I am a huge nerd when it comes to written language. In fact, Hangul is probably my favorite written language of all time (this has been true even before I knew how easy it was to read and write the language). Once upon a time there was a king who was also a devout scholar/intellectual named King Sejong. Remember that name because he is one hell of a historical figure. Makes me wish we had more politicians like him because my countless studies in US and Asian history all point to one thing: When someone who values both education and being educated comes into power, GOOD THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN! In the US we had founding fathers like George Washington and Ben Franklin take charge and shape things. Once they died and the basis of what became today’s political arena got shaped up, everything slowly went bad. Same is true(ish…things got much better after American-Korean War) for Korea. King Sejong made a large number of grand contributions to his people and the country but he is most famous for Hangul. The general history of most Asian countries goes as follows: China created a writing system so complex that only rich men could afford to do it. They believed that if women tried to learn to write, their heads would probably explode (same was true for men and most people today too…). Peasants couldn’t afford to sit down and learn over 10,000 characters even if they wanted to. Some countries kept it, most reduced it to 2,000 common use characters after WWII. Japan tried to change it but the rich men in power made it even worse than before, even with the reduction to 2,000 after WWII. Korea instead made a new written language based off of tongue/throat placement that everyone could use. I learned the basics in about 2 days, and I mastered all the little rules about pronunciation and sound-change (there are roughly 12 of them) in about a week.

Here is a cool trippy video featuring one of the first books written by Sejong as he formed the language. It is incredible how beautiful and technologically advanced the exhibits here are:

 

Here is a close-up of the book.

Unfortunately due to wars with Japan and China, Hangul was always being made illegal but because of it’s cultural importance it kept resurfacing. Today as a result of efforts to preserve culture, all of Korea (even the north) use it… This was a problem even up until the mid 1900’s as well. The common use of it country wide is, as a result, still finding it’s place. There was an exhibit about the place of Hangul in the digital age that was also really really amazing! Before I go into that though, just realize that the place of poetry and artistic use of the language is still a newer thing. It’s beautiful I think. When I have more of the language and culture down, I can’t wait to write some Hangul poetry 🙂

Here is another video showcasing Hangul as an artistic medium. It is also trippy because Korea really knows how to make everything so impressive!:

 

I love old books! Especially on language! I was in here for an hour and a half just marveling at all the history, books, translations, etc. I would have stayed in longer but it was such a small exhibit and I wanted to see the guest exhibit before it got to be too late.

Here are some of the things I got pictures of. There are more but I figured for most people once you’ve seen an old book in ancient text, you’ve seen em all maybe.

 

The next was the digital exhibit. I have a video of the main room and a few points of interest. They even had my favorite typewriter there… BUT IN HANGUL!. The rest is just a lot of the retro tech we’ve seen back at home but with Korean letters on them. It was super neat to see it all. If requested, I’ll put them up in a seperate post.

My body projected onto the wall in digital form

TYPEWRITER!

 

Finally, I walked around in the main museum for 30 minutes and saw this neat sculpture inside of the MASSIVE main hall. I can’t believe that this and most museums in Korea are free. Our art museum in Boston is very nice but so small in comparison and tickets are upwards of $30! Unless you are smart like me and my poor-friends and stock up on $15-ticket coupons, a day out with a friend can cost you $60 just to go inside the Boston Art museum. I didn’t stay for long sadly because I was so exhausted. I decided to shrug off the physical exhaustion… by walking 2-3 miles to N-Seoul tower…

I won’t write too much about the tower because this post is getting long, but it was great! I don’t know why I went… or went alone since it is a couples spot. You can see the locks in the following pictures. Lovers write something sweet on them and put them up to preserve love forever. No regrets though! I met a nice Korean man and his brother. Both spoke some English and Khmer (which was so surprising!) so we spoke to one another in a mishmash of 3 languages as he followed me all over and got to be my boyfriend for the day I guess lol! He took a lot of photos of me, but I didn’t get any of him. I guess it wasn’t meant to be 😥

Here are some of those locks:

No idea what this was doing here… especially since pot is super illegal in South Korea!

This is how Koreans see us Americans.

Such a pretty view!




Me!

Inside the tower

Outside the tower

 

Long day! I walked maybe 15km in total and I was so beat!
All’s good though! After an hour of RNR, I met my dormmates from France, Canada, Ireland, and we hit the pubs. Think we got back at 5am and watched classic Irish short films until passed out 🙂

Teachin in Korea Episode 2? :Getting Here

Long time no post! Been busy all over the place with teacher-training, yoga, and all sorts of life-stuff. I’ve got tons more content coming your way so don’t worry. For now, here is the belated episode 2 of Teaching in Korea where I talk about actually getting here and a little bit of what to expect. I recorded this far in advance so although it’s not 100% current to the date, all the info is still pretty relevant. I sound like such a robot in the beginning. Been trying out some voice techniques and practicing them in the meantime to sound better. At this point I’ve been in Korea a full month and have my first paycheck! Ahhh it is so nice to not be broke anymore! In the next podcast or post (whichever happens first) I’ll tell you how to avoid getting scammed out of $500.ooo USD ($500,000 Won) at your first Noraebang (Karaoke) experience. For now, I hope you enjoy!