Busy, Busy, and then some more Busy

     To say that we've been busy is an understatement. It started just before Jungwon's graduation from the SMU Tesol Program. We had a few weekends full of her final class projects which included a foreigner interview (guess who was the foreigner), a lot of typing, and very little sleep.
     Just before her graduation, after the projects were submitted, the celebrating began. We had a quadruple date with some of her old university friends. The night began with too much soju, and ended with a few hours of sleep before Jungwon and I took our promised trip to Suwon.
     Before we left Suwon, I asked Jungwon if she thought she would like to come back to visit. She answered with something akin to, "why would I come back here?". Yet, she was very excited to go back to our old haunts. We had lunch at D-Deli, went to visit the old elementary school, and then went to the fusion restaurant named Su. In between we took a break for a few hours to catch the Sex in the City movie, and we sat for a time in a park we used to visit during our lunches. It was a good time even if we were tired from the previous night of drinking.
     The next weekend was the celebratory weekend for Jungwon's Tesol program group, G9. We went out for wine, and then took a trip to Namsan. Visiting the mountain was very different at night, and they had even changed out the art work. The evening was more relaxed than the previous weekend, but we still stayed out late, and drank a good bit of wine.
     The next Thursday was Jungwon's SMU Tesol graduation. Her mom and sister were there so I was very nervous. After the graduation program, which was a bit different from any graduation I'd been to, we took lots of pictures, went out to eat, and then Jungwon and I joined her classmates at a nearby bar for a nightcap before heading our ways for the evening.
     The next day was a workshop day for my school. We took a trip out to Namisum. The island is absolutely gorgeous, but I was wary of the wild ostriches roaming about. Yes, I typed ostriches.

quadrupal date	Suwon Revisited
G9 does wine	grad

namiseom

Hong Kong

     Plus One sent me to Hong Kong last week to get my E-2 visa. The reason that they send their teachers to Hong Kong is that it is supposed to be a one day process there. Yes it can be one day, but the policy is two days. Luckily the lady that works there has a heart of gold and she did mine in one day, and I was able to catch my flight.
     I had a working day to kill while I was waiting on my passport so I decided to kill it by going to see the largest-outdoor-bronze Buddha in the world. It was a good choice as it really did kill most of the day. I left the consulate at about ten in the morning, and I made it back just a tad after three. And that included taking a detour to look around Kowloon station.
     To get to the statue take the Tung Chung line on the Hong Kong subway system. You want to go all the way to Tung Chung, currently the last stop on the line. When you are exiting the station just follow the signs for Ngong Ping. The fare for the cable car was less than $100HK for a round trip.
     Just as a side note. The Incheon airport in Seoul is now trying to double as an art gallery. They had an interesting, though slightly annoying display of art by Nam June Paik set up on the first floor.

hongkong

Where to begin?

     It's been a long month. Dad has come and gone from Korea, Jungwon and I went to Namsan, and of course there was Halloween at the school. I'll keep the text short, and let the pictures do the talking.

Namsan	Halloween	Dad

Really Country

     I have finally, officially met Jungwon's mom, twice. In case I haven't mentioned it the first meeting was accidental at a coffee shop just after we started dating.
     For the first official meeting we decided to have lunch in Seolae Maeul, which is a small neighborhood in Seoul that was apparently, at one time, home to a clump of French people. We went to one of my favorite restaurants and had some pasta followed by a cup of coffee. Jungwon's mom seemed to accept me, but she admonished me repeatedly for my lack of Korean.
     For the second meeting, Jungwon invited me to accompany them to a temple/African art center outside of Seoul. We had a good time and after walking around for several hours we had some Manduguk (dumpling soup) at a famous restaurant. Unfortunately I didn't memorize the name of the temple, or the restaurant. If I remember correctly you head south, take a left, and it's on the left. However, I did take a few pictures around the temple, not too many because I didn't want to offend anyone. Then at the African art center we got a lot more pictures of everyone.

Really Country

QingDao

     For anyone that didn't know, I had to take a trip out of Korea. My work visa was expiring. Therefore I needed to leave, and reenter on a tourist visa.
     To set up the trip, I was just going to check on what I would need to go to China. I started off by going to Hana Tour, where the lady quickly told me that I'm not allowed to leave the country because my visa was expiring. I tried to explain to her that was why I needed to leave, but in the end it was no use.
     Next I went to Hyundai Dream Tour. Hyundai is a more upscale travel agency and the people were able to take care of everything for my trip out of Korea.
     First I had to get a tourist visa for China. This is much different than getting a tourist visa for Korea or Japan. For China you have to submit your passport, application form, and application fee (currently just over one hundred thousand won) to the Chinese Embassy. This doesn't have to be done in person. After three to four days your passport is returned to you, more than likely with your visa. The standard tourist visa is worth 2 visits of thirty days during the next six months.
     Next the travel agent figured that QingDao would be the cheapest flight. I got it booked (three hundred fifty thousand won including airport tax and agent's commission), and then I waited for my passport.
     The day before my flight my passport arrived back at the agency. I took a trip to pick it up, and stopped by the nearest Kook Min bank to exchange some KRW for RBY. Everything was set.
     Things went uneventfully at the airport. I showed up early and killed some time with coffee and bagels. Eventually it was time to board the flight.
     I was flying East China Air. ECA's flight code is MU. I think Mu can mean "nothing" or "radish" in Chinese. Neither would be a good sign. To say I gulped when I saw the little gold "Made In China" sticker on the door to the plane is an understatement. I got my window seat over the wing, and quickly noticed footprints on the wing of the plane. Barefoot prints.... What sort of aircraft mechanic walks about barefoot?
     I strapped myself in and began to divert my attention to anything besides the aircraft. Anytime someone spoke on the intercoms the TV's shorted out. The Korean announcement actually gave me more information than the English announcements. Worse yet, everyone had eyes on me as I was the only westerner on the plane.
     Take off went well, and the flight was super quick. However, landing almost made me wet myself. QingDao was being hit by a rather large storm. The plane shook and lurched. It dropped and it careened. The other passengers were giving out collective gasps and wondering why there was no sunlight outside of the windows. I was busy trying to decode the Chinese characters on the emergency evacuation cards.
     This plane had the quickest disembarkation that I've ever seen. People literally ran from the plane. Of course, everyone ended que'd to fill out the immigration cards. I had a woman turn to me and politely ask me for a pen before she realized I wasn't Korean. I just smiled and handed her one. She was just a bit surprised.
     Getting into China was very simple. Getting out of the airport was sort of fun. A lady approached me and asked me in thick English, "Taxi?" I thought she was a taxi driver, I said, "sure, bathroom first". When I stepped out, she was waiting eagerly for me. She asked me where I wanted to go, and I tried to explain good hotel. Not best hotel. Good hotel. She lead me about looking for someone willing to interpret. She eventually found someone that understood, he explained it to her, and she lead me out to a taxi. She wasn't a driver. By what I can tell, her job is to help foreigners upon their arrival at the airport. She didn't ask for money, and simply told the taxi driver what I needed.
     The driver got us going (the taxi was strangely meterless) and immediately took it upon himself to teach me Chinese. He was surprised at how quickly I was picking up the words, so I explained to him that they were similar to the Korean that I knew. I filled the pauses by teaching him English and Korean. He drove for about forty-five minutes during which he called ahead to a potential hotel. He took the scenic route and pointed out different places I could walk to. Then he took me into the hotel and explained to the desk workers that I wanted a low-cost room. I got his name and number and asked him if he'd be working the next morning. He said he would, and would drive me back to the airport. I paid for the room and the ride, and was suddenly alone.
     I spent about fifteen minutes in the room before I set out to go see the sights. I was about two blocks from the waterfront. It was literally a walk through the park. The coastline was jagged with just a few sandy areas for swimming. I walked until I got tired in one direction before I got tired and walked back to the hotel. Just before I went in, I remembered, I wanted to get some Chinese coins. I hadn't seen anything I'd consider a store during my whole walk so I went in the opposite direction. This lead me to a road that had some huge houses and trees. Still, no stores. I took a right turn towards what was supposed to be a historical marker, but just found the beach again. I decided to call it an evening as it was beginning to sprinkle and walked back to the hotel.
     At the hotel I took a quick shower and a long bath (been a year since I've had a bath). Then I promptly crawled into one of the beds and fell asleep. Two hours later I awoke to the sound of about five car alarms. I could hear the rain and wind outside the window. One by one the cars became quiet and I laid there listening to the storm. The room lit up, the air was filled with thunder, the cars started beeping again. This went on from about ten PM until four AM. Lightning, thunder, beep-beep-beep. Lightning, thunder, beep-beep-beep-drip-drip-drip-drip. The floor to ceiling window in the room had begun to leak. I was exhausted, I thought I'd tell the hotel about it in the morning.
     I got up early and had the hotel call Xie (my driver). I tried to tell two people about the drip, all they said was "sorry" and hurried away so I gave up. Xie must have been sleeping down the block because he was at the front door in five minutes. He drove me back through Qingdao on a totally different route. The city was flooded. Parts of the mountains had washed over the roads. Water was rushing out of man hole covers. A little creek we had passed the day before was now large enough to cover the width of three roads...luckily it had huge flood banks to keep it from covering the actual roads.
     The weather delayed my flight for an hour which gave me time to look around the duty free shop (singular) and eat breakfast at the restaurant (also singular). The flight home wasn't so interesting, and the Korean customs and immigrations went through without a hitch.
     I finally got here about two hours ago, still exhausted. I may write later about the differences between Korea/China/USA, but it would probably be pretty boring to read.
     Pictures below, enjoy. I need to let everyone know I'm alive.

QingDao

Han River

     Back in July, Jungwon and I went to the Han River. The Han River (Hangang {한강}) is the main river that runs through the center of Seoul. We took the number 2 (green) subway line to Sincheon Station {신천역} and walked north for a block to get to the river. The area that we walked around was a public park of sorts. There was a swimming pool, a walkway that was fairly crowded with people, and some ferries.
     The swimming pool made me realize again that there are many differences between Korean and American culture. The women were pretty well covered. If they weren't swimming, the women had loose dresses on to cover themselves. I was thinking that many girls walking around the party areas of Seoul wear less than these women were swimming in. In contrast, the men were wearing little speedo swimsuits. They had no qualms, in the water or out, of showing off their....packages. These are probably the same men that walk around in business suits, in the middle of summer, no matter what type of business they are attending.
     The walkway was full of pedestrians, cyclists, small dogs, picnics, and vendors. At times it was difficult to walk around the sporadic picnics, but we managed not to fall into the river. Another cultural phenomenon that I noticed was spitting into the river. At first I thought it was just the older men, but after it was mentioned we noticed young people including women spitting nice wads into the waves. Maybe it was just a desire to mix their water with the water of the world.
     Finally, we decided to ride one of the river ferries. Just due to timing we ended up purchasing the more expensive tickets for a ferry that featured a Live Cafe. There weren't any seats outside on this particular ferry so my camera was having a fit trying to focus on the outside world, the dirty window, and the reflections on the windows. The good news was that there were no mosquitoes in the ferry.
     All of the pictures were taken before we hopped on the ferry. It was getting fairly late in the evenings and I got a few decent shots of the sun struggling through the clouds to shine on the water. The movies were taken on the ferry. The first one is on the way down the river, looking at the south bank. The second movie is heading back up the river, looking at the north bank. The final movie is a shot of the Namsan tower. The background noise for the movies isn't very good, just the murmur of a few dozen people around us, and the music from the cafe.
     On a side note: during the whole trip to the river I kept thinking of this movie.

hangangpics

Heading West, Looking South.

Heading East, Looking North

Namsan Tower

Seoul Grand Park

     Jungwon had been wanting to go to the zoo for a while so last Sunday we kicked things off by watching Shrek the Third at CoEx, and then heading down to Seoul Grand Park.
     First the specifics. Seoul Grand Park is on the number 4 line (light blue) 3 stops below Sadang {사당역}. It is subway station number 437 and is listed as Seoul Grand Park {대공원}. When you get off the subway simply follow the signs and/or crowds of people. You'll eventually come to a ticket booth to buy a tram ticket (or as an alternative you can veer right to get a ticket for a ski lift type thing, but I don't know where that will deposit you). The tram follows a circuit allowing you to easily get to any of the park's attractions. There is a rose garden, an amusement park, a museum, and of course, the zoo. The tram costs 800 won and has Korean and English voice overs.
     Jungwon made it a point to mention that she wanted to see the dolphin show so when we bought our zoo entry tickets we made sure to get our reserved seats. The zoo admittance and dolphin show came out to be 9,000 won total for two people. Total cost for tickets including the trams back and forth came out to be 12,200 won. Frozen bottles of water cost 1,000 won in the park, and during the summer they are a necessity. We went through three bottles of water, two that we brought with us, and one that we bought after the dolphin show, and this was only June!
     The zoo had a good collection of animals. Of course I didn't like the small sizes, ugliness, and boringness of many of the animals cages. For the most part the animals did seem to be in good health, although the monkeys and apes seemed very stressed by the jeering visitors and the lack of intellectual stimulation.
     One thing that I liked about the zoo was the fact that it had a lot of educational side shows. Little rooms you could enter that had information (in Korean) about how the wolves at this zoo were genetically altered to have domestic dog stomaches, or a room that talked about animal dung (many Koreans, especially children, seem to be obsessive about poop).


The Goodies


     First we have pictures uploaded to my web folder. There are giraffes, a cute baby hippo, lions cuddling, a rhino, a lemur, and (of course) the room of poop. Next are two videos of the dolphin show. The show started with a couple of performing seals, and then the dolphins showing off. The first video is actually the end of the show. You can see my camera going in and out of focus. The Auto Focus was giving me fits all day. The second video is cute, but unfortunately the end just went totally out of focus. None of the pictures of the show turned out.

Seoul Grand Park

Dolphin Show 1

Dolphin Show 2