Daegu 2: Why Daegu?

At Daegu Station. What you don't see is the massive Lotte Department Store that the station's connected to.

At Dalseong Park

We had a decent smoothie here. I couldn't pass up going to this regional chain. It's a strange yet apt name for a coffee shop.

Rochelle told me that people would ask, "Why Daegu?" when she told people we were going there for a 3 day weekend. I fared better; everyone at school said,"Have a good time!" Apparently Daegu isn't a big destination among Koreans. (Maybe not among expats either, for we saw fewer than 10 foreigners in the the downtown area this weekend)

Our reasons for going were simple: We wanted to see another of the big Korean cities and to enjoy some regional cuisine. Another reason centered on going to a brand new place. There's something about going somewhere I've never been before that's exciting. It's the unknown and the thrill of the new. My Wasu buddy Dave had fondly remembered the place from his army days and said that we'd have no trouble getting around because everything's centered around the downtown area of Jungang-ro. 

We came down with a loose agenda of restaurants, markets, and parks to go to and we ticked off everything on it. We mostly stayed in the downtown area, so our experience was far from all-encompassing, but we did get a good look at the city and enjoyed wandering about the area. Aside from a subway ride to Beomeo Station (범어역), everything we did was within walking distance of our hotel next door to Daegu Station.

Seoul sights: 63 City

63 City action

"With 63 floors measuring a height of 264m, the 63 Building is Korea’s tallest and most recognized building. The 63 Building boasts spectacular views of the Hangang River and the surrounding mountains of Bugaksan Namsan and Gwanaksan. 63 Building has undergone considerable renovation and the basement floor boasts convenient facilities including 63 Sea World, 63 IMAX theater, Korea’s greatest buffet restaurant “Buffet Pavilion,” and a host of other restaurants."

- from Korea Tourism Organization's entry on 63 City

I've been wanting to go here since my recruiter sent a Korea travel guide in the mail and after many weekends of not going there, we finally went. Woohoo for getting stuff done and boohoo for procrastination.

63 City's like Seoul's equivalent of the Willis Tower in Chicago, only it has many more things inside it. Whereas Chicago has Willis Tower's Sky Deck and the Shedd Aquarium, 63 City has the Sky Art observation deck and Sea World in the same building. The place also has a food court, a wax museum, and an IMAX theater inside. I must say, the Koreans know how to build a tourist destination. 

Rochelle and I were mostly interested in Sky Art, which combines the 60 story high observation deck with an art gallery full of pieces from around the world. It featured mostly drawings and paintings from Europe this time. Though many looked interesting, a few didn't quite catch our eyes. We did see a Dali piece though. I don't know too much about art, but I do enjoy Dali's surrealistic pieces, so that was good to see. The real thrills lay with the observation deck: We'd come up on a sunny but hazy afternoon and even the haze couldn't stop us from seeing for miles all around the city. We looked out upon Seoul from every direction and found it inspiring. As noted before, the city's a crazed mix of old and new. The contrast between the new concrete high rises and the older neighborhoods looked especially great from 60 floors up. It looked as though the new complexes would swallow the old neighborhoods whole by squeezing them out of the sun.

We enjoyed seeing the city from these new perspectives and plan on going back again to check out the Sea World and the Wax Museum. It makes for a great afternoon out. Highly recommended to anyone in Korea. In fact, there were many families and couples there alongside us, so it's a popular attraction for Koreans as well. Many of my students have been there and they said they enjoyed it.

Directions: It's within 15 minutes walk from exit 5 of Yeouinaru (여의나루) station, but it's also on 3 bus lines. There's a free shuttle as well.

Cost: 12,000won/person for Sky Art. Other stuff is extra. I bought 2 tickets with my card and the lady dropped 2,000 from the price, so perhaps you can do the same if you go with another person. 

Vacation Day 10-1: Cafe Bong

Another quality day here. The flight for the US leaves Friday night, so I'm eagerly awaiting seeing the family once again. 

Wasu's moving up in the world once again, for we now have a new coffee house in town, Cafe Bong. It opened on Christmas Eve in what was once a run-down bar on the roundabout. Apologies for delays in writing about it; I didn't notice it until last week and didn't remember to snap a picture until today. There would have been a picture of the interior, but for whatever reason they were closed tonight, so there went my plans to sip tea and write in there tonight.

Cafe Bong has what may be the best atmosphere of any cafe in Cheorwon. In the words of Rochelle, from the fancy and darker decor of the interior to the 2nd floor location,  it's going for a Seoul feel. Indeed, the inside feels classier than the local Tous Les Jours or Paris Baguette thanks to the lighting. The place would make a good hangout; indeed, the housewives of Wasu have already begun converging on it, for now they can sip their lattes in style. 

Rochelle and I stopped by and picked up after-dinner tea and hot chocolate on the weekend. Both drinks went down well. I'll be stopping by Cafe Bong again because the tea's good and they serve tasty-looking giant slices of bread with honey or chocolate topping. Bong doesn't appear to sell any other foods, so TLJ or PB have the edge for food yet..

Notes:

• I was happy to see that one of my incoming HS students is working there as a barista. She's not even a freshman and her working life's already begun.

• Wasu history 101: Kirsten's fond of noting that when she arrived in Wasu in February of 2010, Wasu didn't have any coffee shops at all.* Options for "real" coffee that wasn't instant or canned consisted of going to Seoul or Chuncheon. She often said she'd get a Starbucks coffee as soon as she arrived in Chuncheon because she craved regular coffee that badly.
• The Tous Les Jours and the Paris Baguette arrived between then and August 2011 when Pete, Gabe, and I arrived here, but as a point of information, Paris Baguette didn't upgrade itself from bakery to bakery-cafe until 2012.
• Wasu history 101 part II: A Lotteria got built last year as well. It's the Korean equivalent of McDonald's. The best thing about it is that it gives high school kids jobs.

Vacation Day 4: New Year's Day

New Year's Day may be a national holiday, but everything's open like any other day here. We caught the New Year's celebration on TV last night and the event seemed more somber than celebratory. It felt good to get away from the crowds and the hullabaloo.

Today'll be a low-key day for enjoying the weather and our vacation time. We're back in Seoul.

On the docket: another movie or two and some more writing of messages and blog posts. Cheers, everyone. The year in review will be coming soon.

Update: Here's a good article from the Joongang Daily.

In education, humanity is as important as grades

Vacation Day 2: 30 December 2012

--Hit Gwanghwamun Jip (house) for some excellent kimchi jjigae. Seoul Magazine recommended it. The place defines small: it's barely big enough for a kitchen, let alone a restaurant. You actually walk past the stove to get upstairs. Narrow stairway, too! We made our way upstairs and got seated next to a group of ajoshis and ended up conversing a bit with them when we asked to have our picture taken. One of them spoke excellent English and informed us that the restaurant has been around for 30 years and that we were the first foreigners he's seen there. I found that interesting in light of the restaurant's history.

--National Museum of Contemporary History
This free--yes, free--museum has an excellent overview of Korean history from the 1876 until today. We didn't take as many pictures here because the halls weren't very big and the place was packed with families enjoying the weekend. We took heart in all the kids looking at the exhibits. At one point Rochelle and I got to talking with two little boys who were looking at LPs and calling them CDs. I corrected them and they started talking to us and saying their names. They were cute.

We enjoyed seeing Korea's progression from a rural agrarian country to a modern industrialized one. It's notable that Korea's last kingdom, the Joseon Dynasty ended in 1910 and it's only been a functioning republic since the 1980s. As we were walking out, Rochelle observed that the 3 floors of exhibits went from dark to light as though Korea was emerging from the dark past into a bright future.

Words of the day

정부 government
애국가 National anthem
군사정변 Coup d'Etat
공화국과 republic
통깉타 acoustic guitar
혁명 revolution

Note: Pictures will come soon.

Also, we checked out the Korean movie Architecture 101 and we liked it. It sparked a few discussions. The review will come later.

Vacation Day 3: Happy New Year from Suwon, Gyeonggi-do

Added after the original post:

The three events of New Year's Eve:
Buying Dr. Martens at the bustling ABC-Mart inside the ever more bustling COEX mall
Traveling to Suwon
Eating at Hwaseong Sutbul Galbi
Seeing students leaving their hagwons at 9pm.

Hwaseong Galbi: Good but expensive

Rochelle and I ate our most expensive meal to date at during our short stay in the city. We had followed an enthusiastic recommendation from Groove magazine and went there because our barbecue-loving selves were eager to try the dish Suwon's famous for. Indeed, the restaurant does what looks like a thriving business in its multistory location. Hwaseong Sutbul Galbi certainly disappoint us: we got loaded with quality side dishes and the beef tasted excellent. This softened the blow of the 68,000won bill, though we thought we'd had as good or better meat elsewhere and at a better price. (Beef galbi runs around 20-25,000 in Wasu, for example)

The big cost came because we'd thought we'd put in one order at 32,000 each when the restaurant had given us two orders. 500g of meat for 32,000won sounded like plenty for two people in our minds, but things work a bit differently over here: When two people order barbecue, they get two servings. I'd known this fact for a long time, but I didn't think it applied here because no restaurant prior to Hwaseong Sutbul Galbi had had portions bigger than 250g.

I got annoyed with the high price until these things came to mind:

• A good friend's oft-repeated saying of "You've got a job, you can afford it." Thanks, Mike. 
• It's a special occasion. It isn't New Year's every day and we certainly don't go for beef galbi every day when pork galbi costs less and tastes about the same.
• The side dishes: The fresh kimchi and the potato pancake rocked. Bonus points for the liberal helping of gochujang pepper sauce.

Altogether, a good if expensive meal.

As a side note, Suwon does have an excellent (and cheap) makgeolli going for it. We enjoyed a 1.2l bottle for only 1,200won. 

Students leaving hagwons at 9pm on New Year's Eve

There's just no rest for the students here. We passed by dozens of students leaving their hagwons when we were walking back to the hotel. I couldn't help but wonder about why they would need to attend school at that hour on a day like New Year's Eve, but that's what happens here. A day off here and there might actually help the students by giving them time to process what they've studied in school, but it doesn't seem to go like that.

The original post:

The Doc Martens

Rochelle and I bought matching pairs of Dr Martens today, [Monday, 31 Dec] and in doing so, we're joining the ranks of all the other Korean couples with matching shoes. I once said I'd never do this. My, how times have changed ^_^
We took the pictures of the station and our shoes on the street on New Year's Day before we got on the train.

Coming posts: New Year's Eve, galbi, and more pictures

In front of Seryu Station in Suwon.

Below: pictures of our room at the Bel-Amie hotel. It's the best place either of us have stayed in yet. Dig that tub!

Quick hit: Japanese ramen in Hyehwa

Rochelle took me out for Japanese ramen today. I’d been hearing nothing but good things about the stuff from her and her friends—evidently,the noodles are nothing like the much-maligned ramen noodles in the US supermarkets and better than Korean ramyeon. After eating some today, Icouldn’t agree more! We went to this dark, woody, and cozy restaurant that Iforgot to write down the name of and ordered bowls of karakuchi ramen and added egg and pork. I followed Rochelle’s order because it sounded good. And yes indeed, it was! The broth had none of the over-salted flavor of the ramen or ramyeon I’m used to, the noodles looked(and tasted) more like spaghetti, and the tender pork tasted succulent. The eggs made for a fine addition as well. What an excellent and filling meal. Iwas still feeling the fullness hours later when the bus rolled into the Wasubus terminal ^_^ Quality stuff.

Someday I'll make it to Japan and taste ramen on its home turf. Until then, this will suffice.

Gotta rock the ramen.

Another kind of ramen that Rochelle's friend ate at another time. The broth comes in a separate bowl and you dip the food into it. Apparently it's also quite good.

The Thanksgiving spread

Rochelle and I celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday. Neither of get crazy about turkey, so she cooked up barbecue chicken, yams, and pasta and cheese. And because we're in Korea, I had some seasoned seaweed to cap off the meal. We washed all of this down with Shiraz wine and makgeolli. Everything tasted delicious.

* Thanks, mom dept: I fell back on what she's said about wines when Rochelle was choosing which bottle to buy.

** Walmae makgeolli's the best one out there because of its creamier taste.

Vacation Pt. 2: Rainy but fun days in Gangneung

Picture from Rochelle's iPhone.

We rode right into every traveler's nightmare: It was hot and sunny when we got in on Saturday and it's been raining off and on ever since. Nonetheless, we still have been enjoying our time here on the east coast and are making plans to return sometime within the next couple of months.

Highlights from the trip

Saturday night: Samgyeopsal barbecue

Samgyeopsal is grilled pork belly and it's similar to bacon, but it has one key difference: it's 10 times better than bacon.

Grilling samgyeopsal at one of the nearby restaurants.

Side dishes of kimchi, spinach, radishes, lettuce, sesame oil, red pepper paste, and more. The raw samgyeopsal's in the background.

Sunday:

Terarosa Coffee Factory, Charmsori Gramophone Museum, and Gyeongpo Beach

Terarosa's a famous place among Koreans and Westerners alike. Set outside the city, the place serves delicious coffee from around the world and has a tasty brunch/lunch menu. It is less a factory than a rustic house surrounded by lush green trees and plants. Most everything's made of wood; the place feels cozy and warm even in the air-conditioned indoors. You can sit outside in a couple of areas as well. We did this because it meant quicker service and a chance to take a closer look at the greenery.

At the entrance.

Me and a delicious cup of Honduran coffee, a circle of red bean bread, and Rochelle with a tasty cappucino. Our shrimp omelet had yet to arrive when the picture got taken. The food tasted good too. The coffee and food can be a bit expensive, but it's worth it because coming here isn't an every day activity. That 5,000won cup of coffee was worth every, er, 10won coin, too. I've written previously about coffee in Korea here and this cup tasted like the best stuff does back home. 

 We had lunch here to commorate 100 days together as a couple. Younger Koreans tend to count time in relationships in days instead of months, so celebrating 100 days together is a unique part of the culture and so thought we'd join in too. Photo taken by a nice Korean girl who happened to be sitting with her boyfriend at the next table over. She saw me taking a picture of the coffee and leaned over to ask about taking our pictures. We ended with a few shots. She spoke good English and we chatted about the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy.

*The Terarosa website provides directions for taking the bus or taking a taxi. The taxi will cost more but it will get you there faster.

We took a cab from Terarosa and went straight to the Charmsori Gramophone Museum and Edison Science Museum. Rochelle thoroughly enjoyed this. It felt great to see the place again. The old ad for 78s that said "78rpm--A speed we can live with" cracked me up because 78s quickly lost favor once 33 1/3rpm vinyl LPs came in years ago. Numerous families had brought their kids here and I couldn't help but wonder what they thought of the old gramophones and music boxes. Those under 12 have no knowledge of a world without mp3s and file trading. How would they view putting on an LP and dropping the needle onto a favorite track? I know it felt wondrous when I did it years ago. Regardless, it's good that they got to see some history.

*Some good fortune occurred on the way out: a friendly staff member gave us 10 dollars worth of postcards once she saw that we could speak Korean. 

The museum sits next to the Gyeongpo lake and we walked down one side of it until we came to the famous Gyeongpo Beach. The rain had started picking up by this point, but no one seemed to notice or care until the downpour came 30 minutes later. We didn't think too much of the rain either. This trip marked my fourth time to the east coast and I was hell-bent on wading into the water. And I did. It felt to stand in the East Sea part off the Pacific Ocean. [Note: The East Sea is also known as the Sea of Japan. I grew up calling it the Sea of Japan, but the Koreans insist on calling it the East Sea]

Gyeongpo Beach on a rainy day. Note the people and the police tent in front.

 

The tents on the beach. Grab one while you can.

Monday: Again, more rain. We stayed in and watched movies while eating delicious barbecue chicken for takeout. Chicken joints are everywhere here and this was our first time getting takeout chicken. Got to start sometime, right?

Tuesday: The sun came out as we said our goodbyes to each other and to city. Rochelle went south to Ulsan to visit her cousin and I went west and then north to Wasu. It took took five hours to get from Gangneung to Seoul (via Dong Seoul) to Wasu counting stops and transfer time. The ride through Gangwon into Seoul was an endless wilderness of green forests, mountains, hills, and valleys. 

Wednesday: a national holiday. School begins again on Thursday.

*Gangneung to Dong Seoul Bus Terminal: 14,000won.

Dong Seoul to Wasu: 10,200won.

There'll be more coming soon...

Vacation Pt. 2: A Few Lessons Learned

The getaway's underway. Rochelle and I have learned some valuable lessons during our travels around this city and Korea thus far. They're included here along with a few other observations about our first two days here on the coast.

• Buses and assigned seats: Yes, people do care about them. You get assigned a seat whenever you ride on an express bus here. The bus seats are either in rows of one and two (one separate and two together) or two and two. Tickets seem to get assigned row by row until all the rows get taken up. I've never paid too much attention to my assigned seat number and have sat wherever I wanted to. No one had ever said anything about it all year until one of a group of four college-age girls approached Rochelle and I after we'd sat down. (Note: the driver had checked our tickets and hadn't said anything about us) Even though we knew we were technically in the wrong, we tried to explain that we sat together because we're a couple, but the girl insisted, so we ended up sitting apart from one another. The downside to this was we couldn't easily talk to each other during the ride, but it did allow us time to catch up on our music. Lesson learned: if traveling with one or more people, buy all of the tickets at once so you can sit together.

My Daejeon-Seoul bus ticket. Note the Korean and English writing. You can't play the "dumb foreigner" card with this one.


• Do not book motels with agoda.com: The site will charge your credit card before you arrive at the motel and it will charge you the first night's stay if you cancel the day of your arrival. They'll also will not refund any money if you check out early. We heard about this firsthand and our Korean buddy Young-hoon confirmed it too. He said that most Koreans don't like the site. I like booking.com and asiarooms.com because neither site deducts money up front; while they do ask for a credit card number to hold an accomodation, you do not actually pay any money until you show up to check in at wherever you're staying.
• Check your motel's location on the map. What looks close on the map isn't always so in reality. Then again, what looks to be in the middle of nowhere my still be accessible by bus. Again, something learned firsthand. I'd booked our motel, the Good Stay Motel Hill, because it had affordable rates and good amenities, but upon consulting the map, it looked like getting in and out of town would cost a fortune in taxi fare. Not true. We found that it's located 20 minutes outside of downtown Gangneung by bus and 10-15 minutes by taxi. Today we took a taxi in and rode a bus out.
• Good Stay Motel Hill basic room rate: 40,000won/night. Room includes refrigerator, computer (with Internet), TV, air conditioning, and a balcony. There's a water cooler and a microwave downstairs as well. Despite being outside of the downtown area, it is an excellent deal. The motels and hotels near the bus terminal cost 70 to 90,000won a night. By staying here, you may pay more money in cab fare (if you choose to forgo the buses), but you'll still come out ahead. Plus, you may get an ocean view.
• Study your Korean. Motel and hotel clerks may not know or speak much, if any English. The two older ladies running this place speak next to no English and we'd originally had some trouble with getting the details of our stay figured out. Young-hoon provided invaluable help over the phone.
• On a practical note, you may note, you need to study the phrase "There's a problem with ~" in case there's something wrong with your room. Having a digital camera around to take a picture of the problem can help immensely as well. This happened to me in Daejeon because the refrigerator in the room was leaking water onto the floor. The hotel clerk did know some English, but I took a photo with the iPad and showed it to him and he understood right away.
• Korea has excellent public transportation and taxi systems. This isn't so much a lesson as an observable fact. A nearby hospital with a taxi stand solved the taxi problem and we figured out the somewhat-confusing bus routes after studying them for a few minutes. And even though the schedules can get confusing, please note that Korea has excellent public transportation. This seemingly-remote motel's on more than one bus line and the buses run every 20-30 minutes. Fares are 770won (~75 cents) with a T-money card and 1,000won with cash .[Well, my T-money card had no money on it and the drive didn't object to the 1,000won bill I put in the box at least]
• You may end up with cab driver who can't read a map or think to use a GPS. The key word here is may. Every other cabbie I've known has known exactly where to go and how to get there, but yesterday's cabbie couldn't figure out who to get to our motel. I'd shown him the place's address in Korean and he had a GPS in the cab but he didn't use it. It didn't help that he spoke no English and I didn't know enough Korean to keep up with what we was saying. We drove to the tourist office to ask about directions, but it was closed because it was after 5 on Saturday. (Idea: keep tourist offices open on weekends because that's usally when tourists go traveling) The clerks in the nearby City Hall (somehow it was open) told him where to go. He eventually drove us there, but he missed the turn off and proceeded to miss the front entrance.
• As a side note, when we finally arrived, a patient from the home for mentally disabled next door was outside and ushered us inside. Rochelle and I both knew that we weren't in the hotel, but we'd also long ago learned that it's best to follow along with the Koreans. We walked inside to find more than eight patients eagerly wanting to meet us. Among them was an older white man who spoke English with a European accent. He did the standard Korean thing asked us where were from. Despite feeling overwhelmed, we greeted everyone amicably because they were all quite nice and then made our exit. We must've missed Nurse Ratched; she was nowhere in sight. Another observation: Korean zoning laws are nothing like they are in the US. You would never see a mental hospital next to a motel in the States.

The motel from the outside.

The view from our 6th floor balcony. You can see the East Side (aka the Sea of Japan) in the background. Yep, we've an ocean view.

Korean cultural lesson: Notice the lack of a 4th floor. Most Korean buildings do not have a 4th floor because the Sino-Korean word for four, sa is sounds like the Chinese word for death.

Next up: photos from Gangneung, including the Terarosa Coffee Factory and Gyeongpo Beach. Cheers!