"Touring is never boring": Gwangju in January 2014 #1

First, some music to play while you read:

"Touring" (1981 version) from The Ramones. I took this post's title from the chorus of the song.

Please don't confuse this with Gwangju Station. Gwangju Songjeong Station is Gwangju Station's smaller counterpart. It sits on the west side of the city. KTX and Mugunghwa trains pass through it.

"...especially with your favorite girl..."

R and I spent part of our winter vacation in the southwestern city of Gwangju. It had been on our list of destinations for some time now, particularly because it was in a region of Korea we had not seen yet and because of its place in Korean history. The city played host to huge protests, as you'll see below.

Where we went

In the May 18 Memorial Park near our hotel in the Sangmu area. We had an enjoyable walk through it on the way to lunch.

This plaque is inset onto the sidewalk on Chungjang Street. The street was the site of the May 18 Uprising, whereupon citizens protested against then-dictator Chun Doo-hwan. Visit Korea has this to say: 

Named after the posthumous title of General Kim Deok-ryeong, Chungjangno Street was the site of the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement. Today, it is Gwangju’s major fashion district, comparable with Myeongdong Street of Seoul. The streets of Chungjangno are lined with shopping malls, clothing stores, restaurants, cafes, movie theaters and various other attractions, providing the ultimate experience of modern culture in Gwangju. It is the city's hub of fashion, both trendy and traditional, as well as venue for diverse performances.

The Gwangju National Museum and a beautiful blue sky. Not a cloud to be seen. Note the snaking waterway. We saw plenty of old pottery inside. Serene stuff.

This picture's here for two reasons:

1. I can't help taking pictures of cafes with unusual names.
2. A college buddy and I used to make "Seven Howling Monkeys" from Seagrams 7 and the short-lived but delicious Howling Monkey cola.

Here's Caffe Soo, the cafe run by the parents of Miss A's Suzy. R and I love to visit the local cafes, and this was one she just had to see. Okay, okay: I did too...I've always liked Miss A's music and I can always do some cafe action. Suzy is also the most popular of the Kpop girls among my boys. When we dropped by, we noted with amazement that she also starred in Architecture 101, one of our favorite Korean movies. We stayed for a while and gazed upon all of the memorabilia inside: It's a fan's dream, to say the least. See below for links to a couple blogs with photos from inside the cafe. (It's not possible to post them here for some reason)

And yes, the drinks were good. My banana juice was as cool and fresh; R's green tea latte tasted good too! As an added bonus, we received cookies when we left as "service." If only we'd eaten them inside! They were excellent. As R said, "You can taste the butter." 

[Her group's also popular, but she's only member anyone here talks about. I'm at a loss as to why, for all four members can sing and dance quite well. Kirsten once noted their sexiness and moxie, and I can't help but concur. I've written about them here:]

A note about traveling there: It's located across the street from a library in a not-so-central neighborhood. We took a cab there. The links below do have directions. Also: If you plan to eat dinner afterwards, we can recommend a good barbecue place nearby, but that's it.

More:

Caffe Soo blog #1

Caffe Soo blog #2

As always, we sampled the local libations. This makgeolli's the best I've tasted anywhere in Korea. It's also all-natural.

That's all for part #1. More's on the way!

Vacation Day 6: Relaxing in Wasu / Daily questions / more

Not too much happened today. I spent most of it reading Mockingjay, the third book in the excellent Hunger Games trilogy and hanging around the apartment. It felt good to have a day without any obligations.

Since I don't like making empty posts, here's something I picked up at a lecture in the second Orientation back in September of 2011. I've been meaning to get to this one for a while now, for it deals with something I've noted a few times in various posts: Koreans interviewing you. It comes up almost every day here. What follows are notes from the Orientation and reflections on them from after 16 months of living here.

Questions Koreans Ask You

"Where are you going?"
--My notes say, "They don't really want to know," "Ask to show they care," and "Answer specifically if possible"--All of which is true, yet my students do seem genuinely curious. I've been asked this question countless times because it's the one thing every student knows how to say. To the Korean and foreigner teachers who taught their students this expression, well done. You've taught them well. If I ever see a student on the street, he invariably asks, "Where are you going?" I've heard the question more times here than I ever did in the States. Also, Koreans ask "Where are you going" of each other all the time, so it's not just something asked of foreigners.

Of all the times I've heard this question, one instance stands out. It happened some time in October last year I bumped into a middle school girl on the way to the grocery store and this is what we said. My thoughts are in italics:

"Teacher Ben! Where--are you going?"
To buy beer--no, can't say that. "To the grocery store."
"Why?"
Why? The grocery store has food. If I'm going to there, I need food. "To get food."
"Why?"
Seriously? "I'm hungry."
"Oh. Bye bye!"


"Have you eaten?"
--From what I've gathered, Koreans don't like to eat alone. My office usually goes to lunch as a group if we're all present. In my journal's notes from the lecture, I wrote, "It helps to answer honestly. If you haven't eaten, they'll take you to a restaurant." I've actually had that happen a few times. Usually, the person will tell me to eat or give me something to eat. If I'm in a Korean's home, it's one of the first questions to get asked. But after plenty of experience, no matter what I say, food will appear because Koreans want to offer you something anyway. It reminds me of my friend's mom, for every time I came over, she'd ask if I'd had anything to eat and if I'd like anything to eat. It goes like that here: people don't want you to go hungry. For example, once I stopped by Dave's place on my way to dinner to relay some information about a meeting and upon seeing me, his fiance invited me in for dinner with them. And since she cooks like a champ, I needed no convincing. ^_^

"How old are you?"
- Got to get age to get to know someone personally. Korea's still largely a Confucian society, so people ask this question to ascertain how to talk to you and treat you. The talk matters because of the honorifics in speech. If the other person's older, he'll play the big brother; but if he's younger, I need to play the big brother.  As a foreigner, I don't need to worry about this because Koreans generally don't expect foreigners to know about it. Usually my foreigner status means I get treated like a VIP or elder in town or at school: I get the front seat in cars, for example. Despite being the youngest teacher in the school by at least 3 years, I have the status of a veteran.

"Can you use chopsticks?"
--This comes mostly from Koreans' general lack of experience with foreigners. I used to get the question all the time, but it's stopped because I've proven my chopstick skills.




Bonus material:

I meant to post this picture sooner, but it got lost in the shuffle. It's dedicated to coffee lovers around the world. As you can see, it was taken in Ildong, a town about 45 minutes away that's on the Wasu-Seoul bus line. I took this shot because it's yet another example of the interesting English names of places over here: A coffee shop named Need Coffee? Talk about blunt. It even makes for a fun exchange:

"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Need Coffee."
"When?"
"When I go there."
Here's hoping that somewhere in Korea stands a bar named Need Beer.

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

Update: 19 December 2012

Contents: The beard chronicles / Getting stared at by a little kid / news from school

Yes, this is post #4 today. I chose to break post a few shorter posts instead of one long post because it allows for a sharper focus. It's better to have a short and tight text than than a long and loose one. This is my English Ed background talking.

Some updates for you:

• The beard chronicles, month 2.5: As you can see in the ramen photos, I've grown a beard. Something like this wouldn't warrant mention in the States. Friends and family know that I've had beards off and on for years now, but to the Koreans (and especially the students), the beard represents something Different: Beards and facial hair aren't at all common outside of historical dramas here. I've been told I look "old," "like a grandfather" and "softer" now. A few boys and girls have complimented it. Many students have asked about when I'll shave it off or why I even have it in the first place. Many students have asked about when I'll shave it off or why I even have it in the first place. It's always fun answering "Why?" with "Because I like it" because the students always seem surprised.
• The vacation is all set: I'm getting a whopping month thanks to unused summer vacation time, the 21 days of winter vacation, and the bonus 7 days from the contract renewal.  Like last year, I'm heading back to the USA to visit friends and family. I need to see a few family members because it's been too long since we last saw each other. 
• A little kid stared at me last night: It happened at the kimbap place by the bus station. A mother and her two daughters were sitting across the room from where I was. As I was eating dinner, the maybe-3 year old daughter stared and pointed at me before her mother noticed it and stopped her. I smiled and kept eating. As a foreigner in a small town, I figured such things would happen--I stand out here. All of us EPIK'ers do. The mom slapped the girl on the back as punishment. She brought her up to me and apologized before they left the restaurant. I said "That's all right" in Korean and they went on their way. I can't get angry about it. She was a 3 year old girl and she didn't know any better.

New posts:

Japanese ramen in Hyehwa

Put down your phone already

Happy Election Day

Also: click here to see Rochelle's reblog of Illie's picture from our recent Christmas party.

From Seoul to Milwaukee and back

[Originally written on 29 Jan 2012 and edited on 2 Feb 2012]

From 19 to 29 Jan, I came back to the States on vacation to spend time with family and friends. My plane to Korea leaves tomorrow. It's been one hell of a good time here with seeing everybody. Some relatives from out of town even came up to visit us and we had a great time this weekend. I won't name names, but you know who you are, you who reveled in Wisconsin.

 

There'll be more posts about this in the future--coming back felt strange as hell. After 5 months of living in Korea, seeing jacked up 4x4s, sprawling parking lots, and abundant Mexican food seemed alien, as though I'd forgotten they existed. Here are a few other things that I ruminated about while I was here:

 

• The sheer diversity of food in restaurants.
• Friends and family haven't changed--and that's for the best. No one's gone and jumped the shark.
• The massive size of Pick 'n' Save. E-Mart and Lotte Mart may have big grocery sections, but they've nothing on American supermarkets for sheer size and selection. On the other hand, Pick 'n' Save can't match the food and drink samples that the Korean supermarkets offer every day.
• Wisconsin's liquor laws seemed unnecessarily restrictive. More than once, 9pm passed and I remembered that unlike Korea, no store will sell booze.
• I kept wondering where the soju and the 1.6l jugs of Cass were.
• On a similar note, getting ID'd was a change of pace.
• Metered parking doesn't exist in Seoul, but it certainly does in America. Seeing halfway ordinary parking jobs right away seemed strange. Someone did hit my parked car at a shopping mall when I was home though, so I guess normal parking jobs don't mean much after all.
• Parking lots take up too much space. Whatever happened to parking garages and building upward instead of outward? So much space gets wasted on parking lots.
• It felt good to see more recognizable street addresses and signs.
• Driving at night gets more monotonous than I remember.
• Coffee tastes better here. Korean coffee's on the weaker side, but the cafes can make a decent Americano.
• Though Korean energy drinks are cheap and they get the job done, they don't taste as good as Rock Star.
• The cigar I smoked at Lake Country Cigars tasted quited good.
• After decades of disliking spicy food, I've officially made the great leap into Spice Land. It took some time (and a whole lot of kimchi) to get used to it, but once I got back to WI I came to miss it.
• Jamming the blues with Jonny T-Bird and friends in Milwaukee rocked! They backed me up on a few numbers at an open jam at the Astor Hotel. The last time I saw any live music? The Seoul Record and CD Festival in November, where the band played blues and sang in Korean.
• Having to wait for the waiter/waitress to come around to the table in restaurants got to be a drag after being able to push a button on the table or call out "Yeo-gi-yo!" Also, many Korean diners and restaurants will let patrons get water themselves, to saving to wait for that got a bit annoying after a while too.
• I did remember to tip for stuff. I do have to wonder if it's necessary at coffee shops though. After all, it's not like I'm ordering an entire meal. All I'm asking the person to do is grab a biscotti and a coffee for me. Korea's not a tipping culture, so you pay what the receipt says and no more. This includes bars and cabs. Cab drivers will insist you made a mistake if you try to tip them.
• A childhood of long car rides to visit relatives in OH paid off with being able to do 12-13 hour plane rides easily.