Goobers: Part 2 (What were you thinking?)

Sometimes I just don't have the slightest idea what my students mean. Half of the time they don't either (and the other half it's Google Translate).

I have "come to feel" that you are very confused.

Same student. Everyone loves Daisy.

Yep, that's good enough.

Yikes, should I report this?

It should be noted this student's name is Harry Potter. And she's a girl.

More on some of my students' creative names later.

Korean Horror Story: Asylum

There comes a time in every expat's life when you find yourself tired of the safety and banality of city life. A time when you yearn for a little danger, a little excitement, and a touch of the supernatural. Even in Seoul, there is an antidote to this particular type of boredom. It is a visit to the abandoned psychiatric hospital in Gonjiam. Although it is technically closed off to visitors, thousands of ghost hunters, curious foreigners, and camera crews break in every year to see for themselves if the place really is haunted. Sadly, it doesn't appear to be haunted and there is no tragic tale of its demise. The reason for its closure mostly resulted from problems with the sewage disposal system. No mad scientists or history of lobotomy.

Regardless, it was abandoned quickly and the owner left the country apparently not at all interested in insuring it was properly closed down. As a result, the hospital appears to have been abandoned overnight, with mattresses still piled up in the rooms, water-damaged calendars hanging loosely from the walls, and scientific books, furniture, and equipment scattered throughout the building. The building itself is in a state of ruin, with broken windows and flooded rooms.

 

We met some Koreans there the day we went (who scared the living daylights out of us in the pitch dark) who were planning to stay the night hoping to spot a ghost or two. Honestly, the place is freaky. It's dark and damp inside, but it's nothing unbearable during the day. Even as the sun was setting, I was getting anxious to leave, however. I take my hat off to anyone willing to spend the night there. It would be downright terrifying.

Getting there:

The town of Gonjiam is an easy bus ride from Seoul and takes about 45 minutes. Take bus 500-2 from Gangnam Station exit 7 or bus 1113-1 from Gangbyeon Station exit 1. Both will take you straight to Gonjiam. You can also go to any of the bus terminals in Seoul and catch a bus there. That's what we did from Dong Seoul Terminal. Once in Gonjiam, the best way to find the place is by GPS. Type in the coordinates 37.362433, 127.33474 onto Google Maps on your smart phone. It's quite difficult to give directions other than "follow the dot!" The walk is about 15 minutes.

A word of warning, this building and its grounds are closed off to the public. If you decide to enter, you are trespassing. If you are a foreigner, or worse, a group of foreigners, everyone you encounter will know exactly why are you in town. Believe me, there are no other attractions in this town. We were yelled at by a very angry man who marched us down to the sign on the entrance that says, "no trespassing." We had to pretend like we were leaving and turn around once we thought we could sneak past him again. He called the police on us as well. They did a drive-by but didn't even get out to scold us because they are clearly called there all the time and would rather fight real crime.

So be quiet and respectful to the people in Gonjiam. Or better yet have some drinks with the ajummas and ajusshis like we did.

Happy ghost hunting!

37.362433, 127.33474

bus 500-2 from Gangnam Station Exit 7 or the 1113-1 from Gangbyeon Station exit 1, straight to Gonjiam - See more at: http://chincha.co.uk/2013/06/breaking-into-a-haunted-mental-hospital-in-korea/#sthash.8d631o5v.dpuf

bus 500-2 from Gangnam Station Exit 7 or the 1113-1 from Gangbyeon Station exit 1, straight to Gonjiam - See more at: http://chincha.co.uk/2013/06/breaking-into-a-haunted-mental-hospital-in-korea/#sthash.8d631o5v.dpuf

Goobers: Part 1 (Defiance)

This post begins a series on my students. Just the wisdom, mistakes, and humor of my elementary aged Korean pipsqueaks.

Today's theme is defiance. These kids are boldly standing up to the tyranny of test questions and asserting their own creative control.

Sure the section is "creativity," but you can't "create" your way out of this kid, sorry.

I'm actually just happy you wrote a complete sentence. 100%.

We read a story called "Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book." This girl was so tired of writing about the story, she decided to crucify the characters on the board for all to see.

Just because we are on the subject of Jesus...I mean GeGus.

You can't just insult me than tell me to "enjoy life," Sarah. You'll pay for this, Kayla teacher.

Oh no! I've been perfecting my "cheerful girl dons oven mits" drawing; I couldn't possibly half-ass a boat drawing. I'll sacrifice my grade for the good of art.

Stay tuned for Part 2 (Laziness)

Jeonju: The Birthplace of Bibimbap

This post is incredibly late, but the Gawi Bawi Go group took a trip to Jeongu in March, 2014. Since my memory of what we actually did has faded, I decided to post mostly photos, not wanting to leave out this city from my blog.

The most important thing you need to know about Jeonju is that it is the birthplace of bibimbap -  without a doubt my favorite Korean food. Julienned vegetables, fragrant rice, spicy and tangy gochujang saue, complete with a fried egg. It's everything you could ever want in a meal. The bibimbap I tried in Jeonju also had gingko seeds on top.

I can't even tell you the name of this temple, I'm the worst.

Awesome realistic painting of a horse being fed by an invisible man

Good old stick throwing

An innocent wanders into the fray

Just being a deer in the headlights

The old part of the city was beautiful to walk through. There were cute cafes, shops, and a lot of guesthouses. We wandered around for awhile trying to find a place to stay, but everything was either full or expensive. Then, this adorable old man saw us and motioned for us to follow him. We did so with no questions asked (there's no need to ask questions in Korea). We lead us through his hanok guesthouse, up some narrow stairs undergoing some renovation that appeared to have been stalled for at least a decade, and out onto the roof. The view was stunning, especially since it was dusk. 

The most adorable old man

The view from his roof

At this point, it was a little problematic that we didn't have a place to sleep. We wandered into a guesthouse and the owner said they were full, but his friend just opened a guesthouse nearby and had availability! What luck. He would even come by to pick us up and take us there. Korean hospitality at its finest. So we stayed at Sein Guest House, which I would recommend to anyone staying in Jeonju. It wasn't very centrally located and there was a curfew, but the people were super friendly and there was a free Korean breakfast in the morning.

After we got settled, we decided to head out to get some food, but we were stopped in the lobby. The manager of the guesthouse started addressing the throng of Koreans chatting and hanging out in the communal area. All I heard with my limited Korean was "foreigner," but some of my friends understood more of what he was saying. Basically, in a ten minute speech he was convincing them to all go to a restaurant to eat, drink, and show these foreigners a good time. So we were caught up in this mass exodus, ushered into cabs, and taken to a nearby restaurant.

What started out as a very strange, awkward situation quickly turned into a fun night. We sat down at a huge table with all of our "new friends" and food and makgeolli started filling the table. We talked and I learned a few new Korean drinking games. I also tried live octopus for the first time. They brought over a plate with some chopped carrots and seaweed. Over it, they dangled a squirming octopus clamped between some tongs. They proceeded to hack away at it with scissors, until its tentacles and other bits fell writhing onto the plate. And I ate this. I really did. I don't think I've ever been more proud of myself for eating something so grotesque and so...alive. Once I got past the idea of killing my food with my molars, it actually tasted quite good.

The plate in the middle is the octopus

From here, we went for some noraebang. It was quite luxurious and came with fruit platters. You really came through, Jeonju.

The next morning, we set out to find a temple that we heard was quite stunning. It turned out to be quite elusive, and we got lost for hours. We found it after huffing and puffing up a massive hill. We were pretty sure this was the supposed temple, but it wasn't quite as awe-inspiring as we expected. At least, not after that horrid hill. Nevertheless, here are some photos.

The templiest temple

You can't tell how much lactic acid build-up is really occurring in my quads at the moment.

And that was Jeonju, folks.

Some potentially useful information:

Getting there: By bus from Dong Seoul Terminal to Jeonju Express Bus Terminal takes approximately 2 hours 45 minutes without traffic (including your typical 15 minute stop over at a rest stop) and will cost you around 20,000 won for a one-way ticket.

Must-see: Jeonju Hanok Village
Take Bus toward Pyeonghwa-dong, Jeonju University, Nambu market or Gui direction
Or take a taxi from the bus terminal (approx 15 minutes)

Sein Guest House:
http://seinhouse.com/
https://www.facebook.com/seinguesthouse/timeline

Lunar New Year in Busan

If you do not live in a country that celebrates Lunar New Year, you probably went about your day as usual on January 31st. However, in Korea and several other Asian countries, Seollal (설날) is a much bigger deal than Solar New Year on January 1st. Since it landed on a Friday this year, most Koreans got Thursday and Friday off work, and thus enjoyed a four day weekend. This is a huge travel holiday and trains, buses, and flights were booked within hours of being released.

Most Koreans spend the say with their family. Younger children will dress up in hanbok, or traditional Korean clothes. They bow to their elders and wish them a Happy New Year (새 해 복 많이 받으세요). In return, their parents/grandparents/etc will give them some amount of money. I asked my students about this custom, thinking they would be really excited to get money and gifts in return for a simple bow. It turns out, most kids have to hand the money immediately over to their parents who put it in the bank for them. Or in their words, "mom take."

They also eat tteokguk (떡국) or rice cake soup. Once you have eaten tteokguk, you are another year older. Korean age is different from American age. Usually, you can just add two years to your American age and you will have your Korean age. The difference is caused by two things. First, a baby is one year old at birth because they count the time in the womb. Second, you don't gain a year on your birthday, but instead with every new year (and bowl of tteokguk). This caused much confusion when students the size of thimbles told me they were ten years old, but in reality they are eight (but still more thimble-sized than any eight year olds I have ever met).

Tteokguk

Anyway, we had to take advantage of a four day weekend. So what started as a coworker trip merged with the Gawi Bawi Go! group to create a massive trip to Busan. Busan is in the very southern part of Korea. It is convenient to travel from Seoul to Busan on the KTX, or high speed train. However, all tickets sold out within several minutes. We were able to make the trip via bus, which usually takes about 4 1/2 hours, but with holiday traffic took us about 7 1/2 hours to arrive in Busan. Luckily, we left early in the morning so we rolled into the beach town at 2pm on a gorgeous Thursday.

 The weather in Busan was glorious compared to Seoul: sunny and 50-60s during the day. It was so great to wear Birkenstocks and feel sand on my feet. I fooled myself for just a second that I was back in Santa Barbara.

We reserved a penthouse from airbnb on the 16th floor of an apartment building overlooking Haeundae Beach. It was relatively cheap split between 15 people and definitely worth the luxury.

View from our room

The second floor windows

The living room, from the second floor

The second floor kitchen, not that we needed two kitchens...

Haeundae Beach

	Relaxing with makkeolli while being serenaded by Emily on the ukulele Playing some cards One of many group ukulele sessions

Sunrise the next morning on the beach

It was a little difficult to find stores open on Seollal, but we bought some groceries and whipped up a delicious breakfast. Audrey even made us some tteokguk for the occasion. It was delicious! ...And we were officially one year older.

Audrey, our adorable Korean coworker

That afternoon, we headed to Haedong Yonggungsa 해동 용궁사 Temple

Stairs to Yonggungsa Temple

Bryan, my coworker, buying some street food.

The most famous fish market in Busan is called Jagalchi 자갈치.

This vendor looked so nonchalant smoking his cigarette.

Step right up.

Bethany and I got our Korean names engraved on dojang (seals). For some reason, several Korean men gathered to watch the process. One weird guy started photographing us.

This is your typical food tent, where you can get delicious Korean street food: tteokbokki (rice cakes in red pepper sauce), twigim (like tempura), sundae (blood sausage), kimbap (like sushi usually filled with vegetables), odeng (fish cake), and a lot more.

After the fish market, we were all craving fresh seafood. So we went to Taejongdae for barbeque clams. Taejongdae has rows and rows of BBQ clam tents that serve various types of seafood that you cook at your table.

There is nothing better than eating fresh caught seafood, sitting in plastic chairs on a floor made of stones, overlooking the water, and smelling the most indescribable aroma of Korean sauces sizzling over hot coals. 

The first course: mussels

The second course: clams two ways

The women workers were buzzing around us constantly, putting more shells on the fire, dishing out cooked ones, and giving us eating tips (using mussel shells as a clamp to hold onto hot clam shells).

사랑방 = love room, apparently the name of our restaurant.

Rows of other clam tents lining the beach.

And the next morning, it was time to head home. We took a final group picture to say goodbye to our beloved penthouse apartment. 

 

We had some time to kill in Gimhae before the bus left, so we rented bikes and rode around the bike-friendly city. It was glorious and took me back to college and biking around Santa Barbara.

 Farewell, Busan. It's been real. Back to Seoul, the cold, and work.