My Band and other Notes

I almost forgot~ On Sunday, I went to the 홍대 (Hongdae) area of Seoul to meet with a band who posted an ad looking for a female vocalist. There were supposed to be two of us girls, but the other one didn't show up. The band consists of two American guys and two Canadian guys. All of them teach English here (I believe). Dave and Nick are American, and Ryan and Matt are Canadian. Their style is a combination of reggae, rock, and slightly folk, with a lot of energy. They were really excited that I can play piano, too, so I had them send me files of the music they've recorded so I can try to write some keyboard parts this week. I have just today and tomorrow.... and I'm lazy today, so I guess I'll head to the piano tomorrow.

This was my first time meeting other foreigners in Seoul. With the five of us walking down the street speaking English and being caucasian, we got a lot of stares. I met three of them at the subway station, and Matt met us at the studio/practice room place. The practice room had a drumset, some amps, a pretty nice keyboard (all options written in English), and three microphones. The door to the room was glass and had a clouded window decal on it for privacy. Said decal was Winnie-the-Pooh themed. Everything in South Korea is a little bit gay by American standards, I think. More on that in a minute.

I found it fascinating that out of the four of them, only one guy was making any effort to learn Korean (I think... he was looking through a flower catalog in Korean). All three of the guys I met at the station ordered in English at a Quizzno's (to be fair, they said they didn't eat American food often). Earlier, I had mentioned that ordering at restaurants is really difficult for me, and they said, "why not just point at things?" Make what you will of that. I see the other kind of American now: instead of integrating, they choose to live a transitory surface life, just making money and hanging out. I'm not saying it's necessarily bad, just that it's the complete opposite of me.

Some interesting side notes:
In Korea, women often wash small articles of clothing in the shower, like socks and underwear. I did that for the first time yesterday. It's not as odd as I thought it would be.
In Korea, instead of having one cell phone battery and charging your phone, you get two cell phone batteries and charge the battery, then just switch them out.
In Korea, when people of different ages go out together, the oldest always pays.
In Korea, the size of your face is important. Small faces are beautiful. As are big eyes and light skin. So, Koreans think I'm very beautiful.
In Korea, women usually care more about a man's height than about his face.
In Korea, instead of having waiters come around intermittently, you press a button on the table when you want service and a doorbell sound rings, calling the waiter.
In Korea, people talk to themselves a lot, especialy old men.
In Korea, people often ask you to compare attributes. For instance, "who is more handsome, him or me?"
In Korea, or maybe just in my area, they think that if you flush toilet paper in the toilet, "there will be a disaster."
In Korea, women judge the character of men in many small ways. One of them is that a good man walks between the woman and the street. Another is that a good boyfriend buys earrings for his girlfriend. Also, the 100-day anniversary is extremely important, so a good man never forgets to do something great on that day.

Anyway, about the gay thing: Korean culture is, by American definition, gay. Men wearing pink and purple, and brightly colored pants, is definitely not strange here. Men often carry handbags. When men speak English, their "s" is often soft and gentle. Sometimes I can't tell the difference between men and women because the hair and clothing styles can be so similar. Men love cute things almost as much as women do, and are not afraid to admit that they love dramas and romantic comedies. Many men walk and assume stances that would be stereotypically gay in America. Men walk around with their arms around each others' shoulders or place their hands on their male friends' backs. None of this is gay in Korea. Koreans are actually quite homophobic in general.

Ah, I also almost forgot a person~
현석 (Hyunseok): He's older than me, of course, and quite tall and slender. I met him quite a while ago, now. He has midterms now so I haven't seen him in a while. He studied American literature and wants to be a financial specialist, if I remember right. I went to dinner in 강남 (Kangnam) with him and then his friend came to meet us and the three of us went shopping. Yes, two men and a girl shopping, and the girl is the one tagging along. See what I mean about Korean culture being American gay? Anyway it was fun and they are both very kind and funny. I hope to see them again relatively soon.

More from the forgotten wonderland

Now I will organize this by people:

미주 (Miju): You all know and love her by now. Unfortunately, after seeing the cherry blossoms with her and her friends, I haven't spend time with her. Our letters are having more and more days between them, and I know she's always tired. I think tomorrow I will go out and find something to buy for her. I don't know what to get that's cheap and will make her smile. I feel bad because I let days go without writing even though I'm not nearly as busy as she is. We were supposed to hang out today, but I woke up too late! I ran into her last night on the way home from hanging out with my friend.

영하 (Youngha): Here's a new face for you all. He's two years younger than I am, and I met him on the same language exchange website where I've met almost all of my friends here (Miju is the only exception). He's incredibly eager to learn English better, although his English is good already. He's also an enthusiastic Korean teacher. So far I met him once for breakfast (I couldn't sleep and he happened to text me at 7:30am) and we talked for 6 hours. Then I met him again yesterday for lunch and he took me to the biggest bookstore in Seoul. Our first breakfast was at a McDonald's which is connected to a "Grand Market" department store. McDonald's breakfast here is healthier and tastier than in America. For our lunch, we hopped on the subway downtown and went to his aunt's Chinese restaurant, where we had 짜장면 (jjajangmyeon), which is noodles in a sweet black sauce, and some Chinese-inspired fried pork, which I forgot the name of but is the favorite dish of two of my friends [The name is 탕수육 (Tangsooyook), thanks 영하]. I tried to take off my jacket at the restaurant, but his mother came hurried over to me and put it back on me. I was confused. He said that in Korea, it's scandalous to show your shoulders. I was wearing a sleeveless shirt. Not even a spaghetti strap, just a wide tank top. Culture difference I should be aware of, eh? 영하 (Youngha) loves maps, books, baseball, and soccer. He always carries a map book of Seoul (maybe all of Korea?), at least one book, and in his wallet he has discount passes for games and club cards for various stores. He's quite tall, probably 5'10~6' if I had to guess. He has millions of questions and wants to tell and show me everything. Actually, as I'm writing this I'm texting back and forth with him because he had a question about something he's studying. He's a quick study and really funny. Time flies when we hang out. :)

기균 (Kigyun): After having lunch with 영하 (Youngha) yesterday, I went home for a while and then went halfway across town again to meet 기균 (Kigyun, pronounced like Kee-gyoon). He's 5 years older than I am. We walked and talked for a while. He's very similar to me, actually, in terms of personality and philosophy. He and I both have that "you only live once" mentality. His English is better than he thinks it is, and he's starting to learn French. At one point in our conversations before, I had said that I like baseball and basketball but I'm no good at them. We walked by a batting cage and he suggested we try. He went first and hit almost every ball. Tall and athletic~ I said I was too terrible and embarrassed, but I tried anyway and just knicked three or four. No hits. He apologized profusely for making me do it. Koreans are like that. I said it was okay because I prefer failure to success sometimes. You can't learn anything from success, and I love learning. We ate some spicy octopus and vegetables simmering in soup, served on a hot plate. I forgot the name of that, too. But, it was ridiculously delicious. We also had some soju (Koreans really like to drink). He was wearing a beanie, which he says he doesn't like to do, because he got a bad haircut recently. I don't know why, but that struck me as hilarious. Anyway, this time I did not miss the last train home. I hope I'll get to see him again this week or next week.

주환 (Joohwan): I haven't seen him for a while, since the photos I posted. He checks up on me via text every now and then. He has midterms until Friday, so on Saturday we're gonna go drinking together.

성동 (Sungdong): He's two years older than I am, and I've been talking to him on MSN since before I came to Korea. At that time, he was studying in Australia, but now he's back in Korea. He lives in the south, and I'm thinking of visiting him in May sometime. He's a great comfort and help when I need it. He made a flyer in Korean for me to post around town for English tutoring because I told him I didn't know how to find students. He said he'll send it to me soon, so I just have to find somewhere to print it. I also have to print materials to teach piano to two people starting next week. I have a mission! I'll ask one of my local friends for help....

It's been too long

Wow it's been a long time. Sorry everyone!!!

Instead of the daily thing, I'll give you some highlights. Basically every day I eat egg fried rice for brunch, go out walking, play piano half of the days, and learn something new about Korea. For dinner I eat some kind of ramyun (Korean ramen).

Last Wednesday I went to see 벚꽃 (cherry blossoms) with 미주 (Miju) and two of her friends from school. That's what the pictures in the previous post are from. The weather was warm, almost too warm, and sunny. We went to 선유도 공원 (Sunyoodo Park), which is a man-made island in the middle of 한강 (Han River). There are more pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2683709&id=2356262&l=e5df13907c

When we got to the island, there were people filming a reality show which I had ironically watched the night before. It's about a fat rapper and a chubby singer and their significant others (not fat) and they're competing to lose weight. The host is a famous singer. So, 미주 (Miju) was really excited because she loves the host. We watched them film for a while, then had our picnic where they were filming. The director came over to us and asked me to speak to the fat guy in English for the show. So, I was on Korean TV. My friends also got to go on the show just after I did, so we were all really excited. The rest of the afternoon was fun and tiring, scampering around the park taking ridiculous pictures and doing our best to communicate. One of the girls speaks a little bit of Japanese, comparable to my own, so we talked in Japanese a lot. None of them could speak English any more than I can speak Korean. But, it was really fun! After the long day, 미주 (Miju) and I could berely walk up the stairs out of the subway and into our 고시원 (goshiweon).

In my walks, one day, I was walking by a vendor on the street who makes rice crackers. He's in the same place every day and I usually just ignore him like I do the others, but he called out something to me specifically. Something about foreigner girl, you're so pretty, have a rice cracker. Something like that. So I stopped and he talked to me for a while, handing me a free rice cracker every now and then. He tried to seel some to me, and they're cheap but I didn't feel like buying any so I just told him I didn't have any money with me. Well, a week later, I stopped and talked to him and bought some rice crackers. They're so good, I finished them in two days. He told me to come back often. I just might. He's about 50 years old I'm guessing. Good salesman.

One day, I was really upset for no particular reason (maybe stir crazy?) and I decided to go out for a walk around dusk. As I was walking by a Paris Baguette bread shop, I saw and old man drop his lighter while smoking. So, being a nice person and not wanting him to injure himself bending over, I picked up his lighter and handed it to him. He was go grateful that he ushered me into the bread store despite my protests in broken Korean and told me to choose anything to eat. So I relented and chose the cheapest thing in the store: a croissant. At first he just watched me eat it, then he mauled it with tongs and took a couple huge bites, securing crumbs all around his mouth, then shoving it in my face. I was so embarrassed and uncomfortable, and most of all, confused. He was trying to throw out all the English words he knew, like city names and random vocabulary. I was trying to speak in Korean, but he had that unique Korean old people accent that I can't really understand. Finally, when the croissant was almost gone, he got up, said "see you next time" in Korean, kissed me on the cheek, grabbed my boob, and walked out. I yelled "no" and hit his arm as he walked away but then I just sat there dumbfounded. Then I laughed. So ridiculous. That's what I get for being polite. Oh well, no harm done. I asked the girl working if he had given her money. She said no. Good thing I chose the cheapest thing. I asked her if he did that every day, and she said she had never seen him before. All of this in Korean, mind you. I'm improving! ^^

After the old man incident, I was really upset. Why is it that I can get the attention of a sick old man so easily, but there are no young, handsome guys in my area?? I went into Dunkin Donuts for the first time and got an iced mocha. Then I walked around the streets for another half an hour sipping it, desolate. Finally I decided that for the first time in my life, I would drink alone. I asked a random guy on the street, who was taking a break from work so I knew he wouldn't follow me, where a good place to drink was. He told me to go to 소주호프 (Soju Hof). I found the place but it was on the second floor and I couldn't find the stairs. So I asked a random woman how to find the stairs, and she gave me directions. I didn't know the word for stairs, so I made a motion like my hands were feet and I was stepping up stairs with them. Haha. I got there and tried to ask the guy working there where I could sit, but he didn't understand my Korean and he didn't speak much English, so he just said, "wait." So I waited. A woman who could almost be my grandmother came up to me and asked me in English what I was doing. I said he told me to wait so I was waiting. She led me to a table and sat down with me. Turns out, she's the manager. After I had had a beer and eaten a bit, she came back over to chat again. Her English was pretty good. I asked her if I could work for her a little bit, just cleaning or something before or after hours. She said that would be too hard because I can't speak enough Korean to talk to the other employees. But, she called her friend who's an English teacher for children. Said friend came and joined us at the table. Then that friend called her friend, who also came. Those two were about the age to be my aunts. So, I drank and talked with them until like 6am, and got their phone numbers and a potential twice-a-month job. I walked the block and a half home with the sunrise and a smile on my face.


Everything works out in the end. :)

Sorry for the absence, here's a taste

Cherry blossoms (벚꽃)

Another dose of daily life

Last you all heard, it was Friday, right? So here's Saturday-Tuesday:

SATURDAY
As usual, I got up, ate, took a shower, took my time getting pretty, and did the whole internet routine (email, Facebook, etc.). 주환 (Joohwan) had said that he'd come over around 2pm, so a little before that I grabbed a book, walked around the block, and sat on the stairs outside my 고시원 (goshiweon) to wait for him. As I was reading, people walking by stared more than usual. Come to think of it, I've never seen someone just sitting outside reading. So that odd action mixed with my ovbiously different ethnicity must have been the cause. On middle-aged man walked by, stared, and while walking backwards said, "Hello!" Being polite as I am, I looked up in a surprised fashion, smiled and said "hi" with a wave, and went back to my book. A minute later he returned with a couple of books in his hand and a pen. He said something like, "Uh, hi. I loves Americans. Where you coming from?" I answered, "Michigan." He replied, "Ah, I like lunch you. Phone number?" To which I, somewhat flustered, replied, "I don't have a phone. Sorry." He then asked, "Where you living?" Mildly perturbed, I answered, "Over there," and pointed far away. He said, "Okay so I can call you?" and positioned his pen on the paper. I repeated, "I just moved here last week. I don't have a phone. 저는 전화가 없어요. 미안해요. (I don't have a phone. Sorry.) I'm waiting for my friend." He looked confused. I said, "My boyfriend can't call me because I have no phone, so he is coming to meet me here." He caught one word. "Your boyfriend? Okay, see you." With that he walked away. I looked around nervously and walked back up the stairs to my room. I had a message from 주환 (Joohwan) on MSN saying he'd come around 3. It was then 2:30. So I told him that if anyone asked, he was my boyfriend, I didn't have a phone, and I lived on the other side of 까치산 (Ggachisan). So he told me when he was leaving his house and said, "I'll be there in 5-7 minutes." So exact, haha.

When 주환 (Joohwan) arrived, it was the same routine as last week. Just follow him because I have no idea where I'm going. It's like an adventure. He told me what to say to buy a subway card, and went with me to the window to help. So, now I have a subway card. We went to an English conversation group he goes to every Saturday from 4pm-6pm. All the people in it have been abroad, and they want to keep their English skills. The leader is a young Korean-Australian woman who works as an English teacher with the company that hosts the group. They read articles and discuss them. This week it was a "Dear Abby" letter and an article about British political scandal. After the meeting was over, the leader, another girl, 주환 (Joohwan), and I went to a restaurant for dinner. The other girl's friend met us there, too. We stayed at the restaurant eating, drinking, and talking from about 6:30 to about 11:30pm, and I was so tired by the end. But, it was a lot of fun. The leader and the friend who had met us there went their separate ways, but the other girl lives on the way to 까치산 (Ggachisan) so the three of us headed to the subway together. While transferring trains, we realized that the next one was, in fact, the last train home. So, like everyone else getting off the first train with us, we literally ran through the subway station to get on the second train. It was a first for me: a crowd of people, young and old, casual and professional, who usually walk confidently and i na composed manner, running desperately up and down stairs and down long hallways and onto a train to sigh with relief. Note to self: try to head home around 11pm. Haha.


SUNDAY
On Sunday, 주환 (Joohwan) came to get me and took me around the corner to the main street to get a cell phone service. Yay! He had gotten an old cell phone from somewhere or another, I'm not really sure. Then he did all the paperwork under his name and got everything prepared. It cost me 20,000 Won to get a charger and some prepaid minutes. That's less than $20. Good deal! Incoming calls and texts are free, and there were no deposits or start-up fees. Because nobody really does and office work on Sunday, they said my phone would be activated Monday between 11am and noon.

After that, 주환 (Joohwan) asked me if I wanted to go home or if I wanted to hang out with his friends whom I'd never met. My first impulse was to say I wanted to go home, but I didn't have any plans and this was an opportunity to socialize, something I don't get to do much yet because I don't have a lot of friends here. So, I said that I didn't have any plans, so.... So, we went to go meet his friends. There were three girls and one guy. One of the girls is Joohwan's ex-girlfriend, but they're still friends. It was the guy's birthday, so we went to an adorable cafe and had something analagous to Italian Ice, some fruit, fresh fruit juice, and white toast with cool whip (surprisingly very delicious). They had bought a cute little cake too, so they lit the candles and sang "Happy Birthday" in Korean (saeng-il choo-ka hamnida, saeng-il choo-ka hamnida, saeng-il [name] saranghae, saeng-il choo-ka hamnida). Then the boys went home one by one and I went to a bakery and a clothing store with the girls. The bakery is named, "Le Pommier," which I explained to them means, "the apple store/person" in French. There is a glass case full of apples above the counter, and the packaging on some of the bread has an odd poem about apples in English that made very little sense. Korean bakeries are amazing. I honestly think bread is way better in Korea than in America. I still have to go to Paris Baguette and see how it compares to France.... Anyway, after going to the clothing store and looking at bras and underwear (oddly not awkward), the girls walked me back to my 고시원 (goshiweon) and said good night. They know where it is because they're also friends with 미주 (Miju). They hang out every Sunday after church, so they invited me to join them next week, too.


MONDAY
I am over jetlag. I woke up around 11am Monday :) Back to my old self! I decided to see if my cell phone had been activated yet, so I turned it on. Sure enough it was connected to the network! Excited, I sent one of my friends a text message. He replied soon after, and I tried to reply back but it failed to send the message. I tried calling a couple of people, but there was some woman's voice saying something wasn't there, followed by a beeping tone. I took a shower and ate, tried again, and still nothing. I figured out how to put the menu in English, and played around with settings, but still nothing. Frustrated, I felt oddly exhausted. So, I went back to sleep and woke up around 5pm. After trying again, I decided to throw on some makeup and go to the cell phone store. On the way there, and old man offered me a drink, and when I refused kindly he tried to hand me a bag of chips. Flustered, I refused and thanked him, then kept walking. A guy walking past looked at me and laughed a little. I said to him, "두번재이에요!" which I believe means "This is the second one/time!" He laughed again and kept walking.

Then, all alone, I walked in to the cell phone store and went to a representative. In broken Korean I explained that if my friends wrote something, it was okay, but I couldn't do anything. I handed her my phone and she talked to the other two, who were there on Sunday and set it up for me. They said I'd paid 10,000 Won for minutes (I caught that in their conversation). I guess the problem was that the minutes weren't properly credited to my account. The representative did that and handed the phone back to me, prompting me to make a call to see if it worked. I called 주환 (Joohwan) and it rang. Success!! He didn't pick up, but that wasn't the point.

I spent the rest of the evening getting in touch with old students. Two of them, 승범 (Seungbeom) and 경수 (Kyoungsu) sent messages back and forth for a while. At some point during the evening 주환 (Joohwan) called and apologized for not picking up earlier. I told him why I'd called and he was so shocked and proud that I'd fixed the problem by myself using Korean. :) I was getting hungry, so I decided to make some curry I'd bought. But, I can't read the directions so I grabbed the package and walked around looking for my landlady. I couldn't find her anywhere, so I just made shin ramyun (spicy ramen) again. On the way back to my room with my ramen, my landlady was in her office. Sigh~

TUESDAY
Today the weather was beautiful. I can tell I'm from a colder climate than everyone here, because I was walking around very comfortably in a T-shirt past all the Koreans in sweaters and jackets. After my shower and internetting, I decided to hit the market during my walk so I could make something great for brunch. I bought pork (돼지고기 dwaeji gogi) and the storekeeper asked about me in English a little, then gave me some free green onions. I also went to the grocery store and bought garlic and 고추장 (gochu jang = red pepper paste) for cooking. I ended up frying the pork with worsteshire (I can NOT spell that ever, for the life of me) sauce, garlic, and green onions. Then I cooked egg fried rice in the remaining sauce and combined everything for a delicious stir-fry. I don't think I'll eat dinner tonight; I'm still full.

After eating I went to play piano for about an hour, then went on an extra-long walk because my normal route is starting to feel short. Also because I ate so much for brunch. Now I think I miss chocolate, so I'll go out and hit a store or two in search of some cheap, delicious chocolatey goodness. I finished my Andes Mints yesterday :(