My neighborhood

Life at Yonsei University is starting to become more familiar. After two and a half weeks I have a handle on the neighborhood that surrounds my campus, called Sinchon. Sinchon has all of the excitement of an average college town, just multiplied a few times over, squeezed into high-rises and with a few extra unique sites as well.

This is actually the view from my dorm room window, on one of the few mornings where rest of the city wasn't obscured by mist or pollution. The brick building in the foreground is a copy of my own.

I went for a run out of the north gate of my campus, which, rather than facing the affluent downtown, is closer to the small shops and poorer neighborhoods. I wanted to get a picture of all of the little produce stalls lined up against this canal, but I didn't dare take out my camera while all of the women who tended them gave me glares. This part of the city, being less wealthy, also sees far less white people.

This is a picture of the underside of the highway that runs through the neighborhood. It looks peaceful and idyllic, but the water smells like untreated sewage.

Just outside of the north gate is the local fire station, it's the building with the gold emblem in the background. I took this picture mainly to remember what the sky looks like without rainclouds, it has rained just about ever other day for the past two weeks.

The guy hailing a cab in the foreground is a friend of mine. Cabs are cheap here compared to just about anywhere in America, a ten minute ride is about $3.

Sinchon has dozens of internet cafes, which are also much cheaper than similar places in America. A lot of college and high school students park themselves here after class, playing Starcraft for hours.

Store promotions in Seoul are anything but subtle. Besides the clown inviting pedestrians into Baskin Robbins that I caught on camera, there are cellphone salesmen singing karaoke outside of their shops, beauty store clerks dressed all in pink talking rapidly into megaphones, as well as alleys full of restaurant owners jumping in front of anyone who passes by and demanding they try their food.
There's also bowling. Nothing really crazy about it, just bowling.

Gyeongbokgung Palace

In the few weeks since I arrived, I have met a few Koreans my age, most of them from contacts back in America. While hanging out with Koreans has not been as effortless as it is with the other Americans in my program, it can be refreshing to not be around the same environment.

A boss of mine in Washington introduced me to her niece via e-mail, a young woman who is now studying in Seoul. On Saturday I met her for a tour of some of the city's more famous ancient sites, not knowing that the niece knows very little English. It was an interesting few hours, but it also reminded me that when I come back in September I'm going to have many similarly basic conversations. The idea of being limited to the vocabulary of a 10-year-old is daunting, but I still had a good time on Saturday, so it can't be too bad.

Gyeongbokgung is a reconstructed palace originally built in the 14th century. The site, which could be compared to many sites in Washington or Boston in terms of national importance, was surprisingly quiet. Tourists wandered through the grounds and slipped off their shoes before touring the old royal chambers.

Describing tourist sites makes for pretty dry reading, so I just included some of my better photos.




Lunch was buckwheat noodles in a red-pepper sauce, with the bonus of chunks of ice for the hot day, (this whole week is going to be about 85 degrees).

On the way back to the subway, we walked by one of the larger roundabouts in northern Seoul. The roundabout is also apparently on the path from Seoul City Hall to the president's Blue House, (equivalent to the White House). To stop U.S. beef protests from pushing on to the House, (50,000 people marched on Saturday night), the police put bus barricades across the street and post riot police in front of them.

I wasn't able to get any great photos of the barricades, but they are basically refitted police shuttles with riot shields and metal over the windows. Korean street protests can turn violent pretty quickly, last week protestors were pulling the buses back through sheer manpower as the police advanced. Even though I live relatively close to the protests, I must admit I haven't seen any or even heard them since I have been here. I don't know how welcome a white face would be at the rallies, so I don't plan to get too close any time in the future.

Shopping in Korea

While I know that a post on the beef protests is in demand, all I have so far is a few scattered photos and no real experience. Next weekend will be another scheduled demonstration in the city center, hopefully I'll be able to take some shots of the hordes of angry Koreans and offer a little insight.

I also added some more photos to the post about Hongdae, the nightlife district. The new pictures show how the whole place lights up at night.

There is a whole side of Seoul aimed at the multitude of fashion-conscious young professionals and students who populate the city. As of right now, the most popular clothing is covered in American phrases that are never quite appropriate, there is much to be seen in the shops of Seoul that is uniquely Korean.

Just down the street from the entrance to my university is a tower of shops much like Walmart. While I was only looking for a few things for my dorm room, the eight-story structure has just about anything you might need. Right next to the alarm clock that I bought was something that would be very out of place in any American store, and is best described as a picture.


Yes, that's a pen holder, and right next to them were these lamps.


(this is a photo I took at the Yongsan electronics market, that's a piggy bank/alarm clock with the coin slot in an interesting position).
My first reaction when I saw these was, quite naturally, surprise. The lamps and pen holders seemed to contrast with a society that is otherwise very conservative. Sexuality, while present in advertisements and of course, among young people, is still not displayed that openly. Korean couples will hold hands and cuddle on park benches all the time, but I have never seen them kiss in public and the average Korean woman is far more modest than her American counterpart.

I met an American who had taught in Korea for a year and still lives here, he wasn't fazed when I told him what I saw for sale, and was able to provide an explanation. Apparently Koreans can be very open about their bodies and their bodily functions, so long as there is no tinge of sexuality. Here there is less embarrassment when it comes to hygiene or what goes on in the bathroom, which explains why the pen holders, so long as they were purely humorous and not sexual, would not be a problem.

Just so you don't get the impression that Korean stores are full of naked plastic people, I was able to get another photo of a floor in a department store adjacent to the Korean Walmart. This particular department store, owned by Hyundai, has a whole floor of bakeries and a food court that actually beats most other restaurants I've been to in terms of price and taste. While I was soon instructed to stop taking pictures, (I still don't know why), I have to share the multitude of waffles that were for sale. Waffles are a popular street food here, equivalent to hot dog carts back in New York City. I will have to describe the other street foods for sale here, but for now I am happy with a country that has discovered the need for a constant and plentiful supply of waffles.

Yeouido

Yeouido Island is a business park located on an island in the middle of the Han River. I had heard of the place many months before I ever came here, so I knew I would want to see the Korean version of a skyscraper at some point. With little to do before classes started, I took a subway into the heart of Yeouido (yoh-wei-doh) on Sunday morning.

The Seoul Metro is a polished and airy way to get around the city in no time. I am reluctant to delay so many posts for later on, but like Hongdae and foreigners, I want to wait until I know a bit more. In short, the trip was startling quiet and clean, even by Washington, D.C. Metro standards.

What I found on the island was a bit dissapointing, there was none of the grandeur or immense size of Midtown Manhattan, but it was very spacious. The center of the island is a large public park, where dozens of families took advantage of the Sunday afternoon to rent rollerblades and make their awkward way around the bike paths.
On one side of the park is the headquarters of the Korean Broadcasting System, kind of like NBC in America. The building was unremarkable, but stretched out along the sidewalk was a long banner carrying anti-President Lee Myung-Bak slogans. Nearby were some caricatures of the Presidents and even an angry-looking cow, (i.e. a "mad cow").

Coming out of Yeouido I took some pictures of the local oilbank (gas station, gas here is about $8 a gallon) and some of the more impressive sights from the bridge.
...and the largest church I've ever seen.

Beginnings of Hongdae

Hongdae is the name for a dense area of shops, bars, and dance clubs outside of Hongik Univeristy, ("Hongdae" can be translated as "Hongik University"). Say the name to any cabdriver, student, or expat and they know exactly what you are talking about.

I'll have to post an update later with more pictures from the area at night, when it turns from quiet dinner district into a thoroughfare filled with fashionably dressed young Korean couples looking for a drink. The best picture I have so far is below, you can tell that a lot of the clubs and events here are given an American name. Almost all of the music in the larger bars sounds likes it comes from American artists, but Korea has its own big pop and hip-hop scene, hopefully I'll have more to talk about concerning it later on.

(edit: I added a few more pictures of the nightlife in Hongdae, the amount of neon makes up for the lack of streetlights)Living in the dormitories at Yonsei University has its upsides and its irritations. Rent for this month is cheap, but every students has to adhere to a curfew that is conservative by any American standard. Come midnight, every door to the building is locked, and the night watchmen just watch you passively when you plead at the door. At 5:30 am the doors are unlocked, the result being a lot of exhausted Americans stumble in early in the morning rather than cut short their night. My first night in Hongdae I ended up sleeping on a bench outside of my building, bitten by mosquitoes and cursing the administration.

The streets of Hongdae have plenty of foreigners, many of them Americans here to teach English. After meeting with a few former teachers on the street, we were introduced to one of the expat bars. Called the "Rocky Mountain Tavern," I saw more white faces there than I have in the rest of Korea combined. While the mood was familiar, I found myself uncomfortable being around a large group of Americans after getting used to Korea. Most of the people we met described the bar as a regular hangout, but I guess if I was alone in the country without a program I might be more inclined to keep myself isolated from native Koreans.

I haven't had enough experience with Americans here yet, so I want to hold off until later to give my opinion. From what I have seen so far, the average American I see here is quite different from people of the same age group that I know back home.

trip to the South

My program for the next five weeks, the Yonsei Korean Language Institute Summer Special Program, (to be exact), is largely a way for Korean-Americans to return to the motherland and learn the language. While language instruction may be the reason why some students joined, many more have no problem saying their parents compelled them to come and they are far more interested in learning about the effects of soju, (cheap Korean rice liquor) on their system than they are about learning a new language. As one of three white people, (I would tiptoe around and call myself Caucasian, but as my nickname is most often "whitey" among the other members of the trip, it seems appropriate) I stuck out quite a bit.

The first stop was at the Korean Folk Village (Hangook Minsokchon), kind of like a Colonial Williamsburg for Korea. I learned that every Korean high school student goes on the same trip as mine, and I saw very few tourists that were not attached to a whole bus load of similar people. Our guide for the trip actually took us aside when we first arrived at the Village and explained that despite our being Americans and loving "individuality," we had to move as a unit.
The village itself was interesting, built just thirty years ago. Everyone we spoke to seemed quite proud of the ability of the government to hold onto this chunk of land and keep traditions alive. Despite this introduction, all of the buildings were erected in the 1970s, surprisingly recent for a country that had a long history of advanced culture and cultural achievement. For all the fuss about America being a new country, we still preserve a great deal.

From the Village we shot across Korea to the province of Gyeongju. Our hotel for the next three days was immense, I know it sounds strange, but I felt like it was North Korean in terms of scale and dated architecture. Our one hundred and twenty students were swallowed up in the 8-story building, which was at odds with the small rural town surrounding it. What the place might have lacked in charm, it made up in location, the view was great.
You can just see in the distance some vibrant green fields, those are just a few of the millions of rice fields we saw in those few days. I don't exaggerate here, there didn't seem to be a single acre of lowland Korea not filled with orderly rows of rice stalks. The mountains hidden in the mist are another fixture in the country; it is completely filled with mountains. Home in Connecticut has a few ridges and hills, they are put to shame by the Korean countryside.

The mist has also followed me since I arrived in Korea, July apparently sees a lot of rain and sweltering temperatures. I will be here for the bitter cold of midwinter as well, at this point some freezing weather doesn't sound too bad.

The best part of the hurried tour of traditional Korean spots in the next few days was Seokguram and Bulguk-sa. The former is a buddhist shrine, the most famous in the country, set into the side of a mountain and holding an immense granite Buddha. Bulguk-sa is a restored Buddhist temple complex nearby, equally beautiful. Both of these sites are also functioning religious ground, I saw a handful of bowed older women praying at Seokguram and we were told that one hundred grey-robed monks still live at Bulguk-sa. I can only imagine what they think about the parade of camera-wielding tourists that passes by some of the holiest sites in the country. None of my shots feature the inside of the temples, white-gloved attendants instructed that there was a "no photo prohibition," which makes sense, I can only imagine how difficult it would be finding inner peace while bombarded with camera flashes.
After returning to Yonsei's campus at the end of the trip to the south, I was ready to see more of the modern, non-touristy Korea.

Korea up to now

I'll save the events of Saturday night for the next post, the week I've already spent here deserves a short story of its own.

After overcoming a wicked case of jet lag, I spent my first night/day walking around the main street in the district of Mapo-gu, close to Yonsei University, where I will be spending the next five weeks. Mapo-gu holds an incredible variety of life, from towering office blocks to crooked brickwalled back streets, and of course the famous Hongdae. Hongdae deserves a post of its own in the future, once I have a grasp on a bar district that tops any I've seen in the states.

I had heard a few disparaging remarks about the architecture of Korea, described as little more than utilitarian concrete towers and copies of western architecture. What I found was a raucous combination of brightly colored walls, homes peeking out at the street from under traditional ceramic roofs, as well as gleaming car dealerships. The combination itself, merging the old with the new, is new and wonderful.

I'll try to get some better shots that capture the feeling of the little alleyways.

After two days in the city, I took off for southeastern Korea on a trip with my language program, pictures will come later.