27 Sept. 2007

Wow. It feels like forever since I've been here, just because I have so much to write about. It's 2:15 am and I'm writing until I fall asleep, which shouldn't take long because my bedtime dose of sleep-aide is starting to work.

It's been a busy two weeks. Let's start with last Monday.

Monday 17 Sept. 2007
Well, let's start with Saturday.

Saturday 15 Sept. 2007
I got all dressed up to head down to Seoul to see Uncle Paul and Imo, who had arrived last Sunday. It's the first time I've seen them in about a year.

Funny thing happened on the way. The floor of the bus was soaking wet. Looking good and all, I got up and walked to the exit. The moment I let go of the rail to grab my phone, the driver slammed on the brakes to stop and I went down. In front of a busload of people. Wet my pant leg falling on the floor. hahaha

I met them right outside 녹사평. It was awesome. When I was in DC I was probably 20 lbs. heavier than now; when I saw them in ICT I was probably 10 lbs. heavier, so it was nice to hear Imo (my Korean Imo!!) comment on how nice I looked (take notes, mom!)

We headed a few blocks down to Yongsan (용산) Army Base to eat some good ol' fashioned American food. It was like stepping into America. Mark, Becky, Trey & I are all military kids, so I can imagine that they all felt like they were coming home, just like I did. Everywhere we looked, it was like a snapshot of the US -- blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, mixed-race people!! -- such a break from the homogeneity of Korean society.

Mark & I ate at Burger King. I loved Burger King back home. I love it even more in Korea. And I really love it at Yongsan Army Base in Korea.

Going back to the train station was almost surreal. It was like stepping thru a portal from the States to Korea. All of a sudden we were surrounded by Koreans again.

Mark & I headed to Korean class, and on to 명동, where we ate at a 돈갓스 restaurant. Good stuff!

Sunday 16 Sept. 2007
I was supposed to go on a tour of Sharing House, which is a shelter for victims of Japan's "Comfort Women" sex-trafficking policy. Notice my use of "supposed." We were to meet at 10 am, and I was late. So I just stayed on the bus til I arrived at 명동. Bought some much-needed cosmetics at Clinique in the Lotte Dept. Store, then managed to stumble into a Migliore store (cue in heavenly chimes). This was an experience in itself. Everything is hip, trendy, and CHEAP. Basically, the clothes are fashioned after brand-name gems and made in nameless factories. So you see a lot of "like DKNY" or "like Seven" etc. No problem for me! I bought 3 shirts, some 1/2 pants, slacks and a skirt. The most interesting part was trying on the clothes. The Migliore is made of little booths with a salesperson and clothes. Not enough room for a dressing room. So you put a skirt on top of you pants, take your pants off, try on the sales item, take the skirt off, look at yourself, and reverse the process. So basically the skirt is a mini-dressing room. The first time a saleswoman suggested it I deferred, but after that I decdied to risk the process (I really wanted the capris!) and the whole things kinda grows on ya.

Spent the evening doing laundry.

Monday 17 Sept. 2007
Today was the first day of orientation. I spent the early part of the morning packing and getting ready. Really, it makes sense. This orientation is my big chance to meet new friends! No language barriers, no cultural barriers to worry about, because we're all English-speakers from Western nations, presumably raised on the beautiful ideologies of the Englightenment, liberalism, civil and human rights, and feminism. *happy sigh*

Took the train to Moran station, then the 2007 bus to Suwon station, then the train to Byeongcheom. I was exhausted. At 병점 I got on the GPOE bus that took us to La Vie d'Or (the Golden Life).

On the bus I sat next to and talked with Kate. She's from Wisconsin, taking a year off to catch up on some writing. Really friendly and interesting. We're kinda in the same boat -- both considering our further education for the learning rather than the jobs that follow.

I expected the hotel room assignments to be pre-arranged, but that wasn't the case. Basically, a woman came up to me and asked me if I had any friends. I said no, so she went and got me some. Lei is the oldest, and she is the sweetest and most sincere woman. She's like an open book, and she has nothing to hide because she doesn't need to hide anything. Lei is Chinese, but an Aussie.

Jen is in her late 20s. As in 27. Jen is Chinese as well, hails from Toronto. Sammi is from San Jose & is Vietnamese. She's 26. Surprisingly, they're both from 양평, which according to their accounts, is a small podunk town. They're like polar opposites: Jen is loud & boisterous, tough as nails, while Sammi is quiet, serious, gentle and sensitive.

We had a few seminars and that night we took a walk around town. Wasn't much to see -- it took about 5 minutes. Basically a few bars, a few 노래방s, a salon, an adult store, a CVS (Family Mart is a savior!), and, surprisingly, a SE Asian grocery store.

We visited 3 pool halls, each of which had one set of 8-balls (the others were Korean pool) and they were in use by other conference members. So we headed to the 노래방 for a night of laughter and hurting ears. Sammi turned out being the best singer...as in she could actually hit the notes. But Jen & I had stunning performances of "Bed of Roses" and, of course, the instant hit "My Heart Will Go On." And I did get a perfect score on "SexyBack." Boo-ya!

Tuesday 18 Sept. 2007
CRAZY. That's all I can say.

In the am Summer introduced us to Andy, and we never managed to shake him off, haha. Andy's originally from Hong Kong, speaks Mandarin & Cantonese, and is a Torontonian (I say Torontan). He and Jen hit it off right away, as they're from the same area in Toronto. Apparently his brother butchered Jen's hair once. She wanted "Reese Witherspoon bangs" but got a Scooby-doo look, but still tipped him well because she thought he was cute. Small world. Shallow woman. The better I know Jen, the more I realize how similar we are.

So Andy ended up being our roommate. Sammi moved to the couch, since she really didn't like the bed, & Andy took her bed. The invite was for one nite but he extended it to 3.

I don't know how I got on the topic, but I suggested we have a scary story night. So we turned off all the lights except a small table lamp, which we dimmed.

I started out with the Korean legend Young-ji told me about the 귀신 who hovers above people as they bathe. When you wash your hair you're not supposed to look up because if you make eye contact with her she'll haunt you. I concluded, of course, by mentioning that I've looked up multiple times but never saw her.

This whole time Sammi's curled up on the floor. She says she gets scared easily. Easily as in she got scared watching X-Men...

Jen picked up next with some uber-creepy stories. Creepy because they happened to her. When she was little she and her sister shared a room. Their brothers would play pranks on them. Their bedroom had a door to the hallway, a door to the closet, and a door to the balcony outside. One night they heard knocking on the balcony door. They assumed it was their brothers but when her sister opened the door there wasn't anybody there. This happened a second time, and a third time. After the third time, though, there was pounding on all three doors. Even if it was their brothers, there are only 2 brothers, and 3 doors. Ugh. I just got creeped out just from writing that down.

Second Jen story: same house (her parents still live in that house). Once she and her sister were at home with their grandmother. Jen was in the kitchen (surprise!) and her sister & grandmother were in the living room, when they heard running footsteps on the stairs and a door slamming. They thought it was each other until Jen walked into the living room to see what the commotion was about. They realized that it wasn't one of them so they went upstairs to investigate. Nobody there, but one of the doors was closed.

Last Jen story. When her sister moved into her first house she befriended a Native American. One day he gave her a feather, which she placed on her mantlepiece. Jen called her later that day and while they were talking she heard screaming over the telephone. Her sister asked her if she heard the screaming, and Jen affirmed. Her sister told Jen that it was coming from inside the house. If that wasn't creepy enough, the next day the Native American asked her if anything strange had happened. Cautiously, she said that she had heard screaming inside her house. The Native American told her that he had sensed an evil spirit in the house & he gave her the feather to drive it out. Creepy.

OK. To make this even creepier, the lamp we had dimmed had been flickering periodically. I was sitting with the lamp and TV behind me -- lamp on my left and TV on my right -- so between the lamp flickering, Ringu memories, and scary stories, I was starting to feel very creeped out.

Now Andy's time to shine. His first story was about a trip he made to his aunt's house when he was little. She lived in the Hong Kong suburbs on a lane that led to a Buddhist temple. At night, this whole lane would be pitch black, except for the dim lights thrown from inside the housed. At the end of the dark lane, however, was the red light from inside the temple. One night they were playing hide-and-seek, but they couldn't locate one friend. They assumed he had just gone home mid-game, so they didn't worry about it. The next day, the friend was found in the temple. He had had seizures. Before and since then, he never had any seizures (he's ok now).

Second Andy story was about a Toronto highway exit ramp (which Jen used to drive almost daily). Apparently the city decided to put up a high fence because people would jump off the ramp. Once his friend, fairly inebriated at the time, was on that ramp around midnight. He immediately sobered up because he saw a girl at the top of the fence. He asked the driver if he could see her, but by the time the driver looked, the girl had jumped off. Later this friend asked Andy if he could go with him there. Completely sober this time, they took the ramp, searching for the ghost. But when the temperature immediately dropped inside the car, they high-tailed it out of there.

Last Andy story: in the early 1990s the Hong Kong subway system aired a commercial, then pulled it within days. The ad features 6 children playing choo-choo train in the woods, each child with his hands on the shoulders of the child in front of him. At the end is a cute chubby boy with a hat. In one shot, though, a girl with her head down is right behind him. The next shot shows the boy at the end, with nobody behind him. When they asked the boy he said there wasn't anybody behind him but he had felt like there was.

We headed downstairs to the computer room & found the clip on YouTube. It was creepy. For a while. Then we started imitating the ghost girl and after that it was really funny. (For the ad, just go to YouTube & search "KCR ghost.")

It's about 4 am & I keep hearing noises in my flat that are getting me all jittery & jumpy.

That night we couldn't sleep. Jen must have said, "OK, goodnight guys" about 20 times. Andy was in the bed next to Lei's room, Jen was in the middle bed, and I was in the bed closest to the window. Sammi was on the couch a few feet from the foots of our beds.

We were all freaked out, and our conversations ranged from creepy things like the Grudge & Ringu to absurd and funny things like Ralph Wiggums to get our minds off the scary stuff. Twice I jokingly jumped into Jen's bed, and she immediately pushed me out, saying she doesn't like to be close to people. Best, the lamp which was off, kept flickering ON.

We had finally quieted down and were getting ready to sleep when we had the fright of our lives. Our walls were peach-colored, so they were light. Suddenly we saw something black moving in front of them. Jen & I started screaming and before I knew it, Jen, who doesn't like to be close to people, was IN MY BED. My TWIN BED. The light came on. The culprit? Not the creepy Japanese woman in the Grudge. No, it was sweet Sammi, looking for the light so she wouldn't trip on the way to the bathroom.

That incident must have scared Jen pretty badly, because she had to go to the bathroom too. I hid on the floor between her bed and Andy's bed (I didn't want to hide between her bed & my bed because I didn't want something grabbing me. If something grabbed me between Jen & Andy's beds, at least Andy would be right there. hahaha I'm such a sissy). When Jen climbed back into her bed, I grabbed her feet. She started screaming again. It was so funny.

Poor Lei.

Wednesday 19 Sept. 2007
Back in the States, whenever I went to a camp or someplace where I meet new people, I always hung out with Asians. I figured that in Korea at orientation I would hang out with white people. Wrong-o! With the exception of Summer, everybody I hung out with was...Asian. Including Anna, a full-Korean girl from...Toronto. What is it with me & Torontans?

After sessions we learned that GEPIK coordinators had actually planned our orientation as a front for "Get to know Andy" week. At least that's what he told us. We learned all about him, and we actually managed to diagnose all of us. Sammi & Andy are people who base their relationships around one significant other. They have long relationships & it takes them a long time to bounce back when it falls thru. Jen & I, though, base our relationships on a core group of friends. We don't have boyfriends; we just date guys. "Long relationships" means dating the same guy for longer than a month, & when it ends we're not too phased -- and if we are we have that core group of friends to laugh us out of our shallow colorless funk. So how's that for analysis?

Thursday 20 Sept. 2007
After morning seminars we headed to Hwaseong Fortress for a tour. This was awesome. Built by King Jeongjo in honor of his father, this seven-year project was completed in two years. Only two original buildings in the palace complex remain -- the others were destroyed ruing Japanese occupation and the Korean War.

Hwaseong Fortress is also the site where some Era K-dramas are filmed, based partly, I'm sure, on its proximity to Seoul. It was interesting to see someof the rooms I recognized in K-dramas, like the classroom in Dae Jang Geum.

I spent the majority of the trip back to La Vie d'Or talking with a man who shall go unnamed. As we spoke I could feel a hot gale rushing from the general direction of Jen's flared nostrils.

After dinner we attended a Korean traditional music performance. It was awesome. A woman opened up with pansori, which I couldn't even imagine doing in hanbok. A man in hanbok followed her with the fan dance. My favorite was the gayageum soloist. I never knew that gayageum could sound so beautiful until I heard her perform. It was amazing. She was followed by gayageum twins (really, they were twins), then she joined the twins for the gayageum triumverate performance, which included Pachelbel's canon, one of my favorite pieces. Next up were the 4-drum performers. These were elementary school students!! I couldn't believe that nine children could remain on beat through an entire performance which included stop-and-go rhythm and sudden pace changes. They sounded really good, and their performance was so electrifying.

We decided to follow this up with a bit of music of our own, so we headed to the 노래방. Big mistake, as we subsequently experienced what Jen called 노래방 rape. Because of the size of our group we had to sit at the same table as some of the GEPIK people (i.e. our bosses). They offered us drinks. In Korea, when somebody offers you a drink (especially somebody higher on the Confucian hierarchy), it's very rude to refuse. I wasn't a big fan of straight whiskey, and 노래방 rape didn't change anything. Then they asked us to sing. And asked. And asked. We couldn't say no. We tried but they wouldn't stop asking until we agreed. After avery embarrassing song (to which two straight Korean men danced -- with each other!) one of the guys decided to engage me in conversation. Unfortunately he didn't have a filter on his mouth -- he kept spitting -- on me! -- when he talked. Gross.

After we managed to escape (note to self: never go to a 노래방 unless there are private rooms) we headed down to Family Mart for some 김밥 to soak up the whiskey. There we ran into a really classy guy. He actually tried to convince us that it's okay for him to cheat on his wife because Korean men do it. Wow. What a stunning display of his excessive illogic. But what more can we expect from a scumbag like that? Best of all, he was a white man trying to convince western women that it's okay for him to cheat on his western wife because Korean men cheat. I had not idea what was going on (focusing on my 김밥, I'm afraid) so I couldn't waste my breath reciting figures on the rising divorce rate in Korea as women through education and modernization are exposed to more egalitarian ideology and thus demand fairness and integrity from their husbands and partners. Nor was I able to inform him that it would be very difficult to cheat unless he paid for it, as he wasn't in any way physically attractive. I'm afraid that he's just another scumbag cracker who thinks that Korean women are just desperate to be with white men.

After we managed to escape we headed to British Andy's room for poker, which never materialized since we didn't have chips or enough change. But we did play some truth game where if your drawn card didn't fall in a particular range you had to answer a question. Which didn't really apply since we answered the questions regardless of whether we had to.

Friday 21 Sept. 2007
After morning sessions and lunch I hopped on a bus to head back to 병점역. As we were exiting the bus I started speaking with a guy named Stephen. I had noticed him during orientation and thought he was Korean since he always dressed well: slacks and dress shirts, compared to our jeans, tees & hoodies. At the train station we started up a flight of stairs. He wanted to carry my luggage but I told him I was fine. After a few more steps, though, he insisted that he carry it. He said he couldn't walk next to a woman and let her carry a heavy suitcase when he could do it instead (it wasn't heavy, but ok!). No chauvinism or machoism involved, just pure gentleman-ness. As Jen put it when I told her later, "Who says chivalry is dead?" Even in Korea!

At the top of the stairs I took my luggage back but when we reached another flight of stairs he took it again. He admitted that he wasn't very strong but he'd rather carry it than watch me carry it. Wow. He just shot up a coupla notches on the Hot-o-meter with that humility and sweetness.

On the train to Suwon station we talked a bit more. He's Taiwanes (that's how he id'd himself) from NOVA. Where in NOVA? Fairfax. He lives in 남양주, same city where Summer is. By the time we parted at Suwon, I had another number in the ole celly phone.

It felt so good to get home! I was only about 30 km from home, and my travel time was roughly an hour, but I felt like I had just gotten home from an extensive trip. My own bed, my own pillow, my laundry machine!! I put in a load and crashed. Three nights in a row of 3 hrs. a sleep took its toll. I was out.

Saturday 22 Sept. 2007
Surprisingly, I was up before noon on a Saturday -- SECOND WEEK IN A ROW! Wow.

Met with Uncle Paul & Imo at the same place. This time I opted for some TB tacos. Chalupas to be exact. In retrospect I should have gotten nachos, but everybody has 20/20 hindsight vision.

Afterward Mark & I headed to Sookmyung for class. Having a bit of trouble with grammar, but I hope I can pick it up. I hate not being able to talk with people! What can I say? I think I'm a terribly witty person and thus I enjoy hearing myself. I know all my friends are nodding in agreement -- shut up Jen!

Sunday 23 Sept. 2007
Ended up meeting Jen & Sammi out in 청랑리, and area of 서울 I've never visited. We headed back to 명둥 to meet up with Anna & Andy. En route I found out it was Anna's birthday. Oops. Didn't get the memo. never took a moment to really consider what the date was, so I ended up forgetting to tell my mother "Happy Birthday." Felt really guilty about that, but Orientation threw me off datewise.

Ahhhh...명둥...where Anna and I discovered our beloved vendor near the Burger King. Yes, she sells *cue in heavenly chimes* 1000W earrings. The whole time we're checking out bling Andy's reminding us how hungry he is. hahaha Side note -- Anna bought some giraffe earrings that I made fun of. Remember that.

We ended up eating at the donkatsu place Mark & I had visited the last time. I was in the mood for 짜장면, but donkatsu won out.

After that, back to the street carts. Jen & Anna were walking ahead when Andy spotted some giraffe earrings similar to Anna's, except with sparklies. He bought them & I put them on while Sammi distracted Jen & Anna. Anna's response when she saw me wearing the earrings: "You outblinged me!"

Andy took his leave so he could get ready for his China trip. The girls all headed over to Tom N Toms for coffee shop goodies. I ordered: 그란대 차이 티 라태, 아이스," which is Konglish for "Grande chai tea latte, iced." This was also what was written on the menu. The lady behind the counter looked at me bewildered. Anna started laughing. The conversation continued as thus:
Cast of characters:
TNT: Tom N Toms lady behind the counter
M: Monica
A: Anna
S: Sammi
J: Jen
TNT: *blank stare*
A: *snicker snicker*
TNT: chai tea latte?
M: Yes...
TNT: *vertically spreading hands apart & bringing them close together*
A: *chortle chortle*
J: *snicker snicker*
M: Grande...
TNT: hot or iced?
A,J,S: *giggle giggle*
M: Iced...

My friends suck.

But Jen quickly redeemed herself. At the 1000W earring cart Anna & I had gotten some matching pairs of earrings, which we dubbed "couple earrings" in reverent mockery of the practice among select Korean couples to wear matching attire. We tried on each pair and forced Jen to take pictures as we "귀스" (ear kissed - Anna's wannabe Konglish pun). Jen always brags about her amazing camera so she totally deserved a photo shoot.