So I have been slacking on the blog a little lately. I get caught up in, well, life. Things become routine and I would neglect it. The holidays were also really busy, with work and socially. And we were planning for our big trip over Christmas and a few little ones after that, so a lot of time went into that. It just seemed more interesting to look up stuff about Angkor Wat than write about some random weekend in Seoul that we had. I think that is part of the problem too. I had been blogging about every little excursion that we had done. At first everything was new and exotic, but weekend adventures are now, to me, more mundane and not out of the ordinary, so I had been less motivated to update on them. But here’s the new attempt. A briefer summary than planned of the last few months and some of the more inspiring things we got to do.
We got to celebrate (Canadian) Thanksgiving. The Korean’s had their version of Thanksgiving a few weekends before, called Chuseok (more about visiting relatives) and American Thanksgiving (more about Black Friday and shopping) wasn’t until late November, so we decided to throw something together. I definitely have a lot to be thankful for: this great opportunity to live and work in another country while making money, great friends (new and old) and health, plus a really supportive family. Lisa and I had about 15 people over to our tiny one room apartment for dinner. We got roasted chickens at Costco since no one has ovens here. Lisa made the best stuffing she could with the ingredients here, and people brought everything else (mashed potatoes, carrots, Swiss Chalet sauce for gravy, pie, rolls, etc.) and lots and lots of wine. Frank made it too from Incheon, the first friend from home I’ve got to meet up with. In the end it was a really great meal and not too different than if I was back home.
On another weekend Lisa and I hiked up Namsam. We were going to do this earlier but it was way too hot so we took the cable car before. The hike was really nice with a good view of downtown and the leaves on the hills. The craziest part is all the Koreans in high heels and suits going for a hike. We stuck around to see N Seoul Tower all lit up at night. It looks a lot like the CN Tower but more striking all lit up. The lights from Seoul were really impressive too and made you feel really small and realize what 20 million people can look like.
One Friday night we headed to Ilsan for Galbi (Korean bbq). Every little city in Korea is famous for some kind of food, rice, rice cakes, kimbap (Korean sushi), etc., and Ilsan has some of the best meet around. I ate way too much even though we were supposed to be prepping for a big race that was coming up. On a sad note our favourite galbi place has recently closed down, apparently we just didn’t eat there enough.
It was time for the Nike 10K Human race. It happens all over the world and Seoul was one of the bigger cities participating. There were about 11,000 people running. I had been getting back into running semi-regularly and it was nice to get out and feel healthy. Team Dirt, our pseudo-team of expats for a good cause, chose to run in neon and tights. I bought silver tights to wear under my shorts. There was a bit of chaos with the bus on our way there. First we couldn’t find the bus stop, we finally met up with team, got our race kits on the (slightly delayed) bus, and knew we were going the right way because there were other Nike runners too.
The race was on Yoeudo Island, which is basically the financial district of Seoul and where Parliament is. We got off the bus with lots of time but there was no tent for our big group. Oh well, so we set up camp, changed, dealt with the problems of wearing the Nike shirt in lieu of wearing our Team Dirt T-shirts, stashed our bags, shared the fluorescent tights, and joined the sea of red shirts for the pre-race stretch and concert. The race was packed with so many red shirts. Based on my estimate for 10K I was in group four, and at the fourth round of fireworks I was off, with my automatic timer on my shoe to tell me how slow I was. It was a really cool path for the race. I ran by the finish line and saw Lisa watching. We ran across the big river and down big highway. There was lots of stopped traffic. The view of the skyscrapers and mountains was amazing, and I wish I ran with my camera. We ran back across another bridge, and you could see a big red line all around. After a zig zag through a park along the river, under a tunnel (woo for the echo),I was back at the finish line. I had a way shorter time than the DMZ marathon thanks to training, less water stops, and cooler temps. I could have done way better but the course was so crowded. After race we all hung out, had a beer right away (love drinking in public), and we headed in a big group to Itaewon (the armpit of Seoul) to celebrate. Some went toa jimjilbang (Korean showers and spa). I went with the others right to Scrooge’s for drinks. The club sandwich was really good, so was the hockey on TV and the random Newfoundland license plate on the wall. After a long subway ride home I was definitely ready for bed.
Lisa and I checked out another one of Seoul’s ancient palaces. Gyeongbokgung is the biggest one and I’d have a hard time thinking of good adjectives to describe it: inspiring, colourful, ancient, humbling, beautiful, or enchanting. We got there in time to see the changing of the guard (some flags, drumming and amazing costumes) before wandering around the grounds checking out concubines’ residences, throne rooms, and treasured gardens. It’s true you only really need to see one of the ancient palaces because they are really all the same. It was amazing to see all the architecture set against the fall colours though.
Halloween in Korea came really fast. I had no ideas for a costume and thrift stores are sparse in the land of everything new and modern. The kindergarten kids dressed up at school and had a lot of fun with way too much candy, a haunted house in the playroom (“that isn’t scary at allll” –Rebecca, age 7), and carving pumpkins and pulling out the guts. For a couple of my afternoon classes we got to go to the auditorium to play games instead of do class work. I read “Where the Wild Things Are” in my best scary adult voice, and the best activity was a toss-up between the mummy-toilet-paper-wrap challenge, or watching the moms cut out their kids craft for them. My school costume of a “Canadian” (sou’wester, suspenders, wool socks and a plaid shirt was pretty much the same as my going out costume of a lumber jack (trade the sou’wester for a cardboard axe). The Koreans had a lot of laughs watching us walk to dinner, and we got a lot of stares at dinner, especially Christina as a robot and Justin and Jon as Bert and Ernie. We hit up Hongdae after, which was, in summary, a debauchery filled evening beginning with soju on the bus and ending with drunk cab rides home.
Next it was my birthday. We went out to dinner at Mother India. Chicken makhani one, garlic naan one! It was a lot of fun, even a lot of the Korean teachers made a rare appearance out with us too. We went to Dave’s apartment after for some wine drinking and Bang playing (a card game similar to, but not as fun as, werewolf). It wasn’t too late of a night since we all had to get up early the next morning to catch the bus to some mountains on the East Coast.
Seoraksan, or Seorak Mountain, is the 2nd tallest mountain in Korea after a volcano on Jeju island. We left very early when it was still dark. It was a good thing the bus is very close (beside our apartment building). On our way out of Seoul everything was wrapped in fog, it was really cool and almost like driving at home. I was pretty much in and out of sleep, but I remember we went through a lot of tunnels. It only took 3.5 hours to get to the other side of the country. We arrived in Sokcho, a pretty small city on the Sea of Japan. It was way warmer here and we waited for a local bus to take us to our minbak (rooms in a private home) It was taking too long so we took 3 taxis, got lost, drove down some random local lanes, and finally checked in. We headed right for the mountain, which we could see the foothills of from the courtyard where we were staying.
We were a big group, 17 in total, so we all had different plans once we got to the ticket gate at the base. A bunch of us hiked the waterfall trail on one side of the valley. It wasn’t steep at all at first, just a gravel trail along the rocky river. There was a berry wine lady at a little hut on the way. She was super excited we tried her wine, and when some of us bought some bottles, she started furiously jumping and screaming haha. We all high-fived her. The hard trails were basically steep stairs. The stream coming down the mountain was almost slide-like. There were beautiful Fall colours all the way up. At the top there was a huge waterfall and a good place for a rest. On our way down from the top we saw Frank with his group (more high-fives).
There was a giant Buddha just up the other side of the valley. People were offering rice and candles, it smelled like incense everywhere, so it wasn’t hard to find. We took the temples trail on the other side up as far as we could before it got dark. There was a big temple, called Sinheungsa, with a prayer room overlooking the valley. The trail went up to the huge rock face cliff at the top. It cross-crossed along a stream all the way up. There were places to stop and eat and drink along the way. We found the Heundeul Bawi, a big 16-tonne boulder that a few people can make wobble (although this was debatable at the time haha). There was a dug out hermitage in the rock face called Gyejoam, hundreds of years old. Way off in the distance we saw the top of the mountain with all the stairs to the top, but not time.
We took the bus back to the minbok where we were staying. We went for samgyeopsal (almost like the Korean bbq we always have, but thinner fatty pork slices). There were really cute puppies behind the restaurant. We did more drinking and played card games but it was an earlier night since everyone was tired. The next day breakfast was simple from the convenience store and we went back to the park. We tried a Korean seafood pancake then took the cable car to the top. We were on the other side of the mountain from the temples yesterday and the view was amazing. You could see all the way to the ocean, the whole valley below, and all the fall colours. We took the long bus in the dark back to Seoul where most people just slept.
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