Dancing the Night Away at the Seoul World DJ Festival & Strolling Through Seoul Forest

We finally finished administering the Level-Up exams to our students on Friday. Now they have to wait a week or so to find out if they moved up to the next level for the summer term. Wednesday was Children's Day, a national holiday celebrating - you guessed it - children! Danny was lucky enough to have off from work, so he went out for galbi and some drinks with his coworkers Tuesday night. On Tuesday night I went to a pork galbi place with some of my coworkers, but since I'm not eating meat, I ate two delicious bowlfuls of dwinjang jiggae (a spicy soup made with fermented soybean paste, tofu, and veggies). I wasn't lucky enough to have off from work on Children's Day, but my school decided to move our usual afternoon class to 10am-1pm. So I went into work for only 3 hours, and had the rest of the gorgeous sunny day to myself. Danny and I went to see an FC Seoul game at World Cup Stadium with his coworker. On Children's Day, every kid has off from school (except my poor students who came in 10am-1pm to take the Level-Up test!). Parents usually take their kids somewhere special for the holiday, so World Cup Stadium was packed. Well FC Seoul definitely pleased its thousands of young fans with a win of 3-0. After the game, Danny and I went to Petra, our favorite middle eastern restaurant in Itaewon. We wrapped up the night with some gift shopping in Insadong and sticky delicious Turkish ice cream (if someone knows where to buy this in America please let me know!).

On Saturday, we headed to Han River Park's Nanji area near World Cup Stadium for the Seoul World DJ Festival. I think this was the 4th year of the annual event, but it keeps getting bigger and bigger each year. This year the festival was a marathon of music from 2pm Saturday to 6am Sunday. Danny and I walked through the Mapo-gu Agrictultural & Marine Products Market on our way to the festival site. We then followed the festival music through Hanuel ("peace") Park to Han River Park. We met up with Danny's college buddy Lee, and got into the festival around 4pm. Luckily we didn't bring lots of food, because they confiscated everyone's food and drinks before entering. Fortunately, the food and drinks inside the festival grounds were way cheaper than they would be at a public event in America. The festival was set up with 4 different stage areas and various food, drink, promotional, and arts & crafts tents surrounding each stage area. The four stages were basically divided by genre: hip-hop, pop/rock, techno, and reggae. There were other performances going on simultaneously near the tents, such as drumming, Brazilian music & dancing, juggling, Samurai swordsmen, fire dancers, and belly dancers. My favorite area was the "Innertrip" stage area that features the reggae stage and most of these alternative performances. We also met up with Danny's other college friends Cormick and Christian throughout the night, and we danced from stage to stage until we were exhausted. After being at the event for nearly 8 hours and freezing from the riverside breeze, we took a taxi home.

On Sunday, the gorgeous sunshine woke us up early again and beckoned for us to come outside and enjoy the weather. We took the subway an hour away across the city to Seoul Forest. It is not really a forest, but just a huge park with various areas for recreation and relaxation. There were so many scenic picnic areas, fountains, sculptures, playgrounds, athletic courts, gardens, and eco-parks. We first had a mini "picnic" of oranges, granola bars, and cherry tomatoes along a pretty lake. Then we walked around the park for about 3 hours. After we headed to Itaewon for dinner in hopes of trying a Bulgarian restaurant that's supposed to be really authentic, fresh, and delicious! Unfortunately, the restaurant is super popular, and we couldn't get a table. So we ate at a Moroccan restaurant called Marrakech Nights. We had a buffet of salad, hummus, pita bread, cous cous, rice, and various tagines. It was delicious, but I'm still determined to go back and try the Bulgarian place. It claims to be the only Bulgarian restaurant on the entire Asian continent, and it's one ethnic cuisine I haven't tried yet!

It's been a longgg Saturday!

So before we get to Saturday, let me debrief about this week. Not much happened except that I didn't have to teach night classes yet. So Danny and I were able to go out to eat with his coworkers most nights this week. On Monday I tried a new Korean food. I had chamchi kimchi jiggae (which translates as tuna and spicy fermented cabbage stew). I'll admit that I was a bit hesitant to try it at first, and I was disappointed that they didn't serve a tofu stew instead (sundubu jiggae). But it was actually delicious! And it came with many side dishes and rice (and for under $5 it's an amazing deal). Danny and I also successfully mailed a package on Monday. We were clueless when we walked into the post office, but the security guard spoke a few words of English and he helped us wrap our package and everything. We mailed home some Christmas gifts, which was costly to ship by air (but it got home in under 4 days!) I also received a huge package from my mom with some Christmas gifts, but hers took 10 days to get here (I guess the US Postal Service is not nearly as efficient as KPost).

Saturday morning Danny had to wake up early and go to his school. Not for work, but for "Market Day." For 4 hours the students came in to his school to trade in their "dollars" for prizes and play games with their teachers. The students are rewarded during the term with dollars for good grades and excellent group projects. My school has the same reward system, but we don't have a market day. Instead, the students at my school just turn in the points to the Korean desk staff for prizes anytime they want. I decided to pass by Danny's school for market day because I heard there was face painting, and I had to show off my painting skills. Actually I was pretty bad, but I was doing a lot better than Danny. So the students flocked around me, and they all avoided "bad Danny teacher." The favorite design was a swan, which Danny modeled on his hand. At the market day, there was also a game room, a movie room, and a snack bar. It was cool because I got to meet some of Danny's students.

After market day, we went to Gwanghawmun Plaza in Seoul. It's a huge square that was just remodeled this year, and a 100 foot high fake snow ramp was constructed in the area for the Big Air Snowboard World Cup. At night there would be a competition on the snowboard ramp, so we got there early and walked around the square. There were thousands of people in the square for the event. A huge ice skating rink was also placed in the square for the winter. The grand opening of the rink was this weekend, so I wanted to ice skate but the wait line was ridiculously long. The weather was pretty comfortable out until the snowboard exhibition started, and by that time my toes were beyond frozen. So I could only watch 3 jumps and then I escaped to the warmth under the Sejong Art Center. It's a museum and art center, but in the basement there was an exhibition on King Sejong (one of Korea's most notable historical figures, from the 14th century). So I walked around that for awhile and met up with Danny after. Danny's roommate from college, Lee, teaches in a CDI April school south of Seoul, but he came into Seoul for the night. So we took the subway with him and his girlfriend to Itaewon. Itaewon is the "foreigner-friendly" area of Seoul, so we found a good Mexican restaurant for dinner. It felt so good to eat a veggie fajita and some black beans and nachos. Afterwards we met up with some of Danny's coworkers at a hip-hop club that was hosting a bellydancing show. Unfortunately, we showed up towards the end so we didn't get to see much. What we did see was really awesome though. After that we walked into a handful of different bars to find a place to hang out, but most were way too crowded and didn't suit our taste. I guess Hongdae is better for a night out. Just as we were about to leave Itaewon, we ran into Danny's head instructor. We wanted to take her out for a drink and the only place we could find was a posh club with thumping techno beats. It was fun though, and we ended up dancing a bit.

By 1am Danny and his coworker persuaded me to accompany them at the casino. Gambling is illegal in Korea, so Danny's head instructor couldn't join us. Casinos in Korea are purely for tourists, and are usually attached to hotels. We went to Seven Luck Casino in Gangnam, near COEX mall. Most of the people in the casino are Japanese, Chinese, and American tourists. I don't know how to play any card games, but I watched the guys play blackjack for a few hours, and I caught on. I also watched roulette, but I didn't find it that interesting. Danny actually did pretty well in his casino debut. But don't worry, we aren't becoming serious gamblers. I am super frugal, so I was extremely strict about his budget. We are so cheap that we waited to catch the first subway train home at 5:30am instead of paying the expensive cab ride home.

Incheon "Global" Fair & Festival

Hello everyone! Sorry I've been slacking on the blog this week...I started teaching my middle school night classes again, so I've been busy with that. Last Saturday Danny and I went to two more palaces. I posted photos on Picasa but I didn't get to write about them. Basically, they were so similar to Gyeongbokgung, which was the palace we visited last Friday. All three of the palaces were built during the same dynasty for the same family, which is why they were all built in the same style. Changdeokgung was the first palace we saw on Saturday, and we actually had a real tour guide for that one. At Gyeongbokgung the day before we had to rent these digital audio guides, because there was no English tour available. We definitely had a better experience with a real tour guide though. We were the only people on the English tour at Changgyeonggung, the second palace we visited that day. It was kind of awkward, but it was like having a private tour guide. That was the smallest palace we saw, because the Japanese destroyed much of it when they colonized South Korea. It was also the least preserved, but we appreciated it more for that reason. You could actually see the original paint and wood on the buildings, as opposed to the other palaces that were recently restored. We finished up Saturday with some royal ancestral tombs and Indian buffet in Itaewon :-)

Yesterday, I decided we should check out the Incheon Global Fair and Festival. It's an 80-day long fair in the new city of Incheon, which is trying to become this ideal city that is famous around the world. Incheon is two and half hours away from where we live, and it is the where the largest international airport in South Korea is. I heard rave reviews about the festival, and it sounded something like a modern-day version of American's 20th century Worlds Fair. The trip alone was tiring....it took us over 3 hours because we forgot to transfer on the subway. The size and presentation of the fair alone was impressive. But we felt like we missed alot because most the displays were written in Korean, so we obviously could not understand them. Also, the fair attempted to be "global" by introducing various food and culture from around the world. However, all of the "global" things about the fair were somehow Koreanized. The "Thai," "Indian," and "African" foods were made with Korean ingredients and tasted like Korean food. I guess in America I'm always exposed to other cultures. But Korea is so homogenous, so to them anything is else new and strange. There was an environmental theme running throughout the fair, which I appreciated. It seems as though Koreans are alot more conscious of environmental issues than we are. The new technology and urban-planning ideas that were featured at different expositions around the fair were so impressive. It was a shame that we couldn't read the information, but we got the jist from the visual displays. With all of the "global" food offered, we finished the day with some good Korean bibimbap and roasted chestnuts from a street stall. Photos from the event will be up soon! We are off to do some food shopping at Costco...anyung!

Seeing a different side of Seoul: Itaewon and North Seoul Tower

Well first I'll catch up on anything that happened this past week....on Thursday night I took my first public bus trip. The Seoul subway system is so efficient and easy to understand, but the busses are really confusing because they everything is in Korean and it's hard to find the bus routes on the internet. I was able to map out my route from work to school on one website, so I decided to test it out Thursday after work. I walked to the bus stop, which is literally around the corner from my school. Unfortunately, I was standing on the wrong side of the street so I missed the first bus. By the time I had caught the second bus 30 min had passed. I got home an hour after I had left my work building, so it was definitely slower than the subway trip. It also costs almost double the price of the subway. I decided to try the ride again Friday after work. The trip was much more successful, and it only took 40 min door-to-door. Maybe I will consider taking the bus when it starts getting cold to avoid walking to the subway or having to transfer twice on the trip home. On Friday night, Danny and I went out to dinner with his coworkers and some English teachers from another "hagwon" (a private language school). We went out for galbi again, which is Korean barbecue. We had about a dozen people at a long table, and all of the food is shared. Everyone eats out of the same dishes spread out all over the table. Two of Danny's coworkers are Korean, so it was interesting to talk to them and ask them how to say things in Korean. We had some "soju" (Korean rice liquor), and the word for cheers sounds something like "cambay!"

On Saturday, Danny and I decided to check out Itaewon in Seoul. It is known as the international neighborhood in Seoul. It is very close to the US Army base, so there are lots of places that cater to foreigners. There also seems to be a huge Muslim community in the area, because they had tons of Pakistani/Indian and Middle-Eastern restaurants in the area. There were tons of clothing and antique shops and restaurants. We were a bit disappointed though, because we are more into history and culture than shopping. But it would be a cool place to go for ethnic food. We ate at an Egyptian restaurant called Ali Baba. It was my first time having hummus in over a month!

After dinner, we decided to see how Seoul looked at night from North Seoul Tower. It is Seoul's version of the Empire State Building, but it is located on this mountain. Mt. Namsan Park has tons of trails and gardens leading up to the tower, but since it was getting dark we chose to ride a cable car up to the tower. There was a really long wait for the cable car, but it had some nice views. At the tower, there were restaurants and cafes and an elevator that you can take up to the observation deck. We went up there to see the city skyline. I think we may try to go back to Mt. Namsan Park next weekend to hike up the mountain to the tower and visit a traditional Korean "hanok" village on the way up. Annyeonghi Kaseyo! ("Goodbye!")