Right now it’s 10 to 8 on Monday, August 1st and the students start class in an hour. How did we get here? Let me catch you up.? Saturday afternoon, when I last left you, I went out and wandered the main streets right outside the main gate of Yonsei.? There are so many stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and people it should feel overwhelming but it really doesn’t. That’s something that keeps striking me about this city, there is more going on here than anywhere I’ve ever been in the world and yet it moves easily and without a feeling of confusion. Sure there are motorbikes roaring down small side alleys and thousands of people on the sidewalks but somehow it doesn’t feel like too much or like it’s all in chaos and confusion.? While it’s clear I’m in a place that is very foreign to me I’ve also felt remarkably comfortable, even with the extreme language barrier.
Saturday evening was an example of the language barrier issue. Things we’ve learned so far:
1. Don’t point at things on a menu, you’ll be understood to be ordering it.
2. Vegetarianism is not well understood here or at least it can be hard to find.
3. Drawing a question mark doesn’t get across the idea that you were only asking questions not trying to order.
4. It gets easier to walk out of restaurants in search of more understandable menus after you’ve done it a few times.
5. When someone crosses their arms in an ‘x’ in front of them it generally means that whatever you want is not an option.
We have however always ended up finding tasty food to suit everyone’s needs. We’re hoping that after meeting the Yonsei students today they’ll adopt us and lead us to more fun food.
Sunday morning the rain started and the umbrellas popped up.
Helen, Chris, Andrea, Katie and Lori
First we had a breakfast of waffles with ice cream and cake (these are the perks of being “grown-ups” traveling) before we ate a feast of tasty food at the food court in the Hyundai Department store. We had squid?rings on spicy rice veggie patties fried in egg, sweet potatoes glazed with?so much honey they hardened to the container, pork buns, sujebi (kimichi in dough), stuffed shrimp and veggie buns.?Then we moved on to Dongdaeum Market. We arrived in the the rain to discover most of it was closed on Sunday. It was still fun to wander through the “Tourist Fashion District” which is made up of lots and lots of department stores with street vendors selling meat (my favorite so far is essentially meatloaf with sweet sauce on a stick)?and pineapple and kiwi on a stick outside while rock music plays from various locations. The fashion on the locals is very fun to watch, lots of? high heels and neat hats. Cheonggyecheon Stream also runs through the city near the market. It was very lovely even in the rain. ?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyecheon
View from the 10th floor of the Hyundai Department Store
After a round of crepes wrapped up in a cone shape with various tasty toppings (like chocolate and peanut butter or custard and strawberries) we got back on the subway to Insadong. Side note about the subway here-it is so clean and well run it is reason enough to move to Seoul. The system is huge but very clearly laid out and the subway cars are very wide and comfy. When you buy your subway card (much like the Charlie card in Boston) you can get any money back that you don’t spend on it and also use it at vending machines in the subway as well as other places in the city. It’s a really, really great system. Added bonus is that various bugle sounds and other music plays to announce the arrival of the trains.?
Map of one of the many, many subway stations.
Insadong deserves its own blog entry and will get one when we return to it. It is a super neat district full of antiques, fans, calligraphy art, handmade paper, tea houses and so much more. We went to a lovely tea house that was so excited to see us they moved a group of locals out of their private room and ushered us in. We were pretty embarrassed that they moved people on our behalf but weren’t able to protest. They wouldn’t let Chris and Lori order the same thing because they wanted us to try as much as possible. It was pretty grand all around.
Lori, Clare and Chris in the teahouse in Insadong.
Back to Yonsei to meet Helen for dinner. Helen spent the day wandering on her own and will be doing a blog about all the neat stuff she saw and did. Dinner was a feast as usual and we did finally try Soju, the local liquor which is pretty strong and one small bottle was shared amongst us to general enjoyment although some found the alcohol taste far too strong.
That more or less brings us up to Monday morning and now I’ve got to run off to meet up with the students and Kevin for the first day of class. Michele arrives late this evening and tomorrow night we have a big welcome dinner with everyone. As always, there shall be much more to come.