Grand Adventure Day 14: I Did Nothing

This will be a short one. I got up and did my normal routine which was stupid since I still needed to wait until 10am to use the washing machine. Since the hostel is still out of laundry detergent, I took the caretaker's advice and just used shampoo. More importantly, they're out of coffee which meant another visit to the Dunkin Donuts at Hapjeong station. I got my breakfast sandwich and coffee this time ... from the same cashier working the other day. From the look on her face, I know that everyone in this country is going to be happier once I leave - I've been nothing but an inconvenience to everyone's lives.

After a load of laundry, which I spent 45 minutes watching Youtube videos, I finally got out of the hostel with a plan. The first stop was the movie theater I couldn't find on Sunday to buy tickets for Bohemian Rhapsody, 4 hours early. 11,000won is pretty cheap compared to the theaters back home.

In my defense, it was dark Sunday night and, back home, theaters basically stand on their own in their own, easy to see, building. It's a little hard to find from three stories down. Ticket in hand and 4 hours to kill, I took a 30 minute train ride to Itaewon to find a bookstore. Well, first I had lunch at one of the 4 different kebab shops within eyesight of Itaewon station. From there, a walk up the hill took me to the bookstore I scouted online last night. I'd been going through the one Jack Reacher novel a little faster than I expected and decided I might need another book (I've been spending a lot of time waiting around, or eating alone). Unfortunately, as it happens in every bookstore, I had my sights set on just one particular book but I ended up still browsing all the shelves. I even picked up a couple that I wanted to read and seriously considered taking all of them, once again over-burdening my already full duffel bag and backpack. In the end, I did only buy the one book, a collection of Jack Reacher short stories.

On the walk back to the station, an Instinct player took over a bunch of gyms so I just followed his/her path of yellow gyms all the way back to the station, putting a pokemon in every gym available. This is also probably the reason I made it back to the theater with just 10 minutes to spare. That, or the book shelf browsing.

The movie was good. If you're expecting some sort of in-depth review, well you will be disappointed. The only thing I've got is that the pacing in the beginning felt a little rushed but other than that, I liked it. I probably knew all of the songs only because I spend every weekend at the orchid farm, and on the drive there and back, if we're not listening to the radio, Dad plays one of a handful of CDs he owns, one of them being Queen's Greatest Hits.

I decided to hang around the Hongik area after the movie. That really is the best part about staying in Hapjeong, that I'm just one stop away from the Hongik University stop and all the cheap street food. I had another corndog thing with sugar and ketchup, which I spilled a lot of on the street; more fried chicken; another bread with egg thing. It started to rain so I couldn't take advantage of the free entertainment as the buskers weren't out that night. Picked up a doughnut on the way back to the hostel, though I really should've bought coffee too. I managed to find coffee back at the hostel, except it was all in capsules which we don't have a machine to use. I tried to make tea instead, but I couldn't figure it out ... I'm dumb. Also I finished the first Jack Reacher novel I brought with me so I guess it was a good thing I went today to get that second book.

Grand Adventure Day 13

I slept badly, my only guess was due to heartburn from eating spicy Mexican food last night. With all the Korean food I've been eating, who expected that the thing to give me heartburn would be Mexican food. Dragged myself out of bed late and was going to do a load of laundry, but the hostel was out of laundry detergent. Finally, I headed for the Seoul Museum of Art near the City Hall stop. Grabbed a ham and cheese muffin from a nearby bakery. Actually, I'm not sure if it was "nearby" as I kinda got lost along the way. Eventually, I found the right street to turn down and got to the museum.

The first exhibit I came across was artist activism against the rapid westernization of Korean culture forced onto society by the government in preparation for the Olympics (I don't remember what year). As a dumb foreigner with no background on Korean history or folklore, I really didn't understand a lot of it, but obviously that's not going to stop me from looking around.

The room I wandered into after than was an entire exhibit dedicated to one artist. It was interesting to see how her subject material changed over time, as well as the style she painted. I don't have any pictures of any of the pieces since they had signs in English asking people not to take pictures. Some were painted with dark, bold strokes; others had a pastel colors with a more fantastical feel to them; portraits of people she met on her travels; self-portraits of herself mixed with traits/features of people she admires/wants to be.

My favorite room was the one depicting the future. Maybe satirizing is a better description. An anti-surveillance hoodie made of what looked like a thermal blanket. A series of flashing screens asking questions about the nature of AI and if electric sheep dream? A critique on how often we think about things compared to our own mortality as a man had a computer to track his brain on how often he thought about shopping vs how often he thought about death. My favorite, and possibly the creepiest thing I've ever seen, a prototype for an End of Life machine: basically just a machine that strokes your arm and is supposed to provide comfort to you in your final moments, the robotic voice droning, "I'm here to ease your pain because none of your family and friends could be here." It sent a shiver down my spine on how real it seemed.

Wandered out of the museum and started toward the Deoksugung Palace close by (I really wanted to get my money's worth from that ticket booklet)

In one of my few instances of excellent timing, I also managed to arrive just in time for a changing of the guard ceremony.

After the ceremony, people could get up close to the guards and take pictures with them. Inside, I walked through a garden and a large grassy area. I think by this point I may have been starting to get bored of palaces as all the architecture started to look the same. This one did have a couple of other unique features:

Not sure what was in here

A fountain

A pond

Also, there was a short tour in a smaller building of the historical clothing worn by the elite and the emperor.

Wanting to leave, but too early to go back to the hostel, an example of vacation-Alan popped up and decided to head back to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza just because it was a place I could just hang out and either write or read without anyone bothering me. I got there and instead immediately started playing PokemonGo, taking the gym in the middle of the plaza. Then wandered a couple blocks away to do a raid. Getting back to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, I decided on Quiznos for dinner. I know what you're thinking, what the hell am I doing eating Quiznos? Well, there is a good reason: on the sign outside they were advertising, if I remember correctly, a sandwich called "Traditional" which was supposed to have Bulgogi beef, korean vegetables, and hot sauce. See, that sounds different than anything I've seen state-side, and it sounds pretty good. Well, the sign on the outside had it, but I couldn't find it on the menu inside. So, I'm standing in front of the cashier trying to figure out what to say, so I just told him "traditional" and he just smiled, nodded, said something in Korean, and then told me the price, as if he was like, "Yeah, man, I got you. I know exactly what you're looking for." Unfortunately, when I got back to the hostel, I found that we were not on the same page - I unwrapped the sandwich to find a basic ham and cheese with veggies. Well, luckily, I also bought some Toppoki from a vendor at the subway station, so that made me feel a little better.

Grand Adventure Day 12

Dragged myself out of bed late. I realized that I've been on vacation for 12 days now and, according to my journal, I contemplated how hard it was going to be getting back to the real world, especially back to "working everyday" mode. Basically, vacation-mode Alan just walks slower and with less purpose, makes excuses to sit around and do nothing, and smokes more often. Like, light-one-once-I-step-outside more often. Well, I skipped out on toast and coffee at the hostel and just made my way to the train station. Ended up getting into a confusing situation at the Dunkin Donuts at Hapjeong station. The cashier was trying to explain that they stopped selling breakfast sandwiches after 10am, and I kept trying to order a sandwich with hot coffee. We went back and forth for too long before I figured out what was going on. Ended up with two donuts and a coffee, and possibly an enemy for life (I really should've learned a little bit of Korean before coming here). As I was eating at the station, not even one half-eaten donut later, my ignorance saved me from getting into a conversation with two older Korean women handing out religious pamphlets. The dumb foreigner look saves me again!

Took the train today to Dongdaemun. I know I've said before that I don't care much about food, but the highlights of the rest of the day is basically just me eating food. That, and playing Pokemon.

Outside the station, there was a preserved ... fort, I think it was. I think, back in the past, it was supposed to connect to the larger wall on the hill (which I didn't get a picture of). There was a small, kind of swap meat area near the station with a bunch of people selling stuff out of stalls. Bought that cornbread and egg thing twice from two different vendors, a chicken and leek stick, a packet of mandoo, and a giant dry cracker that I thought was hoduk (it was not). Surprisingly, I managed to finish all of it as I walked to the Dongdaemun Design Plaza

Surprisingly, though not really, I forgot to get a picture of the Design Plaza and its weird shape. There's a bunch of Pokemon gyms around and with basically all the time in the world, I managed to take all of them. With the rest of my spare time, I sat outside the cafe, had a coffee, and read and wrote. And this is what I meant by "vacation-mode Alan" - in the real world where things like Time and... other things like Time, okay, maybe I just meant Time ... in the real world where Time is important I don't have this kind of free time to just sit and read and write.

After wandering more and playing Pokemon, I decided to try to find something to eat in Itaewon. When it was described to me, I basically just thought it was a street filled with bars as far as the eye could see. Instead, all along the main road were stores and shops, a lot of them selling clothing. Eventually, I got off the main road and found all the restaurants I was originally looking for. I settled on an empty Mexican restaurant that had a sign in English. Two tacos and an order of loaded fries later and it felt like my mouth was on fire - I expected that with all the Korean food I'd been eating, I would have built up a higher tolerance to spicy foods, but I was wrong. Also, no one else came in the entire time I was there.

Grand Adventure Day 11

Met up with Tina at Hapjeong station and headed to Insadong because she knew we could find at least one food cart selling cornbread with egg cooked inside. No, I'm not joking. Completely worth it. I think I ate two this first time, and I would buy one almost every single time I came across them the rest of the trip. My favorite street food. Also, I didn't have to carry around a stick until I found a trash can. We also bought two burritos, one pizza-filled and the other long rice-filled ... japchae I think it's called.

Yesterday, I picked up a booklet of admission tickets into several popular palaces. With the ticket from the booklet, we visited Changdeokgung Palace.

I think Tina wanted me to stare at the trees or something

The next stop was to the SM Town COEX which was insane. I assumed it would be an experience in openly displaying and accepting my kpop fanaticism in a public arena, to actively browse merchandise, to openly buy things related to my "bias" from each group, etc. Instead it was a lesson of what true fandom was. First off, the place was packed. For those not familiar, each Kpop group falls under a particular entertainment/management company that trains and promotes them. SM is one of those companies that promotes groups like Girls Generation and Red Velvet. Apparently, the reason it was so busy that day was because one of their boy groups, EXO, just released a new song literally a couple days ago and everyone was there buying up, well, everything.

I know that picture looks like it might have been for a Silver Egg raid, but no one here was playing PokemonGo. Instead this was like a lounge-ish area with tables and chairs for people to hang out and, most of all, exchange cards. Apparently, one of the benefits of buying an actual, physical copy of the CD is that it comes with a bunch of bonus stuff, one of them being a random photocard of one of the group members which there are currently 9 of them. Tina mentioned that one of the things people try to do is either collect all 9 of them (which I assume the person I saw with CDs stacked up to her head was trying to do) or try to trade their photocard with someone else to get their favorite member, both of which I completely understand as I used to play Magic and Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh all those years ago. But it was really eye-opening in that I had a long way to go before I got to that point.

I was back to being on my own after that as Tina had tickets to the Seventeen concert later that night. I wandered around for a bit before stopping at a sandwich shop for lunch. It was already 3pm, which is much later than I typically eat lunch, so it was a good thing they sold smaller sandwiches than American-size portions. Plus, I got a Cuban sandwich which I haven't had since the plate lunch place by the old office stopped making them every Friday, years ago.

In the middle of the mall next to the COEX was a library, I guess. There were a ton of books and the second floor was lined with tables and chairs, but I never saw a librarian or a check-out desk so I have no idea how it works. Also, all the tables were filled so there went my plan to kill time sitting and writing. I wandered around a bit more and then the downsides of not planning hit. Thought about going to the casino nearby (at least on the free tourist map I took from the hostel, it said it was a casino) but then I remembered that I don't speak Korean and I didn't want to just sit in front of a slot machine.

This was also not a raid, but a chance for fans to interact with a group through what I assume was a speaker built into the wall, or something

Those guys, on the giant screen in the back. After wandering the area a bit more, I decided to head to someplace marked as the Royal Tombs but when I got there the signs showed that it closed about a half hour ago. I saw an ad for "Bohemian Rhapsody" and decided to take a trip to the theaters in Hongik. I got lost right outside the building for a good half hour. Back home, most theaters are their own building so you can spot them from the street. Instead, the theater occupied the 3rd to 9th floors of the building I'd been walking circles around because I didn't look up to see the sign. I decided to comeback another time since, according to the website, all the better seats were taken unless I planned to wait around for a couple hours.

Remembering all the food places near my hostel, I took the train back to Hapjeong, dropped my stuff off at the hostel and headed back out in search for something to eat. I walked a couple blocks in a direction I hadn't gone before, but there were a lot of lights so I just assumed there would be a lot of restaurants too.

I feel like there's some sort of meaning here that I'm missing

Eventually, I chose an Indian restaurant mostly because it smelled good, and had a bunch of empty tables that I could see from outside. The waitress gave me a menu in Korean, but luckily there was a little placard on the table advertising a set menu in English. I managed to use the one word I remembered Tina had taught me. "Anoo, set chuseyo," as I pointed at the set menu on the placard. I probably spelled that wrong, and I'm really hoping that does mean "give me" or something equivalent. I got chicken curry, naan bread, a piece of chicken, and a slice of bacon covered with some sort of powder. It was really good, and that's about as good as I am at describing things. Then I headed back to the hostel.

Grand Adventure Day 10: 2nd Reunion

Today I would meet up with my cousin Tina who was teaching English in Korea - the reason I made the stop over in Korea in the first place. Since she doesn't live in Seoul (I think she mentioned an hour or two or three by train) she could only come to hang out on the weekend. Met up at Myeongdong station and walked around the area for a bit. Visited an Artbox where I would continue my search for another notebook, and another Line store

Christmas Brown

After being on my own for the past couple days it was nice again to have someone to joke around with: to say the stupid things I normally say on a daily basis (you know what I'm talking about) and have someone laugh instead of stare at me because of a language and culture barrier. Or, at least when she would stare in confusion, it wasn't an "I don't understand what you're saying" but the "Are you a moron" stare. Not to complain, but for the past couple of days I've only had the other foreigners staying at the hostel and they don't really understand my humor. Also, unfortunately for you the reader, with Tina around I now have more pictures of myself than I've taken this entire trip. Especially dumb pictures in dumb poses, which we'll get to more of them.

As we walked around, we came across a ... I want to say it was some sort of temple or shrine. Whatever it was, there was something going on so we decided to take a look. Apparently, it was some sort of festival involving ... I have no idea. But they had all these plants and flowers growing into animals which I thought was really cool.

From my shitty memory, I want to also say there were foxes? deer? tigers? I really don't remember what other animals they built and no, I didn't take pictures of any other ones. It also reminded me that, apparently, I can't go one weekend without being near flowers as typically I would be at the orchid farm on the weekend. Weird. I got to try hodduk (I spelled that wrong, I'm sure), bread filled with melted brown sugar. So simple and so good! I actually remembered to write it down, but eaten too quickly to remember to take a picture of it (but that's what the internet is for if you want to look it up). Went to Gyeongbokgung palace today. Took a bunch of pictures and was tricked a number of times to reenact images from dramas Tina watched (that damn "look-back" pose). I feel like we walked in circles at times, but honestly, I couldn't really tell, since, after a while, all the buildings kinda looked the same.

The look-back

We were there in time to view a series of traditional dances at the palace museum auditorium. Not to insult someone else's culture, but it was a dark auditorium, it was the afternoon, I'd been walking all day, there was a lot of slow, stringed instruments and drum beats, so I fell asleep for a bit. I'm sure Tina did too, so at least I'm not alone in that. After resting my eyes, I was a bit more attentive as my day-dreaming brain started to ask, "In a fantastical universe, what type of ritual would these dances be used for?" As I've mentioned numerous times, I steal ALL of my writing ideas and though I didn't get a recording of the dances or the music, I feel I locked away enough of it that if I really, really needed to, I can recall it to use as needed. There was one involving women banging drums at a rapid pace which I guess would be for summoning a deity associated with war or festivities or anything involving energy and activity. A woman in rich, elaborate outfit dancing slowly to show herself off would be used for a sacrifice. A man with the fan would be used for banishing demons, not summoning one obviously since, practically and symbolically, you'd use a fan to blow or disperse things, not bring them to you.

When Tina sent me some of the pictures she took, she included this one of me jotting down notes after the show. It's kind of weird to see myself from the outside when, internally, I'm in my own nonsensical world. From there we headed to Insadong for food. I got a fish dish with a ton of side dishes. Afterwards, I got a poop-shaped chocolate snack.

Came across a lantern festival ... someplace on a river. No, at this point I'd completely lost track of where we were. Anyways, here's some pictures I took as we walked down from one end of the river to the other.

Later on that day, we hung out at a bar in the Hongik area with two of Tina's friends who, I think, were also teaching English. This was probably the most comfortable I've felt the entire trip, being in a Korean bar since that's where we've been drinking at these days. As Tina pointed out, we're from Hawaii so we were morally obligated to get the Spam and Eggs plate (which was actually really good). We also got a pancake with huge slabs of bacon on it. Swapped stories. Drank. Walked back to my hostel afterwards (this whole time, I thought it was so much further than it actually was).

Grand Adventure Day 9: Art Museums

I finally did my laundry. The caretaker asked that I wait until after 10am to run the machine since it's kinda loud, so there went most of the morning. Visited the Horim Art Museum in Apgeong (?) first. When I checked on my phone, it recommended catching a train to a station, then taking a bus. When getting on the bus I couldn't find a sign with the prices. I turned this into a dumb-foreigner moment and started showing the bus driver different bills. Eventually, I gave him the 1000won bill and he pointed for me to get to the back of the bus. The Horim Art Museum had an exhibit of Korean pottery from the ... the ... I forget which dynasty. I'm also not sure if it was actual ceramic pieces from that time period, or works done by modern-day artists in that particular style.

The best parts about museum visits are that you can walk around them without anyone bothering you, or asking you to leave, well, until closing time; they're indoors and out of the sun; typically, they're pretty cheap for several hours of entertainment. As a daydreamer, I spent most of the time wandering and wondering what kind of creature might be housed in each of them, or what type of ritual would require that type of vessel. I stumbled upon a Shake Shack on my walk from one museum to the other and I definitely wasn't going to pass that up. I literally stopped in my tracks when I saw it, then headed right inside.

Now that I look at this picture, I'm not sure why I don't have fries. Did I not order them? Did I eat them all before I at the sandwich? Did someone steal them? Another mystery left unsolved. Along my route, I also spotted a lot of plastic surgery clinics. A lot. Like every block seemed to have at least one, and some were in buildings that I wouldn't even guess would house a medical facility. And the weirdest thing that just occurred to me as I write this, since I know they were plastic surgery clinics, why were the signs in English? Also, I saw this building

That's pretty cool, right. Several blocks away was the Korean Museum of Contemporary Art which had a exhibit on a story called, "The Little Prince." I think it was that they asked artists from ... I think it was all over, but really, it might've been within Korea (I didn't read the sign) to come up with art pieces using "The Little Prince" as the subject. I meant to look up the story/read it, but I forgot. Like with most contemporary art (both here and abroad), it was weird and at times disturbing ... disturbing that people would pay money to view this thing you put together and called "Art". My main interest is in seeing what people are currently putting together, what is the popular thing today that maybe I can learn from/replicate a little. I had an English class in college that required me to give a report on a book from the last 5 years to show the class what was currently being published.

All of the glass bubbles were filled with used chewing gum

From there I wandered around, walk up the street this way, then walk back the other way. I found a white building with "SM Entertainment" written on the outside but I can't find the picture I took of it. I also didn't go inside because I couldn't find the doors and was afraid to go pounding on the walls, searching for a door to someplace I'm probably not supposed to be. I wandered into a park, thinking I could sit on a bench and rest my legs from all the walking, but then a swarm of mosquitoes began to gather, like a black cloud in the setting sun. Fucking mosquitoes. I will talk about them more, but for now know that these fuckers are twice the size of the ones back home. And to just be massing like that, that's not right. Back home, I'll find a couple flying around in circles, like guerrilla fighters with hit-and-run tactics, one disappearing just as the other one swoops in to strike. I've never seen them just hanging in the air at eye level, forming up into a regiment before marching en masse onto whatever poor, unfortunate target got in their way. I took one look at that and just left.

For dinner, the plan was to head back the Hongik area, grab more food on sticks, and watch the buskers which should be even busier since it was Friday night. Instead, I ordered a plate of toppoki and ate it right there at the cart, unfortunately, right underneath a spotlight she set up at the ends of her cart. Hot food, bright light shining on me, I started to sweat. A lot. Then the heartburn hit as I was walking around, so I gave up and headed back to the hostel to turn in.