Well another week come and gone, and it's becoming a trend that they're going by faster and faster. Felt my first bit of homesickness. Well not bit, it actually hit pretty hard. After my weekend Canadian reconnection I started to think about home a lot more, naturally since it was a pretty significant topic. Monday I remember frustrated me more than I would've liked. For starters, it's my day of Grade 2s. They're all little shits. Some of them are fun, but it is impossible to actually teach the kids without making everything a game. I made the mistake of giving candy out my first week, so now they basically demand it, but the cold stare actually works pretty effectively to silence that one. Then I just really started to feel the language barrier. It hit me how much of my independence was gone. I am constantly relying on my co-teachers to help me get through the days. And reasonably so, I mean I know I can't do everything but it frustrates me how much I can't do on my own. It's coming to the point where I'm starting to turn down many offers from people trying to help, I just need to get back up on my own feet again, so to speak.
Then Wednesday came around and I settled into watch Monsters Inc. and for whatever reason it hit me like a ton of bricks the distance that is keeping me from home. Not just the physical distance but the time I'm gone for as well. I started thinking about how much has changed in the last year alone while I was at home and surrounded by all the people I knew and then I started thinking about how much would change when I'm not around. It's a long way away, but I really do feel like I'm going to have more of a shock going back home than I did coming into Korea. That change somewhat bothers me, mostly because I can't control time. I think it was just a week of weakness that got to me. I think culture shock is subtly hitting me more than I know. It definitely makes itself apparent without me even knowing it's there. Oh well, feeling weak, vulnerable and losing your independence is step 3 of the 12-step culture shock recovery I guess. Still won't break my stride though.
It was a rather dull week though. Half of my classes were cut due to Grade 3 exams, which meant no afternoon classes Monday-Tuesday, no morning classes Wednesday, no classes at all Thursday. So a week of deskwarming. But, all my lessons for a longggg time are prepped and good to go, only a few tweeks needed. But, Friday afternoon rolls around and I'm on the 4:15 bus to Seoul. It took 4 hours to get there, which makes sense since I basically hit a bit of rush hour in all three provinces I crossed. The subway was a little overwhelming at first, luckily I had directions on where to go, but there were sooooo many people everywhere. And luckily I changed my iPod into Korean font because at least now I can just type out what I need to say since my Korean accent is horrible and they are so precise on pronunciation since their whole language is built on sound. I just give people my iPod like a mute, it doesn't help my learning Korean very much, well a little bit, but it's a start to get me through tasks.
Made it to Incheon by 9:45-10ish. It took a little longer because I was an idiot and messed up the trains even though I knew where I was supposed to be. Once in Incheon off to the local pub. Had my first burger in over a month. It was satisfying, but since I've been eating lighter foods lately it felt like a bag of bricks in my body. Got to meet Christina's co-workers. She's in a private school and works with about 10 other foreigners, most of which are American. Got back in for the night past 3am and back up and going by 9am. Thanksgiving potluck with her co-workers. It was nice being surrounded by foreigners, but it was actually a little overwhelming too. It was just a little weird not having to struggle through broken English and having to pick out key phrases in conversation to get the gist of what's being said. So it was a little nice for that. C and i left, Shabu Shabu for dinner. I took pictures. It's a meal within a meal within a meal. Starts out as water boiling to cook beef for spring rolls, but all the beef juice becomes a broth for soup and noodles and the excess soup and noodles becomes the base for a risotto-style dish with egg. Wild. Plus side dishes on top of that. Wild.
Off to Seoul. There was only one confusing bit that we encountered on the subway, but that was my dumb logic. Looking back I don't know how I thought I was right. Anyways, we made it. Mission: Hongdae. It's basically the downtown core for bars and the night life. Passed a noraebang, was hoping to end the night in there, but that didn't happen. It will though, sometime. First stop a place called Gogos. Cheap drinks. Like $1.50 rum and cokes cheap. Ran into a guy named Max from the orientation who I was supposed to meet that night anyway. We had all planned to meet at Club Ellui. I made the executive decision to ditch though since it was 30,000W which is about $28 for cover. Apparently Max ditched too. So it was good to catch up. The streets of Hongdae were wildly covered with people. And they all push, not to be rude, but it's just how it is here. Everyone bumps into one another, but it's not considered rude to not say I'm sorry like back home. Finally got a hold of our friend Tony from Nip and we met some foreigners in Hongdae Square which is a spot outdoors where people can buy headphones for 3,000W and the DJ (at a club I'm guessing) is played through the headphones, so you can just rock out in your own world. Not for me, but it seems neat. Met up with about 10 Canadians, half of them from Nip. It was wicked fun. Tried a drink called makgeolli which is like the Korean sake, but way better and not as distastrous. Plus, a litre bottle is about 3,000W (we got it for less than 2,000W). Off to Zen III (apparently a ton of the bars are just named after each other). All the Canadians left, they were actually all super drunk so that was expected. So C and I went with this guy Steffanos we met. We didn't know anyone so the two of us left and wandered. Off to Shamrock n Roll. Neat little Irish pub across from Gogos. By this time it was about 4am. We had to stay up to catch the 6:00am Subway which had stopped earlier so all-nighter for us. We were crashing. Brilliant idea by C: get BBQ. At 4am back home most things are right shut down, and even those that aren't have dwindled. Here, 4am means nothing. Everything is open, all the bars are still rockin, venders are still cooking street meet, and the streets are just wildly packed. So we found a BBQ place that was still going near Hongdae Square. So cheap. Two meals plus drinks for less than 19,000W. Brilliant. By the time we were out, 5:30am and time for the subway.
We were definitely on a mission. Anything that we had messed up the first time around with the subway system was not even an issue. We b-lined for every subway change we had to make. Between Seoul and Incheon there are 4 or 5 changeovers. Luckily between the edge of Incheon and where C's apt was it was a 25 minute gap, so this guy definitely fell asleep as soon as my ass hit the seat. I was apparently snoring up a storm but I really couldn't care less. We were both dead to the world. Miraculously we woke up seconds before our stop and got off. It's all a fuzz from that train on, I was so tired and just wanting sleep that my mind was still working but just waiting for bed. Was about 7am by the time we rolled in.
Naturally no sleep, we were up by 11am, and it was definitely a broken sleep. But we gear up to go out and explore the city. Ended up splurging on a suit jacket where I was actually told "Have a good one" but the cashier. Will admit, my mind was blown. Saw some more of Incheon, but we had to make it back. It was Thanksgiving dinner part 2. We meet C's co-workers in the subway and make our way. It was a trek and a half to find the place. Actually, it was 1.5hrs of wandering and they still hadn't found it. I had to ditch to make it back into Seoul so I wandered through Incheon for the first time on my own. Luckily it isn't too bad to navigate. The subway and changeovers were a sinch. So easy this time. Made it to Seoul in no time and with plenty of time to spare so more exploring. Saw the Seoul Arts Centre and it's actually really cool. It's all open, with a bar/restaurant/cafe thing in the middle that reminded me of the Collosseum. It's all brand spankin new but it's nice. Plus they had a music centre and they do jazz in the parks and eveyrthing there so I'm sure once it's all going it's even nicer. After all that, back to Gurye for the 10:00pm bus. Luckily rolled into town by 12:45am. Way less time coming back. Luckily. Freezing and tired but finally find a taxi and off to my apt. Again, couldn't sleep, so awake for a little while longer until past 3, then up again by 7. Could've used an extra day for sure. Ah well. Back to the little shit grade 2s. Rough day, no doubts. Saved by a Pixar lesson.
Apparently this was all rambles.
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