Putting the Rest into Rest Day

I have a newfound respect for the amazing chill-outedness of Koh Samui. Today was amazingly relaxing and...awesome. After a breakfast at a café on the road outside my building, I ran an errand, checked my email, and decided to go to the pool with a bag of ice for my legs. I saw some familiar faces from the kickboxing camp, so talked to a few guys for a while. Then a couple French girls showed up, and we all chatted for a bit. The girls are not training here, but are teaching French at a local school and had met some of the guys in our camp at the night market, where everyone goes for dinner. After chatting and chilling in the sun for a while, we decided to go down to the beach and check out the scene. The girls had apparently met the owner of a beach bar/restaurant there, who happened to be French and had lots of good cheese that the girls wanted to try. So, we had smoothies and a plate of really good French cheese (not quite as good as the cheese in the Sofitel, but still very nice—and with a much better view). We relaxed there for about an hour while the girls spoke French to the owner and I stared off into the ocean, not understanding them at all. We then walked back up to the café on the strip and had another tasty smoothie (smoothies are the thing here, which isn’t a huge surprise given the heat I guess). To top it all off, we then went and had Thai massages. After making sure my masseuse knew about my shins, I was able to relax and enjoy the massage (which cost about 6 dollars for an hour—yessssss). So now I’ve returned to my room for a shower and more relaxing, before heading to the night market for dinner.

All in all, I’d say I’m better at living up to the relaxing days than the others. But, Monday morning I’m back at it so hopefully my shins will be up to the task (the bruises have predictably gotten bigger, but I’ve rubbed them with boxing liniment several times, iced them a couple more times, and started taking a calcium/vitamin D supplement that is supposed to help as well).

Last Entry About Vietnam

I now need to go back and make a non-chronological entry about my last big event in Vietnam—my trip to Halong Bay. The trip actually started with Lindsay and I not getting picked up from the train station at 4:30am like we were supposed to. So instead we got a taxi back to the Sheraton, where we relaxed and had breakfast until 8am, when our driver took us on the 3.5 hour trip to Halong Bay. From the moment we arrived, it was clear that this would be a pretty nice experience. We were met with hot towels and tea to relax with until the boat was ready. Once on, we had a fruit juice in the dining room while the manager went over the rules, which were basically that we should have a good time and enjoy ourselves. They then served us a FIVE course lunch, after which, we relaxed and watched the surroundings until we arrived at Surprise Cave. Apparently, it is named that because you are surprised by how the cave’s three rooms get progressively larger. This picture is from the largest of the three, but doesn’t capture the full room. It was actually surprisingly large, so I guess it is appropriately named. Once back on the boat, we took a tour to a floating community in Halong Bay, which was pretty crazy. These people do literally everything on their house boats. I guess there is a market in one of them, but didn’t see it. We did stop at the school, however, which was interesting to see. I liked seeing the picture of Ho Chi Mihn above the schoolroom blackboard, as well as the bookshelf with life vests on top of it.

After leaving the floating village, we took a slow trip to the inlet (I guess that’s the proper nautical nomenclature) where we were staying for the night. Afterwards, we got to see a short cooking class, which I left early from in order to get a Thai massage. You can probably tell that the theme of this trip was relaxing. Dinner was also five courses, although not quite as lavish as lunch. The next day, we had a nice breakfast and then took a trip to an island with a beach and stairs to the top of the hill so we could get a view of the area. Unfortunately, the mist and fog from the previous day persisted, which killed the views. But it did make the little islands seem that much more mystical I guess. Hopefully that comes across in the pictures.

This enjoyable yet short trip then ended, and we took the 3.5 hour ride back to Hanoi, where we relaxed for a bit and then decided to have a nice final dinner at the Sofitel in town, which is the nicest/oldest hotel and supposedly had some great restaurants. When we arrived, we found that the restaurant we wanted to go to only had a set menu option for dinner, which included a cheese buffet. I initially thought that didn’t sound too great, until I saw the buffet. It was a cheese extravaganza. Over 70 types, and all very high-end. So, I stuffed myself with several courses of cheese, then had steak with roquefort sauce, and topped it off with a small sampling of desserts, which included two types of cheese ice cream. One was fairly simple and really good—I think it was something like brie or camembert. The other, however, was made with bleu cheese, and was really...interesting. A bite was all I needed to experience it.

After that ridiculous last meal, we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant and got a cab back to our hotel. We both had morning flights, which brought our memorable week in Vietnam to an end!

Training: Day 1

Today’s workouts are over. And I survived. BARELY. The day started with my 7am session, which was hard but not too bad. I got a little beat up and it was clear that my body wasn’t used to sweating that much, but all in all, I was ok. I then, like the idiot I am, tried to lift weights at the camp’s gym. That didn’t go well, as a serious headache formed from working out or sweating too much, so I went to the room and rested. Aside from taking a scooter across town to get some kickboxing gear, all I did was rest until the 5pm class. I was debating whether or not I should go, as I figured starting camp with three workouts in one day was probably a stupid idea. Anyone reading this probably knows that I’m too stubborn for the smart option, however, so off to class I went at 5. It was a longer and harder class, but it somehow helped my headache. It didn’t help anything else, however, as I definitely took a few tough knocks in the second session and now can’t do more than have a quick dinner—of delicious seafood pad thai—and stay in tonight (given that tomorrow is a rest day, most others are going out to either a local bar owned by the guy that owns the camp or to one of several nearby fullmoon parties that apparently are going on).

I mentioned in my last post that bruises will be aplenty. I did not lie. This is a picture of my legs at the end of the day (I know--sexy legs). For those that aren’t aware, I want to note that bruises don’t get their worst after just an hour or two. They take a day or two to reach their full potential. The fact that this picture was taken just after my second session of the day means that tomorrow I’m going to have some GEMS. I am actually in a lot of pain unfortunately. I iced my left shin three times today and have applied boxing liniment as well as Tiger Balm on both legs and my elbows, but I’m still pretty achy. My left leg is particularly sore, and doesn’t do well when bending is needed (such as on stairs). Thank God tomorrow is a rest day with no training classes, so I can relax and recover (hopefully). I’m sure I won’t be back to normal by Monday, but hopefully I’ll be in decent enough shape to do classes again. We’ll see. I’d hate to miss a day when I’ve only got a month, but given that this situation will get worse before it gets better, I may need more than one day of rest. For now, I’ll get to bed early and hope for the best.

PS, today was clearly an anomaly as there were some clouds and about 5 min of rain. I’m glad it was cooler (upper 80’s) for my first day. If it was one of the regular days, which are supposedly in the mid-90’s, I think I would have died. Even with it being a cooler day, I still drank 5 liters of water and sports drinks.

Island Time

I've made it to the next phase in my travels--kickboxing camp in Koh Samui. I arrived yesterday afternoon and already have the bruises to show that I've been here (I don't have any pics now, but don't worry--if pics of my bruises are of interest to anyone then the next month will offer a plethora of opportunities). Anyhow, I arrived yesterday afternoon and, after not receiving the ride that was promised to me by the camp, took a taxi to the Lamai beach town. After chatting with the owner and getting the cost of my taxi taken off my bill, I got settled into my room. I'll be sure to post a pic at some point, but for now will just call the accommodations "manageable." I have the highest level room, which has a sofa, tv that works a little, a DVD player, double bed, dresser, fridge, and its own bathroom. The shower isn't hot, but I can already tell that I won't want that anyhow (it's in the upper 80's today and I've been informed that this is a cool day because there are some clouds). Fortunately, my room also has air conditioning (apparently not all of them do--ouch). Unfortunately, it drips water all night which is loud and annoying.

After getting settled into my room last night I took a stroll around town. It is actually a pretty nice beach town. There's a main strip with lots of bars and restaurants as well as Indian guys that want to make tailored suits for me (I told one that the reason I came here was so I don't have to wear suits). The most eventful moment of the evening came when I was almost hit by a car. I was crossing an intersection that had lots of pedestrians, so wasn't paying much attention. He apparently wasn't either, and as I was looking left he came from the right. At the last second I heard a car brakes sound that was clearly way too close and reacted by jumping a bit, turning right, and putting my hands out. The car was about 3 inches from me and my hands were on the hood. I got a little freaked out as I walked off and realized that if he had looked a half second later then I'd be in the hospital having my legs reattached, so decided to find a restaurant, have some Thai food, and go to bed.

I slept horribly, as expected, but got up for my first 7am session. Even at 7am, the weather was pretty sweaty. It's basically a tropical jungle here, so the humidity is pretty intense. The class itself was pretty small but enjoyable. it lasted about an hour and a half, after which I went back to my room and iced my shin. Fortunately, tomorrow is the one rest day of the week so I will continue icing it and hopefully be better on Monday. Unfortunately, I still want to go to my 5pm class tonight, which should prove to be very painful for the shin. I'll get by though.

So that's pretty much the schedule here. 7am class, rest, mid-morning weight-lifting (if I have the energy), rest and maybe hit the pool/beach, afternoon class at 5pm, shower up, dinner with the crew of people that I assume I'll be meeting, and then sleep. Hopefully I'll also have some good day-trips on the rest days and will meet some decent people (I've met a few so far and they seem nice).

I'll post some pics as well as a non-chronological entry from Halong Bay, Vietnam, as soon as I upload all of my pics from my camera. In the meantime, I miss everyone back home and will try to keep references to the warm weather here down to a minimum.

Sapa

After a couple days in Hanoi, Lindsay and I took an overnight train to the mountain town of Sapa in the north of Vietnam. The train journey started off a little too exciting, as our cab driver took us to the wrong station and we had to scramble to figure this out and get another cab to the right station. But we made it OK and the actual train journey itself was uneventful (although I wasn't able to sleep much, as we had another guy in our 4-bunk room and that kept me from being able to truly relax and rest). When our train arrived at 5:30am, we found our tour guide and took a 90 minute car ride to Sapa. Sapa, although very misty and foggy, seemed like a cool place. We got in around 7 and then took 2 hours to check into our hotel, rest and shower, at which point our guide met us at the hotel for the mountain trek we had planned. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip so far for me. In total, we trekked for about 10 miles. All of it was in very sloppy and muddy conditions, but provided some amazing views and a chance to see a variety of indigenous people. Many of them were trying to sell us stuff, but that is all part of the experience I guess. Most of the trek was through soaking rice paddy fields and muddy/hilly trails, yet these tiny indigenous women were able to walk with us the entire time without slipping once. They were annoying at first because they tried to sell us stuff, but they then just walked with us and actually proved pretty helpful at times when trying to navigate some of the tougher climbs. I swear they are part mountain goat. It was also impossible to be angry at women who were (sometimes) about 60 years old, 90 pounds, and could walk for a couple hours at a time without so much as breaking a sweat.

Anyhow, the trek was great. I hope these pictures do it a little bit of justice. We also stumbled upon a community center/school along the way, and the children were doing some kind of traditional dance that was very cute. The boys didn't seem to mind when they had flowers on their heads, so I won't tease them for it. We also saw a variety of water buffalo, random dogs, chickens, a monkey, etc. Both Lindsay and I also managed to take a couple fairly sizeable spills into the mud, making the experience that much more memorable. Fortunately, the hotel was adept at getting all of the caked-on mud out of our clothes for a reasonable price. That night, we went to a really good Indian restaurant in town and, after a horrible night of sleep and 10 miles of hiking, I slept great.

Today we took a 2 hour drive to a market in the middle of nowhere (apparently each village has its own market and each is popular on a different day of the week--probably for tourists). The market was pretty cool--lots of the stuff was junk, but they also sold water buffalo so it got big bonus points for that. We also took a two-hour trip on a boat today, which was very cool. The river went through the mountains and provided some gorgeous views of the Vietnamese country side and hills. As you can see, I'm entirely cool with riding backwards in a boat while having my picture taken. Really though, it was a great boat ride and a nice afternoon.

Now Lindsay and I at a rooftop hotel bar having a couple drinks before getting on another overnight train back to Hanoi. This one will arrive at 4:30am and we will then embark on a 3-hour trip to Halong Bay. I'm really looking forward to that, as the junk boat we are going on looks very nice and Halong Bay is supposed to be gorgeous. I'll try to take lots of pictures of the trip and post a couple of the good ones here.

Overall, Vietnam is going great and I'm looking forward to the remaining few days here before heading on to my month in Thailand!

Vietnam Travels

It has been quite a few days of travel since I left Seoul and traveled to Vietnam. My first stop was Hanoi. I arrived there late on Friday night and met Lindsay at the airport. Given that she's a tall blonde, it wasn't hard to find her.

Saturday, Lindsay and I walked around Hanoi's old quarter, which was cool to see, but crowded sometimes a bit difficult to walk around in. I tried to take some pics to capture the essence, but none really came out well. Hopefully these will give you some sense of the controlled chaos that is Hanoi. I liked the old quarter, but even there, where walking around is more of the norm, it was still a bit scary. In general though, Lindsay and I had a good time. The most cultural thing we did was to go to the water puppet show, which apparently has been going on for several hundred years. It was very pretty and impressive, and fortunately only an hour so you never really get bored.

One somewhat tense moment occurred when Lindsay and I took a cab back from the Temple of Literature and noticed that the cab fare was reaching astronomical proportions. We thought maybe a decimal was wrong or something, but it was clear we were going to have problems when the driver stopped on a busy street half a block from our hotel instead of taking us in. He then tried to get us to pay 800 Vietnamese dollars even though it only cost us 75 to get there. I flatly refused and told him that was ridiculous, at which point he snarled (that is the only word to describe his weird attempt at an angry face) and then said Mafioso! several times. Lindsay helped me understand he was trying to tell us he was in the mafia, but there was something clearly untrue about that. So, I dropped 100 in his front sea t, told him that was more than enough, and we got out before he could do any more than yell 200! at us in a vain attempt to negotiate. Predictably, he didn't try to follow us onto the hotel grounds and crisis was averted. It did help us to realize we need to keep our eyes open for that kind of stuff in the future.

Aside from that incident, however, we enjoyed Hanoi. On our second night we had a delicious Vietnamese dinner and made plans for the rest of the trip, which will include a train to the mountain town of Sapa and a trip to Halong Bay for a two-day one-night trip on a junk boat. More to come soon.

Smooth Sailing...

I hope none of my "regular readers" (even saying that makes me laugh out loud) thought the subject line was a reference to my stomach problems of late. Actually, I am happy to say I had my first real meal of the week tonight. It was Italian-style spaghetti marinara with bacon, vegetables and probably too much spice for my poor stomach. I have to say, it was delicious (and not just because it was a real meal--it was actually very well prepared).

Anyhow, the subject line is actually related to my other main happiness--classes are officially done! Both of my exams today were longer and more challenging than I expected, but exchange programs are graded as pass/fail and I'm pretty confident that I did well enough. So all of those horrible commutes are now a thing of the past. Whew. Actually, the fact that school is over really hit me tonight when I got back from dinner and was hanging my heavy coat up in my closet. I realized that I wouldn't be putting that coat back on for at least 5 weeks!

Just a quick point of reference on that topic:

5-day forecast in Chicago: Highs in the upper 30's and lower 40's
5-day forecast in Seoul: Highs in the lower 30's (colder than Chicago, again)
5-day forecast in Hanoi: Highs in the upper 60's and lower 70's
5-day forecast in Koh Samui: Highs in the upper 80's and lower 90's

That pretty much says it all. Oh wait, then there's the 6 hours of class a day, which I will soon be replacing with 6 hours of kickboxing a day. And the 3 hours of commuting a day, which I will soon be replacing with 3 hours of relaxing a day (in all likelihood I'll really be replacing it with 3 hours of crying softly to myself about how sore I am, but since I'll be able to do that on the beach in Thailand it still sounds nice).

Look out for posts with pics of Vietnam to come shortly!

Warm weather, here I come.



PS--I have recently discovered The xx ( yes Jake Mintz, you are my musical Yoda; I hope you liked the New Yorker article btw) and can't stop listening to them. If you don't own their album then stop making bad decisions and get it.

Food Update #2

I am happy to report that I was not the only person who got sick from the ridiculous meal I wrote about a couple entries ago. I didn't realize this until today when I got to class and found out that my two other classmates who came to the dinner were also sick yesterday. Apparently it took a day or so for it to hit us all, and pretty much incapacitated us on Sunday and Monday. I don't think any of us are back to normal yet, either. One of the guys even went to the doctor a couple of times about it. But more importantly, I can know rest easy knowing two things:

1) It pretty much had to be the crazy Korean meal that caused this agony
2) I am not simply a food weakling who is unable to keep his fermented fish down (I can claim this because one of the guys who got sick is Thai, and nobody accuses Thai people of being food weaklings)

I also was chatting with my roommate tonight and she told me she had discussed the fermented fish with her Korean teacher, who told her that it is a pretty extreme dish that even she is not willing to try. So, I guess I can feel good about the fact that I ate a Korean dish that not even all Koreans are willing to eat. For some reason I take solace in that knowledge.

I am actually not over everything yet, annoyingly enough. All I ate today was rice and broth, for both lunch and dinner. I thought I'd be ready for a real meal for dinner tonight, but as the day wore on I got progressively worse until I just wasn't able to do it tonight. Hopefully one more night's sleep will cure me. I better get over this soon, because I have exams to prep for tomorrow and then leave for Vietnam on Friday!

The meal that never dies

I have to say, I was pretty proud of myself for eating all of those ridiculous things I described in my previous post. And that my iron-strong stomach handled them all pretty well (although on Saturday I was just a touch squeamish, which I wrote off to the octopi still squirming around in my stomach). Sunday, however, was another issue. About an hour after I woke up, stomach "issues" settled in and only got worse across the day (and night). After not sleeping much all of Sunday night, I woke on Monday morning still feeling like garbage. I took a shower and got ready to go to classes, only to realize that the process of showering and putting clothes on was enough to exhaust me completely. Given that, I realized I was not going to survive a 30 minutes of hiking and an hour of hot subway riding, so I let my better judgment take over and decided to stay home for the day. I actually wanted to go to school because, in a two-week class, every day really counts. It was just not going to happen, though. After getting over the stomach "issues" around mid-day, an incapacitating bought of indigestion set in for about 3 hours. Once I survived that, a pretty strong headache popped up to be the cherry on this ice cream Sundae of pain. Finally, it all seemed to end and I was in bed by 10.

The one thing that seemed to help me through the day more than anything else was a show I just discovered called Modern Family. I think it is my favorite show of the season (even more than Community, 30 Rock, or the Office). I highly recommend it. I actually think it cured my indigestion better than anything else, proving that laughter is indeed the best medicine.

So now I'm back to school on Tuesday and going to spend the morning catching up on things before my classes this afternoon. As for my food intake, I'll probably have to limit it to white rice today, and probably won't be eating any live animals or ammonia fish in the near future.

Dinner that bites back...

If you read my last blog post you'll know that I had a potentially interesting dinner planned for last night. Well, it did not disappoint.

You may recall that the phrase "live octopus" had been thrown around in relation to this meal, and I was curious to see what that would really mean. So, when we arrived and walked down the stairs to the restaurant (this place obviously had to be on a lower level--that just makes it more perfect) I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see several containers of...live octopus. At this point I wasn't too unsettled, as I figured these octopi would be pulled out live, grilled until dead, and then served to us. WRONG. Here is what happened, course by course:

COURSE 1
After polishing off our first of many beverages for the evening (which were made up of a half shot of soju--a Korean drink that's somewhere between sake and vodka in both strength and taste--mixed with about half a beer and then chugged), the first course arrived. And what a course it was. Two large plates full of squirming octopus tentacles. Apparently, preparing them only entailed cutting the legs off and serving them. There was no other cooking done, and these guys were dancing like crazy. Or more precisely, squirming everywhere and using their little suckers to hang on to whatever was nearby. As a result, we had to use wooden chopsticks instead of the normal steel ones they use in Korea (apparently the octopi can't grab on to the wooden ones). Mr. Kim, the host for this meal, told me to grab them and, when upon placing them in my mouth, chew aggressively. I assumed that was because they are chewy and need a strong bite to get through. While true, I later found out the real reason--because if you don't chew aggressively, they will use their suckers to grab on to the inside of your mouth! Having them hang on to the plate or saucers of dipping sauce was bad enough, but grabbing on to the inside of your mouth is, well, beyond. The flavor of these little guys was actually pretty good, but the experience of watching your food wave at you when you are about to take a bit is quite odd. I cannot express enough how freaky this experience was--easily the most unusual thing I've ever eaten. Unusual in experience, not taste. The most unusual taste sensation I have ever had came with course 2.

COURSE 2
For this course, a seemingly innocuous platter of what looked like slices of smoked fish and pork arrived, along with large cloves of garlic and a mound of kimchee. I knew something was awry however, when Mr. Kim smiled and told me to smell the fish. It is hard to describe the power of the ammonia scent that this fish possessed. Overwhelming and heinous are words that come to mind. Apparently, these fish are caught and then immediately thrown into a batch of rice husks, where they are then fermented. I asked how long that process takes and Mr. Kim basically said that nobody knows. The kimchee was also fermented, making the pork and garlic the only normal things on the plate. I quickly found out that all these normal things are just there to keep the ammonia fish from becoming too overpowering. Now, the taste. Hmm, how can I describe this. Maybe it is better to relay some of the bits of "advice" that were offered to me for eating it:
---"Just wait until it heats up in your mouth."
---"After chewing for a minute, you'll taste mint." [which is odd, given that there's nothing remotely similar to mint anywhere near this platter]
---"The experience feels kind of like horseradish in your nose."
---"If you just force yourself not to focus on the individual tastes then you should be able to keep it down."
---"The good thing is that, if you try hard, you can regulate the strength of the ammonia in your nose."

After eating it, I can now say that all of these statements were essentially true. The only thing I'll add is that the strength of the ammonia sensation in my nostrils was enough to wake up a dead horse. I had to do some kind of breathing out through the nose move while eating to keep it from overpowering me and getting my gag reflex involved. Fortunately, I made it through just fine. And by fine, I mean that I didn't spew ammonia fish and octopus tentacles all over the restaurant.

COURSE 3
Now things got slightly more normal--sort of. Course three was actually a delicious cold soup that appeared to have watermelon as a key ingredient. Oysters were the other main ingredient, and there were many of them in my soup. They were tasty, however, and this soup felt completely pedestrian--in a good way--after the previous two courses.

COURSE 4
The final course was another soup. The main ingredients here were chicken and abalone, although there was also a large thorned stem in each of the cauldrons (yes, cauldrons) that the server brought to our table. Aside from that, the soup was delicious. It was some kind of a chicken broth with a variety of ingredients blended in to make it taste like more than just chicken broth. I think this was my first time to try abalone and I'd say I'm OK with it. To me, they were the size of large scallops and tasted like mussels (but much more dense). Apparently abalone are incredibly expensive, as I think it takes a long time for them to reach eating age.

The dinner concluded with several more soju-beer bombs and some great conversation (such as Mr. Kim's story about how a long time ago some Korean ox was very weak and about to die, but ate some octopus legs and came back to life. As a result, eating live octopus legs is incredibly good for your health and vitality. So I guess I've got that going for me). After that, we decided to head home (a couple of the guys got hit harder than expected by either the soju or the octopi and were in no shape to go out any more) and I made it back to my apartment by 9pm, in time for a nightcap and a movie. All in all, I'd say this was my best night out in Korea so far (needless to say, it was my most memorable). With only a few days before I'm off to Vietnam and Thailand, a meal like this one makes me think I will both miss Korea and look forward to the mundane experience of eating pad thai.

Food Update

So last night I decided (admittedly, I was forced because I'd run out of Ramen) to buy something different than what I've been eating. Doing this is more complicated than it sounds, at least for someone who is not used to cooking with Korean ingredients (for instance, you don't just walk up and buy a box of spring greens--they don't have them). So I wandered around the grocery for probably 30 minutes like a chicken with my head cut off, but finally found some new things to cook. The funniest moment came when I decided to buy some beef from the butcher. I walked up to his counter and pointed at a pack of three pieces of beef, implying (I thought) that I wanted to buy them. Here's what then occured:

Him: That beef tandaroon.
Me: What?
Him: Beef tandaroon!
Me: Huh?
Him: You speak Engrish!?
Me: What? (I was confused that he was asking me this--the what was an instinctual reaction)
Him: Engrish!!
Me: Um, a little (sarcastically, which was not received)
Him: Engrish??!
Me: Yes, a little (now he got that I was joking)
Him: This is beef tandaroon!
Me: Beef tandori? **Stupid look on my face** (WTF is he saying???)
Him: Tandaroon!!
Me: Oh, tenderloin! Yes, I'll take it.

That's how things go sometimes. At any rate, I cooked a delicious meal of beef tandaroon, sauteed mushrooms, steamed dumplings (I had to improvise a steaming device and was very proud of my accomplishment) and green salad (which I was dying for--salad isn't really eaten here).

Tonight, I am going out to dinner with several guys from my class, including MR KIM!! I have heard that we may be going for abalone and I've also heard "live octopus" thrown around a few times, so it could get interesting. I'll be sure to report on this meal soon, assuming it is as exotic as it sounds like it might be.

Little Things

This morning, on my commute to school, I had one of those little differences moments. Well, it was kind of a big difference really. I usually sit/stand there with my headphones on and listen to music during my commute. There's no reason to try to hear the infrequent announcements or even listen in on a nearby conversation, because I wouldn't understand them anyhow. On the subway this morning, however, I noticed that the driver was saying quite a lot. I figured that the subway I was on was possibly going to end and I would have to get off and wait for the next train to come. This happened once before and was inconvenient but manageable. Today, however, was more complicated. When the train stopped, everyone got off and marched away. It was a station with a transfer as well, making it more difficult to tell what everyone was doing--were they just going to the other line or was something bigger going on? A couple people stayed--or were at the platform already--so I did as well. I waited for quite some time for the next train to come and while I waited I noticed that the trains arriving on the opposite platform were going in the same direction. This was very odd to me, and made me worry a little more about my ability to figure my way out of this mess. When the next train finally did come it came from the wrong direction! This was really frustrating, so I started looking around for signs and noticed that there were signs for the #2 line (my line) all over the place. Except at this station there were arrows to the 2.1 line and 2.2 line! I was totally confused and not sure what to do. I finally just chose one of the directions and walked, knowing only that standing on the platform I was on would get me nowhere. I totally lucked out and made it to a platform that looked more familiar and had signs I could decipher.

It was ultimately only a 15 minute delay for me, but was totally confusing. It reminded me that, although I'm good at getting to and from school (I can march around with that air of superiority that comes with not needing to look at the signs), it only takes a small hiccup to remind me that I can get out of my element very fast here. And again it reminded me how difficult the language thing can get. I guess the ultimate lesson I should take away is that these little annoyances are ultimately just that--little annoyances--and make the experience all the more...memorable. In some way, now that I've got a little distance from the moment, I guess it is one of the many little things that are ultimately (at least on average) fun about living in a strange place. I just wish I could have that same kind of perspective about my Accounting class.

Warming Up

I went out to a new area of Seoul today called Insadong, and I have to say that both the weather and the people have warmed up (a bit). It was just above freezing today, so nothing spectacular but at least it was warm enough to walk around with my camera in hand and not be in pain. And since I had my camera and was seeing a new area, I tried to get several pics. The best ones are here, although they aren't spectacular (sorry Jake).

The first stop of note was a homemade candy maker (should be the first picture--I really like this pic because nobody seems to either notice or care that I'm taking it, and those are my favorites). As you can see, they were selling (and making--right there) a wide array of treats. I purchased three little cake-ish things that were some kind of dense combination of sesame seeds and honey. Very nice. He had several other things I wanted to buy, but it was my first real stop in the market and I was hungry for lunch, so I held off.

Speaking of lunch, I had a DELICIOUS meal at a restaurant in an alley (this neighborhood is full of little alleys, which aren't at all intimidating and so are fun for exploring). Anyhow, I walked up to one restaurant door and peered inside (probably looking like a lost puppy). A cute Korean grandmother came to the door and basically pulled me inside. She then sent me to a table and dropped a menu in front of me. The restaurant was wonderful--small, quaint, local, and full of 3-4 Korean women (as well as others in the kitchen--the only guy here was an old man working the cash register) who were constantly yelling things across the place. It was a mixture of saying hello, goodbye, pointing people to tables, and shouting food orders, and it really made the place fun. I must have still looked lost while I was reviewing the menu (although the descriptions were in English and I knew what I wanted) because another patron stopped next to me and offered to help. I gladly accepted, and showed her what I wanted. She then grabbed one of the Korean women and gave her my order. My order was a seafood and leek pancake (called haemul pajeon) and a marinated beef dish. This also came with plenty of panchan, rice, and noodles. When it all arrived I realized I didn't need to have ordered both dishes and had about twice as much food as I could handle. But, it was all very tasty, so I ate until stuffed. I then looked up at one of the Korean grandmothers (which are called hajimas--I'm probably misspelling it, but that's how it sounds) and tried to tell her I was stuffed. She clearly spoke no English and said something back at me (or should I say yelled something back at me), which I think was "keep eating, white boy, you have too much food there to stop now." It made a Korean family watching laugh a bit, and I enjoyed it as well (if they were laughing at me, I'm totally cool with it--you can't be mad at a hajima).

After finishing my delicious meal and heading back out into the street, I ran into a little old Korean man selling oranges (well, I guess they were actually some kind of Korean derivative of a clementine). He saw me and immediately called me over. His English wasn't great, but good enough to bring me over, ask me what I'm doing here, and force me to eat one of his clementines. He then made me take a bag and of course charged me for it. After chatting a little more, he saw my camera and had me take a picture of him holding a handful of his clementines. This is clearly the best picture of the day. I saw him later and he had me take another picture of him with his water bottle, then tried to get me to give him some money. Given that I'd already paid way too much for clementines that I didn't really want, I politely declined and took off.

My next (and final major) stop was at what I've been looking for since I arrived--a really good tea store and cafe. Here, I bought a few tins of amazing pu-erh and jasmine teas, and also stopped in to have a cup of tea and read my New Yorker (one that I brought over with me--I like keeping something to read when I go out on my own so I don't have to just sit there like a dork when I'm eating by myself. I figure it is better to read so I am at least distracted by a David Sedaris essay while I look like a dork). I also picked up a new teacup and strainer so I can make my teas, and then headed back to the subway. Now it's getting dark, and I think I'm going to end the day by relaxing with a movie and making some light dinner. A relaxing evening sounds nice, since my second set of class (marking my final two weeks of classes!) starts tomorrow, as well as my photo shoot (ha) for the Yonsei brochure. I'm sure that will provide some laughs for a future blog post.

Korean BBQ...And Flights

Last night I had my first Korean BBQ dinner (in Korea, at least). I went with my roommate, some of her work friends, and a few of their friends. This extended bunch turned out to be a great dinner group. I was sitting next to two Spanish guys--I'm not sure why, but Spanish guys always seem to have a great sense of humor and are very friendly. Throw some beer into the mix and you've got a great conversation. Anyhow, the food was pretty decent, but I actually didn't think the overall meal was as tasty as the Korean BBQ I've had in Chicago (especially at Cho Sun Oak--that place is very solid). Some of the differences I noticed included:

1) The grill didn't work quite as well, which was a bit annoying.
2) They didn't serve panchan (which is the name for the collection of side dishes you often get at Korean restaurants). Instead, were just had a couple side dishes: onions and a kimchee derivative (of which, I'm starting to gather, there are thousands).
3) The portions were much smaller. If we would have ordered the same dishes at Cho Sun Oak, we would have been buried under the food. Here we were all satisfied by the end, but nobody was stuffed.

At any rate, while not quite as tasty as other Korean BBQ I've had, it was still tasty and a good group. After dinner we went to a jazz club nearby, which was an interesting experience. They didn't charge a cover, but instead had very pricey drinks (about $14 a drink, which from what I've seen so far is very expensive). Aside from the pricey drinks, it was a pretty cool place--surprisingly large, dark, and smokey. The band, which was all Koreans, was pretty decent. Although, I got the impression that the female lead singer didn't really know what she was singing about. I think she had just memorized the words and maybe listened to tapes of English-speakers singing the songs so she would know what to do. Maybe I'm wrong on that, and it doesn't really matter either way I guess, but it was the impression I got from her singing. We called it a night after the jazz club and I got home around 12:30, so not too late of a night.

Today has been very relaxed. Somehow, I slept until 11 this morning. I've been exercising a lot this week and not sleeping more than 6 hours a night. I assume this combination made my body want some extra rest. Surprisingly, I've still been very tired all day. So I went to the gym and then did a few things around the apartment. This afternoon, I finalized my flights for the coming big trip. I'll fly from Seoul to Hanoi for a week touring Vietnam (can't wait to take pictures--it looks pretty cool there). I then fly from Hanoi to Koh Samui, to spend a month at a kickboxing camp there. Afterward, I'll fly back to Seoul and then maybe go to Japan and China before flying back to the US in mid-March. I can't wait to see Vietnam and am super-psyched about the kickboxing camp. I wanted to go to a camp like this between work and business school, but couldn't make the schedule work. I assumed that opportunity was gone, but now that I have the chance again I'm jumping at it. I just hope I am in good enough shape when I arrive to take advantage of the full experience. Aside from working out and trying to get my cardio up, I've been hitting my shins with a belt--yes, true--to try and numb them before the camp. I realize that sounds crazy, but it is what happens when you kick pads anyhow. If I'm able to take care of it before I go then it will mean much less pain when I'm there. I wouldn't normally care too much, but when I've only got one month, I don't want to be slowed down by overly-sore shins.

Tonight I think I am going to meet some of my roommates work buddies at a bar in an expat part of town to watch the college football championship. The game has already happened (and I know who wins) but I don't have any other plans, so I can deal with that I guess. Go Alabama!

Catching Up

I just realized I have been a little lax about the blog lately--I'm sure that has disappointed all of my followers (sorry Mom) immensely. So here I am, catching up on things.

OK, so first of all, I was told by Mr. Kim that the snow we received was the biggest snow Seoul has gotten since they started keeping a record. I also heard it is the biggest snow since 2003, 1999, 1990, and 1969. Clearly there is only one statistic to trust however, and that is the one given by Mr. Kim. He's just the kind of guy you trust blindly, and so I do. Regardless of the record, this snow has clearly freaked people out. While doing some cardio at the gym last night I watched the news (clearly I just watched, since listening would be an exercise in extreme futility. Wait, can there be anything other than extreme futility? I mean, is there really a difference between futility and extreme futility??) and during the entire 30 min I was watching, the ONLY thing they reported on was the snow. At one point I saw them throwing dead chickens into a bag and was relieved because I thought it had something to do with bird flu--anything other than snow--but sadly realized that the culprit was, of course, the fluffy white stuff. It had come down so heavily that it collapsed the roof on some poor farmer's hen house. During the most egregious part of this newscast, they even did some sort of an update-across-town series, showcasing the snow situation in different parts of the city. I wish I could have been an anchor in that broadcast, because if I were then it would have gone slightly differently:

Diane: "And now let's see what the snow situation is in 15 different parts of the city. Take it away, Ollie--"
Me: "One moment, Diane. Before you go to that oh-so revealing situation report, let me quickly jump in. I'm getting a bit of breaking news at this moment. Apparently, the whole city got dumped on with a sh*tload of snow. Therefore, instead of wasting the next 10 minutes of everyone's life by having reporters stationed in different parts of the city tell us what we already know, let me save everyone the trouble and say this--there's a ton of f*king snow everywhere. Back to you, Diane."

Another way I could tell that they weren't used to this kind of snow is that they weren't actually cleaning the streets. I live on a busy 12-lane street and, when walking home at night from the subway, realized that they hadn't done any kind of plowing or salting at all. So, 10 inches of snow had turned into 10 inches of the most disgusting slush ever. Amazingly, across this mush I witnessed a woman crossing the street in a mini skirt, no tights, and super-high heels. I was ridiculously impressed when she didn't fall, but she did have to walk through snowy goo that was deeper than those black pumps--that had to suck. I suddenly realized I had no room to complain about being cold in the freezing weather (although I guess I could complain about having to share the street with retArds who dress like we're in the Bahamas). On a related note, tonight the low in Chicago is 11. The low in Seoul is 6. You've got to be kidding me. Wasn't experiencing a less painful winter supposed to be one of the best reasons for going on IBEP??

The next thing of note--I was contacted today by the International Programs office at Yonsei because they want to feature me in the new version of the international brochure they are creating. I am both flattered and a little weirded out (the quote Groucho Marx made about never joining a club that would allow someone like him to be a member came to mind for some reason). So, I now have to email them a paragraph about all of my great experiences at Yonsei and setup time for a "photo shoot." I just need to make sure not to mention my blog in the paragraph I guess. I guess I will soon need to update my resume with "Published in an international magazine."

Another recent event of interest is that my roommate and I went to the Buddhist temple across the street from my apartment this weekend. It was very cool. Buddhist cool. Everything was painted in bright colors and was clearly very well maintained. Hopefully these pictures do it a little bit of justice. I was really interested by how such a peaceful and serene place could be literally right across the street from Asia's biggest indoor mall--hopefully that point is made in one of the pictures. After wandering around the temple for a while, we went for fried chicken and beer, then wandered the city some more, then on to see Sherlock Holmes with Korean subtitles, and then to a place called Kraze (pronounced crah-zee) Burger!, which actually turned out to be a delicious meal. I had my first salad since coming to Korea and a garlic burger, which had garlic mayo, sauteed garlic, cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and onion. I have to say, I was very happily surprised by this delicious (yet somehow not greasy--probably because they used a beef patty that was a third the size of what you'd get on a restaurant burger in the US) way to end the evening.

Finally, I have made an interesting discovery: Asian males are all the same size. How would I know this, you ask? Well, I've done the detective work and put some clues together. Clue one: my gym offers free gym clothes to its members. They just hand you a pair of washed (well, I thought the shirt was washed until I started sweating a little and immediately it reeked of BO that was not mine. Needless to say I bring my own shirts now) gym clothes and off you go to the locker room. Well, I've noticed that they pull from the same pile for everyone (or at least all of the guys). And the clothes seem to fit everyone. And I don't mean these are spandex or something--just regular cotton shirts that fit every guy in there. Clue two: I wandered into a cool Korean boutique clothes shop the other day and really liked a sweater on a mannequin, so asked the employee if they had it in a large. His response was that they only have ONE size. (WTF?). I tried it on. It didn't fit. He then said something like 'Well, Korean men not shaped like you. They are smaller.' Fair point, my good man. Fair point indeed. SO, I have concluded, based on these clues and my Ace Ventura-esque investigatory instincts, that Korean men are all the same size (except for you, Lawrence).

OK, I apologize for writing so much but hopefully this catches everyone up a bit on the recent interesting things happening to me in Seoul. Laters.

PS--I was shocked and awed by the fact that people are not only reading my blog, but actually making comments!! Very cool. Jake, as you hopefully noticed I have included pictures in this entry and will make an extra effort to do so in the future. If anyone has other (non-sarcastic) requests, please offer them. Thanks to all those that gave comments!

Let it Snoooowwwwwww

I raced into class this morning (sort of) to get all the thoughts in my head onto my blog as soon as possible. So, here's a breif(ish) version of my commute:

I woke up to snow, AGAIN, in Seoul. This was clearly the strongest snow since I've been here. I had no idea that Seoul got a lot of snow--I gather this is rare, but it has snowed 3-4 times since I've arrived a little over a week ago. Anyhow, I took off in my new puffy jacket (I couldn't have bought it at a more opportune time) and headed for the subway. Well, in the time it took me to cross two streets (which admittedly is about 5 minutes, as these are busy streets and the lights are timed for maximum pedestrian inconvenience), I had a full coating of snow all over me. I opted to walk through the mall this morning to get to the subway instead of my outdoor 8-10 min walk, which was much preferred (although I almost fell at the top of a two-story flight of stairs, which would have ended it for me).

The train ride itself was longer than usual due to the weather, but fairly uneventful. Then I arrived in Sinchon for my 20 min walk to school and the fun really started. It was snowy Asians everywhere! Almost all of them were using umbrellas which may have been nice, but also meant that each person was carrying the equivalent of 6 daggers poking out in all directions from their umbrella. I almost lost an eye several times. Additionally, they don't do any real street cleaning here so we were all trying to walk in the same line to avoid the mounds of snow on each side. A bit of levity was fortunately provided by some of the women's outfits I was lucky enough to see--the most amazing being a girl in a mini skirt and platform heels (ladies, is a platform heel a large heel that also is lifted on the toe as well, right? This one was about two inches of height in the toe and 4-5 in the heel. Awesome). She looked like she was on her way back from a long night at the Pussycat Lounge, not on her way to school. Although I have to give her some credit--I could barely get by in jeans and heavy-soled boots and here's a girl in heels. I have no idea if she made it to class or not--she surely wouldn't have been able to if she had to climb the hill I went up. That hill was predictably a big mess. Some car couldn't get up it and the fact that they try clearing snow here with brooms doesn't help anything.

BUT, I made it finally. Upon arrival, I looked like the Abominable Snowman. I literally could not see my hair when I went to the bathroom--I'd say I had an inch of accumulation on top (given that their is about 8 inches on the ground outside though, I guess I'm better at cleaning my head than they are at cleaning the streets).

OK, now it's time for class to start so I better post this. My apologies for what surely is a lower than average quality post today--I hope you enjoy it a little.

Street Food!

Yesterday was my first experience with really walking the streets of Seoul. So, I checked the guide I was given and settled on an area called Namdaemun Market. The description in the guide said "Namdaemun Market is filled with all kinds of fun from what to shop, eat, and see. From a wide variety of selling items for different prices and qualities, you never fail to find what you have in mind. Even street vendors offer rare items which give you a pleasant time to look for. Between shopping, you can please your stomach with unique snacks and specialties." Sounds good to me. Also, I love how this was clearly written by someone who has only a passing grasp of the English language.

Incidentally, there are all kinds of fun moments of mistaken English like that here. One of my favorites from yesterday was the sleeve on my cappuccino, which said "Espresso of Street" meaning it was a sleeve for coffee drinks that are to-go. The other I saw recently at my grocery store was a bottle of shampoo that had a completely normal design (aside from being written mostly in Korean, but that is normal), except that under the name it said "Black People" in big letters. I'm imagining a person of African descent walking around the shampoo aisle in a state of total confusion until they see that bottle--"oh, that one must be made just for me!"

OK, back to the story. So, I took the subway to the market and was pretty impressed by what I saw when I arrived. I was expecting a bunch of stalls, but it was actually mostly all full stores setup for the market, with a row of stalls in the middle of the street. More important than all of the fake stuff that was being sold, they had these large-ish tents setup in the streets selling what looked like pretty delicious food. Since I promised my readers (as if I have a bunch) that I would do something blog-worthy, I decided to step in and see what happened. Well, the picture gives a pretty good sense of the action. They had all sorts of unknown meats/fish/poultry on display as well as noodles, vegetables, kimchi, etc (important note--check out the mini aquarium in the foreground, which was filled with live baby octopus I think). On the other side was this wonderful Korean woman, ready to cook it all for you.

I sat down after being welcomed in loudly--the way the chefs yell at you when you walk into a sushi restaurant--and was quickly greeted with a bowl of some type of clearish broth and mussels soup. I noted someone else eating it (at first I was wondering if I would start eating it and then realize that everyone else was washing their hands with it or something), so I dove right in. I have to say, it was very tasty. I later saw how they prepared it--they took water from the ENORMOUS kettle in the other pic and filled a huge steel vat with hot water and mussels. So, if you don't like mussels then this is no soup for you. But I do, so it was. The waiter then brought me a menu, which we immediately both laughed at because it was clear I don't speak or read any Korean. So instead, he gave me the universal motion for "go up there and point at whatever you want." I settled on 6 smallish skewers, all of which were some type of meat and green onion--two were duck, two were pork (I think), and two were unknown. I thought they looked like duck as well, but they were much more chewy and had kind of a gamey texture. Maybe they were liver? They weren't my favorite, but they were good enough for me to eat. All of these skewers were cooked with what seemed like a mixture of soy sauce, sesame seeds, and sesame oil (all poured out of repurposed PowerAde bottles, of course). There was a side of tasty hot sauce, which I liked as well. So, the combination of these skewers, mussel soup, and a big Cass beer (the only beer people really seem to drink here, which reminds me of Miller Light), made for a delicious meal. Afterward, I spent another hour or so walking around the market (the only other highlight being that I bought some fried twisty doughnut thingys from a guy who was approximately 125 years old--they were ok but cold). I would have stayed longer, but the market was clearly not in full swing since it was a holiday.

Anyhow, it was fun and made for a good first day of exploring Seoul. Today it is unfortunately snowing and nasty outside, so I am going to do what I have been waiting to do since I got here--hit the gym. I just found one two doors down from my apartment. It isn't full of too much equipment, but should prove enough for a month of exercise before I head out to travel. I really need to spend some time there getting into shape ahead of going to kickboxing camp at the end of the month. That should be pretty amazing, but I know I need to be in better shape before arriving if I want to take full advantage of it.

OK, I hope everyone is having a great start to 2010. See you soon!