The Last of Christmas Blogs, I Hope

Because it was all so long ago, I’m just going for it right now. Who cares that is not in the right order that this blog might be real long. We’ll see.

Monday, December 22, 2008.

I had Trav and Laura come in to Ssangmun so that I could take to the orange restaurant under the school. This is actually the perfect description of the place. It is directly under the school, making it super convenient to run down on my breaks and grab a chamchi or kimchi kimbob. They also serve a bunch of different things, and as adventurous as I might be, I can’t read the menu to do much experimenting.

Anyway, I wanted Trav and Larua to experience Korean dinning at it’s best: tiny restaurant that serves Korean style fast food. We had kimbob and dukkbogi. I think they liked it; they lied to me if they didn’t. It isn’t the best dukkbogi out there, but it’s pretty good. And it’s the only kimbob I’ve have eaten. I think it’s delicious. We went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee after lunch and I left them there and went to school.

At school, I meet Jaemin in the hallway as I was walking in and he was with a man whom I can only assume was his father and dad was a babe. Jaemin would have a hot dad. However, Jaemin himself looked less like hipster and more like the seven year-old boy that he is in black sweat pants and a sweatshirt, not stylish by very cute.

The rest of the family arrived that evening. The next morning, I got up bright and early to take the subway to meet them at their hotel. Having gone twice to try and find the hotel and having met Trav and Laura there a couple times already, I was beginning to feel like a commuter. I managed to finish two book entirely on the subway during their stay here, Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut and No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy. Anyway, I got to the hotel and everybody was really excited to see me, my mom even cried a little bit. It was a beautiful reunion although until that moment I was still secretly harbouring thoughts of a human Christmas present. I had to settle for parents and chocolate.

We went to Starbucks for coffee. After Starbucks we headed out to the Electronics market in Youngsan. I have never seen anything like that in my life. Cell phones, cameras, mp3 players as far as the eye can see. It was strange and there were also high end house hold things like dishes and bedding, as well as appliances and clothes. Dad, Laura, and Toban all wanted to buy new cameras and figured they get a good deal if they all bought from the same place. Later at school Tasha told me that she didn’t think they would get a good deal because they went by themselves, but Tahsa didn’t get to see Laura at work. I’m sure they all got a steal of a deal.

We had bulgogi for lunch, it was a food court of restaurants and we didn’t actually all have to eat the same meal but I am used to having to share everything and just ordered bulgogi for everybody. Anyway, it was delicious. After lunch, I didn’t have a lot of time. Mom and Jamie walked me to the subway station while the rest continued on their camera quest (which was apparently successful as the next time I saw them, they all had new cameras). We stopped at a make-up store and I bought some new eye shadow and pressed powder. I had been waiting for Jamie to get here before I bought anything because she always knows what I should buy. She is my favourite person with which to shop. My mom is pretty good too, they both like to buy things and are encouraging but honest.

My mom had brought me a box of little candy canes to give to the kids. Of course, the kids always think they are entitled to the candy I give them, which is actually rare because I don’t like spending my money on the brats. As I handed out the candy canes some kids actually complained about them being broken and asked for new ones. I had tell them that my mom brought all the way from Canada and that all of them were broken. I was super annoyed. I had to explain to a few of my kids that candy canes were for eating.

The next day was Christmas Eve, about which I have already written.

On Boxing Day I skipped the awkward toast at the hostel, anticipating the delicious pastry from Starbucks that I knew would be forth coming. After breakfast, I left the family and headed back to Ssangmun for a shower and another day of teaching. It was a Friday, which meant my favourite class of middle school boys and Jaemin, of course.

After school, I got back on the subway to meet Trav, Laura, and Toban to go to a hof. We ended up back at the Western Hof (by western they mean western world) and had the same server and ordered the same food, but this time we ordered an even bigger beer and it came in a little mini keg, it was pretty rad. I was pretty comfortable in my hostel at this point. I claimed my bed but putting my bag on it and leaving my pj’s on the bed. So I slept better but morning was still a little awkward.

Trav and Laura left sometime in the early morning for more adventures in Japan. I met the rest of the family and we headed over to Seoul Station to catch the train for Busan. We took the KTX, which is a super fast train, like 300 km an hour at it’s fastest. On the train, I had the lone seat and ended up sitting next to a boy. At first, he was just talking on his cell phone (literally hand phone in Korean) and texting. I was kind of reading my book (No Country for Old Men) and it looked like he was kind of reading over my shoulder. I looked over at him and suddenly pointed to the page at the word “he” and said “he” and pointed at himself. then pointed at “men” and did it again. And then pointed at woman and at me. He seemed proud of himself. So anyway, good icebreaker, and we got to “talking”. His English was almost non-existent. He told me he slept through in English class in middle school. Being an English teacher, I am not surprised. This is the information I was able to get: He lives in Busan and was visiting his girlfriend in Seoul, he is 20, he is in the army (mandatory two years server before the age of 25 for all men), and that’s pretty much it. We talked about Canada a bit, as usual he only knows about Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. I think he may have listed Ottawa as well. And as usual he was very surprised when he realized that I have been to none of those cities except Vancouver. Also as usual, he was shocked when I told him how many hours it takes to drive to city like Toronto from Winnipeg. Considering that we were on a train ride to the other side of Korea and it only took three hours. We traded phone numbers and email addresses, kind of. He gave me his homepage, which I have since visited and it is only in Korean and my computer is not advanced enough to display the whole page properly, but I think it is like fancy version of facebook that Korean kids have. Later he fell asleep on my shoulder. When he woke up he was very embarrassed. He was super cute. His name was Tae Hoon. I think he actually called me later that evening, but I was in the shower and missed the call. And because I never get phone calls, I didn’t realize I had been called until I was setting the alarm on my phone. I could have called him back, but seeing as we could barely communicate face to face, I only imagine how difficult it would be to try and communicate over the phone. When we were talking on the train he kept calling a friend to consult on English words. Wait, wait he would say and then he would call up his friend, who appeared to know about as much English as he did.

At the train station in Busan, we had lunch in the food court. Jamie and I went Korean while the Toban, Dad, and Mom went to Burger King. I had bibimbop for the first time, but it was a cold bibimbop and I wasn’t a huge fan. But I can see how delicious a hot bibimbop would be. The side dishes were alright, but it wasn’t the best kimchi that I have had.

We got rooms at a super sketch hotel beside the train station. The Aririang Hotel. Apparently the whole area around the train station is where the soldiers and the sailors hang out, a lot of Russian sailors. There were Russian channels on TV and all the signs in the hotel were in English, Korean, and Russian. Very strange.

We went to the Busan Aquarium. It was pretty cool. Although there were too many couples and too many kids. The sharks were really cool. A frog escaped and we had to guard it until an official come and stuck it back it its cage. That was pretty exciting.

We went back to the train station area for supper, we ate more samgupsal and the lady who served us was pretty funny, she fed me Korean pizza, like she actually picked it up with chop sticks and stuck it in my mouth and then did the same to Toban and my mom. Back at the hotel, I went to Jamie and Toban’s room. We drank soju and watched CSI and Big Bang.

I went to shower and was displeased to discover that my bathroom was cold and that I had to hold on to the shower head the whole time. It was an uncomfortable shower, I missed the phone call, and then I had to go bed with my hair wet because I couldn’t find the blow dryer. And it took me a long time to get to sleep and I didn’t set my alarm on my phone properly so it didn’t go off and I was late meeting the family for coffee in the morning. And then I didn’t see tea on the menu (actually under the menu) and until after I ordered my latte, of which I am trying to drink less.

We went back to the train station to buy tickets for later in the day were all disappointed to learn to that we had to go almost right away because it was the only train that still had room. This time I sat beside my mom, so it was more comfortable, but less interesting. She gets motion sickness and so she could only sit really still. I felt bad going to the bathroom because I had to crawl over her. And I ate too many of the Ginger Type Snacks I bought at the station.

From the train station we went back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and then headed to Pizza Hut for supper. It tasted exactly like Pizza Hut from back home. Pizza Hut makes me think of Steinbach, where I consumed most of my Pizza Hut pizza as a child. I don’t like to think about Steinbach when I am in Korea. I don’t to like to think about Steinbach ever.

After supper, which was pretty early, we decided to see Seoul Tower. I guess Seoul tower is bit like the CN tower, but not as tall. However, the tower is on the top of a mountain in the middle of Seoul so the view is amazing. But again, full of couples because obviously it is a very romantic place to go on a date.

Getting to the tower was a bit of an adventure. The guide book didn’t have very good directions on getting there. We left the subway station and more or less just started walking in the direction of the tower hoping to eventually take the gondola to the top of the hill. However, after much up hill walking we still didn’t seem to be any closer and there was not tourist information around. We continued to walk and finally just had to stop, the rents are getting on in years and just can’t handle the non-prairie landscapes anymore. Being good children, Toban, Jamie, and I abandoned them on a street corner and carried on for reconnaissance. We walked up a bunch of outdoor stairs in a park and realized that we were not close at all. Jamie went back to the folks with the idea of taking a cab up to where Toban and I were. However, as Toban and I continued in the reconnaissance, we realized that we were no where close to the gondola. We waited for while and eventually had to admit that nobody was coming back for us. All we could do was sit tight and hop that in time somebody would call my phone and tell us what to do. Soon Jamie did call and told us to grab a taxi and head to the top of the hill.

At first it seemed like the taxi driver was taking us for a financial ride as he drove down the hill and then around a bunch, but I guess to get to top you have to approach the hill from a different direction. Soon we were all reunited and happy with only a short waltz to the top of Seoul. We neglected to visit the Teddy Bear museum within Seoul tower, something I will have to do when Bryan arrives.

We took the gondola down the hill and then decadently took a taxi back to the hotel. Mother and father retired to their room while Jamie, Toban, and I headed back to the Western hof for some eats. Once again we had the same server, a stoic man who almost showed amusement at our return, but not quite. This time we ordered what the people at the table next to us were having; there were French fries on their plates. We also were giving a complimentary fruit platter as thank-you for being such loyal customers. I think that brings the total up to six. Fruit and beer, I’m telling you, it’s the future.

I went home that night and rose early to meet them in Insadong at their hotel before we headed over to Starbucks again.

I think this concludes the blog on the family’s visit to Korea. Family, if I have missed anything about the visit, remember that I have not posted everything in order, please let me know and I will make sure to write a lengthy post about it.

Did I mention the part where we took mom and dad to the hof and they both got a little drunk? We went back to the Western hof, unfortunately our server was off that evening, and ordered some fried chicken, another mini keg, and a few bottles of soju. My mother claimed later that she was not drunk and I know that she must have pretty high tolerance level by now, but was a little tipsy, whether she cares to admit it or not. I was there; I don’t care what she says. I know the truth.