Teach-uhh! Hallow-ween-uhh!

Agima: Korean Old Lady

Visor, Obnoxious Dress, Long Sleeves, Curly Hair, Pollution Face Mask, & Socks with Sandals

Sadly Korea does not celebrate one of the best holidays of all: Halloween! Fortunately, there are way too many foreigners to nix the holiday. All my friends from CDI training and reunited in Boemgye (South Seoul & completely opposite of where I live in NE Seoul at Taereung). I went to the party with Ben and Christie, who had the best costume of the night--sexy kimbap. We rode the subway train with the most intense stares from the other Korean passengers. They just couldn't understand why Christie was holding a seaweed skirt and a Ramen noodle cup bra. We were actually approached by our first Koreans on this trip down to Boemgye. The first curious one offered Christie and I oranges and asked what we were doing with the seaweed skirt and Ramen bra. We explained that we were going to a Halloween party, although it was already November 1st. On October 31st, we had a the un-Halloween celebration because we get off work at 10pm and nothing ever goes down until after midnight in Seoul on Fridays. We did manage to wine it up in Itaewon and get real saucy. He spoke English pretty well and rode with us for about 10 minutes. The second curious Korean was a 23 year old in the Korean military. I had my first cell number exchange with a Korean! His name is Seo and was very cute. He offered to take me to the base whenever I wanted. Visits to the military bases in Korea are coveted because they offer western amenities such as the beloved Taco Bell and grocery stores that sell cheese, deodorant, and Crest--a few uncommon things in Korea. Maybe I will take him up on the offer. I do miss me some Cheesy Gordita Crunch. The best part about the subway ride was exiting. I found a stall selling socks for 1,000 won! I bought panda socks with ears! PS Koreans love their socks and visors.

The Agima Squat

Korean old ladies squat like this for hours and develop strong legs and bad backs

Dave and Audrey hosted the party. We had a good turnout of CDI training buddies and new friends from their branch at Pyeongcheong. For living in a country that does not celebrate Halloween, we all came up with very impressive costumes ranging from notable movie characters to mocks of Korean life. We had the apartment party until midnight. We played flip cup and beer pong (on the floor--check the triangle). Sadly there are no Solo cups in Korea. Afterwards, we took the party to the Norebong and sang our hearts out. Christie's karaoke cherry was popped when we sang a soulful rendition of Dancing Queen by ABBA. Classic choice eh? --Canadia speak because there are so many in Korea! The night ended by 4am for me. Some of the hardcore Halloweeners took the party to yet another Norebong! Apparently on karaoke session is not enough especially if you are led by Dave, a Filipino --Filipinos are obsessed with karaoke.

Tiff the bird?, Dave as the Joker, & Me the Agima

Sharing a piece of Christie's Sexy Kimbap Skirt

Me & Rachel--the Samoan, except she is a Kiwi Korean

Me & Michael--Harry Potter with the "magic wand"

Group Shot: Joke, Sexy Kimbap, Vampire, Harry Potter, Agima, Pimp, Mummy, & T Money Card (Subway card)

Seoul Filipino Besties: Karaoke Ring Leaders

The next morning we woke up in Dave and Audrey's apartment filled with seaweed, soju, and pieces of costumes. We nursed our hangover with the spiciest chicken potato casserole at a restaurant. Bad choice. We should have just gotten Lotteria or McDonalds. After separating ways, we vowed to hang out again soon or atleast have Thanksgiving in the works. It was a soju filled Halloween made better by the most fun and creative English teachers in Seoul.

Girls Weekend in Jeonju

After my Busan "break-up", I needed a getaway. Christie suggested that we go to Jeonju. She had found a magazine for foreigners in Itaewon with an article about Jeonju. Apparently it is the "San Diego of Korea." With the fall weather coming in, we wanted to see the coast, some cultural sites, and more importantly, get out of the city for the weekend. In the article, the pictures of Jeonju showed it on a coast with massive ancient structures. Also, the draw was that it was known for being the creating the bibimbap dish. The dish can either be hot or cold. It is a bowl filled with various vegetables, rice, sauces, and topped with an egg. When served, the eater will mix the bowl creating a Korean style rice pilaf.

Bibimbap: Traditonal Korean Dish

We took a bus from the Express Bus Terminal on a Saturday morning at 10am. We had missed our 9am bus because the night before was supposed to be a easy night in Hongdae with wine and hookah, which turned out to be a dance party drunk fest until 5am. Christie had a friend, Keyonna, from the states visiting for 3 weeks and this was her last weekend in Korea. In retrospect, you can't really hold back if it is your last weekend anywhere. Jessie met us and we nursed our hangovers with disgusting Lotteria--Korean version on McDonalds or fast food. It is the worst fast food I have ever eaten, but Korean food is not the alternative when you need to nurse a hangover. Our bus ride was 3 hours from Seoul. When we got to the bus terminal we hopped in a taxi and asked for Bookdae. I had met a guy in Busan in my last visit who had lived in Jeonju. He told me that Bookdae was the university area where all the "life" is. We told the driver to take us to Bookdae, which was down the street. At first he took us to the Lotte Department store. Our Konglish isn't very good yet. We finally got the point across that we wanted to go to the university area, Thank goodness Jeonju is so small that a taxi anywhere is 2,000 won. The first thing we did was look for a place to sleep. For foreigners, the most popular choice is to stay at the love motels. These are motels meant solely for the hookup. Cars driving plates will be covered so that no one knows who is there. In the rooms are yos--korean floor mat for sleeping, and everything you'd need for grooming (combs, shaving cream, shampoo, soap, deodorant plus plenty of tissues.) These love motels are shady motels for Koreans to do their "business" equipped with everything you'd need to keep appearances afterwards. For foreigners, these love motels are ideal because they are typically 30,000 won per night and have everything you'd need if you didn't pack correctly. Plus, you can stuff as many people as you want inside. We had 4.

After an hour of walking, we found a love motel tucked away in an alley. It was 40,000 won for the night and we took it. After settling in, we ventured in Jeonju. We were hungry after the 3 hour bus ride, so we decided to get that famous bibimbap. We went to a a seemingly descent perhaps even higher class restaurant and ordered what looked like bibimbap in the picture. It turned out to be roughly hot dog soup. We sat on the floor as usual and on our table was a huge pot filled with pork, hot dogs, ramen, rice cake, and spices. Never again.

Filled to the brim with hot dog soup, we walked it off at the famous battle fortress, which was less than impressive. It was literally a brick wall with a roof. Walking towards sounds of life, we passed by the famous catholic church. It was actually an impressive church and looked much like a smaller version of the Notre Dame in Paris inside. They started having service and we walked out. We followed the sounds of life and walked to the Hanuk Village. A section of Jeonju has a traditional village with cultural stores and ancient artifacts such as ancient riding carriages, photos, and emperors thrones. When we walked in, we were greeted by a massive motorcade of Harley Davidson motorbiking Koreans. They too were tourists and visiting the Hanuk Folk Village. Intrigued by us and our western looks, they insisted on taking pictures. We met the head of the pack, Tony. Despite the rough gruff motorbike look he sported, he was actually a doctor and professor at Korea University in Seoul. Unwilling to give him my phone number, I lied and said I left my phone. I did take his number and their homepage on Naver--the Korean google. These guys were something out of a bad movie. They were wearing jean cutoff jackets with rebel flags on the bag, which I wonder if they know anything about American history. They all did drive Harleys. They offered us a ride. We accepted, but ended up just talking and waving goodbye to them. Only in Jeonju..

Hanuk Folk Village

New Friends: Korean Harley Davidson Hell's Angels

Late in the evening and bored with the village, we left and walked around Jeonju's market. It was not a market, but a rotund of shops where you could haggle for items such as visors--Koreans love their visors. Christie was freezing and forgot to bring a coat to Korea. Damn those airlines and their two 50lb bag limit. We found our first thrift store. She managed to find a sweater and I was even more lucky! I found my Halloween costume! Korea doesn't celebrate Halloween, but just because I am in Korea doesn't mean I won't celebrate. I bought a bright "Lisa Frank" style dress that Agima's (Korean old lady) would wear. Next door, I bought a matching visor, that could double as a welding mask. I finally have my very own visor! The market was terrible, but I managed to get a costume. Yay!

Christie and Me: New Visors & Possible Christmas Card

Exhausted, we decided that a jimjilbong visit was in order. A jimjilbong is a Korean bath house that costs less than 7,000 won. Many people, or at least drunk people, tend to sleep there because they are open 24 hours and provide yos. They have multiple rooms with various saunas, baths, and massages. We took a cab out of Jeonju to their famous jimjilbong according to Lonely Planet. Turns out, this specific jimjilbong was being renovated. Boo. 30 min 30,000 won cab for nothing. Defeated, we retreated to our love motel, ordered fried chicken and pizza thanks to the agima at the front desk. We ate to our stomach's content. To fill our heart's content, Coyote Ugly was on TV! After we all fell asleep to Korean anime porn. Yes, there are soft core porn cartoons after midnight on cable. Gross.

Girls Weekend Warriors: Keyyona, Christie, Me, and Jessie

The next day, we woke up around 1pm. Living in Korean leaves very little room for one of life's basic necessities--sleep. Guided by the Lonely Planet, we went to a restaurant famous for its bibimbap. Way too overpriced, we ate mediocre bibimbap for 10,000. Jessie couldn't eat because she was feeling sick. She wasn't used to eating fried chicken and pizza like Christie and I were. After lunch, we went back to the Hanuk fold village thinking we were going to get traditional acupuncture treatment. The place turned out to be an information center on traditional medicine. At least, Christie made traditional soap. Disappointed, we decided to make our own soju--popular Korean drink. We went to the building where this was done, but apparently they weren't doing it that day because it was a holiday. We did buy some tasty cinnamon soju that was served to us at the bibimbap restaurant. It tastes like cinnamon cider wassail. Delish! Done with Jeonju, we exchanged our 8pm bus tickets for an earlier bus at 4pm. We took the 3 hour bus trip back to Seoul exhausted and uncomfortable on the non-airconditioned bus.

Christie, Me, and Keyyona: Sippin' Cinnamon Soju

At no point did we see the coast, the massive ancient structures, or have any of the famous tasty bibimbap. Nevertheless, the girls weekend away in Jeonju was great because I got to have girl time, gossip, drink, sleep for hours, and I found a Halloween costume in a country who doesn't celebrate Halloween!

Englishee Teecha vs. Wild

After a night in Hongdae, Christie dragged me out of my bed at noon to shower off the smokey grunge that was my body. I had promised her all week that we would go hiking at Suraksan Mt. We have had a rough week and decided we needed to do something productive in Seoul rather than just party. Although I was hungover from the night before, I put on my best hiking gear (running capris, sneakers, tshirt, and fleece sweater--not even close to Korean hiking standards). Koreans are hardcore about hiking. They are fully decked out with their hiking boots, zip ups, visors, walking sticks, and backpacks. Hopefully in the future, I will have invested in the total package.

We live in Taereung, which is only 5 stops from Suraksan subway stop. When reached street level, dozens of food stalls and hiking gear stalls lined the street. We bought cut up pork, kimbap, Korean style Funyuns, rice cakes filled with sweet yam, and mok kolee (carbonated wine that gives you wings). As we made our way through the stalls towards the mountain, it was amazing to see that the most common hiker was over 60. These Koreans are in such good shape! They climb everyday of the week. If you ever ride the subway in Seoul, you'll know why they're in such good shape. There are mountains of stairs everywhere! When we reached the mountain, it seemed like everyone was on their way down. Christie had gone a couple days before to relax before work, but this path was new to her. The best thing to do in this situation is follow the Koreans.

We started our ascent at 2:30pm. As we went up the way everyone was coming down, we realized this wasn't the easiest path to the top. We traversed through thick brush, unsteady rocks, grabbing onto any branch in site. It took us about an hour and a half to reach what we thought was the top. We finally stopped around 4pm on a large rock where other groups had stopped since it was the first major lookout from Suraksan. We could see the whole of Nowongu. At mid afternoon, the sky was still hazy and the sun was bright. I had to take off my sweater I was so hot from the trek up. We sat down and had our feast. The pork and kimbap turned out to be full of fat and dry respectfully. The rice cakes were amazing though. Not wanting to give up, I wanted to make sure that we were at the "top." We decided to go up further and see what was at the rock above us. We find that at the rock, the trail continued. We ascended another 45 minutes. Christie felt like her lungs were collapsing. The air is so much better in the mountains, but it does get thinner. I told her that this was a sign of her getting stamina. He he. When we finally did reach the top at 5:30pm, there was an ancient-style Korean pavilion filled with the few Koreans left hiking. We sat down and chatted with a Korean couple who could not understand anything we said and vice-versa. We used body languagee instead. He said we were not dressed properly and it was cold. This is the best of our conversations with the locals by the way. From the pavilion, we saw a huge mountain face lined with stairs, rope and fencing. It looked like a scene from Indian Jones. We decided that the next time we hiked, we would go all the way to the top of the face and claim Suraksan mission accomplished. As we looked out with the sun setting, we could see more of Seoul. Bright lights and white buildings filled our panoramic view. I thought to myself, "I am really in Korea and this is the best thing I've done yet."

At this point, it was getting cold and my fleece sweater was not going to hold up to the bitter evening. Since our trip up was so rough and torturing to our hamstrings, we wanted the descent to be slow and relaxing. Unfortunately, we were racing the sun. We needed to get back to civilization and there weren't any Koreans around. If they aren't around, then you should panic. As we climbed down, there was a lot of scooting on our butts, tripping over tree roots and I actually managed to slip and fall and roll down the side of the mountain--at least 2 meters. I froze thinking I broke something. Christie stopped breathing and got lightheaded--ya know because she stopped breathing. Luckily, my butt broke my fall and I had only slightly rolled on my right side. I truly wanted to conquer Suraksan without a scratch, but of course it was my damned "hiking gear." Advice: never hike with sneakers. We continued our descent and were getting nervous about never getting back. An interesting part down had a rope connected between two trees. We had to straddle the rope--because Christie had seen this done on Discovery Channel--and climb backwards holding onto the rope. This is when we truly felt like mountain women. After 45 minutes of climbing down, we gained slight night vision, but that was not going to get us down. We finally actually saw some life. Christie held me back and said, "We can't go over there! I think that's a mountain lion." I saw it stand and raise its arms, so I thought it was a bear. Actually, it was a Korean man getting out his flashlight. How smart of him! Thank goodness we found him because I was mentally preparing myself for a night in the wilderness of Suraksan cuddling next to mountain lions. Speaking absolutely no Hangul or English, we traversed down in the unsettling night. Christie led as I followed, while the Korean man took the caboose to light the way. It took us only 45 minutes to go from the top all the way down to the street stalls. When we were racing the sun and darkness, it felt much more like hours because our minds were racing with the possibilities of being lost or eaten. All we wanted to do was see Taereung and lay in our comfortable yo-topped beds. FYI--a yo is a Korean floor mat used for sleeping. Actual beds with mattresses are so uncomfortable that laying a yo between the mattress and fitted sheet makes a mattress feel like heaven. Seeing the bright lights and signs of Korean life on the street made us feel so happy. I couldn't believe I was actually stepping on pavement. After a day of sweating, huffing and puffing, eating gross pork, falling down the mountain, dirty and beat up, and being lost, I would say that it was all very worth it. This experience was truly the best experience I've had in Korea. The experience was made better because I had my Korea bestie Christie to share it with. My Korea enlightenment has been reached and I found it at the peak of Suraksan.