Back In Seoul!

Jenny (Canada), Jesse (US), Annelise (US), and Mireille (Switzerland), approximately 3.2km away from North Korean territory

Sorry for the week-long hiatus, I was all over the place in Korea last week doing a program called 2008 Global Korean Youth Network. I hope to blog about it in detail later, but I have few pictures and didn’t keep track of everything in a travel journal. The program ended yesterday and it was toooooooo depressing to say goodbye to everyone I met and made friends with.

Today I have to pack up my apartment and move all my stuff into my dad’s apartment. And in a few hours I meet my cousin Tae-Hun, who I haven’t seen in two years, and saw very rarely before that. He’s making a trip to Seoul from the military, where he’s doing his two years right now. All Korean men, with some exceptions, are required to serve two years in the military before the age of 30, near North-South Korean border, and also train for three days a year after that.

“Gather the Candles”

middle school students in demonstration

Pictures from the Memorial Day US Beef demonstration to come soon!
Memorial Day was June 6th, by the way. Ahahaha I am so slow in uploading these.
You can read about my reaction to the demonstration here.

Insa-dong, Part Three!

Made a night trip to downtown area around Insa-dong vicinity on a Friday, three weeks ago (I’m really slow to upload these, aren’t I?)

the Buddhist monk artist doing traditional black ink watercolour painting on rice paper

a video arcade

seven moles, a favourite among ancient arcade games. Whack those creatures with a bat!

downtown streets

bought off a street vendor

“pojangmacha”, outdoor food carts. Though this one is not as legit as a pojangmacha can get, because it doesn’t have a tarp covering and stools to sit on while eating

this is the Hot Item of the summer, ahahaha. Racket-shaped bug zappers.

jewelry shop

… and right across from it are jewelry carts. Disappointed by the prices at the shop? Just get your bling from a street vendor instead😀 What a juxtaposition

Sign says: “made in Korea shoes, $10”

pirated dvds

convenience store shack

sign says: “rice and corn cakes for 70 cents”

I had to calm my urge to dive into that

Ahahaha I love that fan.

cacti

Catholic nuns

itsy bitsy cellphone accessories

carved woodwork

the relaxed alleys of Insa-dong

the best restaurants are ALWAYS in a cobbled hidden alley somewhere. True story. (I will blog more about this point later)

souvenirsss

Cups of cherries and raspberries, which are both rare in the city. Food carts sell melon slices on sticks, too.

emerald coloured vases, a bonafide icon of Korean culture

prints of traditional watercolour paintings

Buddha paraphernalia

map of Ssamziegil and surroundings

caricaturists

luielle hat shop

Ssamziegil at night!

in front of a Dalki shop (“Dalki” is both the name of the cartoon character and the word for “strawberry”)

a munbanggu (notebooks, notepads, pencils, pens, binders, etc) shop/brand called “millimeter milligram”

little Korean dishes on cellphone chains! Hehe.

the fancy tie shop that Dad visited last time – textile artist Shin Yung Mi

LOVE.

on the left: a book cafe (like an internet cafe, but with books instead)

Gangnam station (green subway line). there are glass walls with automatic doors between the train and the station, to prevent people jumping in front of trains. As far as I know, Japan and Korea are the only countries to have these, thanks to the high suicide rates! On the electronic screen for some of the Green Line subway trains, animated campaigns are often aired, with slogans such as “Your life is important to us!” The first time I witnessed that animated (i.e. cartoon) campaign, I stared in disbelief, it was like stepping into an alternate universe.

map of Seoul in yellow. Downtown bits in the pink rectangle. Gangnam station (where I live) is where the red arrow points to, south of the Hangang River

Gangnam station shops that I pass by many times a week

exit number six at Gangnam station, towards home

NEON NEON NEON

Pictures of Gangnam subway station area on a Thursday night… party night, even here in Seoul. Imagine the hustle and bustle city vibe, loud traffic, honking horns, music blaring from stores, vendors shouting to get attention, and about ten thousand conversations going on around you… and you’ll be set to look at these pictures

the merchants only really come out at night. They probably make a fortune each night, no lie.

baby nike tees

walking along Gangnamno, the big street with the subway stop. always, always crowded during the day, moreso at night.

Giordano, the Korean response to Gap. I’ve noticed there are ALWAYS people standing/sitting outside this store. It’s everyone’s meeting place. I know because every single person standing out there are always saying “where are you now?” on their mobile phones.

turn left on Gangnamno to a myriad of little alleys full of restraurants, bars, nightclubs, and noraebang (kareoke bars)

food cart selling quick cheap food, known as “pojangmacha”

BLINDED BY LE NEON

those places marked with the “DVD” sign are DVD Rooms, which are like theatres/cinema, except you pay to see DVDs on a large-screen in a private room.

I don’t know how it’s possible, but every single resto seem to be full on a weekend night. And there are a lot of restaurants.

an underground club

and another

The Good, The Bad, The Weird

This movie comes out in theatres tomorrow, and I actually really want to see it, maybe this weekend. It obviously echoes Sergio Leone’s classic “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”, but I’m not dismissing this remake just yet, especially because it did well at the Cannes film fest.

IMDB sez:

Synopsis: “The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits.”

The trailer for “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” (좋은놈 나쁜놈 이상한놈), with English subtitles:

And Now For Something Completely Different…

I found a youtube user who uploads a whole bunch of vids by underground Korean bands, with a tag range of: “alternative, indie, rock, rock’n’roll, punk, metal, pop, folk, emo, screamo, metalcore, hardcore, jazz, electronic, rap, hip hop, rocksteady, reggae, sXe, hXe, acid, funk, r&b, house, bossa nova, 2-step, new-wave, trip hop, britpop, rapcore, dance, oldies”. Perfecto. My goal is to go through the 1,491 vids.

Here is one vid I checked out while looking up Korean indie. The band is called IS (Infinity of Sound), composed of three women who integrate traditional Korean instruments (the Korean harp and two zithers) into their music. Their lyrics are repetitive, if you couldn’t tell, and a little bizarre.

Infinity of Sound – Bom (“Spring”, as in the season)

Re-visiting Juyeop

I’ve attended four elementary schools in my life. Juyeop Elementary School was the very first one. It’s in a suburb called Ilsan, about an hour’s drive from Seoul. I only lived here for one year. But OH THE MEMORIEZ.

Juyeop Elementary School. The phrase “elementary school” was new the year I started attending. It had been “citizen’s school” for decades.

the old fashioned dry dirt schoolyard (as opposed to the elementary school in my Gangnam neighbourhood, which has a meticulously kept turf soccer field)

blargh, those colourful tires were there when I was in grade one.

rust

nearby apartments

my best friend’s little brother once fell from this jungle gym and it caused mayhem. I don’t even know how I remember that, because I don’t remember much about my best friend except her face and that her dad was a police officer and that she was loud and obnoxiously noisy and outgoing (which are probably what I was, too). I certainly don’t remember her name.

the ivy-covered bricks weren’t there when I attended, but it looks nice now.

the ginkgo is apparently the school tree. Most schools still have the school song, school motto, school tree… your usual whatevers

the neighbourhood playground, where I have spent some solid amount of time in grade one. It was steps away from my house.

AHHH.