My Day In Sanbon

So last Sunday (3/10), my neighbor took me to Sanbon, which is basically downtown Gunpo. It's the heart of the city--where everything is at. And it's glorious (at least in comparison to where we're at normally). (Note: All pictures were actually taken today (3/16) when I went back on my own.)

We left about 2:30 PM and grabbed a taxi. Apparently a taxi for two is just as much as a bus for one, so might as well grab a taxi (it's about 2 bucks). He taught me how to get there via taxi so I got to tell the driver "Sanbon yok" (I'm only guessing that's how you spell it until I can confirm). It translates to "Sanbon station." Once we got there, we went to the center of Sanbon so he could show me things in every direction.

Front facing the train station.

Toward the back (away from the station).



To the left with some benches

(and I think towards the bus stop)

To the right (I think).

  

We decided we were gonna go see a movie that afternoon, so we would get our tickets ahead of time. The two options for movies in English at the time we wanted were Jack the Giant Slayer and Stoker. Of course I chose Stoker. I've seen 5 Park Chan-wook films in America (he's a Korean director for those who don't know). Why wouldn't I see his first American film while I'm in Korea? The irony is too great. (Off topic, but I also plan on seeing the American remake of Chan-wook's Oldboy, my favorite Korean movie, while I'm here, too.) Anyway, this particular theater is in a giant building with different stores on the bottom floors and apartments up above, so we went up to the theater and got our tickets. We also had to choose which seats we wanted, as there was assigned seating.


One of the posters inside with listings/times.

From there, we made our way around Sanbon. It's basically this one long road/walkway with intersecting roads as you go along. He showed me different little restaurants and places so we could figure out what we wanted for lunch. We ended up just getting a couple burgers and fries. It was decent, though the patty itself was more like this rib-meat burger that was about the thickness of a few sheets of paper. But it was filling enough.
  

Wanna go to Outback Steakhouse? They have it!

The little burger place inside this tiny little garage.

Then there was the adventure known as E-Mart. E-Mart is basically like a giant Korean version of a Wal-Mart or Super Target and the like. The first floor was basically all foods, and the second floor (yes, there were at least two floors) was mostly electronics and appliances (as I later discovered, there are a few more floors… clothes, cosmetics, and parking as far as I could tell). To get from floor to floor, especially if you had a basket, you went on these things that were basically a mix of a moving sidewalk and an escalator. So a moving ramp, I guess? And I was forewarned before going in that Sundays are the worst possible days to go because of how crazy busy it is. And he wasn't wrong. For those back in Victoria, imagine something like the day before Thanksgiving at HEB times three. You have to just wade through Asian people like they're an ocean you need to get through. But I was assured this was the worst I'd ever see it, and most other days it's not close to that bad. Oh, and there's these little lockers as you come in to put any bags you don't feel like carrying. I was also told there's ones especially for little dogs so people can put their dogs there to wait while their owners do their shopping.



The moving ramps as best as I could get.

From E-Mart, we made our way to a Dunkin Donuts for some hot chocolate and to just sit and talk for a while and kill time. And apparently Koreans love them some donuts, because the place was packed. We were there for a while until he decided to show me this little bar and grill (that serves breakfast) that's apparently a good place to meet people, but it was closed.

We still had quite a bit of time to kill, so we went to an arcade and played a little House of the Dead 4 (for those unaware, a zombie/monster shooting game) while a bunch of teenagers watched us. I lasted just a little bit longer, but soon died off, too. We still had quite a bit of time, but we thought we'd just go to the theater and relax there and wait. Little did we know our most entertaining part of the day was yet to occur.


The front of the building with the theater
(it's super tall with the apartments above).

When our elevator finally takes us up to the theater (it kept taking us down into sub-levels to get more people), we took a seat in this waiting area near these bathrooms. And this is where the fun began. As we waited, there was somebody (presumably in the men's restroom) making the most bizarre noise. It sounded like a mix of choking, heaving, and squawking. And I'm not even sure that description does it nearly enough justice. It happened in short intervals, and at first neither of us knew what was going on or if it was some cultural thing we were unaware of. But then we noticed even Korean people trying to investigate where the noise was coming from and/or what it was. But every time we'd try to start a conversation, this noise would start, too. And eventually we would just burst out laughing and couldn't control ourselves. It really was the most ridiculous thing ever. We think it was a guy having a really bad reaction to something. We suspected it was one guy who eventually came out of the bathroom soon after the noise stopped. But then he went back in and never came back out. Hopefully he didn't die.

We also talked about funny little things about we could be talking out loud in English because nobody around us knew what we were saying. So my neighbor started saying ridiculous things just to prove the point ("I ate a clown today!") to which nobody reacted. He also let me in on the little "looks" we will get as foreigners from Koreans. They won't outright stare (most of the time), but they will look at you at least once. And he was right--if you're paying attention, you will see the Korean people steal at least one glance at you. So while they (usually) don't look at you, they're always very aware that you're there.

The next strange thing happened as we were going into the actual theater area. The ticket girl looked Korean, but spoke English… with an Australian accent . It was quite strange. The theater room itself was incredibly small. Easily the smallest I've ever seen (and probably even smaller than you're imagining. The chairs themselves were comfortable, but there wasn't a whole lot of leg room. As for the movie--it started off really slow and weird. The first 20 minutes were very odd, and I never knew where it was going. But as it got into the story, it got better. By the end, I really liked it. Definitely not for everyone, though.

We left the theater and headed to the bus stop… in some weather that easily dropped like 20 degrees in the last couple hours. And I was shown how to take the bus home from there (and which bus to take). And I got home about 7:30 or so. And that was about it! This was easily the best afternoon I'd had so far in Korea. And I'm sure I'm gonna be spending quite a bit of time in Sanbon.

The Journey to Korea, My First Full Day, and DHWL #2: My Korean Apartment

Important Note: I can't yet transfer pictures from my phone to my laptop, as I can't find wifi for it to work just yet. So I plan on eventually uploading a few pictures to this, but it won't be for a few weeks probably. Anyway...

So here's how it went. As most of you already know, I awoke on Thursday the 28th at about 4 AM after 5-6 hours of interrupted sleep (I woke up constantly). At 5 AM, we (my parents and I) took a shuttle to the airport where many hugs were given and much crying from my mother ensued.

THE FIRST FLIGHT - AUSTIN TO L.A.

The first snag in my journey came at the Austin security check, wherein I forgot to take off my belt and remove my PS3 from the suitcase before going through the scans and whatnot. They rescanned the PS3, felt me up for explosives and/or weapons, lectured me briefly on taking out large electronics from the bag, and then let me go. I found the gate pretty easily.

This first flight was pretty uneventful. The plane itself was pretty tiny and claustrophobic. I barely fit going down the aisle itself, and I had to master yoga positions in order to fit in the seat. I was at the window seat in a row of three. Luckily the girl who sat in the row with me was in the aisle, leaving an empty seat between us. The flight took about 3 to 3 and a half hours before we finally landed at LAX.

LAX

I was worried about getting lost in LAX, since I had to transfer terminals entirely (I switched from American Airlines to Thai Airways), though I fortunately had a 3 and a half hour layover. I had to find the Tom Bradley International Terminal. I saw sign after sign leading me forward and... eventually led me outside. There were no signs pointing anywhere else, so I turned right and began walking. I thought I saw signs pointing me into buildings for Tom Bradley, but I guess I was mistaken. After asking at least 3 different people and finding a few more signs, I found the terminal. Had I just taken a left instead of a right and went to the next building over, I would have found it much faster.

Once there, I had to get my next boarding pass. I didn't have to wait in line very long (maybe a minute or two) before the woman called me up. There was a little confusion about certain information she needed, but she eventually printed the ticket. However, Thai Airways is a bit weird with its carry-on rules. Whereas most airlines don't have a weight limit, Thai Airways does. I'd already checked two bags and had two carry-ons: A backpack and a small suitcase. But while the backpack was apparently fine in weight, the suitcase was over. I was originally going to check it (for an additional $119 due to it being a third checked bag), but the woman told me to just shift some stuff around in order to take out about 4 pounds or so and put it into the backpack. I switched out the power converter box, which alone is about 7 pounds. We re-weighed and it was fine, though she didn't re-weigh the backpack for some reason. I'm still a little boggled about how 4 pounds was way too much over, though the exact same amount of weight was going onto the plane anyway. Oh well.

By the time I got to security (yes, I had to go through again), an hour had already passed from the time the plane landed. It seemed like it took a while to get through, but it really only took maybe 15 minutes. And while I did take out the PS3 this time, I forgot to take off my belt again, so I had to be rescanned and felt up all over again. Oh joy.

After that, it wasn't long until I made it to the gate and had about a 2 hour wait, I think. I just killed time until... the big flight.


I did stuff like take pictures of my enormous plane.

THE SECOND FLIGHT - L.A. TO SEOUL
The inside of the plane didn't seem to be as huge as the outside, but it was much more spacious than the first plane.


A picture of the inside, back section.

 There was what I can only assume to be a Korean businessman sitting next to me at the window, and he kinda drove me crazy. He was too shy and/or reserved to ask me to get up to let him out, so he would wait until whenever I decided to get up to step out (which I eventually did frequently, and he eventually stopped getting up). For the most part he did what everybody else did on that flight--slept or watched an in-flight movie.

The movie selection was HUGE. When I went to Hawaii, they had maybe 6-7 movies to choose from, and they were on a timer. If you missed the beginning, you had to wait until it started reshowing again. That wasn't the case here. You had total control--pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. And they had movies of multiple genres, countries, and years. Throughout the flight, I watched...

-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (I had to give it a watch!)
-The Thieves (a Korean action/thriller that's kind of like a mix between Ocean's 11 and Reservoir Dogs. It was pretty good, though confusing at times)
-The Fugitive (hadn't seen this one since I was really little)
-Hotel Transylvania (Not great, but not terrible, especially for a modern Adam Sandler movie)

I'm pretty sure I watched another, too, but I honestly don't remember what it was right now. It was a long flight. I maybe got only an hour of sleep, a little near the start of the flight, but most of it near the end. I had too much adrenaline to fall asleep before that, I guess. It really came to the point I had to get up about every hour to stand for a while, because my butt was killing me in that chair for 13 and a half hours (plus the flight before and the waiting in between).

The flight staff were really nice and kept everybody fed and hydrated pretty constantly. The food... wasn't that great. And every meal had this type of dinner roll/biscuit with it that didn't really taste bad but had a really strong smell. By the end of the flight, the whole airplane smelled of those things, and it got to a point it was making me nauseated.

Also, a couple cool things of note about the flight... we pretty much chased daylight the whole way. There wasn't any time where it was dark outside (and the flight map showed darkness behind us the whole way). So it really wasn't until I left the airport that I saw night. Also, at some point we flew over what I believe is the Arctic Ocean. I took a picture the best I could.


Just imagine a vast sea of ice and you'll get a better idea.

But eventually we finally reached the Incheon International Airport in Seoul (the plane was actually going to continue on to Bangkok, Thailand with some of its passengers in about an hour, though some of us, of course, were staying in Korea).
INCHEON INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

I pretty much followed people on my plane to find my way to the baggage claim. The signs were kinda helpful, but a little confusing. I eventually found myself in a little subway station lined up with people. The train came every 5 minutes to take people to the baggage claim area (yeah... a train to baggage claim. It's a big place). There were too many people for the first train to come, but I caught the next one. And it was funny because a group of little kids about fell over simultaneously when the train jolted to a start.

Before I could actually get into baggage claim from there, though, I had to pass through this kind of immigration checkpoint. The guy took my passport and this little card I had to fill out, then took my electronic fingerprints and a picture before handing me back my passport and letting me continue on. When I found my baggage claim area, I waited there for at least 20-30 minutes. Thankfully my plane was 30 minutes early or else I would have made my driver wait for a long time. Anyway, my bags were pretty much some of the last bags to come through from my flight. And from there, I had to move to customs.

I had to fill out this long form on the plane of anything I might be declaring. But all it was... there was a guy standing near the exit area. He took the form, looked at it for about a second, said OK, and I just moved on through. From there, I ended up in the arrivals area and found my driver who would be taking me to my apartment. He called Sasha (my recruiter), and I checked in with her before the long walk to his minivan. And boy was it cold when those doors to the outside opened.

THE DRIVE AND THE APARTMENT

From the airport in Seoul to my apartment in Gunpo, everything was relatively quiet. He'd answer his cellphone from time to time, and he had to pay at some tollways, but we didn't really speak to each other. What was funny, though, was what did make the majority of the noise in the car. In America, people worry about being distracted by cellphones and texting. In Korea, I'd heard that practically everything is connected with a TV. And apparently that's true.


Yes, there was a little TV playing a Korean drama next to his GPS.

I tried not to laugh when he had to turn down the TV to answer his cellphone while driving down the highway. I mainly focused on the scenery--most of which I couldn't see since it was dark out. But there were instances of large buildings (one of which even had like a laser show going on on the outside of it). And every now and then I'd see this mountain in the background of a building or cityscape (in an otherwise flat land. It's like "Oh hi, random mountain").

He helped me get my bags into the apartment building and to the elevator when a woman from my school showed up to take me the rest of the way (she's over us foreign teachers to help us out and whatnot). Unfortunately, nobody had told me or her what the passcode was to get in (as doors are locked by a passcode instead of by key). So she had to call somebody to get that. She also introduced me to my neighbor, who happens to be another foreign teacher like me who also works at my same school. Together they showed me around the apartment, and my neighbor promised to show me around the neighborhood and whatnot later. (And he'll actually be leaving in a month to be replaced by a new girl, who I'll have to show around when the time comes.)

THE FIRST DAY (THUS FAR)

I woke up at 4 AM Korean time (which is like 1 PM or so my normal time). And I was completely at a loss at what to do. I had no internet. No cable TV. And, as I soon came to realize, the HDMI cable for my PS3 doesn't fit in the TV I was given--so I can't use it until I get the proper size cables (and I unfortunately did not bring my regular AV cables with me for some reason).

So I started the video I'm posting at the end of this and then unpacked. I then got to experience a Korean shower before returning to and finishing the rest of the aforementioned video. I then, under a random happenstance, discovered that if my timing is right, I can hook into some really weak wifi for my laptop (though not for my phone, sadly). So I spent some time trying to catch up as best I could (though I'd take dial-up at this point).

A little after 10 AM, I went next door to see if my neighbor was ready to show me around. He ended up taking me down the street, showing me different things like fruit, vegetable, and meat markets on the  sidewalk. We went into a nearby grocery store and he helped me get some stuff there (and the check-out lady was really nice). We headed back to put the stuff up in my apartment where we were met in the elevator by two Korean women (one young and the other a little older)... who turned out to be Jehova's Witnesses. Yup. Even in Korea, you can't get away from them. But they were really nice (well, the younger one, anyway, who was the only one that talked to us) and told us all about Jesus dying for our sins before parting ways.

Soon after, my neighbor helped me get a bus card so I can take the bus places (like the downtown area, which he's gonna show me next weekend). Then he treated me to lunch at a place I forget the name of, but it's basically Korean McDonalds (not actually McDonalds, but it's basically Korean fast food). We got a mix of stuff to try out. It was alright--the best was actually what turned out to be Japanese food, and it was basically this big pork cutlet in some kind of sauce.

And then he showed me an internet cafe that's actually in this same building as my apartment, which is what I'll be using to upload videos until I can get internet myself. (Future Note: The internet cafe is equally cool and confusing. It's full of teens playing video games, so it's pretty loud. But the internet is fast and it's basically less than a dollar for an hour. However, most major websites--like YouTube--are entirely in Korean. So that makes it a little difficult to figure things out at the moment.)

And speaking of videos, since it's now 1 PM (Saturday March 2nd) and I don't think I'll be doing anything that interesting for the rest of the day... let's get to the video, shall we?

MY APARTMENT

Here's a tour of my actual apartment. Enjoy!



*Note: One thing I forgot to talk about in the video is this little panel between the couch and the shelf thing. It's for heat. One button will heat up my water so I can take hot showers and whatnot, and another will turn the heat on in the apartment (which I believe is via heated floors).

DHWL #1: Hairy Won + Location Update

So I discovered the other day that, while I'll be working in the small city of Uiwang, I'll actually be living in a neighboring city called Gunpo. The commute by train is about 30 minutes but should hopefully put me right near the school. I'll update more on that later.

I also put together a quick little video on a couple topics. First, I wanted to briefly discuss the Korean form of currency, won. And then I discuss facial hair in Korea, and we discover what I decide to do about mine. Enjoy!