4 Days in SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Actually I came back from Seoul a few days ago, but I’ve been waiting for everyone to upload photos onto their facebook’s because I was regrettably lazy and didn’t take very many.

I wrote this entry the day after I got back while it was fresh in my mind.  Before I start, I should clarify that this wasn’t actually meant to be a holiday. It was more like a school field trip, so it was based at Kyhung Hee University and we had lectures, group discussions, a pointless company visit and set dinners to sit through. We only had free time between 6pm and midnight each day, which is when the dorms closed for the night. But still, it was for FREE and we were in Korea, so I have no complaints.

DAY 1 Highlights: Hanbok, Kimchi, Dorms and Hot Chilli Peppers

The moment we arrived we felt the temperature drop – minus 13 degrees celcius!

 

They took us to a place where we did arts and craft mirrors and tried on some traditional Korean clothing called Hanbok,

we then went to make Kimchi, which is fermented cabbage and spices mixed with other things that Koreans have with every single meal every single day, according to the people themselves. They have a whole section of their fridge dedicated solely to Kimchi.

I was really impressed with the set out of the studio, it look so professional…everyone had a lot of fun even though we were only there for what must have been half an hour. We got to take the Kimchi we made home to our host families. I personally prefer mine grilled but mainly it’s eaten cold.

After Hanbok and Kimchi we checked in at our Dormortory of KYHUNG HEE University, which was two people per room. The grounds were beautiful:

The room themselves were very spacey, the floor was heated (yes, heated!) and the wardrobe was needlessly enormous, especially being as it was about twice the size of the shower which had the toilet in it. Yes, the toilet was under the shower in a little room opposite the sink. It was difficult trying to go for a wee after my roommate had taken her shower and gotten the floor and toilet seat all wet.

After dumping our bags there we walked to the nearest town for dinner at a nice korean version of what felt like an izakaya more than a restaurant but was probably a bit of both, where everyone had grilled meat and beer and noodles and rice and kimchi and a feast of other little interesting side dishes, all you can eat and drink. Note to self: mixing the Korean version of sake with their beer is actually delicious!

Red Hot Chilli Incident: At one point I noticed Robert bright red in the face and wiping his eyes and wondered if he was choking, but unable to answer he just held up the end of a bitten green chilli pepper, his eyes literally streaming with tears. It was funny, but not as funny as when he offered it to Alister down the other side of the table, who shrugged and took a bite without a thought. Everyone pulled out their cameras and trained them on his face and felt disappointed when he didn’t react, just said ‘tastes good, shinpaishinaide kudasai (no worries), I don’t feel a thing…’ but after about 20 seconds must have started to feel something because he moaned a bit and reached for his water, which just made it worse and all of a sudden he was in a world of pain. Lindsey has a video of him eating mashed potatoe with his bare hands.

After that we were meant to go back to dorms but most everyone just went shopping in Dongdaemon, the biggest shopping district in Seoul. Some people got really good bargins, brought a lot, some haggled really well and one Japanese guy brought a superman hat for 70 dollars, so the shops were varied. I got some ear muffs.  

 

We brought our own breakfasts from the local convenience store.

DAY 2 – Lectures and Meeting the Korean University students

The lectures were in English and Japanese. I’ll include some points said in the second half of this blog entry, but the lectures were basically an introduction to Korean economy and politics and culture.

the best part came when we met the university students over lunch. The students were either good at English or good at Japanese or could speak a bit of both, so the whole trip was a mix of all three languages and at points the owner of the various establishments would explain in Korean, our guide would translate it to Japanese for our Sensei and our sensei would make it clear in English. More often than not they just left it at Japanese though. 

After lunch they gave us a campus tour, and I got to meet a wonderful girl called Meong-gil who spoke amazing Japanese after just 1 YEAR OF STUDY! And her English was okay too. We just chatted over K-dramas for a bit, she was a good guide too, she obviously took pride in her university, she had something to say on everything we saw –

and then came the discussions in mixed groups with the Koreans, again, I’m so happy we got to talk with real youths. Unlike the generally shy or overly polite Japanese the Korean students we happened to meet were open and talkative and had real ambitions that weren’t vague references to ‘company worker’, but were things like ‘micro-chip engineer’, ‘archaeologist’ or ‘bio-medical researcher’.  Not to say they are better, but I prefer people who like to talk about real things and personal matters, so I personally felt a lot closer to them in those 2 hours than I have to any of the Japanese students here at Konan!

The most interest topics was the 2 year compulsory military service of young men in South Korea, which sounded more like a prison than training. Tear gas, marching 200km in freezing weather – it helps them mature faster and it’s maybe nessicary for a country who’s still at war with it’s Northern counterpart – the guy I was talking with was fresh from the army and told me about how he was crapping his pants when Kim Jon Ill died because the country went on red alert, unsure of what would happen next.  Conscription is compulsory, even if you’re sick, and those that try to leave the country to escape it can’t come back. K-Pop stars in the past have been through such scandals, I’ve been meaning to look them up, actually… 

                                    

And another, lighter topic was the 49% of the population getting plastic surgery, mainly larger eyes, up turned nose, thin face and bigger bust – every Korean I asked there knew of people having gone through it, it was normal to them.

After group discussions we were free to do what we liked, so we went to Meong Dong for dinner (black bean and rice and this spicy noodle thing which was SO delicious!) and more shopping ;), this time with some Korean students with us.

Everything is so cheap in Korea!

 DAY 3 Asiana Airlines, Getting lost in Korea, Shopping, Clubbing and an All-Night Hot Spring!

The compant visit was a total waste of time in my opinion, we got nothing from it, not just because it was all in Japanese and it wasn’t of any interest to anyone but because it just felt like they were advertising their company.

 It was interesting at least to see the inner workings of the training programme for flight attendants:

The 'Walking Room', a mirrored room where the hostess learns the art of walking

 


Safety Room



Make-up room, the women didn't even look up to us entering,
too busy working away on their faces like the little squirrels in
the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Got to sit in buisness class~ well, sorta.

We went back to have more discussions, to be honest a lot of what we talked about was always trivial stuff, little cultural differences between Japan and England and Korea and us having fun practicing some Korean phrases. It was the last time we were to be with those guys though, so I’m glad facebook exists!

After we went shopping one last time in Meong Dong, grabbed some dinner, brought loads of jewellery at this really cheap shop, we went nuts!

everyone caught the subway back at 11 except for me, Caroline, Ashley and two Japanese girls, since we wanted to go clubbing in Korea at least once! So armed only with a name of a club and a place and the Korean word ‘where’, we used a map to find our way to the place and asked around until we found the club. Here’s the team hesitating at the crossroads:

We didn’t think to take any photos in the club because we were having so much fun. Caroline is happily calling it her best night out ever, which is fair enough since she did have an awesome dance off with some people in club. That girl can move!

We found two girls heading for Noise Basement (or ‘NB Clubu’ as they said), and followed them. I noticed them checking ID and knew the entry age was 20 and was crapping myself that after all that effort they would turn me away, what a waste, we’d have to find another club in that freezing weather – but I went ahead and handed over my card anyway and tried to act like it was nothing and they let me in no problems, and it was only when we got in when Caroline remembered that Koreans count the year in the womb as a year being alive! In other words, by Korean standards, I AM 20 years old! How awesome. I had no idea.



NB, the most popular night club in Seoul, apparently. Got this pic from google.



The club was like any other club, the music had a lot of black eyed peas, it was more crowded than I’m used to so no chance of dancing a lone, Ashley got her ear bitten by a random creeper, the whole place was expensive but and hot as hell but has a good atmosphere, everyone having a good time unlike the clubs in japan where you burst in and not a soul is dancing o_0. Anyone non-Korean seemed to come up and chat with us for a bit because we screamed ‘foreign’.  I have no complaints on that night out, except that I wish we’d stayed longer than 4am.

We got the taxi back (also so, so cheap!) and the first person we asked directed us to the all night hot springs across the street. The owner was a funny old man who didn’t speak much English, it was funny when he told us just ‘NO’ and ‘Go Away.’ He didn’t pay us much attention to be honest, and when he asked us if we wanted to sleep there we just got confused.

It was such a great experience, we took a pic before entering the hotsprings:

In these yellow PJ type things we first wanted to go to the ‘sauna’, which was actually just a really hot room with hot white pebbles covered with a thin carpet you sit on, and went through the door leading to the sauna and got a shock…

When the owner had asked us if we were there to sleep I’d imagined some bunk beds in the back or something, but no – if you can imagine the children in play school taking a nap on their little blankets, that was what the room we walked into was like this -->

but bigger and darker, made of wood with no windows, with grown adults sprawled on the mats, snoring and some of them in such funny sleeping positions, and some in little square cubby holes lining the walls like bears in their caves.

We tried so hard not to burst out laughing as we tip toed through the rather large room to the ‘sauna’ in the back….

The sauna smelt great thanks to the herbs hanging up over the boiler, and in the next room is where we sat and chatted and stretched after our work out at the club (I learnt my lesson after the football incident). Then a woman came in and I think either told us to be quiet or told us to leave, but either way it was in irritated Korean so we just meekly left to get away from it and tip toed back through the sleeping bodies to go into the hot springs – showered, soaked in boiling hot water and then tried to do the freezing cold one, then left and waited for Caroline who was finishing up in the steam room.

Walking back to the hotel we got lost, gave up and took the bus, but it was nice wondering around that hour with Caroline and Ashley having our heart to heart, at 6AM in the not-so-cold-now snowy streets. It was very refreshing.

We made it back around 7 and made a cup-noodle breakfast, guiltily tried to clean up the mud we tracked onto the white newly cleaned floors, then managed to grab an hour sleep. Actually I walked in to my roommate up at 7.30am, early as ever, showering and getting dressed for the day as I undressed and washed and went to bed!

We met an hour later with bags packed ready to put on the coach. Everyone had a lot of rearranging of their suitcases to do with all their brought stuff, borrowing the space in each-others cases. Thanks Ashley for bringing the extra empty duffle bag! What a girl.

And that day we went shopping in a department store – lots of foreign goods.

Went to the museum and walked around that palace, Gyeongbokgung.

Went to a market street perfect for souvenirs and people went crazy trying to get rid of their money and then straight on to the airport. Brought some Korean sushi.

Only an hour flight home, barely slept.

Got home, unpacked, skyped Sim, went to bed, slept till 2 next day.

Basked in the afterglow of an AWESOME trip to South Korea.

All I knew about Korea before visiting was derived from K-dramas and k-pop, and the news reports about the tension between the north and south. I was aware that their society comes from a background of Confucianism and has strong Japanese and Chinese influences, so I wasn’t a blank slate but I was still shamefully ignorant to a lot, so I was surprised, too.

Seoul was great. I enjoyed it. I want to go back, it wasn’t as clean as Japan, I wouldn’t even say it was a better place, it was just different, so I want to see more of it.

Here, have a bomb disposal pic from the Korean Airport:

EDIT: I've copy and pasted the compulsory essay I had to write in order to recieve the Area Studies scholarship:

My impression of the differences between Japan and Korea

Our time in Korea was short but we spent time in lectures about the economy, group discussions with real Koreans and had free time which we spent exploring, so I think I managed to get at least a little impression of the differences between the two countries.

The most notable was the prices. Korean transport, food and clothing is very reasonable compared to Japan, I couldn’t believe the amount people were able to buy, which makes Korea an easier place to live financially but the temptation to buy things just because it was cheap was strong, it made me feel more materialistic whereas in Japan it’s easy to avoid buying things because it’s so expensive! It really put things into perspective in terms of what I buy in Japan from now on, for example the prices of phone straps in Japan.

Food is more similar with Japan than the West, with noodles and onigiri and rice available, but still very different. The biggest difference being the amount of spicy foods available and the use of so much meat over fish, I feel like it would be very hard to be a vegetarian in that country.

The people from what I experienced shopping on the streets, people were generally more rowdy and open, such as couples being openly affectionate, and we didn’t feel as much pressure to be silent on trains or to not eat in the street, so it felt a bit more like the UK or US to me, although that may be because it was a city rather than because of the country itself. Japanese people tend to be a lot more considerate and reserved, and shop assistants in Japan are a lot more polite and attentive than Korea, and the streets cleaner even compared to places like Tokyo. The Korean students were more sociable and not as shy, and were more willing to speak their mind in discussions. When we asked various people for directions more people seemed to be willing to speak Japanese or English to us, so I got the impression they were either more used to tourism or more readily accepting of it whereas in Japan English is just as compulsory in their education but some people still can’t use it very well.

There were little differences too – the bathrooms had hot water. But the toilet and the shower occupied the same space. In some bathrooms there was no toilet paper. Not as many automatic toilets, but a few. Adverts not as cute themed more celebrities everywhere. They also had more imports from America or Japan that we recognized in the shops rather than original Korean products – that combined with the more English speaking population gave me the impression that it is more international in Seoul, or else more readily catering to tourism.

The difference between the rich and the poor is a lot bigger than Japan, and they are still at war with North Korea. The young men have two years compulsory military service, which sounded more like a prison sentence for 2 years to me, but according to a student it had its benefits, as they felt the experience helped their confidence and made them some of them feel more adult.

Call in emergencies like crime, fire, or if you spot a North Korean S

There is a lot of social pressure on looks, even more so than the pressure in Japan on women to be skinny, and I was surprised at the 49 percent of people getting plastic surgery, whereas I think in Japan people are taught to respect the body their parents blessed them with. (I would also like to add on this blog that Kdrama and celebreties are generally more good looking, probably BECAUSE of that social pressure to look so good.)

They also share a lot of similarities, the sitting on the floor to eat, and the dramatic contrast between the old and new still prevalent in the present (like wearing hanbok to the palace in town, something you don’t see in the west). Korea is different from Japan, not necessarily better or worse.

Thanks for reading ~