Like a Small Child

This past weekend was one that was filled with new discoveries and small moments that made me feel like a small child, discovering the world for the first time. Saturday morning, I was awakened by one of my Yeoju friends calling to see if I wanted to join him and another friend on a trip to Seoul. I was excited to join and asked what they might be doing. Some ideas were thrown around such as going to the art museum or going to see the Discovery of the Human Body Exhibit. I questioned my friend, asking if the latter of the two could be found in Seoul because I thought that it was in my hometown of Icheon. He assured me that it's location is in Seoul and so we enthusiastically agreed to go explore the human body.

I got ready then made my way to the bus stop to wait for the Seoul-bound bus that comes every 30 minutes. As I was waiting at the stop, my friend calls me to check on the name of the exhibit. "It's called the Discovery of [the] Human Body," I informed him. "Really? I'm having some trouble finding it; nothing's coming up when I search for it," he said. I let him know that I would call a Korean from Icheon and inquire about it with them then get back to him. I called my boss and asked her. "What?! What's wrong with your body??" She asked me. I laughed and said, "No, no. I'm ok. Do you know about the Discovery of the Human Body Exhibit? Is it in Icheon?" After a few more minutes of pure confusion, she finally figured out what I was talking about. "Oooohhh! The exhibit! ok! right! Ah yes, it's in Icheon! It's at the Art Museum." I laughed again. Here I was on a bus to go see something that is located right in my home town! Wow. At this point, I decided to ask the guy next to me if he knew anything about it. (Side note: this guy next to my was around me age, I was guessing, and as soon as I got on the bus and sat down next to him, he took his headphones out--I took that as an indication that he wanted to talk to me. He had made some sighs that a person does before they start to say something like, "aaahhh ssooo... how are you?" but the 'so how are you part' never came out. I could tell he wanted to talk to me, as this was not my fist time to be around someone that is just itching to show off their English. Plus, before I had gotten on the phone to call my boss, he reached across me to adjust the window blind but when it didn't fully extend across the window he explained to me, "oh, I guess it's too short." I decided to take the opportunity to possibly meet another Korean friend and talk to him.) Out of politeness, I initiated the conversation by asking if he speaks English. In true modest, Korean style he shrugged and said, a little. (turns out his English is near to perfect) I then asked if he knew anything about this Human Body Exhibit and he did not because he's not from Icheon but rather from Seoul. We continued to chat the rest of the ride to Seoul and then exchanged numbers and names before parting. We made plans to meet up later that night but when he discovered I was with two American guy friends, he got shy and backed out. Perhaps we can hang out another time; another connection made.

When I arrived in Seoul and met up with my two friends we were without a plan. We stopped in at a coffee shop and explored our options. We decided to go check out the National Museum of Art in Seoul to see the Picasso exhibit.
We arrived at the museum (very easily by subway), paid $10 for admission, and entered. We first walked through an area that has traditional Korean palaces before arriving at the museum. We put our things in the lockers (cost 50 cents to store but then you get that money back when you leave) and entered the museum. The artwork was beautiful. The artists varied along with the style of art work. It was surreal to me to see a real, live Monet. I had never seen a Monet in person and as I stood there in the museum, in Seoul Korea, staring at a real-life Claude Monet hanging on the wall in front of me, all I could say was, wow....wow. Together the 3 of us browsed around the 4 different rooms and examined the art work. We saved the Picasso room for last. Again, as I stood looking at an original Picasso, I just had a moment of near denial; I took a moment to appreciate that time in my life--where I was, what I was doing, the people that love and support me--and I was filled with happiness.

We successfully completed the tour of the museum around 6:30 and by then, it was time for dinner. We stopped in at a cafe to get some coffee, sandwiches, and wireless internet. We did some web-searching to figure out where the rest of the night would take us. We finally decided to go to Gongnam, a young-people hot spot area of Seoul. The first stop of the night was classy named bar, Ho Bar. There are 10 of these all in the Gongnam area and they logically been named Ho Bar I, Ho Bar II, Ho Bar III... well, you get the point. We landed ourselves at Ho Bar IV. The mood was young, fun, and adventurous. It was dark in the bar with only red lights and candles providing light. The music was high, as were the prices. We decided to go with Miller High Life drafts; I never thought Miller would ever taste so good. I had no idea exactly how weak Korean beer is until I tasted how strong it made Miller taste. wow. Sitting next to us were 2 men that had ordered a whole bottle of Absolute Vodka Peach and were half way finished with the mission set before them. Long story short, we ended up with the remaining half bottle of vodka on our table. Score. We found others to share it with and the night was off to a great start. (on a slight digression, I love the sense of community that is always in the air in Korea. People are always so excited to meet others, drink with others, hang out with others, etc. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a movie where everyone just joins in together--honestly. It's sometimes unbelievable how big Koreans are on community and all being together in bars such as this. It's just a great environment to be in.) After that, we headed to a place call FF Club which is a hole-in-the-wall venue that showcases local Korean bands on their basement-size stage. The bar was far from classy but reminded me of local venues back in KC. We listened to the rock music, lost ourselves in the semi-moshing crowd, and let loose. So freeing. We were soon ready to go and headed out to find a cheap motel where I spent yet another night on the floor. Maybe I'll get used to this sleeping on the floor thing one day....maybe...

Sunday I met up with one of my Korean friends in Seoul to hang out. We decided to go see a movie. I was so excited because this would be my first time to experience a movie in Korea. My Korean friend poked fun at me for a little bit because he said that I was like a small child: eyes opened wide, head tilted up to the ceiling, jaw dropped so to let the "WWWOOOWWW" out in just the right tone, that sort of thing. I told him I just try to take it all in and savor each moment because it is so new and different to me. So, in Korean theaters, there are two basic types of movies to choose from: American and Korean. From those two categories, you can then choose the genre of movie. Many, many American movies are shown in Korea--all types of American movies at that but mostly the action ones. The movies are exactly the same as they would be in the States but they have Korean subtitles. Koreans say that they hate it when a movie is dubbed because it takes so much away from the movie. Plus many Koreans find movies to be a great way to pick up a few more English terms. So we knew we were going to see an American movie but neither one of us were up-to-date on which ones were out. We both dislike scary movies and decided to stay away from those. We decided to see a movie called The Season of the Witch. The flyer made it look like a good historical-fiction movie with a lot action. However, we had some time to kill before the movie and decided to grab a quick bite to eat. Somehow, we ended up eating at Burger King. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. ..... my burger was spicy.... are you kidding me?? What's funny is that I had joked to my friend about it being spicy and it was! A mixture of garlic and red pepper paste type of spicy. Unbelievable. It was still good, though. We went into the theater (same as a small theater room at AMC) and watched the commercials as we waiting for the movie to start--some things are universal, huh?

The review: don't go see it! Maybe rent it....maybe. It was scary (yeah, the irony of that made the both of us laugh), predictable, weird, and just all around not good. The acting was good but the story line was lame.

We then headed out to get some chicken and beer for dinner before I headed back home to Icheon.

Overall a fantastic weekend with fantastic friends. This week is my last week of English camp then next weekend I'm heading out with friends to go skiing. Hopefully I don't get caught in a jim-ja-bong again!

Until next time!~~