Well, It’s been two months since I left Korea (I was there May 27th through June 9th) and I am finally sitting down and writing something about what I did there. The longer I put it off the harder it was to sit down and do, so lesson learned for next time.  I did post my pictures here a while ago, but writing captions for them is much easier then being in the mood for blog writing.

Anyways,  I got into Incheon airport late on a Thursday. My girlfriend Nan Young (난영) had to wait about an hour at the airport for me. The next morning I slept in and during the afternoon I visited Nan Young at her office at the ASAN Medical Center in Seoul.  That evening we got everything ready for flying to Jejudo the next morning. The day we flew into Jeju was one of the longest days I’ve ever had.  The flight was only about 45 minutes.  After landing we went and rented a car and since Nan Young doesn’t have her drivers license yet I did all of the driving. We only had that car for two days, but during that time I felt like I drove around the whole island like 3 or 4 times.  We were always going to a different side of the island it seemed.  We met Nan Young’s friends and had some Jeju pork for lunch, followed by a trip to a mystery road (Dokebi Way), which wasn’t really that mysterious but whatever.  We went to Soingook theme park nearby which had a collections of miniature things from around the world. Took way too many photos there. We took yet more photos at an aquatic center with penguins and sea lions and such. After going there we did one of my favorite things while we were on Jeju, horseback riding. There were guys guiding us around and we didn’t get to make the horses gallop, but that was probably for the best. My horse was small and had a hard time carrying me as it was. My girlfriend bragged that my horse was breathing hard and hers wasn’t.  As the evening began we went to a forest park area along the coast called Ouidolge (외돌개), followed by a trip to buy Jeju tangerines, which are especially small and sweet.  After sunset we went to a large pedestrian bridge and wandered around the lighted walkways. On the way back to the resort we stopped by a few markets to buy various food items that were prepared later in the night at Nan Young’s friend’s house.  At about 2am I couldn’t stay awake anymore and passed out on a bed there, until I got woken up to be driven back to the resort.  You probably just got tired reading about this day so you have some idea about how tiring it was for me

The next morning I waited with my girlfriend for her family to arrive.  They took us out to lunch and then we did some more sightseeing. We went to a waterfall along the southern coast. On the walk back up from the base of the waterfall I saw an American guy wearing a ND jacket so I shouted “Go Irish” to him. We then drove to a giant temple and a place with the coolest rock formations I have ever seen. You can read about them here. In the evening, we had dinner and brought food and supplies for the next day which was….

Climbing Mt. Halla (Hallasan, the highest mountain in South Korea).  As soon as I found out we were going to Jeju this was priority number one for me. Nan Young suggested it so I was happy we were in agreement, but then she found out it would take over 8 hours to climb and wasn’t so enthusiastic about it anymore.  I had to encourage her with the promise of a gift if she went with me, and by wearing couples T-shirts for the hike.  A few times on the climb up she said “미워 (miwo)” which means “I hate you”.  I think in the end she forgave me though, seeing as how it was such a clear day with perfect weather and we got many amazing pictures which will do more justice then these words.  On the way down a Korean guy pointed out a deer near the trail, which a sign of good luck because wild animals typically don’t venture close to people in Korea.

For our last day in Jeju, we drove around with Nan Young’s family to a bunch of tourist places. We jumped on trampolines and found our way through mazes at a place called Miro Park. We went to a history museum and saw how Korean people lived on Jeju throughout the ages.  We tried some schizandra tea (오미자차) and I liked it so much that Nan Young’s mother bought me a jar of it (apparently its pretty good for you). For lunch, we went to an open air restaurant along the coast and had fresh octopus and other assorted sea creatures with Korean sauces.  Before going to the airport we made quick stops at a park with a great nature trail and a place along the coast with hallabong statues.

After getting back to Seoul and settling in my temporary residence, I went to Korea University to visit my colleagues in the lab that I worked in last summer. I showed them the paper I had written with the data we had taken and met another professor whose work I had cited in the paper.

The next day (Friday) I met my old roommate Chris at Gagnam. He had just gotten out of his 2 years of service in the Korean military so he is a free man again. For dinner, I went with my girlfriend and her family to a really fancy restaurant where we met her Uncle. Apparently he works day and night for Samsung fending off lawsuits against the company. He spoke a little English which was good. Did I mention that most everyone in my girlfriend’s family doesn’t speak English… and testing my Korean skills on them makes me nervous to say the least.

Saturday I went hiking with my friend Paul. We went on several hikes together last summer and the last hike we tried to do in Bukhansan National Park was less then successful owing to the fact that park rangers wouldn’t let people into the trails after a certain time in the afternoon. So this time we got to the trailhead early before any park rangers could spoil the hike. The climb up wasn’t too long, but I was drenched in sweat at the top. It was worth it for one of the best views of Seoul that I have gotten. On that relatively hazeless day we could see downtown Seoul and the Han River winding through it.

Sunday we met my girlfriend’s cousin and her husband for lunch. They dropped us off at a bus station so we could catch a bus down to Everland Park. I had been to the Caribbean Bay water park there last summer. This time we went to the amusement park and saw all the animals that they had there. They had the usual things like tigers and polar bears and other more exotic animals. We caught a penguin and seal show set in 18^th century France but spoken in Korean.  They had a nice “Safari” tour were they put people in buses and drove them through an area with wandering tigers, giraffes, zebras, and bears.  I think the coolest thing in the park though was the giant wooden roller coaster (the largest in Asia) called the T Express with the really steep (77 degrees) and high drop at the beginning.  I made Nan Young go along with me and she screamed sooo loud.

The last few days in Korea I relaxed and met with friends.  We met Ethan (the guy who introduced us) on Monday night. Tuesday evening Nan Young and I went to dinner with one of her co-workers and her daughter Se-jin.  I was glad to find out that my girlfriend couldn’t understand anything Se-jin said either.

I had to fly out on Wednesday afternoon, so after stuffing my bags to the limit, my girlfriend’s family took me to the airport. On the way they took us out to lunch and bought me yet more gifts to take home.  The plane ride back was pleasant as could be and I slept most of the way, which made it very hard to get over the jetlag. Anyways, that’s all for now.  Check back here about two months after my next trip to Korea and maybe there will be something new (just kidding, but not really)

with a ROK soldier

The Saturday of my last full weekend in Korea, I went on a USO tour of the DMZ with Laura. We had to show up at the USO station in Seoul at 7am and take a bus. Most of the people on the tour were Americans (a few Europeans as well) either on vacation or taking a break from teaching English to Korean kids. The tour guide on the bus explained how the DMZ was setup and pointed out the fences and tank blockers along the way. The fences had a bunch of white stones inserted into them every which way so that soldiers on patrol could tell if the North Koreans were tampering with things.

The first thing on the agenda was a visit to Panmunjon. We got an initial briefing from US soldiers and got issued guest badges. During the briefing they talked about the history of the DMZ and crazy things like the Axe Murder Incident, where North Korean soldiers killed some US soldiers because of a tree.  Then we took the bus over to the main complex, went though a big brand new building that was built as a reunion center for North and South Korean families separated because of the war (but was never used because North Koreans didn’t want their citizens crossing into South Korea) From there we went out to the blue buildings where negotiations take place. The desks inside are setup so that one side of them is in North Korea and the other side is in South Korea. So by walking around to the other side of the desk I was technically in communist territory. Outside the building there were ROK soldiers standing by the buildings, and on the North Korean side we saw a North Korean soldier observing us with binoculars.

Afterwards, we went down into one of the invasion tunnels that the North Koreans built. The tour guide explained that he was very sad when the tunnels were found by South Korea, because during the time that the North Koreans were digging the tunnels they were also having peace talks with South Korea. That meant that North Koreans could were terribly untrustworthy in their diplomatic actions and rhetoric.

For the last part of the tour, we went an observation post where we could see a few kilometers into North Korea. The photo restrictions there were a little bit ridiculous. We could take pictures only behind a certain line, but it was possible just to hold the camera up high and get the same view as we would have past the line. I spent 500 won to use a telescope and look out at the Kaesong industrial complex. I could also see the jamming towers to stop North Koreans from seeing South Korean broadcasts. One of the comments I heard from the other tourists was that it’s like looking into a completely different world. North Koreans are so isolated and restricted in their country. They aren’t allowed to leave their towns without government permission, and they only see what the government wants them to see about the rest of the world. No wonder the North Korean government is always worried about their citizens trying to defect.

My favorite souvenir that I got from the tour was a bottle of blueberry wine that was made in North Korea. Communist blueberries taste just as good to me

Chris is serving a two year term in the Korean military as a translator. As I found out from talking to him, he works very long hours and isn’t allowed to leave the base except on vacations. Fortunately, he had a few days of vacation that started July 24. I met with him and his brother Sam that Friday. They came over to Korea University to catch me as I was getting done with work. We got some Korean junkfood, which Chris misses, and then we went to his parents house and stayed up late watching movies and catching up.

Saturday, we took our time getting back to central Seoul, and met up with a few of my friends for dinner and an outdoor opera in front of Seoul city hall. We didn’t pay too much attention to the opera. There were plenty of distractions such as kids playing in a lighted water fountains and the fact that we were surrounded on all sides by hundreds of policemen. There was no rioting going on near city hall that day but I guess they wanted to be careful. Around 11pm we went an joined our fellow EAPSI friends who had gathered in Seoul again for another round of late night of clubbing and Korean nightlife. The group got smaller as the night went on, but somehow I managed to stay up all night again and got to sleep around 7am. At 10am, I got a call from 난영 (NanYoung) and Ethan telling me to wake up and get down to the bus station so that we could go to a water park called Caribbean Bay.

So on 3 hours of sleep (plus some that I got on the subway and bus) I spent the sunday getting tossed around with everyone in a wave pool, waiting in line to get dropped down various waterslides, and floating around water canals on inner-tubes. Since my camera isn’t of the waterproof variety I didn’t get pictures of the park, so you’ll just have to imagine the best water park in Korea, and the best one that I’ve been to in my life. The only thing that would make it better is short lines.

On Wednesday of that week I had a chance to meet with my current roommate Steve for an evening. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant that he remembered going to when he was young, and the chef used to be a comedian but then he recruited some chefs from Italy to come to his restaurant in Seoul and it became so popular he retired from being a comedian. He greeted us as we sat down and spoke in Korean to Steve about his caricature on the menus. Afterwards, we went and had some Korean shaved ice which Steve was surprised I hadn’t tried yet. It was green tea flavored with some red beans mixed in. To end the evening, Steve translated for me as a palm reader told me that the lines on my hand are all good (long life, big brain…etc) except he said to be careful about spending money, because I have a tendency to spend too much. We’ll see how true that palm line thinks it is

Doctor Fish: We were trying to figure something to do after dinner on a Saturday night in Seoul, and Laura said that we could go this place with Doctor Fish, which eat the dead skin off your feet and legs. I thought that sounded cool, and its something that you can’t do in the US (unless you buy your own fish I guess). At the cafe it was expected that you order something, and the cheapest beverage was about 6,000 won, but then paying for the doctor fish pedicure was only 2,000 won (USD ~1.80). There were two tanks, one with smaller fish and one with bigger fish, and of course we got stuck with the bigger ones. When I first put my feet in all the fish started nibbling at once and it tickled so much. I was wincing and laughing, which must have been entertaining for anyone who was watching. It took me a minute or two to get used to it, and then I was able to sit calmly for the rest of the 15 minutes. My legs and feet did feel cleansed afterwards, but I don’t know if it was just the water or if the fish actually cleaned me well.

63 Building: I wanted to change things up and break my climb a mountain on Sunday’s streak, so I decided it would be fun to rent bikes and follow the bike path along the Han river. My Lonely planet guidebook (copyright 2007) said there would be a bicycle rental place next to 63 Building, but when Paul and I got there, we found the discarded bike rental kiosks in the middle of a few patches of construction work. There were a lot of people biking around and we thought we might get lucky and find another bike rental place if we walked a ways. A few km later, we ended up on an island in the middle of the Han river and decided that we just weren’t meant to get bikes that day. We walked back to the 63 building, went to the small aquarium in the basement, and then up to the top floor where they have an art gallery and and you can walk around and get a 360° view of the city. The elevator went up the side of the building and you could see out the windows the whole way which was pretty cool. On the ride up was crowded and we were the last ones in so I couldn’t see very well, so on the way down I made sure to maneuver myself close to the window. We ate a cold noodle dinner back on the bottom floor and then took the subway home. Despite the lack of bicycles, the day turned out pretty well.

Saturday afternoon, I took the express bus down to Busan, which is at the southeast corner of South Korea. I thought it was pretty cool that a five hour bus ride gets you across the whole country. When I got there, I met my friend Jake at the subway station and we wandered around the shops and restaurants below Pusan National University and found a place that served us a chicken dinner, with the waiter cooking it right in front of us. Afterwards, we went out to a few places and had a little soju, and we ended up hanging out with some locals for a while, talking in slow english about the Lotte Giants baseball team and trying speak a few Korean words.

The next morning I woke up early and felt pretty good so I decided to go climb the mountain right behind Jakes apartment building. The trail on the way up was nice, and I even came across a mountain gym again, and got a few upperbody and abdominal workouts in. On the way to the top of the mountain it rained on me a little bit, and I had to take shelter under a giant rock for a little while. At the top, two Korean hikers asked me to come over and join them for lunch. They were having rice cakes and plum wine.

When I got back down Jake was awake and we decided to go to the Jagalchi fish market, which was the biggest outdoor fish market in Korea. We saw all sorts of squid, octopus, crabs, snails, eels, and fish. We also saw two old lady vendors in the market yelling and fighting with each other. It looked like they were pretty mad but when I told my one of my Korean friends about it he said it was probably more like friendly banter; hard for me to imagine though. Jake really likes king crab so when we saw a place that had some and the lady out front begged us to come in we decided to try it out. I’ve never had a whole king crab to eat by myself before, it was really good.

I decided it would be easier to take the train back to Seoul, its more expensive but its two hours shorter and much smoother and comfortable, and I wanted to see how similar Korea’s bullet trains are to Japan’s.

on top of Bulamsan (불암산)

Then I thought there is probably no better contrast to a Saturday night in a noise basement then hiking up in the calm Korean mountains on a Sunday afternoon. So I called Paul and we took the subway to some mountains in the Northeastern part of Seoul. There were much less people on this trail. We came across a kind of mountain gym, complete with hula hoops, weights, and a mirror. We ran into another old bunker and then at the top of one ridge a small restaurant. Apparently it only served a couple of drinks and some ramen soup. There were stairs up to the top of 불암산 ( Bulamsan / Bulam Mountain ). We hung around there and talked to another Korean hiker named Kathy, who spoke fluent English since she lived in Canada for a while. It got dark very fast and so we had to quickly find our way back  to the street lights. After taking a wrong turn or two and running into some random people praying by candlelight, we made it back down and went to dinner. When I got home it was 11:30, but that seemed so early compared to the previous night.

Yesterday after the group seminar Professor Lee and my labmates all went out for a big dinner, beer, and soju. I made the mistake of not pacing myself, not realizing that we were going to 3 other places afterwards for more food and drinks. I came into the lab a little bit later then usual this morning, along with my labmates.

on a giant rock

This past Saturday I wandered around the city with Laura, another EAPSI member staying in Seoul. We went to the COEX mall and the Kimchi museum first, then wandered around that general area and after a little bit of confusion found a temple nearby that we were looking for. In the evening we went to a night market called Namdaemun which was a whole bunch of street vendors and stores selling food and random other things, like socks.

On Sunday I went hiking with my friend Paul who I knew from WSU. We hiked around some mountains in Northern Seoul. There were lots of other people hiking there, and almost all of them were over the age of 40. As we were hiking up a couple signaled us to come and eat some cucumbers with them, which I’ve definitely never had happen before. It was a good thing that Paul speaks some Korean so that some conversation could take place. Further along the ridge we saw an old Korean war bunker, and then we scrambled through some rocky areas with the help of some poles and rope. We saw other people out on top of large rocks doing some repelling. Apparently there was a famous climber who used to live in these mountains and practiced his climbing skills there so that he could later scale 16 peaks in the Himalayas.  My legs have been sore the last two days, but I can’t wait to do more hikes like that when I have time.

attatching gold wires for magneto-transport measurments

On Monday I took the subway over to Korea University and met with my lab-mates for the summer and the professor I’m working for. After I got situated in the lab everyone in the group went out to lunch. Just next to campus is a block or two with lots of restaurants and various other little stores. Everyday for lunch so far we have gone to a different place to eat.

Monday afternoon I went and got checked into my studio apartment. Its about a 15 to 20 minute walk from the lab. Wednesday evening one of my lab-mates took me to a Home-plus store here in Seoul, which is a multi-story Wal-mart like chain of stores. The one thing in there that you won’t find in America is a refrigerator specifically for Kim-chi.

Since we started measurements on a sample today in the lab, I consider myself officially settled in. I still only know a few very basic Korean words and phrases, and I am getting better at reading. But since I can get by speaking English so well, I think I might have a hard time practicing Korean diligently. On Monday at the group seminar I went to, everyone was talking in Korean, but the slides were in English and about stuff that I had at least a basic understanding of, so I wasn’t completely out of the loop.