Anthony in Korea, Day 10, Friday, May 1, 2009

I am sitting in a bar a few blocks from the Silim train station in southeast Seoul. This area is decidedly non-tourist. I’m the only foreigner around. It’s neighborhoods like this that I enjoy the most. This is the “real Seoul”; there’s nothing here for tourists, so in a way it has everything that I want and need. Actually, I had planned to go to Gangnam, a ritzy upscale area of Seoul tonight. But I found myself here and I am so glad I stayed…

This morning Olivia postponed our session because she wasn’t feeling well, so I kicked back and ate some rice and enjoyed the Yankee game (they won!). Then I met one of my tutees, Dahee, at a park nearby. It was her first time in this particular park, and there aren’t many in this urban jungle, so she was happy to stroll around. Also, today is Labor Day in Korea, so people were everywhere, getting their feet wet in the lake, eating, playing games, etc. Dahee and I spent 2.5 hours in Dunkin’ Donuts (there are over 100 of them in Seoul) and went over her essay and some grammar. Then we went to a street food vendor and had some gogumatweegim, gimmalyeegim, and yachaegim. I forget which is which, but they are all battered and then fried in hot oil and then served in a glass bowl lined with plastic (so it can be reused) for 2000 won (about $1.75). One of them is sweet potato, the other a bunch of vegetables, and the other japchea (sweet potato noodles) inside a seaweed square. Again, it may not sound tempting, but I had two bowls of this stuff and could have easily had more. Koreans love street food like this. (Next to Dahee and I there was an old man eating boiled fish on a stick like it was going out of style; Dahee said it was good but I’m trying to stick to the vegetarian stuff.). The food vendors are everywhere, and people are always eating at them. There are so many, and the food is so cheap, that one could easily survive on $12 a day here if he stuck to just street food. In New York City there’s a lot of street food too, but once you buy it there is no place to sit. On the contrary, in Seoul each street vendor has a small counter at his stand and some small seats, so you can sit in an enclosed area and enjoy it in a poor man’s restaurant [please see photo of me eating just a few hours ago].

After eating, as we walked around, I was somewhat in awe of this area near Simil station. Like I said, it is not special, and that is why it is so special. There are people and bars and restaurants everywhere, and you can easily get lost in the maze of narrow streets in between the major boulevards. There also seem to be little old ladies sitting on the sidewalk everywhere, selling everything from fruits to live fish. [Please see the photo of the old lady at the top of the subway station selling LIVE catfish and crabs, all swimming around in big bowls of water]. The most interesting street food I have yet to try—I passed by a small enclosure with a bunch of large steaming vats outside of it. Dahee told me they were selling mandu (dumplings) to go. I plan to stop by there on the way home…I think mandu are my favorite food so far, even though I am not sure if it’s really “Korean”; perhaps it’s really Chinese food; I’ll find out. The mandu I’ve tried so far are huge and so delicious; they beat the heck out of dumplings in the States.

What else? Not much else, really. As I type this, Eminem is playing on the speakers and other than two Korean guys, I’m the only one in this hof (bar).

One thing I really started to notice today is the ridiculous amount of coughing that Seoulites do. I mean, everywhere you go, there are people coughing. And they never cover their mouths, which is pretty disgusting. These coughers are not necessarily sick; it’s just that the air quality here is so bad that everyone is always coughing up the gunk they breathe in. The air is so bad that a small percentage of people in Seoul wear surgical face masks when they are outside. These face mask people are everywhere, of all ages. In fact, to be honest, I am seriously considering getting a facemask and wearing it while outside. You may think that I’m going to look strange, but I’m telling you, nobody looks twice at these people…

I used to wonder what it would be like to live here for an extended period of time, but no more. I can’t bear breathing this air for a long period of time. In fact, I’ve decided recently that I never again want to live in a big urban area. Greensboro is big enough for me. Between the lack of vegetation and low air quality, I don’t want to live in a place like Seoul, or raise my kids in a place like Seoul or New York City. (Just in the time it took me to write that last sentence, the two Korean men probably coughed 10 times between them—what a pity). Dahee told me that the Spring air is especially bad here in Seoul. It’s during the Spring when the “yellow dust,” which travels here from nearby China, covers the city on really bad days. When asked, most Seoulites will tell you that the Chinese are so eager to develop that hey could care less about clean air and the result is pollution in nearby Korea. I haven’t yet seen the yellow dust, but apparently the it is so bad some days that it settles on objects and you can wipe it away with your finger. Seoul is surrounded by mountains—the Korean dynasty from 600 years ago chose this location because it was so well-protected from invaders. But now the mountains act like walls and trap pollution in the city. Add to that the Chinese yellow dust, and you have a recipe for chronic asthma and all sorts of other lung and breathing problems.

I just got an email from Wany, who I met and wrote about two nights ago. Apparently, another one of my former INTERLINK students, a young lady named Ju, is having a big party tomorrow night. And I’m invited! I have a feeling I won’t be writing the Saturday edition of my blog until Sunday afternoon. : )

I was about to go home, but as I was standing on the subway platform I called Olivia, and as it turned out she and her boyfriend and some friends were in the exact same neighborhood at a bar. I joined them for 20 minutes and had about 7 shots of soju. Wow, that stuff is so ridiculously good—and dangerous! When I got home I ate the mandu. Oh my goodness were they good. I took a picture just to show you how big and scrumptious-looking they are. With a little bit of soy sauce they were heavenly.