Russian Man sees potential, Toilet papering World Cup Stadium

My apologies for the delayed update. At first, it was because there wasn’t enough going on to warrant a post. Then it became the inverse, and I’m having to write this in small chunks so that it’ll all get written eventually!

Two weekends ago, I was on my way to meet Amy for one of our “Seoul’s Best 100” exploring adventures. There was a white man sitting on the subway car about two seats down from me. He waved and I nodded. Then he started to talk to me in a language I didn’t understand, but figured out was Russian. He knew an absolute maximum of three words of English, but seemed pretty knowledgeable with his Korean, so we discovered our native countries. Deciding the effort wasn’t really worth the time, I stuck my nose in my book and made it clear that this conversation was finished. Not rude, but why waste our time? So we get off at the same subway stop and he asks if this is my stop. No, I’m just getting off here to wait for another train in the same direction. Duh! (Of course, in my charming Southern way, I kindly told him it was as opposed to what I was really thinking). So the strange Russian man proceeded to walk around with a short-skirted Korean girl and I decided I’d kill some time in the underground mall while I waited to meet Amy. A good 20 minutes passed, and as I exited the underground, who was there waiting, but this freak! He looked at me and apparently decided it was an invitation to talk to me some more. He asked where I was going, and I said to meet a friend. In Russia, this translates into a summons for an outsider’s presence, apparently. He pulled out a wad—and when I say wad, think inappropriately large sum of money to be carrying in your pocket if you’re doing legal things (though in Korea, using cards for purchases is far less common than it is at home—you typically carry a few hundred bucks around for groceries and any and everything else you may buy)—of ten thousand won (~$10) bills. In my very broken Korean and his three words of English, he told me that he didn’t have a house and kept asking me something I didn’t understand. I was getting annoyed, and I finally just blurted out, “I’m NOT a prostitute!!” I mean, jeans and a sweater, and I don’t have blonde hair like the ones in his country, or red lips. What is the DEAL! He said, “No no no” so whatever that means. I told him to hurry up because I was going to meet my friend. He asked to join and I said no. He pulled out more money and I just walked off, as I should’ve done when I first saw him still standing at the same subway exit. Weird.

So the lack of knowledge about foreign places is, not surprisingly, a common theme both for me, and for those who know little outside the borders of this highly condensed and homogenous country. One of my students mentioned how he wants to go to Canada. I told him that Canada or the US would be great places for him to visit. He said he wouldn’t go to the US because “it’s dangerous.” I asked what he was talking about and he started talking about how all teenagers carry guns and people get murdered. I told him that not everyone carries a gun and it’s not like the movies he sees. This second grader seemed pretty unconvinced. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at his ignorance because the America he sees is the one in the movies, and the songs he hears are uncensored. Though he’s one of my brightest students who wants to be Secretary General of the UN one day, he’s afraid to go to my home country because he fears for his life. Oh boy.

I love soccer. Whenever I get those survey emails that ask what your favorite sport to watch is, I always surprise people when I say soccer. (I’d be remiss not to miss LSU football, but that’s more about the tailgating than the passing yards to me.) So I was pretty excited when I found out that Korea has a pretty decent soccer team and my friend Gus was able to get tickets to one of the season’s most anticipated matches thus far! Apparently, tickets to Korea vs. Angola sold out in less than 1 hour! The team had been gone for several months for games around the world and hadn’t played at Seoul’s World Cup Stadium in a while, and this was their first game since their return home. It began with a subway ride and crowd that made you think Madonna was in town! People were EVERYWHERE. I had the misconception that if I got there early, I’d be able to find a seat somewhere and study while I waited to meet Gus. Not a snowball’s chance in hell! And speaking of snowballs, it was FREEZING! Literally. I get cold easily and therefore wear as many layers as possible, but by the end of the game there was snow coming through the open roof. Gus invested in some soju (the popular Korean drink that tastes like rubbing alcohol smells) so was plenty warm enough to offer his jacket. Anyway, it was quite exciting. Many of their cheers were in English, even what the really enthusiastic fans shouted at the players. “Nice shot!” and so on. After half time, about half of the stadium threw rolls of toilet paper all at once, so it looked like a fountain of white just coming over the edges of the seats. How fun! Gives a new meaning to the term of “rolling.” The whole event was quite an experience—one I’d recommend for visitors to the ROK!

Last weekend entailed a BBQ on the Army post with people who speak English. (It’s really the little things that excite me!) I made some yummy brownies (whose title in the recipe is actually called, “Crack Brownies: No illegal substances involved”) that were appropriately named for their addiction. I got compliments on them even a week later from people who didn’t know my name! I have baked maybe twice since I’ve been in Korea (part of not having an oven—go figure!) so it’s cool to know that I’ve got some of what it takes to satisfy a sweet tooth! Speaking of Army excitement, I’ll be heading down to Daegu this weekend to meet Sam, and we’ll head to Busan, a city on the coast where he is stationed through May, and move him in to a new place with a roommate on post. I’m studying to take a certification test in May, though, so at some point I’m really going to have to study a lot!! I don’t know how well that will mix with exploring the sights and seafood restaurants of a new city.


Copyright 2005 Olivia R. Reed

Seodaemun Prison and my gym-- similarities?

I never thought I’d say this, but Koreans have seen me naked. Yes, naked. No clothes. Have I changed professions? Hardly. This all began with an effort to improve different areas of my life that will really benefit me in the long-term. I previously mentioned how the saunas here are one of the great ironies of such a conservative culture, when you walk in and though there are no co-ed places that (legally) do this, everyone’s naked. I dodged it that time, though, and didn’t look like a big weirdo. However, now I’ve joined the gym. Not that I’m sure it would’ve affected my joining the gym, but I didn’t know how the showers were arranged until after my first workout when I was red, sweaty and my hair was begging to be cleaned; all around nasty, if you will. I went into the locker room to change and shower, but when I walked into what I thought was the shower, it turned out to be a large room with spigots located above a mirror and a shelf, every few feet, divided by a piece of shaped glass about 6” wide. What the hell! At this point, I had no choice. I stripped down and got myself clean, but not before another woman walked into the shower room. It’s not that it was awkward or uncomfortable, it’s just weird to me. I’m not used to walking around in the buff in front of other people. My friends haven’t even seen me naked, even at my most intoxicated moments! And now complete strangers get to. But there’s really no way around it. It would be an hour time investment for me to return home and then back to school (which is just a few doors down from the gym) and then it isn’t free and would be somewhat pointless. The thing is, there has been one older lady in there twice when I was at the gym and she looks at me. Maybe I’m just being paranoid, and I know I’m different from the rest of the people in there (now I just know exactly how different we are), but even after I got out of the shower room and was back at my locker, she continued to eye me from the mirror. You know how sometimes you just feel it? Well, I did. And when I looked up, there were her big brown eyes, reflecting back at me. It’s just so strange! If we’re all gonna be naked around each other and it’s truly no big deal, then it should at least feel like it’s no big deal and not just an excuse to check one another out. Weird.

This past weekend was a fairly eventful one! Friday night was the “going out” part of Amy’s birthday. Being that we were ending one term at school and beginning another, I wound up staying at work late on Friday night, thereby missing the festivities celebrating Amy. However, we met for dinner on Saturday and when she told me that the whole crew stayed out until 7:30am, I sure didn’t regret it!!! I’ve never been one who is crazy about staying up and out all hours of the day and night, especially because I’m like an 80 year old the next day. So Saturday we had dinner at an Italian diner-style place (note on Italian food here: they ONLY use spaghetti noodles. No fettuccini, penne, bow tie, nothin’. Spaghetti only, and it’s more disappointing than you might think!) and walked around Ewha, near the largest women’s university in the world. This area is absolutely GREAT! We found a concentration of Indian and Pakistani-owned stores with some really great finds! I felt like one of the shop-owners and I really transcended a lot of the political excitement between our native countries when we chatted and he cut me a deal on some flip-flops and jewelry. (Yes, I’m still buying flip-flops!) It made me want to go to India when I leave here. It is undoubtedly a great area to work and live for almost nothing while getting experience and the mind-frame of being abroad, but what great shopping they must have!!! Anyway, that was Saturday night. We bopped around and then decided to reconvene on Sunday for brunch.

Amy was dying to eat at one of the International Hotels because she thought that the food would be the best of the best. Well, she chose the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the foreigner section of town and I don’t know how the food was, but they wanted $48 for the morning buffet. We quickly chose another restaurant and though her tea was $10, the food was still very good. After seeing all the fancy, chauffeured cars outside, we were reminded of snobbery and social classes at home that we’ve been removed from for so long. An odd thing to be reminded of. But anyway, we headed out to Dongnimmun where the Seodaemun Prison History Hall is located. For $1.50 we could see the Independence gate, watch tower, torture chambers, prison cells, and all kinds of other things that were involved when Japan occupied Korea several decades ago. After being surprised by a mannequin in one of the prison cells, I decided that the screams from the videos would be more than enough for me and opted not to view them. At the same time, Amy and I looked at one another and said, “No WONDER Koreans hate Japanese so much!” It was so much like the holocaust it was scary! After a few hours at this museum, we headed over to Dongdaemun Flea Market. We’ve been to the shops in this area many times before, but we’d never been in the flea market, which is in a large stadium. I’d read about the flea markets here—you know, one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Well, one man’s junk was my junk, too. Not a single thing in here looked worthy of any copper coin I have. There were two places with old record albums and that might be the closest I’d come to making a purchase, but even then it wouldn't hav ebeen for me. So we got out of there, ate some yummy street food, and called it a day! We have a list of touristy sites we’re trying to cover before either of us leave Korea and so far we’re successfully doing it one weekend at a time!


Copyright 2005 Olivia R. Reed