Bacon Hill

We’re here! We arrived Friday evening after a slight delay leaving JFK. The fourteen hour flight on Korean Air was actually pretty great if you leave out the having to sit for so long. The service was wonderful and we had our first introduction to Bibimap which is rice with all sorts of other fun thingshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibimbap. They even gave us an instruction sheet for how to eat it.  We all watched many, many movies and tried to sleep for a bit.

When we arrived after taking an hour to get through customs and such we were met by Junjee (may be spelling her name wrong) a Library Science student at Yonsei who was wonderfully helpful and very patient with us. We took a very nice bus into Seoul (about an hour ride) and once we reached the main gate of Yonsei we took a cab around to the North Gate which is where our dorms are. The campus is far larger than Simmons, walking from our dorms at the top of campus to the main gate takes about 30 minutes.  The dorms are pretty traditional, just like what I had in undergrad. Once we dropped off our stuff it was about 10:30pm and we were starving so we set off on our first adventure.

We left campus and walked back to one of the main streets, only 10 minutes or so from our dorms and played the “what do they serve and are they open?” game as we walked past various restaurants. We found a Korean BBQ where we sat outside around a circular table with a grill in the middle. None of us speak Korean (beyond saying “hello” and “thank you” but we have Andrea with her trusty Lonely Planet phrase book. Both Andrea and her LB have proved invaluable already.  The menu was set, all we had to do was pick beef or pork. The lovely woman who served us was very tolerant of our lack of understanding. Her minimal English was far better than our Korean… Andrea and Chris became our grill masters as we consumed a huge plate of beef, lots of vegetables, garlic cloves and kimchi. We ate the beef and veggies and garlic on leaves of Perilla which were like mint but better:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perilla.  We also shared a few Cass beers which were very light and fresh as advertised. There was spicy sauce to dip the meat in and a spicy tofu soup that was brought out still boiling. I’m a big fan of spicy food and found all of this to be delicious although some of it was right at the limit of what my mouth can tolerate. Our host was very helpful and once she figured out that our one vegetarian, Helen, would eat lots of kimchi she brought it out everytime her bowl emptied.  The whole meal cost the six of us 99,000 won ($95 USD) which seemed pretty great considering the service and quanity.

By the time we got back to the dorms it was about 12:30am on Saturday morning. We all did a quick bit of computer time in the internet room (where I am right now) and toddled off to bed. Around 5:30 this morning we were woken by many Korean voices singing outside the dorms for about half an hour. Needless to say none of us were thrilled by this but we’ve since learned that it is not some sort of  traditional morning activity so we shouldn’t have to worry about it in the future.

I’ve just returned from meeting with Jee Yeon Lee, the Chair of Yonesi’s Library Science program. She and her husband and lovely 7-year-old daughter took Kevin Glick and I to lunch at another Korean place near the school. We had tasty cold noodles, mung bean pancakes and dumplings while sitting on pillows on the floor. It was the first time I’ve taken my shoes off in a restaurant and it was rather nice. The servers were worried about Kevin and I finding things too spicy and brought us extra non-spicy broth.  Jee Yeon and her family gave us an extensive tour of Campus and showed us around the liberal arts building where classes will be on Monday. Kevin, Michele (when she arrives on Monday) and I have all been set up with office space and computers and offered whatever assistance we may need.

It is very warm and very humid but not raining and no flooding that we’ve seen. Everyone we’ve met has been very kind and helpful even when none of us know what we’re saying to each other. It always amazes me when I travel what can be conveyed with gestures and facial expressions. The students are off exploring downtown Seoul right now and we’ll meet up for dinner this evening. Tomorrow will be more exploration and then class starts on Monday.  I’m taking lots of pictures and once I have assistance from the wonderful Yonsei students I’ll be able to upload them at the beginning of next week. It’s now 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon and I’m going to go off and explore a bit myself. More updates tomorrow!

August 1

Right now it’s 10 to 8 on Monday, August 1st and the students start class in an hour. How did we get here? Let me catch you up.  Saturday afternoon, when I last left you, I went out and wandered the main streets right outside the main gate of Yonsei.  There are so many stores, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, and people it should feel overwhelming but it really didn’t. That’s something that keeps striking me about this city, there is more going on here than anywhere I’ve ever been in the world and yet it moves easily and without a feeling of confusion. Sure there are motorbikes roaring down small side alleys and thousands of people on the sidewalks but somehow it doesn’t feel like too much or like it’s all in chaos and confusion.  While it’s clear I’m in a place that is very foreign to me I’ve also felt remarkably comfortable, even with the extreme language barrier.

Saturday evening was an example of the language barrier issue. Things we’ve learned so far:

1. Don’t point at things on a menu, you’ll be understood to be ordering it.

2. Vegetarianism is not well understood here or at least it can be hard to find.

3. Drawing a question mark doesn’t get across the idea that you were only asking questions not trying to order.

4. It gets easier to walk out of restaurants in search of more understandable menus after you’ve done it a few times.

5. When someone crosses their arms in an ‘x’ in front of them it generally means that whatever you want is not an option.

We have however always ended up finding tasty food to suit everyone’s needs. We’re hoping that after meeting the Yonsei students today they’ll adopt us and lead us to more fun food.

Sunday morning the rain started and the umbrellas popped up.

Helen, Chris, Andrea, Katie and Lori

First we had a breakfast of waffles with ice cream and cake (these are the perks of being “grown-ups” traveling) before we ate a feast of tasty food at the food court in the Hyundai Department store. We had squid rings on spicy rice veggie patties fried in egg, sweet potatoes glazed with so much honey they hardened to the container, pork buns, sujebi (kimichi in dough), stuffed shrimp and veggie buns. Then we moved on to Dongdaeum Market. We arrived in the the rain to discover most of it was closed on Sunday. It was still fun to wander through the “Tourist Fashion District” which is made up of lots and lots of department stores with street vendors selling meat (my favorite so far is essentially meatloaf with sweet sauce on a stick) and pineapple and kiwi on a stick outside while rock music plays from various locations. The fashion on the locals is very fun to watch, lots of  high heels and neat hats. Cheonggyecheon Stream also runs through the city near the market. It was very lovely even in the rain.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheonggyecheon

After a round of crepes wrapped up in a cone shape with various tasty toppings (like chocolate and peanut butter or custard and strawberries) we got back on the subway to Insadong. Side note about the subway here-it is so clean and well run it is reason enough to move to Seoul. The system is huge but very clearly laid out and the subway cars are very wide and comfy. When you buy your subway card (much like the Charlie card in Boston) you can get any money back that you don’t spend on it and also use it at vending machines in the subway as well as other places in the city. It’s a really, really great system. Added bonus is that various bugle sounds and other music plays to announce the arrival of the trains.

Insadong deserves its own blog entry and will get one when we return to it. It is a super neat district full of antiques, fans, calligraphy art, handmade paper, tea houses and so much more. We went to a lovely tea house that was so excited to see us they moved a group of locals out of their private room and ushered us in. We were pretty embarrassed that they moved people on our behalf but weren’t able to protest. They wouldn’t let Chris and Lori order the same thing because they wanted us to try as much as possible. It was pretty grand all around.

Lori, Clare and Chris in the teahouse in Insadong.

Back to Yonsei to meet Helen for dinner. Helen spent the day wandering on her own and will be doing a blog about all the neat stuff she saw and did. Dinner was a feast as usual and we did finally try Soju, the local liquor which is pretty strong and one small bottle was shared amongst us to general enjoyment although some found the alcohol taste far too strong.

That more or less brings us up to Monday morning and now I’ve got to run off to meet up with the students and Kevin for the first day of class. Michele arrives late this evening and tomorrow night we have a big welcome dinner with everyone. As always, there shall be much more to come.