After a first busy weekend, I went to work, while Rosemary was left to sleep-in. Le was quite jealous, but I survived 3 weeks in this fashion, so I must be a God. I mean it. Well maybe not. But I'm cooler than you. Maybe?
Dongtan Exploration...
After work I invited her to come out for a beer (she was still jet lagged and not used to get around in a country she did not speak the language, so she had been chilling at home all day if I remember right...) with me and a co-worker. He invited us to move to another place, the other side of Dongtan's "Central Park" (no, no, no pretention...) where there was Baby Guiness (a chain bar quite popular for foreigner in Korea). As we walked towards there, I realized that after 4 months in Dongtan, I had COMPLETELY missed out on one of the nicest part of the city. In that huge park I have never set foot in, there were tennis, badminton and soccer courts, a river crossing the whole thing, with benches to sit on, rollerblade bicycle and skating rinks... name it. And. On the other side, there are like tons of small street next to each other with small coffee shops, restaurants and stores. Like a little Asian Europe.
Man, and it had taken Rosemary to know my own city. That was only the first of many times I felt that way during those three weeks...
Anyways, Baby Guiness was a nice place, similar to those foreigner pubs around Itaewon and American Military bases, where there is a counter that is always empty, but a room full of caucasians chilling on weekdays and a nice selection of imported beers. And the bell. There is always a bell in foreign bars in Korea. They vary in size but are always there for one reason. If you ring it. Whatever the reason that pushed you to do something so silly. You pay a shot for everyone in the bar. That's the rule. So people going to Korea. Beware :) There are no way out of it, even if you were pushed into it ;)
A week later we went to that spot again, in search of a nice spot. The weather was intensely hot, and it takes some 10 minutes walk to get there, so I was super pissed when I realized that I had forgotten my phone at work and had to walk back there, and come back AGAIN. Man I was so pissed. I was rambling the whole time... then we got back as Heather had gotten to Dongtan, so I had to walk back to meet her. This time, I left Rosemary in a coffee shop we had found, and went to meet Heater to show her the place. She was as amazed as me to find that new spot.
In any case, here are some screenshots of the streets and shops in the area.
Namsan Tower and Itaewon Late Dinner
"I've always heard that Korea is a country for couples. That it is actually hard to find things to do on your own because everything is designed for them. After a few days, I still don't really think so, I haven't really seen many couples or the said 'couple outfits' that people always talk about..."
"Rosemary. Have you even LOOKED around?"
Then, slowly looking around the bus we were riding, the realisation struck her. In the bus we were riding to the Namsan tower, there was a couple in front of us, behind us, back left, on our left, and one at the front of the bus (three of them, wearing different version of couple outfits)... then there were 3 single people: Rosemary, her friend, and I.
Hello Korea.
Have you ever felt more single than when you walk around in Korea?
No.
I think it was a Tuesday after work, Rosemary had spent the day getting the princess treatment by a Korean friend of hers, showing her around, and I met her downtown Gangnam to go see Namsan Tower and the Teddy-Bear Museum I had failed to visit on my first weekend in Korea with Alyssa.
There are two different places to visit in the Teddy-Bear museum, the "old Korea" and the "new Korea". The old Korea has a little more to it, with all the costumes and different traditional settings with the little animated dolls, repeating movements over and over again in the tiny costumes. It's like a little museum of the Joseon Era, Korea and how it evolved. The "new" part is not as interesting, since it's basically bears wearing normal clothes in settings that you can still see if you travel around Seoul.
We left the Tower site around 10 ish, and all the restaurants around were closed so we went to Itaewon in the hopes to get a late meal, but it was hard: everything was basically closed for anything else than drinks. It was Tuesday, but there were just as many people as a Friday in Montreal. People all dressed up to get wasted in clubs... Oh Korea.
We finally found a pasta restaurant and I got a Vongole (the thing I get in every pasta restaurant I go to since I watched the drama "Pasta" :P )
On Tuesday night, we got back pretty late, but I received an email from a journalist from back home, asking me to talk about my experience in Korea so far, and I knew that, busy as my week would be, I probably would never have the time to answer if I didn't do it now.
I have a very short attention span, but in counterpart, I can get really efficient if I put myself into it. That same evening, I went to sleep around 2AM, after writing an extensive essay of some 2000 words to that man I didn't know, for probably a super short article that might or might not get in the news.
While I do have a little traffic on my blog, it is very rare that anyone comments. That's why I was quite surprised on Friday when I get a notice of comment on one of my pages. It was mentioning an article in the news, so I looked up on the Internet to see if they had an online version.
Couldn't find any article of me.
I looked through the whole thing twice, paying attention to the small articles, and browsed through it twice. It was time to work, so I left and had my day. After lunch, I had a little time for myself (Friday is the only time I have a 30 minutes break)so I looked it up again. Then I saw the first page....
Her passion for languages brings her to the other side of the world.
Ariane Desgagnes-Leclerc teaches English to young Koreans.
Her passion for languages brings her to Seoul...
Like an old couple falling in love all over again... "I got to know Korea like one falls in love"
It had been a tiring week, but that gave me a little boost. Maybe gave me a little sense of self importance... but that feels nice once in a while :)
Ihwa Women University
When I studied Korean at McGill, my teacher often mentioned the area around a women university in Seoul, where there are a lot of small streets with coffee shops and stores: a paradise for Korean ladies, indulging in vanity. I am pretty sure she meant Ihwa University.
I thought I had taken more pictures of the place, but I think Rosemary took more... anyways.
Gapyeong: Fun with PPL of A-Class
People form my previous workplace (where Heather still works at) rented a nice pension in Gapyeong, countryside north of Seoul to chill out on the second weekend of July. While I knew Rosemary wanted to hang out with Koreans as she was in Korea, I figured that she still needed to communicate a bit, since no one really speaks English. So I had her join the trip and we had an amazing time, save the fact that the second day's plans were cancelled due to heavy rain...
I did not bring running shoes to Korea. I wanted to buy a pair here, but never got the opportunity to. I thought Gapyeong was a great time to do that, so when we stopped at Gangnam on our way to Gapyeong, I went to New Balance (an English brand that, while being quite unpopular in Canada, is EVERYWHERE in Korea, and that has amazing neon colors) and got myself a pair. They are amazingly neonish, and comfortable. I am very satisfied with my new acquisition still...
Got lost on the metro twice on the way, but had a great time nonetheless.
And Rosemary finally got me to get Snapchat.
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