12-7=?

That's right! 5! I have 5 months (or 22 weeks) left in my contract! *removes link #23 from her paper chain* General update time. Yay! Last Saturday was the busiest I think I've ever been since arriving in Korea. I'm proud that I got everything on my list done, but I paid for it by making my cold worse. Oh well!!!

So I had 6 stops to make: Pyeongchon, Gangnam, Hongik University, Itaewon, Jongno 3(sam)ga and Dongnimmun stations. I made a little illustration with the Seoul subway map to illustrate the magnitude of this endeavour, with the stations labelled in the order I went.

Click to make me bigger!

So why'd I want to visit these places?

Pyeongchon: Hallym University Hospital (link!)

Following my ongoing stomach issues, this hospital was recommended for having doctors who spoke English well. So I went and saw a doctor who diagnosed me with gastro-enteritis (click for Wiki link), which Wikipedia says is "also known as gastric flu, stomach flu, stomach virus, although unrelated to influenza," and then put me on some medication for 7 days. Tomorrow morning will be my last dose of said medication. Here's hoping that issue is sorted.

Gangnam: Dream Eye Center (link! best viewed in Internet Explorer)

Last Saturday I went in for my March check-up. On that day (March 19) it had been 2 months and 20 days since I had my surgery. Next week Wednesday will be the 3 month mark. How are my eyes? GREAT! Now BOTH eyes are at a prescription of 1.2. What does that mean? Well, 1.0 is 20/20! So my eyes are better than 20/20. Mr. Choo estimated 1.2 to be about 20/16 or 20/17. ASSAH!!! I have to honestly say I am SO GLAD I did this surgery. And I'm equally glad I did it at Dream Eye. Mr. Choo has been so accessible and friendly, answering all my questions and always making sure I feel comfortable and informed. I never, for a moment, doubted their skill or level of service in all my experiences there so far. I have I think 3 more check-ups before I hit the 6-mth mark and which point I'm on my own, but I have felt so taken care of up til now, I'm not worried in the least! What a great decision I made for myself!!

Itaewon: What the Book and OKBT

Until this day, I'd never been to Itaewon during the day. Wait... I think there was one time when I first got here... but it was for someone's going away party and I only saw the restaurant where we ate. After that, every other time I found myself in Itaewon, it was at night... and I didn't like it. But I knew there were great things to found there. Particularly an English book store and a plus-sized clothing store for women. I'd ordered 2 books from the What the Book website (link above) and had opted to pay for them in store. So I went and did the paying thing. One of the books (Selected Writings and Speeches of Marcus Garvey edited by Bob Blaisdell) was already in store, so I was able to take that with me. The other (Communion by Bell Hooks) was ordered once I paid and I'll have to go pick it up when it's ready. While there I decided to browse. Now, books are my weakness so naturally I ended up buying 2 more books. One I was in the middle of reading when I left Canada. I left the book (which is #4 in Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series) thinking I wouldn't be able to find the next book in Korea so why bother. But of course I found almost the entire series at What the Book and quickly mended my ways! The second book I bought was "Wicked" by Gregory Maguire (yes the one made into a musical). I'm excited to get through all these goodies! Not to mention the books I did bring with me but haven't finished. Ayoy!

I then checked out OKBT and was pleasantly surprised. Yes, they had the terrible "plus size" clothing I've always dreaded when walking into any such labelled store, but they also had practical stuff, like skinny jeans (of which I bought one pair) and cute dresses and the like. The dressing room is really just a back room with no door or curtain, but I was the only one in store and was assured I'd be fine. That aside, A+ will go back (probably right after I pick up Communion lol)!

Dongnimmun: Japanese Prison

I then headed over to Dongnimmun station to meet friends Lindsay and Alexis to do a Lindsay-guided tour of the prison where thousands of Koreans were held by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea in the years 1908-1987. It was, of course, haunting and heart-wrenching, seeing the actual sites where people's fingernails were pulled out, or the box with nails in the sides where Koreans were put and shaken in the box as forms of torture.

But what fascinated me the most were the pictures on the walls of the prisoners held there, particularly this guy.

Notice he's smiling in the "after" picture, where he's left with only one eye. Perhaps he's thinking, "Korea is free. My eye was small payment for that." He even looks more handsome!

Jongno 3(sam)-ga: Nagwon Sangga - Musical Instrument Mall

Heaven. That's what this place is. Hundreds of independently own musical instrument (and musical electronics) stores. HUNDREDS. My goals were a) to see it; b) to test out an electric guitar (I just wanted to feel the difference); c) find out prices (if I can find a setup cheap enough I may buy it here and ship it home). Well, I saw it. Overwhelming the first time actually. I went from guitar store to guitar store trying to find one that was empty and that would let me test out their guitars. I finally found a cozy spot and the owner was the only one there. He was really nice and gave me a mini-history lesson on electrical guitars. He let me test out 2 Squire (Fender) guitars. As I played, other people came into the store, but I was comfortable enough by this point. When I was finished, one of the people in the room asked me a question, which I cannot remember but it was something about music. I ended up staying in that store chatting to her, Mia (her English name), and another guy who was testing out electric guitars.

Minsu (I think)

Mya

Tony (store owner and great guitarist)

Mia happened to also be going to the Hongdae area, so she accompanied me and helped me find....

Hongik University: Hongik University Art Supply Store


I'd been getting bored with my art classes lately. I realised I wasn't really enjoying the painting and was considering dropping the class, but I remembered having been interested in drawing for a long time, so I'd asked my art teacher if she could teach me drawing instead of painting. She said it was no problem and gave me a list of things I needed to get. Having done a little bit of research, I learned that there were a number of stores in Seoul, but that the one at Hongik University was one of the bigger ones. So Mia, my new friend (who as it turns out at one time lived in Canada about 30 minutes walking distance from where my parents live now!), brought me to the store and then we said our goodbyes. The experience was difficult, because I seemed to have arrived right before they're closing time, so I got rushed along and right out of the store. But, when I left, I did so with a brand new giant sketchpad, pencils, small sketchbook and soft eraser, all in a lovely canvas carrying case!

It was a great day for getting things done and seeing new places! I even made a new friend. And to think I was almost too tired after the prison tour to go to Nagwon Sangga!! Left my house at about 9am and got back about 9:30pm. Over 12 hours! Wow. I'm not doing that again tomorrow!

The Parentals

Goodness me, it's been about a month since my parents visited and I'm JUST NOW getting to this post!! Sorry! But here it is!

My parents got here on Friday, Jan 28 after over 20 hours of travelling and bags left behind in China (along with the maple syrup my mother tried to bring me, bought duty free on the Air Canada flight). I was so thrilled to finally see their faces in real life after 6 whole months of only Skype calls to hold me over. That was the longest I'd ever gone without any physical contact from my family. (Even longer for my brother, since he wasn't able to make the trip.) Crazy.

Papa

Mama

I kept trying to capture them coming out the doors, but failed, so my Dad snapped this in the meantime.

Pictured with Jae-Seok, brother to my Mum's friend, who was awesome and gave us a ride back to Siheung!

The first day or 2 were spent in Siheung, checking out the various places I've discovered since moving here:

We also spent Saturday moving my parents' suitcases to the hotel they were staying in for a few nights. After we'd finished, my Dad realised he'd lost his cell phone. After retracing our steps twice, we still hadn't found it. So I called his phone, which was answered by a Korean man who found out where we were and brought my Dad's phone back!!! WOW!! Can you think of anywhere else that would have happened? I can't!!

The man who found my Dad's phone.

On Sunday, we went into Gangnam to check out the restaurant where I planned to have my birthday dinner: TAJ Indian Restaurant! The food was delicious and the service was quite good. All the servers were pretty friendly. My Dad struck up a cricket conversation with a couple of them. One of the servers had just finished saying the West Indies team wouldn't make it and when we told them we were from Jamaica (which is included in the West Indies team), the server said, "Oh, I'm sorry sir." HA!

On Monday, we went to my school and on the way my parents got a chance to meet my piano teacher!

She's so cute!

At the school we were lucky that the Vice Principal and both of my (then) coteachers were there. So my parents met them and got to check out my nifty classroom!

With the Vice Principal. I'm the only one who kept their coat on...

Man I look like I'm choking with my scarf like that...

Then we hopped onto the good ol' public transit system and headed into the "French Village" in Seocho, located by the Express Bus Terminal station (Line 3). Well, this was a big disappointment. The first time I was there was for the French Christmas Festival, during which there were many French-speaking individuals walking the streets and French things being sold in this little square. Of course when we went back, it was a grey day, no festival, no Francophones, no French things anywhere. Sorry Mummy! I wanted to take my parents back to the French restaurant where I'd eaten the last time, but it was mysteriously closed. Also... I didn't know this before, but there's such a thing as "break time" where restaurants appear open, but are not in operation as everyone takes a break for a couple hours. What? I don't even.... So anyway, we ate lunch at a Korean barbecue place where our server was Chinese.

Anyway, after our brief and dismal stop in Seocho, we met 2 friends of mine, Cyrena and Kesia, for Indian food in Gangnam (Different Indian restaurant. Different exit from Gangnam station). I don't remember the name of this place, but it was a small, and really nifty place. Run by Koreans, but the cook is Indian and the food was wonderful. I'd like to go back there someday (once my insides are back to normal). If I do, I'll do a better post with more info!

What did we do on Tuesday? I can't remember... Oh yes! My mother had wanted to try a Templestay, but we didn't have enough days to do this, so instead we went to the Templestay Information centre, where we got some pamphlets on the Templestay locations that speak English (for me to try sometime before I leave) and enjoyed the Buddhist bookstore, the Jongyesa Temple across the street and the Temple Cuisine Restaurant for dinner!

After all of this, we wandered over to Insadong (not even a 5-minute walk away really) and bought a bunch of souvenirs as well as caught one of the shows of the dudes who make the honey treats. You know, the 16,000stringsWOW!! thing. Wish I'd caught a video. I will endeavour to do so before I leave Korea.

Tasting tea in Insadong

On Wednesday, we checked into Hotel Noblesse, which we found through Innostel, which is a site for Seoul government managed hostels and hotels. $70 per night for a hotel room that looked liked this:

Not bad right?

This was the night of my birthday dinner, since my actual birthday fell on 설날 (Seol-nal), the Lunar New Year (commonly referred to as Chinese New Year). It was great. Met with a bunch of friends and new acquaintances and had a delicious dinner at T.A.J. Indian Restaurant! (See Sunday for the link). Pictures!

Thursday was my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!! Pretty low key, since most things were closed. Hung around in my hotel room (yes I had my own room. Happy Birthday to me again!) for the first bit of the day, then we all made our way to COEX Mall, where we checked out some stores (and I bought some nifty gadgets. Happy Birthday to me from me!) then we ate delicious Dak Galbi! My stomach wasn't happy after (see previous blog post), but it was yummy!

Then we ate BaskinRobbins31 ice cream and went back to the hotel. Probably should've tried for a movie, but we were tired. And had to be up early, because....

On Friday, we went to Gangneung! Where? Gangneung is in Gangwon-do, north-east coast of Korea. A 3 hour bus ride from Seoul and about an hour's drive from the DMZ. Beautiful beaches! Here's Gangneung on the map:

View Larger Map

Why'd we go there, you ask? Well, my mother has a friend whose family lives there and they graciously invited us to spend some time with them while my folks were on the peninsula. We only went for a day, but as it turns out, they were expecting us to stay for 2 or 3! That means we did a WHOLE LOT during our visit: museums, old fashioned houses and the BEACH! My favourite part. It was cold and windy, but beautiful and I've been invited to go back with friends this Summer. Can't wait!! Anyone interested?

We got back to Seoul around 11:30pm. Not bad! Saturday was our check-out day, but we were NOT done with Seoul yet! So we gathered all our belongings and stashed them in a locker in one of the subway stations, and went to Myeongdong, which was crowded of course. After that we went to Sinchon to celebrate Kesia's and Cece's birthday! That was a fun dinner. Then we headed back to Siheung!

Sunday in Siheung was pretty relaxed. We did another walk around, this time seeing the other half. I discovered a Buddhist Temple/Preschool that I hadn't seen in the 5 months I'd been here and we ate delicious food. Well, I ate some of it, but mostly it was my parents lol.

In the end, Monday came. The day my parents were to go back to Canada. I had to go to work, but the plan was to help them get a taxi to the airport during my lunch break. Fortunately for me, the Principal came by and, upon learning of my plan, told me to go home!! Happy Birthday to me again! So I was able to spend the day with my parents, went to the airport with them and then bid them adieu to return to my apartment and sleep.

Wow, seeing it all written down, we sure did a lot!! Sweet!


The End