July 2009
Friday started with lunch with some of the kindergarten teachers that Kathy and Hyun worked with when they lived in Korea and Jasmine was a baby. They were customers of the “Watermelon” program to teach English. The restaurant was lovely and the food was good. Usually there are four people per table, and we had been told to move the previous night when we each had our own little table at the sting ray dinner. This place suggested that we sit three to a table. The reason became evident very quickly. I counted 39 little dishes per table, and there were three tables. Do the math! The food had some of the spiciest dishes I have had this trip and some of the sweetest ones as well.
After lunch, Keh met up with Jasmine and me, and we headed to the Chang Deok Gung Palace and the Secret Garden. As one usually boards a subway, you wait for the people to get off and then you get on. At a point there was a lull of people exiting the subway, and I started to get on. Then, a whole flood of people finally figured out that they had to leave the train and shoved to get off the train. Jasmine got on the train in time. Keh did not. Jasmine and I had no idea where we were going, so there was no “see you there, Keh!” I pantomimed something to him about getting off at the next stop and meeting him there. We did just that. As we waited for Keh at the next stop, we figured there were three scenarios: 1. Keh gets off at the next stop and finds us, 2. Keh sees us and we hop on his train, or 3. We don’t see Keh again, and we take a taxi home to jewelry city. Not only did the second scenario work flawlessly, he hopped on the same car that we did on the newer train, so his car opened right where we were standing. We made a major effort to make sure we all boarded the train in the future.
As we walked to the temple, it started to rain. Then it poured. We did not have umbrellas and I was not wearing my rain shoes. Keh and I bought very expensive umbrellas at the temple gift shop, and though it continued to rain a little, most of the downpour had ceased when we handed over the money.
The grounds and buildings were beautiful. We had an “English” speaking tour guide, but I had to put the English in quotes because her accent was so thick that it was very hard to understand what she was saying. Keh commented that we would have been better off with a Korean guide because at least one of us would know what she was saying.
After the tour, we walked to, guess where? That’s right, Insadong! It seems we are going there almost daily. The highlights of this trip: Jasmine was able to buy some splat animals and on the walk back to the apartment, we got to sample some street food. I had been eyeing some of these vendors that line the streets and to sample their wears was a treat. We had Turkish Ice Cream first. Like regular ice cream, it is cool and delicious, however, unlike regular ice cream, instead of breaking off when you bite or pull, it snaps off like Silly Putty. We then had a twisted potato. This man runs a potato through a spiral-er (for lack of a better word) and then puts it on a stick and fries it. I expected it to be more like a chip, but it was closer to a French fry. We dipped it in cheese and bulgogi flavorings. Yum. On the walk back to the subway, to drop Keh off, he said, “want to try that one?” Of course we said yes. The last street treat was like a pancake biscuit with a fully cooked egg in the middle. It was way sweeter than I thought it would be, but again, delicious.
For dinner, Kathy, Hyun, Jasmine, and I went around the corner and had fish. Hyun thought he had ordered some beef, but I guess they mislabeled something on the menu, so we got a lot of fish. It was good, though.
Saturday and Sunday we worked.
On Monday, the four of us and our luggage crammed ourselves into a cab and headed to Ansan, the area where Euigyoo, a wonderful artist, has his studio. It was a long drive, and I fell asleep even though I had a suitcase on my lap. I am a very good sleeper.
Jamyung met us when we got dropped off, and the six of us chatted for a bit before we got down to business. By business, I mean, Hyun and Euigyoo went to play ping pong and Jamyung, YK, Dad and I went across the street to drink. We ordered one of the largest pitchers of beer I have seen (see picture below) and finished that and a little one with anju (snacks). Soon after we had arrived, the waitress brought us four forks. It was the first time anyone had done that to me this trip. Many people had cautioned me that the food was too spicy for me or asked if I could handle spicy food, but no one had brought me a fork. I didn’t even want to touch it. If only they knew what kick-ass chopstick skills I have.
Soon, Hyun and Eigyoo joined us, shared a pitcher of beer and used the forks for the anju. I had proposed that the loser of the ping pong battle buy the beer before the official competition, but when they joined us, Eigyoo said Hyun was far too good. Then we were off to dinner. Jamyung said that since we were going to China and had been eating Korean food that we should have Japanese for dinner. On the walk, we ran across one of those South American reed playing bands playing outside a sushi restaurant. I found it particularly odd because I had just finished a book where the author, David Sederis, mentioned seeing one of these bands in Tokyo, and if they get to Tokyo, they are everywhere.
Dinner was again delicious and plates and plates of food kept coming. At this point, the drink at dinner switched from beer to soju, which the waitress put into a sake carafe to serve. I lost track of how many times she refilled the carafe. One of the dishes was a fried pork cutlet with sweet mustard and cheese crisscrossed on top. We even got a complimentary plate of meatballs for being such good customers. Eigyoo mentioned that he always brings VIPs there.
We staggered back to the studio and drank some more soju (left over from the night that Jamyung and Euigyoo visited us at the apartment). Slowly we each trickled to our sleeping quarters. YK and I shared a mat in a little room and Hyun and Dad shared a room next to it. I got to bed at a little after midnight and before I knew it, I was up at 6:15 for a 6:30 cab to the airport. Poor Hyun said he was up past 2 AM.
I slept on the way to the airport, which turned out to be a longer trip than anyone had anticipated. I think the point in staying at the studio was to be closer to the airport, but I think it didn’t really work out that way.
The airport in Seoul, Incheon, is ranked in one kind of travel somethingorother, the best international airport in the world. It did not disappoint. We flew through all the check points, except when we were checking in, the ticket did not say Hyun’s full name and the Chinese needed it to be exactly correct, so he had to pay 30000 won to change his name on the ticket. They never would have let “Christ Gallagher” pass.
While waiting, I was finally able to do one thing I have wanted to do for a while: have a Dunkin’ Donuts experience. Before the last trip to Asia in 2006, I had been on a trip with a friend of mine named Jay Dean where we went to Boston and daily had Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. Since there isn’t one in LA, when I came to Seoul in 2006, I was excited to see Dunkin’ Donuts everywhere. Now, Jason and I have Dunkin’ Donuts coffee at home nearly every morning. I had bought some earlier in the trip in Itaewon, but that was long gone, and now I finally was able to sit with a true cup of coffee and a donut from Dunkin’ Donuts.
They were out of the kind of coffee I wanted. However, I had another type and a vita donut. Yes, you heard me correctly, a vita donut. I have no idea if these are available in the US because I haven’t been to an actual Dunkin’ Donuts in years, but I got a flower-shaped donut with a mango peach jelly dot in the center that claims to have added vitamins. You can actually see the donut towards the middle of the picture below.
Small Wide World 