Daegu

December 12, 2010

Gosh, a lot of time has passed since my last entry! Let’s see... since the art show, I went on a bus tour of Pyeongtaek, went out drinking with my Korean co-workers, hit up a Noraybang, went to Insadong (the shopping district in Seoul), and, as of this post, went to Daegu to visit Ashley!

On the Friday evening before I left, it was Kate’s going away party (she’s going to work at the Songtan Avalon). We went to a little sushi place where we sat on the floor and ate huge platters of sashimi, mussels, noodles, omelets... absolutely delicious. I also tried my hand at soju, which goes down quite smoothly after you’ve had a few shots. After that, we all went to Noraybang, where I proceeded to display my less-than-stellar singing skills by singing Walking After Midnight and that Alanis Morisette song where she’s pissed off with her ex.

The next morning I had intended to be up and out of the house by 9 to catch a train to Daegu, but it was more like 11:30 when I left, to my chagrin. I got to the train station around noon, and then discovered that the next available train left at 2 pm! I ended up sitting in the Dunkin Donuts at the station for two hours, sipping on my green tea latte and working on my latest novel attempt, which I have whimsically named The Winged Woman and the Violinist. Never mind that the “violinist” loses his violin about six chapters in. Ah well.

On an interesting side note, apparently the way to order a green tea is not to say “one green tea, please”, because if you do that, you get a green tea latte. I’ll have to figure out how to say both latte and tea (actually, I think tea is “cha”), and from there I should be able to get my tea without too much hassle.

I couldn’t get a seat on the train, so I chilled in the snack car with all the other poor saps who booked their tickets too late. I started off standing beside an airplane game, hanging on to the back of the seat so that I didn’t fall over, but about an hour in the crowds thinned considerably, and I was able to score a spot on the narrow ledge under the window. I know, luxury, right?

While stuffed in the snack car for three hours, I decided that I will write a screenplay about a guy who comes to South Korea with dreams of becoming a professional Starcraft player, and ends up falling in love with the snack car girl. Except that she is engaged to a guy in the military, and when he comes home there will be an epic contest for her love. True to South K style, there will be lots of soju, which should make the film artsy enough to win several important film festival awards.

Upon arriving in Daegu, Ashley took me on a taxi tour of the city, by which I mean we went back to her apartment. Seriously, though, Daegu is HUGE compared to Pyeongtaek. They’re even in the process of building a monorail for the 2011 Games they are having next summer. These aren’t Olympics, just some sort of sports games that happen yearly. Possibly Asian. I’m not really sure on the details. Ashley lives in an apartment complex that reminds me of Cherryhill, and her apartment is about three times as big as mine, lol. I guess that’s what you get when you live in a big city!

That night was the going-away party of one of her co-workers, so we went to an Indian restaurant where I met the dozen or so foreign teachers Ashley works with. They were all very nice, but I was blown away by how huge the Avalon – one of three – in Pyeongtaek was. And I thought four foreign teachers was a lot! Shows what I know. We went to a bar after the meal with James and Nell, two of Ashley’s closer friends, who were lots of fun. Ashley and I reminisced about home, and it was really a great night.

We went to bed early, so we could be up early the next morning for our sightseeing. This didn’t work so well for me, as I had been going to bed at stupid hours like 3 and 4 in the morning, so it took me a while to get to sleep. But it was worth it when we were up and raring to go the next morning! First stop was the Daegu museum – probably not its official name – where a nice old Korean lady showed us around the galleries on a personal tour. Apparently the museum curators here in Korea always give you a personal tour if they can, which I think would be an awesome practice to adopt in Canada.

After that we headed to the outskirts of Daegu to go see Ghatbawi. Allow me to explain. Daegu is in a valley, surrounded by mountains – kind of like Rome and its seven hills. Except the hills are inside Rome, whereas the mountains are actually in a ring around Deagu. The mountains are dotted with temples and shrines and statues, and we decided to see Ghatbawi, which is a big stone statue of Buddha with a flat rock balanced on his head.

Since we were promised a cable car by Ashley’s friend, we didn’t exactly dress to go hiking. Then we got to the base of the mountain and discovered that all the Koreans were dressed in hiking gear. A lot of them had backpacks full of granola bars and water bottles. “It’s alright,” Ashley assured me. “There’s a cable car.” Spoiler alert: there wasn’t. Lol.

It was one hell of a trek – 2 km uphill, half of that literally just walking up endless flights of stairs. But it was a really nice day, the scenery was gorgeous, and once the pain in my legs turned to numbness, it didn’t even hurt! We took about 10 rest breaks from bottom to top, but it was all worth it when we reached the top and found about fifty people praying to this huge statue of Buddha, chanting, ringing gongs, etc. Apparently Buddhist monks have to do 108 bows every morning before breakfast, which seems a bit excessive to me... but then, I have always found religion a bit baffling.

Interestingly enough, the trek back down the hell was about five times worse than going up, possibly because my legs had gotten so used to the whole upward-angled thing that when I abruptly switched it up, they got confused and revolted. The stairs weren’t bad – well, they were fairly treacherous, being uneven stone – but once I got to the ramp, it was... suffice it to say that I am no longer a fan of ramps. Give me stairs any day. At least they’re level, and I don’t feel like a waddling penguin. After surviving the hike we warmed up in a traditional Korean restaurant at the bottom of the mountain, where I tried a squid and spinach pancake, which was surprisingly delicious.

We had had big plans to go to Dr. Fish, a spa-type place where you stick your feet in a huge vat of water and let little fishes nibble at your toes, but it was closed by the time we got there. Possibly it’s closed on Sundays. Anyway, we wandered around downtown Daegu for a few hours, seeing the sights. Ashley took me to the Cat Cafe, where cats wander around and sit on your lap and are absolutely adorable. It’s a complete health hazard, of course, but I miss Sirius and Giles, so it was a welcome risk!

Also went to a second-hand book store, where I found FAITH OF THE FALLEN! I’m so excited to read that. Also bought some reindeer fluffy gray earmuffs, which I love to death and make me look ridiculous. Said goodbye to Ashley, then took the train back to Pyeongtaek. Unfortunately this train had no snack car, so I had to stand sketchily between the cars in the cold. On the plus side, I found the world’s coolest Korean – he had plaid yellow and purple converse shoes, a black wool coat, a trendy black hoody, and swoopy emo hair. I wanted to marry him, but tragically I did not have a ring handy to propose.

It was an excellent weekend, and I had a total blast. Next weekend is my birthday! I shall miss all my Canada friends terribly, of course, but we are possibly going out for sushi, so I’m still pretty psyched :D