SEOUL - OCTOBER 4, 2000
Found a great Ha-Sook to live in. Its right at a major Rotary (Shinch'on Rotary) where Yonsei University, Sogang University, and Hongik University, and Ehwa's Women College converge. A different road takes you about a five minute walk to each one of them. Its a major area with a thousands things going on. It feels alot like Times Square, Union Square, and Greenwich Village (all in New York City) stacked on top of each other with Columbia University, CUNY-NYC, a large Women's University, and a major art university (Hongik in Seoul is the premier art university in the country). All of them are within 5 minutes of the area. I am really lucky to be here in this area of Seoul. My friend Lance lived here several years ago. I was to have one of the best room in the Ha-Sook with a rounded edge window giving me two sides to look out onto the streets. It is also in front of the building looking out, where many of the other rooms look into an alley. Incidently, Eric, (Lance's roommate), lived in this exact room for four years. Now that I am here, I am inclined to believe I could stay here a long time myself. This is a great location, and maybe one of the best views from an apartment that I've lived in. Not only that, but I receive dinner and breakfast from the Ha-Sook owner who lives one floor above me. Its an amazing situation. (That's part of the Ha-Sook deal - to receive free meals). My room is more like a studio though, as there is alot of privacy. Maybe at another time, I will try to videotape the room and the view and post it on my webpage too.
Also, Seoul has exploded with the Internet. So many dot.com advertisements in this city. I can look out my window and see at least five Internet Room places down my street. Actually every block of every street has at least one or two Internet Rooms (PC-Bong in Korean). They are the equivalent of $1.00 (1,200 Won) an hour. Many of the Koreans play video games there. They are immensily popular.
Speaking of "Bong", the Korean room for "room". I will take a moment to disucss these. They are basically rooms with many computers, just like an Internet Cafe in the States. Beyond, PC-Bongs, they also have Video-Bongs, and Norae-Bongs (singing rooms). The singing rooms are basically karaoke. The Video-Bongs are set up with a wide selection of home videos, and you rent a room to watch a movie. The nice thing about both of them, is they are secluded, and usually the Karaoke has a TV in a room surrounded by couches with a table in the middle. The Video-Bong is setup with TV/VCR and furniture, almost like a mini-living room.
Let's see, also I saw my friend Brad a couple days ago. He was on his way to Thailand, but he had an issue with his flight. Apparently, he bought a one-way ticket from San Francisco, but they only let him as far as Seoul. He can't go to Bangkok without an onward ticket. It was cool to chat about travelling with him though. He's travelled extensively, and also created a web page about some of the places he's been. I will connect his website with mine at the bottom of this page. Yesterday he was on his way to the Thai Embassy, but is now debating about just staying in Seoul for a month or two. The Autumn weather is beautiful this time of year in Korea, plus Southeast Asia is in the middle of Monsoon season right now. Most likely, Bangkok is completely flooded. Recently I read that several hundred people died from monsoon floods in Vietnam this week alone. So, he is probably better off avoiding Southeast Asia for the time being. Check out his website, lots of pictures in there. If you go to his section of "travel friends", you'll see my picture! I posted a connection to it at the bottom of this page.
I thought I would be going to Pusan this weekend, but I think I will be so busy in Seoul getting things organized. I am still in the process of buying furniture and such to set up my apartment the way I want it. Looks like I'll have to wait until next year to catch Pusan's International Film Festival. Well, I just left New York, so I guess I can wait until next year, when I will be more film-starved.
Also, my friend Keith, who teaches at a University in KwangJu is planning to meet his girlfriend, his mother, and his sister all in Seoul this weekend. I have been emailing him, and we are tentatively planning a Saturday Lunch. His girlfriend is a Korean girl from KwangJu, but now attends university in Seoul. His mom and sister are coming from the States. I haven't seen him in over three years, so it could be a good afternoon.
Seoul is really different than Pusan. Whenever I was lost in Pusan, I would look for a young Korean person, because they usually were English students, and I'd ask for directions. In Seoul, I just look around for another foreigner. There is an abundance of them here. Also, alot more of the foreigners speak good Korean too - another significant difference from Pusan. I never met anyone in Pusan who could speak much Korean, but then again we were all full-time English teachers, so we were very much locked into a world of having few opportunities to study or practice any Korean. I'm really glad I made the decision to enroll in Sogang University's Korean Language Program. It is 20 hours a week, 5 days a week, for 10 weeks. Classes begin this coming Monday.
Once I am a bit more settled, I will begin my search for part-time teaching opportunties. I contact a few places over the Internet, so I will continue to explore those schools in the next several days and upcoming week.
Read the next Journal Entry: 10/7/2000
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com
My Friend Brad's Website:
Tripping
with Brad