A Return to Insadong

The weather here has turned absolutely beautiful. It is hot, but the warm summer nights are exactly what I dreamed of as a young Hoosier wanting to live in a big city. The night life is buzzing, the restaurants are amazing, and I feel the need to roam.

Even in the summer Korean cuisine offers many soups.

All for roughly $8

Last Wednesday (July 20th) I felt the urge to return to Insadong. I had a tea date with a friend set up for Saturday, so suddenly I was on a tea kick. Insadong is the place for tea having many traditional tea houses. This is also a good place to shop for Korean tea sets.

I used to think herbal teas were sort of pretentious. I still do somewhat, but I am discovering their social value here. The five flavor tea is exactly that. It activates the five different tastes at different times. Interesting but not my favorite.

Iced pomegranate tea is my favorite for hot days. I'm going to try to brew some soon. My friend on Saturday helped me choose a tea set. Koreans are way too kind. She liked the ones I liked but there were clearly some she preferred over others.

"Oh...nice. Very... plain and ...simple," she says with a forced smile.

"How about this?"

"Yes, I like that."

Ready to entertain with some Snow Dew tea.

 I viewed this trip to Insadong as embracing the future, but I also paid hommage to the past. Happy Birthday, my friend.

One of my favorite cafes

Wishing someone a very happy birthday.

It doesn't look like the good weather is going to hold.

Uhm, You're How Old?

Last Thursday (July 14th) was the first day of summer in Korea. The calendar is a little strange to me, but here is my best understanding. There are 12 to 14 seasons in Korea depending on who you talk to. In addition to spring, summer, fall, and winter, there are early spring, early summer, early fall, and early winter. So, it makes sense that there are also late spring, late summer, late fall, and late winter seasons. That brings the total number of seasons to 12. Midsumer and Midwinter bring the total to 14; though including those with the other seasons might be a translation problem.

There is some speculation that the rainy season has ended. The weather has been beautiful but hot. To battle the heat, Koreans typically eat a steaming hot chicken soup to give them vitality. The soup contains a whole chicken stuffed with rice and is traditionally eaten on the first day of summer. It is very good, but seems more appropriate for the first day of winter.

Fortunately for me, I celebrated the first day of summer with a special group of people. My Canadian friend had some friends from Halifax visiting, his former mentor and a former lab mate from Korea who has returned to Seoul. We decided to have a typical Korean dinner instead of the chicken soup which we had for lunch. I do not remember how many courses there were. It could have been as many as eight or even more. There were salads, soups, Korean pancakes, bulgogi, shrimp, jellyfish, octopus, skate, and pork. The meal lasted a couple of hours but actually flew by. It was great fun. Having good food with great people makes for a very rewarding experience.

The floor has been cut out making it easier for us westerners to sit on the floor.

Steaming bulgogi. A very nice beef dish.

An excellent start to the summer.

The strangest thing about the Korean calendar has to be how it is used to determine your age. When a Korean is born, he or she is one. Then, on January 1st everyone adds a year. Hello. Now that should be a hell of a birthday party. This means that a child born in December turns two Jan. 1 even though he or she is less than a month old. Let's do some future projections. I met a very interesting lawyer last weekend who is 28 except that she might be 26. If her birthday is August or later, her Korean age is 28 while her biological age is 26. If she has already had her birthday this year, then her biological age is 27. Or maybe she is 28 and her Korean age is 30. Doesn't really matter as long as she is not 25. Now, let's see. My Korean age is ...

"You look 31."

"That is a very good guess."

I've done the math several times, and I think my Korean age is 31.

Birthday Bowling

Wednesday night was a colleague's birthday. We ate at CF chicken where the barbeque was amazing. The chicken here is good but smaller, and Koreans eat it with two forks. Having used nothing but chopsticks for over two months, two forks completely overwhelmed me. Perhaps not being able to use my fingers was the real problem, but man did I struggle. Fortunately, Cass (a Korean beer that actually wakes me up) is only 2000 Won.

At dinner we decided to go bowling. I told my friends I had just unpacked my bowling ball a few days earlier (unpacking has not gone swiftly). The look of complete and utter disbelief on the Koreans faces was priceless. "Ok, we will divide into two teams. Losers pay."

I was surprised by where the bowling alley was. I had been there before having eaten in the restaurant on the second floor. The bowling alley was on the fourth floor. Who puts a bowling alley on the fourth floor? Anyway, there were only eight lanes. Thankfully, one lane was free, and so it was on.

I used to believe that I understood the metric system. There are 100 centimeters in a meter. One cubic centimeter is a milliliter which weighs a gram. Water boils at 100 C. Those facts are meaningless. What I need to know is how many centimeters around is my waist to figure out which pants to try on, or how many centimeters long my feet are to get bowling shoes that fit. I am still trying to figure those out.

To my family back home, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news - my first frame in Korea was a strike. The bad news - that was it. I was reminded of a comment my father made many years ago on the way to the bowling alley. It was somewhat of a tradition to go bowling on Thanksgiving. My dad was asking people what they were hoping to score. My ex-wife said she would like to get a 100. "A hundred? I can bowl that with my left hand!" which was a good thing since my father bowled an 83 with his right. Well, I wasn't that bad, but I was close. I bowled a 113 followed by a 129. Absolutely awful but it was still great fun.

It's hard not to have fun with the Koreans. No matter what happens on the bowling alley, they applaud. It is a little strange, but it also makes you smile. You roll a three on your first ball; everyone applauds. You roll a gutter on your next ball; everyone applauds. It is as if just getting the ball down the alley deserves praise. Wait, I don't think that is true. Another colleague was bowling for the first time. Twice she threw the ball behind her. I think they applauded that as well (sarcasm is alive and well here in Korea). Fortunately, I was there with a helpful suggestion. "The pins are that way."

Spotted!

Umbrella Wars

In a very early post I wrote about how the rain here was like the Pacific Northeast of the U.S. Ha!

From an U.S. consulate email:

As you can tell from looking out the window the last few weeks, the rainy season has started in Korea!  You can also check current weather conditions, including rain level forecasts throughout the Peninsula, at this page.  The Korea Meteorological Association also maintains a site on typhoons.

Ha, ha! That's right. A double ha ha. Wait, typhoons?! I did not research the weather before I came. Fortunately, the consulate's suggestion of looking out the window has been extremely helpful.

We are now in the rainy season. That means rain and lots of it. For the past two weeks it has rained nearly every day. There was a three day window of nice weather which created a trap for us foreigners. "There is no need to bring an umbrella. It's beautiful out." Sadly, my man bag is broken, so I'm back to carrying an umbrella even when the sun is shining. A lesson I have learned the hard way a couple of times.

Fortunately, Koreans feel sympathy for foreigners caught in the rain. We know. The rain sucks. Take my umbrella. I have extras. I gave a talk at a nearby University; they gave me an umbrella. I opened a savings account; they gave me an umbrella. I got caught in the rain visiting my favorite bakery; they gave me an umbrella. A storm surprised us as we were eating dinner at a restaurant one night; they gave us an umbrella. I have at least 5 umbrellas now.

While Koreans are extremely kind and do many things well, they just don't get queuing. Getting on the subway or waiting in line at McDonalds... well, good luck to you. The grocery store is the worst. You get cut off constantly walking down the aisles. Lines are not their thing. Combine that with narrow sidewalks and lots of rain and you get what my friend calls 'The Umbrella Wars'. Up and down, left and right, trying to avoid other people's umbrellas is no easy task. "Serpentine! Serpentine!" I've nearly had my umbrella knocked out of my hands several times especially from behind. I've been told the rainy season will last for another week. Until then..., "Hey, dude, no crossing umbrellas!"

The All Nighter

Quoting from the Customs and Social Expectations section in the Handbook for International Students and Scientists (KIST):

'-The exchange of business cards is common on first meetings. If you are a visiting scientist, it can be useful to bring a supply of cards, as well as order ones for your KIST position upon your arrival.

-Social drinking has been an important part of Korean culture. It is considered a way to deepen friendships and foster relaxed relationships among colleagues and business partners.'

I have sort of taken these two suggestions to heart. There seems to be a direct relationship between the number of business cards I hand out to the amount I have had to drink. This has led to some interesting phone calls and text messages.

'Hi sweet nerd! =) hows ur day going?'

Oh, boy. I'm glad I don't remember that conversation.

A few weeks ago a friend told me of a place in Itaewon that served really good Buffulo wings. When I entered the bar, the bartender said, "Bradley, I thought I would never see you again." Turns out I had met her at another bar the weekend after my Birthday which was over a month ago. I didn't recognize her at first. Then I remembered that she had passed the bar but would rather be a bartender than a lawyer. I told her that I got that. "Why do something you don't enjoy?" She immediately asked me to teach her English. Apparently, I had told her my life story. It was strange to talk to someone I just met who knew so much about me, but I was touched that she remembered.

Potentially, the best story happened last week. The Cohen lab had just arrived in Korea and wanted to go to a good wings place. Tuesday night the wings are 30 cents. Since my colleagues were new to Seoul, after wings we ventured on a pub crawl. In Korea, some bars will have last call, others will stay open until everyone has left. Having closed two bars down, we were heading home. The next thing I know, we are sitting in a pub talking to a woman who has had a little too much to drink.

She asks what we do. For some reason that night no one believed we were scientists. "Scientists, my ass," said one woman from Wisconsin as she left the bar. The Wisconsin girl had given us her extra wings and wanted us to guess what her boyfriend did. I guessed hand model. When she said it had something to do with fire, I guessed glass blower. Turned out he is an F-19 fighter pilot. Oops. I hope he doesn't transfer back to Seoul anytime soon.

So when we were asked this time, my colleague said, "Show her your business card." She snapped it out of my hand and put it in her purse. As we were waiting for a cab in the pouring rain, she came up to us three times telling us she has to go. A Korean man walked up to us and said one of you is going to have to take her home. Helping people home is part of the culture here. At night security guards are stationed in the subway stations to help those that have indulged too much to get on the right train home. We thought he meant something else. Fortunately, someone who knew her found her as a cab finally stopped for us.

That was Tuesday night. The wing place was hosting a Canada day celebration on Friday, July 1st. Since one of my colleagues is from Canada we went. As we were eating dinner, I got a phone call. "Hello, who is this?"

"My name is ____. I found your business card in my purse. What are you doing tonight?"

My group met up with her and went to the Canada day celebration. That was an amazing party. My new friend wanted to show me some other bars, so I split off from the group. Having a Korean show you the town is awesome. We went to three different places that included a lounge, a jazz club, and a bungalow bar called Bungalow. Then we ate at a tent along the main street in Itaewon where we had noodles and what I thought was squid. Turns out it was chicken feet. Not my favorite.

I had fun, but it was a little weird. It was definitely time to rejoin my friends who were still celebrating Canada Day. We met up, visited two more pubs, and then had some McDonalds. That gave us a second wind so back we go to the Canada Day celebration.The party had calmed down somewhat. Some of our group decided to head home, but the Canadian and I were having fun talking to people at the bar. One guy came up to me and asked if they were still serving alcohol. It was nearly four in the morning. He turned out to be an independent film maker. We exchanged business cards. An attractive woman at the bar wanted a business card. I'm out! I asked if I can have my card back. He refused.

"I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. She wants to meet westerners who are smart."

"Well, I'm a westerner."

Now I wasn't going to blog this story until I had met this person because I really wanted to end this post with:

...and that was how I met South Korea's first astronaut.

Weren't expecting that, were you? Unfortunately, due to some communication snafus that meeting is still in the works. I just received an e-mail that sounds like it will happen, but I decided to go ahead and tell this story just in case it falls through. I don't want to post stories that are not real. I have also been dying to tell this story.