Saturday we woke up, and we headed to the Jongmyo Shrine, which is one of my favourite places in Seoul. We met up around 10:30 (mom and I were late for our 10:00 meeting) at Tapgol Park, and we met a kind old man who informed us that he knew we were Canadian, because our clothes were neat and we were not wearing ball caps set at a jaunty angle. haha. We looked around the park, which was still nice because they had not taken down the lanterns from the festival yet.
We headed to the Jongmyo shrine, and we had a little walk around in there. I really like that place. It's not a flashy as some other temples or palaces. It's much more subdued, with less flashy painting and decoration. There were some tours of kids going through too, but they were Seoul kids, so mom's exposure to "HI HI HI HI HI I'M HUNGRY! HOW ARE YOU HOW ARE YOU?!" was enough for her to get the point of it, but not enough to annoy her. We spent a few hours in that park (the four of us now, Carol had joined the party the night before, if you remember) and then we headed off in the direction of the gallery I had seen and the NANTA theatre.
Well, that was the one time my sense of direction truly truly failed me. We walked about 45 minutes in the wrong direction. But, on the bright side, we came across an awesome restaurant. That was where mom had her first meal of SamGyeopSal, which no-one should ever go without if they make a trip to Korea.
(OKAY, so it's now June 28th. I'm sitting in a Starbucks, and I'm going to rack my brains to try to remember the details of the last few days of my time with mom in Seoul. I've been so busy/distracted that I haven't made time to sit down and get it all down, which is too bad, because it means that a few juicy anecdotes and tidbits have undoubtedly been lost).
We wound up taking a taxi back downtown where we went out for ice-cream (which made everyone feel bloated, if I cna extrapolate from personal experience. I mean, we had just had a HUGE meal). Then we headed to the NANTA theater to buy tickets. There were difficulties, because we arrived twenty minutes or some ridiculously small amount of time before the "appointed selling time" for the 7:00 show. There was some debating, and she finally decided that it would be alright to give us tickets, even though it would undoubtedly cost her her job. God! She wanted us to come back in two hours... I mean, yeah, sure, we'll just sit outside... what a jerk. anyway...
After that we headed back on our original route from Thursday night (I just remembered that I forgot to mention that I fell in a hole on that walk! I was just walking along, and FOOMP! Left leg goes into the ground. Fortunately, the hole was full of blankets. Unfortunately, they were all wet and gross) towards the Sejong culture complex, only to find out that it was in fact a theater, not a gallery. But then I spotted a sign for a gallery, and we headed towards it. We spent probably half an hour snaking around inside looking for the gallery, only to discover that we had gone in the wrong door, and that it was in the basement, not upstairs. The art was good... but not really my favourite mix of pieces. Some of them were good... including some photo reconstructions of childrens' drawings, but most of it didn't really move me at all. After that, to Starbucks for a coffee and then we decided to part ways for a while to rest after all that walking I made everyone do.
We met at the NANTA theatre at 7:00 or so, and once again, NANTA did not fail to impress. For the first three songs, I was so happy that I almost started crying. I love when random things suddenly turn into music. And it's such a funny show, I don't know how anyone could ever not be amused by it. And of course... the female actress doesn't really take away from the equation at all.
I was surprised to find that it was mostly the same cast as it had been when Jessie and I went with her parents last year. I definitely recognized the "head chef" as being the same guy. Pretty lucky, I think, considering that there are several different casts that perform on different nights of the week.
After the show, we headed to Itaewon and "Ali Baba's" for some Egyptian food and birthday hookah with Roberta and Rick. It was a great night. Mom did her best to embarrass me with childhood stories, but I honestly find that I am more embarrassed by everyone looking at me and expecting me to be embarrassed than by anything that anyone could actually say. The food was great too, and who doesn't love hookah? Of course, it made for a rough morning the next day, when I sounded like an 80 year-old grandma after 2 packs of cigarettes, a bottle of jack and and a chocolate shake.
Mom stayed out until about 12:00 or so, but the combo of jet-lag and all that walking caught up to her, so she went back to the motel early. I got a really nice birthday phone call from Vanessa, which I moved out onto the street to take, and then another hookah, and we closed the place and got kicked out around two or so. I said "Hey, we should walk home, I'm in the mood for a walk" and Mel and Carol were up for it, so I said I would walk them home to their area, and then head to mine. Well... I don't know Seoul too well, and next thing I knew we were passing the Korean War Memorial, and I was thinking "Hey, my hotel is just about a kilometer that way..." so I apologized, because I had walked them in exactly the wrong direction.
Then I went back to the hotel for another late-night phone call with Vanessa. haha.
Carl and Mel came over around ten the next morning (Sunday), and we all shared some birthday cake that mom and I had brought from the previous week. It was good, then we said our goodbyes, and Mel and Carol headed back to Suncheon.
Mom and I had a pretty relaxed day. We headed back to InSaDong,
(I need to interrupt the narrative to give a bizarro Starbucks update... they're playing amazing music in here, for one thing. Stuff you would rarely hear even on the radio in Canada, which is amazing, because it's amazing Canadian indie stuff... anyways, the real bizarre thing is that there is this woman sitting on a lounge chair about ten feet away from me who is reading picture books with her very young son (who looks like he took his first steps last week) and she is reading to him in English with this terribly thick accent with apparently no understanding of what the words she is reading mean. She's just sounding them out for him. And he probably doesn't understand Korean yet, and she's reading English to him... oh man, the lengths people go to to teach their children English here. It's part admirable, part fucked-up. The poor kid just want to see what bug is inside the "Big Black Box", he doesn't want to be read to... poor kid. He'll probably wind up in three hagwons studying until eleven every night by the time he is ten years old.)
anyway... InSaDong... so we headed down, because mom wanted to more art shopping. I also found a decently sized and reasonably priced copy of the painting that I have been looking for for almost two years now. It's the summer/original version of the winter painting that I bought last year. It's pretty famous here, and it's in most temples and palaces, copied and usually placed behind the seat of whoever was important. It's funny, because I see it everywhere, so it's obviously a fairly important piece of art, but hardly anyone here seems to know what I am talking about when I ask about it. I also bought an acoustic guitar modeller, which I have yet to actually learn how to use properly, and I met a man who used to play bass for Bill Haley and the Comets. Now he's in Korea spreading the gospel, as he quickly informed me. He looked good though, for someone who was old enough to play with Bill Haley. We went out for tea, then we headed back to the hotel and each took a nap. It had been a pretty exhausting week.
We had dinner at, where else, Outback. We ate too much , again, and then retired for the night. We had clearly already had enough excitement, and with Mel and Carol gone, we had no-one left to prove ourselves to. haha.
The next day, Monday, would turn out to be one of the most stressful days of my year here so far.
We left really early to catch the airport shuttle, because I was worried about getting back to Gwangju by five to teach my classes. We must have left around 9:45 or so... and we headed out to the bus stop. The main reason that I still stay at the Rainbow Hotel is that last year Jessie and I used it so many times as a launch point to the airport, because the shuttle stops so close by. It's just really convenient! Anyway, we walked out, and the shuttle stop sign was gone! Nowhere to be seen! I walked around for about ten minutes or so, up and down the street, but it was nowhere to be found. I started to get worried, so I left mom and went back to the motel to ask about it.
The clerk at the counter told me (after apologizing a LOT) that the stop had been moved to the new bus stop in the middle of the road. I had seen it, but I had assumed that that had always been there, and I just hadn't noticed, so why would I catch my bus there?
So mom and I headed back to the bus stop and waited.
... and waited...
... and waited...
Finally one came, but the driver (with a look of frustration) waved for us to stop boarding the bus, and pointed about 200 meters down the road to another bus stop going the other direction (the direction the bus used to go in, and I guess still did). I just figured that if they changed the bus stop, they must have changed the route... I admit, it was pretty stupid on my part. We walked over there, and I was pretty embarrassed and frustrated by this point.
We finally got on a bus at around 11:10. We got to the airport at around 11:50, and I said a very quick and non-teary goodbye to mom (stress=no other emotions) and ran down to the ticket booth for the shuttle to Gwangju. It must have been around 11:55, which meant that I had missed the 11:50 bus by five minutes, and would have to wait an hour for the next bus at 12:50. So, I was now officially late for work. Since I had time, I went back up and waited with mom in line, and then walked her to the security section. Then we said goodbye again, but I was still really too stressed to be affected by it...
I got out to the bus about 30 minutes early, and I tried to call the school to tell them that I would be late, and that someone would have to cover my first class. I had already called Harley and Nella, and left a message with Nella, but I thought I should tell the school too. I wound up getting SoHee, the secretary, and when I asked for Mr Lee, she said "Not here" and then quickly and shyly hung up. So, my message didn't arrive until later with Harley, and they were not happy to get it that way... argh.
I got on the bus, and became aware of one of the worst situations that a person can be in. You know you will be late, and you are stressed about it, but all you can do is sit there and wait. sucks,
Oh, and to make the bus ride even worse, they had the TV on, and guess what was playing? No, not Dirty Dancing.
That's right! The Passion of the Christ! If there was ever a movie designed specifically for an unwilling and captive audience, that's gotta be it! Come on! I am restraining from typing so many four letter words, because I am getting angry just thinking about how inappropriate that a) it was playing on TV in the afternoon and b) that a whole busload of people were forced to watch it. I put on my headphones and went to sleep, only to be awoken again and again by the screams of Jesus, and finally by the blood-curdling roar of what I can only guess was supposed to be Satan at the close of the film. Oh yeah, that makes for a pleasant ride. I mean, I thought being forced to watch Anaconda was bad. Turns out, I didn't know bad.
I wound up typing most of this little story on the bus, but I didn't shut my laptop off, I just put it into sleep mode. Then, that night, while the kids were working, I continued to type more. And then bloop! Battery goes dead, and I lose the whole thing. Gah!
And that is the story of mom's visit to Korea. Finally.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment