Well hello friends and lovers! I’m back to give you another tasty bite out of my reality here in the Land of the Morning Calm. My reality is pretty monotonous now that I have fallen into my routine and had enough soju hangovers to really make me think twice about that devilishly cheap liquor. Alas, from time to time I make it out into the world and have myself an adventure. Here is a little slice.
About three weeks ago a few of us had the bright idea to go sledding. We were starting to grow tired of the walls in our apartments that keep us cozy and warm. It was decided that if the weather was going to be cold, we might as well be doing something enjoyable while we were freezing. This of course was decided during a drunken Friday night rambling session that took place in my apartment. We would leave around “noon, or one, definitely not before noon.” We all eventually parted ways to sleep off the alcohol we had so heavily consumed.
The next day I awoke with strange memories of sledding discussions. I pulled myself out of bed and started to prepare for another snow activity cherry pop. I sent out the feelers to those who had been in my abode the evening before and received quite a few responses of “No, I’ll be staying in bed.” Those bums. I made my way down the list and got to Erik. He to almost no surprise was the only one that was willing to adventure a bit and go sledding.
We departed to our destination of Seoul Land. Neither of us really knew what to expect, other than apparently Seoul Land is a theme park and they have sledding. With that lack of knowledge we ventured beyond the city limits to the south east corner of the subway system.
After about an hour on the subway we reached our destination. We emerged from the underground to find ourselves, in the middle of the mountains, not a skyscraper in sight. I was immediately giddy since I was out of the city and smog, breathing fresh mountain air. We began to search around for any sign that might point us in the proper direction of our destination. My limited Korean got us in the general direction and we began to walk.
Now on this walk we saw few familiar things, a 7-11, a KFC, and Dunkin Donuts. We also saw some fairly unusual things. There were five or six old Korean women, often called Ajuma’s, who were sitting in front of rather large cauldrons of odd smelling liquid and charcoal grills.
Ajumas selling their goods. Photo courtesy of Erik Dornnik
Upon taking a closer look at the cauldrons we saw they were filled with bugs. Erik and I both decided we were going to “ball up” at eat some when we finished sledding. We continued walking until Erik stopped dead in his tracks, stomped his feet, and flapped his arms like a five year old having a tantrum saying quite assertively, ” I want to eat bugs!” I couldn’t help but stop in minor disbelief at the display in front of me. I could only reply, “Well, okay then. Let’s do it.”
My comrade and I walked up to next vendor and asked for one cup of bugs. There was of course a lot of charades and broken Korean, but the woman handed us a dixie cup, full to the brim. It was only after some research we found out these were silkworms.
Dixie cup full of silkworms
She gave each of us a toothpick and told us to “enjoy”, with a less than Colgate smile. We walked away content with our purchase, laughing at the fact she gave us a WHOLE cup of bugs. We wanted to eat one, maybe two, but certainly not a WHOLE cup of silkworms. We each took our toothpick and speared our tiny snack. We cheersed one another and counted to three, then popped the bugs into our mouths. I made the mistake to chew and felt the shell and innards disperse in my mouth. Erik simply swallowed. As you all might be able to guess, the dining experience was less than pleasant. We both made horrified faces, shouted a bit, and definitely gagged. The taste of a silkworm is similar to that of a boiled peanut. I’m not a particular fan of the Southern snack, so this wasn’t a fond reminiscent moment for me. After a minor freak out, Erik decided to eat another silkworm, just to make sure he knew he didn’t like it. This is what he thought:
Erik's delight as he ate another silkworm. Photo courtesy of Erik Dornnik
Clearly he changed his mind. I felt as though I need to not be such a girl and eat another bug as well. My face was equally as miserable, however, there is no photographic evidence. We both were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for eating two bugs, so we tossed the remaining 200 that were left in our cup and ventured onwards to try and find Seoul Land.
After getting confused a few times, we made it to the entrance of the theme park. Now there is something to say about going to a theme park that is not Disney, Universal, Six Flags, or some other major branch. Seoul Land is equivalent to a permanent carnival in the mountains. However, they had one major factor that made me feel like I was home, if only for just a few brief seconds. See for yourself:
Baby EPCOT ball!!!!!
That’s right, they have a miniature EPCOT ball. I pretty much jumped up and down and had a minor freak out in disbelief.
We made our way to the sledding fields where there were long lines, filled with parents and bratty children with no concept of queue etiquette. I suppose growing up at Disney my level of patience for this ignorance is incredibly low, but I seriously was about to push children so there wouldn’t be such a massive gap between me and my first sledding experience. I get excited for new things, sometimes more than I should. Perhaps it was the bug juice pumping through my veins. The sledding field was set up so about 20 sleds could go at once, all very regulated and slightly dangerous. Can you imagine me, on a sled, high on bug juice, trying not to kill a small child, as 20 other people whiz down a hill also? If you can, you should be laughing right about now. If not, well…let’s just say it’s quite a hilarious scene. Here’s a quick preview of the sledding:
Kinda lame, but dangerous sledding adventure at the carnival in the mountains
And here is me sledding:
Me on a sled before I almost take out a small child. Photo courtesy of Erik Dornnik
So we did the run about four times and then called it quits. I had ice all over my bum and was on the verge of being cold+wet=miserable. We decided to wander around the park checking out the rides and food situation, since we had only eaten two bugs. We found some kebabs so I flipped out and had to eat one immediately. The kebabs here in Korea are nothing like a real kebab. Instead of sauce blanche or tzatziki to make the kebab incredibly delicious, they usually have ketchup. Whomp to infinity. We ate them happily though just because it was better than the bugs we had earlier in the day.
We managed to find the one roller coaster the park had and decided we should ride it, even though it was freezing outside. Although the roller coaster wasn’t anything to shake a stick at, it was surprisingly fun. Once we finished with the ride it was time to start the trek back home and begin a night of festivities.
One might think the adventure day would stop after we left a theme park and ate bugs. However you would be incredibly wrong. Our adventures had only begun for the day. We made it back to Gasan-dong, our neighborhood and agreed to meet up in an hour for some real food.
This is where the night begins to get interesting. Erik and I, as well as our co-worker Tonya have been making an attempt to explore our local neighborhood so we don’t have to venture to the crazy foreigner ridden areas of Seoul and pay for expensive taxi’s home at 5am. Erik and I were making our second venture into the neighborhood to try and find a local pub or restaurant we could call homebase.
We wandered around the streets for a while searching for a place to eat/bar to end up at later in the evening. After circling a few blocks, we decided on this snazzy looking restaurant. We were seated and given silverware. However, after we had removed our coats and got settled in, the manager or executive chef came to our table and told us we needed to leave. Apparently the restaurant was having a soft opening for the evening and weren’t accommodating randoms. So we pulled our coats back on and headed out into the cold in search of a hot meal. We passed a small bar called the “Black Hole” and we agreed that we should make it a stop at some point in our evening after we fed ourselves.
We wandered around a bit more and finally walked into a restaurant with a picture of a king on it. This place Gogi King (Meat King) is a meat buffet where you can eat as much Korean BBQ you want. It’s pretty much amazing. You pick your meat, you cook your meat, no one hovers over you, and everything is delicious. We stuffed ourselves and then made our way back into the cold.
Another foreign teacher we know named Eric joined forces with us that evening. We continued to wander around the streets looking for a bar and finally decided to end up at the Black Hole, just to get out of the cold. Now upon walking into the four table restaurant/bar we were clearly the only foreigners that dared to enter the premises. I’m not sure who felt more awkward, but everyone was highly aware of each other in the restaurant. We ordered drinks and the woman who owned the restaurant was trying to get us to eat food there as well. Again, in broken Korean and a few rounds of charades I managed to say we did not want to eat, we only wanted to drink. There was a couple at the table next to us that had a copious amount of food on their table. As we waited for our drinks the man at the table next to us began trying to force feed Eric a food called Sundae. Now, sundae is not ice cream. It’s a blood sausage that is a traditional food here in Korea. I knew immediately what it was, however Eric had no clue. He tried to tell the man he didn’t want it, but he would not relent. Finally Eric opened wide and ate it. Before we knew it we had a plate of sundae, kimchi, sliced blood clots, peanuts, and small dried fish on our table. Everyone in the restaurant was watching us to see if we would take on the challenge of eating the food. Erik and I had already eaten bugs today, so blood clots and blood sausage weren’t the craziest we were going to get. The blood sausage was surprisingly good. I would certainly order it again, but somehow try to get past the idea that I was eating blood. We cleaned the majority of our plates, drank quite a bit, and left the Black Hole.
We stumbled down the street to a bar Erik and I had found the week before. Upon the previous visit to this pub we would have never guessed that it was a lively hotspot or the fun and games that would manifest themselves. When we walked into the pub there was a man throwing his beer glass at a target attempting to win another beer. Immediately we were intrigued, sat down, and ordered the giant cups of beer that we could throw. It turned out the mugs were made of ice. We drank a few of these brews, threw our cups, came away empty handed, but content with our find for the evening. Here we are in our attempts at greatness:
Eric getting ready. photo courtesy of Erik Dornnik
Erik's got his game face on. Photo courtesy of that guy
I'm so concentrated...I want that free beer. Photo courtesy of Erik Dornnik
The three of us ended up drunk, in a norae-bang (karaoke room). We sang for about an hour or maybe more, time flys when the soju flows. Finally we realized it was about 4:30am and we should probably try to make it to bed before 5. Erik and I put Eric into a taxi and then headed back to our respective apartments. It took us a whopping 7 minutes to walk home. A glorious break from the expensive hour long taxis home.
Seoul Child 