MONDAY
WEATHER: sunny and warm.
Go hike Pukansan again. I take a different trail this time, and hike to the
top of the ridge. They have a little fortress wall there.
I waste no time in getting lost. I hike for 5 hours straight, and when I finally find an exit, I'm by this place called Academy house. Academy House is a retreat for euro-businessmen attending seminars. The nice desk-lady there calls me a cab. I ask the cab driver to stop whenever I see cute store signs, so I can take a picture. This particular area of Seoul is called SUYU, and they have really cool funky store signs.
TUESDAY
Weather: rainy, rainy, rain.
I taxi to Piwon, the "Secret Garden" of the kings. But you can only go on a guided tour, every half hour. when I get there, it's a 20 minute wait, and there's a huge line of schoolgirls waiting to get in. I walk away in disgust. . . it's my last day here and I'm bummed. I just want to be alone with my sadness, walk in the rain. Do I really want to wait for 20 fuckin' minutes, just so I can go on a tour with 200 giggling school girls….?
Anyway, Piwon was fun.
I have a fun time talking with the schoolteachers. They all speak pretty good English. The Art teacher yells to the female English teacher, "He's single!!" …they all talk to me and tell me how cool it is that I like Korea, and how I should look them up the next time I'm in town, and how I should take a picture with them. Then I ask if I can take a picture with their students too and they get all grim and go, "no" . . . Jesus, guys, way to make me feel totally subhuman.
Plus, in addition to the 200 schoolgirls, there were like a dozen deaf students. Some little girl in a pink poncho with brain damage kept trying to hold my hand, and the other students had to drag her away. Uncomfortable!! I mean, if I run away from her, I'm intolerant of the disabled, and if I don't run away, she'll glom on to me and I'll look like Richard Allen Davis. Christ.
On the plane, there's an adorable 10 year old Asian girl next to me. she's dangling her legs and looking bored so I give her my 'LONG TAIL KITTY' picture book. Christ, I should have brought all my poopy books. Then, quietly (so quietly I couldn't even tell she was speaking English at first) asks me to read the book to her. which I do. then I start drawing animals. Then SHE starts drawing animals. Then I write the animal's sound (MOO, WOOF, etc) and she writes the animals' sound in Korean. in Korea, dogs go 'MONG, MONG!'
We pass several hours like this. We draw each others' portraits. It's so fun to watch her work with determined precision. And unlike the uptight Korean high school teachers, her parents (in the next row) seem delighted that their daughter is having fun, and aren't all paranoid. Lord knows I would have been much more paranoid in their position. Anyway, her English name is Suzie and she is so adorable.
. . . and this is her picture of me. . .
We play rock-paper-scissors, and she gets the giggles. Eventually I get tired, so I drink a beer-bottles-worth of SOJU, the Korean whisky. I'm fucking out for the rest of the flight, and no hangover! Rock on.
I had a class scheduled for tuesday night, 5 hours after my flight got in. but i ditched the class. . . not because of the jetlag, more because I just wanted to be alone with my memories of Korea. Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading this, and if you liked it, please tell a friend!
thanks, and goodbye!
intro : part 1: part 2 : part 3 : part 4 : part 5 : part 6 : part 7 : part 8 : engrish : storesigns : poo : links