Tag: seoul (page 6 of 8)
STEP 1: Go to the zoo
The photos from this highly amusing little jaunt were pretty funny (see previous post). Sure, the African animals looked out of place. Okay, the kangaroos were just lying around doing nothing. I accept also that the millions of school kids shouting “Hello!” and “Where are you going?” was a bit much to put up with. But the sight of a bear having a swim or a couple of giraffes hanging out – ah, it warms the cockles of me heart. That being said, it was difficult to decide whether the zoo was for wild animals or for the fields full of wild kids I saw during my traversal of the zoo.
STEP 2: Get invited to an art exhibition
I got the call from Moonsun at the Australian Embassy informing me of an exhibition of photos by an Australian and a Korean artist and accepted gladly. The opening was at the Daelin gallery quite close to where I’m staying and was peopled by all sorts of artsy types, Australian diplomats and hangers-oners (ie me). We drank Lindemans wine – I almost cried. Also, importantly, I met Alexie Glass, a fellow-Asialink resident, who was leaving the next day. We went out after the exhibition and met a few other people including another Asialink resident, Larissa Hjorth, who is staying at Ssamzie Space in Hongdae.
STEP 3: Rendezvous at “The Captain of Pirates”
The next evening, after dinner with some of my students, I met Alexie, Larissa and others again at the delightfully-named and ultra-weird “The Captain of Pirates” (captain pictured above). This tiny bar in Hongdae features an aquatic/ Navy Seals theme and serves nothing but raw fish and soju, by the looks of it. The group was already quite rowdy and the cast changed endlessly throughout the night. Highlight was a song by local rock stars Gang Sahnae (“River and Mountain”) and his drummer Lee Kee Tae, in honour of Alexie’s imminent departure.
A close second in terms of memorable moments was Lee Kee Tae and I wearing toilet paper headbands. Enough said.
STEP 4: Check out the opening of a new river
Granted, not an everyday experience but the brand-new and ultra urban-environmental statement that is the Chonggyechon project sent Seoul into a delirious state of silly-pride and fireworks admiration. Highlights included lasers projected onto buildings and crazy street stalls, while the lowligth was the police response to a protest by a group of physically-disabled Seoulites who were complaining about the lack of disabled access to the river. Here is the police response to this group, who were all wheelchair bound and in late middle age:
STEP 5: Drink more soju
On Sunday, I met up with Larissa again and blabbed on about lots of stuff, then met my friend Jess who had arrived from Beijing after attending a conference on the Trans-Mongolian Express. I took her to my favourite BBQ pork restaurant and we drank beer and soju until the wee hours. So good to hang out with friends!
STEP 6: Go to a spa
On Monday, which is the day Koreans celebrate the creation of the Korean landmass, Jess and I travelled 60 kilometres south of Seoul to Icheon, famous for its spa resort. Justifiably so: the place is massive. Men and women are separated and each spa complex contains ten or so different “flavoured” pools, my favourite being the herb mint, the rice wine and the elusive “charcoal” pool, all heated at approximately 40 degrees centigrade and guaranteed to sweat that soju out of you like you’re a monkey stuck in a wringer.
STEP 7: Get a good night’s sleep
That night, after having a few drinks to celebrate Jess’s birthday, I slept so soundly that I did not wake up once. Until morning that is, upon which I found that my headache was gone, my strees levels were sub-zero, and I had just experienced my most fantastic week yet in Seoul.
As part of my Australian Culture course here at Sogang University (in which I now teach approximately 40 students), we spent some time learning the basics about Australia: the capital city, the system of government, what the flag and coat of arms mean and, naturally, the national anthem. I think I mentioned in a previous post that I sang the first verse of “Advance Australia Fair” a capella and pointed out that the original version of the song in fact contains six verses only two are printed on John Howard’s website). I used this as an example of the way in which history in Australia seems to be “buried” deep in obscurity; a little like the phrase ‘the tip of the iceberg’.
I then sang both versions of “Waltzing Matilda”, and related to my students that for some people, this is their preferred national anthem. This song, too, contains layers of meaning – while the song is called “Waltzing Matilda”, the swagman within the song is also singing the tune to himself. To really confuse the issue I then sang “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” which, like those pesky Russian dolls, is a song within a song within a song, where a band plays “Waltzing Matilda”, in which a swagman sings … well, you get the idea. I’ve now had this great idea for a song called “And the Band Played And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” but I think I’ll spare my students the head-trip of understanding that.
I was curious as to how much the students had taken in during the first four weeks of the course, and so yesterday I gave them a short quiz asking, amongst other things, for the capital of Australia (most got that), the name of the Australian head of state (a little bit of a sneaky question – most people incorrectly answered John Howard), the meaning of the word “reconciliation” (I’m pleased to say the vast majority got this right), the names of three Australia animal species (dead easy) and, just out of curiosity, the fate of the swagman at the end of “Waltzing Matilda”. I’ve collated the students’ answers to this question (below) not in any malicious sense but to give some idea of how difficult it must be to absorb so much (often confusing and contradictory) information about a foreign culture in a short space of time.
Question 4: At the end of “Waltzing Matilda”, what happens to the swagman?
Answers:
- drowned himself
- he went to the army to join the war as a draft
- the swagman gets his swag and tries to find a job
- he runs into the lake and dies
- he kills himself
- sorry was absent then but heard that has sad ending
- he falls in the billabong and drowns
- he kills himself
- [no answer]
- he died
- he jumps into the billabong
- he died
- [no answer]
- [no answer]
- the swagman dies. he was chased by the police men
- he died
- he drowns himself into the river
- swagman dies and gets buried
- swagman is dead
- he drowns himself in order to not get caught by the –
- he died
- he drowned in the billabong
- he dies. he jumps into the sea
- die [emoticon for tears]
- dead
- he drowns himself into the river
- he jump into the billabong to avoid caught by white men
- the swagman returned to Australia without leg and sat down in his porch and thought about the tragedy of the war that he attended
- he died
- he kills himself
- keeps going his way
- gets carried off by soldiers
- gets caught by the police
- he went to a pond to avoid being caught
- commits suicide (throws himself in the billabong and drown)
- he had to fought against enemy
- he throws himself into the billabong and drowns
- the swagman ran away and jumped billabong. he drowned.
- the swagman was kicked out
- he went to the military
The first time I saw this sign on a shopfront in Insadong I thought: mmm, borntobe chicken … this must be a Korean specialty. Of course, it’s really “born to be” chicken—and aren’t we all?
For the record, this shop serves delicious fried chicken and pitchers of cold beer. They usually show the baseball on the television. The women who run it are very friendly and the coleslaw is extremely sweet too.
Borntobe!
During my first Asialink residency I stayed in a hostel in the Jongno sam-ga (종로3가) area of Seoul.
The Jongno area constitutes the old core of the city, roughly bordered by Sejong-daero in the west, the palace district to the north, Jongmyo to the east and the renovated Cheonggyecheon stream to the south.
The entire area is a warren of alleyways and streets lit up at night by insanely bright neon signs, most of which advertise shops, bars, restaurants and PC Bangs.
This is what it looked like in 2005. God knows what it looks like now.