Old Korean Hippies

So this past weekend, we hiked Suraksan Mtn. It is quite popular with the locals, or at least the locals who are past the age of 50. We made it up to the summit without too many surprises. What we thought was a monk chanting, upon approach was discovered to be an ice cream salesman. We also passed what looked like a make-shift cafe of sorts. Either that, or a bunch of old guys making a fort and drinking themselves blind. The view was incredible from the top though. Seoul has a smog problem, so photos do not really do the view justice. It was breathtaking. Getting there took some skin too, as we had to boulder through several places, and well, granite is granite. Overall it was quite a time.

On the way back down, as we were passing the cafe/old man fort, one of the guys called to us to stop and have a drink with him. We had just run out of water, so we figured, "Why not? They have to have some water, right?" It's not like we were going to get serenaded for three and a half hours and not leave the mountain until we had eaten dinner and swapped life stories right? OOOhhhhhh, wait.

I'm glad that we were familiar enough with Simon and Garfunkel and the Eagles to join in on the choruses, and that we had enough tact not to turn down their hospitality or cooked squid. This was how we met Solomon and Jude. Solomon said that he chose the name because he wanted to be wise, and thus according to H Rider Haggard, rich. He was 50+, and his personality was the kicker. He was very sincere, very charismatic, very friendly, and well, blunt. Multiple times, he told me that I was too fat and that I needed to 'reduce my belly.' "If you have bigger belly at all, I hate you. You have no self control." I laughed at most of this, as I am decently fit for an American. I've even been losing weight here. He on the other hand looked like he weighed 140 fully clothed and soaked. We had a grand 'ole time until we had to part ways, but not before making it to two cafes, one on the mountain, one off. It has now been decided that we shall hike together once a month. More stories to come, I am sure.

The Association of Retired Grandmas Who Make People Look Bad

So, this update is full of things in Seoul that are very different from the States. One, there are free beer samples in the grocery stores. This is a plus, except that with the exception of imports, EVERY beer is a lager. There are no dark beers, or ales of any kind. But I digress. Free beer samples are great.

There are no tubs for showers. This is not ubiquitously true of Seoul, but it is the definite majority. To save on space in the one-room apartments that many people (including families) live in, the bathroom is the shower. Also, the washing machine drains into...the bathroom. So, shower shoes are a must, as we have been brushing our teeth or straightening our hair when a torrent of water 1/2" high comes rushing out of the back corner and viciously attacks us.

There is random exercise equipment everywhere. You're walking through some random cluster of buildings. Exercise equipment. You go for a walk by the river, exercise equipment. You go hiking in the mountains, reach a false summit, and there's exercise equipment. It's not like the equipment in a normal private gym or anything, but everyone uses them. In public. Exercising in public is just an accepted part of life here. I have not had the courage to try more than a cursory nod to this equipment. Maybe one day I'll Grandma-up.

We have been trying to hike around the neighborhood, which is fun and engaging, but we have discovered an unsettling fact. There is an Association of Retired Grandmas Who Make People Look Bad. All the old women come to the outdoors and green spaces, just walk around, talk, socialize amongst themselves, etc. However, they also make people look bad, like my wife and me. We are in our mid- t0 late twenties, and these Grandmas are totally schooling us. by beating us up the mountains. A bunch of REI clad, North Face wearing grandmas are coming down off the mountain before we've even set foot on it. We go scampering up, and they keep coming down. I have no clue where they came from, but they just kept coming. I don't know when they started, but we started at 10 in the morning, and they are wrapping up their morning walk. We're sweating like Richard Simmons to get up this hill, and they just calmly walk by "Anye Haseo. Anye Haseo." without so much as the idea of sweat coming to them. Like it's perfectly natural for everyone and their grandmother to be out scaling a piece of rock that belongs in Yosemite.

To say that I felt humbled is a bit of reach, but I was embarrassed for sure. When was the last time you went hiking and got passed by the retirement home welcoming committee? I am sure that this will not be the last we see of the ARGWMPLB, but I'm hoping their powers of embarrassment stay out in the mountains.

Post Script - the 'mountains' here are really just hills, no higher than 2,500', but there are many of them and they make for good hiking.

the Buddha's birthday bash

Last week was the Buddha's birthday, which means that school was cancelled for two days and tens of thousands of people descended upon Seoul to take part in the cultural festivities. We, of course, were in the thick of it...

Saturday night had a huge parade that marched down the main street of Seoul with (estimated) 15,000 people in traditional Korean costume and carrying lanterns of all shapes and sizes. (pictures will be posted) The lantern floats were magical. After everyone had marched to the temple, groups of musicians playing traditional instruments played for the crowds in the street. It didn't take much encouraging to get me out there with them dancing. (It took a little more encouragment to get Justin to dance. Apparently, there is no photographic proof however-boo!) So now one of my life-long dreams has come true-I got to dance in the streets at a big festival.=)

The next day was filled with lots booths lining the streets. Most of them were lotus lantern making (which was lame), but we did take advantage of: free acupuncture (twice), tie-die scarf making, calligraphy, more calligraphy that a crusty old man did for us, incense making, and lots of traditional dancing/music. Our last stop before we headed home was the beautiful Buddhist temple (largest of it's kind in the world). We walked among ancient architecture, beautifully painted facades, and a really big tree. Afterward we came home exhausted, but happy we were taking advantage of our new city.

How we got to Seoul

Ok - this is long. I tried to shorten it, but it is still an epic tale. Where to begin?

Logically speaking, the beginning is a decent place to start, no apologies to Julie Andrews. Back in December 2010, Katrina and I were discussing our future, plans, goals, and desires that we had. We both wanted to travel. We both want to educate/empower the less advantaged as we travel. We also needed to set aside some savings with which to do these things. So we began to consider our options and opted to look into teaching English abroad. My cousin had been teaching English in Korea for several years, so I immediately asked him about it, and he ended up giving us not only good advice, but also job offers.

So, the first obstacle we had to overcome was paperwork – we got everything taken care of and sent off the paperwork to Daejeon (2 hours south of Seoul). (middle of January) We heard back a week later – two pieces of paperwork were incorrectly completed. It turns out that the Office of Foreign Affairs, or whichever bureaucracy allows foreign teachers in, had recently changed the criteria for work visas – and didn't seem to post them anywhere. At any rate, we ended up needing two things: an apostilled (authenticated) FBI background check, and a certified copy of our diplomas. The latter was easily taken care of. The former proved to be more laborious. It can take up to 12 weeks to get it back – we got ours back in four weeks (middle of February). Upon examination – the FBI had not completely filled it out to be authenticated, and in addition, it could not be authenticated anywhere except Washington D.C. So, we had to send it back to the FBI, who completed it, but instead of forwarding it to D.C. as requested, sent it back to us. So we then sent it to D.C., waited five weeks for that, and finally received it back. (end of March)

Now, we could send it back to Korea for their bureaucracy to deal with it. One week later, we have a visa issuance number. The next stage is for us to take this number and go to the consulate in Seattle for an interview so they can issue us our visa. Simple right? We show up as scheduled – and they wanted us to fill out all the paperwork (sans background check, thankfully)we already sent to Korea, and they did not care that we have spent the last 10 weeks getting a silly number that they do not care about. We oblige, as we don't feel like doing anymore back and forth. WE JUST WANT OUR FREAKIN' VISA.

As we are making plans to depart, we have one final trip to make to Pullman to say goodbye to friends and family. We take both of our cars. In addition to all the fun times we have had with our visa applications – we've been trying to sell our cars and get our apartment rented with little luck. Selling the cars was supposed to aid our ticket purchase over to Seoul. As it turns out, my parents had been looking into getting another car in preparation for their impending move to Utah. So, my parents decided to buy my Mazda Protege5, and at the last minute, my cousin agreed to buy our Nissan Pathfinder for his daughter's first car. I fully believe that the Pathfinder would have been an awesome first car. Would Have Been. On the return trip to Seattle, about 40 minutes out from home – the Pathfinder gives a loud BANG!, starts blowing smoke, and gives up the ghost. This sounds horrible – but so many things went right. It didn't seize up immediately, allowing us to pull over to the shoulder while coasting. A couple behind us immediately saw what happened, and offered to give us a ride to the next town (North Bend). We got ahold of our insurance, got it towed to a shop where they politely informed us that we had cracked the engine block. Somehow, I think my cousin might have gotten upset if that had been him. Just a feeling. To boot, we no longer had airline ticket money.

Back to the Korean Consulate in Seattle – the very next day they inform us that our visas are finally finally ready to pick up!! Yay! Except for the $90 we have to pay for the processing fee that we don't have for another three days. So, we decide to take one thing at a time. We have to get our Pathfinder towed to a salvage yard from the shop in North Bend. We make a few calls – and find a company to pay us to get it hauled away. We're paid...$100. So we merrily skip back to the consulate and pick up our visas.

We wrapped up some other details and work out funding for our plane tickets, and now we're in Seoul. There were many many more details that we spared you, but you get the gist of how frustrating and tedious the past few months have been. We are just so so so so happy to be here in Seoul and be settling in without a thousand things to do and without having to wait on multiple governments' bureaucracy.