back where we started

So here I am in Seoul again, writing from a PC bang (internet cafe, though really it's a bunch of high school and university age boys smoking and playing Starcraft) near Insadong. I came to Seoul via a two-hour train ride from Chuncheon. It's Sunday night, but because of finals, I don't have to be at school until Wednesday, so I decided to come to Seoul and spend tomorrow shopping, picking up some gifts and stuff, since I don't know when I'll get another chance to do that. I'm staying at the old standby, the Emerald Motel, practically the only place in Seoul I ever stay (I even took my mom there). I tried to get them to give me a discount since it's just me in a room for two, but the guy refused (the standard rate is 35, though they try to tell you 40, until you show them you're savvy, so it kind of makes sense that he wouldn't give me a 'second' discount). I felt a little put out by this, but I got the room anyway and on my way there I encountered a somewhat bewildered Korean man in the hallway who looked very happy to see me. He said something to me about the air conditioner and beckoned me into his room. His accent was a little odd, so at first I thought maybe he was a Japanese tourist, though I'm pretty sure he is Korean. I toed off my shoes and stepped in and realized, as he stood there mopping his brow, that he couldn't get his air conditioner to turn on. I showed him that he needed to use the remote control that also controls the TV, and when the air conditioner came on with a jingle he looked so happy, I decided it was worth the full price of the room just to help him out.

On Friday afternoon I took the train from Suncheon to Jeonju, a pleasant, cheap two-hour ride. I met Joanne there for lunch, and ice cream afterwards, which was fun, and then I met Rachel at the bus terminal to take a bus to Chuncheon. After being solicited by a Jehovah's Witness, which happens to me with strange frequency in Korea, we took the bus the 3 1/2 hours back to the town where we first set foot in Korea. I think less than an hour after arriving we were eating nokcha-pingsu (a sort of ice cream sundae with lots of fresh fruit and green tea flavoring sprinkled on top). And immediately after we finished the dessert, a number of new ETAs, out with their Korean language partners (members of the university's English conversation club), arrived to try it themselves, so we met a few new ETAs that night. I actually only met a few new ETAs the entire weekend, but those I did meet seemed very cool. We answered some questions they had about stuff like our schools and learning Korean, but they were still pretty jet-lagged since they all had only arrived in Korea the morning before.

Saturday afternoon, Rachel and I went to the meeting of the KEY club (Kangwon English Yard--Kangwon University is the school I mentioned above, and the location of the Fulbright ETA orientation). Rachel got a lot of the KEY club members this past winter as well as last summer. At the meeting we went to there was one guy I remembered from Orientation and that Rachel is pretty good friends with, and after the KEY Club meeting (which was an hour of English discussion and then a small talk in English by a KEY club member), our friend (English name Johnny) invited us to go to a board game bang (board game cafe). I'd never been to an establishment like this, so we went, along with two freshmen from KEY club. It was a lot of fun. We played an assortment of games. The most familiar one was Jenga, and the strangest was this completely random game where you stick little plastic swords into slots on this 'barrel' that has a 'pirate' in it, and one of the slots is a 'boobytrap' so that when a sword is inserted the pirate springs out of the barrel. The way we played, whoever got the boobytrap was hit with a plastic mallet as punishment.

After the board game cafe we were a little hungry, so we invited the three guys to come with us for another round of nokcha-pingsu. Afterwards, we had a couple hours before we had to meet some friends for dinner, but the boys (who, since they were all younger than us, called us 'nuna,' which I found really endearing) wanted to go to a noraebang (karaoke room) so we figured we could do that for an hour. It was a good time, though it's an activity I usually reserve for after I've had a few beers, and the three guys were really good singers (and really enjoyed themselves, which made it all the more fun).

After a dinner of dakkalbi (the chicken dish that is a Chuncheon speciality) with some other old ETAs, everyone convened at the old Sheriff bar that we used to go to during orientation. A lot of new ETAs showed up, and it was just as fun and chaotic as it was a year ago. Being back in Chuncheon, back in the area of Kangwon University, was really familiar and kind of nostalgic, but I also felt like I was viewing the place with new eyes, because of everything I've experienced over the past year. Everything looked clearer in a way, it felt more real, whereas when I was a new ETA there was so little I could really orient myself with, the town felt so limited because I couldn't speak the language, didn't really know how to get around, and spent so much time on campus. This time around I could see that there was so much more there than just the university, Sheriff, the nokcha-pingsu shops, FamilyMart and OK Pizza. Seeing the new ETAs evoked a similar feeling. I idenitified very strongly with what they were experiencing after just arriving here, but at the same time I feel like I've changed so much since last July, that I'm sort of outside of their experience. I was also wary of overwhelming them with too much information about what their experience may be like. I think it's usually better to experience stuff for yourself, rather than to be forewarned of everything you could possibly encounter.

Back during orientation, in addition to language partners, most of us had 'little sibs,' which were local students, mostly middle-school I think, who we met with a few times so that they could practice their English and we could learn about Korean culture, etc, first-hand. I only met my little sib, Jooyeon, twice, but she has kept in touch with me over the year by sending me text messages on my cell-phone every once in awhile. Thus I suggested that we meet up while I was in town. Today (after having my third and final serving of nokchapingsu and saying good-bye to Rachel, Joanne and Carolyn) I met her for lunch in downtown Chuncheon. I was a bit surprised at how much she'd grown in the past year. She was in her first year of middle school when we first met, and though she's pretty confident with English, she's a little quiet. We ate at Lotteria, a fast-food chain over here, then went to the underground shopping mall and got some sticker pictures made. We both had a lot of free time this afternoon, since I wasn't going all the way back to Suncheon, and she didn't need to study urgently because she'd finished finals, so we watched a movie in a DVD bang (a place where you can rent a movie and watch it on a big screen in a private room--I think this post has inadvertantly summarized every 'bang' there is in Korea). Then we said good-bye. Before taking a taxi to the train station, I gave her my address in the States so that she can write me. Often e-mails between Korean and American addresses don't go through effectively, and it'll be nice to get letters from her. She's a cute kid, and we have fun together even though we don't talk very much. I'll look forward to more occasional random messages over this next year, in the form of cute and bizarre Korean stationary in the mail.