Seoul Searching

My apologies for this tardy post regarding my wonderful weekend in Seoul. It was a great adventure that included the memorial museum, a Billy Joel concert, the Korean war memorial museum, and shenanigans around the city. The company was more than pleasant and included Jason, Dave, Scott, Jared and myself. We were able to leave comfortably after school on Friday around 7pm and boarded the Bullet train out of Busan to Seoul station. This 3 hour journey was well worth the 75,000won round trip tickets which amounts to about $50. The bullet train reached speeds up to 310 kilometers/hour and was a super smooth ride. We had stocked our table area on the train with Soju (rice vodka) and orange juice in anticipation on a night out on the town. All the while. we energetically played cards. Most games were introduced by Dave... who, being from Brittan, had a bunch of new ideas that us Americans had never heard of before. We excitedly exited the train and went searching for our backpacker's hostel by the name of "Bong House".

After finding the "Bong House" with little difficulty, we were greeted by a super friendly, young, Korean man, who seemed to think everything we said was funny, and giggled all the way out of the room. Our beds were bunk style, with a strange Eastern European man already staying there by the name of Mantis. Yes... he said his name was Mantis. He dressed in leather and had long hair, and a long beard, but seemed harmless. No one brought anything of true value with them either... so we just joked about this character who was apparently working in Japan and got kicked out due to his visa running out. He was planning to leave Korea that Sunday.

So, on to the night in Itaewon. Itaewon is where the shopping district is, it is known for being the most foreign friendly and populous part of town. It's also where the US military base is. So, we arrived in Itaewon and started walking around, people watching, and were struck by the immense amount of HUGE men. The military boys were out and so were the military police who were in charge of keeping their men out of trouble when they went out drinking. There was all of a sudden a crazy amount of diversity and I felt as though I wasn't in Asia anymore. We found a small pub that showed American sports on TV, and got some drinks. Every person in the pub was a westerner, and it was a welcomed change. The boys decided that we should stay in the pub until the Military curfew, which was 1am. Then, we would venture out and explore without the mutants staring us down. It was much more pleasant after they went to bed. We went to another place, maybe 2 and we were pushing ourselves to stay out beyond our energy. Finally, someone said they were tired and the 5 of us jumped on board and called it a night.

The next day, we woke up late, got some Dunkin' Dohnuts and made our way to the Korean war Memorial and museum. It was a dreary day and was quite fitting for what we were observing. The memorials were beautiful bronze statues of people, and a strange phallus that jutted out from a pit. Jared, in a rush to complete a videotape, before the rain started coming down harder, threw his hat down the pit of the memorial. Not just any hat, but his Detroit Tigers hat that he had warn for years. It was a sad, sad event... We stared at the hat longingly at the bottom of this stone pit, surrounded by windows and no way to get it back.

The rest of the museum was wonderful. Outside, were dozens of old jets and planes from the era from all different countries. Also on display were guns, tanks, missiles, and any other war thing you could imagine. I wondered around by myself for a bit while the boys seemingly roll played going in tanks and shooting guns.... The inside of the museum was great too. It wasn't very English friendly but we were happy to see the relics and artifacts from the war. There were also recreations of other Korean historical events, ships, temples, and just cool stuff to look at.

We left the museum to meet my friend Paula back in Itaewon. I met Paula when working at Long Lake Camp for the Arts back in the summer of 2006. She had just started working for public schools in Seoul about a month earlier. It was awesome to see a familiar face from my "real" life from before Korea. We went to this WONDERFUL Irish restaurant and I had a tasty bloody Mary, yummy chicken curry with rice, and a delightful Irish coffee to finish. If I had to pick one meal for the rest of my time in Korea, that would have been it. Alas, we had to cut the visit short to make our way to the Billy Joel concert.

Now, we booked our tickets thinking that the opportunity to see Billy Joel in Seoul, South Korea couldn't be missed. We also bought the cheapest tickets they sold, which were 45,000won a piece. This amounts to about 30 bucks. Therefore, we were more than pleasantly surprised when we discovered our seats were about 200 ft from the stage. We not only could see the stage well, but we could actually see his face while he was playing the piano. Smiles all around! Anyhow, the concert started and Billy did not seem happy. He was scowling, and screaming at someone back stage. Then he introduces himself to the audience and says "Does anyone here even speak English?" He was mad because the projector that showed him the words wasn't working.

The concert started with old songs that Jared and I didn't even know. But then, busted into the oldie but goodies. I've never been to a concert where people are so excited to be clapping in unison to the artist. But, this stadium full of Koreans was happily sitting down and energetically clapping to all of the songs. Then, a small group of people decided to rush the stage and all chaos broke out.

The security at a Billy Joel concert in Korea is less than intense, and the people were expected to be good little spectators and stay seated and clap wildly. Therefore, when people went up in front, the teenagers in neon vests, working security, didn't know what to do. So, they closed the gates to get down to the floor, while people from all over the stadium made a beeline to the front. Suddenly, the song"In the middle of the night" came on, and security decided that in the midst of the song they should disperse the crowd back to their seats. Just like any performer would, Billy stopped the show and started yelling at the security to let the people stay up front. It was GREAT! At that point I decided that we needed to join the party, and make our way up front.

So, we jumped over some gates, leaped over some security guards, and found ourselves dancing on the floor 50ft from the Piano Man himself. Then, row by row, like a reverse wave at a football game, everyone started sitting down. Suddenly, in a crowd of 1,600 people I was the only one dancing, no less standing. Following my lead, the Koreans behind me got up and danced too until a meek little security guard politely asked them to sit down, and they did. But, being high on life, I didn't. So, they stood up again... and then, soon, the whole front section was standing up and dancing. Suddenly, I felt pressure on my shoulders, and a man, out of uniform had his arm around me saying, "you need to sit down" and just then, a path to the front of the state opened up and Jared and I bolted to be in the front row. We were able to be in the front row for the last two songs, and the on chore of Piano man! We were, at times, 2ft from the stage. What an experience!

Leaving the arena, feeling great, we made our way to meet the boys. We arrived at a bar where we found them with a slew of Korean girls, all giggling and taking pictures of each other. Then the night spanned into a maze of random streets and night life. We got separated from Jason and Scott, who went off with the girls to a club, and spent way too long trying to find them. At one point we sent a Korean girl who worked at a club inside to tell Scott we were there. We assumed that he wasn't even in the bar, but sure enough, in a sea of Koreans a westerner is not hard to spot.

We made it back to the hostel safe and sound, and were back at the train by 1pm the next day. It was a great weekend, with great people. I just hope next time I go I'll be able to do some shopping!

Thank you for reading!