A Day in Insadong

Let's get back to the blogging then. This is a post about an exciting day I had when I went to visit Insadong, located in Seoul, Korea. It's home to perhaps the highest concentration of gift shops in the world centered around one street, as well as art gallerys littered along the sides of the primary street. I knew I wanted to visit some art gallerys as well as pick up some art supplies.

My bus left at noon. I was waiting outside of the terminal when I checked my phone for the time. It was 11:51 so I figured I should get on the bus, though this was the last time I would see my phone for a while. I was looking through my pockets for it once the bus left, and found no sign of it. Oh no! More on that later.

I made it to Seoul and to Insadong fine, but my day was hindered by thoughts of whether I would ever see my cell again. I looked around a few gift shops looking for paper lanterns I could paint, and ran into a Korean man I had met before. His name was Jacob and he remembered me from a birthday party we both went to in Seosan, though I didn't remember him right away. He and his friend David invited me to lunch with them. I said no because I wanted to see art galleries before they closed, but these guys didn't take no for an answer. They said they would find the gallery I wanted to go to and then go to lunch from there, so I agreed.

The whole area was really nice along the side streets that contained the art gallerys.

The one I went to is called Kyungin Museum of Fine Art, which is a complex of about five buildings housing galleries with a nice courtyard and some sculptures.

We went through only one of the buildings and they were hungry enough that we decided to leave and look for food. We went to what turned out to be really great dok bokki. For anyone who doesn't know, this is cylindrical rice cakes in hot sauce, which my little sister likes to call fire noodles. The restaurant even had a great mascot:

"What's for lunch? Oh....my head. Well, let's dig in."

The dok bokki had some shellfish and noodles in it as well as the rice cakes. It was really really good.

A picture of Daniel:

And Jacob:

And me. We got to wear nice red aprons because the food is so sloppy.

After lunch we walked down some more of the streets in the Insadong area. It was super scenic, and we walked to the area where the president of Korea lives, The Blue House.

Here is a picture of what the main street of Insadong looks like on a Saturday:

I bid farewell to my new friends, and I was finally able to do the shopping I wanted. I picked up a few paper lanterns from a souvenier shop, and I also found a really great art store that had canvases, paint, and brushes:

So it was a nice day in Insadong, but there was still the matter of my phone. I got back to the bus station in Seosan at about 9:30 and started (trying) to ask around for a lost and found. This involved something very similar to a game of charades, but with real consequences. After being shown a bank of pay phones, I was led to an office around back of the station. The guy there let me call my phone to see if I could hear it, but nothing came up. He then thought of an old desk where some items like this are kept, and luckily the cell phone was in one of the drawers. Sweet relief!

Korea can be a great place because people tend to be honest about things like this and not go and make a dozen phone calls to Nigeria or something. So thanks to whoever picked up my phone!

Beautiful Daejeon

Well, this all happened two weeks ago Sunday when I decided to get out of Seosan for a day and visit the fifth largest city of Korea. The destination was Daejeon, located close to the center of the country, and home to booming tech and research industries.

I put the trip together pretty shortly before I left, so it wasn't really thoroughly planned. I had done reading on wikipedia, etc. about the city and read about a large park called Expo Park where an international exposition was held in 1993. Daejeon Museum of Art is also on the Expo Park grounds, so I figured this was good enough to kill a few hours.

I got to Daejeon at about noon, and this was when I encountered a problem. I arrived at the bus terminal in the city and found absolutely no information about how to get to the park in my native language. I walked the area around the bus terminal for a while and didn't see anything, then asked a random guy in the bus station hoping he spoke English. Luckily, he spoke a little bit and pointed me in a somewhat right direction.

His directions were to walk down the street and turn right to find a bus, so I walked down there and didn't see much. Luckily again, I found a tourist hotel and talked to the desk worker. He showed me a bus map, told me which bus numbers would go to the park, and also where the bus stop was.

So this was another misdirection because none of the buses that went to the stop I was at where on the list he gave me. Bummer. This was when I decided to just hail a taxi, and I was on my way.

I made it the park grounds, and it felt deserted. I went to a restaurant that staffed five people, and was one of four people eating there at 1:30 in the afternoon. The grounds were interesting because all of the giant monuments, but the fact that they were nearly deserted was my favorite part.

Wandering around the empty grounds gave me the feeling that this would be a great location for a zombie movie. I would walk around the various landmarks being chased by slow moving flesh hunting villains. Just in time, I would grab one of the umbrellas pictured above and use it as an implement to bludgeon the demons in the head.

I would then find this deserted tram to ride to safety, having to throw the zombies off of the tram who had found a way to get on.

Anyway, zombie movie aside, the park was a nice place. One of my favorite parts was Expo Bridge, which I had to walk over to get to the art museum. This city did some smart planning by putting a running track and park right next to the river, making for a very pleasant walk.

I walked over the bridge and then past this giant roof structure, and found that the planner of the park lined up the roof, the bridge, and Hanbit Tower (part of the grounds). Thanks for the nice picture, guy!

Right behind that ever so great picture was a massive paved area which was most likely a parking lot during the expo. Now it's an area used to rent out bikes and motor powered vehicles to small children. It was fun to watch, so I picked up a corn dog and a beer and chilled out there, drinking beer in public in front of children.

The area near the museum was nice, with this fountain walkway. It was a brisk fall afternoon, so I had to time my walk to miss the spray.

The art museum was OK, there was a giant space-themed exhibit going on which was a little bland. They did have these cool tiled space invaders put in random spots throughout the museum.

This was a giant room devoted to a projection screen and an image of a rock floating up and down above the sea bed. I decided to become a part of this art with my silhouette.

This was one where you walk in front of a camera, and you can see yourself on a screen with images of you being staggered behind you at a few frames per second. I tried to get a picture of it, but it's tough to try to pose while holding the camera and taking a picture of the screen.

It did end up being a nice day, Daejeon had already seen many of its trees change colors.

I decided to talk all the way back to the bus station from the park, which had been a ten or so minute taxi ride. It made for a nice trip, also because I walked on many side streets and found a lot of great restaurant mascots, so expect a mascot post in the near future.

One of the strangest things about this city was that in my five or so hours I spent there, I didn't see a single other non-Korean person. I figured I would see some since the city has about a million and a half people and there should theoretically be a lot. I guess I just didn't visit the areas they hang out in.

A Little Seoul

I'm finally getting to write about this a little late, but better late than never. Anyway, last weekend (seriously feels like a month ago) I went to Seoul with a new friend Lisa from the UK, where we met another foreigner from the UK named Paul. Our plan was to go to the Seoul Arts Center, which is basically a large art museum. The trip to Seoul is easy, only costing about seven dollars and lasting a little over an hour and half. Of course, both Lisa and I were going on about four hours of sleep and hung over so that was the only difficult part. She got shushed by a Korean woman in front of us which she found really annoying and I found a little funny, it must have happened to her before.

While there I got to revisit some of my favorite American foods. We made stops at a Subway, a Starbucks, a Mexican restaurant, and a Coldstone Creamery. There is this section of Seoul called Itaewon loaded with foreigners and you can find almost anything American there. The Subway was a little disappointing, mostly because I love the $5 footlong deal. I ended up paying 9k Won for a footlong turkey sub and a softdrink. Subway, here's a thought: All you have to do is write a catchy song just like in the USA.

A suggestion:

Five

Five thousand

Five thousand Won quarter meter!

I think it is almost as catchy as the US version, so you know, think about it.

I might as well just go to the photos then.

We were in a large shopping district near the arts center. The streets were pretty crowded here, and if you look closely you can see Lisa taking a photo as well as Paul in the red shirt.

This is the Seoul Arts Center, which was pretty great. The exhibits were a little pricey where you had to pay 8k Won for each small exhibit. We only did two: one with sculpture and one about photography. I'll just say that the photography one really blew and we were out of there in about 6 minutes. The next photos are from the sculpture and art section.

This is some cool fireman thing I really liked. It's life-size.

The exhibit running was all about superstars and icons, and art which captures them. Fittingly, here are the three major icons in America, at least I'm pretty sure they have each appeared on plates more than anybody else. These are made out of some paint and then the darker areas are actually fly paper where bugs were allowed to stick to it and form the image.

This was one of my favorites. Some artist paints trees that also look like superstars, featuring one of Jesus and an icon pictured here. I'll let you guess who it is.

I sniped this photo of Mr. Lazy (see t-shirt) at this area where you could act like you were getting press photos of yourself.

Since this was about icons, of course there is Mr. Jackson. I can faintly hear him going "He he he" while doing this crotch grab.

Near the entrance of the building are these giant wicker type figures. I found this cool angle where it's like he's inviting you in. Or trying to pick you up and eat you. Whatever.

Overall the trip was really fun, but a little short. Lisa wasn't feeling well due to getting very little sleep and the fact that the pollution can get bad in Seoul. Her sinuses may or may not have been about to explode. I liked the limited areas of Seoul I was able to see, and it's interesting to see how many foreigners are there. They are basically on every street corner. It is a very expensive city, though. I spent that 9k on Subway, about 20k for my chimichanga which wasn't very good, and 7k at Coldstone.

I do have to mention one more thing. The art exhibit about icons and superstars gave us a translated tour page which some very interesting interpretations of the art. I find this translated interpretation of the abstract art works extremely fascinating. Here are a select few:

"The general public have their own icons in mind. They compare themselves with the icons. It is kind of longing and wishes. This symptom spreads through people. The public are often satisfied with some aspects of stars which they don't have."

"Zou Cao confines his subject matter as a star within the frame of a fingerprint. Remember the fact the fingerprint is the one of the middle finger. He intends to reveal his sardonic laugh at idols and capital. This work shows and artist's creed to confront against the awe of a star."

"A Certain Silence: Who is the star?

As we are indulged in a star and intoxicated with luxury goods, we cannot be aware of the one who is opposite them. Or we just don't want to know. The public's devotion for stars is vain and fruitless. Aren't all of us the one who waits for Godot? [they might have meant God there] People surprisingly intend not to confront the reality. We turn away our eyes in front of the subject that should be treated as a superstar for good reason."

"Seeing Lee Jong Gu's cow, we come to confront the truth. Fields and farmers that still exist as clear as crystal have been obscured under the cloak of modernization. Nonetheless, who can deny that a cow gazing at us with its big eyes and farmers taking a rest to cool down deserve the name as a star? What is the point to wear the farmer a Hermes watch on his wrist who comes from the earth and wishes to go back to it."

"There are so many stars around us. We take courage and find new hopes from them. And sometimes we become depressed in spirit and despair because of them...........What should be recognized here is the elaboration and creativeness of the artists who drag a star into their subject matters. I hope you can find the pleasure of reading works of art and experience of self-reflection as well."