Tag: Korea

Though I had no complaints* about the hostel I was staying in, when the week I paid for ran out, I decided to change locations. It is maybe a bit too comfortable in Haeundae where most days I barely venture to eat or drink coffee outside a 100m range of the hostel. Furthermore, I had heard from some expats that Haeundae is like its own world apart from Busan, so I was starting to worry that I wasn’t experiencing the “real” Busan. I booked an Airbnb in a more central location to accommodate the change.

I didn’t wake up as early as I wanted and didn’t have the energy for the long run I had planned to take in the morning, but still go out there to log another run along the beautiful Haeundae beach. After a quick shower, I made a pot of ramen noodles to finish off the lettuce and chicken from a few days ago. I went back upstairs to pack up and after bringing my stuff down, I had a second breakfast and worked on my computer until noon.

I dragged my stuff to the subway and rode the 30 minute distance to Seomyeon. The area is like an entirely different world, crowded with people, restaurants, and shops. I met my classmate for lunch (my treat this time) and followed by coffee.

There were tons of tempting places to eat and even several clusters of street food to sample, but I was so full from lunch, I wanted to keep it light with a salad. I headed over to the nearest Home Plus to buy enough salad to last two days, and spent the whole evening in my private studio apartment with a double-double bed. The most exciting part of having a private apartment was that there was a washing machine and detergent. I have been hand washing my socks and underwear regularly, some shirts occasionally, but these jeans I wear every day have gone six weeks without a launder. I don’t have another pair of pants to wear while waiting for them to dry. I had a chance to do a lot of laundry (by hand) in Daegu, but access to a washing machine was almost worth the price differential over the hostel (which would charge 5000 a pop).

I finished Pride and Prejudice and spent some time browsing the Chinese reading app on my phone for other books. I reread the first chapter of
Pride and Prejudice in translation and found that entertaining, but wasn’t willing to pay for more than the free preview. I do need to get a Chinese book in my rotation to keep that low frequency, literary vocabulary fresh.

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*One actual complaint is I had a weird roommate for almost the whole week. I never saw him in person, but he was literally in his bunk 20 hours a day doing God knows what (there are privacy curtains). But, seriously, I went in and out of the room morning, afternoon, and evening, and he was always in there.

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Thursday morning was cold. The weather app said there were snow flurries, but I didn’t see anything outside the window. I had a coffee and went out to exercise. I had about a kilometer on the streets before reaching Busan Citizens Park, on the other side of the train tracks. It’s a huge park, and was beautiful in the bright sunlight. I jogged haphazardly along the intersecting paths, often returning to a cluster of exercise equipment in the northwest corner to do a set of pull ups.

I had a lunch date and arrived at the restaurant a few minutes early. There was an old auntie in the lane telling passersby to come into eat. I was able to convey in Korean that I will eat there in a bit, but I was just waiting for a friend first. While waiting, I looked up and down the street at all the enticing restaurants with bright signs advertising delicacies I’ve never even heard of. I wish I could throw this diet out the window and start eating 5 meals a day, but then again, a meal is so filling, always coming with rice and banchan. Once again, I ate too much at lunch, but had a leisurely afternoon in a cafe to digest over conversation.

March 14th is “White Day” in Korea, a sort of local Valentine’s Day. Apparently, the custom is for women to give men chocolates on February 14th and for men to give women candy on March 14. I gave an avocado.

They were doing street repairs outside my apartment from 8 pm until 7 am. Oh, that was annoying.

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Jjimdalk	23000 W
Salads	5980 W
Airbnb	56.78 USD
Sports Drink	2000 W
Stir Fried Pork	21000 W
Bibimbap	5500 W
Total:	729 RMB (USD 108.5)

Running Total:
11034 RMB
(USD 1643)
Daily Average:
240 RMB
(USD 35.7)

Monday morning was clear again after the rain, though the air quality was already back to the baseline mid-50s. After digesting my breakfast, I went out for my longest run yet–15.5 km. Midway through the run, I stopped to take a photo and saw a message from my parents. Oh yeah, Monday morning, Skype time. I wrapped up the run as quickly as I could, and dug out my computer for the monthly check-in.

While talking, one of the hostel workers came by to give me a gift bag, thanking me again for helping them shoot the hostel promo. It was a canvas tote bag, which is always useful, and a mug, which just makes me laugh. So, I’m already the crazy guy who carries a mug around so I can use my Aeropress to make coffee, but now I have two mugs. It’s a lot of extra weight in the suitcase to lug around. I’ll have to figure out something to do with it, especially as I kind of prefer the one I already have — a freebie from a conference — which has a picture of a brain and the Guangzhou skyline on it, versus just the name of the hostel.

After a quick shower, I had lunch at my usual spot, ordering the Soybean Paste Stew, and drinking a whole pitcher of water. I had just gotten back to the hostel and plopped down on the couch to zone out, when I had another call to take over WeChat. By the time that was over, the exercise and meal were wearing me down, so I took a quick power nap before heading across the street to get a free coffee and get a little bit of work done.

In the late afternoon, I headed over to Home Plus to buy a salad, but took my time exploring options to get more nutrients and stretch a dollar. I found a pack of pre-cooked (oven roasted) chicken breast that was basically the same unit price as fresh chicken breasts and avocados were also on sale, though the price would still shock anyone in the US. They worked out to about a dollar each or the price of a bottle of soju. Although on second thought, nine bottles of soju might be fun.

I tried to do a bit more writing or studying in the evening, but I couldn’t quite get in the mood. I’ve noticed, I’m losing my mojo. Even for Korean studying, the motivation is flagging. I went up to bed fairly early and read for about an hour before turning off the light.

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While I was downstairs making my coffee in the morning, I got a call from someone I haven’t seen in a few years. I guess I need to finalize some plans to add 3 months in Europe to this global trek and add a visit to Paris. I suppose I wouldn’t mind some A1 level French. Merde!

I walked over to the Busan City Museum of Art and toured all the galleries on the third floor, which consisted only of a exhibition (“Unbelievably Heavy, Awfully Keen”) to a contemporary Busan-based artist and a smaller handful of pieces listed as donations from some rich person. I was quite impressed by Bang Jeong-A’s artwork and sense of humor. Some of the works were quite psychedelic and the names of the paintings surpassed the usual descriptive — self-important spectrum one often finds on the title placards. For example: “He Had a Grudge Against His Unfaithful Girlfriend who was Living with him and…”, “Take This, You Brats”, “What Made Her Life So Miserable?”, and “Goons–Yes! Bro, Bro, Bro.”

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Wonderful exhibition of #art by 방정아 (Bang Jeong-a) at the Busan City Art Museum #부산시립미술관 Go visit before it ends on June 9!

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On the way back to the hostel, I swung by Home Plus again to get more salad fixings and a snack, and ate at the hostel. I opted against a full-on nap, but ended up dozing on a couch in the coffee shop after reading for a bit. I’m maybe a day from finishing Pride and Prejudice. Speaking of literature, I was perusing Twitter and found a discussion of which books a guy says is his favorite is a giant red flag. Scrolling down, I think I’ve read 80% of the titles and authors being piled on and definitely enjoyed them. I get how saying a particular book is your favorite may reveal the shallowness of your intellect, but I feel like we are moving closer to some book burnings. There seems to be Cultural Revolution-style mob mentality rampant through the progressive circles of the online community, and even a recent oped arguing this point aroused an inordinate amount of wrath from the China twitterati. Nevertheless, the fact that thought policing and identity politics are starting to be satirized suggests a reversion to the mean may be coming.

Anyways, in the late afternoon, despite being a little hazy, I went out for a short run along Haeundae beach alternating sprints and jogging. Without even showering, I changed to less smelly clothes and went to get a haircut in an old school barbershop. The barbershop was “straight out of central casting,” with 60s music on the radio and a DJ running through the events of 1966 while introducing each song. Despite being traditional, it was luxury and probably the most expensive haircut I’ve had in my life. I kept looking at the price list, which had numbers like 3, 5, 7, 1.5, and thinking those prices seem way too cheap. Well, instead being multiples of a thousand (which is the norm when abbreviating in Korea, especially as 1000 won is about a dollar), they were multiples of 10,000. C’est la vie. The barber spoke English and it was a much better experience than a hair salon.

I went directly to dinner afterwards, checking out a restaurant from the list of recommendations in the hostel. As I was heading back the 100m or so to the hostel, some large drops of rain started falling. I plopped down on the couch just as Eat, Pray, Love was starting on the projector. I was almost tempted to watch but it isn’t really the environment to follow a movie. I played on my phone, but regularly looked up to marvel at the style of exoticism that appeals to middle America. I couldn’t feel more like a farang if I was walking down Khao San road in fisheman pants and a Chang tank top. On the other hand, I would be willing to pay money for a movie that was just Julia Roberts eating pasta. And now I am imagining a whole series of films of famous actresses eating various foods. Heavens.

I went upstairs early and kept reading Pride and Prejudice, but was interrupted at some point to Facetime yet another person. I spent nearly an hour in the stairwell, where I could get a decent Wifi signal. At the end of which, both of us agreed as to how weird the situation (the call, not the circumstances of where I took it) was. Then, straight to bed.

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Lunch (Duinjiang jjigae)	6,000
Home Plus	23850
Subtotal	29850
Home Plus	11990
Haircut	30000
Dinner (Suyuk)	10000
Subtotal	51990
Total:	81840 (495 RMB) (USD 73.76)

Running Total:
10305 RMB
(USD 1535.6)
Daily Average:
234 RMB
(USD 34.9)

I had breakfast as usual on Saturday morning, and after allowing myself enough time to digest, I changed into my exercise clothes and took a jog. I went all the way over to Gwanan Beach, a distance of 7 km one-way. I took a short cut on the way back meaning the entire distance was only 13 km. Actually, at the end, I was running up and down the street in front of the hostel to get me from 12.8 km to an even 13. It is a good running course for the most part with only one stop light to worry about and pretty much always next to the water.

Back at the hostel, I was drinking water and chatting with the weekend worker when a guest came in. She had stayed in a different part of town but didn’t feel comfortable out and about at night, so she was considering moving over here for the night. She asked if there would be any events going on that night, and the employee, whom I will call Yeon, answered that he was having friends over to the hostel for a little party.

I, on the other hand, actually had some plans. My college classmate (I have quite a few of them), well technically my shimei (little sister), was going to meet me for dinner after work. She forwarded me a link to a restaurant near in my area and I had a bit of sticker shock at the price list. 60-70 dollars for 100g of beef on the barbecue. Yikes.

I met her at the subway station, and despite my hopes to practice a little Korean, we stuck to Chinese, our usual lingua franca. I was struck by how rusty my spoken Chinese was (so I guess I wasn’t fluently chatting in pure Chinese the other night). We didn’t go for the insanely priced beef, ordering a mountain of pork belly instead and had a feast of a dinner. She picked up the tab, but I was able to get the Starbucks afterwards. I managed to get some positive feedback on my weeks of Korean studying by showing off some knowledge of vocabulary words.

I walked her to the bus station so she could go home (her parent’s home, technically in the next city over), then walked back to the hostel. The previously mentioned party was in “full swing,” a few people hanging around the kitchen island drinking beer and wine out of a box (equivalent to 7 bottles). An invitation to join was accepted.

There were three Korean men, one of whom was a sports model, but they were constantly coming and going–presumably to smoke–and there was one girl. She was very pretty. I had noticed her in the morning and wanted to say hi, but was too shy. It turns out she was Japanese and spoke good English. Two Korean girls joined they party and I was fairly overwhelmed by the beauty on display. I couldn’t believe all three of them were between 20 and 22 years old. I wish I was as young as I look.

There was a Japanese couple — on their honeymoon — somewhat party adjacent and two other Japanese girls were brought on board shifting the balance from Korean to Japanese (though everyone seemed to be fairly fluent in Korean). I could recall enough Japanese to say “I’m American,” “I don’t understand Japanese,” and “are you okay?” It’s completely unfair how I’m trying to approach Korean with a laser focus, but I’m constantly being present opportunities to converse in Spanish, German, or Japanese. One language at a time.

I didn’t speak much and mostly just tried to pick up as much of the conversations as I could. A Brazilian guy who was craving a friend came over and was relieved to find I could speak English. We talked for a bit, all the while I was thinking how much I’d rather he go away so I could keep practicing my listening. It didn’t matter much because two Air Force guys on a hall pass for the weekend joined the party with a half bottle of Jack Daniel’s Honey Whisky. They just went for it with the pair of Japanese girls, doing their best to make conversation through a translation app on the phone.

The Korean American one at some made a comment to me about trying to keep his buddy out of trouble. So, when I noticed the airman was starting to drunkenly paw at one of the Japanese girls and she was receptive to his advances, I stepped in to cock block him. I merely conveyed to her that he had a wife so she could make her own decision. Ironically, not long later, I noticed the Korean American airman and the other Japanese girl come back in about 40 seconds apart and it occurred to me that they had both been gone for some while. I didn’t get the age of these two girls, but it would be fair to assume they are in their early 20s, and I know the two airmen were slightly older than me.

One by one, everyone went off to bed and I got stuck polishing off the Jack with one of the airmen until 2 or 3 in the morning.

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I had a hangover the next morning for sure. I had talked to the two airmen about going to a sauna and when they stumbled down during the breakfast time, we confirmed our intentions to recuperate with hydrotherapy. Busan has some hot springs in the north and one of the many hotels in the “hot spring village” purports to be the largest in Asia. I went on my last visit and I’ve been itching to go again. Unfortunately, when I piled into a cab with the two airmen and another random Korean guy, they wanted to go to one in a downtown shopping mall. Spaland certainly covered the bases in the sauna area and had a very impressive jjimjilbang (the section where you roam about in pajamas). I got stuck in the front of the cab, which is the universal sign that I had to pay. It wasn’t much (as in it would have basically been a dollar each) and I drank a lot of free alcohol the night before, so I tried not to let it bother me. (If the roles were reversed I would offer a 1000 won note).

While I was still going through my cold tub/steam bath routine, I noticed that all three guys had disappeared. That’s odd, they all just left without saying anything. I finished up and headed into the public section, where I found them without really looking for them. I tried to take a nap on reclining easy chair in the relaxation room, but couldn’t quite fall asleep. Around noon, one of them got hungry and they collectively decided to leave the sauna for lunch. Considering how gd expensive the place was, I wasn’t really keen to make such a short stay, but I did have a video game tournament I could go to in the afternoon.

I took my leave of them and hopped on the subway to go to HQ Bar in Gwananli. I swear everyone on my subway car looked like a supermodel. I’m thinking a switch has been flipped in my head. How have I been here over a month with my head in the lofty clouds not noticing how insanely beautiful Korean women are? Walking down to the beach from the subway station, it looked like I had enough time to grab a lunch first, so when I passed a place serving oxbone soup, I popped in. Everyone in the place turned to look at me as I walked in. Even the restaurant had quite a few beautiful women in it. This is definitely the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon at work. I found my eyes kept wandering over

I rocked into HQ Bar at 2pm to find it not very crowded. I ordered a Coke and played a few warm up games of Ultimate Smash Bros. I couldn’t believe the turnout, 24 people competed and there were easily close 40 people in the bar all afternoon. A lot of people brought their own Nintendo Switches and controllers. Entrance was free, so I was happy to just not be the worst player, and considering I only had maybe two weeks of “training” in Beijing (shout out to Bearguy), I am satisfied with my performance. I squeaked out a close win in the first round of eliminations, and even though I lost the second round I did get one KO in.

I chatted with quite a few people over the four hours I was there, and though a lot of people looked really familiar (from pub quiz), I couldn’t be sure. I feel like my years in Beijing have made prejudiced against English teachers, as if it is a dirty word. It seems like a decent profession in Korea. One guy I was talking to actually had a teaching degree so its not like stereotype of fresh college graduates taking one or two years to goof off overseas. I eventually ordered a beer and then another one with a double cheeseburger. It was expensive, but hot damn, it was good.

The rain seemed to have finally tapered off so I walked back to the hostel from the bar during what would have been sunset if not for the thick cloud cover. I did my best to hydrate and stay awake until a reasonable hour to go to sleep.

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Lunch (Set meal with fish cake soup)	6000
Cookie (with free coffee)	1000
Starbucks	10100
Day 41 Subtotal:	17100
Cab	4900
Spaland (adult, weekend price)	18000
Beef soup	6000
Coke	3000
Beers	8000
Double Cheeseburger	15000
Day 42 Subtotal:	54900
Total:	72000 W (435.6 RMB) (USD 64.78)

Running Total: 9810 RMB (USD 1459)
Daily Average: 233.5 RMB (USD 34.7)

I slept well and had about an hour to drink coffee and study before breakfast officially began. It’s a generous, if carb heavy (not that I am giving any fcks about carbs) spread: ramen, cereal, and toast.

After changing into day clothes, I took off to a nearby cinema to catch the first showing of Captain Marvel. I got there right at the scheduled start time, but there was about a ten minute window of commercials and trailers. Despite being a 9:20 am showing, there were about at least a dozen people in the decent sized theater. I was happy to find the ticket price to be half of what I scoped out in another theater. The movie was a solid, if uninspired, Marvel entry. Brie Larson seemed to be doing more posing with attitude than acting. I kept imagining the alternate universe where Hillary won, and seeing the movie as the victory lap it deserved to be, rather than the “girl power” anthem that feels hollow in the real rage of the #metoo era. I suppose it is an example of art imitating life. Black Panther (i.e. Obama) blew the socks off everyone, while Captain Marvel (i.e. Hillary) falls a little short. In any case, I’m looking forward to End Game next month.

I chilled back in the hostel lobby for about half an hour before going to lunch. There is a reasonably priced old-school Korean restaurant just down the street, and I am planning to go their pretty much everyday. The clientele is all middle aged men and construction workers, so its right up my alley. Of course, I had kimchi stew, but I swear I’ll eventually try everything on the menu.

I took a nap and continued studying Korean through the afternoon, until it was time to go for a run. I did two laps along the beach and tried to up the pace over a shorter distance. I showered and immediately went to the Home Plus to grab a salad and some sort of snacky thing.

In the afternoon, I had googled “pub quiz Busan” on a lark, and found a bar that was hosting a pub quiz that very night. Though I had been hoping to keep my dry streak going a couple more days, its been too long since my last trivia. I took the subway over to the Gwangan beach area where “HQ Gwangan” is located to find the bar completely devoid of people. The quiz was scheduled to begin at 9:30 (which is completely insane), and I rolled in just after 8. How was there no one there grabbing a burger and a drink to unwind after work? By nine, the place was hopping with English teachers. I joined the team of the guys sitting next to me playing Scrabble at the bar.

So apparently, all the pub quizzes in Korea turn it into straight up gambling. Everyone pays in (2 bucks a person) and the winning team takes the pot. That is one way to balance team sizes. We had a decent showing in a three way tie for second, but there was no scenario where we could have answered differently to get us in to first place. My teammates have already invited me to join them next week.

I left with enough time to catch the subway back to Haeundae, and swung by the GS25 to grab a little snack as a 夜宵 (ye4xiao1) because I was really feeling the three beers I had drunk over 3 hours. The spicy ttoekbokki was probably a bad idea, but it didn’t keep me from falling straight asleep. There was no one else in my dorm, so I didn’t have to pretend to try to be quiet coming in and brushing my teeth.

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Friday morning, I was hanging around downstairs quietly working during the breakfast rush, when I was asked to help shoot a promo video for the hostel. The manager had asked me the other day and I agreed since I like the place well enough. I ran upstairs to get cleaned up and shave. It was just a few minutes of me acting like I was helping myself to the breakfast, and since I can’t waste food, I ate a second breakfast. I was given a few vouchers for free coffee by way of thanks.

Since I had two breakfasts, I figured I could skip lunch and took a long nap instead. In the afternoon, I redeemed one of the vouchers for an Americano in the hostel’s cafe. The cafe space in the other building is actually a lot more cozy than the fairly sterile lobby/lounge in the building where my dorm is.

I was getting really restless by mid-afternoon, but as the pollution had crept up beyond my running threshold I couldn’t go for a run. I did take a long walk, winding my way up and down most of the streets in the fairly smallish Haeundae neighborhood. It was nice to get out of the hostel, but I still had the problem of nothing to do and feeling overwhelmed by ennui.

At 5 pm, I moseyed over to the supermarket next door and grabbed a bottle of pomegranate soju. I busied myself with vocabulary while working my way through the bottle slowly and managed to forget my ennui. I suppose the many groups of people checking in provided some degree of distraction as well.

When I finished the soju, I headed over to my “favorite” restaurant to try something else off the menu, and I picked up another bottle of original soju on the way back to the hostel. I noticed a police car parked in the street and there were two cops in the lobby talking with the front desk. When they left, I asked the guy at the front desk what was up. Apparently, a guest had dropped a wallet outside the hostel in the morning and it disappeared. So, maybe Korea isn’t as perfectly safe as I have been imagining it.

The evening picked up from there as I was relaxing into the soju. A Metallica song somehow found its way onto the playlist which is usually just a dozen generic pop songs on infinite loop (thanks to Youtube’s algorithm), and a Latvian girl struck up a conversation with me when she noticed I was rocking out. We chatted while she was eating her bento box dinner and had a bit of soju together. She has tickets to see them in the summer (jealous!), though the thought occurs to me if I’m kicking around Europe in the summer, I might be able to attend some concerts. We took a stroll around a nearby park to soak up the night scenery.

Back at the hostel, she went straight up to go to sleep, but I had half a bottle of soju left in the fridge to drink. There was a large party of Chinese speaking folks chowing down on bowls of instant noodles and takeout boxes of crab legs. (Srsly wtf). I asked them where they were from in Chinese, they answered Taiwan, and then promptly cleared out. (Srsly wtf).

By the time I finished my soju, it was maybe 10 and the lounge was empty except for a Chinese girl taking photos of everything on her phone. I honestly can’t for the life of me remember if we conversed in English or Chinese, but we talked for a while. I was slightly disappointed to find I had some roommates snoring away, but such is life.

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Movie Matinee	6000
Lunch (Kimchi stew)	6000
Dinner (Salad + Snack)	5190
Beers	19000
Subtotal:	36190
Snack	1350
Soju	1400
Hangover Soup	7000
Soju	1400
Subtotal:	11150
Total:	47340 W (286.4 RMB) (USD 42.6)

Running Total:
9374.4 RMB
(USD 1394.7)
Daily Average:
234 RMB
(USD 34.86)

I definitely ate too many choco pies, finishing off the entire box of twelve within a day. I regretted the donuts even more, but continued my obsession with cramming Korean for most of the day, the hours ticking by uneventfully.

As I was planning to move on to Busan the next day, I had arranged with my host to treat him to dinner. He had a lecture to give at a local university and a window of time between the end of his day job at a middle school and the graduate seminar. He picked me up and we drove to the university, parked, then headed off campus to get some Chinese food.

I chilled in a lounge in the graduate building while he went up to do his professor thing. I tried reading, but an old acquaintance decided to reconnect, so I spent much of the hour switching over to WeChat to answer messages. I’m not really qualified to be giving anyone life advice, especially regarding such weighty decisions as “should I marry this person.” I barely knew you, why ask me. You should at least have to climb a mountain or something if you want to seek my wisdom…and be limited to three questions.

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In no particular rush to get out of the house, I took my time the next morning packing up and organizing my suitcase. Of course, I still put in a few hours of study. My one contact in Busan went so far as to send me a bus schedule, which bodes well. I shouldn’t be complaining, considering I basically just had a free apartment for a week, but overall a lot of my contacts have fallen through, leaving me to dine alone a lot more than expected.

I walked to the Bus Terminal at East Daegu Station along a road with police stationed every 50 meters. I wonder what was going on. That’s the kind of presence for clearing a street for a really important motorcade. The sidewalks were fine. I bought my ticket no problem, and had nearly an hour to kill (to save 2000 on the ticket between “regular” and “express”). I had only had one meal mid morning to finish off the rest of the kimchi and lettuce (in a pot of ramen noodles) and being nearly 2 in the afternoon, I was feeling a bit peckish. I decided to treat myself to a bubble tea and a bag of chips.

I dozed the first part of the bus ride and spent the rest of it watching educational videos. The bus was supposed to take close to two hours, but the maniac of a driver got us there in under 90 minutes. As we were veering through the streets of Busan, as if in some cut scene from Black Panther, I was starting to get nauseous.

I’ve been so looking forward to staying in this guesthouse. I stayed here in August 2017 and found it immaculately clean, spacious, and the best value for money I’ve ever seen. I was relieved to find that a year and a half absence hasn’t ruined the place. I didn’t notice how starved for company I’ve been these past two weeks, but I was trying to quietly work, but every person who walks in or out pricks up my ears. They like to throw movies on the projector in the late afternoon and evening, and the first movie to show up was Okja (about the giant pig). I’d never seen it, but only made it half way before being too distracted by the conversations within earshot and workmen repairing lights.

There is a Home Plus supermarket only about 600 meters away, so I made up for the junk food lunch by eating a salad dinner. The evening was a bit quieter and I got a little more work in before heading up to sleep. I almost had the entire 4-person dorm to myself, though I heard someone come in as I was drifting off. I didn’t see him in the morning, and he is already checked out. That is one thing that is a little weird about this place. A lot of people pass through so quickly. It’s also more like a hotel than a hostel. There are two entire buildings, each five stories, with rooms. Whole families come.

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Long Black	4300
Dinner (Chinese)	21000
Subtotal:	25300
Bus ticket	9800
Bacon chips	1500
Bobba tea	5400 (!)
Salad(s)	2990
Subtotal:	19690
Guesthouse (7 nights)	499 RMB
Total:	771 RMB (USD 115)

Running Total: 9088 RMB
(USD 1355)
Daily Average: 239 RMB
(USD 35.65)

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Sunday and Monday passed pretty much the same as others days: up early, drinking coffee and studying Korean, lunch and siesta, and a few hours in a cafe in the afternoon. The key difference is there was a window of relatively clean air allowing me to train two consecutive days.

I like the running circuit I can do here in Daegu, with two minor exceptions. Firstly, to get to the river, I have to go through quite a few traffic lights, so that first kilometer is really stop and go. Secondly, the entire circuit is quite long–12 km (an entire 1.5 km more than my last run in Seoul)–and any variations to improve the scenery would make it even longer.

Having a fridge full of green leaves, I stuck to salad on Sunday night after my run, so obviously I was pretty hungry when I woke up Monday morning. As the air was still clean, I had a notion of spending the day out and about in town, starting with a leisurely breakfast out. I packed up a salad for a potential lunch picnic and went to the nearest McDonald’s around 9am. It was a two-story joint with a drive-thru — very fancy. I didn’t necessarily want to go for the super deluxe breakfast, so I took a few minutes to weigh over the menu before noticing that there was no cash register. There were only two self-service terminals and I had the sudden realization that I couldn’t pay cash. It’s funny, I remember “China Watcher Twitter” mercilessly laying into a piece about China’s transition to cashless and non-acceptance of foreign credit cards from a couple weeks ago. The headline thing was not being able to buy McDonald’s with whatever fancy credit card the reporter had. While McDonald’s in China have those same self-service terminals, they also always have staff working the counter. Yet, here I am in Korea experiencing a moment of shut out because I don’t have a Korean bank card. Koreans, generally speaking, use plastic for everything, including minor purchases. The clearance system must have really low fees or something otherwise those takeout coffee counters charging 1500 for a coffee wouldn’t survive.

Anyways, digression aside, I had a backup option, namely a “Coffee and Bagel (100% Original)” place I had passed on my run. I literally cannot even remember the last bagel I had, and I was salivating at the Instagramability of the breakfast. It was open, but there wasn’t a single bagel. wtf. I went back to the apartment, made myself a cup of coffee and cooked that last package of ramen. It was 10am.

For my second run, I knew it was going to be quite warm outside, so I dug out my exercise shorts (as opposed to the old sweats I’ve been wearing all the time). I also grabbed a pair of 0.5 kilogram dumbbells that were sitting around the apartment. Though baffled by the idea of such light weights (what practical function could they possibly serve), I figured they’d give the run a little extra oomph. I headed west along a major avenue, followed the path along the river south for several kilometers to the edge of town, cut up at the bridge which lead to Suseong Lake, did an entire lap around the lake, and followed an avenue straight back up to the apartment. I forgot to turn off my tracker until I stumbled into the apartment and the gps had some malfunction on the first kilometer, but that lap added about 2km to the total distance. I’m insane.

Before leaving the lake, I noticed a man with a large camera taking pictures. It took a few beats for me to realize he was standing under a tree in full bloom. Spring is starting.

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I took a hot shower, put on a pair of sandals and went out to get some real food. I guess I’m doing it right by not eating Korean food everyday (I don’t count noodles or dumplings) because every time I sit down to a simple Korean meal, I am just overwhelmed by joy and gratitude.

I swung by a Dunkin Donuts to get a couple donuts for the next morning. They had cleaned out the display case and had just the last few sitting on a tray by the cash register. Note to self: learn how to incredulously say ” how are these not discounted?” in Korean. And to make sure I didn’t eat the donuts that night, I grabbed a box of choco pies (which were discounted) at the mart at the bottom of my building.

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Starbucks drip coffee	4800
Americano	4000
Kimchi Stew	5000
Dunkin Donuts	2600
Choco Pie (12 pk, Lotte brand)	2500
Total:	18900 W (114 RMB) (USD 17)

Running Total: 8317 RMB (USD 1241)
Daily Average: 231 RMB (USD 34.47)

I was vaguely aware that March 1 was a holiday in Korea, having come across it on a list of public holidays in a textbook, and though it seems that, yes, everyone had the day off from work, it didn’t seem a big deal. For the record, the holiday commemorates the start of a (ultimately unsuccessful) independence movement against Japanese colonization that began March 1, 1919. Considering it is the centennial, you’d think it be a bigger deal. Then again, given the anti-Japanese rhetoric I’m used to in China, maybe its a good thing that Korea doesn’t get too nationalistic about things.

I had lunch with my classmate and his younger brother, who is thinking about applying to grad school in the US. We talked about training dogs and growing coffee plants. After lunch, we went to a coffee shop by a lake and kept chatting. We double parked and just left the keys in the ignition so anyone could move the car if they needed to. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that. I get that Korea is safe, but wow. I sometimes talk to women from the US or Europe, who say they’d never walk alone at night there, but feel safe here. I feel it too (though obviously from a different perspective and a generous helping of privilege), but seriously, why would I ever want to move to a place that is dangerous and crime ridden. American carnage, indeed.

In the mid-afternoon, duty called, so my friend had to rush back home, dropping me off on the way. Having accomplished the ambitious goal of leaving the apartment, I was content to stay in for the night, eating a salad and watching ten minutes of a movie before I realized I didn’t have the attention span for it. Strange, I’m spending hours intensely focused on Korean study, but I can’t turn the brain off and just watch a movie.

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Saturday morning, I continued my studying campaign, stopping only for lunch and a light nap. After my nap, I forced myself out of the house to go around the block to a coffee shop, whose name I thought was “Cup of Inspiration” but was actually Hands Coffee. I had barely sat down when I received a VoIP call via WeChat. By the time, I got off the phone, whatever inspiration was in the long black had long since been sucked out of me. I fiddled about for an hour or so before leaving to visit the grocery store again.

Rather than buying salad mixes (which have basically been just lettuce and cabbage to begin with), I bought a couple of kinds of lettuce which were on sale and spent a long time looking over the produce section debating some fancy (carrot, cucumber, tomato) upgrades to my rabbit diet of the next several days. Ultimately, I decided to spring for a bag of apples (사과 for a 傻瓜). Craving a particular food item, I picked up a pack to make myself for dinner.

And so the hours passed.

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I’ve been getting a lot of input from a variety of sources telling me what to do with my life. There is the “write about your travels” camp, which I would think this blog is fulfilling, but that’s ignoring the two unfinished travelogues in the proverbial desk drawer. There is the “be an online celebrity” camp encouraging me to go full on with Chinese social media, posting daily videos and I suppose eventually figuring live streaming and some sort of English teaching based monetization scheme. Seriously, I have two offers from friends back in China to be my agent and push content out into the interwebs. Finally, there is a camp of one who suggests different things every time I talk to him.

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Gatorade (7-11)	2000
Long Black	4300
Groceries	15430
Total:	21730 W (131.5 RMB) (USD 19.6)

Running Total:
8202.75 RMB
(USD 1223)
Daily Average:
241.25 RMB
(USD 36)

I had a 9:56 train to Daegu from Seoul, so though I woke up early, I didn’t have a lot of time to putter around in the morning. After a cup of coffee, I packed my stuff up and rushed to the bus stop around 7:30 hoping the morning commuters were still eating their breakfasts. The bus was not crowded, and got me to the station by 8.

I immediately went to a Dunkin Donuts and hung out for about an hour. Though still too early to board, I was having trouble staying focused, so I starting browsing the shops to see if I could grab a salad to eat on the train (which would take 4 hours). None of the shops in the train station sold anything other than junk food and rice balls, and even the closest convenience store outside of the train station didn’t have what I was looking for. I guess two donuts would be enough to tide me over.

Trains in Korea are such a different experience than in China. You don’t have to go through a metal detector or put your luggage through an X-ray machine. There is no ticket check, there is just a marking on the floor indicating that you are entering the “paid area” and it is totally on your honor. The train was pretty empty, though, as it stopped a dozen times, people got on and off. As we were leaving Seoul, a conductor walked down the aisle looking at his handheld device and glancing at where people were sitting. He asked to see the tickets of some people, who it turned out, were sitting in the wrong car, but otherwise he was just checking that the occupied seats were so marked in the computer system.

The last twenty minutes of the trip were very crowded with a lot of people on “standing tickets.” I almost got off at the wrong station, when we stopped at Daegu (I needed to go to Daegu East), but I caught myself in time. Once again, to get off the train and exit the station there is no check (unlike China where you have to show your ticket or even Japan where you go through subway station style turnstile). I headed to the Starbucks in the Shingasae department store to meet my classmate. I got their first and ordered a coffee to wait. Since drip would have taken five minutes to make, I asked for an Americano, but it still took ten minutes to come out. Dammit Starbucks, you have one job — fast coffee. My friend’s baby wouldn’t stop staring at me, and I guess we’ll be communicating in English, which feels weird after years of speaking in Chinese.

I’m staying in a “spare” apartment in an office tower. Oh god, it’s like heaven, especially after the hellish conditions of that last hostel. After a month on the road, it is really nice to be able to spread out, leave my stuff in the bathroom, and not use earphones.

I found a largish supermarket to stock up on food and saw four different groups of foreigners at the grocery store. So weird. Bread, peanut butter, coffee beans, eggs, ramen, soju, two salads, salad dressing. I haven’t left the apartment since (some 40 hours later). I finished Iron Fist, watched a bunch of Youtube videos, and have otherwise been relaxing.

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Dunkin Donuts	6000 W
Train Ticket	21100 W
Starbucks	4100 W
Groceries	40420 W
Total:	71620 W (433.3 RMB) (USD 64.7)

Running Total:
8071.3 RMB
(USD 1205)
Daily Average:
252.2 RMB
(USD 37.66)

Apologies for the delay in getting this posted, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the sheer volume of how much I intend to accomplish, and the daily updates, especially when life is often monotonous, seem a bit much. I’ll be trying a schedule of every other day from now on.

Monday morning, I woke up early as usual and had a coffee in the hostel lobby while doing a bit of studying. However, after about an hour, I just couldn’t put up with the environment anymore, and tracked down a bakery chain (Paris Baguette) for a more comfortable seat to do a bit of studying and work. Towards midday, I swung by the hostel to change up my backpack contents then hopped on the subway to go to Inwangsan, a small mountain in the city that looked really cool from the Namsan view the other day. I was pretty starving when I got off the subway, and though I was expecting a variety of restaurants, I could only find a gimbap place, which was fine, just not what I was in the mood for.

As I was eating, I recalled that there was a worthwhile museum across the street (Seoul Prison Museum), and delighted in the serendipity of my half-baked planning until I remembered it was Monday, the day museums are closed. Oh well. I headed up a 20% grade to reach the Inwangsan temple, which didn’t have anything worth commenting on, and continued up on a path to try to reach the top of the mountain. There were some spectacular views, marred only by the pollution (I actually busted out my face mask today). At one particularly scenic spot, I bumped into a South African who asked if I could help him take a picture. 200 photos later, I was able to snap my own selfie and continue on.

The path to the top of the mountain follows an ancient (but restored) city wall. However, apparently, the mountain is also closed on Mondays, so I couldn’t go all the way up. I followed the wall down until I hit street level, at which point I was only a couple of blocks from Seoul’s train station. I swung by to pick up a train ticket (which will be accounted for on Wednesday). There was a long line for the ticket window, so I tried a machine. Although there was only one person at each of the cash accepting machines, I still had to wait about 10 minutes, because none of them could figure out how to work it. The user interface, available in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, and English was extremely intuitive. I didn’t get it. I misread the price of the train tickets and ended up getting a handful of coins as change.

I hopped a bus back to Itaewon and hung out at a coffee shop for about hour charging my phone, while doing a bit of studying on Lingodeer. I wanted to go back to that bar (Magpies) to try the other craft beers, only to find they close on the last Monday of every month. This was starting to get ridiculous.

I stopped into a Mexican restaurant I had been regularly passing to give it a try, ordering enchiladas. Oh god, it was so bad. Exactly like the “Mexican” food you’d get at a student bar in China, only four times the price. Its what you’d expect from someone recreating Mexican cuisine by only seeing a picture online never trying the real food. I still wanted a beer and was planning to meet someone at 9, so I had tons of time to kill. I decided to go to my backup plan, a Brewdog brewery, which was also closed for some reason. Checking other bars online, I went to one (Craft Hans) that looked like it had reasonable prices, only to discover that is because they serve their beer in tiny glasses. I nursed that beer for a long time, but eventually wanted to change locations.

I popped into a place called “Fat Alberts” which was full of old expats, and pulled up a seat at the bar. I went for a dark beer, which apparently comes served with a cinnamon sugar frosted rim (okay….). I got to talking to a couple of old guys next to me at the bar, and timed my beer for when I needed to go to the subway station.

Meeting up Soo, her favorite and second favorite cafes were both closed. We eventually found one, but were kicked out after about half an hour because they were also closing. So that was it for the night.

---

There was a small break in the pollution in the morning, so after a cup of coffee I went for a longish run around Dragon Hill and along the river. Back in the hostel, cleaned up, rested and did some research on good places to eat. I trekked all the way back to Ikseondong to try a little hole in the wall recommended by the online expat mag. It took a little while to find, but was totally worth, even the boss’s repeated attempts to get me to go away. It was definitely the best price/quality ratio of anything I have eaten in Korea so far.

I went over to Insadong, a touristy arts/culture street, to find a little cafe to while away the afternoon. Despite having visited as a tourist on each of my previous trips to Seoul, I explored the area more than I had ever done before, but didn’t find anything other than a Starbucks. I whipped out my phone to look up cafes, and found a popular one just outside Insadong. I was about to order an americano as usual, but Cafe Themselves offers a daily drip coffee (from their self-roasted selections). I spent the afternoon studying and writing, and even laying my head down for a cat nap.

Just before rush hour, I walked back to the bus stop. While waiting at a crosswalk, some rando tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I was interested in a cultural exchange. Nope, don’t have time. I was determined to get back to Itaewon and have some freaking craft beer.

On the bus ride, I was texting the person who bailed on the date from Saturday. I casually mentioned that I was leaving Seoul the next day and going to have some beers tonight. She asked if she could join, so I sent her the address. The bar was open and empty, which makes sense for 6pm on a Tuesday night. The IPA and Porter were both amazing, and when I ordered a Kolsch, I also got a grilled cheese sandwich (the only food available at the bar, as opposed to the basement location next door) because I was getting a bit tipsy. I had watched a guy making one earlier, and it smelled amazing, though when I ordered one it was far less impressive.

Though the bar was starting to get interesting, I didn’t want to get completely wasted, so I took off to get some more food in me. I popped into the convenience store near the guesthouse, hoping for a salad or something, but settled on a “mac and cheese” ramen and a small package of kimchi. I went up to the guesthouse to eat and hang out. I texted the person asking “where are you?” “At home eating a steak” “You’re having a steak and didn’t invite me?” No answer until the next day. C’est la vie.

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Coffee and pastry	5800
Gimbap (x2)	6000
Coffee	4000
“Enchilada”	10000
Weizen (half pint)	3800
Dark beer	6000
Coffee	9500
Subtotal:	45100 W
Kimchi stew	4000
Drip coffee	3800
Beers (x3) & Grilled Cheese	24000
Ramen & kimchi (GS25)	2500*
Subtotal:	34300 W
Total:	79400 W (480 RMB) (USD 71.75)

Running Total: 7638 RMB (USD 1140)
Daily Average: 254.6 RMB (USD 38)

*That’s an estimate, no receipt or notes to jog my memory

The dirty, smelly hostel, the pollution, and the solitude have been starting to affect my mood, which doesn’t exactly have a high baseline. I’m planning maneuvers to get out of Seoul, but that hasn’t stopped me from aggressively reaching out through social networking apps to find interesting people to hang out with or share a meal. At one point, I had two “dates” arranged for the weekend, but both fell through.

Saturday morning was still fairly polluted, but I couldn’t spend another day just hiding out. So, I walked to the nearby Namsan Park, and hiked up to the Seoul N Tower. There were some spectacular views of the city to the south and north, and I did feel the need to shell out 10 bucks to go up to the observation deck. I walked down the other side of the mountain, and having skipped breakfast, was feeling right hungry as I transitioned by park to city. Myeondong, a popular shopping/dining/fashion area, was not too far away, but I stumbled into the Namdaemun market before I even got that far. By chance I found a narrow passageway through one block of market stalls that specialized in some kind of fish (cutlassfish). I squeezed into one crowded restaurant and feasted on the cutlassfish stew, assorted kimchi, salted fish, rice, and steamed egg.

I took a bus back to Itaewon, swung by the hostel, and then spent the afternoon in a coffee shop. It started to get crowded around 6, and I realized I needed to do something for dinner. I showered and dressed despite not having any particular plans, and looked on Trip Advisor for somewhere to eat.

I went over to a local craft beer place, had a pint and read more Pride and Prejudice than I have all month. You’d think I’d have more time to just read. It was nice to be relaxing with a beer in a popular craft brewery, and though I was reading, I figured if I hung out for a while, I’d eventually strike up a conversation with someone. I finished my first glass and ran to the bathroom, only to find that my seat had been stolen, so I guess one beer was enough and I had no choice but to adjust my expectations. It was nearly 8 and my stomach was complaining, so I headed up the hill to try a Nashville Hot Chicken joint I’d passed by the other day. I’d never even heard of Nashville Hot Chicken until it popped up in my YouTube a couple months ago. I had four pieces, no drink no sides, at medium (habanero-level) spiciness. It was alright.

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The next morning, the AQI dropped below 90, so I laced up my running shoes and did a loop around Yongsan. I decided to have a “brunch” at a place called Uncle Sam’s Pancakes. It was a tiny little place, and I spent a leisurely two hours studying Korean. I impressed the waitress with my studiousness and we chatted briefly on my way out. I guess the trick is to have the textbook out – working on a computer is too impersonal, but books are more inviting of curiosity.

I had a longish WeChat call back at the hostel before I could grab my swimming suit and take the subway directly over to the World Cup stadium. Sauna, nap, swimming (1500 m!), and sauna, all with a bit of texting peeps on my way in and out of the locker room. I had my computer with me to write and study, but I was pretty wiped out after all that.

I had made new plans to meet someone for coffee at 8, so by 6ish I decided to leave the sauna to get a salad at the HomePlus. It was closed again! So, I just took the subway over to the neighborhood where we were going to meet and took a loop, soaking in the bustling street life and food carts. I grabbed a “protein” salad from a convenience store and scarfed it down to stave off starvation and had a grape soda to kill some time.

Ikseondong is an interesting cluster of old buildings that have all been converted into super trendy restaurants and cafes. It reminded me of something you’d find in Japan. Seoul would be a lot of fun if I had some income and a network of friends to hang out with. I can’t believe how expensive the coffee and strawberry cake (chiffon? Fromage? something fancy like that).

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Cutlassfish stew	9000
Double Espresso	4000
Pale Ale	6000
Nashville Hot Chicken	9900
Breakfast set	10000
Sauna + Swimming	10000
GS25 Salad	4100
Soda	1000
Coffee + Cake (half)	21500
Total:	75500 (456.7 RMB) (USD 68)

Running Total:
7156.8 RMB
(USD 1066)
Daily Average:
255.6 RMB
(USD 38)