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Since my first visit to China in 2008 when I spent my birthday wandering the streets of Xi’an alone with a bottle of baijiu to 2018 when I was spending a night at Gorak Shep, my birthdays have long been very cold affairs. Even settled in China, the proximity to CNY usually meant that even if I wasn’t traveling, most of my friends were.

Hoping to make the most of it this year, my 本命年 (ben3 ming4 nian2, Chinese zodiac birth cycle), I had done a bit of groundwork talking up a hot pot dinner to the hostel regulars. Of course, when it was discovered that one of the other regulars shared the birthday, it was certain that there would be a decent amount of celebration.

In the morning, I was quite hungry and craving some sweat bread, but I couldn’t find an open bakery, eventually settling on a mediocre croissant and scone from 7-11. Midday, Yumin and I went to the Home Plus supermarket to do some shopping. Yumin, one of the long-term residents, had volunteered to bake a cake, and I wanted to pick up some alcohol. I also treated myself to a jar of Lotus Biscoff biscuit spread (which, if you’ve never had, is like peanut butter but made out of those cinnamon brown sugar cookies).

Back at the hostel, I had had two bites of my salad before I had to Skype my parents. I had barely finished my salad when I was handed a cell phone with a Chinese man on the other hand. He had called the hostel asking for more information and I was the only one around who spoke Chinese. I’m really curious to see how the hostel fares when there are no Korean or Chinese speaking volunteers working the customer service.

I cracked open my box of Chilean wine during a viewing of Before Sunset and after eating birthday cake (technically a brownie mix frosted with Nutella) first, six of us were reading to get some hot pot. I had scouted out a nearby branch of Haidilao (海底捞), but I was talked into another location that was supposed to be better value. It was good with a tripartite pot and decent condiment bar.

After dinner, the two hostel workers went back, while the Koreans and I went to the karaoke in the basement of the same building. We bought an hour, but the boss added extra minutes three times (totally close to a whole second hour). I really do prefer karaoke in China, where most songs (in most languages) are in their original version. It’s hard to sing over a tune that sounds like it is coming out of an Apple IIGS and the tempo is either too fast or too slow. I did attempt 1.5 Korean songs, spending about 10 minutes in the afternoon prepping. I hope I’ll have a roster of 3-5 songs I can keep in my back pocket by the time I move on.

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Pastries	2800 W
Supermarket	30870 W
Hot Pot	21000 W
Karaoke	5000 W
Beer	4000 W
Photo Booth	1000 W
Total:	64670 W (391 RMB) (USD 57.9)

Running Total: 4365 RMB (USD 646)
Daily Average: 272.8 RMB (USD 40.4)

I didn’t specifically address it in the last post, but the sharp-eyed reader may have noticed that I slipped in another four nights at the hostel in my itemized travel costs. I had only originally only wanted to make sure I had a place to sleep for the extent of the CNY holiday (in case half of China decided to visit Seoul) while being optimistic about figuring out better accommodations from an on-the-ground position. However, I’m quite enjoying my stay and, quite frankly, am a little too lazy to move out.

A large part of my “lethargy” (e.g. not running around the streets of Seoul, exploring various neighborhoods and hiking mountains) is that living in the hostel is better than the most state-of-the-art virtual reality presentation of a Korean soap opera. There is so much drama, and I’m dying to see how it all plays out.

In broad strokes, there is a bit of upheaval in the staffing at the hostel. A new partner joined the ownership team in December and has proceeded to attempt to maximize returns on the capital by egregiously exploiting the foreign “volunteer” team. We are already on the third manager since I moved in and with all three still living in the house, there is the potential for a showdown over back wages or eviction at any moment.

Of course, there are also a number of guests who pay by month, effectively making them long-term residents of the hostel. All of whom are characters in their own right, engaging in what can best be described as quirky behavior such as keeping nocturnal hours.

Anyways, the day was spent much the same as every other. I had a decent lunch, a 9 km run, and a healthy dinner.

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Bibimbap	6000 W
Coffee (Americano)	3500 W
Cajun Chicken Salad (GS25)	2700 W
Kimchi	1950 W
Total:	14150 W (85.6 RMB) (USD 12.67)

Running Total: 3974 RMB (USD 588)
Daily Average: 265 RMB (USD 39)

Ah, Sunday, a day of rest. Well, everyday is like Sunday. As the title suggests, my activity for the day can be summarized in two words: brunch and run.

The idea for brunch (i.e. having a lazy morning breakfast) was slowly “incepted” through passing by a number of restaurants advertising brunch as well as all the cafe/bakeries. On Saturday night, I did a bit of research in Naver Maps to see what I could find. I’m really liking Naver Maps because it usually pulls up a menu when you click on a restaurant. Although it is funny, how all my apps follow my phone settings to default into Chinese, meaning I have to search for locations in Korean, but they are translated into Chinese for display. Anyways, a place called “Travel Maker” American breakfast fit the bill of order.

I spent most of the afternoon plugging away at the Korean studies. My vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, my reading is speeding up, and I’ve got enough grammar under the belt to form interesting sentences. However, I’m super weak in listening and practical communication.

Late afternoon, I laced up my running shoes and headed out into the cold gray for a jog. I brought a jogger’s bag with me, hoping to swing by that supermarket at the World Cup Stadium for another affordable and healthy salad-based dinner. However, for some stupid reason, the supermarket was closed. That did give me the opportunity to check out the other box store market on the other side of the street. There was a whole farmer’s market in the giant hanger that also housed some sort of discount warehouse store (like a Costco). I was surprised that vegetable prices in the farmer’s market weren’t really any lower than the various neighborhood marts. Fruits and veggies are so expensive here. Apples start are 2 dollars each, a small head of broccoli is a dollar, even kimchi starts at 3-4 dollars (which is strange considering most restaurants give you unlimited kimchi for free). The discount wholesale market didn’t have ready mixed salads, which is just as well, since I couldn’t quite figure out if the store was membership-based or not.

After that short diversion, I finished my jog heading back to the hostel, totaling a new record of over 8 km. (I’m thinking I might need to start tracking total mileage ran while on this journey). I cleaned up and tried to write, but it was a bit distracting in the hostel with some very talkative people around.

I was pretty hungry, so I figured I’d just grab some cheap-ish Korean food, but the place I had in mind rests on Sundays. So did my backup option. I found a little dumpling shop and made do. Hunger sated I was a bit more productive before retiring around 11pm, but tossed and turned for a couple hours before I could finally drift off to sleep.

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4 more nights @ hostel	244 RMB
American breakfast	13,000 W
Dumplings	9,000 W
Total:	377 RMB (USD 55.88)

Running Total: 3888 RMB (USD 576)
Daily Average: 277.7 RMB (USD 41)

Saturday was another busy day. So busy, in fact, that I am a day behind with my postings.

I passed the morning in the typical manner, studying Chinese and — being Saturday — catching up on the news. News really seems less urgent when it isn’t fresh. Later in the morning, I went out to feed the homeless.

The previous day, I had been invited (not so much “invited” as proactively volunteered) to join a biweekly, church-sponsored charity mission by someone who had previously managed the hostel, but was still living there for the time being. Another long term guest also volunteered (technically she did first and I merely jumped on the bandwagon).

Anyways, we took the metro over to Seoul Station and met up with other volunteers in the upstairs of a homeless center. After some self-introductions and awkward small talk, we unboxed ramen noodle cups, Korean-brand “Yakults,” and choco-pies before hauling everything and a couple of folding tables over to in front of the train station where about 60 people were already lined up for a free lunch.

Homelessness isn’t as visible a problem in Korea as other countries, but it is reportedly quite common for older men to get laid-off by their companies in favor of fresh graduates and fall through the holes in the social safety net.

All the food was distributed in about twenty minutes with quite a few people making multiple passes through the line. There wasn’t much cleanup to do, and we headed back to the Hongdae area to get lunch at a “soup-rice” place, which was very similar to my last night’s dinner, except with pig instead of cow.

After a short rest in the hostel, I suited up to back out into the cold on a mission to get inside that sauna with a swimming pool. Another guest, who had happened to mention wanting to go to a spa, came with me. Though I wouldn’t have minded walking the 3 km to the World Cup Stadium, we took a bus. The sauna was really good (much better than the more famous Dragon Hill in any case) while the jjimjilbang portion was just so-so, as is standard in the Korean style. When I grabbed my swimming accoutrements to head to the swimming pool, I was stopped and told that I had purchased the wrong kind of ticket (sauna only instead of sauna+pool). At least, that is what I gathered from a one-sided conversation in Korean and I certainly don’t know enough to ask if I could just pay the 1,000 won difference. I’ll have to try again the next weekend.

I bought a 5-color salad mix in the giant supermarket also located at the World Cup stadium. I’m now in love with Homeplus and wish it was a bit closer so I could go every day.

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Lunch (gukbap)	7,000 W
Spaland	9,000 W
Salad	3,990 W
Total:	19,990 W (121 RMB) (USD 18)

Running Total: 3511 RMB (USD 520.5)
Daily Average: 270 RMB (USD 40)

Rather than stay in Hongdae, I decided to get out for the day on a walking tour suggested by a hostel copy of a Lonely Planet. I still had some hours in the morning to chill out while waiting out the rush hour, though the subway was still very crowded at 11 am.

I started at City Hall, which as far as I am concerned is just the name of a subway stop. The library next door is a far more impressive building. I set out west going around the outside of the Deoksugung Palace, stumbling upon the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) within a few hundred meters. Since it was free admission, dropped my bag in a locker and took a leisurely stroll through the three floors of galleries. One and half floors were dedicated to the art scene of New York’s East Village, an interesting choice to be sure, but I was more engaged by the local artists in the more permanent exhibitions.

Since it was well past noon at that point, I continued on my way but with an eye peeled for a lunch spot. The whole area is quite historic, having been home to foreign legations in the 19th century and still hosting some modern embassies and churches. There were a few side detours before I found a suitable restaurant serving a traditional set meal consisting of soup, rice, and several little dishes.

Continuing on, I skipped the Seoul Police Museum (which, if anything like the Beijing Police Museum, would be quite interesting), and went to a park which is also the site of another palace–Gyeonghuigung. The palace was pretty basic, which explains why it is free to enter and not even on Seoul’s top 10 palaces list, but it was nicely framed in front of a mountain.

Next to the park/palace is the Seoul History Museum which covers a lot of the same ground as the National Museum or the Museum of Contemporary History. But, it was free and worth a visit for the panoramic map of Seoul.

I had carried my laptop around all day expecting to end up in a cafe at some point, but I was getting tired, so I headed back to Hongdae afterwards. Between the subway and the hostel, I stopped at a cell phone shop to buy a prepaid SIM card. I’m not sure it is actually necessary because I had been getting along fine with Wi-Fi, but it is probably better to be on the safe side. If I actually use all 1.5 GB, I’ll be paying a tenth of what China Telecom would charge me for roaming.

Towards dinner time, I was feeling quite hungry, so I took the time to do a little internet research before heading out again. I picked a well-rated chain specializing in a white beef soup. I’m starting to understand why so many dishes in Korea are served in boiling cauldrons. It makes the winter that much easier to get through.

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Lunch (baekban)	5,000 W
SIM Card	20,000 W
Oxbone soup	15,000 W
Soju and snack	3,700 W
Total:	43,700 W (264 RMB) (USD 39)

Running Total: 3390 RMB (USD 502)
Daily Average: 282.5 RMB (USD 41.88)

Though we had a couple relatively warm days in a row (8 degrees C as the high being considered temperate), a cold front blew in from Siberia giving us lows in the negative teens. Despite this, I took “baby steps” to get away from being too sedentary by venturing further afield in search of my lunch and dinner.

The Hongdae area is quite strange. The subway line runs under the main boulevard with the university to the east. The streets and alleys between the boulevard and the university are full of shops, restaurants, and pubs. The Han river is not too far to the south, splitting Seoul in two north and south parts, while train tracks just to the north make up a northern boundary. The modern tracks are elevated and only form a metaphorical dividing line, while the old tracks have been converted into a park that is extremely popular among dog owners. The park, at least on the end closest to the boulevard is also host to a cluster fashionable eateries, as are the first street or two west of the boulevard. However, beyond the first line of conveniences, the neighborhood quickly and dramatically becomes fully residential, apartment buildings and driveways.

Anyways, in the early afternoon, I took my third consecutive run, accompanied this time with Alexis. After showering, I decamped to a nearby cafe for an Americano.

In the evening, I braced myself against the cold looking for some street food, or something light, as I wasn’t too hungry. All I could find was a woman selling those fish-shaped cakes (which I went back to later to buy), so I settled on a cheap little restaurant and a steaming bowl of kimchi stew.

Back in the hostel, as the temperature dropped outside, upstairs guests began complaining about the cold. I had also noticed a huge difference in temperatures between the floors. Whereas my room had a tendency to be stiflingly hot, it was now like a refrigerator. The hostel staff got on the phone with the boss to inquire about the heating situation and started pulling out extra blankets and space heaters. Upon retiring for the night, I discovered the the outer set (e.g. the insulated set) of windows in my room had been left wide open, possibly for two or more days, and no one had noticed because the inside set of windows were shut. I woke up the next day in a pool of sweat, so, problem solved.

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Lunch (Bulgogi & Udon Set)	7000 W
Coffee	3500 W
Dinner (Kimchi Stew)	5000 W
Snacks (Fish x6	2000 W
Total:	17500 W (105 RMB) (USD 15.7)

Running Total: 3126 RMB (USD 463.5)
Daily Average: 284 RMB (USD 42)

I’m starting to feel pangs of guilt for how little I am doing per day. Granted, I am completely obsessed with learning Korean at this point, spending close to four hours a day between textbooks, Duolingo, TTMIK, and a couple of apps, but it is the feeling that I am in the hostel all the time. It’s become a comfortable routine studying most of the morning over a couple cups of coffee, and hanging out the rest of the day. Despite all the studying, I am not using Korean beyond “hello,” “thanks,” and reading the name of a dish of a menu. My small victory for the day was asking the cashier at a convenience store how much an unmarked salad cost.

I made plans to go for a run with the French guy working at the hostel in the early afternoon, but the bosses suddenly showed up to do some spring cleaning. While waiting around to see if he’d be free, I busted out my external hard drive for another guest who had been randomly searching YouTube for movies, and I ended up getting sucked into watching a whole movie in the afternoon.

After the movie, I headed out on my own for the jog, doing a lap around the World Cup stadium while checking out a swimming pool I found on the map. It was part of some sort of “Spa Land,” and I ended up more confused as to the pricing when I could only make out half the signage: sauna, gym, weekday, holiday, swimming pool, jjimjilbang, monthly membership. It got even worse at a separate entrance for the gym section, where I attempted to talk to someone and got the info sheet on various membership levels.

Back at the hostel, “Beethoven” had been busy transferring movies to his computer and decided to make a Harry Potter marathon. I grabbed some fried chicken takeout and made it about 20 minutes into “Prisoner” before I called it the night.

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Salad + Salad	6300 W
Fried Chicken (boneless w/ sauce)	12000 W
Beer	4900 W
Total:	23200 W (140 RMB) (USD 20.75)

Running Total: 3020 RMB (USD 447.80)
Daily Average: 302 RMB (USD 44.78)