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Published: July 31st 2006
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Pre-trip toes are oblivious to the upcoming pain,
Thin strappy - Ciara
Thicker Toe Hippie - Hailey
Man toes - Mike
Gold toe-shy - cheesy photo-caption writer. 24 Hours in Seoul: A brief and relaxed introduction to the artsy, diverse, cultural capital of Korea. Mike, Ciara (sounds like Kira), Hailey and I took the KTX from DongDaegu Station to Seoul Station, took about two hours - filled with goofy conversation and the first peek at a Brie-Ciara friendship. She is quieter than Hailey, and less of a late-nighter. Hailey is goofy, and wild and in-your-face at times, and a modern hippie dresser. Ciara dresses like a traveler - in comfortable loose clothing or delicate long skirts from Thailand and long earrings.
We wandered around Insadong - a major craft market street FILLED to the brim with people - probably about 1 in 20 people are white, black or mysteriously-non-Korean, which was comforting. Any diversity is welcome (in Seoul and my life). At the end of tiny alleyways are small traditional tea rooms. We talked down a cobble path past an earring vendor, past large-leafed plants and several andre-the-giant sized rock statues, and into a wooden house.
The first sight is a twisted tree, growing up from a hole in the floor, and a canary bird cage perched on one of its low-laying branches. After you take
Tom Hanks' Understudies
In the middle of an Insadong street. A large piano walkway. In South Korea a large piano walkway is placed on top of a Confucist monk tomb, and large buildings with Korean restarans built up around this one. Capitalism crushes religion.
absolute tom-foolery there.
your shoes off, you walk past a rabbit in a cage to one of the floor-tables. The teas are about 5,000 won each - and I chose the 5-flavors tea, salt, sweet, sour, bitter, …what is the fifth? But anyway, I tasted each in that order. “reinvigorating” maybe as a tag-line? But I couldn’t explain to my confused senses that nooo…this is not a cold thin soup. It reminded me of “mool (water) kimchi,” which has thin pieces of pickled radish in a vinegary soup.
With our Zen powers recharged, Hailey, Ciara and I fondled every piece of jewelry on the street, and Mike faithfully stood behind with his eyes focused somewhere toward the upper-right corner of his vision, the silent and steady eye-roll. And then we charged over to…(Brie’s street-name-memory fails at this moment in the blog)…for Moroccan. Absolutely deelish. Hummus, babaganoosh, lamb with rasins and apricots baked into it. Curry chicken. The culinary works.
Then to a bar with sand pits - for your footal-pleasure. Although Hailey chirped in every 15 minutes reminding us that thousands of feet-sweat droplets filled this sand (she estimated), and that the circulating foot odor unforgivably detracted from the sand-pit innovation.
White Folk Stand Outside Tea Room
I need a parent to come and take pictures of all of us. My thumb also forgot to jump in. Jejudo will include pictures of my thumb, no doubt.
Ciara, Hailey and Mike await plum and 5-taste teas, alone with insta-zen-powah. But regardless, while digging my toes into the slutty sand, I enjoyed a Smith and Wesson after-dinner drink - with tequila starring. And then a Mai Tai.
At this point Adam, Matt, Darby and his Russian girlfriend chatter into the second-story bar and the conversation goes from religion and US-bashing (I somehow ended up unnecessarily defensive, forcing the crow-bar between Americans and the US government, and the pathetic attempts at democracy - as the culprit, and spouting out victories of the Green Party and Elliot Spitzer’s NY State campaign promises, and local currency-happenings…in a somewhat successful attempt to assuage the Canadians who scowl south, rightfully annoyed by the imperialism.)
We pull our sandals back over our sandy feet and head to Geiko’s, a beautiful outdoor bar, mostly empty on a Sunday night, and order the best beer I’ve had in Korea, which is nose-to-nose with Stella, in terms of my beer-satisfaction. Erdingers? Name check soon. Banter, dirty jokes, prostitution legitimacy conversation. Hailey and Ciara chatting, Darby and Russian chatting, Adam, Mike, Matt and I circled --- the four loudest laughers making a slight scene with raunchy jokes. Then a norae-bang (singing room) until 5 AM, just Hailey, Matt, Adam and I.
English singing selection, for the Korean city with the most foreigners, was a bit pathetic…but we still managed to find: Where the Streets Have No Name, Take On Me, Gay Bar * awesome and bizarre * Time after Time…all of which were equally enjoyed, but my rendition of Semi-Charmed Life poked uncomfortably at the fact that I was accompanied by 27 year old Canadians. But lovely people despite their true 80s, and not early 90s, childhood.
This journal entry is already a bit heavy-handed so I’ll stop after the first day. And leave some room for Jejudo (this Wednesday!) Also, I should be getting a new digital tomorrow with Paul, so the pictures will be posted in heaps.
I probably miss you. If you are reading this post and I know you, yup, it’s safe to say I miss youJ
Feel free to comment, write and email or send me the link to your blog.
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re: need of parent for photo ops. Good news: I am available! And often even better than the proverbial "thumb." Though am not much good at late nights. Better for early morning tea and tomb hopping.