Back in Action

So, I’ve been slacking with these posts. I have excuses, naturally, but they’re mostly of the I’ve been ungodly busy variety, so really they don’t count. In the next few weeks I’ll try to bring everything up to speed, posting short pieces every few days, just in time to go silent again while I take the mother of all road trips through Vietnam. But that’s getting way ahead of myself.

I left you, if I remember correctly, on my way out to the door to that strange and pun ridden place called Seoul. I was going because I’d never been, and to get a new visa. The visa part was the official reason for the trip, naturally, but it only played a fairly minor role. Unlike previous posts, which have featured blow by blow descriptions of various ridiculousness, I’m going to try something different here, and go with representational vignettes. We’ll see if it works.

I will say that the actual travel to Korea went something like this. Night train, transfer to bus, taxi from the bus station to the ferry ticket office, taxi from the ticket office to the airport, getting stranded at the airport because of my own stupidity, 40 minute flight into Incheon international airport. The bus ride took about twice as long as it should have, since for the first couple hours I was the sole passenger, passed out in the back seat. They just didn’t move and looked around for some more people who wanted to go from Qingdao to Weihai. I had taken the train to qingdao, and wanted to take the Weihai ferry. I could have taken the train to Weihai, or the ferry from Qingdao, but my planning had happened about 3 days before leaving and that way seemed to make sense. The ferry had changed schedules, as I’d feared it might have, but the plane ticket was only 10 percent more. That was no worries, nor was I late. The plane was though, and so I didn’t feel the need to clear customs. When I got curious about where I’d eventually have to go around 4:30 (for a formerly 5pm flight) I found customs completely shut down. Thus, I missed my plane despite the fact that it hadn’t even arrived yet. I spent 24 hours in a little nothing place, 40 kilometers outside of Weihai (itself pretty small and boring). Complete and utter boneheadedness.

Fast forward to my first night in Seoul. I’d gotten into town, made contact with my aunt and plans for getting together the next day, and found my hostel. After the obligatory email and facebook check, I set out to find some dinner, fairly hungry which I suppose was quite natural given that it was around 11 at night. That night, more than any other really, Seoul in all its new differentness looked pretty much identical to the city in Bladerunner, all alleys and neon and puddles, completely incomprehensible and overstimulating. I walked down dark alleys till I found bright ones, and then along those until I found food. The first restaurant I entered wouldn’t give me food. They didn’t serve single people apparently. I found this rather discriminatory, but pushed on, shrugging, determined to eat heartily before returning to home and sleep. The next place I tried has delighted to have me, but the two women up front very quickly realized we didn’t have an ounce of language in common. It’s ok I said, all smiles and nods, and we made it work. I asked for bim bim bap, the only dish I knew, and they shook their heads. But, they said, we do have this, and pointed up and a blurry picture menu above the kitchen. Ok said I, and gave them the thumbs up. It turned out that I’d ok’d what was probably more than a pound of deliciously marinated beef. I tried to cook it on the griddle, taking my cues from the other tables, but the two women apparently thought me incapable (as often happens) and insisted on cooking it for me. I ate all of it, wrapping the meat and kimchee in lettuce with random mystery sauces. It was great. I was very full, and very garlicy when I got back to the hostel, and went very peacefully to sleep.

More in a day or two. Peace and Love from the Big Dumpling.