I feel like I start too many of these with the word so, so I changed it to I to switch things up a bit. I'm going to go through things in an opposite time order as well. Or maybe just a mixed up time order... Pretty much whatever order I feel like recounting my escapades I guess. I'll start with yesterday.
I found out there was a fireworks show on the Han River yesterday, so I invited a bunch of my classmates to come with me so we could all watch it together. (A lot of my classmates are very new to Korea, so they don't have many friends yet. Otherwise, why would they hang out with me, right?) Ended up not being the night I expected, but definitely a night to remember.
Since the show was going to start at 7:30, I thought we should get there by 6:45 so we could get a good view. Or rather my Asian female classmates. I tend to tower over people, so it really makes no difference to me. Had we known the trains were going to be tricky, we would have left sooner. Since the event was centered around one train station, I guess the city of Seoul thought it best that trains not stop there... We got on the train going there, and it skipped the station. "Odd" we thought, and got on the train going back the other way. Right before the doors closed, we heard over the announcement that this train was going to skip the station as well. (I think they were just messing with people who couldn't speak Korean. The announcement was probably something like, "Hey everyone, this train isn't going to get off at the next station, so why don't you all just step off and laugh at the foreigners with confused looks on their faces.") We were just fortunate enough to hear the "this train is not stopping at the next station" announcement. Unfortunately, however, not all of us were fortunate enough to hear that in time. Which then resulted in our group being split. 10 to 4.
Oh well, right? I didn't need 8 friends to watch it with anyway. 4 will do. So we asked the station master, just to be sure, and he said that the next train was in fact going where we wanted. After literally squishing into the train comforting ourselves with the one thought that it was only one station away, we finally arrived at our stop. By this time, it was 7:20. The Bob Jones inside of me was flipping out at this point, but I played it cool... as always. After 4 years of having to be a good 24 hours early to everything you do, being late makes you feel like you'll be hung at the gallows. If they are feeling benevolent, maybe they'll just use the guillotine.
We were then met with the biggest crowd of people I've ever seen in my life. We couldn't even get out of the subway because it was so packed. The heat and stench were unbearable. Even though it was a good 60 degrees outside, it was probably closer to 85~90 degrees in the subway station. I now know that not only does heat rise, but stench does as well. I had a good view and smell of the whole thing. Luckily though, we picked up two more of our group while waiting in the subway. We spent a total of 12 minutes waiting in line to get out of the subway, which then put the time to 7:32
Finally, out of the subway and into... the real crowds. I wish it were light enough for me to get a good picture of just how many people were there. I now know exactly what it means to be "swept away by the crowd." A good Calvinist would say that all things are predetermined/predestined, and that there is no straying from that which has already been set in stone. I think Calvin was stuck in one too many crowds and lashed out doctrinally. It didn't really matter where you wanted to go. You were just pushed a certain direction. However, we finally made it to the park.
Finally, a place where we can just stand and watch the fireworks... which by the way have now been going on for a good 15 minutes. After looking behind me, I realized that the "we" I referred had dwindled down to a me and one other person. Apparently the crowd had predetermined that one as well. I was fortunate enough to have the last member of our ill-fated party be someone from Hong Kong. She was able to explain a lot to me about all of the fireworks we were seeing. I had really never seen anything like it. I had no idea fireworks could actually make shapes like flowers, faces, and even letters. Apparently, the government of Hong Kong puts on an event like this 3 times a year, and the fireworks there make Chinese characters in the sky. 
There were a total of 5 different countries that put on firework displays with only a 5 minute break inbetween each display. The whole event lasted about 2 hours. The lamest one was definitely France. I'm sorry, but you American doesn't go to Germany and make schnitzel. The French fireworks were very... ordinary. Impressive, but ordinary. My Hong Kongese friend? Hong Kongan friend? (I seriously don't know how to say that.) Anyway, my friend from Hong Kong was not too impressed, so I took cue and waited for the big guns from Japan and Korea. 
I have to say that I really enjoyed the show, but getting out was another matter. The city of Seoul, once again, decided to play games and close down the subway station so that no one could go in. The police were even there to block the entrance. So, since we were on an island in the middle of the river, we walked to a bridge, walked across the Han river, and walked to the closest subway station there and took the train. For those of you who don't know, the Han river is HUGE.
Once we got back, we met up with most of the members of our ill-fated party and went to eat Korean BBQ, and just talked. Since the most ill-fated portion of our group came much later at the expense of the city of Seoul's humor, they weren't able to really see anything because the crowd pushed them into a bunch of trees. Needless to say, the fireworks show was not the topic of our conversation last night. Rather, I tried to explain why US lawmakers shut down the government and why they fight over nothing. If I knew the answers, I might have been successful.
OK, let's go back a little bit more. Now rewind your brains back to September 19th. What were you doing that day? Maybe working? Nothing? Getting the booger that'd been bugging you? That day in Korea is known as Chuseok, which is their version of Thanksgiving. It follows a lunar calendar, so just incase you remember to pick your nose on September 19th next year, it's just like every other day. Sorry. Anyway, my friends and I decided that we would go to an amusement park, cause who would go to an amusement park on Thanksgiving day, right?
Wrong. Whereas there were very few Koreans there, it seemed that we weren't the only foreigners with that idea. I had no idea there were sooooo many Southeast Asians in Korea. I saw maybe 10 other white people the whole day. Everyone else was from Southeast Asia or China. So, we spent our holiday walking around a park too packed to wait in any lines. "Hmmm... should we wait 2 hours for the little spinny ride? Nah, let's keep walking around and pretend like we're having fun." I went on a total of 3 rides that day. "Are we having fun yet?"
Luckily, they had a zoo there, which is hard to form lines for, so we mostly just hung out in that section and watched monkeys fling poo around. They even had exhibits for dogs. No joke. "The extremely rare Chihuahua is considered a pet in some countries. Notice how the teeth come back to reveal a mouth and tongue. These dogs also make delectable snacks if stewed properly."
Now, fast forward to today. I played soccer with the Koreans like normal, but after we were done playing, one of the 30 year-olds in the group came up to me and wants me to meet with him every week so that I can practice speaking Korean to him/he's going to teach me how to speak better/hopefully I will suck less as time goes on kind of a thing. It's really really nice of him to take time out of his day like that to help me with this. I'm really grateful for the friends I've made there. Even though I can't communicate that much with them yet, I can tell that they are really kind and want to help me.
No comments:
Post a Comment