Bus from Chiaksan to Wonju

Incheon to Wonju

Ganghyeon

Downtown Wonju

Blocked

Wish we could upload some home movies here but YouTube is now in a 'real-name verification' spat with the South Korean government. We try to upload to YouTube, only to get the following message

본인확인제로 인해 한국 국가 설정시 동영상/댓글 업로드 기능을 자발적으로 비활성화합니다.
We have voluntarily disabled this functionality on kr.youtube.com because of the Korean real-name verification law.

Gangneung

Great noodles

DC: Seafood noodle soup, at a place called, simply, Wonju Noodles, in the south-east of the city. You'll notice in this generous mix large dumplings, mussels, squid and clams. There is also small sea snails, a first for both of us, whose tough skin (I initially thought I'd tried to bite into a nut) softens quickly in the mouth and makes for an enjoyable chew. It was possibly the best meal we've tasted since our arrival in South Korea, with plenty of spicy heat. It was all very fresh and and had tons of flavour. It was so good we could have kept eating, though we had to decline the offer of more noodles by the owner, a friendly elderly gent who helpfully spoke a good deal of English, in order to continue our afternoon trek beyond Wonju's eastern river. Lana's seated on a thin cushion on the floor in traditional Korean style, the table being all of about one foot high.

Put to the test

DC: My Korean vocabulary is pathetic and only this week in class have we begun to conjugate our first verbs: go, eat, drink and sleep. Exactly like first-graders. So I am in no position to mock the translation ability of the South Korean driving licence agency. However, I did expend good money (the equivalent of around 10 quid, or $15) and shoe leather to traipse a little under five miles to take the Korean driving test in bucolic Mun Mak this week, and therefore feel entitled to leak question three of the Simplified Test for Foreigners, a multiple-choice exam.
Which of the following is the absurd remark to the action taken most rapidly when the car was lost/stolen?

Cafe society

Bach ... Rimbaud ... Covent Garden.

We are not in New York anymore

Click on photos to enlarge.

LO: We have continued exploring both the city and its surroundings. In the last two days we have discovered a whole new neighborhood of Wonju and climbed a mountain! Okay, we almost climbed a mountain.
The new area is actually right behind our apartment complex. The focal point of this part of the city is Wonju City Hall and the art center, Baegun Art Hall, attached to it. There are loads of great restaurants and shops, including the smallest coffee shop I have ever seen (pictured).

As for the mountain, we took a bus from outside our apartment complex for about 10 minutes, trekked through the countryside for a couple of miles to the mountain. It took us 40 minutes to hike up to the third base in the picture, before heading back down the way we came.

Why didn't we reach the summit? Did I mention I am scared of heights?

For the botanists out there - we know you are many - the trees with the yellow flowers are Japanese cornel dogwood, also known as Japanese cornelian cherry. In Korean, sansuyu. It's a food or medicinal plant.

No place like home

LO: It is four weeks since we left New York. We are slowly getting to know Wonju and what it has to offer. It reminds me of Sarajevo. In both cities the majority of people live in huge apartment complexes, where children play right in front of their buildings. Little green groceries, small butcher shops and bakeries are on the corner of each street, and every morning women air their bedding from their windows. There is an old market in both cities, located right next to the main walking/shopping district. There are beautiful mountains with ski slopes and resorts outside both Sarajevo and Wonju. And both have been savagely destroyed at some point in their history.

Punk puss in pink boots eases North Korean invasion jitters

We kid you not. Spotted in window of Wonju pet store.

Language barrier

Interesting piece on the Korea Times site.

.... Being relatively new here with almost no understanding of the Korean language yet, he said traveling outside of Seoul was a challenge and adventure...

The U.S. expatriate apparently isn't the only one struggling with these problems, however, as the Korea Chamber of Commerce Industry (KCCI) said Tuesday that 35 percent of foreigners living here feel the same way.

Read full article at:

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/03/123_41462.html

Crossing the Han solo (sorry!)

WARNING: Reduce volume of your computer speakers before playing video.



This is our taxi ride north across the Han River to the Grand Hyatt hotel. You can just about see the Seoul TV tower up ahead, to the left of the mountain peak. Of course, it wasn't a solo journey, we were both in the cab. I just needed another lame punning headline, one the locals have probably NEVER heard before.

What's for lunch?

Click on photos to enlarge

LO: Last weekend we explored the old downtown where old ladies sell hot peppers and dried fish in front of Ralph Lauren, Nike and Fila stores. This area is full of fancy western clothing stores and on some of the streets cars are not allowed, so it seems like a big outdoors mall. We came across the old provincial capital buildings that Dave has mentioned before and continued on to the shopping area. We also found the old temple (not pictured here) on top of the hill. While we would have loved to climb up the hill, it seemed that the stairs were the steepest I have ever seen. Ok, I might be exaggerating here, but they seemed to go on forever and the fact that I couldn't see their end made me give up. Hey, I will be living here for some time, so I will get to it ... one day.

Eventually we got hungry and decided to get some food at what seemed like a Korean food version of fast food. The menu is not what you would have expected. It is just a list of Korean meals with a price, no translation, no pictures. We were either going to starve or try to order whatever we could. After about five minutes of studying our little menu (it's about the size of a small envelope), we managed to translate the following:

1. soegogi kimbap (Korean version of sushi with beef)

2. bibimbap (rice with vegetables and a fried egg on top)

3. mandu guk (dumpling soup)

We should get a little medal for managing to do this only two weeks after our arrival, and no previous knowledge of the language. Yes, we were over the moon by the time we got our food. It was what we thought we ordered and it was delicious!

Totally wired

LO: I have already finished my second work week here in Wonju. Time seems to fly by when everything is new and foreign. We have been busy starting a new life, getting alien registration cards, bank accounts, credit cards, cell phones, cable and internet, and figuring out our washing machine, dish dryer, kitchen sanitizer machine (its UV rays kill all the bacteria on our plates!), and our intercom system that includes a camera outside our door and a walkie-talkie to be used in case of emergenies.

My new employers have been incredibly supportive and helpful. One of the staffers helped us a great deal by driving for an hour to get our IDs from the Gangwon provincial capital, Chuncheon.

That was a comparatively easy one. Getting bank accounts and cell phones was a whole other story. The bank is located on campus, but staff don't speak a word of English, and don't have a single form in English. I felt like I was 10 years old and Mom had to do everything for me. There we were , two normally capable adults staring at these forms and feeling like two complete idiots. We kept laughing because that was the only proper response to such a ridiculous situation. Luckily, TG, the assistant, showed up and did it all again for us.

That evening, he took us to obtain our cell phones. Now, in the States if you walk into AT&Ts office, they will try to sell you everything and the kitchen sink to make sure you stay with them. Here, it's a whole different story. We walked into three or four different phone offices, and each one would send us to their competitors -- I don't know, maybe that is how they punish each other, sending clueless foreigners to the competitor who will then waste 2 hours of their time trying to translate and understand all possible plans while the other guys get all the locals.
We found one who was willing to help us. He kept telling Dave, "Oh, you like Kobi Bryant,, and shouting in Korean so we could understand him better. It was even funnier than the bank. We sat there drinking green tea the salesman made for us, and laughed. By that time I just gave up trying to understand what was going on and completely let the poor TG run the show. We rewarded him by inviting him over for some Pizza Hut pizza because he mentioned previously that he liked it. It seemed like a good idea to us as well until it arrived. It was the most expensive pizza ever ($20), it had mashed sweet potatoes as a topping and instead of the usual garlic sauce, we got sliced pickles and hot sauce. With pizza?

Another student sorted out our cable and internet, so he informed me that the cable person will come any time we tell them to. I said, 'Between 10am-12pm or 2pm would be great,' but he didn't understand. After I repeated my request two or three times, he was still puzzled. It turns out Korean cable guy shows up at exactly the time one requests - no 4-hour blocks where you have to sit and wait! I love this place.

So tomorrow at 10am, guess who is coming over?

Peak practice

Click on photo to enlarge

Striking skeletal shapes of Korean pae (pear) trees awaiting spring form the background on our four-hour yomp through the farmland south of Wonju. We eventually reached a couple of dragon-topped stone totems either side of the road, marking the entrance to the National Baegwoonsan Natural Rain Forest. Beyond are our closest mountains, Baegunsan and Keunbaramgolsan, the latter still topped with snow from a month ago. I'd love to tell you we hiked on, even further south, and off our map, reached ol' Golsam's shining peak by nightfall, and planted our Midtown South flag in exhausted triumph. Sorry to disappoint. (I was imagining the story at the bottom of page 4 of Saturday's New York Times: American woman in green Pumas and Briton wearing Adidas (one sneaker minus a lace) and a black leather jacket found barely alive nowhere near the summit of obscure South Korean hill. Neither carried a compass, the words North Face were found nowhere on their clothing. And they had the wrong map.)

Why, thank you

DC: Kam sa hamnee-dar. It means thank you. But it's formal, according to our young Korean pal who's been helping us with translation in various situations, including signing up for mobile phones, and ordering pizza, our reward to him last night for the phone business. "Kam sa ham-needar is too formal," he said with a big grin after we climbed out of a taxi, whose driver I'd accorded far too much respect. "You don't need to use it. It makes you sound like you are not from Korea." Apparently, you'd use it if, say, you wanted to be extremely nice to the Korean cop who'd just pulled you over for speeding on our big highway to Seoul. Or to a judge or a doctor. "Ko map sumnee-dar. Means thanks. It's better," said our friend. "More casual. It's cooler."

Let there be green

We knew there was real beauty out there, just beyond Wonju city limits. In them thar hills. We'd read about it, and several eager-to-impress locals and expats have told us about it. It's just that it appears to have been hiding beneath a lot of grey wintery cloud since we arrived a couple of weeks ago. Late afternoon today, however, the gods of those low but perfectly formed mountains to the south of us decided to stage a little spring shindig and throw the switch that produced the impressive light show you see here. Ta dah! Welcome washes of olive green finally daubed among the brownery that many associate with the rural Korean landscape. This is the view from our apartment, and pictured in the distance beyond Dongbo Nobility Block 102 (extreme left) and our neighboring complex are Mount Baegunsan and, behind it, Mount Keunbaramgolsan, part of the National Baegwoonsan Natural Rain Forest, their ravined and wooded slopes illuminated for us for the first time. Now we just have to climb the things.

Whatever will they think of next!

I know. Why didn't I think of that? A tube, um, squeezer.

Gee, it's that song again

We would hear this ridiculously infectious song in our Koreatown supermarket in New York. Now we're in the land where Girls Generation (SNSD) , a small army of up-and-coming showbiz poppets recruited specifically for a Spice Girls-like pop overthrow, is everywhere, and the Gee song is about to push us over the edge into insanity. Right now, howver, it could be the greatest song of all time. Gee gee gee gee baby baby baby!

Alphabet city

DC: I met the neighbour today. We were both waiting for the lift in our building. He's probably 4 years old. Huge saucer eyes, a pudding bowl haircut Dee Dee Ramone would have been proud of, and a back pack that sunk down to the back of his knees and seemed to fasten him to the spot. He gazed up .. and up and up at me, and I was forced to break the ice. Hi, you live here, what's your name? He didn't miss a beat, not a hint of shyness. "Hello. My English name is Edmund. My Korean name is ... " I didn't catch his Korean name. I was thinking of Black Adder. You just finished school? It was about 4.30 in the afternoon. "Yes." He's still staring up at the foreigner, he hasn't looked down yet. Where do you go to school? "I go to ABC hagwon." Hagwons are the schools many, maybe most, young Koreans attend after normal school each day to learn, in Edmond's case, obviously, to perfect, their English. We ride the lift together up to the fifth floor. He marches out ahead of me and takes a left. Doesn't look back. I go right. Have a nice day. "Have a nice day."

Larva's in the air

LO: We have been waking up pretty early every morning, but also been going to bed early, as well. I guess we are still getting over the jet lag. Every morning we sit by our living room windows in awe of the mountain chains not far away and the light fog lifting off the peaks. No wonder this country is known as the Land of Morning Calm. Even the morning rush hour seems to go quietly, no honking, no beeping.
This morning we went out in search of forks. Yes, you read it right, forks! We have brought to South Korea some chopsticks my parents got us in China last year, but nothing else. Instead, we should have brought our forks and knives. We did ship our set of big kitchen knives, but not a single fork or knife. Most of the stores here sell packs containing one large spoon with a long handle and a set of stainless steel chopsticks. Spoons and chopsticks are sold either individually, or in twos or threes. Four is not a lucky number so nothing is sold in sets of four.

We walked for an hour and a half in the sun to Daiso, a Japanese cheap household goods store. It may seem like a long way, but we were excited to see a completely different part of Wonju. We came across a wonderful Buddhist temple overlooking the entire city and a small Korean war memorial, right next to the large sports complex that houses the soccer and baseball stadiums and basketball arena.

After locating Daiso, we did find some forks, but they were part of a set that also had a spoon and two chopsticks ... the sets clearly designed for Korean children just getting the hang of chopsticks. Most of the handles have slogans engraved in English, or pictures of bunny rabbits, or Hello Kitty. Luckily, we managed to find a couple of sets without anything written on them. So we bought them and declared mission accomplished before continuing our wander through that part of the city.

The long walk made us both hungry, so we decided to go get some food. This time we skipped lunch/soup kinds of places and stopped in for some famous Korean barbecue at a place called Choisim. Within minutes, the bucket of coals in the middle of our table was glowing nicely and the waitress - a middle-aged lady whose daughter approached our table to ask where we were from and went on to inform us she was a student at a university in Seoul but was currently having a 'rest' from academia - had brought out all the little fabulous dishes to go with the pork and beef we were about to cook at the table. We grilled the meat ourselves before stuffing it into fresh lettuce leaves, topped with kimchi ... and beondegi, which pretty accurately translates as SILKWORM LARVAE! We weren't sure what these small, brown, slightly cruncy, quite sweet and very tasty tidbits were until we got the confirmation from our new student friend at the end of our meal, but we knew that it was some sort of a worm. I do have to be honest and say they were awesome! We finished them all. At the end, the waitress brought out little bowls of a half-frozen yellowish drink made, we were told, from pumpkin. What a feast!