The West Commences: More Korea

I started today, Monday, October 6, 2014, at 8:00am by calling mom and dad on Skype. Mom had just returned from a walk, which she found cold, and dad was getting up from a late afternoon nap. After our chat, they were going to share a Presbyterian beer before going to Sunday dinner. The time difference still overwhelms me.

It’s 7:00pm now, and I’m alone in the house. It’s dark already. The temperature at night has been dropping to around 8c. May is complaining about the cold and getting out the winter clothes. She and Jay are teaching at the moment, and the girls are at dance class. When they return I hope they will perform for us. They’re crazy dancers.

I was back to urban biking again last week. I went to Jay’s old neighborhood twice, once alone and once with him. It’s not a long bike ride, but when we’re there we climb the hill. That’s also not a long hike, but there are parts that get me panting. Jay knows a different route to another ‘summit’ than the one I usually go to. I prefer his, but when I’m alone, I stick to the straight path because I can get lost after one wrong turn. Another day I went on the subway to Gyeyang Station where I rented a bike to ride along the Ara Waterway. I chose the more expensive, $15.00/day bike because it had gears. Of course, I didn’t need them. This path like the one along the Han River is almost totally flat; if there’s a wind it’s a bit of a push, but there was no wind. I pretty well followed the whole thing, to the point where you get a look at the West Sea. The most fun was along a less well-tended branch of the canal that took me through flourishing gardens and past fishermen, some of whom seemed to be going for crabs using traps that looked like vegetable steamers with a small fish in each. There were fish jumping quite high out of the water and planes flying really low overhead, going to Gimpo Airport.

On Thursday I went to a jimjillbong, as usual, but this time to a different one, the Dragon Hill Spa near Yongsan Station in Seoul. It was designed on a grander scale than the one I usually go to in Incheon, but its glamour has faded slightly and like most aging things, it looks better after dark. It did have something the Blue Ocean doesn’t, an outdoor, rooftop area with 3 different hot tubs. Even here; however, there had been more pools but 2 of them were empty and worn looking. I had a good time there though because it was pouring rain and I love to be in a hot rub with rain or snow falling on my head. I spent a total of about 5 hours in the spa, slowly finding my way to every hot and cold spot, which is some feat without my glasses on. I think that’s the reason I don’t have many inhibitions about being naked in a jimjillbong. As I can hardly see the other women, I feel invisible myself. Before going into the mixed area, I put my glasses on and the shorts and t-shirt they give as you enter. For the first time, I ate the traditional jimjillbong snack, cold, sweet rice water and different colored hardboiled eggs. I bought the ‘set’, which consists of 3 different eggs, one black, one dark shiny brown and one that looked like a plain brown egg. The whites of all 3 were beige and the yolks were rather flat, but otherwise I was at a loss to distinguish among them. I do not have the most delicate palate.

Jay and May didn’t have school on Friday, so we went to Seoul to meet Frank, Jay’s high school friend whom I see every visit, and May’s brother, his wife and the baby, Woo Jin. The weather was perfect. We walked along the Cheonggyecheon Stream in the centre of Seoul. It had been a stream that was covered by a highway in the post- Korean War reconstruction period. It was returned to a waterway at great expense starting in 2003. The whole thing was and remains a source of controversy, but to an outsider it is a very pleasant, cool place to spend an hour or two walking in the greenery and watching fish, away from the traffic and noise of Seoul. There were a lot of locals enjoying it too. We also ate and spent a lot of time in a market area. As we headed back to the Seoul City Hall subway station, it was dark. The huge area in front of city hall was lighted and full of action. We were just in time to watch an Australian acrobatic troupe called Gravity and other Myths (GOM). Their show is called “A Simple Space”, which describes it well. They are amazing acrobats, each of whom has been in the circus world all their lives. They are incredibly athletic and supple. Their act involves minimal props and no glitz, just a drummer who perfectly compliments their moves. They don’t try to disguise the fact that what they are doing is inconceivably difficult. It’s their imaginative working of the moves that is spellbinding.

A pottery place in Jay's old neighborhood that specializes in clay birds. This strange looking one is perched on a car rearview mirror so that when you look in the mirror at the right angle, you see the bird's house.

The bright lights and bamboo path leading to the Dragon Hill Spa at night as I left it.

The sign at the popular bindaetteok restaurant where we had lunch in the market in Seoul. Bindaetteok are pancakes made with mung beans, eggs, green onion, kimchi and pepper.