In a futile attempt to catch up

Josh:
Hello once more. I shall start off with my thoughts on the models here. It seems like most of the American models here are the ones who couldn't make it in the States. For example, there is the picture of a guy and a girl hugging (both shirtless). This picture is on almost every single bus so we know that it is a fairly big ad. From far away the woman looks normal (very skinny and seems attractive) and the guy looks like the main actor from Smallville (with giant arms and all). Up close, however, their flaws become very apparent. Now I don't want to be hypercritical but I am just comparing these models to the models in America. The woman looks like she is past her prime and (to quote Audrey) the man is what we lovingly refer to as "horse face". I'll post the pictures up sometime soon. It's funny to me because some models are the same as in America but other models seem slightly off in some way. This comes from the differences in what is considered attractive (of course). In my opinion they only see the characiture of what should be an attractive man or woman. In my classes I have my students describe pictures to me (tall, short, skinny, etc) and one of them is of this guy that is completely ripped but his arms look fake and weird. When I post the picture all my students say, "Ooooo! That's me!" and other like responses. Most girls that I know would look at him and say, "He's not attractive, his arms look weird." I don't really know where I am going with this but for some reason it just struck me as strange. Let's see if we can get some more done shall we?

Sat: 4/4/10

The first weekend arrived! Audrey was quite happy for some time to relax. Unfortunately (for the relaxing part) we had already agreed to meet with our recruiters (Teach ESL Korea) and have dinner with them. They pitched it as a free dinner for all teachers from Teach ESL Korea so before we even got to Korea we agreed to go because it would be nice to network and, of course, get a free meal. So after we woke up and relaxed just a little bit we decided to hit the train and head over to Seoul. We took the bus (note we are still in Dogok) to Pyeongtaek Station (50 minutes) and went inside to the station. It's basically a shopping mall with a train on the side. It's really neat to go in and see Baskin Robins, a Macys type store, automatic ticket machines and an information booth. It's a lot bigger than that description makes it sound. Just picture a small shopping mall and you will get the general feel of the station (in my opinion). Not knowing what to do we went to the information/ticket booth and talked to a lady who knew enough English to tell us what platform and when we would leave (Note: This is a 50 minute train ride and it only cost us $4.50 each! Their transportation system is really efficient.) So we went to the platform and hopped onto the train that we thought it would be (it's intimidating because you don't speak the language but it's actually really easy once you get past that).

Since it was a Saturday there were quite a lot of military people going to Seoul for the weekend. During the first half we got to talk to a couple from the base for a little bit. It was nice to speak in English to another couple. After 20 minutes of chit-chat we sat down for the second half of our journey. There was a little girl across from us and Audrey thought she was cute so she kept waving at her. She seemed to be very amused by us so every now and then we would look over and make faces. It's really fun to be an anomaly and have small kids just blatantly stare at you. We ended up giving her and her mother a cookie and we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. It went by fairly quickly and soon enough we were in Seoul. The fun began.

We had absolutely no idea where to go except for the area where we are supposed to meet the Teach ESL group. We wandered around looking for the subway for a little bit and after asking almost four different people (language barrier again) I started to get really frustrated. I was about to say that we should go home when a couple came over and helped us buy tickets. We still didn't know what to do but they said to get onto a train and we can switch from there (there are about 8-10 different lines and all of them go to different places and not all of them are accessible from where we entered, including the one that we needed). So we hopped onto line one and luckily there was an illuminated map on the wall which showed us where we were going. It was in the wrong direction so we got off at the next stop and decided to wait for the next train. The next one that came specifically said the name of the stop we were trying to get to but of course it managed to go in the opposite direction for some reason. Needless to say my frustration grew. Luckily there was another stop that connected to line two about five stops in later. We ended up riding it backwards, got onto the line we needed and eventually got to the stop that we needed to be at. Now that we know how the subway works it will be much easier next time but man oh man was that difficult with no translator and both of us having absolutely no idea what we were doing.

So after we escaped that maze of death we emerged onto the street and with only a few glances I could tell that the city of Seoul was completely different from Pyeongtaek. In my opinion, Pyeongtaek is a big city but compared to Seoul it is a rural area (that's what Koreans consider it to be). There were people everywhere with more neon signs all over than my eyes could handle. I really am excited to be able to explore this city and all it has to offer. Unfortunately we were on a time limit so we followed the very rough instructions to the bar where everyone was meeting (Beer O'clock - awesome right?). After some backtracking we managed to find it and when we stepped in we were greeting with the sight of 10-15 foreigners who all said "Hello" when we came in. It was so weird to me because I hadn't seen more than three foreigners for the entire week and here was 15 of them all sitting in one spot. We sat down and started talking to a very nice Canadian couple. We ordered some drinks and more and more people came flooding in. We met some very nice people (a few of which Audrey talks to almost every day) and as more and more sat next to us, we kept talking and meeting more people. Even though it was super frustrating to get there, I don't regret going at all. After about 40 people came into the bar we all got up and marched through the streets to get to the restaurant. It must have been a strange sight to see about 40 foreigners all marching in a line through Seoul (I did notice a few strange glances). We managed to make it to the restaurant and it was the best food I had had in Korea at that point. It was a barbecue where they put giant strips of pork in front of you and you cook it as dark as you want. We met the people who hosted the dinner and it was just a blast. I tried Soju for the first time and I honestly got really drunk from it. The group I was sitting with kept pouring more drinks for me and they kept making toasts so I figured I would join and of course I had to chase it with beer. It was really fun but by the end of the night I was a little more than gone. We took some pictures (turns out I'm just outside of them, lame) and we went our separate ways. We walked to the subway with the two girls who Audrey talks the most to, said goodbye and caught the next train to Pyeongtaek. It was about 11:00PM at this point. Little did we know we would have even more fun with the bus.

Turns out that the bus stops running at 10:40PM. We were waiting at the stop and didn't see any buses for a long time so I went into the McDonalds nearby and she said that the bus we need stopped running about 30 minutes ago. Once again, super frustrating. Since we didn't have our house in Pyeongtaek yet we had to get back to Dogok somehow. We debated about taking a taxi and luckily a man came over to us and offered to help with broken English. He talked to a taxi for us and we got a quote of $15 for the ride (not bad at all for a place that's half an hour away by car) so we thanked him and jumped into the car. Luckily the taxi driver was smart and pulled over and asked us how to get there. Turns out the guy who was helping us misheard us and told him to go another city (we still have bad pronunciation I guess). Luckily Audrey's co-teacher gave us lots of maps (including one of Pyeongtaek and Dogok) so we pulled that out and pointed where we needed to go. Turns out it would cost us about $30 (still not bad for how long it takes) so he started the car and took us over. We didn't have enough cash on us so when we got there we both said wait here (Audrey waited with him) and I ran into the house, grabbed the cash and ran back (I was pretty winded). It turns out Audrey said he rescued us from being stuck in Pyeongtaek and gave him a cookie and he got shy and ended up giving us two energy drinks. He mimed out falling asleep, drinking one and waking up. They were called Bacchus (Orpheus, remember?). So we took them, said thank you and gave him a tip (he tried to refuse but we forced him to take it -Note: In Korea you don't give tips out at all. Not in restaurants or to taxis. It's actually really nice in my opinion). We got home and crashed after our long night.

More to come...