An Amazing Start

Well Day 1 was great! There were moments where I felt very frustrated by not being able to speak Korean, but on the whole it was a really enjoyable day. I didn't venture out into the city until after 3pm even though I woke up a bit before noon, because I was pretty nervous about taking a solo adventure into the largest city I've ever seen.

I wrote cheat sheets of Korean phrases to help me, and they did. I was able to get vegetarian bibim bap next door to my hotel, and it tasted amazing - in part because I was feeling famished by 3pm!

I'd decided before leaving that I wanted to try to meet up with the Seoul Veggie Club for a Temple food and a traditional dance/music performance. It was perfect timing, since I won't actually be living in Seoul. Temple food is, according to strangers on the internet, always vegetarian because the Buddhist monks are. I have not fact checked this tidbit, but I'm planning to survive as a veg on the assumption that it is true. It certainly was this evening!

I was lucky because the subway stop for the restaurant was on the same line as my hotel, though it was 13 stops away. It was a fast trip, though, and I was there 20 minutes early to meet people. I had a lovely moment of foreigner stupidity when I tried to wave my card for the subway. At first, I went too quickly, so it didn't work. Then I was afraid that mybe the single pass couldn't just be waved over, but I didn't see a slot to send it through. Since I knew I couldn't communicate this in simple English, and since none of the Seoulites seemed interested in a silly blonde who was staring dumbly at the place where you wave your passes, I proceded to watch everone walk through, my ticket held out in my hand as if I were giving it away, and my face screwed up into a confused grimace. I must have looked brilliant. After about a minute, realized you have to hold your tickt over the place where I tried to wave it - and I made it through. Then I realized I wasn't sure which direction I was headed. I knew I wanted to go north, but I'd gotten through the little terminal and realized the maps were back on the other side. Ha. So again, I stood dumbly, watching people pass me going down the stairs, and finally decided to go down and hope there was a map near the train, or try to ask people. There was a map, and luckily I'd guessed correctly about my direction.

I'd left at 6pm because I was afraid of being late, but arrived at 6:45 and realized I'd left my book in the room. So I sat on a bench, next to a white guy who was listening to his iPod, and proceeded to people watch for half an hour. Since I hadn't said hello right away to the guy next to me, because I'd gotten so used to not talking to anyone on my excursion, I felt silly about introducing myself once we'd both been there awhile, even though I was fairly certain that the only reason for white people to be congregating right there was for the Club. So, we sat in silence for half an hour, until a Korean woman came up to us and introduced herself (having assumed, as I did, that the white people were vegetarians, not weirdos who hung around subway stops for the fun of it). What was oddly coincidental was that, once introduced, the guy and I both turned out to be from Wisconsin - ha! So we got along well, and it turns out he did Peace Corps in Ukraine, which was where I would have been teaching if I hadn't chosen Korea. Then we found out that we both love Verka Serdjuchka, a Ukrainian pop star who is also a drag queen. It is truly a small world. The other people were very nice, too, and most of them were surprised that it was my first day - and that I'd decided to come for dinner anyway. I don't feel like I have jet lag, though, and I'm so glad I left my room and got to have a great dinner with great people.

The food was delicious, and then they had an amazing performance on a stage in the center of the restaurant. The performers were wonderful. My camera battery started to die right in the middle of the performance, but I was able to take some video and some pictures, which I'll post tomorrow. I was particularly impressed with the female drummer. Her drum was attached to her outfit and it was played on both ends, with thin sticks. She was also dancing, in the beautifully fluid, precise manner that all of the dancers brought to their art. I was thoroughly impressed, and thrilled that I was there on my first day! After the performance, they asked customers to come up and dance and drum as well. I volunteered to go up with another veg woman, who didn't look nearly as excited as I did about the opportunity. Anyone who knows me, though, knows that secretly I was hoping all along that they'd ask us to participate! We were both given the large, colorful fans to wave, standing back to back in a square with two other women. We were in the center of the stage while the dancers and drummers walked around s in a circle. At first, with so many amateurs, the noise of the drums and gongs was just that - noise. But after a little while the noise became music, and it was so dynamic and fun to be up on stage with foreigners, Koreans, and the Korean performers, all spontaenously creating a musical event. It was the perfect end to a wonderful first day in Korea.