Crazy Crazy Times

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Trip Start Jul 18, 2011 Previous
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  Mokpo, Jeollanam-do, Korea Rep.
Saturday, July 23, 2011

    It has been an awesome couple of days.  The last two nights have been great as far as seeing the city, getting to know the culture, and experiencing some insanity. 

    We have been doing teacher and cultural training for the past few days, which is giving me some help as far as what to do, and what will be expected.  Manners-wise, we are generally forgiven, being white foreigners.  Additionally, if I was doing anything wrong, I can't understand the Korean to correct whatever I'm doing.  Anyway, the days are pretty basic, with orientation, meals, and getting to know each other.  Nights have been a little different, and a lot more fun.

    Two nights ago, a group of us decide to go to LotteMart, which is essentially the Korean version of WalMart.  To start with, we took taxis there, managing to cram 16 people into 3 taxis.  Then there was the insanity that was the market.  Everything seemed brighter, more chaotic, and more confusing than back home.  It was hilarious to see how some of the names were spelled in English, and some names and t-shirt slogans were hilarious (see pictures).

After LotteMart a group of us branched off and decided to head to a bar.  We ended up being beckoned into a bar called BoombaBar.  Typical place, typical music, but a really good (for Korea) beer selection.  I even saw XXXX,l which is an Australian beer.  On our tables, there was a little button and when we pressed it, the waiter literally came running to take our order.  It was a fun time there, and I got to know some other people I hadn't hung out with very much.  We all had a couple of BoombaBeers, and when we went to leave, the waiter gave all of us a free glass emblazoned with the Corona label.  I have no idea why, but it made me happy.

    We all went to catch cabs, but then a few other girls and myself decided we just wanted to wander some more.  That's when the fun began.  We were surrounded by neon lights, unsure of our exact location, unable to read or speak the language, and it felt like the perfect start to an adventure.  We wandered for a bit, and then managed to meet a street vendor who was from Peru, so I was actually able to talk to him.   He was such a nice man, and it was so nice to practice my Spanish.  Then, out of nowhere, a Korean man came up and asked us if we were having a problem.  It was so rude of him to assume that the street vendor was hassling us just because we were talking to him.  This is not a culture that is particularly opening to foreigners, especially those who are darker skinned.

After the vendor, we just went wandering.  As we got more and more lost, we began to notice there were only men out and about, with not a live woman in sight.  Then we noticed that the bars and clubs we were passing had shaded windows, suggestive names, and pictures of smiling women on a lot of the signs.  THat's right: we stumbled into the red light district.  After several fits of giggles, we decided to continue, winding our way through streets and past what I truly believe were brothels.

As we popped out on the other side, we decided to look for a bathroom and some food.  This led us to a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant where they spoke no English, but we were eventually able to communicate the need for a bathroom.  Then, we sat down to get food, but the was no menu.  We tried just asking for something in Korean from the guidebook, but had little success.  Thankfully, another customer there spoke Korean, and was able to order for us.  We asked him to order us something good that he would recommend, and we were not dissappointed.  What we got was a spicy pancake pizza with seafood and it was delicious.  It was a delicious meal, but it was made uncomfortable by the fact that there was a group of men sitting right next to us on the outside of the restaurant, and they kept staring and pointing.  After the looks and the pizza, we called it a night and went home.  It was the perfect night with a mix of adventure, good food, and interesting people.

Now for the second night out.

After a long day of orientation, we got done a little bit early, so we decided to head into downtown Mokpo.  It was at this point I was informed that what I had previously thought was downtown was in fact still a ways from the city center.  So, we caught a cab to the city center by the Street of Lights.  It was still daylight, so the lights were neither on nor enthralling.  At this point, we began our wander with two thoughts in mind:  there is a festival somewhere and Korean barbeque.

We passed bright stores with crazy English names and huge American brand name stores all scattered through with parked mopeds and food vendors.  There was an art gallery where we met a nice Japanese man who invited us to come back for his show later.  Then we went and tryed some street food, which was delicious.  I had a plate of pounded rice in spicy red sauce.  It was love at first bite.  One thing I have learned about Korea is that if the food is red, it is most likely a spicy dish.

Then we went to see some moe performances, because we finally realized we had been in the middle of where the festival was all along.  On the way, we saw a huge group of Korean clowns, so I obviously asked to take a picture.  Not only did they agree, they dragged us into the picture with them.  Check it out below.

As we were walking along, I asked if there was a specific symbol for Korean barbeque.  Just as I asked, I looked up, and I saw a sign with a giant piece of meat on it.  Question answered and dinner found.  THe barbeque was amazing.  They brought so many different dishes the tables were completely covered.  The meat was scrumptious.  Our waitress was hilarious.  She was also waiting on the table next to us, where several very drunk Korean men were finishing a meal.  Between their singing and shouting, they were having her do shots with them, and she managed to down four of them.  All in all, Korean barbeque will definitely be a repeat activity.

The rest of the night was filled with weird ice cream creations at the most ornately decorated ice cream parlor of my life, as well as a juggling that was remniscent of The Wiggles.  We went back to see the Japanese mans performance, and I wish we hadn't.  We thought it would be a short peice.  It was over an hour and a half long.  We thought it would be happy.  It wasn't.  It was one of the most disturbing performance art peices I've ever seen.  There was moaning and pawing and writhing and grunting and sweat and tearing and creepy makeup and weird voices and it just went on.  And on.  And on.  It was the type of Japanese theater that inspires Japanese horror films like The Ring.  Words cannot give justice to the range of emotions that flowed through me during the hour and a half that I was trapped in that performance.

So, even with all the training and heat and prep work, I've had some fun times out on the town, met some cool people, and am excited for more to come.  Also, I did finally get to see the Street of Lights when it was lit up, and it was pretty frickin cool.  See the photo.

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