Saturday, March 14, 2009

A Quick Stumblers Guide to Itaewon in 30 Seconds

The air and germs on the children finally got to me this week and I have spent the last two days recovering my voice so instead of showing what I did this weekend, which would bore a shut-in, let's take a look at my quick trip in Itaewon after the soccer game last weekend.  Hardly an inclusive expose into the city but definitely an honest first person accounting of the adventure.

Itaewon is a city district of Seoul and one of the closest to Suji.  It's home to about 22,000 people and is a huge tourist spot for Americans.  There are 30,000 American military troops stationed in South Korea and Yongsan Garrison, the U.S. military base, is located very close to Itaewon so the amount of soldiers that party and relax there is considerable.  This has lead to a few differences in Itaewon from the other city districts that comprise the vast urban umbrella that is Seoul.  For one, the highest amount of crime exists in and around the U.S. military base and surrounding areas such as Itaewon.  Also, there is a strict 3AM curfew on all businesses here to curb the violence that usually erupts from the soldiers and the drinking.  There is also a list of various establishments whereby no soldiers are allowed in for various reasons, not the least of which is open prostitution.  Conversely, in this rather conservative country, there is a large growing gay and lesbian population that has emerged in Itaewon over the last decade.  In a country where people do not admit to homosexuality even existing, that's rather progressive.  You can find all manner of counterfeit goods including DVD's and jewelry, but Itaewon is also known for it's cheap well made suits that are custom fit for the customer.  

I did not see any of this however.  By the time I got to Itaewon it has three and a half hours after riding the subway system all over the damn place, because we got lost, and when we arrived I just wanted food to curb my aching head.  Luckily, or perhaps unfortunately, the fights and the DVD's passed me by on this particular outing.  Instead I got some delicious fish n' chips in an Irish Bar, but I'm getting ahead of myself.  

After a terribly long bus ride from the game, due to directions given by a local who misunderstood us, we finally hit the subway station at Anyang.  I bought my first subway pass (similar to a Charlie Card for our Boston readers) and set with the group towards what was supposed to be a short subway ride, relatively.  [Due to the bum directions we didn't realize we were at Anyang but thought we were at another stop entirely.  Oh well, live and learn right?]



























The subway "under-city" is quite large and has everything from cell-phone stores to clothing shops to 7-11 style kiosks called "Family Mart."  Here you get food, toiletries, and even beer for the train since there is no open container law in South Korea.  You can safely drink a beer walking down the street without so much as a ticket.  That will not stop you from getting looks by the locals of course who are noticeably not drinking on the street but I have seen westerners on a Friday or Saturday night talking and chugging as they pass-by.  Being so close to having left the game and knowing we are going to have a 40 minute subway ride or so (so equalling 3 more hours) we grabbed a beer for the subway and set off.  

One beer lead to many as the stops and the switches and double backs and general lost-ness began to rack the minutes up towards hours but eventually we did arrive long after sunset and once emerged from the underground rail I was greeted with what has been called the "least" busy of the Seoul city districts.  



























Busy enough for me, but no more so than Boston or New York or even Louisville around 4th Street Live on a Saturday.  The thing though is that everything was in constant motion.  I pulled out my camera to take pictures but the throng of people were pushing and moving like a river towards some interesting lake and I was swept up with the current.  What I could see immediately however was the American influence around me mixed with the local flavor.



























There were new languages being spoken that I hadn't heard yet since my arrival.  I noticed African dialects behind me and saw a huge group of Africans with one wearing a soccer jersey from Trinidad.  Spanish, French, and English were being spoken.  The shopkeepers were Indian and there were homeless people peddling for change all around us.  Women of the evening were winking as we swept by propelled by the social current and a few yelled "handsome man!  handsome man!" as I floated by.  It was far from the suburban technicolor that I had come to expect in Suji and it was slightly overwhelming.  

As always though, one of the experienced veteran teachers read my expression and said, "this is nothing."  You have to understand, Seoul is a city in the way that L.A. is a city.  It is a huge vast expanse made up of 25 city districts that totals 24.5 million inhabitants when combined.  Beyond downtown Seoul there really is no "Seoul" proper, so Itaewon, with it's piddly 22, 000 souls is considered a minor blip on the Seoul Milky Way.  It's also far from the Seoul downtown nucleus if you will, so, by some people's standards, it's not really experiencing Seoul necessarily.  That's fine by me, I thought.  I'll take baby-steps towards the center.  I got nothing if not loads of time here.


























Suji is where I live.  It's on the Southeast portion of the map.  Suwon was where the soccer game was and Anyang was where we grabbed the subway.  Yongsan was where we finally got off hours later and I dare you to find it on this map in under one minute.  Ready?  GO!

So it's not the BIGGEST and BEST representation of Seoul but it's pretty busy nonetheless.  Everywhere I looked there was motion and traffic.



























Also, when we first arrived, I had been on a train for hours drinking beer so the first 20 minutes or so, combined with being swept up by the movement of everyone, kind of looked and felt like this:



























Friends don't let friends ride drunk.

But the "fresh" air and knowledge we were all STARVING and with a headache sobered us up really quickly on our way to the Irish Pub that a couple of the other teachers, Ryann and Joelene, frequented and recommended.  On the way there I was able to grab a few images, despite the rush, that caught my eye.  Like the "Big American Downtown District" building or BADD Building for short as I called it. 



























Flash Fact: ColdStone Ice Cream gives me an upset stomach, Quiznos Subs is wicked gross, and I can't remember what the Coffee Bean tastes like.  The three together must equal one hell of a fun night for the locals though, they were PACKED.

Want fruit?  There's truck beds full of it on almost every corner for really great prices.  The fruit here is quite lush I must say.  The vegetables however, like brocoli for instance, are hit and miss.  You get 10 tangerines for 1,000 won.  As of this writing that's .65 cents!  Huge bushels of strawberries for 3,000 won (2 bucks), and by huge I mean over 40 strawberries in a container.  The mushrooms, leaks, and carrots or other ground grown vegetables are usually delicious but anything off a stalk is hit or miss.  Except the corn.  They love corn here and put it on everything from pizza to sushi.  



























Besides the trucks of fruit there's trucks of jewelry as well.  I don't think these wears would put Seng Jewelers out of business anytime soon but they have a market.  I have a feeling the shine comes more from cubic zirconia than Sierra Leone but that's not a bad thing as far as I'm concerned.  



























Blurriness due to motion and lack of being able to stop.  I do apologize for the quality.

Or maybe you wanna grab a chicken for the road?  They got trucks for that too.  I named it The Rotisserie Mobile and it smelled delicious but having the meat that close to the tailpipe spells trouble in the morning to me.



























They only get 7 of the herbs and spices over here.  The other's are kept in a vault under the Rio Grande next to the launch codes and captured aliens.

We finally made it to the pub.  I was famished and our general weariness was overwhelming.  The atmosphere was very familiar though and it surprised me how soothing that was.  The music was one of the first things that caught my attention.  As soon as we sat down they were playing Temptation by New Order.  This was a noticeable shift from the music I have been listening to everywhere else up to this point.  The pub played Oasis, Bowie, basically mostly English bands with a Kings of Leon song thrown in there amidst the Manchester.  I couldn't believe how much I needed to hear that kind of music in a public place after hearing K-Pop everywhere from a clothing store to a family restaurant, no matter the age difference in the cliental.  They don't have indie rock here of any kind and no college radio stations to broadcast it even if they do.  

The place was crowded with ex-pats drinking hard and army guys wearing really tight shirts walking around menacingly staring at everything with exposed legs while herded together in self-conscious clusters.  The atmosphere felt very familiar and the food was greasy and delicious.  Still not a Kings of Leon fan though, just can't get into them.



























Oh, and if you're like me I bet you've been asking yourself, hey, what happened to Sylvester Stallone?  Well have no fear, he's alive and well and full of plastic and hocking Russian Vodka in countries outside the United States.  Now I will defend to anyone that Sly is one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation despite watering down his ability as a writer/director with star turns in films such as Cobra or Stop Or My Mom Will Shoot.  Okay, so he directed Staying Alive but he did write Rhinestone after all which is a post modern masterpiece, but I digress.  

The thing I love most about Sly is that he always gets to the root of the matter, no matter if the root is repulsive or not.  Just look at the truth in this advertisement.  If this vodka is like any of the Russian vodka I have had before then Tango's body language couldn't be more appropriate.  It's like Sly's saying: "'Eyy, if y'uz like voud'kah then drink this voud'kah.  Cuz it'll be like getting punched in the face by me."

You sold me Sly.  And to think, your character was fighting communism in that country for years before this.  What a world.



























No Human Growth Hormone was consumed in the making of this poster.

So we made it home a lot quicker than we came by grabbing the bus and 40 minutes later arrived in bright and colorful Suji, dropped off right between the Dunkin Donuts and the KFC.  My first toe-dip into the deep-end that is Seoul was harmless and interesting.  More to come as the weeks go by and it finally warms up here.  But until then I'm going to get my immune system used to being around the kids coughing in my face without covering their mouths as I'm sure the other teachers reading this can understand.  Maybe I'll grab a bus back into Itaewon and stop by one of those fruit trucks again for some cheap Vitamin C.  Or, I could just grab some of that Stallone Vodka and sweat it all out.   I'm not sure which'll come first but until then I'm on the mend with a Monday morning looming over the horizon.



























Thanks for stopping by!

No comments:

Post a Comment