Winter Break/The Lazy Blogger aka Me

So I spent most of my winter vacation with my friends Melissa and Michelle. Curious enough, my friend Melissa wrote a blog all about our winter vacation. You'll even notice we have the same layout. Being the lazy blogger that I have come to love, here is the link to her blog: Life, Love, and Learning in Korea. She pretty much says it all :)

Oh and if you want to know what I am doing at work nowadays, here is a blog from another friend of mine that, once again, says it all. Really, I couldn't say it better than she did, even if I tried. Enjoy! Experiences Teaching Abroad: Desk Warming

If you want to see pictures of my winter vacation, they are up on facebook.

Much Love!

The Seoul Train

When it comes to traveling and going out to Seoul from Suwon, you have your pros and cons. Seoul is definitely where you go to have some fun, so I tend to overlook the cons because the pros kinda outweigh them.

So what first, the good news or the bad news? Let's go with the bad news first so we can look forward to the good news, shall we?

Alright, the cons:

• 1 1/2 hour - 2 hour metro/train travel (depending where in Seoul you are going to). This is the time it takes just to get to Seoul. This means that I must leave Suwon relatively early if I need to get to the place in Seoul at a specific time. Relatively early being right after work.

• If I want to take the metro home, a good rule of thumb is to leave wherever I am no later than 10:30pm. If I don't, then the metro will most likely close down on me and then I'm forced to take a taxi. If I catch all the right trains, I usually get home in an hour and a half, which puts me back in Suwon at 12:00 am. This is a con, because I am leaving early but still getting home late.
  

If I want to stay later than 10:30pm in Seoul I have two options: I can take a taxi or I can wait for the metro to start running again.

• Taxi's cost between $30/$40 (30,000 won/40,000 won) to get from Seoul to Suwon. When you are with others, this is more plausible. The only time I've taken a taxi by myself from the Seoul area back to Suwon was when the trains stopped running on me and I had work the next day.
  

• The metro is back up and running around 5:00am. This puts you back in Suwon around 7 or 8 am, depending if you fall asleep on the metro and miss your stop or not. You can only really take this option on a weekend, and even then it screws with your sleep pattern. Going to sleep around a time when you usually wake up, well, let me just say you spend the rest of your weekend trying to get back on track. And regardless of your efforts, you still may be tired come workday Monday.

After reading that you must think, "Wow. Why would you ever stay out late in Seoul?! You crazy mf'er!" Well, here are the pros:

• It's Seoul. Do I have to say more?
  

• Everything you could possibly think of doing is in Seoul. The times I have gone out have been totally worth every moment; you have so much fun that all the effort it takes doesn't matter in the end.
  

• Metro time seems to pass quickly. The hour and a half it takes never seems that long. On most cell phones you can get tv for free, so you can just watch instead of idly wait. Also, the seats are heated, which is quite lovely. At most stops, there are places where you can purchase food and drinks, something to do when you are waiting for the train to come. And if you are worried about packin on the pounds, just walk up and down the stairs instead of taking the escalator.
  

• There are other options than what I've stated above. I know you can use the bus system, which I hear is faster (unless it's during rush hour), but I haven't figured it out yet. And figuring it out may take some more literacy in Korean, which I also haven't figured out yet.
  

• So there is the metro (subway) and then there is the train (korea rail). Up above I use the term "train" in reference to the metro, which isn't exactly correct because they are two different things. Korea rail can be a lot quicker if your location in Seoul is close to a major area, but you have to leave from Suwon Station. The train takes 30 minutes as compared to an hour and a half, and doesn't cost that much more. When I use the train, I generally get a ticket for $2.50. But the trains do book up quickly and stop running earlier than the metro, so most of the time it makes more sense to take the metro. But when everything works out, the train is faster and nicer.
  

• I have read online that you can stay at a hostel for the night, where they give you pajamas, towels, and shower shoes, all for only $8 (8,000 won) but I haven't tried that either.
  

If you are done partying and want to take it easy before the metro starts running, there are plenty of places to go.

• You can go to a DVD Bang, which is a place where you rent out a room with a ginormous tv and you also rent a dvd to watch. If you are in Seoul with a bunch of people who are not from your city, this is makes sense. Otherwise, it would make more sense just to catch a cab. I think it costs around $20/$30 (20,000/30,000 won) but all the times I've gone, someone else has paid for it.
  

• You can go to a Norebang, aka Karaoke. Just like the DVD bang except you rent out a room with a ginormous tv and you sing Karaoke. The last one I went to was 30,000 won, and everyone paid like 5,000 won ($5). Not to shabby if you ask me.

• You can always go and eat food. The street vendors are always open late at night, and a lot of the restaurants are open late as well. This is also good after you've been drinking for hours.

Even though you may not be convinced that it's worth it, trust me it is. I think everyone living here would agree with me as well. Seoul is where everyone goes to have a good time.

Do I wish I lived in Seoul? Sometimes, it would make traveling a lot easier. But that's the only reason really. Suwon is great. I love the school I work at, I love my job, my co-workers, the students, my apartment... I know others who work in Seoul and it seems as though they don't have such a nice set up like I do. Suwon is a big city too, so there are places to go out and things to do here. With that all said, if I renew my contract I would stay in Suwon.

Suwon is a great place to live, Seoul is a great place to go out to.

Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody!

When I was still in Sacramento, my dancer friend Jamie told me all about how she was going to South Korea to teach English as a second language. I am definitely thankful for her because without her knowledge and courage (and being my human guinea pig), I may have never decided to teach English here... because I would have had my doubts. And now, since she has been here longer than I have, she is my swing sansei. She knows where to go, who to talk to, where to get the information... she's just got it.

So I've been out swing dancing a total of three times and let me tell you something, Koreans definitely know what's up! I would have gone out more, but I've been kinda sick :( Anywho, my theory on why Koreans are so good at swing dancing is the mechanics of it all. Koreans know how to execute a move that is taught to them. It's like a math problem, you input one two triple step and out comes Lindy. Also, practice makes perfect and Koreans know how to work. I actually learned recently that Korea works the most out of any other country in the world. True fact.

If I go out on the dance floor and ask any random Korean to dance, they will not only know how to lead, but lead the moves they know very well. Probably 75% of the time. If I go out on the dance floor and ask any random Korean to freestyle, that would kinda be like throwing a wrench into the works. See, all Koreans can regurgitate moves, the really great dancers have musicality as well.

Then it comes to me dancing with Koreans. I'm about 75% musicality aka I do what I want! So there is tension (haha get it? get it?) at times. Also, I'm a lot bigger than most Korean woman... and I'm not just saying height (there are actually a lot of Koreans taller than me), but frame. The women are petite and on average weigh 100 pounds (if that). I found out this past weekend that my shoe size is one size bigger than the biggest shoe they carry for women here. So you could imagine that dancing with me might be a little different then what the leads are use to here.

Nevertheless that doesn't stop them from asking me to dance! Jamie told me on our first night out to not be surprised if nobody asks me to dance because most of the time Korean men are really shy. So I was prepared not to get asked to dance. But luckily that wasn't the case... we were both asked to dance a lot.

All the dancing bars are in the Seoul area, so from the first step out of my apartment to the first step into the dance it takes about two hours. I have to take a bus to the subway, then transfer subways, then walk to the venue. It sounds like a long time, but for some reason time flies on the subway. It never seems like two hours.

All in all, I can't wait to go out dancing again. It's amazing. Not only because of the dancing, but because of the interaction. I don't get to interact with a lot of Koreans because for one, I don't speak Korean and two, even if a Korean knows how to speak English, they are usually too shy to speak English to me... they are afraid to be incorrect. Also, they have this family/group mentality which makes it difficult for an outsider like me to make new friends, because I'm not a part of any group yet. Hopefully I can be part of the Lindy family/group. Once someone has danced with me they usually open up more, and I like it. I want to get to know as many Koreans as I possibly can. They are good people :)

Video Time!

The Tranky Doo, Korean Style.
Lindy Hop at Happy Bar


If you are someone in Korea looking for a good night of swing dancing, check these blogs out:

Nalla's: Lindy Explorer

Adamas': Social Dance - Swing Dance in Korea

And it's also nice to know the metro website:

Seoul Metropolitan Rapid Transit Corporation