Mail-Order Teacher: The Mobs, the Pulse--the ENERGY!

Nicole and I were ascending one of the steep hills in Itaewon, the international district, somewhere near the mosque, when I looked up to see a real cartoon-character of a man. It was Buddha's Birthday and we had the day off work. The man was very large, had thick, dark brown hair, and a huge mustache. He looked just like the "This is the night, what a beautiful night" Italian man from "Lady and the Tramp". He was so cartoony that I had to smile at him -- and I smiled hugely, too. He smiled back and looked at the two of us saying, "Oh, this is uh-NICE! You look very NICE!" in his thick Arabian accent. His belly moved up and down when he spoke, just like jolly ol' St. Nick. I looked at Nicole and just laughed and laughed. "Did that guy not look straight out of a cartoon? Was he even real?" I marveled.

I like that part of town. Walking around my neighborhood, you'd think everyone in Seoul is Korean. Then you go to Itaewon and find that just isn't so. There are people there from all over the globe. Anyone who is "different" from the "norm" is placed in Itaewon...from any and every natiouality to any and every sexuality--you name it, it's there! The main road is full of shopping, lots of which caters to "Big Sizes," (you normally can't buy women's shoes above a size 8, for example) and to tourists looking for cheap (and nice) souvenirs. But the side streets are where it really gets interesting. I've been exploring them lately...finally found the Foreign Foods market, and "Hooker Hill" where all the brothels are! I actually discovered it while my parents were here visiting last week.

My parents stayed over near Itaewon, making it a convenient place to do a bit of exploring. The area is very hilly, which is different than my neighborhood, which is (thankfully) quite flat. I'd been confused as to the location of Hooker Hill for a while now...so when I saw a side street that looked like it might be it, I had to go see. "Let's go walk up this hill!" I said to my unsuspecting, conservative parents.

The brothels are, as I've read somewhere online, "thinly disguised as bars." That was a pretty good description. They looked like tiny, seedy, dead bars as the three of us walked past Then the hill got too steep for my mother and we turned around to head back down as my father trucked on ahead by himself. Once he noticed us, he turned back around, descending the hill about 100 yards behind us. The girls inside the "bars" saw what they perceived to be a lonely fellow with a lot of cash, and started hollering at him out their doors. "Want to have drink with me?" they asked him.

I laughed and laughed. I decided not to go looking for "Homo Hill" with them...although it was quite tempting. It's just around the corner, I think.

It was a really lovely visit with my parents. I was really excited to see them. I arranged to meet them by the subway station last Wednesday after school so I could show them my apartment. Rebecca and I were walking home together when we both spotted them...two very tall Caucasians, both in pumpkin orange. "That's my parents!!!" I said proudly.

I had an excellent time showing them the 'hood as we weaved through the alleyways, full of people. I showed them the little stations where you can buy fried food on a stick, the new seafood restaurant where the fish tanks are disturbingly jam-packed with live sea creatures, the small grocery stores, the "Chunner-Chunner" vegetable store (where I introduced them to the man who works there and always finds me spinach), the little girl accessories and Hello Kitty stores, the plant shop, and the nail and hair salons. Then I took them up to my apartment which I had scrubbed clean after a month of illness and neglect. They loved it all.

Thursday I had the day off school for Children's Day, which is a national holiday in Korea. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had parties for the kids, which was fun. I had eaten my first yellow melon, which one of the kids brought in. They even showed me how to peel it. I felt a little nervous letting my 11 year old student use a sharp knife...but he was much more adept at using it than I am. Just last night, I narrowly escaped chopping the tip of my thumb off cutting potatoes, only to slosh hot oil from the heated pan onto my right forearm when I dumped the potatoes in. I have a lovely burn mark, right in that awkward place where I like to rest my arm on the keyboard. When I showed the Koreans this morning, they "t-t-t-'d" me and insisted on putting some sort of cream on it that smelled like brown rice. I felt so loved!

My burn--battle wounds!

My student cutting the small yellow melon for me

So Thursday I took my parents and Nicole out exploring. Since they were only here for a few days, I tried to squeeze in about 3 days worth of walking around into that one day. By the end of it we were all exhausted! First we hit the crazy Namdaemun Market. Then we took the subway to Insadong where we went to the vegetarian restaurant where you sit on the floor to eat. My poor parents' aging bodies didn't like the sitting on the floor part...but they agreed it was an important part of the experience. I love that about my family!

Insadong was insanely crowded that day. It was almost shoulder-to-shoulder walking, making us feel like tiny red blood cells flowing through the veins of the city. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed with amazement at the unfathomably gigantic population of Seoul. The subway trains, which are maybe 1/4 mile long each and run every 5 minutes or so, are often jam-packed. So are the streets. It's just--well, it blows my mind!

We met up with Kim there and went to a tea house just to sit down. "We don't have to sit on the floor again, do we?" my father questioned.

"No, that'll be the only time we do that!" I promised. At the tea house we had some really interesting sorbet...mine tasted like grape mixed with weird tea, and my mom's was covered in fruit and came with a small bowl of read beans, which you were supposed to mix into the sorbet. It was all very yummy!

After Insadong, we wandered past the nearby palace, and walked all the way to an area of town I had never been to. It was very cute and upscale...on the opposite end of the spectrum from Namdaenum!

At the end of their visit, I sat with my parents in the lobby of their hotel, relishing my first sit on a big, squishy couch in months. I loved the feeling of being hugged all over by this soft, cushiony seat! "So, what did you think about Seoul?" I asked them.

"Well, it's just really hard to describe the mobs...the pulse...the ENERGY!" my father noted expressively. I silently agreed with him as I pondered his statement. It really is hard to describe. Someone gets it!