| We got settled in our
apartment pretty fast. We furnished it with the help of my wife's
co-teacher and the allowance. Since that it is just a small
and temporary place, we didn't bother going for decent furnishing.
We were told that some items are not easy to find in here so
we brought it from Canada. Things like specific sized clothes,
"normal" toothpaste, and some comfort food. Although
expensive, these things are not hard to find in Incheon. We
didn't even need to go to Seoul to get them. For comfort food,
you'll find a lot of fast food places here similar to the western
world; McDonald's, Popeye's, Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut to name
a few. There is also a Walmart here in Incheon and other markets
selling "western food". |
 We
usually go to a local vendor to shop for food. Home Plus is
another place to shop but it's a bit expensive. This store is
also loud and always over staffed. You'll hear people yelling
to sell their promotional items just like on the street market.
"Hear Ye, Hear Ye" but in Korean.
We went to the foodcourt and found an amazing concept. Outside
the foodcourt, the replicas of all the food are in a display
window. You could then place your order at the
counter beside the display window and wait for your order number
to show-up at the corresponding store... if only we could find
out which store. |
| For transportation,
buses, cabs, and subway trains are widely used. Subways aren't
really underground here until you get to Seoul. They are very
clean, some are new and run very smoothly. The trains would
have an annoying but sometimes entertaining vendors selling
gum, lighters, and some selling umbrellas complete with a twirly
demo. |
|
On Friday, April
14 I went for a hike on Mt.
Cheolmasan. Later that night, my wife and I joined a birthday
bash. We went to a bar alley and some teenaged boys here are
quite persuasive. They try to be very friendly by practising
their "hellos" and "nice to meet you" gestures,
just to get you to follow them to the bar they either own or
work for. It's hard sometimes to understand what they're saying
so, at one point we followed a guy recommending a hip-hop club
(he sold himself by doing some dance moves on the street). The
elevator broke down because we overloaded it. The guy came out
of the elevator. We were supposed to go to the third floor but
he was going down the stairs, we all wondered why but we followed
him anyway. The guy needed to pee, and he took us all to the
bathroom without him realizing that we followed.
Some of us had enough drinks already so we took off. It was
already getting late but most of the people in our group stayed
at the hip-hop club... no wonder nobody showed-up at our hike
to Mt. Gyeyangsan the next
day. |
|
  On
a beautiful Sunday morning, we went to visit another famous
tourist destination here in Incheon, Wolmido
Park. It's a very beautiful park, but damn that expensive
coffee.
The week after, our group went for a hike at Mt.
Munahksan. The highlite of the trip here was the areal view
of the Munahk Stadium. After this trip some of us went to Bupyeong
Market to take advantage of the remaining gorgeous day. We were
just in time to experience and see the support Koreans give
to their world cup soccer team. They lined-up a long white carpet
on the street for all to sign and give their wishes to |
the team. We signed
of course, and there was a member of the press taking a video
of us and what we wrote. What did we write? I hope it's something
smart.
On our first visit to Seoul, we went to see a local film marathon
(subtitled in english) at the Korea National Tourism Organization
building. We didn't really stay to see more shows because the
first film already drained our energy. The KNTO's closest subway
sation is Jonggak Station in Seoul Line 1. KNTO offers a whack
load of maps, tour guides, Korean Hall of Fame, auditorium,
library, some culture stuff and free internet access... and
yes they speak english. |
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2006
Journal : March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December