I welcomed day 3 with open arms as we got to sleep in later than usual and were going to have a leisurely day at the university listening to lectures and talking to students. The first lecture was on NK/SK relations. It was less of a lecture than it was a Q&A session where the answers seemed more convoluted than the politics behind them. It didn’t help that his accent was heavy and the microphone was echoey. Essentially it was a lecture set up for failure. The most entertaining part was listening to a room full of international studies, poly sci, pre-med, etc. students try to outsmart each other by seeing who could ask the most intricate question or question with the most background information required to explain the question in the first place.
Lunch for the day was buffet style with an interesting mix of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and American. On the same table, there were chips and dip, tater tots, sushi, kimchi and spicy orange chicken. I’m not going to lie when I say that I didn’t thoroughly enjoy the tater tots…Following lunch we had another Q&A session with a foreign service worker from the embassy office. Having a background in sports promotion, he was just as surprised as we were that he passed the foreign service entrance exam, but having brought the WWE to China, he was fluent in Chinese which helped his case. He said the exam consisted of a multiple choice with a wide range of various trivia questions about other countries that are necessary to know being an agent. His first service was in China, where he met his Korean wife at a language academy. Curious about his cross-cultural marriage, I asked if there were any interesting or funny cultural differences that they initially incurred in their marriage. He said initially his not being fluent in Korean yet led to some funny misunderstandings, “practicing Korean with her helped me get it up.” referring of course to his language skills in Korean, but of course you can’t say “get it up” in a room full of college students and expect us to not take it there. It took a minute before we calmed down and he looked completely mortified. Needless to say, I’m putting the Foreign Service on my potential to do list. Travel the world, master several languages, live abroad, gather cultural/social/political intel and maybe marry a foreigner? Sign me up.
After the interesting and innuendo laden Q&A, we got a chance to talk to actual Yonsei students. All of them introduced themselves, making careful note that their Korean names were “difficult, hard to pronounce, so just call me _________”. They seemed to take a lot of pride in their “English names”. The student at our table was named David and he was dressed in a perfectly fitted cardigan and tight jeans, and not a single strand of hair out of place, despite his thick head of hair. How do Koreans look so perfect all the time?! We had the opportunity to ask him whatever we wanted about Korean culture and all of us seemed to be interested in the school system in Korea. From their early years to high school, they get on a bus at 6:30am and don’t return home until around 10 or so. After they’re done with school for the day, they usually go a tutor to get ahead in their subjects. Generally the richer you are, the better tutor you can afford and the better you do in school, so poorer students can get left behind…Being that they have very few spare hours away from school and studying, this makes them very focused, however it also takes away many necessary outlets for them to explore other activities. Many of them will give up meal times to play sports or do other activities. Finally, senior year, there is one day arranged for the Korean equivalent of the SAT. It is a 10 hour test day with tests in every subject, and advantages of having studied abroad, high quality tutoring and extra hours spent on school work begin to show. It is rigorous. This test only occurs once a year, and if you do poorly on it, you have to wait til the next year before you can re-try. Those who get a near perfect score are the best candidates for schools like Yonsei, Seoul or Korea University. Those who don’t do as well go to lesser schools, but ultimately getting into a good university is the ultimate goal. So after years of intense studying and testing, university classes are somewhat of a joke. Students can take it a lot easier and not focus on school so much. But whether that means they completely slack off or just take the level down to a normal level, I’m not sure. Either way, it’s no wonder suicide rates for teens are so high here. Pressure to be perfect is high and the work load is even higher. Looking around at the Yonsei students, who are fluent in English, I suddenly realized how talented and devoted they were. Being that I’m a devoted student, I wonder how I would fare in South Korea…
Hardly taking any time to rest and eat dinner, it was back out to the streets of Seoul. However, as we made our way to exchange money, it seemed that more and more people tacked on to our group to go out. Eventually there were about 12 of us, setting us back an hour while we waited for everybody to get their shit together. My natural instinct was to cut out from the group as soon as possible. I walked quickly, cutting ahead of everyone with my friend Brian, but they caught back up to us at a long stoplight. Once in the subway station, all but very few people were confused about what to do and where we were going, which only prompted me to move faster so I could get rid of them entirely. I navigated the crowded halls leading down to the trains like a gazelle, weaving in and out of the crowd with stealthy grace. But once again, they all caught up as the train wasn’t there yet. Many of them doubted that we were getting on the right train, but I assured them that we were going the right way. After one transfer and 3 stops, we took our first steps into the crowded streets of Dongdaemun. Immediately branching off from our group, Sam, Brian, Arjun and I took off in the direction towards the $10 suit jackets. Dongdaemun is an area of endless shopping. Not finding much to suit our interests in the area where the train let us out, we started heading off towards the skyscrapers full of shopping. Unfortunately, being a Monday night, most things started closing at 8 (which of course pissed me off because we could have been there earlier had it not been for our giant retarded group). One place was open, and there was an endless hallway stuffed with small stores as far as the eye could see. It took me back to my experiences in the Lohu Mall of Shenzhen, China. I filled with a flutter of nostalgia and my eyes opened wide. Despite the shops being stuffed with scarves, hats and belts, I didn’t see anything that caught my eye. Things started to get strange because the hall filled with a chemical smell and we were essentially the only people in the building and there was no exit in sight along this endless hallway. Finally, in a hat shop, we found a door out and were spit back onto the street, lined with bookstores, which had stacks and stacks of books. Imagine a house made of bricks, except instead of bricks, it’s books. Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to describe it. Luckily they were in Korean, so I wasn’t tempted to browse through all the literature. A stack of National Geographic caught my attention until I imagined trying to get the solid 20 pound stack of them in my luggage…
Feet tired and shopping senses dulled, we made our way back to the subway station to get back to the hotel. But before we reached the hotel, we were at the mouth of Insadong, and a purse was calling my name (for less than $10!!!!!!!). Not wanting to torture the boys, I told them to head back without me, but they refused and were willing to continue down the rest of the street with me. Most of the stores were closed, but peeking our heads down alleys and around corners we found some peculiar restaurants, “barber shops” and drunks. At the end of the street I finally found a waffle vendor. Often wafting through the streets or subway stations is the scent of fresh waffles. Apparently having a strong affinity for waffles, Koreans have taken them in as their own and made them into a delicious and diabetes inducing street food. The waffle is folded in half and spread, doused with a generous shower of maple syrup and smothered with sweet whipped cream. While I rejoiced about finding a waffle vendor, the guys were overjoyed when they saw a Burger King (especially Sam). Leaving me at the waffle vendor, I met back up with them at the Burger King, but was initially dismayed when I walked into the store and didn’t see them. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a stairwell and decided (against my better judgment, given my experience with Korean stairs) to head up and see if there was more of the restaurant. Turns out the guys were on the second floor, enjoying their burgers. Total, there were 3 floors to this BK. And it was actually kind of a nice establishment, overlooking Insadong and the boulevard below. There were many middle-aged women, too, which I found interesting. Many young couples shared a pile of fries and a soda. Definitely not the demographic you see enjoying BK in the U.S.
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