Daegu Part I

During the week, each weekday seems pretty similar to any other. My split shifts give me breaks all throughout the day (both a good and a bad thing) which allow for mid-day naps, grocery shopping, wandering the city, and preparing for classes. Mondays are my busiest days with the absolute worst schedule (I’m working on having this changed immediately) while Tuesdays I only have 3 classes scattered throughout the day. All of my classes are pretty enjoyable. Bad side: They all work with different text books with students at different levels so I never get to duplicate my class plans. Good side: I love my students. Most of my students are adults of all ages who really want to learn English and are fascinated by anything I tell them about US culture. They are people I would actually be friends with and hangout with outside of the classroom. Bad Side: My elementary students are loud and rambunctious and hate speaking English so they’ll always act like they don’t understand me and yell in Korean. I have my elementary classes on Mondays and Thursdays so if you ever talk to me on those days, I’ll usually be in a bad mood. Good Side: I have every weekend off. Weekends in Korea might be the greatest vacation I’ve ever had.

This weekend Tristan, (the other American teacher at my hogwan) took me to Daegu with his friends. Daegu is about a 20 minute train ride away so it’s the equivalent of taking the max from Gresham to downtown Portland. The train costs about $3,000 KRW =$2.85 USD. There are little karaoke stations, coin operated PC’s, food, and video games on the train. Plus, you can buy a bottle of soju or a couple of beers at the train station and drink on the train as well. You can drink anywhere and everywhere in Korea and when soju costs about $1.50 a bottle, there’s no reason not to. Soju tastes like watered down vodka, but it is just as potent. It takes on the flavor of anything you mix it with or can be drank by itself without the harsh taste of actual vodka. My new drink of choice is soju with cider. Cider is actually pronounced sa-ee-da, but is written as Cider on the label. It is Korea’s version of Sprite and I really don’t taste a difference. Whiskey is somewhat rare in Korea and when I do find it, it’s incredibly expensive. Sorry Maker’s Mark, you and I will have to be separated for awhile.

Anyway, once off the train station, Daegu is immediately western culture friendly. There is McDonalds, Burger King, Starbucks, Bennigans, Outback Steak House, Subway, Korean Olive Garden, etc. So in short, it’s worth it to take the train to Daegu just so that I can eat, which believe me, this weekend I absolutely did eat everything Western I found. Korean Olive Garden is a little different though. The spaghetti is spicy and usually cooked with fish and/or eggplant and the salad is covered with a sweet Kiwi dressing. You have no idea what I’d do for a bottle of Caesar about now. (Hint: You can mail me salad dressing. It doesn’t need refrigeration).

Outside the station in Daegu, everything is a shopping mall. It reminds me of Bridgeport Mall with a swap meet hidden on every side street. You can’t walk five feet without passing at least 3 new places that all look the same. Every store for women looks like a pint sized Forever21 with prices that line up about the same. And as if the shopping at street level, isn’t enough, there’s the underground malls as well. You can’t cross main streets in Korea. There are skybridges and underground ‘subway-esque’ routes to get across streets. All of these underground paths are really underground shopping malls with stores of all kinds. It never seems to stop. Every other store is a women’s shoe store filled to the top with high heels of all styles. Finding flats in a size 250 is rare, but it happens. I will probably return with an entire suitcase filled with shoes. Another filled with cardigans. Another filled with scarves. And another filled with fake Louis Vuitton purses. The fashion here is so far up my alley it’s not even funny. Stripes, vests, cardigans, blazers, and leather jackets is all you see here. This trip to Daegu wasn’t spent shopping though. You only get paid once a month and I haven’t been paid yet, so I’ve been taking adventures with empty pockets. It’s painful, but I’ll survive. Plus I still have a full year of these shopping trips ahead of me. And I haven’t even gone out in Seoul yet!