I already said goodbye to Carina last night, and now she's off to Germany to start working her new job. Today, Saturday, I went down to Pyeongtaek to see the 2015 World Taekwondo Hanmadang competition. I didn't really know what to expect since my previous exposure to Taekwondo competitions has been extrememly limited. I was going to go by myself, then a friend was going to come, but it ended up just being me. My host mom was a little bit worried, but the subway system is so convenient and easy to use that I made it to the tournament with no problems.
On my way to the tournament, I stopped by the National Science Museum. To be perfectly honest, it is a nice museum, but I thought that it was a little bit boring. Nothing really was in English, but that was fine with me; I don't necessarily expect things to be in English everywhere I go. The disappointment was that I didn't need translations for any of the signs because I already knew what all of them were about. In the entire two-story museum, I didn't really encounter any science that I was unfamiliar with.
Even though I was disappointed with the museum, it was still neat to look around. I saw their 3D printing lab, space exploration center, robotics/AI area, genetics research, natural science, and even a biosphere (I think I can call it that) that had two chambers: one with rodents and one with plants. They were recycling air for each other so that the environment could be closed and self-sustaining. It made me feel pretty good not needing translations to understand all of the displays since I am studying a science-y field in college and spent quite a bit of time in the science classroom in high school. I guess I should thank all of my past teachers for doing such a good job ^^
After the museum, I continued on to the tournament. Pyeongtaek is about 90 minutes from where I live in Seoul, so I got a nice rest on the way. I thought I was going to be late to see my friend Caleb compete, but the tournament was running super behind, so everything went smoothly. The tournament itself was exciting. The team spirit was intense, and all of the groups kept cheering for their teammates (sometimes I think they were also just cheering just because they could). Then when one of the current competitors did something really cool, everyone went crazy. It was insanity, but I'm thankful that it was air conditioned insanity. I watched the ROK Third Corp perform. They were really good, but Caleb says that the Kukkiwon demo team performance was better.
Then I saw Caleb compete. He had been training for a few weeks in Korea, and I could tell he worked really hard. He placed second overall in his divisions! I was trying to find him after he competed, but there were so many people that it was really tricky. Eventually I was waiting by the awards, when one of the awards workers was asking me if I knew Caleb and where he was. We both ended up looking all over the place, and eventually we found him.
While there were other foreigners at the competition, I was one of the only obviously foreign spectators. I got the feeling that many people weren't from a big city like Seoul because I can't count on one hand the number of times someone walked up to be and poked me a few times, or gave my hair a tug. I would turn around and whoever it was, sometimes young kids but often adults, was just staring awkwardly, so that was kind of amusing.
Soon it was time for me to go back to Seoul and meet up with more friends because everyone was leaving so soon. We met up and went to a multi bang, which is a room where you can go and watch movies or play Wii or even do karaoke. It was my first and only multi bang experience, but it was fun. We played Just Dance and then a few other random games. I was really tired from waking up early to go to Pyeongtaek, so I went home after the multi bang.
Sunday I slept in a little bit, but I had to wake up and get on a video conference with a student from the Honors Program at UC doing a report about honors students abroad. After that, I ate breakfast and then took a little bit of a lazy afternoon trying to figure out what to do. I decided to go back to the Animation Center and check it out. Daria came too, since she didn't have to leave until later that evening.
The Animation Center turned out to be not much different opened than when it was closed. The only difference was that then there were families and children looking around, too. Then Daria and I went to get some dinner, and after we had bubble tea (my last in Korea) and went to the Myeongdong Cathedral. It's a beautiful building with some kind of catholic school attached. Even though it was in Korea, the architecture could have easily fit into parts of Europe.
After I said goodbye to Daria, I met up with Sang to go hiking. While I was waiting for him to get to the subway stop, I saw someone walking by with a UC t shirt on. I tried to ask him about it, but he didn't know very much English or that he was wearing a college shirt. It was a little bit awkward, but now I'm really curious to know where he got the Bearcats shirt.
Sang and I tried to go hiking, but it didn't last very long. By the time we met, it was close to evening. We intended to go up and see the old city wall, but the mosquitoes emerged since the hiking trail has a lot of trees around, so we decided to abandon the hiking idea. It didn't turn out to be a complete waste, though, because we did see an old Japanese internment camp. Then the entrance to the hike started out in a temple. It was a beautiful temple with a nice map painted on the wall of the hiking trail, so we at least got to see where we would have gone. I'll just have to add that hike to my to-do list when I return to Seoul someday.
Monday I slept in more than I was planning. Thankfully, my host mom turned on the air conditioner that night, so again we all slept in the main living room on the floor. I slept very well, and was thankful for the extra time. After breakfast (my last Korean-style breakfast), my host mom helped me try on traditional Korean Hanboks so that I could get my picture in them. I tried on two different styles, a summer style and a winter style. They don't look like they would be too bad to wear, but they are actually super uncomfortable because of the way that they tie at the top.
One of my host mom's previous guests brought her a kimono-like dress from Japan (I forget what it's called--same style but lighter weight). She had me wear that one, too, for a photo op. I thought it was much more comfortable, except the matching sandals wouldn't fit on my feet.
My host mom then took me to Gwangmyeong Caves. At least... she almost took me. After a slightly awkward hour long ride there with my host mom, one of her friends, and her friend's son (10 years old--we talked about lizards kind of), the enterance line to get into the parking lot was very long. We waited for around 30 minutes before my host mom decided she wanted to go back. I wasn't about to spend my last day in Seoul almost going to a cave, so I took a bus the rest of the way there.
The cave was very commercial. There were so many people visiting because it's vacation time for the schools. The line to buy an entry ticket was so long and not very shaded, but a nice ajuma let me stand under her umbrella. Inside, the cave was cool. A wonderful temperature. It was actually an old mine that had been adapted into....something. I'm not sure how to describe the cave because you just go in and walk through a path that takes you through all of these different themed caves. They had a light tunnel, aquarium, botanical garden, wine shop, gold, Lord of the Rings, and deep exploration area all in the same cave. It wasn't what I had in mind when I thought I was going to a cave, but it was still a fun afternoon. I enjoyed seeing where Korean people go to visit on their vacations, not just where other tourists go (I didn't see any other foreigners there despite the high number of visitors).
As I arrived home that day, I saw about 7 firetrucks outside of the apartment building next to mine. I don't know what happened exactly, but it smelled like there had been a fire (I couldn't see anything unusual besides the firetrucks). I asked my host mom, but she said her guess was as good as mine. I ate one last dinner with my host family that night. I'm not quite sure what we ate (as usual), but it was delicious so I didn't mind.
After dinner, I went out to meet Sang and Lucille for one last bingsu in Seoul. I'm going to miss bingsu, but if my career as an engineer doesn't work out..I'll just open up a bingsu cafe somewhere. Maybe with a few cats ^^
It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, especially because the entire weekend had been so full of them. I think it would have been easier if we had all arrived and left on the same day like we used to when we went to camp as children, but I guess this is the way the real world works. Now I have a bunch of good reasons to go to Europe and come back to Asia, so I try not to be too sad about leaving. I'm looking forward to returning to the more quiet, less commercial life in Ohio, but I'm definitely going to miss Korea.
Now I'm spending my last night in Seoul, and it's probably time to stop procrastinating my packing since I'm leaving for the airport in less than five hours..
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