So around 10:30am or so, Ami and I headed out. First we stopped by one of the local 7-11s, I think there are three or four within a five minute walk, to put money on our phones. Public transportation in Seoul uses something called the T-Money system (although you can do the old-fashioned pay cash as you go also). I'm not an expert on this, but I believe T-Money can either be put on a card or on a smart phone that has the proper application installed. Ami's and my phones have this application so we can go to any convenience store, hand over a sum of cash, and tell the clerk to put in on our T-Money account. To do this, you put the phone on some little pad/sensor thing, the clerk punches a few buttons on the cash register, and magic...the money is on your phone. You can then take your phone, go down into a subway station (or enter a bus or taxi apparently), wave your phone in front of a sensor when walking through the turnstile (although turnstile is kind of a misnomer as there is nothing that turns--see picture below), then you do the same when leaving the subway at your destination, and the money is automatically deducted from your phone. In Japan, I always had to run by a ticket machine and punch in my destination and then put money in the machine, so this is nice. It's very much like the Underground in London, which, when I was there, used a card. But I'm guessing that Japan and London are both using smart phones by now.
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| The modern turnstile |
The original plan was to take the rail all the way there. According to Ami it would cost us a little over two dollars (yes, just $2) each and would take about two hours. But as Ami had taken a little longer to get ready, we were pressed for time and so she decided that we should take the bus instead. The bus would take a little more than an hour and cost us about six bucks each. So we rode the subway a few stops and then walked over to the bus station to buy tickets and board the bus.
To get to Chuncheon we took highway 60 east, which is the same road that we took a couple weeks back to get over to the east coast with Andrew and Alice. Since I'd already seen the surrounding area and since most of the people on the bus in front of us closed their curtains to keep out the sun, I just zoned out with my phone and listened to jazz. I found an application for free that lets me stream in jazz as long as my phone can find the internet or the 3G network. I gotta say that before coming over here, I had no idea smart phones were so cool. My phone in America was just a phone and texting machine. I couldn't download apps and to be honest, I didn't need to. But here it's a completely different thing. Yes, I could get by without it if I had to, but I don't have to, so I don't want to. The GPS feature has come in handy on a number of occasions, the T-Money thing has already been mentioned, and there's so much more. I've downloaded apps that let me get sports scores from America, weather reports, the latest news, currency exchange rates, Seoul subway routes and times, radio from almost any country, earthquake updates, and more. I can also talk to anyone in the world for free if they have a smart phone and have downloaded either Skype or Viber. Hell, I even downloaded an app that makes the flash on the camera light up and serve as a flashlight, so I use this in the early morning when I'm getting dressed to go running and don't want to bother Ami. And I'm just getting started with this thing. I'm hoping to find an app that will brush my teeth for me, do my shopping, and perhaps show up at work so I don't have to, but for these I am not holding my breath just yet. So anyway, I plugged in to some bebop and just zoned out while we made our way to Chuncheon.
After about an hour, Ami poked me and pointed out the window, "There's Chuncheon". Looking at the town from the side of a small mountain, I saw the place where Ami grew up and had always lived until she came to America two and a half years ago. It didn't look like anything special really--just a medium sized town with the tall apartment buildings that you see everywhere in Korea. Koreans love apartments. Ami has informed me that Koreans prefer apartments to houses--something that is rather shocking to me. I'll have to do a little more research about why this is.
As we made our way into town, the people around us opened their curtains and I could see the town of about 265,000 a little better. We drove down a wide avenue with buildings on both sides and signs in Hangul. To me, it felt a lot like America (minus the Hangul) in that the buildings had no particular beauty to them and seemed quite utilitarian. After a few minutes, we got to the bus station and I saw Ami's father standing outside his car watching the buses come in. After our bus parked, we got out and walked over to him. He smiled happily and we shook hands and said it was good to see each other again.
He then motioned us to get in the car and as we approached it, I saw two elderly people inside. As was usual in Japan and is becoming familiar to me again, I wasn't in the know. I had thought we would be meeting everyone at the restaurant but here were grandma and grandpa in the car. Grandma scooted over and let us in the backseat with her, while grandpa sat in the front seat not saying anything and not even looking back at us. Grandma, however, was quite happy and spoke to me in Korean. I think she said "nice to meet you", but Ami is a terrible translator for reasons I still haven't figured out. I have a feeling that she thinks it's not important for me to understand certain things. She's great with important things--like at the phone company or the bank--but seems to turn it off when it comes to friends or family. Anyway, grandma and I looked at each and smiled and soon we headed off.
A few minutes later we parked at a medium sized restaurant with rather traditional architecture. It looked like an old house, albeit a large one, and was all made of wood. The specialty of the house.....duck. As we parked, so did Ami's aunt who was driving herself, her husband, and their son. As we all got out of the car, grandpa came over and shook my hand as did Ami's uncle. Her aunt and son and I just smiled at each other and said hello in various ways--both Korean and English--and then we all made our way into the restaurant.
As we entered, we took off our shoes, put them on a shelf and made our way to a private room with sliding doors made of wood and rice paper. In the room there were two low tables about two feet apart, one seating eight, the other four, and cushions around each. Both tables, one in the smaller and two in the larger, had sections cut out of the wood in the middle where there was a kind of steel fire pit thing with a grill on top. And above these grills and hanging from the ceiling were long vacuum tubes that could be pulled down close the grill. At each place at the tables there was a cushion to sit on, a few dishes and a set of silverware. In Japan, silverware was actually woodware (or plasticware) and was usually just a set of chopsticks. But in Korea, chopsticks, usually make of metal (though I'm not sure of which kind), are often accompanied by a long spoon. Koreans seems to love the spoon.
Within a few minutes of sitting down, another three people, including So Yeon, Ami's cousin whom I had met a couple weeks earlier, showed up. As Ami was in the restroom, her father introduced them as his younger brother and his wife. All told, there were now eleven of us: grandma, grandpa, Ami's father, his brother and sister, their spouses, two of Ami's cousins, Ami, and me.
Eventually, some worker came in and put red hot embers in each of the fire pits, and the waitresses brought in food for us to cook and we got to eating. I basically just sat in the corner eating and trying to make out a word here and a word there. Everyone was quite nice, but no one was speaking English and Ami didn't do a lot of translating for me.
The food consisted of duck, which was already cooked meaning we merely heated it up on the grill instead of actually cooking it, Korean style salad, kimchi and other side dishes, and rice. Near the end of the meal, someone took out a cake (I think she had been hiding it under the table), stuck three candles in it and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to grandma....in Korean so I just hummed along. After the song, grandma, to the amazement of us all, blew out the candles with one quick blow. This wouldn't have been so impressive in itself, but she did it from a fairly good distance--I'd say roughly two feet. So everyone laughed and probably told her how healthy she was and then the ladies set about cutting the cake and passing it out.
After all the food was gone, we got up, went outside, and took a few pictures--Ami and me; Ami, her father and me; grandma, Ami and me; both grandparents, Ami and me, and a couple with all of us minus the camera-person (see a few below). Grandma turned to me at some point and said something which Ami laughed about but didn't translate. She smiled when she said it, though, so I think it was probably something nice. Actually, later, Ami mentioned that grandma had been afraid that Ami was dating some oversized American that would be interested in eating only bread, so she was quite happy that I am not so big and can eat rice and kimchi. Guess I got some stereotypes to kill, aye?
With all the goodbyes said, Ami's father, Ami, and I got into his car and took a little tour of Chuncheon, We went by the local lake, up to the place where he wants to have Ami and I get married in a more Korean-style wedding next year sometime, Ami's middle and high school, Ami's university, and then to his apartment for some coffee. His place is on the 14th floor of a large apartment building which is just one in a complex of about six or eight. The apartment itself was small (although my first impression was that it was big because I've become quite used to my own place) and it had three bedrooms, a main room, and a bathroom. The main room and the kitchen area were basically both in the same area.
The part I liked the most though was the balcony. Ami had told me about Korean style balconies and had made it seem different than what I am used to so I wasn't sure I believed her because what she was describing wasn't a balcony but a small room on the edge of the apartment. But sure enough, she was right. The main room and this "balcony" were separated by a sliding glass door--one that you might think would lead outside--and on the other side was just another room for the most part, but one in which the outside wall was all windows that could be opened so that you were still inside, technically speaking, but exposed to the outside air. Ami's father used the balcony to smoke a couple times while she and I sat inside the living room and looked at old photo albums from her childhood.
Eventually, her father took us back to the bus station and he and I said we'd see each other again in December. Ami later told me that I didn't have to go back in December, but actually, I had a good time. So I probably will go back. Chuncheon had a good feel to it and minus the language barrier, everyone and everything went just fine.
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| We took some pictures outside the restaurant. This is Ami's father. |
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| And these would be Ami's grandparents. You see how grandma is holding my arm? I believe I have been accepted. |
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| Let's see if I can get this right. Starting on the left, the lady in the green scarf is Ami's father's sister. She is married to the guy behind Ami. Poking her head between Ami's aunt and grandma is So Yeon, Ami's cousin. On the other side sorta behind grandpa is Ami's father's brother. His wife is to his left. The guy between me and grandpa is another of Ami's cousins, Sung Dong. I'm assuming Ami's father is taking the picture--thus, his absence. |
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