Day 13: Freedom & Imprisonment Via The Subways

My boss Steven informed me with some great news today - there would be no kindergarten classes for me to teach on Friday! A whole morning off? WOW! :-) Our kindergartens are graduating this weekend and I guess on Friday morning is rehearsal time or something like that. He politely declined when I offered to help out, so this means that I get to sleep in tomorrow!!! YAH!!!

It also means that I could stay up late tonight if I wanted to, so why not take advantage of that? I decided that a special treat for myself was in order, and that would mean an evening out in Itaewon! As soon as the bells rang at 6pm I was outta that school so fast... I raced home, changed into something warm (cause it's been so god-damn cold lately!!!) and headed to catch the bus. I bought myself some lovely Roots winter wear before leaving Canada, and so tonight I was decked out in my warm and fuzzy Roots "Canada" touque and scarf - looking quite cutely Canadian if I do say so myself!

On the way to the bus, I passed someone I had never seen before....A FEMALE CAUCASIAN!!! In the whole time I've been living and hanging out in Shihung City/Bucheon, I've never once seen a white female. All the people that I've met and seen so far have been males - which I find highly unusual! Before leaving I was given the impression that the majority of English teachers in Korea were girls, so why hadn't I ever seen or met any? *Where are all the white chick teachers?* Well right there before my eyes was one, but before I had the chance to overcome my shock and say hello, she had walked (more like motored) right past me, and disappeared into the darkness as quickly and mysteriously as she had arrived... I think between the darkness and my disguise under the touque she hadn't really noticed me...surely if she had she would've at least said hello or made eye contact? Us Caucasians are few and far between out in these parts so it seems everyone does their best to make connections whenever they do come across one... Ahhh well, maybe our paths will cross again soon.

So I've been experimenting with new bus routes, convinced that there's a faster way to/home from the subway station. I hopped on the #31 that I had taken the other night with Hye-Young and whizzed right along to the subway. I have to take 3 trains to get to Itaewon, no matter what combination of lines I choose, so I decided to stick with Line 1 as far as I could which would lead me right to Seoul Station (Seoul's version of Grand Central.) The ride was amazing! Line 1 is the only one that is above or at surface level (as opposed to being underground) so you get a bit of a view of the city as you ride along. I had my discman with me and I felt so confident and so happy and so free to be on this train, popstars serenading me all the way along... The train crossed with enormous Han River into downtown and it was beautiful....all the bridges crossing the river filled with the lights of trains and traffic, and the glow of skyscrapers sparkling in the waters...a magical view indeed.

Two more trains later and I was walking out into the streets of Itaewon. I stepped out into the street and looked up....there, rising high into the sky and overlooking all of Seoul, was Seoul Tower, lit up like a torch atop Namsan Hill. It was so beautiful! I walked down the street, never losing sight of the magnificent glowing tower. The tree-lined street curved down into Itaewon, and I followed the crowd, while Pink's "God Is A DJ" blasted in my ears (my current fave song!) I near expected everyone on the street to suddenly break out into some elaborately choreographed dance routine, with pyrotechnics exploding out of the street, and fireworks to explode out over Seoul Tower. I know that sounds horribly cheesy, but it was *that* surreal and magical of a moment for me. I felt completely free in the world, like I had life by the reins and was living out my destiny. I was in such great spirits!!!

(I was also absolutely starving!) I had remembered seeing a Subway here the other day with Michael, and since I've been craving for a big giant sandwich, I made a b-line for it. Mmmmmm....it was the best subway sandwich I think I've ever had!!! After dinner I walked around the neighbourhood, taking in all that Itaewon has to offer. Again, the mix of Caucasians and Koreans was fascinating, yet rather disorienting at the same time. I felt the urge to run up to each and every foreigner and hug them and introduce myself, being like "Isn't Korea great! Let's all be friends!" but I don't think that would go over very well. Alas, I had to keep my excitement contained to my own thoughts. Itaewon has lots of cool stores, and I think it would be fun to come here and do a little shopping on my next payday. There were also tons of bars and clubs all over the place, with loads and loads of military personnel crawling all over the streets. The mix of American camouflage with 'everyday Koreans' was interesting to look at anyways.

I went and had a caramel macchiatto at this cool coffee house called "Hello Beans", and it was nice to just sit and relax for a bit. I'm currently reading, for the second time, The Alchemist, and this book gives me great strength and faith in life during this tumultous period in my life. I could write a whole essay about how amazing and incredible The Alchemist is, but I'll save that for another entry... After my CM (the first really good coffee I've had here in Korea, by the way) it was time to head home. Back on the train, back to the burbs...

I took a different combination of lines on the way home, and all this was again fun and relaxing, until I got to Line 1. THE TRAIN WAS ABSOLUTELY PACKED!!! But it was 10:30pm at night! Why would the train be so crowded at such an odd hour? Surely rush hour traffic out of the city would have come and gone ages ago by now? Was there some special event in the city that I wasn't aware of? Did a stadium just empty out or something??? It came as a surprise anyways. So I squeezed into the train, and it wasn't so bad at first, but then at each station more and more people pushed their way onto the already packed train. I was right in the middle of the car, and could not move at all!!! It was SO CROWDED that their honestly wasn't an inch of room between any of the passengers, so every time the car rocked back and forth, everybody moved together as one giant mass. All you could do was just stand up and sway along with the flow... It wasn't long before it became like an oven in that train, and poor lil me with my touque and scarf and mits, quickly became desperately overheated. And I couldn't take off my winter gear because I couldn't move!!! By the time my station came, which seemed like an eternity later, I was SO HAPPY to be out in the cold winter air.

It seemed to take a lot longer to get home than it did to get into the city, so I was quite tired by the time I got back to my little apartment in Shihung. While walking home from the bus it started to snow!!! (the first time I've seen any of the white stuff here in Korea.) Maybe we'll get a blizzard and we'll have to close the school tomorrow? God I haven't had a "snow day" in ages - that would be such a blast! Here's hoping...