the quirky and artsy seoul

Despite my disappointment with the lack of historical culture in Seoul, there wasn't a lack of an urban art culture. Here are some of my favorites:

inside the City Hall 

subway decorations

an underground art space

a children's books section in the underground art space 

ssamzigil rooftop in the Insadong area

i just liked this little surprise i found on a wall

they're watching

some outdoor exhibits in Hongdae, the famous university area in Seoul

space kitty flyin' high

cat theme?

street art in Mullae, an industrial area removed from the bustling commercial streets

more art in Mullae

a whimsy addition to the bleak, industrial Mullae walls

Another really unique and quirky bit of Seoul is the cat cafes. That's right. Pets don't fit well into the tiny Seoul apartments, so Seoul residents head to cat cafes to get their fill of cuddly, adorable animals. What I had pictured was a very cozy cafe, filled with furniture, books, and cats wandering about. When I finally made it to a cat cafe, it had the looks of a very clean pet store and minimal furniture. It turned out to be more of a kitty petting area with a counter that serves coffee and tea, rather than a conventional coffee shop with cats. Anyhow, when I visited there were only 3 customers and about 4 times as many cats, and the people inside were definitely having a great and relaxing time with the kitties. My friend and I didn't end up staying because we would've had very little time in the cafe, but I definitely could've chilled in their for an hour or so and enjoyed a nine dollar latte, Seoul style.

a foodie's seoul

I'm awful with names and have already forgotten all the Korean food vocabulary that I learned. Anyways, enjoy!

First meal in Seoul: spicy squid with radish kimchi and sticky rice rolled in seaweed. This was the first plate I got in a small yet bustling restaurant that serves nothing but this dish. I thought the plate was a bit small when I first got it... little did I know that they would keep refilling the rice, kimchi, and squid! (By far, one of the tastiest and spiciest things I had in Seoul)

A kind of mochi filled with chopped peanuts

Fish balls in the street

A local food market

Didn't get to try any of these :(

fresh seafood

kimchi pancakes, vegetable and seaweed pancakes in the front, and tempura'd crab cakes,  fishcakes, peppers, and other deliciousness in the back

assorted kimchi

exchange rate is roughly 1 USD = 1,100 won

this guy stared at me while I ate my porridge...

rice cake stir-fried with spicy sauce and veggies 

hand-cut noodles

the same hand-cut noodles after adding sauce:)

slow-cooked chicken

seafood soup in the flea market

i have no idea what this is. i didn't at the time either. 

more kimchi:)

5 days in Seoul

Back in March, I took advantage of my weird visa to exit the country to spend some days in Korea. Here's my take on Seoul from five days. 

My first impression of Seoul was that it was how I would expect Japan to look. The way the Koreans dress and act, in a more polite and reserved manner than the Chinese, along with the public toilets with heated toilet seats, reminded me of Japan. In terms of language, I encountered very few people on the streets who could speak English (or Chinese which I also attempted) but I was able to get by fine. I had expected more people to speak English (or people to speak better English) but Seoul was comparable to Beijing for English levels i.e. most people are willing to help and will speak to you in their native language. Many of the young people who I attempted to talk to were too shy to speak anything. Even the people at tourist information spoke quite abysmal English; my theory is that because of the high volumes of Japanese and Chinese tourists, they hire people who can speak all 3 languages. 

So, the next big aspect of Korean culture that hit me was the makeup. Korean women always leave the house looking impeccable with perfect hair and makeup. (I imagine they look impeccable when they don't leave the house as well, whereas I personally hang out in a tshirt and sweats. Hmm, who am I kidding... I wear that out of the house too.) Because of the makeup, it's absolutely impossible to tell a woman's real age, or true skin tone, as they all seem to use the same beige coverup. When you bring plastic surgery into the equation, Korea is really in its own category. I read that about 25% of Koreans have had plastic surgery. It’s become such an ordinary part of Korean society that it’s scary. Ads are plastered all over the city, even the buses and the subway station. The women (and men) who undergo plastic surgery sometimes come out looking like a completely different person, from a completely different age group. Sometimes even a different ethnicity. Check out these ads:

who said plastic surgery is only for women?

many women slice their jaws down for a more flattering face shape.  owwww?

Seoul is an extremely modern city and has sadly lost much of the traditional Hanok houses. Seoul has its share of temples, palaces, and museums, but many people come to Seoul for the shopping. There was an entire area dedicated to wholesale goods: household items, clothing, and socks. Many many socks. Dongdaemun is another famous shopping area with skyscrapers dedicated to apparel.   

all the newest fads!

As always, the people can make or break a trip, and thanks to social media and a bit of fate, I was lucky enough to meet some very nice travel companions and also see a couple friends.

I actually decided to make a list out of this one. So, if you’d like to run into an old classmate or meet some unique people on your next trip, just follow these rules!

1. Don’t be shy. This is the obvious rule for meeting anyone, whether you’re traveling or not. Sometimes it just takes a hello, smalltalk, or a clever comment to start a conversation. And who knows where that conversation will lead? Sure, it could lead nowhere. But it just could lead to a travel companion for the day or even a lifelong friend. (Remember my friends D and S I met in the bank in Valencia? They were some of my best friends in Valencia, and I’m actually going to see them again next month! And to imagine that it all started with small talk in the bank.) In my Seoul trip, I was wandering around by myself in the Bukchon (a traditional Hanok village and one of my favorite places in Seoul) and I didn’t have high hopes for meeting any strangers as the Bukchon seemed to be the place for a date. Eventually I made it to must-see #10 on my tourist map, and asked another girl to take my photo. I thanked her, we chatted for a bit, and then we went our separate ways. As fate would have it, we just couldn’t stay away from each other, and it was probably the third time we ran into each other when we decided to walk around together in the neighboring area, filled with hip cafes and shops. Since I didn’t have a Korean phone number, we exchanged wechat accounts to meet up later in the week. Oh, who was she by the way? R turned out to be a Singapoean student who studies food science, who loves Korean culture and just arrived for her half-year study abroad in Seoul. She spoke in a soft, lyrical way that (from my experience) is characteristic of Singapore, and loved snapping away on her DSLR. 

Bukchon's traditional houses

2. Maximize what you get out of couchsurfing. There were some pretty active threads on the Seoul group in couchsurfing, and several people had posted that they were going traveling in Seoul and open to meet up with other travelers. Unfortunately I didn’t end up meeting with one guy for the DMZ tour which basically takes you (if you’re not a Korean citizen) to the Demilitiarized Military Zone that separates North and South Korea. I think you can see the famous conference halls where talks were held, tunnels, etc. Anyways, apparently these tours fill up very quickly and I missed my chance. I hung out with another CSer, C, who is Chinese and studies journalism in Macau. True to her journalistic roots, she was inquisitive and loved to ask about relationships (I guess it’s hard to get your head away from your thesis topic, and her thesis topic happened to be interracial relationships). Even though I tend to get very annoyed by nosy questions, C was actually interested and also willing to share her own experiences and preferences (important if you want you conversation to be an actual conversation rather than an interview).

3. Dig and have no shame! Going back to rule 1 again, except with acquaintances, old friends, i.e. people you already know. Just because you haven’t seen someone in a few years doesn’t mean that you can’t let them know when you’re passing through their city. Chances are, they’ll be flattered that you thought of them and asked for their advice. Well, my shameless moment came with Ar, who came to study in LA as an Ambassadorial Scholar almost four years ago to study cosmetics marketing. I didn’t understand fully what that meant until I saw with my own eyes what the Korean cosmetics industry does. After getting back to the U.S. Ar was reluctant to find another job just because of her previous experiences in the cosmetics industry… pressure, stress, and long hours. When I met up with her, she had just started another job with the Body Shop. I guess looking perfect is even more important when you sell cosmetics. Once when Ar showed up to work without makeup, her boss asked if she was sick. No, she replied. Of course her boss knew that she wasn’t sick. At least go put on some lipstick, he said. Anyways, it was great to catch up with Ar, especialy because she could hardly speak English when I had first met her, and now she’s virtually fluent.  

4. Social media, social media, social media. But really. How else would I find out that A (a classmate and floormate at UCLA who is a really nice person but I don’t know very well and who I hadn’t talked to in over two years) was in Seoul? I was in W’s living, scrolling through facebook (still a tad elated that I could freely do so, having escaped the Great Firewall), and lo and behold, I see A’s new facebook album of Seoul photos. What were the chances? Maybe he’s uploading photos from months ago? I contacted A, and found out that he was actually in Seoul for a week to visit friends, for almost the same exact week that I was there! It wasn’t easy to meet up as I was without a Korean number, but thanks to the occasional wifi that I would stumble across, we managed to meet. One thing that really surprised me was when I found out that A was staying in a hostel in the Hongdae area, especially since he was back visiting friends he had made when he studied abroad in Seoul. Seoul apartments are small, but I’m sure someone could have spared a couch. A explained that some of his friends live in the outskirts of Seoul and it would have been inconvenient to stay with them. He also has lots of female friends, and it would have been entirely inappropriate to stay with them. I guess that just came as a shock to me, since Seoul seems so so modern. 

January updates

My 2013 got off to a busy start! I started the new year in Sichuan, where I attended my cousin's wedding and saw tons of relatives whom I had not seen since 2004. All of the cousins around my age are of course grown up with jobs and/or girlfriends, and all of the cousins 6-12 years older than me are now parents. This also means that those new babies or toddlers.

It was also nice to appreciate the noticeably slower and more relaxed pace of life in Sichuan. I first went to Chengdu, which is the capital of Sichuan and considered to be a medium-sized city. Wikipedia says "Chengdu outnumbers Shanghai in the number of tea houses and bars despite having less than half the population. The inhabitants have a reputation in China for having a laid-back attitude and for knowing how to enjoy life." It's difficult to me to judge, as I work in Beijing and have only ever vacationed in Sichuan. After many visits, rounds of food, and a visit to the giant panda breeding center, I moved on to Deyang, a suburb one hour away from Chengdu, where I continued to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins, enjoy the relaxing Sichuan lifestyle, and eat way too much. Although I was only in Deyang for 3 nights, I definitely got a feel for a typical night: dinner, then a bar or KTV where drinks and more snacks are ordered, and then to a restaurant for a "midnight snack." I should emphasize that the KTV snacks were not snacks in the Western or even the Beijing sense; these snacks ranged from spicy pickled seaweed to chicken wings to ginormous fruit plates. The midnight snacks I tried were dumplings in a sweet and spicy sauce and roasted meats. I think I averaged a gain of 1 kilo for every day that I was in Sichuan.

A typical bowl of 5RMB Sichuan noodles.

I think this quote very accurately describes giant panda habits: Panda spends 98 percent of their time eating or sleeping. The other two percent, according to a Chinese book, is spent “wondering and enjoying.”

A plastic glove wasn't enough to keep our clothes from the drippy, spicy, oily goodness. But it was worth it.

With the cutest nephew ever:)

I also took a trip with my mom to Singapore and Malaysia. Unfortunately, the sudden changes of climate that I was putting my body through (-5 and dry in Beijing, 1 and humid in Chengdu, back to -5 and dry in Beijing, and 30 and wet in Singapore) didn't help my cough and I ended up getting a throat infection. Anyways, Malaysia has been a crossroads of East Asian, Southeast Asian, Middle East, and even European cultures for hundreds of years. The biggest influences are by far the Chinese, Indian, and Malay, and this is especially evident in the cuisine but also in the architecture, culture, religion, and every aspect of society. It was pretty amazing that 3rd or 4th generation Chinese were still quite in touch with Chinese culture, and because of the Chinese presence (as locals and as tourists) many Malaysians who were not from Chinese descent also were able to speak Mandarin.

A protest in the Chinatown of Kuala Lumpur

Cambodian style temple

Getting colorfully covered up at the National Mosque

Back in Beijing, we had an extremely polluted month. After having lived here for several months already, I was already used to smoggy days with very low visibility, little to no wind, and PM2.5 levels 2, 3, or 4 times the WHO recommended level. This time, it was especially bad as the weather conditions caused the pollution to accumulate for almost a week. Not only were flights delayed because of the low visibility (including our flight back from Singapore), but there was even a fire in Shanghai that went unnoticed for 3 hours because it just blended in with the pollution! If you want to read more, there's plenty on the internet, and my friend S sent me this article which does a good job of describing the situation. Anyways, the pollution I guess is one of the worst parts of living in this city, since it really can affect so many aspects of your life. Living in California, the air quality has always been something that I (and most other Californians) take for granted, and it really is a basic human right to live in a clean and safe environment.

A hazy day in Chaoyang

So, that provided a nice segue into my work life, as all of the projects that I'm working on have some kind of contribution to energy efficiency or emissions reductions. At the end of January my supervisor B was in Beijing on mission from Vienna. I attended some meetings with her and definitely got a better understanding of UNIDO projects, relationships with stakeholders and counterparts, the frustrations that come with the slow pace and inefficient bureaucracies that are unfortunately typical of the non-profit or governmental sectors, but also a personal satisfaction of contributing to a greater cause that the private sector doesn't really provide. Working on an international level is also exhausting, as one must be aware of the constantly changing politics and minutiae of cultural sensitivity. This isn't the case in China, but oftentimes the project team and stakeholders invest time and effort into creating a meaningful relationship with a certain government organization, and all that work is wasted with a change of government. Anyways, B is quite young and has had a variety of experiences in the private and public sector and lived in several countries and continents, so she always had some interesting stories and spot-on advice.

Finally, what would a January in sub-zero temperatures be without a snow and ice festival? Even though Harbin was too far and overwhelming, and the mere thought of -35C was enough to scare us off, my friends and I still managed to go to the Longqing Gorge Ice Sculpture Festival.