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Today I went to the home stay office to get my classes and visa organized. I get there and they say it is now 3 weeks until the class begins. But I was able to change to a week of private classes from Oct 29 – Nov 2. And then I have a week of no classes and finally 3 weeks of group classes from Nov 12 – Nov 30.

I gave away my passport, a photo, and my registration form so I can get my Visa extended. It is going to cost $200 and I feel like this homestay guy is ripping me off again. This is more than the cost of getting the visa in the first place, which was good for two 30 day entries. I only need 30 days more, since I have to leave the country in December! I think it was a mistake to get a F (business/student) Visa. If I got a L (tourist) Visa, I think it would have been easy and less expensive for me to extend on my own. Someone is making a lot of money (I think mostly the government) on American visitors in China, which I think is $7 per day for me. And in China that is probably the 2nd largest expense after accommodation.

Later in the day I went to a electronics market because I wanted to get some cables to plug my computer to the family’s TV. The son came along with me and said he had a friend who works there. That meant I got a good price (instead of let’s double the price for foreigners). For little over $5, I got a VGA to DVI cable and an audio cable. I thought that was kind of cool, going to the source in China here for these cheap parts, bypassing all the Ebay sellers and everything.

The family has a nice 42" Sharp LCD television with a DVI-I input. I was able connect my computer at 1024×768 resolution so I can watch videos on the big screen. I have the Ratatouille movie on my computer that the family might enjoy.

I think I was an hour late for dinner today, but they brought out the food for me anyway, which was nice of them. I noticed the father is not very talkative. I think he speaks the least English out of everyone; maybe just a few words from what I can tell. Today the daughter was taken to some English class or something. It is hard to get details on what is going on with that sort of thing. I’ll try to take some family and apartment photos some day.

I’m not sure what the long term sleeping arrangements are here. There was talk of the son sleeping in the same room as me on a cot or something, but as I said before he slept on the couch. The glass window that is cracked open in my room facing the foyer/dining room seems a little strange too.

I woke up and ate a good breakfast. Rice porridge, some leftover dofu/veggies from dinner, small dried scrimp, peanuts, egg omelet, bread & jam & ham, and milk. I was surprised again. I don’t think I’ll go hungry here!

The weather good here. Quite different from the drenching humidity of the summer. Highs are in the 60’s Fahrenheit. Lows about 50 Fahrenheit. Clear skies.

I learned the family owns a swimsuit factory in Guangzhou, China. They sell to parts of Europe and Russia. That explains why this family doesn’t worry about money constantly like the last family I stayed with.

I found out the son is in High School (I think equivalent of 11th grade) and wants to attend an university in the USA. So maybe one of the reasons they want me to stay here is so he can improve his English before then. But I don’t feel a constant pressure here to teach English directly (again differing from my last experience).

The mother took me to the police station to get a "Registration Form of Temporary Residence." Now that the police and government know where I live, I can extend my 30-day Visa. I need to get at least 60 days. I noticed this home is in sort of a Russia-town area. It is really strange to see all these shops with Cyrillic script and Russian people walking around in the middle of China’s capital city.

In the evening, we went to a Chinese restaurant because it is the father’s birthday today. Unfortunately in the rush to leave, I forgot my camera. I think it ended up being 10 or 11 people there sitting at a circular table with another rotating circle in the middle. In a traditional Chinese dinner, you don’t eat your own dish, but you eat a little of many shared dishes. In the center was noodles & chicken which was very similar to that big (18") plate I had in Korea (except not as spicy). Around it there were another 12 or so plates of food. Some were whole fish (with the head and all), mushrooms, vegetables, dumplings, salad, other seafood. Plenty of good food and I had my fill.

From the hotel, I took a taxi to the Tianjin train station. It must have been the most unorganized station I’ve seen. It was old and undersized. It took me a while to find out where to buy a ticket and then boarding the train was hampered by a single, small door everyone had to pass through. The actual high speed train ($5) to Beijing was modern and nice though.

Once in Beijing, I took the subway to the office for the homestay and to meet the man in charge. He told me I can’t begin my classes for another two weeks. That is when two other students at the same level as me are starting. I thought that was a little disappointing to tell me this now. Why did I rush through Korea just to sit around Beijing and wait?

We drove to meet the family; a different family than last time I was here. The location is closer to the middle of the city this time. It is maybe the same distance away from the school, but I think a better location overall.

I was informed the home had three people, but I was surprised to see more. Instead of one son (18 years old) like I was told, there is also a daughter (6 years old), and a maid/cook that lives there. Including me, there are 6 people living in the apartment and 3 bedrooms. The parents in one, the daughter/housekeeper in another, and the son in the last. The homestay program promises a private room, so it seems the son has to sleep on the couch in the living room for now (but he still uses the room for everything other than sleeping).

Overall, it is a very nice apartment and the family seems more upper class than the last family I stayed with. I think the best part is the hired housekeeper that ensures there is a big dinner cooked everyday. I was kind of shocked: fish, shrimp, chicken, dofu, veggies, soup, and rice. It was the first proper meal I’ve had in two or three days (was eating cookies mostly on the ferry).

The son, Harry, and I went to the gym to work out on some weight machines in the evening. He is taller and more muscular than me. Afterwards, we went to a PC Bar / Internet Cafe type place and played Counter Strike (a computer game).

The ferry was originally scheduled to arrive at 7PM in China, but I didn’t get off the ship until after 11PM. After no questions asked, I was let into the country. It is always funny that you get questioned more at countries like Korea where you think the US has a stronger relationship over countries like China.

I was going to worry about arriving in the middle of the night to this small port city, but my roommate said he would help me out. His Chinese step-sister would be picking him up at the terminal. But then he talked to another Korean guy who is staying in Tianjin with a hotel room already booked and the room has two beds, one empty. He offered to take me along, which I said was great and would take the stress out of the situation. The ferry arrived at a the port of Tanggu, and then I spent some time in a Taxi to the main city of Tianjin. So I spent the night at a Korean run 3-star hotel, Spa Plaza Hotel Tianjin. I have to thank these Koreans for being so helpful (even in China). I didn’t get to sleep until 2AM or so, but I did find they have an Ethernet jack so I can use the Internet connection.

Today I leave Korea. I wish I could stay longer in Korea because I feel there is still a lot I didn’t see. I think I’ll have to come back sometime. Doesn’t seem like a bad place to teach English either, if I wanted to do that.

It rained in the morning. By the way, Accuweather.com has been totally inaccurate in weather forecasts in Korea. It has rained many times, but the site has not shown it once. I checked out of my hotel at noon and stopped by the Yongsan Electronics Market. It is similar to some "electric town" areas in Japan, but I think the focus here is more on PCs. There are hundreds of PC builders and repairers in shops lining a number of buildings. There are also speciality stores like one that old only heatsink/fans. Also a huge number of stores that sold used parts. However, it didn’t have some of the weird stuff that you see in Japan, like Maid Cafes. The two major electronic companies in Korea are well represented: Samsung and LG. I saw plenty of phones. Maybe not quite as impressive as the Japanese ones, but I may have saw some that were smaller here. One was a little bigger than a pack of gum.

I got my ticket for the Incheon -> Tianjin ferry in the afternoon. I tried to use up all my Korean Won, which I did successfully. Maybe a little too successful since I only left $4 for food. So I had to go to the supermarket and find the cheapest food that will last me at least the next 30 hours. I found out the ferry was delayed two hours, so I had time to look around town. My travel guide mentions a General MacArthur statue in Jayu Park, so after some walking up a big hill, I found that. The port of Incheon is famous because it is the spot in the Korean war where MacArthur performed a beach landing and invasion.

Instead of departing at 7PM, the ferry left after 9PM. Instead of the economy room, I opted for a more luxurious Business class room. This room had 4 beds and more importantly an electrical plug I could use for my computer. The trip is 25-30 hours, so no problem since I have my computer which includes tons of videos and books. My ship was named the Tian-Ren. The price was about $123 and this included a 20% student discount I was surprised to get!

I shared the room with a Korean guy who is about the same age as me. We spent a lot of time talking and he wanted to practice some English since he wasn’t very good at it. We also used Korean<->English dictionary software on my computer to help. I find out most of his family has moved to Beijing, China and he has a Chinese step-mom and step-sister. He is in the business of buying vegetables (20 tons) in China and then selling in Korea. I also find out he likes computer games and he has made quite a bit of money at times playing a game called Lineage when he sells items.

This is probably my best ferry ride yet since it is my first where I have an actual bed to sleep in!

Today I visited the War Memorial of Korea. Actually, I only walked around outside, since it seem that was most interesting anyway. I first saw an army group putting on sort of a show by marching and even throwing their guns up into the air. They had dozens of tanks, airplanes, helicopters, anti-arcraft guns, guided missiles and more out on display. I’ve never seen so much war equipment in one spot. Maybe the highlight was being able to walk around and under a B-52 Bomber. There were also some loudspeakers the south would use in psychological warfare which were kind of unique.

Later I organized with some other people and went to Gyeongbokgung, which is the biggest palace in the country. Something like a mini Forbidden City like they have in Beijing. Also there was the National Folk Museum of Korea where we visited real quick. I ended up going to those places with two Korean girls which were friends of a roommate in the guesthouse. For lunch today I had some kind of pork in spicy sauce dish.  Then later I had some tteokbokki (I think?) at a street vendor. This is my last night in Korea. Hmm, where to next?

Today I visited Changgyeonggung and Changdeokgung. They are two palaces near the guest house. I visited with two of my roommates, of which one is from another city in Korea and the other is from Hong Kong.

Later, the roommate from Hong Kong and I met up with the same friend from yesterday. We ate at a restaurant that served a dish with noodles, potatoes, and chicken. This dish was about 18 inches wide however! Even though it was shared by 3 people, I was still unable to eat all the food. I don’t remember the last time I’ve gone to a restaurant and had to leave food behind like that. I’ve finally been beat!

Later we went to the N Seoul Tower which is similar to the CN Tower. It is on top of a mountain in the center of the city, requiring a walk up a hill plus a cable car ride. I got a nice 360 degree view of Seoul from there. Lastly, we looked at the Han River from shore.

First full day in the metropolis of Seoul. After sleeping in, I went to the National Museum of Korea. There’s so much there I said to myself this must be the biggest museum in Asia. It turns out it is the biggest museum in Asia. There were lots of kids on school field trips and throughout the day they greeted me which made things more interesting. Some highlights included an exhibit on Hangeul alphabet, metal movable type printing (Gutenberg did it in 1455, Korea did it in 1234), and a 1402 world map.

Later I met up with a friend who I met in Japan. This was a good opportunity to have a real Korea BBQ type meal. So we had bulgogi (barbecued beef slices in lettuce wrap). The beef is cooked at the table with a built in gas grill. There are also many side dishes, including rice inside a bamboo cup. Probably my best meal in Korea. This was in Insadong. Later we went to the Cheonggye Stream.

I spent the night in a chair in front of a computer in this PC Bang. I tried sleeping, but of course didn’t get much sleep. I did get my log up to date and all my photos posted.

In the morning I used the KTX bullet train to get from one side of the country to the other: Busan to Seoul. The train is the same as French TGV trains and the journey took 3 hours. On arrival at a train station, another one of Jehovah’s Witnesses tried giving me some more literature, but I showed him what I was already given.

I found a good guest house, took a proper shower, and watched my clothes. I noticed there was a lot of stuff in the room, like a person has been living there, but it was all very neatly arranged. After a while a strange Korean woman came in and kept talking to me. I’m pretty sure she was mentally ill. I was thinking, what did I get myself into now? I decided I need to get away from here, so I took off and visited Ingwangsan for a bit. To my surprise, when I returned about 2 hours later all the clothes, containers, odds and ends were all gone and I saw she moved to a different room. What a relief.

Since I wasn’t used to the sleeping situation, I didn’t sleep perfectly. In addition to the floor, I had a blanket under me and blanket over me. And there was an “ondol” heated floor where pipes ran beneath the floor providing heat to the room, which seemed like a nice way to keep warm. However the floor was still very hard so I think it would take a couple days to get used to sleeping on that. Following the schedule, everyone was woken up at 4AM exactly after a night of rain. And then there was some ceremony for a while and then breakfast at about 6AM. Since it was a Sunday there was a formal breakfast called Paru-Gongyang with very strict rules on making sure you eat all the food and clean your dishes a certain way. Then I had time to walk around a bit and take some pictures, including going up on this cliff. Later we had a organized tour of Gameunsa, Sea Tomb of King Munmu (on the beach), and Girimsa. At the last place some Korean ladies gave away some food to us, just being nice. Then we returned to Golgulsa and had lunch. Soon after I left and took a bus headed for Busan.
I decided to make a stop at Seongnamsa on recommendation from the French guy a few days back. Half way there at a place where I was supposed to transfer buses I noticed it was getting really dark and looked like it would rain (it later did) so I aborted. (I did see a Pizza place and you can get a nice one for $5—too bad I wasn’t hungry!) After some difficulty getting a bus ticket back (I had to buy two until I got the right one), I was on my way to central Busan and the guesthouse I stayed in for my first night in Korea. Except this time the door was locked and no one was home. I decided to take a walk around.

I checked out a PC Bang (similar to an Internet cafe) and tried one hour for $1. They have Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200+, 1GB RAM, nVidia 7600GT. It appears they allow you to download and install apps and games. I notice all of Blizzard’s games are mounted on virtual discs: Starcraft, Diablo II, and Warcraft III. Now they don’t let you use your own laptop or plug in any USB devices or memory cards. Everything is based around games here. You hardly see anyone do anything else. I noticed they let you stay from 10PM – 8AM for about $5. So that’s plan B if I can’t get in the guesthouse.

I kept going back and checking the door even calling, but no luck. I walked around and didn’t see any other signs saying motel or anything in this area. So finally at midnight I chose a quiet PC Bang and decided to spend the night there. Better than being out on the street.