First BIG Weekend Away

This past weekend held a lot of firsts for me. This was my first attempt at organizing a group of people to go and do something. My first trip to Seoul. My first Korean Rock Festival. And my first Korean massage, to name a few.

I had a week of a cold beginning Monday, courtesy of the little disease carrying monkeys that are bused into the English Village twice a week. I spent the beginning part of me week either at work, sniffling and sneezing and feeling like crap, or asleep. I only barely began to feel human in time for a farewell dinner Wednesday evening for one of the teachers who was leaving. Only to wake Thursday morning still feeling under the weather and to some very sad news. One of the other teachers that was to leave in 6 days time found out Wednesday night after dinner that she had a death in the family and began the process of changing tickets and sorting out the details of leaving 5 days sooner. So in addition to not feeling well, the somber mood of a death and a too soon departure hung in the air at work; an assuredly awkward environment to endure for a first day as the newest teacher to be joining our ranks must have felt. Friday was a day of goodbyes, to our teacher friend who was leaving earlier than planned, and also for two of the office staff who we are all very fond of. Four goodbyes in one week and I can hardly stand it. For the people who say they are not good at goodbyes, I can attest that practice, in this arena, does not make perfect. Instead, it wears on the soul and encourages you (or me at least) to look inward for what is steady and constant, and also to look home to those that are close to you, though many miles away. With the weekend in sight and fun to be had, I tried to shake off the heavy chains of goodbyes and look forward to new memories to be made. 

I left my apartment at 8am Saturday morning to arrive at the designated meeting location a whole 5 mins  EARLY! For those of you that know me, you know this is a feat in and of itself, not to mention the fact that it occurred at such an hour as before 2pm. I had organized, over the span of a few weeks, the collective venture of five separate people to a joint event over 4 hours travel time away near Seoul, to meet a sixth person there. The event was called RocKorea, a tribute to indie rock music. There were at least 8 cover bands slated to play in addition to some local Korean talent, a burlesque show, some b-boy (like break dancing) performers, and a few contests and give-aways for this 18 hour concert event starting at noon on Saturday and culminating with breakfast at 7am Sunday morning. It was advertised as the Korean Woodstock and promised to be a fantastic time! Needless to say, I was looking forward to it! 

One of our five travelers was charged with the task of purchasing the bus tickets from Geoje to Seoul, which went off without a hitch--except that the bus left at 9am and at 20 till, there was still no sign of his arrival at the designated meeting location. So after hustling to the actual bus terminal and at least 9 minutes of anxious pacing, the other three people of our five-some arrived and we made the bus with literally a minute to spare. Phew! This is when a collective proclamation was made that us not missing our bus was a good sign and it was all clear sailing from here. Boy did we speak too soon.

The four hour bus ride proved rather uneventful, thankfully, and we arrived in Seoul hungry and ready to find some Western grub that is scarce or nonexistent in our neck of Korea. We settled on a Mexican restaurant and we were all satisfied with the meal and then ready to make our way to the prearranged free shuttle bus that would be taking us to the concert. After a short 10 minute walk through a very foreigner friendly area of Seoul we found the pub that was to be the pickup point for our shuttle. With no sign of a shuttle outside myself and one of my partners in crime ventured in to see what was what. We dejectedly came back to our comrades on the street to relay the news from the woman at the bar. "No bus from here. Not ever was there a bus. Sorry" was all she could say. We had just trekked so far but we were not beat yet! We phoned a friend that was still back home and with internet access readily available. After getting the address (for a GPS) for the event as well as the other shuttle bus pick up location, we set out to try again. First, a taxi for five to the event. The first taxi said "too far, get out" after getting a Korean friend on the phone to translate the address for the driver, and after all five of us had piled in. Devil! 

There was talk of trying for another taxi, but to be honest, the fact that we found one that would let five of us in (it is illegal to have more than four passengers in a cab and the driver can get a fine for that) was amazing, to find another, who would take us in heavy traffic the "too far" distance that the first declined seemed slim. So after some reasoning, we decided to take the subway to the airport where the other mythical free shuttle bus was running from. Mind you, at this point it is about 4pm. By the time we get to the airport (with little excitement or drama, just a long trek on top of what has already been made thus far) we find the correct location of said shuttle bus, but no bus. No sign. No people waiting. No nothin. Hmmm. What to do now? I, perhaps a bit hastily I can say in hindsight, made the executive decision to take a cab from the airport (as it is now MUCH closer to the event than we were before, so "too far" should not be an issue) as surely the free shuttle bus is clearly no longer running now that it is 5 hours into the concert! So we have luck with our first cab letting all five of us in and we are "off". Sort of.

He is not sure where exactly we are going, but he is going to stop and ask the nice man who works at the front of the Hilton by the airport, as he speaks both English and Korean. So we explain to him where we are going and give him the address and he and the driver have a nice chat in Korean as we all sit anxiously stuffed into the cab hoping for the best. When the driver begins to punch information into his GPS we all let out a sigh of relief. We are on our way!

We are all having a nice chat about the insanity of the venture thus far to get there and discussing how excited we are to hear this band and that cover group when the driver relays that there should only be four of us in the cab and that we have five, so if we see police, we should duck. This is extensively stretching out what was said and verbalizing the hand gestures and the like that were given to us. I elected to slip from my very squashed location behind the drive and wedged against the door to the floorboard of the backseat (as I am the shortest of the five of us, it was easiest for me to not been seen from the floor) behind the driver. Thank goodness he was a typical hight Korean! This is about 10 minutes into our taxi ride. After about 13 more minutes, we find ourselves idling in the midst of some newly erected apartment buildings, with no music to be heard, and no concert in sight. We are clearly lost, the GPS has no idea where to take us with all this new construction, and my phone is in the trunk, one person has no cell, two of the others' phones are within seconds of dying, and the last person who does have a phone on him has been here the least amount of time out of all of us, so has the fewest connections to call anyway! There has been talk for the last 8 mins or so about how this whole RocKorea thing is probably just some big scam to get us to transfer our money to their account and there actually IS no concert! There was no shuttle. The place does not seem to exist. When we tell anyone the city name that it is being held in, they say it either does not exist or they have never heard of it (and these are born and raised Koreans saying this--not eliciting a lot of hope at this point!) so hope is rapidly fading from our sardine cab foreign family of travelers. Before all hope is lost, my phone is fetched from the trunk, as we are already stopped, so what's the harm, and I make a call to the sixth person of our party, who has within the last 7 minutes sent me a text to let me know she has made it to the concert and to see if we are there yet. Not sure if this is insult to injury or just frustrating at this point, but I find myself audibly scoffing at her text from the floorboard of the overly stuffed cab. No. We are not there yet. BUT!  She IS! So....that means it DOES exist! There IS hope! So I call her. No answer. Again. And again. After about 6 tries, she finally answers. Explaining our situation, she is already in route to find a Korean who might be able to give direction to our very lost cabbie. She finds someone and after a few moments of conversation, the cabbie whisks us off in a new direction! 

After driving for about 8 minutes, it is clear to us all that we are still, in fact, l o s t. So I call again. No answer. Damn these loud concerts! Again. Again! Finally, she answers. "We are still lost. Can you find someone else...please?" She hands us over to the ticket takers/organizers of the event. Surely THEY will be able to give him adequate directions, right?!? Again, after some instruction from the other end, and surely some venting from his, he is punching new coordinates into his GPS and we are off. I am definitely feeling a sense of positivity about this try. I feel like we are actually going to get there on this one! 

The journey wary traveling 5--the fifth taking the shot

Less than five minutes later--and a 40+ cab fare--we pull up to the event. As we are piling out of the cab I see a bus and think "surely that's not the shuttle. I swear I'll spit if it is!" And just as I finished the thought, two jovial foreigners bound off the bus and head towards the entrance of the event. No! Frigin! WAY! Are you serious???!?!? So what you're saying is...the shuttle WAS still running? Amazing. Unbelievable. No other words could come out of my mouth--or at least none that weren't swear words and thereby appropriate to include in this posting. I was both furious with the event coordinators, and with myself and my lack of patience/persuasive personality! Dammit! Damn all those debate classes I took in high school! Dammit all! It was only later in the evening that we found out the shuttles were running every thirty minutes from beginning to end of the concert. Fan-tas-tic. Oh well. "We are here" was our mantra as we strolled through the entrance and began to scope the place out.

Vic and I "fakin it" til we can make the smiles real just after arriving

It was not what we were expecting--wet dirt/dry-ish mud with no grass anywhere, much smaller stage/setup than we had imagined, and far less venders. But we made it. And we were, or at least I was, determined to have a good time! After a stroll about, finding our sixth, procuring a tent, and abandoning our bags, we all began to settle in. Food. Beer. And let's enjoy the show!

A fan enthralled in a Tragically Hip moment of cover bliss

The cover bands consisted of The Tragically Hip (a Canadian band which I didn't really know, but the token Maple from our group adored!), Leonard Skynard, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, and Led Zeppelin. There were a few other bands that I didn't know after that, and at this point, all but one of our crew had crashed out and it was after 5am, so I was beginning to fade.

The Stones cover was the best! The guy who was supposed to be Mick Jagger didn't look or sound too much like him but had phenomenal stage presence, so was over all the best. Had a great time screaming my voice away at the acts and could not stop reveling in the fact that most of these performers would be back to work on Tuesday saying "ok class, let's turn to page -- in our books and look at the present perfect tense."  And also to think how amazing it is that all this talent, all these extremely capable and enthusiastic artists, was in Korea all at the same time to be able to come together to put on this show. Wow. It really made me feel fortunate to be where I am and homesick all at the same time. 

He did an amazing job on stage as Mick Jagger

After the wig came off!

Nothin says cover band like havin the guitarist wear a "vintage" band t-shirt, dude.

Wow. All out Zeppelin baby!

AC/DC was really good too!

Yeah, they rocked it

The Stones cover was ROCKIN!

After saying farewell to one partier at about 4:30am, I rocked out for a bit longer but was ultimately overcome with sleep. After about an hour of sleep it was time to get up and catch the 7am shuttle bus back to the airport to get back to Seoul and to the four hour bus home to Geoje at 6pm. After arriving in Seoul and getting the crew some breakfast (yeah the "included breakfast from the event was a joke, not surprising after all the snafoos along the way) I parted ways from the other three with the mission of finding a massage before returning home. Massages on Geoje are not highly looked upon (ie they are "massage parlors") or they are very expensive (about $100 for an hour) so I have yet to get one, but that doesn't mean I haven't been in need. I have! 

There was a place next to the original shuttle bus location that offered massage and looked reputable, so I made my way back there but didn't want to take a cab so walked most of it, then took the subway. Perhaps a mistake on my part as I was already extremely tired. Once inside there seemed to be no one around so after napping on the stairs for 20 minutes (yes, that's right, I slept on the stairs of a building because I was SO tired!) I found a bathroom with a locking door and set to work at cleaning myself up a bit. After a change of clothes, a sink bath, and a good toothbrushing, I set out on my way to find another massage option. The second only served men--not a good sign. Finally, I found one that was for WOMEN only. 60,000KW (about $60US) for a massage RIGHT NOW. I'll take it! I was so tired, so ready for a massage, so out of it, that I did not realize that the changing room they took me to had a glass door with frosted decoration on it. I thought it was mirrored. I had to laugh at myself as I thought of my therapist and the woman who showed me back getting a laugh at the foreigner baring her bum in the changing room. If I had known I would have made an effort to be more discrete as I changed. Or at least I'd like to think I would. Knowing me, I probably wouldn't have cared even if I'd have known!

So I get on the table and I realize I never asked out long the massage was for. I tried not to think of that as she started (and I couldn't ask her because she only knew about 5 words of English--Devil!) so I just tried to lay there and relax and enjoy. It definitely wasn't the same as one of my many wonderful massage therapist from home, but the 40 minute massage did the trick, as I really needed one.

Afterwards I gathered my things and began to make my way to the bus station in hopes of catching an earlier (than 6pm) bus home. Luckily for me, there was space on the 5pm bus and with a little effort on my part I was on the bus, asleep for four hours and then in my apartment by 10pm, showered, unpacked, and in bed by 11:20pm. I laid there in bed for a few moments, thankful to be home, for my weekend, and for an extra day off on Monday to tend to all I had not done while I was away. And before I could even form the list in my mind of things to do, I was fast asleep and dreaming of hot expats and English teachers rocking out somewhere in a land far, far away!