Halloween Through the Eyes of a Child

Anyone who has spent any significant amount of time around young children can tell you how heartwarming it is watching kids discover new and wonderful things. That sparkle in their eyes reflects the explosion of excitement in their little minds as they encounter completely alien yet incredible new things. Ever seen a kid, just recently able to walk around on his own, adventure out into the first snowfall of his life? Maybe it's just that lizard brain biological impulse to reproduce and have some little rugrats myself, but I can't help but feel pangs of jealousy whenever I witness something like that, thoroughly mixed together with the profound sense of joy and even hope I get from seeing other human beings encounter strange new things and immediately fall in love with them.

Though it was an intense whirlwind of activity that unfortunately meant I didn't get anywhere near as many pictures as I had hoped (and many of those I did take got blurred to oblivion as I tried to quickly snap a photo before shuffling off to my next assignment), the pure, concentrated happiness that was the Herald School Halloween Party was staggering.

Halloween is about as far from being a big deal in Korea as it's possible for a holiday to get. It's certainly not a national holiday and, though you can find a very small selection of costume ingredients and decor at larger stores, Halloween seems to be something that essentially only exists in private English academies. There's no trick-or-treating, no jack-o'-lanterns, no annual glut of usually crappy horror movie sequels, no costume parties for the young and intoxicated. Maybe things are different in more Westernized areas or those with a larger concentration of expats, but not so in humble Cheonan.

Years of accumulated decor come out of boxes squirreled away in the school's labyrinth of shabby corridors that weave behind and between the classrooms. Banners, streamers, animated sculptures, bats, spiders, punny tombstones that range from the ridiculous (M.T. Box) to the awkwardly vulgar (Ben Dover). There's an ancient bag of costumes for the teachers that's mostly a mishmash of unrelated Halloween staples, like vampire capes, axes, Scream masks, skeleton suits, wigs and feathered party masks, most of which saw better days a decade ago. I opted out of the cracked ghost mask I was supplied with and instead made myself a spider-infested beard out of stretchable spider webbing, found a suitable staff on the mountain path and donned my best wizard cloak (turned inside-out to hide the out-of-place League of Legends logos). One student identified me as Gandalf, another as Hagrid, but most thought I was meant to be either Santa or simply an old man.

My last minute wizard costume. My god, was that beard a sweaty, hot, terrible decision.

Whatever the success of my costume, as soon as festivities proper started, the atmosphere of distilled wonder and excitement (with a dash or two of terror and candy-craving gluttony, for good measure) was intense. I should mention that, though the students may have heard about Halloween from some source, the real draw for them is Market Day. Throughout the year, students are given special Herald School stickers for a job well done in class each day, with more stickers given to students who behave themselves and work hard. On Market Day, half of the school's classrooms are transformed into stores selling goodies ranging from toys to school supplies, stickers, wallets, umbrellas, bags, a whole slew of erasers, pens and pencilcases, even cups of soda and snacks like fried chicken, pizza, tteok bokki and pan-fried dumplings. Each row of stickers the student has amassed over the years becomes one dollar American (quarter-scale laminated copies of the real deal). Students are given a brief lesson in haggling in English ("Discount please!" "I'd like to return this.") and sent on their merry way. Good students have wads of cash with which they buy bulging bags full of goodies, while the naughty kids try to haggle over the price of an eraser with sour looks of regret and jealousy on their faces.

Chloe and David waiting for the rush of kids to the popular Toy Store. In twenty minutes these tables will be a barren wasteland of empty boxes.

But then, bellies full of grub and bags full of loot, the lights are turned out, the music comes on, and students are sent out to wander the school's halls in search of hiding teachers, each a node of candy goodness. I had kids who cackled with delight when they had found me, who stared in awe when I handed them tiny fistfuls of candy for apparently no reason, who stumbled over backward in terror when they noticed me peering out from around a corner.

It could be that I'd grown desensitized to the whole ordeal of Halloween. The past few years in Germantown, I'd do my typical fat guy hermit routine: head to Wal-Mart, buy big sacks of the most delicious candy I could get (far more than I would ever need), then on Halloween itself sit around watching scary movies by myself as I wait for trick-or-treaters who never come and resign myself to eating all of the candy, pretending as though I didn't know this would happen again. This year, I carved a woefully plain jack-o'-lantern out of a completely inadequate, gray Korean pumpkin, the most Charlie Brown's Christmas tree pumpkin you could hope to find, and people were entranced by it, students and Korean coworkers alike.

Veronica puts her art degree to work, painting a succession of gory scars, black cats and pumpkins on students' smiling faces. Note my artistic contribution to the decor sitting on the desk.

Those two days were completely exhausting, but I haven't had this much fun on Halloween in years. As much as I'm comforted by tradition and routine, part of me honestly hopes that Halloween never really catches on here. I think the rose tint on one's glasses would become so much richer if the Halloween experience were limited to a couple of years of c-grade decor, tiny bags of hard candies most American kids would write off as pointless filler getting in the way of their full-sized Kit Kats, and teachers dressed in a motley mish-mash of decrepit costumery. I had some absolutely perfect Halloweens as a kid, but the slow descent to the pathetic dearth of Halloween spirit I've encountered each year since those glory days had me pretty salty about the whole affair.

I suppose it's dangerous to start expecting Korea to continue to surprise me like this, but I certainly wouldn't be upset if it did.

In League With Legends

League of Legends is a competitive, online multiplayer game in which two teams of five play as champions who fight for control of a battlefield populated by various computer-controlled minions, monsters, and towers. Killing other players, monsters, and towers gives your hero experience and your team gold that you can use to purchase power-ups. The winning team is that which kills the other team's Nexus.

I have never played League of Legends and I really don't have any desire to, but this game is one of the most popular in the world and is extremely popular in Korea (I've had a huge number of students ask me if I play). The game is so popular that there's an entire league of professional players who make a decent living off of dedicating their lives to be the very best in the world at this game.

While professional gamers (or e-sports players as they're sometimes called) are something of a niche thing in the US, in Korea these guys (some of which are really young teenagers and such) are treated like rock stars. I had heard a lot about professional gaming and gaming culture in Korea but my exposure to it had thus far been limited to students asking me about it, seeing lots of "PC Bangs" everywhere (they're sort of like internet cafes but have high-end gaming rigs for people to play online games on) and seeing displays of actual physical PC games at big stores, which is sadly something that has largely disappeared from American retail shelf space.

That all changed today, when I attended the League of Legends World Championship Finals in Seoul.  My friend/coworker had five tickets, four of which were for friends of friends back in America who weren't able to come to Korea for the Championships. To give you an idea of how huge an event this is, it was held in the World Cup soccer stadium, and there were cups given away as souvenirs to the first thirty-five thousand people who showed up today. It's probably the single largest event I've ever attended and I've gotta say I had a blast even though I was surrounded by a nerd culture that I essentially have no knowledge of. Years of being a video game nerd myself certainly helped, as I was able to take my minimal knowledge of the game and sort of pick up what was going on without too much trouble (though of course without the experience to understand exactly what how certain plays were really fantastic, or how badly certain plays had played out, and whatnot).

We caught part of the cosplay contest. Tons of people had ridiculously elaborate costumes that they had clearly put countless hours of effort into. Unfortunately we got there too late to really see the whole thing because we were busy standing in a pair of relentlessly long lines to get merchandise and to get into the stadium itself.

The entrance to the stadium. On the left are Samsung White, a Korean team who were heavily favored to win the entire tournament from the beginning. Apparently these guys are sequestered away from society and do nothing but practice this game all day. They aren't allowed to have girlfriends unless they win the world championships. On the right are Star Horn Royal Club, who were definitely the underdogs. They're a Chinese team but two of them are Korean, so the team communicates with one another via simple words in English, Korean and Chinese along with in-game map pinging. Despite their skill this was seen as a major handicap to their chances at winning.

There was loads of fanart and fanart signings and stuff like that everywhere. This is some crazy animatronic sculpture of one of the monsters in the game (if your team kills it, it gives you a team-wide buff that's super powerful). People were standing in massive lines just to get photos/signings just with people who had created fanart for this game.

Inside the stadium, Samsung White goes for a quick game one victory. Single games last from roughly 20 to 40 minutes (the game continues until one team wins, not for a set amount of time). The Finals were a best-of-five tournament rather than a single game. At the start of every game, the teams pick the heroes they will use and those they have chosen to "ban" from that game, preventing both their team and the other team from using them (usually this is done to prevent the other team from using a champion they are strong with but which your team is not).

Apologies for the blurry picture. Samsung White picked up a second victory almost as decisively, setting the stage for a quick and brutal three-game sweep of the Finals, but game three saw Royal Club use a late-game slow burn strategy that allowed them to pull off a surprising victory, Samsung White's second only loss in the entire tournament and forcing a fourth game.

Though we (and by we I mean my friend) were rooting for a Royal Club upset, Samsung White got their act together for game four and took the victory, winning the Summoner's Cup and the $1 million USD grand prize. There were interviews, fireworks and some awkward speeches by teenagers who essentially do nothing but eat, sleep and play League of Legends.

Mini-concert by Imagine Dragons, who are apparently huge fans of the game and got in touch with the game developers to record a song for the game and to play at this event. They're not exactly my thing but they were super into their performance and the crowd loved them. Plus there were lots of huge Korean drums and fireworks, which was cool.

I am a level 23 League of Legends Wizard, casting magic missiles at all who oppose me. Fear my awesome LoL cloak, awkward inflatable clapping devices (with internal lights that flash when you clap them!), color-changing wristband to show your support for whatever team, and my I <3/I hate Teemo wristband. Apparently Teemo is some champion who isn't actually very good in competitive play but is really annoying to the other team.

If you ever find yourself in Korea or someplace else that has massive e-sports events (this tournament had games in Singapore, Taipei and Busan before coming to Seoul) I definitely recommend going. Pretty weird but fun experience, plus tickets were apparently only like $25 and they had beers for $2.60.

First Trip to Seoul

I'm reposting this from Facebook for those of you who aren't down with social networking.


Today I took the KTX high-speed train to Seoul for my first real trip there. Not pictured: the Taco Bell in Hongdae where we ate lunch or the madcap cartoonishness that is Itaewon, which is something like a combination of foreign/western restaurants, bars and stores as they would be appreciated by actual foreigners and a caricature of that same thing for Korean people to experience. It's a pretty incredible city that I'm sure I'll be visiting many times.

Part of the skyline and the Han River, viewed from the KTX. That gold-clad building is the 63 Building, which was the tallest building outside of North America when it was built.

Hongdae, which seems to be sort of the Williamsburg of Seoul. Very hip area that supposedly has an awesome nightlife.

Gyeongbokgung Palace.

In the distance you can see Seoul Tower perched up on a hill.

Some of the many residences on the palace grounds.

Inside of the building above:

The changing of the guard:

A huge flea market filling the street leading away from the palace. Way off in the distance below that mountain you can see a dark green/blue roof, which is the Blue House, the president's residence.

King Sejong the Great, probably the most famous Korean monarch, who oversaw the creation of Hangul (the Korean alphabet) in the 15th century.

Cheonan-Asan: The Future of Korea

Korea experienced a huge period of growth in roughly the last third of the 20th century, especially in the 1990's, and Cheonan is essentially a big symbol of that growth. The whole sprawl of the majority of the city looks like it was built in the 80's or 90's and I suspect that the long-standing central business district areas sort of near Cheonan Station (the regular train station serving the city) and the huge Shinsegae department store complex (with the big intercity bus terminal below) that I visited last weekend probably date from the 1990's. While those areas are clearly still very hip and busy, I definitely got the impression that a lot of development in the city is focused on the western edge of town, so I took a hike out there today to see what there is to see.

Most obvious is this, the tallest building in Cheonan, probably twice as tall as any other building in the city. The building is a massive, monolithic thing that doesn't exactly dominate the skyline simply because it's essentially at the very edge of the city, with undeveloped land and farms separating it from the neighboring city of Asan. I'm not sure if it's mainly apartments or offices but it's pretty impressive.

The bottom five floors (plus two below ground) contain an E-Mart (which is basically Korean Wal-Mart), a huge outlet mall, a food court, restaurants and a movie theater. You can enjoy the fine dining experience of a fancy Korean Dunkin' Donuts:

If you're more interested in local Korean coffee places, they've got the most metal coffee shop in the history of the world, as well:

Or if you're hungrier than that, they've got a Popeye's (?!?!?!!!!) right across from it (there was also an Outback Steakhouse that I didn't get a picture of because the hostess was staring at me like I was some kinda weirdo, hah):

There were a good number of people shopping but it's clear that this whole area is brand-spanking new; there was very little road traffic, the crosswalk signals weren't even turned on yet, etc. It's all clearly gearing up in anticipation of huge growth in the region, though. Right across the tracks from this building is The Galleria, which offers nine levels of high-end shopping.

The interior of this building is awesome, as the whole center of it is this big open cavernous space surrounded by shopping of all sorts. From the bottom, up:

From the top, down:

On the very top of The Galleria, above the art galleries in the Cultural Center that makes up the top floor, is a rooftop garden. From here I got an excellent view of the Cheonan-Asan KTX station. This high-speed rail station offers a $12.50 trip to Seoul that runs you 35 minutes at 200 mph. All of this infrastructure and development seems to be the result of expectations that new Samsung factories and offices in Asan (which is much smaller than Cheonan) will inject jobs and money into the local economy, likely bridging the gap between the two cities as developers take advantage of the relatively cheap land and excellent location. I could see tons of construction equipment flattening the land between this end of town and Asan to the west in preparation for this growth around the KTX station.

I wandered over to the station to scope it out. Sorry, Korail: I ignored your "We trust you! Only paid ticket holders beyond this point" signage to get a closer look at these awesome trains. I can't wait to start using these things to zip around the country once paychecks start coming in.

Despite how much I like the laid-back, simple living that characterizes Cheonan, I've gotta say all of this development is pretty exciting stuff. 

Gakwonsa Buddhist Temple

I already posted these photos on Facebook but I figure I'd post here as well for those of you who aren't on Facebook. Yesterday I spent Liberation Day at Gakwonsa Buddhist Temple, which is a large temple complex to the northeast of the city. It was super easy to get there - I just told the cab driver where I wanted to go and $10 and about 30 minutes later we were at the temple.

There was a bus full of tourists all sporting these purple shirts but otherwise it was surprisingly not very crowded despite the holiday and nice weather.

I'm a sucker for Asian architecture and this place certainly delivered. Really ornate carvings adorned every single building and were lavishly painted with rich colors.

At the front of the complex is this huge two-tier pavilion with giant columns. On the second floor is a massive bronze bell. This whole structure was completely gorgeous.

Here you can see the main temple building at the top of the complex with its back to the forests of Mt. Taejosan to the east of Cheonan. I'm not sure why it is that the most beautiful parts of Korea that I've seen have these big tacky banners all over the place, but it still was very beautiful.

Here's a view of the main building from the side, along with that smaller building just to the left above. The amount of detail in the architecture is just astonishing.

Here is the giant Buddha statue just next to the temple complex. I think it's stone but coated in bronze. It's completely gigantic - about 50 feet tall. Supposedly it's the second largest Buddha statue in Korea.

There were loads of these paper lanterns in racks with prayers tied to them.

The path up the mountain behind the temple was lined with these piles of rocks that I guess worshipers had left as shrines.

We found this shrine further up the path.

All of the temple buildings are covered in a huge variety of colorful carvings.

The inside of the main temple building. I wanted to take a few more pictures of these huge golden statues and the interior architecture but there were a lot of people (mainly older women) praying so I didn't want to bother them or ruin the atmosphere by taking too many photos.

Testing the macro mode on my phone camera on a lotus flower just outside of the main temple building.

Relaxing on the steps up to the main building after walking the mountain paths for a while.

There was a sign on the stairway that led up to the top level of that bell pavilion that probably said "KEEP OUT!" or something like that, but the "I'm just a dumb foreigner!" card could easily been played had we needed it. No one said anything though so I guess it was ok. Anyway, behold the giant bell.

More ornate painted carvings, including these dragons overlooking the bell.

View of the complex from the top floor of the bell pavilion.

View from another courtyard.

One last look at the temple nestled in the mountains before we headed back into the city.

I will definitely be returning to this temple, especially once the fall colors start coming in on the trees. It will probably also be very beautiful with some snow on the ground in winter.