I play gospel guitar despite the subway

I went to a gospel choir practice this evening. Yes, I am a part of the choir - sort of. I'm there to play the guitar, of course. I'm Peter Lacey, right? I play the guitar, right? Of course! Where ever I go, the guitar becomes my identity no matter whether anyone has ever heard me play one. Nevermind, though; the interesting part is that I only have a massive, heavy hard-shell case over here for my guitar. It's a real burden to get around Seoul with it.

The subway lines are absolutely packed on Saturday evenings. Negotiating blind corners and long staircases while carrying the guitar case is a bit tiring in the weekend crowd (a disaster against the crowd if you get caught on the wrong side of a corridor or flight of stairs). Trying to get through the narrow turnstiles with that guitar case after scanning my T-money card is even more tricky. This evening I had to jump the gate because I pushed the case through the rotating bar instead of lifting it over and got locked with my case on one side of the bar and me on the other. Of course, 500 people were watching thinking I was blatantly breaking rules and not paying to get through. Once on the train, it's too packed to move and trying to maneuver to get out of the doors at the right stop is difficult enough without the case. With the case, I feel like I'm plowing people over. My dedication to this choir practice is tried every time I try to get there.

Anyway, there are three main ways to get around Seoul. The subway is the best. You can get anywhere on the subway and it is very cheap and easy if you're not carrying something heavy and cumbersome. The problem with the subway is that most of the lines run east and west and to move diagonally across Seoul you have to make two or three line transfers which means a couple miles of walking up and down crowded stairs and corridors. Besides the subway, there is also a multitude of busses. I've only figured out the routes of the busses that pass directly past my school, but those busses are much faster and cheaper than the subway - but only go to a few places. Thankfully, I can get to the center of town on the closest route. Taxis are the other option. Taxis are horrible. The drivers are untrustworthy. They're not scary, but they always take the longest way possible to your destination and the herky-jerky driving makes me very sick. Taxis usually cost ten times as much as the subway to get to the same place, but they are much faster.

If I had a bike, that would be a good way to get around. It would be just as fast as the subway since I could take direct routes, and Seoul is easy to navigate since there's a hill with a big tower in the north and a huge river that cuts the city in half. You can always tell what part of town you are in when those landmarks are visible. I may just buy a bike... too bad the temperature is dropping below freezing now.

Bring in that tasty, tasty kimbap

Recently, I was getting frustrated with Kerry Brown for not updating his blog about the Smashing Pumpkins recording sessions. Then I realized I was also neglecting my blog. However, I think a big difference is that my blog doesn't contain exciting information about the equipment for the next Smashing Pumpkins album or a report on the progress of Billy Corgan's recording. Those are the only things I want to read about in a blog, anyway.

A lot of wild and amazing things have happened since my last blog. I'm in Korea after all. Be content knowing I'm still the same person despite these powerful adventures. That's all a joke, actually.

I think I'd like to dedicate the rest of this blog to Korean food. I only know the names of a few Korean dishes: Kimchi - which is horrible, slimy, fermented, fishy sludge; Kimbap, which is basically sushi; and Bipbimbap, which is various things mixed into rice. Most other Korean dishes I've experienced are a variation of kimchi or some sort of cold stir-fry situation.

Most Korean food, with the notable exception of kimbap, is a mixed heap of something. There are a lot of vegetables, and you see a lot of stringy mushrooms, sesame seeds, and bean sprouts in the food. Also, a lot of sweet & spicy sauces which are generally enjoyable. Unfortunately, a lot of the food also has a distinct fish taste to it even if it is vegetarian. I'm not sure what produces that taste - but it's part of some sort of dressing I think.

Of course, I don't usually eat these traditional Korean dishes unless somebody else has made them. I eat ramyeon most often, which is ramen noodles. There are many varieties of ramyeon, but most are pretty spicy. My students also have given my songpyeon which is a cold, sticky rice dumpling filled with semi-sweet bean/nut/sesame seed mash (much like a sweet ravioli). It's tolerable but not great.

On the 1-14 scale, I guess I would give Korean food an 8. The inclusion of kimchi at nearly every meal brings the score down quite a bit, as does the popularity of dried squid. Riding the train to Daejeon last week, the passenger beside my was chewing on a dried tentacle for a half-hour. It was highly unpleasant but not surprising. Anyway, those are all my thoughts on Korean food at the moment.