Yesterday (Friday) afternoon, to celebrate the end of our orientation week the middle and high school teachers rode a bus together into Seoul proper for a team-building exercise in an "escape room". There are apparently several different companies which provide these around here though I'd never heard of them before in the U.S. Have you?
The idea is that groups of 4-5 get locked in a room together and have to solve a series of puzzles to get out. Each room has a different theme, and a different level of difficulty. My group had the "Old Boy" (some horror movie I'm not familiar with) theme. Other themes were "Saw", "Shawshank Redemption", "Mission Impossible", and "Harry Potter". Our challenge was a two-star level of difficulty and we were unable to complete it in the one hour allotted. The hardest challenge was the Harry Potter room (at about 9 or 10 stars of difficulty) and those people said they couldn't even get out of the first room (there are actually a series of rooms to move through each with their own set of puzzles to be solved before you can move on to the next room). Part of the difficulty was that a lot of the instructions and clues were in Korean. Each group had a Korean speaker with them. Ours was Erika, who is the secretary for the middle school. Poor Erika had to do pretty much the whole thing herself but she was a good sport about it.
I took some pictures on the bus trip in which you'll see below. It was my first time in Seoul and it kind of reminded me of the touristy parts of San Francisco, except of course almost nothing in English. Here's a funny little story: I had changed into shorts as had most of the rest of the teachers and I remember thinking "These shorts have baggy pockets. Maybe I should leave my wallet at home so I don't lose it." But I ended up taking it. Then, sitting in the extreme rear seat of the bus I had to slouch way down to see out of the window and take pictures. After getting off the bus I patted my pockets to make sure I had everything and guess what was missing? Yep, my wallet. I realized this as the bus was pulling away and it was too late to do anything about it. Note to self: check BEFORE getting off the bus next time. Everything turned out okay as I informed my middle school boss Principal Shim who called the school and put the indomitable Claudia on it. I never thought it was going to be gone for good because I've heard nothing except how little crime there is here but it was just a hassle. While we were in our escape room the high school director Malcolm's voice came over the speaker to interrupt everyone and announce that "Christopher Lyke, you lost your wallet on the bus and it's being brought here now". How embarrassing. Trouble was it didn't work out like that. We had so many people in our group that it took 2 hours before all the groups could do one or another escape room (because there were only 5) so after my group finished I sat around for another hour in the lobby waiting for my wallet to be delivered while other groups were in the rooms and those who had finished wandered off to get coffee or something in Seoul. When all the groups were done and my wallet still hadn't been delivered Malcolm (who was in one of the second groups) got on the phone again and learned that the new plan was that it was going to be delivered on Tuesday at school. Which was fine by me. So then those who were left (many had wandered off to find their own way home at that point because the bus ride was a one-way trip) went to a pizza place for a couple beers and some fries and pizza.
Malcolm loaned me some money for the weekend and I headed home on the subway with John (HS Chemistry) and Karissa (MS Music and my co-house teacher). It felt sort of like another escape room, trying to figure out how to get out of Seoul. But John is actually of Korean background and has family here so was quite able to help us find our way home. The subway is very clean and swift and efficient.
So it turned out to be a fun evening, and my wallet ended up being delivered early to the security gate of the school today so I've already picked it up and all the cash and my one credit card was there and everything. I just had to pay 3,400 won for the delivery (about $3.40). A small price for sure.
 |
| On the bus as we're about to depart school from my position in extreme rear passenger side. |
 |
| Navigating through Seoul |
 |
| Crossing the Han river from south to north banks |
 |
| Although obviously a huge city, Seoul is very spread out so I didn't see any part (yet at least) that reminded me, for instance, of somewhere like downtown Manhattan. |
 |
| We've all just gotten off the bus and I'm about to realize I no longer have my wallet. |
 |
| The Escape Room business was on the 7th floor and this and the following are all from the lobby of that floor. |
 |
| Here is a poster just outside the business advertising the different theme rooms. Note the upper left "Old Boy" only has two difficulty stars, yet we still couldn't complete it in 60 minutes. |
 |
| At the pizza place afterward. From L. to R. John, Karissa, Kevin (HS counselor) and Peter (MS English, also a newbie like John and Karissa and myself). |
 |
| From L. to R: Malcolm (HS Director), DiAnna (MS Art, has a classroom next to mine), and Becca (HS English). They have all been here for 2 years or more. |
 |
| After pizza and beers John and Karissa and myself head off to find our own way home on the subway. |
 |
| We found the right subway platform! |
 |
| It's all horizontal from here. |
