Random Experiences, Interesting Observations & First Impressions of South Korea
- The Korean people seem to be far more health-conscious than Canadians and especially Malaysians. There is a large park (Grand Park) just outside our apartments where I go walking every morning. At night it is literally crawling with people of all ages who are out for runs or walks. I’ve also seen people doing various forms of martial art exercises & stretches, people meditating, couples playing badminton on the pathways and on more than one occasion we've been run off the pathways by the speed-walking groups that appear out of nowhere and thunder by like a herd of wildebeest. They even have outdoor aerobics classes in the evenings for anyone who wants to join in. I have also recently discovered a hiking trail that leads up deep into the hillside; from the top you can see Ulsan to the north and rolling hills and countryside to the south. In addition, at the peak of this trail, they have a permanent outdoor gym complete with permanent wooden workout benches & weights, chin-up bars and hoola-hoops, and various other exercising equipment. What could be a better location to work out in that in the woods...
- South Koreans seem to like to grow things here -- no patch of soil is wasted, regardless of the size and there is always a garden of some sort. The most impressive use of space I have seen is the six inches of space between a curb and a retaining wall along the side of a street. Here I spotted a long single row of lettuce, green onions, and tomato plants.
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I’ve made an unusual observation which still remains a mystery to me. Everyone seems to wear gloves (like mini-gloves or gardening gloves) despite the fact that it is almost always hot and humid over here. I asked one Korean why the taxi driver wore them and he said that it was to protect his hands from the sun. This response, however, doesn’t seem to explain why taxi drivers and bus drivers wear them at night and why everyone from market vendors to people walking at night in the park to to waitresses to various other random people follow this tradition.
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On my first full day in Korea, I had what I like to call the ‘tomato experience’. I was going for a short walk and just after leaving our apartment, I spotted a very elderly Korean in the distance. She was nattering away and it wasn’t until she was quite close to me that I realized she was nattering away to me. The chatter was friendly and continuous and she barely paused to take a breath; the only word I recognized in her monologue was ‘tomato’. I looked at her in obvious confusion and so she grabbed my arm and pulled me over to her husband who sat in the back of a little garden tractor/trailer. She lifted up a blanket which revealed a heaping pile of ripe red tomatoes. She felt around and found the perfect one and shoved it into my hands. I wasn’t sure whether I was expected to pay for it or not, but I assumed not since she simply laughed and pushed me away. The funny thing was, she pushed me away quite forcefully with both hands...right in the chest...
- I have had the good fortune of meeting a couple of fantastic American guys on this trip. In addition to being lots of fun, they have allowed me to add a couple of their amusing “stereotypical American comments” to my blog. We were comparing family stories and traditions about various holidays throughout the year and one of the Americans, Luke, admitted that they were jealous of our second holiday at Christmas...the holiday that his family had fondly nicknamed “Canadian Boxing Day”. When I asked if he knew how Boxing Day originated or what it was about, Luke confidently responded that it was when families all gathered round to watch a couple of boxing matches. He did admit that he thought this was a strange tradition, particularly for the day after Christmas. And then, to top off the conversation, he immediately followed this comment, in a most southern drawl, with “so when do y’all celebrate your Christmas?” I simply paused, raised my eyebrow and gave him a minute; I had no need to comment on this one since he realized the foolishness of his comment only seconds after they were out of his mouth. (Thanks for permitting me to document these comments Luke!)
- Restaurants are still very traditional...I have never eaten on the floor so much in my life! Even the famous Korean BBQ's are done on the floor. Other interesting observations in the restaurants are: you must remove your shoes before entering the restaruant; guests all usually get cold wet faceclothes before the meal; metal (not wooden) chopsticks are used in Korea (which makes eating slightly more time consuming); usually every meal is served with at least three side dish starters which might include kim chi (spicy, hot, vinegary cabbage stuff), white radish cubes served in a clear liquid (they resemble raw potato cubes but taste quite good) and some form of a whole green chili pepper (I do not recommend eating these..don't even bite into them!); and finally, rather than making their own coffee, most restaurants have coffee vending machines which dispense tasty little expresso-sized cups of fabulous coffee.
Skipping Ahead... My Arrival in Korea
For those who know me, I am typically extremely organized and usually cannot handle not knowing all the details about an event. For whatever reason, my planning and preparation for my trip to South Korea has been the exception of a lifetime. I am was so casual with my arrangements that I did not even have the address of where I was supposed to go. Instead, I was only equipped with a phone number for a staff member of the program (who I have yet to speak to) a hand-drawn map of Korea with Seoul & Ulsan indicated on it and a Korean phrasebook (and by prasebook, I mean a scrap of paper with about 5 simple sentences such as 'I need to catch a bus to Ulsan - can you help me?' and 'Where is the bathroom' scribbled down and translated by a Korean friend (Thanks Daniel/Ji-hyun!!)
So the trip began with a with an emotional goodbye from Malaysia, as per usual for me. Then, a lack of sleep the night before, being a touch late checking in, and not having my girls there to help me creatively re-pack my bags, I admitted defeat immediately when I told told that I had to pay $105 CDN for excess luggage. Looks like no from souveniers from Korea... I then thought I'd take a few minutes to casually browse around a few shoe stores before heading down to the gate. Not a good idea. I seemed to forget that I had to go through immigration to exit Malaysia (and for the first time in my life, the line up really did require all those bloody zigzag ropes -- you know, the ones that seem to serve no purpose but to annoy people when you have to wind your way through the empty maze). Finally I was through with 12 minutes left before my flight..plenty of time. So I ambled along only to come to a shuttle train entrance...bugger, I forgot that I was still a train ride away from my gate! But, a train arrived fairly promptly and I arrived on the other side with about 4 minutes to go...plenty of time. I did, however, forget about the Boston Marathon-like distance that I had sprint to get to gate C37. Fortunately, they had those sidewalk escalators which served the dual purpose of helping me get to the gate quicker AND the loud noise of my carry-on suitcase echoing over the grates notified the staff in the distance that I was indeed coming for my flight. As the staff became closer and closer, I could make out their somewhat annoyed glares, their hands on their hips, their feet tapping, and their mouths tsk-tsking me. I really felt like a marathon runner catching a drink of water as I breezed by...as I approached the finish line, the staff grabbed my bags and stuffed them through security, shoved me through the security gate, ripped off my boarding pass, loaded my back up with my luggage once I was through and gave me one final push to the plane hallway. (I also kinda felt like a Michael Shumacher stopping for a check-up in a Formula 1 race ha ha...). I looked down at my watch -- one minute early...plenty of time. The flight was fairly uneventful and I arrived in Hong Kong airport for a two hour layover. You would think that I would have learned from my experience only a few hours prior to get to my butt to the gate in advance, however the free email stand got the better of me and once again I found myself sprinting for my flight. This time I felt kind of special when I heard the final boarding call for the final remaining passenger (not passenger-s) to board the plane (ie. me).
Three hours later I was deposited in Seoul airport at 5.00 am local time. By this stage I was deliriosly tired since I hadn't slept on either flight and was stumped with the ridiculous dilemna I now faced: I had no cash. In addition, I forgot to transfer more money to my checking account before leaving KL (in Asia, most banks will only allow you to withdraw from your main account, not a savings account). I therefore needed to go online to transfer some money so I could withdraw. However, this costs money...of which I had none. I considered phoning someone back home to jump online to do it for me, but of course the phones did not take credit cards. As a last attempt, I decided to try to withdraw...my choices were 10,000 Won; 20,000 Won; 50,000 Won; 100,000 Won; 150,000 Won; or 200,000 Won. I decided to try middle of the and press 50,000 Won. Sure didn't work. I made one last attempt for 10,000 Won...jackpot! Turns out this only worth about $11 Cdn but it was enough to get me a bottle of water, a muffin, and 10 minutes on the internet (enough time to sort out my finances). Kind of annoying that it cost me $5 Cdn to take out $11.
Now on to the next task: transporting myself from Seoul (northwest corner of the country) to Ulsan (southwest corner of the country). I consider myself a relatively resourceful person and even without prior research, I was adamant that taking a bus would be cheaper and easier than flying. I approached an information guy and told him where I wanted to go. He kept asking me if I was with the military. What?!?! I look at him in bewilderment as I stand there with two oversized suitcases, a backpack covered in Canadian flags, my white skin, my round eyes and my inability to comprehend Korean and wonder why the hell he thinks I'm with the Korean military?!?!!. Is he confused by the two military men pacing across the airport about 20 feet from me with machine guns strapped to their backs? He excitedly begins to write down directions and instructions in a combination of English and Korean. I suspect I find the root of our miscommunication as he is giving me directions to O-san, not Ulsan. So, I pull out my handy dandy pencil-drawn map and with a gasp of understanding from Information Booth guy, I feel confident that he is now sending me in the right direction. Turns out there is a bus directly to Ulsan leaving at 7.40 am!! Before I know it, I am on my way and with everything falling exactly into place, I feel like Jim Carey from The Truman Show.
How naive I was to think that the journey would be obstacle-free...
The bus ride was surprisingly comfortable. The leather seats reclined way back and the footrest came up, just like the seats on a flight in first class. The bus was also surpringly empty; although I didn't really talk to anyone on the bus, I felt a bit of a bond with them. In fact, I even named everyone: the bus driver was called "Idiot Bus Driver"; the family consisting of mom, dad and daughter was called "Korean Family"; and the only other passenger was named "Mr. Media". I slept most of the way and groggily awoke when everyone was getting off the bus. I quickly packed up my bags and got off the bus. It took me a few minutes to realize that we were at a bus stop and were only stopping for food...checking my watch and realizing that it was only 9.30 am confirmed that we were not in Ulsan yet. Back on the bus and back to sleep I went, arousing only when the driver decided to slam on the breaks for no apparent reason. Finally about three hours later, I suspected we were getting near. With absolutely no English characters in sight, I had no way to confirm this. Only the time and my Spidy senses told me this. So, I started paying more attention and looking out the window.
Who knew that there would be silver lining to owning a piece of crap car back in Canada that breaks down a quarterly basis annually? My mechanical knowledge gained from these countless experiences (and of course from my mechanical mentors, Dad & Doug!) indicated immediately to me that something was not quite right with the bus. Or perhaps it was the fact that the bus had no pick-up and Idiot Bus Driver had avoided hitting the breaks through the last three sets of lights (I suspect he was hoping to glide his way into a mechanic shop or something?!). Eventually we had to turn a corner and he was forced to push on the breaks which resulted in the bus stalling and we had to pull over to the side of the road. It was at this point that I decided to sit tight to wait and see what unfolded. Idiot Bus Driver got out, checked a few things, came back in and tried to restart the bus, without success. He repeated this process again and by this time, the other passengers were rousing from their seats too. In fact, Korean Family simply picked up their things, got out and hailed a cab. At least this this confirmed that we were in fact in Ulsan, however now I felt quite alone, especially since Idiot Bus Driver looked like he was hoping I would get out of his hair and do the same. However, I continued to sit there with determination; he was not going to dump me on the side of the road in the middle of a city with no access to a bank machine, a cab, a building for shelter (yes, to top it off, it is rainy season over here) or a phone. I poked my head out the window and sure enough, there on the sidewalk sat my 47 kgs of luggage and him looking at me expectantly to get up and go. How I wished I could have called Superman to come and sort me out of this predicament...
Fortunately, Mr. Media came to my rescue. He was getting off the bus and seemed to understand my predicament. Since the bus driver was motioning for me to get off the bus, Mr. Media stepped in and an animated conversation ensued between the two of them. Although I couldn't understand a word, I could basically see that Mr. Media was trying to help me and that Idiot Bus Driver wasn't being very helpful. At this point, I figured that feigning ignorance (and looking around in confusion) would be far more effective and elicit far more help than had I indicated that I knew that the bus was broken down and that we were only about a 20 minute walk from the station.
In broken English Mr. Media asked if I knew where I was going; I gave him a phone number of a contact at the Ulsan University and he called on my behalf on his cell phone. He was obviously explaining the situation and after finishing the conversation, he gave me a smile and a nod that indicated help was on the way for me. He then turned to Idiot Bus Driver and demanded that he put my bags back under the bus so they didn't get any wetter, which he did begrudingly. Mr. Media then gave me his business card and wrote down his cell phone number, motioning to call him if I had any more problems. The only five English characters on his card were...you guessed it, Media. He motioned for me to get back on the bus so I wasn't standing in the rain, which is when I noticed 4x6 picture of a naked woman clipped from a porn magazine pasted to the windshield by the driver. This further confirmed that I had named Idiot Bus Driver appropriately. So now it was just the two of us. He sat there and occasionally glanced my way, willing me just to get up and bugger off. I sat there, equally as determined, willing someone to hurry up and come and get me asap. About 10 minutes later I find myself in the dorm and ready for a nice long nap...
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