Wrap Up : One Year Later

It’s been a little over a year since I’ve returned from South Korea. In that time, I’ve been able to refine my opinions on my trip and the people I was exposed to.

In some ways, my understanding of Korea has atrophied. Without constant use, I’ve forgotten a lot of the structural Korean I learned. Alternately, I’ve learned a few fun choice phrases from Korean friends back home. It is infinity easier to learn new Korean, now, given a basic understanding of the grammar and pronunciation. However, the chances to use the words are far between and I forget what is not easily memorable.

Fortunately, the cultural learning, the parts I enjoy the most, have stuck with me. This is due in no small part to a secret I kept through much of my time in Korea. My secret girlfriend. It’s not nearly as scandalous as it sounds. In Korea, relationships are often hidden, because the culture is far more gossipy than the one I grew up in. Add to that the stigma that Koreans have about dating outsiders, and there were plenty of good reasons to keep the relationship quiet and downbeat. Luckily, she was able to attend my college in America – one semester so far – to study English.

Having a Korean girlfriend is an entirely different dynamic from simply being in Korea. I could write a blog about dealing with the relationship, and probably have a lot more to say about it than I did about the trip, but such things rarely seem wise to share indiscriminately. Suffice to say that having her here has caused me to realize many differences in our cultures that didn’t come to mind there.

One major problem has been carpet. In Korea, I didn’t see any. Apparently, many Asians feel it’s dirty. It’s hard to clean. Koreans heat their floors, so the cold mornings don’t bother them. They don’t seem to mind children falling on hard floors as opposed to “soft” carpet. Personally, I could live my whole life without carpet, but I didn’t realize that they were so fully opposed to it. I also didn’t realize how common carpet was. In nearly any rental building outside of a dormitory you’ll find carpet here, at the very least in the bedrooms. It’s rather assumed.

That’s just an example, though. There are many things about our food, our housing, our manners and our behavior that I’ve only recently noticed. We say “please”, “thank you” and “I’m sorry” more often, and, at least here, we tend to consider others in public places, more. Not just personal space, but things like blocking traffic ways and shopping aisles are more of a concern here than they are there.

But probably the biggest changes in perspective have come from being around a wider variety of Koreans. When I was in Korea, I traveled quite a bit, but spent most of my time around Koreans from Pohang. This flavored my perceptions a lot. It would be the same as assuming Kansas represented the gamut of Americans (or California or New York, which are oft committed sins by Americans and foreigners). As such, a lot of my ideas applied to that region, but not generally. I’m told that Koreans in my area were more respectful drivers than general, a terrifying prospect. They speak more harshly in Pohang. They are a bit more backwoods and curious about foreigners. They have no Starbucks, but the rest of the country appears to have a fair distribution.

(Edit: I was informed by a friend that, since my departure, Pohang has gotten a Starbucks AND a Burger King, but lost their Subway Sandwich store. It’s more an example of westernization of Korea in general than of Pohang in particular, though. Still, I would have liked a Burger King when I lived there.)

In particular, one woman who interacted closely with me and my American roommate was more extreme than I was lead to believe. This isn’t meant as a criticism, but an observation. What I, and to a degree he, believed was normal behavior was strange, even uncomfortable to other Koreans I talked with. As such, I have found that Koreans are still overly concerned with cleanliness, but less than I expected. I also have found Koreans to be less bossy than I first observed, though that might also simply be the tempering of time and a refining understanding of the way they use language.

Recent news has also flavored my understanding. In the same way that California and New York are used to give America a face, based on population density, Seoul gives Korea its face. Fair enough. And in the same way, politics disseminates, and news professes, along those lines. What this means is that what we as Americans, and sometimes even the Koreans themselves, see as Korean viewpoint isn’t very well rounded. The Koreans responses also seem to be represented by strong reaction by small, extreme groups.

This is only inflamed by the news media, which reports in much the same way as America, but even less rounded and fair. Former Korean president Ro committed suicide recently, sparking apparently huge national outrage, all directed at the current President Lee. Why? Well, it would be comparable to if Clinton committed suicide for being investigated for perjury (Ro was found to have accepted bribes while in office, despite being the reform candidate based on a moral platform) while George W. Bush was in office (Lee supports business growth over public support programs). Most people would be incensed, even if there was no connection between the two, which appears to be the case in Korea. The reasons and facts don’t matter compared to the feelings. But, unlike America, there is no counter culture. During 9/11 we had people saying Bush ran the plans into buildings, or they were blown up. Maybe they were crazy (that’s way out of scope for this post), but at least they were given scope. In Korea, many claimed that the current president had the current killed, despite forensic evidence. When a professor urged otherwise, he received several death threats and almost no coverage. When a pastor decried suicide in a sermon he was wildly attacked for being involved in politics.

And while these problems dominated the headlines in every respect, their decidedly violent neighbors to the north launched nuclear weaponry and threatened nuclear war with South Korea and its allies. Did the Korean news report on this? Not much. Is it because North Korea often threatens but rarely acts? Probably, but not exactly. There have been poorly reported skirmishes between the North and South in recent years. Many of them appear to be covered up until later Presidents expose them and declare those involved patriots.

In this, I find some of my harshest criticisms of Korean’s as a nation. Many complain loudly about American occupation, often based solely on the death of two middle school girls ran over accidentally by a US Army tank (something I can’t fathom, as the tanks which roll through town here are unmistakably loud). Even if that’s true, the South Korean government knows it’s in no position to defend itself. It was related to me, once, as “Korean Democracy” – where Koreans want the good parts of things, without paying the price. This is, as always, true of the vocal few, more than the many. But these vocal few are ALL that gets put on the news, internally and externally, because there is no respect for counter opinions, and little outlet, even online, for it. It’s not so much a matter of censorship by the government as by the people.

But even in those things, I find more love and understanding for Koreans. I miss the sincere worship in church. I don’t miss the idea that Church Attendance = Jesus Points. I miss the food. I don’t miss the non-variety of foods and ingredients available. But I do miss the people, often with warm smiles and bright interest. I miss the way people could operate much more closely, in terms of space and honesty. I miss people telling me when I had stuff on my face, and guys who aren’t afraid to make any kind of physical contact. Those things were truly Korean, and they remain with me as I deal with new Koreans, with old friends, with my girlfriend and her family. It’s my hope that I’ll be able to return to Korea in December for a time, with my girlfriend. I hope I can remember more Korean by that point.

Post Trip : I am in fact Home

Sorry for not writing sooner. But I’ve been home since early June. Part of the issue has been that I’m lazy. Part has been that I miss Korea and don’t really want to write a wrap up. And part has been adapting to the US.
I’ve got a large, overview style paper in the works, meant to cover my general assessment of my feelings about living in Korea. This will just be a few comments on my trip home, and being back:

• The trip home was painful. It took me about 30 hours of traveling to get home. The plane from Japan to Detroit was the worst offender. I don’t much care for Northwestern Airlines after that. But they are cheap, I suppose that’s a good point. On the flight was an American basketball team (I don’t know if they were professional or college or what). They were much more uncomfortable than me. I talked to the man seated beside me about his stay in Japan. That was interesting. There are many unexpected differences between his stay and mine. I won’t quote them here because I don’t know enough details to support them.
• Time zone changes are killer, but only coming back. I have no problems adapting to Korean time from America. But going to America, it takes about a week just to get used to the time again. It doesn’t help that I can’t sleep on airplanes.
• I catch myself telling people cultural facts about Korea in conversation. A lot. I’m not sure if this makes for good conversation or not. Many of my sentences now start with “In Korea…”.
• I find the prospects of going back to normal studying unfulfilling. Studying in Korea was part of my spiritual and intellectual goal. I don’t consider that part of my life “done”, but I also don’t expect to return to Korea for at least a few years (after graduation). To this, college has become even more a block to get past, rather than an experience to enjoy. I should make efforts to see it otherwise.
• I miss a lot of people in Korea. I have friends, a church, roommates, teachers and a girlfriend over there.
• So far, the plane ride home is the only chance I’ve had to really use my ability to (poorly) speak (limited) Korean. I could translate a bit for the Korean grandmother next to me, who was on her way to LA. Koreans seem fascinated with going to LA, San Fransisco, New York and maybe Texas. I find that sad, as I don’t really want those places to define our culture to theirs.
• On the whole, this was an awesome experience. For any grousing or griping I did, if anyone asks how it was, I’ll always say it was great. It was a growing experience mentally and spiritually. It helped me appreciate other people and cultures more. It gave me a whole mess of new things to have opinions about. I met wonderful new people and saw cool new things. I would suggest Study Abroad or some sort of extended trip to anyone who is of the right mindset to enjoy it. What that mindset might be is debatable.

I’ll try to write more on some later day.

There : Surprise, It’s Korea!

The thing about Koreans is that they seemingly lack foresight. It’s not entirely true, or untrue. But in a given situation, they will react far later than the average American is used to. Take, for example, my situation. I was going to leave Korea on May 15th. This basically boiled down to leaving Pohang on the 14th. So, on the evening of the 10th I got several fairly insistent calls that I really should stay in Korea. Sunlin was willing to foot the cost to change my plane ticket and everything. They have asked me to stay until around the end of the month, so that I can be involved in some different things. This is both an honor and an inconvenience.
The inconvenience is because they had something like 6 months of placidly knowing my departure date, only to choose to react as I was leaving. I’d already set up things for the flight back. Additionally, this, like many things asked by social superiors, is not so much a question as a command. Or, at least, an expectation. Younger Korean people have this far worse than we foreigners do; and I would say that where elders have to ask us, they all but tell Korean young adults what they are volunteering to do.
But make no mistake, this is also a blessing, and one I am glad for. I wouldn’t expect most American colleges to even react at all (or to react and not pay for my ticket). I’m flattered, and glad I could spend some more time in Korea. It isn’t a bad thing, but it isn’t a comfortable thing, either. And these situations are far from rare, here.

There : News, Travel and Food Poisoning, in that Order

By way of a quick update, I’m coming home on May 15th. I miss home, but I think I will miss Korea very quickly after I get back. I already kind of do.

So, let’s begin. On Tuesday the Korean news came to our classes to video tape us. This quickly devolved into setting up some of the most un-authentic and misrepresenting scenes I’ve ever taken part in. It was frustrating. We had to pretend like we sang songs, played and what have you; anything that looked good on camera. I’ve seen enough Korean news to know that it isn’t that uncommon. Certainly, they show things like murders and other tragedies with proper solemn-ness. Probably political events, too. But anything remotely fun or human interest gets scripted (to an amount I feel is significantly more than in Kansas, at least). This is disappointing to me, largely because Koreans already have a fairly misguided English education system, and equally misguided ideas about foreigners.

On Wednesday I went to MoonGyung SaeJae (문경 새재) with a friend. It was quite fun. It’s a historical site, and quite beautiful. There were also a lot of school children there, who would say “hi” to me, but only when they walked past me (to my back). The bus ride from Pohang was pretty long, but other than that, it was one of my favorite places in Korea (well, one of my favorite touristy places). I’ll try to upload some pictures next week.

On Thursday, I got food poisoning. I don’t recommend it. I still couldn’t tell you WHY I got it, as I didn’t eat anything abnormal or low class. But about 4-5 hours after eating supper I was throwing up and experiencing various digestive problems. I’m still in the process of recovering, one day later. While it doesn’t give me a negative opinion of Korean food, it’s certainly a bit of a shock. My friend and roommate, who has been here for about a year and a half, said he has gotten sick like that a few times. My suggestion, should you be faced with this, is to throw up as soon and as much as you can. And get some medicine. It’s a bit less convenient to get over-the-counter medicines in Korea, simply because you should go to a pharmacy. Stores and markets don’t seem to have much/any medicines (though I’m told they do, I’ve not seen any, and it’s certainly much, much less).

There : Holy Rice!

It’s difficult to express just how important rice is to Koreans. For an American, there is no analog. They believe that we eat bread like they eat rice. That isn’t true. If it were, we’d buy bread by the kilo, like they do rice. We’d eat it with EVERY meal. We’d eat a lot of it, say, a handful at minimum, and two or three handfuls regularly. But there’s a lot more to it than the amount.

Koreans don’t typically ask how someone is doing. If you think about it, we say “how’s it going” and “what’s up” almost mindlessly after our greeting. Koreans ask if you’ve eaten. I’m told it comes from the not so distant past, when Korea was quite poor, and it was in doubt if someone was getting enough to eat. The interesting part is, the literal translation of the phrase they use isn’t “have you eaten lunch” or “dinner” or anything like that. It’s “Have you eaten (cooked) rice?” (Bap Mo-Guh-So?). Aside from the fact that they have three words for rice in it’s three states (growing, uncooked and cooked), the word for meal is often “rice”.

My friend does not like to eat rice that much. I can’t blame him, it’s everywhere. You can’t not eat it. Kimchi is perfectly ignorable, and seaweed, and tofu. But rice is everywhere, and it’s a part of everything. A meal literally isn’t a meal unless you eat it. I talked to a friend’s father. He asked what I’d been eating. After listing the things I could cook (which was fairly sizable), he seemed expectant. Come to find out, by his (and many others’) standard, I hadn’t been eating. To put it another way, a friend once told me “People think you’re greedy if you eat a bunch of food instead of rice.” It was quite clear, rice is not the same thing as “food”.

Rice is cheap, but it’s not that cheap. It’s probably cheaper in the US. a 1 Kilo bag cost me $10, and that was the cheapest they had. It’s not overpriced, but at Korean prices, it’s not cheap, either. Scarcity also doesn’t factor in much, because there is plenty of bread and potatoes available to Koreans. But they are seen as snacks; certainly they aren’t a key part of a meal.

If you go to a home and eat the rice first, you will be offered more, even if you still have plenty of other things to eat. If you fail to eat your rice, you are insulting their culture. If you don’t want rice, something is wrong with you. It’s quite normal to eat rice with a soup that is full of rice cakes, and then have some rice drink afterwards. I see no reason beyond choice for it to be this way. Korea imports a lot of food. But culturally, they must have rice.

My American friend and I talked about how we would relate the fascination with rice to American terms. I thought it was like having a meal without a drink, something quite rare in America, but common in Korea. But that’s not really true, as no one would think you hadn’t eaten if you did so, and no one would consider you bad for not drinking, or not finishing a drink.
He thought it was like having biscuits and gravy with no biscuits. Strange and certainly not common, but also not the same. Being around truck stops, I’ve seen people order sausage gravy for their pancakes. There just doesn’t seem to be a way to really compare.

Maybe one of the weirdest things, to me, is that the white rice isn’t that healthy. Make no mistake, generic Korean food is pretty darn healthy (despite using a lot of salt) when compared to American food. I eat pretty healthy at home, but my skin is much better in Korea, and I think the average food at restaurants is much healthier. But white rice is like white bread. It’s high is sugars, and lacking in vitamins. Brown rice (rice with the germ still on it), is considered “poor people’s rice” and fairly despised, despite having more nutrients. There have been links to constipation, diabetes risks, increased risk of cancer and liver damage (though many times these presuppose that the person eating the food doesn’t eat other sources of fiber. This may or may not be true of Koreans.) To contrast, Kimchi and Tofu, both very common in Korea, are really quite healthy, but significantly less eaten.

This isn’t meant to be a pro or a con of Korean life. It’s an observation. White rice is everywhere. While I’ve taken a shine to Tofu (which is totally different in Korea, where it’s flavored and salted, and not used as a replacement for meat) and many other Korean foods, it’s hard to keep up with the rice. And while I can eat it a lot more than my friend, I can’t eat half as much as a Korean (or the Chinese students I’ve eaten with, for that matter). Rice might not be a religion here, but if you started a cult based around it, Korea would be the place to come to find members.

There : Holidays

Lunar, or “Chinese” New Year, has come and gone. For those that don’t know, in Asia, it’s a big deal. In Korea, it consisted of a 3 day holiday for most, beginning on a Wednesday and ending Friday. In America, this would be a 5 day holiday, counting the weekend, but it seems that a lot more people here, even with more upscale jobs, have to work at least a little on the weekend. Oh yeah, it’s the year of the rat. Charming, eh?

The typical Korean Lunar New Years is similar to Chusok, in that it’s about going home, and that it’s traditionally much more of a Buddhist holiday. That’s not to say that the idea of it is Buddhist, at least as far as I can tell. But they have plenty of traditions revolving around it.

Regardless of religion, apparently one must eat a type of rice cake soup for the New Years celebration. It’s pretty good, but hard to eat quickly (because the rice cake, which is not what most Americans think of as rice cake, is really chewy). I think the traditional meal is most commonly eaten at the house of the oldest brother, and there seems to be a similar amount of “side swapping”, like Christmas. That is, at least these days, families go to the wife’s side as well as the husband’s side celebrations.

Buddhists, I’m told, go to temple and prepare offering meals so their ancestors will bless them with good luck. I asked what happened if you cooked poorly; or, if you had bad luck, did it mean you weren’t a good cook, but I couldn’t get any answers on that. I believe there’s a fair amount of grave visiting, too. Graves here often consist of big grassy mounds or drawers in a sort of mausoleum.

Christians seem to mostly just eat the soup and pray. Like Chusok, gifts are given. And by gifts, I mean fruit. Or decorative baskets of Spam. No kidding. Even with an after holiday sale, there were plenty of Gift Boxes full of American Hormell Spam. $45 worth. And lots of fruit. There were also boxes full of nicely arranged personal care things (like toothpaste), and I hear socks are kind of common to give. Exciting, huh? Young children can get red envelopes full of money from their elders, which is exciting. But I was told I’m far too old. Alas.

Today was Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated in Korea, with a twist. The 14th of February is Valentine’s Day, in which the girl buys things for the guy, and plans the day for the guy. The 14th of March is “White Day” in which the guy reciprocates. It’s called White Day because guys are supposed to buy girls white chocolate or marshmallows. The 14th of April is “Black Day”, for singles. I’m not really sure what they do, maybe get drunk. There is also a holiday on the 11th of November that celebrates BbaeBbaeLow, a Pockey-like long biscuit snack covered in chocolate (which looks sort of like a 1, thus it being celebrated on 11/11). Anyway, you buy snacks for children. And you thought US holidays were commercialized.

Finally, month anniversaries are a bit less important here. Instead, 100th day anniversaries are the big dating events. On your 100th day, you should buy your girlfriend 100 roses, which are cheaper here than in the US, but still expensive. I hear that some people go as far as to buy cars for their girlfriends, but that can’t possibly be the norm, and shouldn’t be considered common in any way. It’s just a big deal.

For me, a lot of these holidays are interesting, but often they’re more boring than usual, because there isn’t anywhere for me to go. That’s life, I guess.

There : English Camp Completed

Well, this Friday marked the end of English camp. It went really well. It was significantly different from last time, but I was able to get some great teaching experience. False confidence works wonders. Students were fun, and tried really hard. No real gems of wisdom here.
For our last trip we went to KyungJu World, which is a small theme park about 30 minutes from Sunlin. For anyone from the Kansas City area, it was about 1/8th the physical size, and had about ¼ the rides of Worlds of Fun. But that’s pretty big, for Korea (remember, size is the primary commodity). We ran around and had fun. It was a good time to get to know the students.
And for the last day of class, we had a Picture Scavenger Hunt, in which students were given assignments, and they were to get pictures of themselves doing it. That’s what will make up the bulk of this post. The pictures are way more interesting than I am.

Biting a Chinese Person. More Biting. Poor Chinese Students
Pouring water on the class leader
Making an American Teacher try Dried Squid. She really didn’t like it
Giving people candy on our behalf. More gifts that we didn’t really give
Giving us food
Painting Toenails (Jared’s)
Holding Hands with a Guard. Guards need friends, too
Punching the English Contact for the International Department. He had it coming
Feeding Jared DukkBoki
Giving me flowers, Because I love attention.
Giving People Gifts They Didn’t Want
Giving Secretaries High Fives
Gratuitous Silly Hats. Too cute for TV. Dangerously Cute. Scary cute. Tragically Cute. Cute to the Max. Mind Numbingly Cute. Sorta Cute. Really Cute, again.
Pulling Hair
Rocking out
Money
Fire!
Eating bugs (BonDaeGi). I hear they aren’t that bad
Holding a Fish
HaeJong is Scary. Most Korean Girls Are.
Petting animals
Washing Jared’s Car; too bad I don’t have a car here
Vagrancy
Gluttony, and simulated gluttony, and the good old fashioned kind
And cross dressing, And more cross dressing, And more still more cross dressing, Even more cross dressing

The End

There : Aquariums and English Camps

There : Camp and Aquarium

Regarding the lack of updates since I got here, sorry. It’s been really busy. As you may have guessed, I’m no longer in Inchon Airport. I’ve been back in Pohang for a while now.
I’m sharing an apartment with another English teacher at Sunlin, and that’s going well. We found Dr. Pepper and Tortillas at a local grocery store, so there was much rejoicing. Living outside of the dorms is a little less exciting, but it’s also a lot more comfortable. I can cook, sleep and shower when I want, and I am less worried about people going through my stuff.

English camp started the Monday after I got back. We’ve got 30 students, most of whom are in the nursing department, which I rarely interact with. This is good, because I can meet new people, but it also means a lot of new names to remember, which I am doing poorly. We also have two visiting professors, both from Colorado, to help with the English camp. They are lovely ladies who seem to be doing fine here. It’s, once again, nice to be reminded of how far I’ve come. They don’t speak any Korean, and I got to take them out for dinner one of my first nights back. This might seem like a small thing, but it was a big step in being more useful, and in feeling more “grown-up”.

With so many of my skills relating to the English language (like my strange short stories and my even stranger book), I feel torn between feeling smarter than I really am, and more stupid than I know I am. Here, where my language skills (not the ability to learn new languages, which is NOT one of my skills) are so specific in their use, most of the time I can’t really communicate what I want. I feel like I’m a small child, angry that people don’t understand what I want from them. Then I step into a class and it’s my job to tell people about an equally complex and confusing language, which I have mastered. It’s a bit like being a language centered idiot savant. Most of my other skills aren’t that in demand in Korea. They have lots of computers, but most people don’t seem to know much about what they’re really doing. They have art, but it’s barely important. My skills in singing and playing music are non-existent, but are very much in demand and respected here. Teaching here is based on memorization, but my learning is based on logic.Etcetera.

This isn’t intended to be sorrowful. I’m really happy to be back. It’s just good to point out that this is how I, and I’m sure others, feel from time to time. I imagine it’s true for anyone in a foreign country. Equally, it’s a dangerous trap to associate language skills with intelligence. I have to constantly warn myself that just because someone can’t communicate their deep ideas, doesn’t mean they don’t have them. It’s something that’s really obvious to say and hard to practice fully.

Anyway, back to camp. I’m teaching 3 hours a day plus some random study hall hours late at night (7:30-9:00). I teach speaking, which is probably the easiest subject. Most of my time is spent thinking up what I should do for a given day. Things like slang, idioms and speeches are easy to relate, but take a lot of practice and explaining. Most of the students try really hard, and it’s exciting when they can figure out what “having a bun in the oven” means, or when they say “hey, what’s up” instead of “hello, how are you doing?” outside of class. It puts me into the strange position of both teacher and student, which I like, but which is hard to manage.

We went out on Friday, as a group, and ate octopus and went drinking. Soju still tastes bad. Korean beer isn’t very good, but there is worse than “Hite” and “Cass” (like Natural Light). I’m not a drinker by any means, so it was interesting and fun, but not really comfortable. On Saturday we went to the Aquarium in Busan. THAT was a lot of fun. It was my first time in Busan (Korea’s second largest city). It was also my second trip to an aquarium (the first being in Louisiana). The aquarium in Busan was a bit smaller, but still a lot of fun. They didn’t fall into the habit of lots of big, mostly boring fish displays. There were lots of weird and fun things to see, and you could touch starfish and such. It was really fun.

But it was also strange. Koreans don’t seem to like animals. At least not at all like my family. There was a magic show. And a dancing show. They didn’t have anything to do with fish. It was because people needed more entertainment. There was also a place to stick children where they could watch movies (like “Madagascar”, not even “Finding Nemo”), because I guess it wasn’t that engaging. I know a lot of the people I was with enjoyed looking at everything, so I am making generalizations about the whole, not the individuals. Additionally, while I’ve only been to a few aquariums, I’ve been to lots of zoos. I love zoos. Korea has very few, and they’re tiny. They have things like chickens and turkeys. I remember being disappointed when zoos only had elephants, lions and other “normal” things, instead of various toads and honey badgers and such. Korea has few zoos because they are so large, the cost would be tremendous. At the same time, Koreans seem to know very little about animals, even their own. I asked some friends what animals were native to Korea, and basically had to list animals I thought might be native and have them confirm or deny them. They couldn’t think of any on their own. That’s ok, except that I’d expect a random person from Kansas to be able to name at least a few native animals, like deer, foxes, bobcats and the like. This is probably because we see those animals, and they just stay inside their cities, but I’d still expect someone from Kansas City to be able to name a few.

That observation aside, they seemed to really enjoy looking at the fish. The sharks, being large predators, stole the show, and were pretty cool. They had some sea dragons (extra freaky looking sea horses), which were very cool, as well as lots of things dubbed “cute”. I was interested in pretty much the same things as them, but I knew about as much, or more, than the information signs beside the exhibits, so it was much more a looking than a learning experience for me. Even with my complaints, it was really great, and I enjoyed my time with the students. Afterwards, some of us went and bought some groceries and ate blood sausage, which is better than it sounds.

There : Adventure

Well, the flight to Korea was long. It always is. This time it was even longer, because it was from Detroit to Japan, instead of LA to Seoul. Actually, I was on Northwest Airlines the whole time, so I had a lot less layover time, and in the end, it actually took a bit less time. But making the 10 hour flight a 13 hour flight was not a good change. Maybe it would have been, if it had been Korean Airlines.

Let me explain: Northwestern was just fine. It was a lot cheaper and a bit easier than Korean Air. But for most of the journey, it wasn’t as nice. Maybe Korean Air’s economy flights are more like other lines’ deluxe. I don’t know. But on the Korean air 747s, you got more stuff (like a toothbrush and tooth paste), more meals, more choice in your meals (by the end of the NW 747 we had no choice in what we got, because they ran out, and they fed us about 30 minutes before landing, which seemed odd), and a lot less entertainment. For the flight, there were 3 pre-chosen movies that played at set times on a distant projector, and about 10 channels of music. On the KE (Korean Air) flights, we got maybe 30 movies on demand, 10 educational shows, 5 sitcoms, huge amounts of movies, and you could watch the airplane’s progress and conditions. This isn’t groundbreaking, but I think each person would have to decide for themselves how much of a value it is. For me, I’d put it at being worth at least $50, but probably not over $100. That seems a bit high, now that I write it down, but you’re stuck in a seat for sooo long. The trip back to the US, for example, I watched maybe 3 movies. I don’t even like movies that much.

The exception was the hop from Tokyo to Inchon/Seoul. It was awesome. Best flight ever. It had video on demand, despite being NW and economy class, just like the other flights. I was on a DC40, a 747-400 and a A363 (maybe, my memory of the Airbus model is fuzzy), in that order, so maybe the Airbuses are nicer for NW. Who knows. Anyway, it was mostly awesome because it was almost empty. There were 2 seats between me and the next guy, so I laid down. THAT would be worth $100. The food wasn’t very good, though.

A quick observation, which is more a cumulation of other observations: Asians, in general, follow the rules less than Americans. They smoke where they aren’t supposed to, speed because they can get away with it, run red lights, pirate software unabashedly, and they stand up on airplanes. The seatbelt sign is totally a suggestion. The call for landing is actually a call to get out of your seat and run for the bathrooms, seconds before touchdown, causing the stewardess to issue a hasty announcement that people standing up while landing will die (actually, I don’t know what she said, because she didn’t say it (or need to say it) in English). There were many many incidents of people just wandering around the plane, standing around, and randomly violating rules. It wasn’t anything huge, and I’m sure some Americans do it too, but on my flights, it was all Asians. They do it in their cars and businesses, too, so I don’t think it’s a language or process issue. But the Koreans don’t Jaywalk. Probably because the people in the cars violate their laws enough to kill people pretty regularly. Also, they don’t talk on their cellphones much when they drive, but that’s because people get money for photographing and turning in people who are doing so, and it’s become a bit of a mercenary business in Seoul, I’m told. The moral of the story is, only laws that immediately lead to death or fines are obeyed. Not that we’re perfect. I started driving well before the legal age, and I always got ~5mph over the speed limit. I’m a rebel and all that. It’s just interesting to see such a wide spectrum of people ignoring different rules than us.

So, I got to Inchon around 9:00, and once I got through customs and got my luggage, it was 9:30ish. Which apparently is when this place (I’m still here) shuts down. No currency exchange, most of the information booths were empty, most of the stores were closed, and all the buses had stopped. It was too late to get a bus to Pohang, so I went through my options with Jared over the phone. I finally found one lady (a very nice lady) at the motel booth. I told her I wanted a cheap hotel. She said I should get a “guest house”, that it would be about $50, they’d pick me up for free, they’d take credit card, and maybe some other stuff. I was barely awake. Anyway, she called some places and found me “Kim’s Guest House”. Someone came and picked me up, helped me with my luggage, and drove me about half a mile to the hotel. It was nice. I was expecting a hostel or something. It had two beds (I’m not sure if I was charged for the 2nd, or if it was just open to be filled if someone came; no one did come, so I don’t know). It had a full bathroom, a washer, a stove top, a TV, and lots of room. It was quite nicer than I needed, but that’s not really something to complain about. It ended up being $42, and I’d HIGHLY recommend it. It seemed like it was set up for longer stays, but the guy said lots of people use it for layovers. Anyway, there was a pickup for the free airport shuttle bus across the street, and I’m back at the airport, waiting for my 1:40 PM bus to Pohang. McDonald’s won’t serve me anything but breakfast until 11:00, and I hate McDonalds, so I’m using my time to write this.

It was an adventure. Most of the people around the airport speak English. Enough that you can get your point across without speaking or reading Korean. But it helps SO much to know a few phrases, the numbers, and how to read some of it. I think that if you learned your question words (where, who, what, when…how is kind of worthless if you can’t communicate very well), you’d be fine in almost every touristy area. But not everywhere in some places like Pohang or AnDong.

In the Korean airports, they have pairs of assault rifle armed guards patrolling at all times. Since guns are outlawed here (I don’t know if police have them or not, honestly), this is a pretty significant show of force. Maybe they consider it a legitimate vector for an attack.

The Japanese airport had free Internet. Inchon doesn’t. The hotel didn’t, but someone near it did. Kikiki. Stealing Internet may be an entirely American crime-that-we-think-is-ok-to-commit.

It’s good to be back. It’s exciting. It’s challenging. It’s unpredictable. It makes you tired, over time, but it’s energizing at first. It’s it’s own kind of entertainment, where your manners and your mind tend to determine how you do. I’d suggest studying abroad or traveling for an extended stay, away from tourist traps, to anyone who feels unsatisfied with day to day life, or get that rush out of being in an unpredictable environment. Going back to America was honestly a lot “easier”. Even though here, I’m much less independent, which I’m sure annoys people, the things I do on my own count for a lot more (to me).

And that’s where I’ll leave this, because I’m here and everything has been said.

There / Trip : Going Back

I’m sitting in my parent’s house on the eve of my return trip to Korea and I think I’m more nervous than my first trip over.

The trip back to the US was long…really long. Something like 30 hours from getting up at 5:00 AM in Pohang and getting home at 8:00 PM the same day. The layovers are what really killed me. The flight from Seoul to LAX was nicer than before because there was an empty seat between us. Korean Air seems to be a really nice airline, and I’d recommend them. This time I’m flying all Northwestern. We’ll see how they do. Also this time, I’ll stop over in Tokyo, if only for an hour.

The big chunk of flight is an extra 4 hours this time. Joy to that. I hope the NW Air 747 has the cool little built in entertainment computers. Those are great time wasters, and I feel more at ease being able to watch the slow march of the airplane across the faceless ocean. And watching lots of movies. Can’t forget that.

I’ve now flown enough to have opinions about Airports. Opinions I feel are worth something, at least. LAX sucks. It’s big, uncomfortable, confusing, and feels like a bunch of smaller airports duct-taped together. Denver was nice. Inchon is nice. I personally love MCI (KCI to you mere mortals), with it’s delicious free wireless Internet and omnipresent flight boards. LAX seemed really, really light on the whole “presenting people with information” front.

Getting through Inchon solo was fun. It wasn’t hard. I got to use some of my Korean. The stewardess would ask the Korean next to me (in Korean) about what he wanted to eat, then me in English, so it was fun answering in Korean. Lets see. Did I mention that it was a longggg trip? It was also my first solo run, and it went off mostly hitch-less. Praise God for that, because I draw critical failures to me like they were going out of style.

Flying isn’t nearly as stressful as I figured it would be. The seats are cramped; it’s hard to be comfortable. They pretty much micromanage everything on the cross-ocean flight, manufacturing a night cycle to help you get used to the time zone changes (and the fact that it will either be totally night or day on your trip over, even if it lasts 10 hours). Jet lag going there was nothing. It was cake covered in more cake. Coming back was brutal. I am just now getting over it. Turbulence is common but rarely severe. The movies make it seem rare. I’ve had it on basically every flight besides the ones from KC to Denver (and maybe I won’t have it on the KC to Detroit one).

Here’s some advice:

Plan something besides sleeping for the trip. If possible, something besides sleeping and reading. Even people who like to read rarely like to do it for 13 hours straight in an uncomfortable chair.

Have all your ticket information where you can get to it fast. People need your passport and ticket stuff constantly.

Pee frequently. Especially about 2 hours before you land. Last time, they had to circle for over an hour, in which we couldn’t go to the bathrooms. Get it done when you can.

Wear shoes that are easy to take off and put on. Don’t wear a belt.

Be prepared to take your laptop out, constantly. Have your carry on bathroom stuff figured out. It has to be travel sized liquids in a small ziplock bag.

Keep that disposable toothbrush Korean air gives you.

Here’s what I’m worried about: getting a bus from Inchon to Pohang at 9:45 PM+. Also, there are only 1 hour layovers on all my flights, which is awesome, if there are no problems. Again, I’m solo this time. I pray my Korean cellphone’s extra battery works, or I have some place I can charge it (LAX has charging stations, which is the nicest thing I can say for it).

Some observations on Korea I only noticed once I was in the US:

We don’t have cellphone charms. Koreans buy numerous things to put on their cellphones, which have little rings, kind of like a key chain. I got a cellphone charm in KyongJu, so I showed it to people, and they were weirded out by it.

Some people are actually morally opposed to eating dogs bread to be eaten. People I respect. Sure there are a lot of “Meat is Murder” people out there, but these are people who will eat any kind of animal they are used to, but can’t make the leap of eating dog. People have pigs for pets, and eat pigs, but dogs raised like pigs are sacrosanct.

You feel smarter when you speak the language.

I start a lot of stories with “In Korea…” now. It’s pretty much all I have to talk about.

The air is dryer here. My skin is dry and it effects my sleep. But my arms and legs fall asleep less.

My small Korean church isn’t much different than my small American church.

Even though it’s colder here, we complain less about the cold. We also stay inside more.

There are a lot of accents we take for granted as understandable, even if they’re quirky. Like Texas accents.

Driving is easy to pick back up after 5 months of not doing it. I missed the freedom.

There are a lot more public trashcans in the US. Many times more.

Our Internet isn’t THAT much slower than Korea’s. But theirs is cheaper.

We never wear those SARS masks. They wear them all the time in Korea. I stand by the statement that if they wear them in the US, we’ll think they have a highly communicable disease and avoid them.

There is more to talk about, but it’s late, and I have to get up at 5. Again.

Thanks to everyone for your help, for your prayers, and for reading this thing.