Things I wish to do my last week in Korealand

1. Steal a Korean flag from one of the street poles for a souvenir
2. Buy a couple large packs of peppero and hand them out to my favorite students, telling them how awesome they are
3. Have a bus surfing contest from I-dong to Yukgeori with a friend, seeing who can last the longest without falling down or grabbing a pole.
4. Walk up behind one of my students while preening him/herself in the mirror, and totally ruffle up / mess up their hair. Laugh.
5. “I heard Koreans don’t like spicy food. Is that true?”
6. Ask for a coffee… WITH MILK! (even though I don’t drink coffee)
7. “Did you know that the Japanese actually invented kimchi? True story!”
8. “So, how old do you [Korean women] have to be before your hair starts getting curly?”
9. Inform my co-workers and students that no, Kpop, Kdrama, ‘Kfood’ and Kwhateverelse aren’t suffocatingly popular OR famous everywhere (anywhere?) else in the world. just Special K, and that’s not the same K.
10. Finally learn the Da-bee-chi jingle and sing it whenever I take a bus downtown.
11. “Hey, ajusshi, have you ever been to Takeshima?” / “What’s a ‘dok-doh’?”
    

 

5 easy “cultural” foods that your coworkers will love

Anybody who’s been here (and working at a school) knows that the quickest way to your officemates’ good sides is a box of fruit or juice bottles, and a cheery 안녕하세요/annyeonghaseyo every morning. The second part is easy, but what if you’re like me, and think that buying a box of fruit is sort of a cheap (and yet surprisingly expensive) way out if you actually care about the gesture? For you, I present some ‘dishes’ I’ve offered to my coworkers with lovely success. (Note: do your best to offer a portion personally (two hands!!) to your VP and P, or director, as the case may be.)
Note: In case anyone wants some direction, I did my best to jot down how I made everything. Take note: baked things were baked in a toaster oven. That means a lower temperature. Timing is only sometimes affected.

STUFFING

Last Thanksgiving me, some waegs (short for ‘waygookins’, or ‘foreigners’), and a couple koreans had a full meal for the holiday, and I actually brought in portions of all the leftovers we had- turkey, mashed taters, sweet potato casserole (they loved that too), cranberry sauce, and the stuffing. They really liked the stuffing, so I made more a couple weeks later and brought it in again. I used:
~1/4c chicken broth (bullion+water)      ~10 slices shredded stale/toasted bread
2 stalks diced celery                                         1c dried cranberries
1 egg                                                                         ~1/2c diced shrooms
1/2 cup butter                                                      1/2 onion (diced)
oregano, salt, black/white pepper, sage, thyme
Instructions: Lightly cook the shrooms, onion, and celery in the butter in a sauce pan on medium heat. When those are cooked, turn heat to low (or just off), and add chicken broth, egg (crack first) and spices. Put bread and cranberries in oven-safe dish and carefully pour everything that’s in your pot over it. Stir gently mix- don’t crush the bread.  Bake at at 325F (375F in a real oven, perhaps)- covered– until warm through (use a knife or fork to check), then remove foil/lid and keep baking until it’s a lovely golden brown on top.

CRANBERRY WALNUT COOKIES

OK, so really I only made these because I had dried cranberries left over from the stuffing, and I don’t like dried cranberries. But that’s alright. I used:
1 1/2c flour                     1/2c sugar
1/4tsp baking soda      1/2tsp baking powder
1/2c brown sugar         1/4tsp salt
1/4c butter                      1 egg
2Tbsp milk                      1tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla                1/2c chopped walnuts
1/3c cranberries
Instructions: mix ingredients. bake 6 minutes at 350F in a toaster oven; try 375F  in a real oven.

PASTA SALAD

Due to all the bitter and sour and spicy flavors in Korean cuisine, I thought a pasta salad would be well-received in my office, and, dear me, I was right. I used:
~2 1/2c uncooked elbows        1 large onion
2 potatoes (cubed)                      ~3c cooked pinto beans
1 carrot                                             1 1/2c corn
1 1/2c corn                                     1Tbsp minced garlic
2 green bells                                   ~1 1/2c chopped shrooms
lots of Italian dressing, fair couple splurts of white wine vinegar, dash EVOO, and a few splashes of lemon juice
lots of oregano,  lots of black and white pepper, extra sage, thyme, dash of rosemary, dash of paprika, and some dried gochu (think cayenne pepper powder). oh and salt of course.
Instructions: cook the things that need cooking, mix together, stick in the fridge, serve.

Banana Splits

This was my smaller school, so it was a bit easier (only like 10 teachers). We were having a summer ‘cultural’ picnic, and afterwards, the students and I made extra mini banana splits for all the faculty. I used:
1/2 scoop chocolate        chocolate syrup
1/2 scoop vanilla               whipped cream
1/2 scoop strawberry      walnuts
1/2 banana                            sprinkles
1 cherry
Instructions: make banana split

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Believe it or not, pb&j is as as exotic as you can get. This crazy mystery food from another country! Beyond belief or comprehension! I used:
2 sliced of bread              1 1/2Tbsp jelly
2Tbsp peanut putter
Instructions: make a sandwich (if you’re still reading the ingredients and instructions by this point that’s just sad. you should be ashamed of yourself.*)

*unless you are a completely unwesternized/unamericanized Korean with absolutely NO exposure to anything western or English, in which case, how are you reading this??

Cultural Field Trip

Aim:

• To accurately understand Korean history and culture through an experiential opportunity to explore the historical artifacts of Gyeongsangnam-do, thereby cultivating an attitude of positivism and good will towards Korean culture.
• To learn about the unique cultural properties of Korea, and to instill an accurate understanding about Korea’s history and culture by experiencing Korea’s foremost tangible cultural properties.

Sic, yo. So a few weeks back I heard through the grapevine that there was this ‘cultural field trip’ that EPIK was organizing for us NETs (Native English Teacher). At first it was only available to those from the intake previous to mine, but not enough people signed up, so I said, hey, why not? Two days off work, paid, and two classes I get to NOT see my third grade middle schoolers. How bad can it be? It was said the trip was to Tongyeong, which is a relatively small island to the west of significantly larger Geoje Island. Both are very famous (in Korea). We were to meet in Daegu (~1.5h by bus from me) at 8:30AM, Thursday morning. Not a problem for me, this is sounding like a plan.

So here's us waiting for the bus,

Here's us on the bus...

...never to see daylight again.

Little did we know though. Day 1: Our itinerary told us that it would be 3 hours to our first stop, which was the renowned (in Korea) Gadeokdo Geoga Bridge, and we would check that out for an hour. Then we would have an hour for lunch, and drive another hour and a half to the famous (in Korea) Tongyeong Dara Park, spend an hour there, continue on to the acclaimed (in Korea) Tongyeong Coastal Road, and spend an hour there. Half hour to the hotel, check in, have dinner at 6, then a 2 hour meeting (presumably to discuss all the cultural significance our western minds would barely be able to absorb). This was the plan (or so we were told).

After the kimbap and mandarins were gone, and the spontaneous glory of socks (more gifties the coordinators gave us as we were waiting to depart in Daegu), our bus driver apparently decides we are growing dissatisfied with sitting on the bus so long, and the cure for that is to turn on (on HIGH volume, by the way) Korean Drama. (There are two Korean Dramas- one ‘historical’ one, where everyone is wearing traditional clothes, and a modern one, where everybody is quite fashionable. Think ‘telenovela’ with less violence and a lot more whining, and that’s Korean dramas. I might term this the ‘Kelenovela’. This was the old one.) Well, I know we’re supposed to learn about Korean culture and all, but no.  No thank you. One confrontational soul finally went up and got him to turn the volume down. …For the moment. We spent the rest of the two days playing ‘PLEASE TURN THE VOLUME OFF’, but perhaps this was the history part of Korea (or perhaps this was the cultural part…). Everyone wanting OFF the bus plenty much already, and Galen (our fearless leader of Gyeongbuk-do, my provice; he’s the guy that relays to all us minion NET monkeys what the top Koreans at the POE want and when*) taps the mic (all buses have mics), and tells us that, ‘We are now crossing the Gadeokdo Geoga Bridge. It’s, uh… really famous, I guess. I don’t really know. Well, it was the first bridge to [something about suspension maybe? I don’t remember].”

Drive right on by. A little later he comes back on to tell us that we’re going through the underwater tunnel. And that it’s really famous. And that it was completed in a really short time or something. And something about Koreans inventing underwater tunnels, what? Maybe not that one…. The view was spectacular. It looked a bit like some concrete walls and florescent lighting from inside a bus. Best part was being in the tunnel cut out the reception for the Korean Drama/Kelenovela. Win.

We finally get a break at a rest stop (which was probably famous or something- in Korea), and everyone groans their way to fresh air. We are encouraged to take pictures.

OMW LOOK IT'S A BUS! SOOO KOREAN!! SO COOL!! AND FAMOUS!!

But it’s always fun surging with a crowd of waygookins (foreigners) to completely freak out the locals. By no means does the stereotype apply to every person, but there’s certainly a tangible presence of xenophobia and racism to be found… not rarely. And even if they’re not offended/afraid/whatever, a crowd of 150+ white and black people is certainly something they don’t see everyday.

After an hour of freedom, hey, back on the bus to go to lunch. NO DRAMA SOUND PLEASE! ‘Buffet’? What say you now, Galen? I can suffer a bit more bus for a buffet… And it’s a fusion (aka food claiming to be American, Italian, French, Chinese, etc., though still pretty Korean) buffet?? Score! I’m totally gonna punk out and eat western food!

all Korean food (they had Jell-O, does that count as western?), and basically all meat. meaning fatty, fatty strips of pork (and some beef). but it's free for me, so whatever.

Lunch took two hours (really guys, 1 hour scheduled for an empty buffet restaurant that 200 people filled to capacity? Who thought that would work?) and it was GREAT to be off the bus. Sat around outside even, in the sunshine, and mercifully upwind from all the people smoking. Then the inevitable came, and back on the bus. As we’re leaving the parking lot, back up spikes the volume to the Korean Drama/Kelenovela. But that was ok- we were going to a park and a beach next!! We’ll totally get to walk around again soon; maybe someone even brought a frisbee??

"Tongyeong Dara Park"- very famous (in Korea)

Sooo guess the schedule changed. Well, it’s not like that EVER happens here in K-land, so I guess we can let it slide this one time. Regardless, the windmill was a lovely little point.

Scenic, right?

...and now with goats!

After ‘Tongyeong Dara Park’ (we never did find out who moved the park and changed the signs, but what a feat!), we went to ‘Tongyeong Coastal Road’, which is very famous (in Korea).

'Tongyeong Coastal Road'- someone switched it with Pebble Beach on Geoje!! Darn these pranksters!

Pebble beach is… pretty self-explanatory. Got back on the bus far too quickly, and drove 2+ hours over to Tongyeong to get to our hotel (Tongyeong Bay Condo Resort). We didn’t even have the will to fight with the bus driver about the stupid Kelenovela volume. The hotel was probably also famous (in Korea)-gloss over the innumerable room mix-ups, the buffet dinner (no BBQ though- totally fine with that), the complete lack of meeting (ok with that too), and my hotel room is SO MUCH NICER than my flat. Not only was it WAY BIGGER (probably twice the size), but it had COUNTER SPACE!! AND a partitioned shower. The deck had a lovely view of the harbor as well, but I never expected my apartment to have a balcony.

Most people went out drinking at that point- I had a lovely sleep and woke up to take pictures of the harbor and boats and lighthouses, and get to breakfast early.

and look! here we are getting BACK on the buses!

Drive 2+ hours back over to Geoje PLEASE TURN OFF THE VOLUME, depressingly near to where Pebble Beach is located, ie where we were right before we went to the hotel. We actually passed the place my friends and I stayed at previously, and the ferry we (my friends and I) took to Oedo, and hopped aboard from a different port.

Hey waygookins! At least it's not a bus!

And even better, they let us escape the cabins to stand out on deck. I actually kinda sorta maybe climbed up to approximately right above skipper there, which was would have been just lovely. You know, if I had done it. I would never do something like that… Oedo, by the way, is very famous (in Korea- although, legitimately, Oedo is actually well-known in Korea. still not so much the rest of the world though). Also- no Korean Drama. Although there were TVs showing Kpop music videos/concerts (of course on high volume).

Once we got to Oedo, I hit the ground running. You only get an hour and a half on the island, and last time I only saw half to three quarters of it. So got a bit of exercise walking up that ridiculously steep grade traditional Korean hill with which Oedo welcomes visitors (weed out the weak!). The rest of Oedo was just as nice, and I enjoyed about 45 minutes of my time on the island in the sitting area having another cone from the ice cream ajumma (above right). And by ‘enjoyed’, I mean someone else eating my cone while I chased around this hummingbird/butterfly/sugarhigh5yearold hybrid with my camera. Once I checked out the photos at home, I determined it to actually be a moth.

We had to stay inside for the ferry back (loud Kpop), but by that point we were pretty broken sheeple, and saddle-ready. Back on the bus (OH JOY AND HAPPI- PLEASE TURN OFF THE VOL- what? now it’s an English movie? We don’t CARE what’s playing! The loud random speaking is annoying!), and off to the same place for lunch as the previous day. Same deal. Two hours of frying/grilling, a little bit of muscle, and lots of dripping fat, and once more clamber into the buses. Woopo Swamp is up next, which is very fam- what? No swamp? Wh- oh, we have no time. That’s incredible, when we managed to eat lunch in only an hour- oh that’s right, it was only scheduled for an hour, when in reality it unsurprisingly and obviously took us closer to two and a half. I guess that does make sense. Ok, so what will we see instead? A gift shop? Let me guess, it’s famous?

Not only was there a ‘gift shop’ (which, on the side of the road, could barely fit 8 people at a time, let alone 200), but there was a FAMILY MART! If that’s not Korean I don’t know what is. We had 20 minutes of freedom and, tails between our legs, meekly loaded back onto the buses, knowing it would soon be over. Mercifully, somehow, the bus driver apparently stumbled across some channel playing this soft jazz concert, and kept the volume at a nice background level. Far from unpleasant, the music was actually quite enjoyable as we were dragged back to Daegu, finally (minus one more brief rest stop).

Once we got back to Daegu, most people had one last fight with their ridiculously-sized overnight bags (to be fair- some weren’t going home until the end of the weekend) and scooted off to the subway. Got on the next bus (oh! bitter irony!) to Pohang, and allowed myself to pass out, letting the bus residue seep from my presence.

Afterword

In case nobody picked up on it, things being ‘famous’ is quite common (which ironically negates the purpose of the word). Us waygookins get told rather frequently that something or another about Korea is ‘very famous’. To which we generally respond with, ‘well maybe in Korea it is… but I can promise you 85% of the rest of the world has never heard about it. Sorry there sport.’ And this, I feel I should state, isn’t just an Americans-think-they-are-the-whole-world thing, this actually is the rest of the world.

*only kudos do I give to Galen- he really does do a good job passing information back and forth, considering the infamous communication inefficiency that is so often found throughout Korea.

A Cultural Experience

One of the more amusing things I’ve been asked to do here in Kland is prepare cultural lessons.  Awhile back my Gibuk Co-Teacher asked me to make a cultural food lesson. I eventually decided that a ‘picnic’ theme would be easiest, and we made ham and cheese, and pbj sandwiches, and cut up apples and dipped them in peanut butter. (Over which the students absolutely lost their minds at this MADNESS- apples and PEANUT BUTTER?? How absurd!)

For the end of of spring semester, we made banana splits. Summer, ice cream sundaes, right? It’s not like I can do hot dogs and hamburgers with them. Last week, my co wanted to ensure that I had a Halloween class in the makings and yes, yes ma’am I sure do.

This morning she came up to me, informed me that she was writing some sort of report, and requested I write down all the recipes I used with the students last semester. My first thought was : “what recipes..?” Turns out she wanted written recipes- as in ingredients AND instructions- for a ham and cheese sandwich, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, apples and peanut butter, and a banana split.

Boseong Tea Fields and Yulpo

Over this weekend I decided to check out this place I kept hearing mentioned on lists of ‘what to see in Korea’. Apparently Boseong Tea Fields (보성 녹차 밭) is really really beautiful. So, some friends and I hopped a bus from Pohang to Gwangju (Jeollanam-do, in SW Korea).

bus ticket from Pohang to Gwangju

That ride was about 4 hours, if I remember correctly. Then we grabbed a bus to Boseong, which was another 45 minutes or so, and from there we had one last 15m bus ride to the tea fields. Didn’t run across too much English, but thankfully we did run into a waygook who could speak Korean, and so we asked them where we were. (They didn’t know either, but the driver was questioned and we decided to get off at the right place.)

Upon arrival we saw the beginning of the cedar tree trail, which is self-explanatory. It wraps around the edge of the field and is really quite nice- a wide path with very, very straight, very tall, very nice-smelling trees.

Cedar Tree trail

Further up, there’re some shops (selling green tea and related products of course) and a nice little fountain,

cute little fountain/pond area, just before the base of the fields

At this point I had to drag my companions away from over-photographing the flowers just behind me in this picture, as, further behind me, were the fields.  After finally convincing them to move on, we get our first glimpse at the fields behind the trees.

first, disappointed glance of the fields

Obviously, I was not terribly happy about all these stick-shrubs, and figured I had gone too late in the year or something. However, once we got past those trees and started up the trail, we were met with something more along the lines of this:

about halfway up the fields, one side

It was about here though, that my camera died. Of course. And, like all of Korea, this is one great hill, so the hike to the top was indeed quite a hike.  We saw foreigners and kids all gasping our way up, while all these ajummas and ajosshis (older Korean women and men, respectively) practically running up the hill, nearly bowling over all these poor little kids whining ‘ummmaaaaaa~’ and ‘abpaaaaa~’ (approximate transliteration- it’s hard to type in ‘whine’; korean for ‘mom’ and ‘dad’).

However, the view at the top was spectacular. The fields, although on a hill, did seem to go on and on for quite a bit, punctuated occasionally by small trees or landing points. Going down we went the back way- much more woodsy and smelling of more cedar and pine (so, so lovely). We hit a shop on the way out for some cups and souvenirs, and, of course, tried the green tea ice cream. Much better than in America, but that should go without saying.

Asked in highly broken Korean about the bus to our next destination, Yulpo (율포), where we intended to find a hotel. Apparently there was one in the next 20 minutes, but we wound up obliging a rather persistent taxi driver, who drove us  15 minutes down to the coast. (My guess was everyone else clearly knew how the buses ran, so we were his best shot. Conclusion: convenience for super-cheap price!)

Yulpo is a really, really small town (compared to Pohang), and we enjoyed the lack of bars and ‘business rooms’. We found a motel for 50k won for the night- not a terrible price. Attempting to care for a bit of a stomachache we wound up meeting an incredibly interesting woman who has been, I’m pretty sure, everywhere. Spoke fluent English (which we were NOT expecting to find in this little town on the coast), as well as Korean (duh), Chinese, French, German, and Arabic. It was quite a shock to meet a Korean multilingual feminist, but we spent the next few hours talking with her, and by the end of the night we wound up collecting some other touristing waygooks and going to dinner with the (by this point) 5 of us.

The next day we decided to try out the infamous jjimjilbang (찜질방). I’ve seen this translated as ‘spa’, ‘sauna’, or ‘bathhouse’, but I would call it  ‘big naked bathing stranger room’. Only slightly awkward, with 20-25 Korean women, aged 12-100 (as well as two little boys…), make sure you know to first shower (I did!) before you get into a bath. Then- there will be a row of faucets, each with its own little stool and set of bowls- make sure you know how to wash yourself afterward. If you don’t though, no worries- one of the ajumma will gladly (or possibly not so gladly) assist you in scrubbing your back. and any other part of you she feels so inclined to help you clean. Nothing personal, but that first time will likely be my last. But it was lovely to have a bath.

The beach was nice enough, though nothing spectacular, and we got breakfast via two of the convenience stores. Walking along the boardwalk, we encountered a middle-aged, married couple, who greeted us with a perfect ‘oh hey, could you take our picture?’ Turns out they were born in Korea, but lived in Easton, CT, and had American passports. The husband was head supervisor (or some fancy title) of the DMV.

Eventually we gathered up our things, paid the bill, and began our bus relay back to Pohang. Which also didn’t go according to plan. The interesting woman from the previous night had told us of a direct bus from Yulpo to Gwangju, but when we got there all tickets to Pohang were sold out, so we routed through Daegu. Still got home around the same time, but overall it was a bit too much bus in one day for any of us (5-6 hours total I think).

To end, a squirrel for you.

squirrel!

Learn by Doing

I kicked off this weekend by catching a bus to a tiny little town called Dopyeong. Some people I met a few weeks ago said there was a really nice mountain near their town, and a group of us should go hiking. One of the saffas planned it out and told me which bus to take, and I made it on the right one and met them in said country village. Rural village- so not city. The people were so friendly (and quite eager about us foreigners). We were given free chicken and spent the evening playing ping pong (I mean ‘table tennis’ of course!). It was a very intense night- half could play, half could not. You’ll be glad to know though that America beat Canada in that match. America even beat Korea. “I beat an Asian at ping pong.” The very fact that that sentence is true is amazing. Granted, he didn’t really play ping pong, he said, and if I had played the other Korean, well… BUT STILL!

The next morning we eventually set off for Juwang Mountain (I might be corrected, but I do think it’s 주왕산). We arrive at the stop-over bus terminal (small small town=need multiple buses), and stop in to say hi to an acquaintance, the man that works in the tourist office. He doesn’t speak much English, but long story short he completely just leaves his office, kidnapping us to a festival the town is having that day, in his car. There we met his uncle, who showed us around a bit. The two of them took us to a restaurant (mushroom 전(jeon) ftw!!!), and then the uncle took us back to the festival and walked us over to the start of the trails for Juwang, and got us in for free, saving us a couple dollars. Spent a good bit of the trail chatting with one of my new buddies Jan. The conclusion of one topic being (in my summary), ‘stop being such a baby, you should travel if you want, what’s the worst that will likely happen?’ (the summary, btw, being said in the politest and most well-meaning of tones. ‘best-meaning’? ‘most well-meaning’? so much for being an English teacher…) This brings me to this post’s title.

[Tourist Summary of festival/mountain: The festival was so lovely, a very mini Septemberfest for anyone in Simsbury reading this. They had apple cider slushies (soo good), apples (they gave us waegooks whole apples, instead of slices), apple wine (meh to good), tons of glutinous rice treats (not a fan), a photography contest (lovely pictures there), a stage for music, a cultural food tent (philippino egg rolls: yesplz, chinese dumplings and black tea: yesyesplzplz, and a few other things that I can’t remember over those two), some pottery tents, and a korean traditional paper tent. We were the big hit, visitor-wise, and the local news crews covering the festival made sure to film us enjoying the booths, notably eating at the cultural tent. The mountain was beautiful- some amazing cliffs- but we had to turn back really early due to the previous kidnapping.]

I had a wonderful plan of going to see the tea fields, maybe hiking, and checking out a spa and a beach in Boseong, which is west west southwest of here. But spurred by my friendly chastisement I packed my things up once again and walked down to the bus terminal. I ask for a ticket to Boseong and am informed there is no bus. So I ask for a ticket to Gwangju, a nearby and much larger city. I ask what time the bus leaves and I find out I have nearly two hours. Thank goodness though, because in that time I notice that my ticket does not read ‘Gwangju’ (THANK YOU HYUNG, IF YOU EVER READ THIS, FOR TEACHING ME THE ALPHABET BEFORE I LEFT!!), but ‘Weonju’. The red A on the Googlemap is Pohang, where I live. Yellow was my intended destination, and the Purple marker was my ticket’s destination. This was one of the concerns I had listed to Jan.

NOT THE SAME!!!

Travel concern 1: ‘this is not my ticket!’ noticed by reading the ticket. Outcome: presented it to the teller, and I think got a refund, and asked again for Gwangju. However, I am told again: ‘no bus’. So now I don’t have a ticket at all.

After all the effort Jan went through at giving me a motivational speech, I was not about to let it go to waste. By this point my stubborn switch had been flipped, and I was getting on a bus to SOMEWHERE. Last week I’d read about the Busan aquarium, and it sounded pretty neat. So although many people would think me silly for going to Busan for only a day, I ran home to check some things and grab my tourist map of Korea, and back to the terminal for Busan. This bus runs like every 10 minutes, so off I go.

Travel concern 2: ‘where the heck am I, and where the heck is my destination? and HOW the heck do I get there without spending more than $10?’  I arrive in Busan and the subway line was in the same building as the terminal. I find the ticket machines, shamelessly stare at a few people to learn how to use it, and buy my ticket. Find the turnstiles, this kindly old man gestures at me to go ahead through first, and I shamelessly indicate that I don’t know how to go through, but thanks. So he continues on, as I openly stare at him (‘ah, so that’s what I do with this ticket!’). I get on the only train I see. I am on the wrong line. I get off, walk around for awhile, give up, and go up for air. …at this point in my trip, I am still hopelessly ignorant about how to use the subway.
Outcome: I waste ~$16USD on a taxi. (*NOTE: This taxi driver must have been on taxi-driver-probation or something! good grief! He wouldn’t last half a block in Pohang!)

[Tourist Summary of Busan Aquarium: neat. Worth the 18,000 won once, if you time your trip right to see some of the animals get fed (penguin feeding, shark feeding). They do have a great collection of tanks, and they also have a super-cool underwater tunnel which shows a tank of fish with the highlights being sharks and manta rays. You can go on a glass-bottomed boat ride on the same tank- I opted out. It’s cheap (7,000 won I think), but the tunnel was enough for me. They also have a magic show between a man in a very large, tall tank and another presenter in front of the tank. More details and pictures will go up on my facebook soon. The actual aquarium is right on the beach, so I had Lotteria (Korean mickey D’s) sitting on the sand, watching kids chuck sand at each other and Koreans jet ski in circles. Not empty, but not crowded. Stephanie-waegook approves the shrimp burger. yum. I was in and out of the museum quicker than expected, and putzed around for a bit and discovered Namaste. Tourist Summary: if you are in Busan, GO HERE! Drink chai! (I will add a picture to the post later…) a small Indian restaurant kitty corner from the aquarium. A photo of samosas drew me in, and they were delicious. I felt guilty ordering just a starter, thus the chai. Well worth the 8,000 won I paid. So a bit pricey- the dinner prices I saw though were 13,000-20,000, but it was so delicious. Stephanie-waegook approves samosas and chai. oh the chai. Bonus: they speak English]

Travel concern 3: ‘so now how do I get back?’ Zombieland Rule #22. Truly, if a traveler hits this one, it’s their own fault. I took a taxi, so it was my own fault here for not knowing how to get back in a different manner. I decide to try the subway again- I figured it would be easier to get to that central point than making your way to the right branch. Hindsight later told me (much, much later) that I was mistaken about the location of the terminal on the subway route.
Outcome: I get really, really lost.

Travel concern 4: ‘I’m so ****ing lost. And I don’t speak Korean.’ It’s the getting lost without a great way of helping myself that concerns me. I got lost in America all the time. I would still be upset (oh, it seems so long ago now, trying to find the stupid highway entrance in Albany), but I can stop and ask directions. Shamelessly. (Except, of course, for a night like that time in Albany, when everything is closed!!!) But back on track, I’m in Korea. I find a pair of Americans in the street and ask about the bus terminal: ‘not from this part of town, sorry. *continue walking*’ very friendly, guys, thanks. I try the subway again, gaining new subway-knowledge every time I look at the little lines of color. Found a brit from Incheon who helped me re-evaluate my then-current opinion of brits: very nice chat about teaching/living in Korea, and when we got off he pointed me towards what we both guessed (he wasn’t sure, as he was taking a train back) was the right direction (when I promptly started off in the exact wrong direction…) I get off at what I decide is a stop early, and am determined to just walk instead of going back in the subway, AGAIN. And I’m definitely not taking a taxi. So I go into the nearest Family Mart and ask for ‘shiwae bus-u turmeenal’ Three different stores direct me either back to the subway or a taxi. Fine, I’ll take a cab- at least then I know when to get off.

Oh how very wrong I was. I am not at Travel concern 4, level 2. When my back-up back-up plan fails. I got to a bus terminal alright. A different one. And there goes another 11,000 won. But heck, a bus terminal is a bus terminal and I wipe the hopeless tears that developed during the taxi ride (that growing feeling of ‘yea, this is NOT right…’) and walk up- even if it’s a slower bus at least I’ll get home finally! I ask for Pohang and am rewarded with deja vu as I am told ‘no bus. Pohang? no bus.’ At this point I have lost all hope of ‘I might piece this together myself’ and have a short cry in the bathroom, trying not to feel so pathetic. Of course, EVERY SINGLE FEMALE KOREAN STARING AT ME didn’t help very much. I mean, geez, enough walked past me, they could have at least asked me if I was ok. So I go outside and spread out my map a bit. I find the shiwae terminal on the map and start looking for the express terminal (korea note: there are two kinds of bus terminals- ‘shiwae’ is ‘intercity’ and ‘some other korean word’ is ‘express’), since I figure I obviously came in to the express terminal. It’s not on there and I don’t remember the Korean for ‘express’ so I feel a pang of despair for that foolishness, as well as not doublechecking (akin to Zombieland rule #2) where exactly I was when I got in. (and really, my problems can be traced back to those two things: I didn’t realize I’d come in on an express bus, and I didn’t double check where my exit was- I would like to state in my defense that I did *think* I knew where it was, thus my use of ‘doublechecking’) But, there’s a subway entrance. I try to start from ground zero (as I really, really don’t know where I am right now- rather, where my destination is, which is really the problem) with the facts I know: the bus terminal I came to was connected to the subway. It was on the red line. So I buy another subway ticket, and get on whichever line it was, don’t remember. But I get off at the transfer station (now that I understand- thank you, brit- that transfers are free), and spend probably 20 minutes walking back and forth in the rather small station looking for the right direction on the red line. I can’t find it, and give up and at least I’m on the red line. I get off at the next stop, hoping it works sort of the same as exiting a highway, and taking the opposite entrance ramp. Off again as I realized this will mean buying ANOTHER ticket, and wish at this point I’d just bought a day pass. Somewhere in there, I met another foreigner, grasped my chance at an English questionee (as I don’t know the Korean for this term), and asked about the express bus terminal. From this third American, I was rewarded with a ‘uh, dunno *walked away to stand at the other end of the car*’. Thanks America, I can see now why people think we’re mostly tools. But I get off hoping to pull a 180º, and figure I may as well try to find a Korean to ask. Magically, this station has 1) an information office that is 2) OPEN! I push the door in and sits a lone man, who rises at my entrance. As he answers ‘yes’ to my ‘English?’ I nearly start crying again, and I ask him about the express terminal. I could have hugged him as he very neatly explained exactly where on the red line it was and directed me to the right gate. I’m of course completely on the wrong end of the line, but after a 30+ minute subway ride, I march up to the tellers, and declare ‘Pohang’. As if everything previous wasn’t enough, I’m at the wrong window.
Outcome: lost money, lost time, lost tears, but I finally made it to the terminal with about a half hour to spare to the last bus, and made it home, as a Korean youth played bobblehead in the seat next to me. Offered him my sweatshirt as a pillow, but he just took it and held it. Very strange, but it was nice to watch someone else do something weird, instead of me being the one where everyone’s like ‘what the heck is she doing…..’

A really horrible day, when I’m honest (save for some of the aquarium exhibits, the FANTASTIC chai, the samosas, and to some extent the shrimp burger on the beach), but I am INTIMATELY familiar now with the Korean subway system in Busan, and have utter confidence navigating it if I know my destination. I also learned not to ‘settle’ for a meal or snack in a city- walk around first. Oh, to have had the curry as well, but 13k won was pricey for already having eaten. And really, if I had missed the last bus it would have meant more money, yes, but not actually made it any worse. Finding a motel isn’t too hard, and unless I left the city somehow, I wasn’t about to get more lost.

But I am back, safe in my apartment, exhausted, and going to now pass out. Goodnight, all.

Learn by doing (read: failing).

Deskwarming, Pt 2

I thought there would be a second (hence my previous title), but this time I’m writing after work. Less about ninjas this time, more about how Koreans interact with planning and waegooks.

Last Friday: my MS co tells me “maybe let’s go hiking after school? [because of midterms we have half-days]” I ask about it and get ‘I don’t know’ to all my questions, and then nothing more was said, so I figure it was a ‘maybe=it would be nice if’ usages.

Yesterday, lunch time: “let’s go, let’s go!” “huh?” I’m busy doing non-work, and suddenly everyone is emptying out of the office. I rush, grab all my things together, turn off the computer, and hey! We’re going to lunch! Sweet! I usually find the food adequate- it’s generally not delicious, and it could use more salt/meat-not-pork/heat, and less rubbery seaweed (crunchy seaweed though is great), but hey, it’s free. We have lunch, and I’m herded to a car (since no one will ever tell me what’s going on- even when I ask- don’t they know I don’t speak Korean yet?), and I figure we’re all heading out, and Soyoung-teacher and I are being dropped off at the bus stop. Nope, back to school. But I’m told to ‘wait’, so I sit in my chair, computer off, for 45 minutes. Suddenly another “come, come! let’s go! time go!” and into cars we go. We drive over to a ‘mountain’ and everyone is decked out like they’re from an EMS catalogue, my own MS co-teacher nowhere to be seen. Good thing I brought sneakers and wore the right clothes! Oh wait.

Hiking was lovely, and I either freaked my co-workers out or just plain earned disapproval by climbing on some rocks. A new waegook-teacher gossip-of-the-day for them. Back in cars eventually, and oh, bus stop, bus stop PLEASE, I want a shower, and now I’m hungry again. (Plus, Li-teacher stole my water bottle at the top, so I’m thirsty too. I’m pretty sure he thought he was being nice and carrying down my trash for me, but it was a third full….) But no, back to school. It’s now 5:30 I think, and I want to go home, even if the hike was lovely. 10 minutes and I’m pushed at another car. Maaaaybe I’m getting a ride to the bus stop? Nope, it’s dinner with the co-workers! Ok, ok, free food. But really Korea, noodles should be hot. And if you must use only pork, can you not use super-fatty cuts? I don’t like eating balloons (seaweed- that goes for you too, and you’re COLD- cold, salty, gelatinous balloons). Dinner is over and into another car I go. At this point, I realize how easy it would be to kidnap me. “Oh hey, teachers’ outing, we’re going to lunch/dinner/hiking/a cold dark soundproof isolated room!” We’re heading towards my neighborhood though, until Joung-teacher (lovely conversation with her knowing as much English as I know Korean, really simple and educational, truly) pulls over and makes a call. She hangs up and informs me that we are going to ‘ko-pee’ (coffee) with ‘few, not all’. Oook. Meet up with 4 other co-workers (guess the rest weren’t invited), and for 2 or so hours my only involvement was watching the conversation. Which honestly I enjoyed, and followed it quite well enough between gestures and faces. I also learned that Korea does NOT know how to make an Irish Coffee. Someday I’ll make a real one for my co-worker. We finally wrap up and I go straight to bed. So much for a half day.

Today: Deskwarming chill-of-fear-in-my-heart now has to do with what will follow the deskwarming. I got to work, all motivated, and set right in! Really. I was all into it too- making a reference sheet and a take-home test for Gibuk. And then I was kidnapped again. “Stebanie [they’re getting better with the name], lunch. We go now.” I asked if we were coming back, since we did yesterday, and I’m in the middle of this, but I’m told no. So ctrl+S, shut down, pack up, change shoes, and get herded into a car. I can deal with another free lunch, especially if it means actually getting home early today. As we walk out, Soyoung-teacher and Joung-teacher (new buddy!) tell me that “Woman teachers go bowling after. You like bowl?”  ……suuuuure. Can’t hurt, right?

After lunch we go to nearby Angang and swap shoes and grab balls. Bowling in Korea is cheap, which is neat. The guy also let us a few practice frames, and, come my turn, I discover I have magical bowling shoes. Magical, where , the coefficient of friction, = 0. Down I go, watching my gutterball rolling efficiently and swiftly to failure.  I proceed to bowl the worst game of my life. Including the few times I went bowling as a kid. We play another two rounds and my score improved a bit, as I got accustomed to bowling without being able to walk. Thankfully, people generally either suck at bowling, or they’re awesome. My female co-workers are not the latter. So I felt better about myself.

After 3 games and having had plenty of feeling like a barely functional deaf/mute*, I was about ready to go home. I didn’t even really expect to play three games. So as I return my magical shoes, I glance around, wondering who will be taking me home. I am thrust at a car, and contentedly think about listening to some music, maybe watching a movie, buying snacks for a weekend trip (which I find out now that the cookies I very specifically bought because someone going has expressed a delight in them, are slightly more insignificant now, as that person is not going- I’m now at a slight impasse as to my options of what to do with them. But that’s another story!), and perhaps, perhaps, finishing up my take-home test for Gibuk. They have midterms tomorrow as well, so it’s not like it needs to be ready tomorrow (our Review Day is next week).

*Soyoung-teacher will help me out translating things, but whenever there are other people around, she suddenly doesn’t speak English. And if she does, she whispers so quietly I usually can’t even hear it.

“Less about ninjas this time, more about how Koreans interact with planning and waegooks.” ie: 404 not found error.

On a more serious note, the last two days have actually helped me realize a lot about Korean culture in this area. It’s not so much a lack of information (although that’s DEFINITELY present) but people are just expected to ‘hang out’ with their co-workers. A thought process less like ‘Woo! Half day! Gonna go out and party!! Gotta call the peeps!’ and more ‘Ah, a half day. I wonder where we (me and my co-workers of course) are going for lunch and dinner?’ It makes me mildly appreciative of the fact that it’s not my habit to make plans to go out like most people. Overall response to this Korean bit of culture: I’m perfectly chill with it.

Yes, I am a foreigner. No, I can’t speak Korean. Yes, I know you’re talking about me.

New Scene.
Cast: Soyoungssi- Korean teacher at my HS with whom I daily take the bus. She does many things for me, in terms of taking care of the poor, clueless waegook.
High School Secretary- I do not know this woman’s name, but she also helps take care of the PCW from time to time.
Myself.
Scene: having rushed to the bank with an hour before my first class starts, we are sitting in wait for a teller (who is waiting on seemingly the slowest adjumma in Gigye…)

Soyoungsii & Secretary: *much korean* *korean* *more rapid korean* *kore-* “-Sutebanee-” *-an* *korean* *laughter* “Sutebanee-” *korean*

Me: “wait, what? that was definitely my name just there. I know my name in Korean, eesh. Are they seriously talking about me…? I’m sure it’s nothing bad, but, really? I’m right here…”

Soyoungssi & Secretary: *a few minutes of Korean, no ‘sutebanee’s in earshot* *some silence as we wait some more* *korea-* “-Sutebanee-” *-n* *laughter*

Sutebanee: ah, haha, ne… “sounds like they’re talking about how it sucks that we have to wait here, or that it’s a shame I’ve got these bank problems, or whatever the issue is. Maybe.”

Soyoungssi & Secretary: *silence as they briefly stare at me, followed by understanding and sympathetic smiles* *more silence*

Secretary: *leans in to Soyoungssi and whispers* *kor-* “-Sutebanee-” *-ean*

Me: “SERIOUSLY?!???”

End Scene.*

New Scene.
Cast: 2 young Korean girls, appx 10-13 years old; myself
Scene: Home Plus, 2nd floor (grocery store floor), food court area. I order my food and sit down. I begin eating. Enter the two girls, whose photographs I have included for the purpose of better understanding the scene.

Korean girl #1 Korean girl #2

Me: *eating mandu, wishing I was just a bit hungrier, but not wanting the food to go to waste*

Girls: *fierce whispering in Korean punctuated only by the occasional giggle*

End Scene.

*Please note: I am incredibly grateful for all the help they both have given me.  It was the whispering that astounded me (read: made me laugh inside).