Monday, December 12, 2011

Dani's Korea
I'd like to tell you all about my perceptions of Korea. Please take them all with a grain of salt, knowing that all opinions are just that…and I've only been here about 2 weeks…here goes anyway! Korea. It's awesome! Here are some of the things I love about Korea. I can do weird stretches and exercises anywhere, anytime…and no one cares—they do them too! People are patient, helpful, and always have a smile and free food for foreigners. FREE FOOD--On our day-ventures, Carolyn and I were handed free food from complete strangers FOUR times! On our day tour of Daegu, we spent no money on food all day because we were handed sweet potatoes (twice) and soda, a sticky rice cake, candy, roasted chestnuts (in korea they actually have and eat them, not just reserved for Christmas songs like back home). And, it's not limited to Daegu. In Geoje, I was gifted free bark juice (yup, straight form the bark of a tree) and more chestnuts. I love food…and I love FREE! Major points for Korea.
Other awesomeness about Korea: it's clean, organized, buses and public transportation are punctual (most have left early so don't be late), it's easy to get around, people are honest and don't rip you of (there's not a Korean price and a foreigner price as in many places. You don't need to haggle. The price is listed, and it's fair. Vendors are not pushy. Korea is safe.
Things that surprised me. There are Northface, Red face, and various outdoor equipment stores everywhere—Koreans love hiking! And a Korean hike may be short, but that's because it's the most direct route to the top—straight up! They are short, but hard-core vertical so you get a workout! Old men smoke everywhere (that's not so surprising) but girls smoke in bathroom stalls so as not to be seen. Couples dress alike. I'm talking head to toe, exact same outfits. Professional drinking is huge here. Let me clarify. They don't have professional drinking teams like "Vodka Vikings" and "Tequila Terrors" but the professionals have to drink as part of the work culture. Every time your boss drinks, you must too. It's not uncommon to see professional men passed out on the streets after a work function. And nothing happens to them 'cause it's safe, remember? Apparently, Korean is fairly easy to learn—written form at least. All the ex-pats I've talked to say they learned it in a few days or so. I'm going to borrow my friend's book so I'll let you know how long it takes me to master. I'm giving myself a few hours.
Best part: I think the best part about Korea so far is the challenge and adventure in it all! I was really surprised to discover how many people DON'T speak English…and I LOVE that! Everyday tasks turn into great adventures. I'll tell you about my journey to Geoje and you'll see what I mean.
I left Emily and Jared's apartment early Saturday morning but was running late and carrying a 75 pound backpack so I decided to have the front-desk boy call me a cab to get to the bus station. Daegu has 4 or 5 bus stations and I had to try to explain to him which one I wanted. Only I didn't know the name of it and had never been there, only knew more or less where it was located. He didn't speak a word of English so this turned into a 10 minute charades gam. Eventually, he called someone, spoke in Korean for a long time and said something about 5. I assumed it was "wait here for the taxi to come in 5 minutes." But as I stood and waited, getting nervous about missing my bus, I wondered if I had guessed right. Turns out I had, the cab came, only now I wasn't sure if he understood where I wanted to cab to take me. So he told the cab to take me somewhere, I got in and hoped for the best—it worked out somehow! I bought my ticket to Busan, and made it onto the bus without any problems.
In Busan, I had to purchase another ticket to Geoje or Gohyean. I had been warned to get the pronunciation exactly right or I could end up in an entirely different city (as happened to my friends!). Only problem was, I had never heard these places pronounced, only had an email. Showed the girl my ipod with email, she gave me a ticket, and I marched down to wait for a bus I hoped would take me to the right place. Geoje-si is up to Seoul (where I did NOT want to go) and Geoje-do is an island, where I did want to head. My ticket was in Korean so I had no idea where I was headed…either way, I was going there!
I only had about 10 minutes before the bus left so I rushed to the bathroom. Bathroom was only marked in Korean so I guessed, saw urinals and realized I guessed wrong, turned around, and found the right one. No harm done. Next, to grab a bite to eat. Saw a stand that had eggs. Almost bought one but couldn't get the gesturing for "is this hard-boiled and edible now" quite right and had visions of cracking open a raw egg onto myself so decided against that. She was frying up some dough things with something brown so I decided to go with that. Tried finding out if It had meat but couldn't get that one across either (had to have been her slow interpreting skills 'cause my gesturing rocks) so I decided to just buy it and hope for the best. Handed her money, having no idea what I was buying or how much it cost. Broke it open, wasn't meat….but it was cinnamon! It was a yummy cinnamon dough thing! Ended up buying another one and another fried thing she had which also turned out to be meatless…woohoo! Buying food is extra exciting when you're vegetarian and you're not sure if you can eat it or not.
Onto the bus. I tried confirming with two other people if I was on the right bus buy showing them my email but they all wanted to see my ticket. Since I wasn't exactly sure I bought the right ticket, it wasn't too reassuring, but at least I was on the right bus for my ticket—wherever that was headed. I was on the bus for over an hour (had been traveling for about 2.5-3 hours by now and the entire journey was only to take 2 so I was a bit nervous), plus the bus kept heading away from water…not exactly heading towards an island. I tried asking 2 people to borrow a phone, but neither had one. So, I decided I'd just go with it and have fun wherever I ended up!
Oh, and of course, I had to go to the bathroom. At one point, the bus stopped in some town and the driver disappeared before I could tell him I was hopping off to find a bathroom. So, I gestured to the lady next to me that I was going to find a bathroom so that she could watch my stuff and tell the driver not to go off without me. Luckily, I also remembered my only Korean phrase I learned in 6th-grade science class sitting next to Pansy Lee (thanks, Pansy!) and it was an important one—where's the bathroom! She understood, but got off the bus to find the bathroom for me. Appreciated that but now I was worried that the bus driver would take off without both of us..and both our stuff! Found the bathroom and made it back to the bus, no problems. Pretty sure I used a men's room but didn't matter at that point. Being a foreigner, you can pretty much get away with anything, which is kinda fun!
I was just about convinced that I was headed to the wrong place when the bus turned and started over some bridges..that was a good sign! About 20 minutes later, I finally spotted a sign with the city I wanted and arrived with perfect timing to meet my Couch Surfing hosts for the weekend. So Dani's Korea is full of fun challenges and exciting adventures, even if it all is just to catch a bus and go to the bathroom… How boring would it have been to just read a sign in English, know where I was going, and get there on time, without any adventure?! I'm glad I get to challenge myself to take these risks and remain flexible throughout all the excitement!