Hyundae Beach in Busan
I spent this past weekend in Busan. It's a beautiful beach town, and after soaking up some rays all day Saturday and half of the day on Sunday, Danielle, Brian and I all decided to venture to Costco. Yes, there are two Costcos here in SoKo. One is near Seoul, and the other is right in Busan. Brian has a membership, so he was kind enough to let Danielle and I tag along.
As we jumped out of the taxi at the store front, that old familiar pre-bulk-shoping feeling whooshed over all of us, and we were off to what turned into a 2-hour consumer extravaganza. From the seemingly endless Costco style samples, to the massive packages of EVERYTHING (including many Western products) we all felt right at home. I stocked up mostly on vitamins, protein powder, emergency-C and peanut butter. I also bought some cheap bulk candy to use as prizes in my class.
After dawdling up and down every aisle, we headed to the checkout line, rung up all of our $400 worth of items, temporarily split the bill evenly, and headed to the food court where we were going to have lunch and figure out exactly how much each person owed. We finally found a table, sat down with the receipt, and realized that the entire foot and a half long paper trail was ALL in KOREAN.
To make a long story short, we spent nearly 40 minutes trying to figure out the identity of each item on the receipt and thus which person owed what monies. We used everything from a Korean-English dictionary on a persons iPhone to the item numbers located on each item, to just plain guessing in a few cases, but we were eventually successful, and then chowed down on foot long hot dogs and cheap raspberry Sundays. So buyers beware. When you group-shop at Costco in Busan, sub-total bill after each person or get ready for a crash course in how to read/understand Korean.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Cows at Night
Night settles in the country side like a threadbare security blanket nestles comfortingly next to a sleeping child. As the swaths of rice patties, the orchards of apples and pears, the rows of lettuce and ever ripening garlic outside of Eonyong are blanked by nighttime, they are shrouded in a comforting sense. They are not smothered in a terror such as the entities of the city are when night rolls around. I know this because I've been doing a lot of night time running in the country side, and as I head out of Eonyong and the woosh of traffic turns into the sound of tractors on dirt roads, and as the smell of BBQ and fast food turns into wood burning stoves, and as the hustle and bustle that exists even in the small W. Ulsan suburb turns into crickets chirping, and as the sun sinks farther and farther below the horizon, I too an covered in the night time, and in those moments, I feel great comfort and peace. There is a magical joy that swirls around the countryside at night, and tonight, I got a special dose.
As I was heading back on my loop, I noticed a farmer a ways down the road running in the same direction. I picked up my pace to see what was going on, and as I neared him, he suddenly spun around and started running towards me. A second later, a massive cow came around a corner, so I too began to run in the opposite direction. As I looked back at the cow, the headlight I was wearing must have scared the cow, so it turned away from us, and the farmer gave me a quick glance almost as to say "Thank you." I marvel in those moments. Those are the spontaneous unexpected, random, natural, substance free moments that I believe are common in the country side, of which I only get glimpses of as I run. However, I am drawn to the more rural side of things, and through my life I have gravitated to the more rusticated, more pastoral, more wild lifescapes, and in this trend, I have discovered that my happiness is directly proportional to my proximity to nature.
As I was heading back on my loop, I noticed a farmer a ways down the road running in the same direction. I picked up my pace to see what was going on, and as I neared him, he suddenly spun around and started running towards me. A second later, a massive cow came around a corner, so I too began to run in the opposite direction. As I looked back at the cow, the headlight I was wearing must have scared the cow, so it turned away from us, and the farmer gave me a quick glance almost as to say "Thank you." I marvel in those moments. Those are the spontaneous unexpected, random, natural, substance free moments that I believe are common in the country side, of which I only get glimpses of as I run. However, I am drawn to the more rural side of things, and through my life I have gravitated to the more rusticated, more pastoral, more wild lifescapes, and in this trend, I have discovered that my happiness is directly proportional to my proximity to nature.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
One Month
Today marks one month since I arrived in SoKo. Not only did my buddy Dylan and I hike the highest mountain in Ulsan, Mt. Gaji (Gajisan), but I also got my first haircut.
In short, the hike took 4 hours of non-stop hiking (look at the pictures on Facebook...I'll put them up soon), and was not very noteworthy as we were socked in with clouds.
Regarding the haircut...Well, even back home in the states I have a hard time communicating how I would like my hair cut. So, with quite a bit of trepidation I went into one of my local salons and submitted myself to whatever might have happened. I was figuring, an awkward haircut is better than looking shabby, so I tried to communicate that I wanted the same style haircut but just shorter in length, and then I let the man do his work. Frankly, I think got one of the best haircuts I have EVER gotten in my life. It is perfect. And, my hair does this weird little thing on the right side, and this man, without me even asking, cut it in such a way as to take care of that spot.
I am super tired, looking super clean cut, and now I'm going to eat some dinner.
First haircut in Korea...done and done!
In short, the hike took 4 hours of non-stop hiking (look at the pictures on Facebook...I'll put them up soon), and was not very noteworthy as we were socked in with clouds.
Regarding the haircut...Well, even back home in the states I have a hard time communicating how I would like my hair cut. So, with quite a bit of trepidation I went into one of my local salons and submitted myself to whatever might have happened. I was figuring, an awkward haircut is better than looking shabby, so I tried to communicate that I wanted the same style haircut but just shorter in length, and then I let the man do his work. Frankly, I think got one of the best haircuts I have EVER gotten in my life. It is perfect. And, my hair does this weird little thing on the right side, and this man, without me even asking, cut it in such a way as to take care of that spot.
I am super tired, looking super clean cut, and now I'm going to eat some dinner.
First haircut in Korea...done and done!
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Cram
I was in the Hyundai Department Store today with my friend Virginia and Kristy. I was in a rare mood to just bounce around a mall, so I tagged along on their trip to this MASSIVE western style department store in downtown Ulsan. After having "window shopped" our way all the way up 13 escalator accessible floors of this consumer-heaven, we had finally reached the top of the building and needed to head back down. We started to descend using the escalators but almost immediately realized that descending 13 floors via escalator would be a tedious task, so we decided to use the elevator.
We entered the elevator on the 12th floor. The elevator had a 10 person capacity; however, by the time we reached the 6th floor, I was sucking in my gut, trying to not press my sweaty self into the four people around me, and more generally speaking, there were 16 people in the elevator. Suffice to say, the notion of personal space here in Korea is a bit different than what it is in the states. And just in case you have the chance to take the elevator in the Lotte Department Store in Ulsan, more seriously consider the escalator.
We entered the elevator on the 12th floor. The elevator had a 10 person capacity; however, by the time we reached the 6th floor, I was sucking in my gut, trying to not press my sweaty self into the four people around me, and more generally speaking, there were 16 people in the elevator. Suffice to say, the notion of personal space here in Korea is a bit different than what it is in the states. And just in case you have the chance to take the elevator in the Lotte Department Store in Ulsan, more seriously consider the escalator.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Water balloon
Just a quick blip....
So I am right in the middle of my after school lesson today, after school classes are essentially the same as day school, but they are called "after school," when all of a sudden I heard a loud gush of water. To my surprise, one of the students had been playing with a water balloon. To my even greater surprise, it popped in his lap (guess that's what you get for having a water balloon in school), and the boys face immediately displayed a look of "please don't hit me." Now, I don't hit kids, but in this case, I just back-handed him.
SIKE!!! I have never and would never hit a student.
Actually, I didn't find it to be a big deal at all, and I think this surprised all of my students. Ultimately, I think my calm reaction won me some points with this class, and after a quick dab with a cloth, the crisis was over.
Throughout my teaching experience both here and in the states, I continually have discovered that you essentially--get what you give. In other words, if you give off an anxious/annoyed/impatient/rude vibe, that is what the kids return, so today, I gave off calm, and in spite of the big trouble the students face told me he was expecting, I just moved on rather unbothered, and I think we were all the better after.
But sheeh, a water balloon in class? Really?
Gotta love SoKo!
So I am right in the middle of my after school lesson today, after school classes are essentially the same as day school, but they are called "after school," when all of a sudden I heard a loud gush of water. To my surprise, one of the students had been playing with a water balloon. To my even greater surprise, it popped in his lap (guess that's what you get for having a water balloon in school), and the boys face immediately displayed a look of "please don't hit me." Now, I don't hit kids, but in this case, I just back-handed him.
SIKE!!! I have never and would never hit a student.
Actually, I didn't find it to be a big deal at all, and I think this surprised all of my students. Ultimately, I think my calm reaction won me some points with this class, and after a quick dab with a cloth, the crisis was over.
Throughout my teaching experience both here and in the states, I continually have discovered that you essentially--get what you give. In other words, if you give off an anxious/annoyed/impatient/rude vibe, that is what the kids return, so today, I gave off calm, and in spite of the big trouble the students face told me he was expecting, I just moved on rather unbothered, and I think we were all the better after.
But sheeh, a water balloon in class? Really?
Gotta love SoKo!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Chousok in Seoul
Seoul
More Seoul
Even More Seoul
So, I just spent the past four days in Seoul. By the KTX (Korea Train Express) it took about 2.5 hours, and driving it takes about 4.5 hours. Suffice to say, I forked up the $47 or (47,000 Won) to get there right quick.
In any case, Seoul is a wild place, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Literally, there are the same number of people in Seoul as there are in Los Angeles, but the are all crammed in to an area about the same size as Chicago. So, with so many people, the city is literally a crazy teaming froth of cars, trains, planes, people, bikes, pets, rivers, neon lights and of course Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King and bad ol' KFC. Which leads me to the figurative reason Seoul is "crazy."
If all of the businesses signs and all of the street signs were not printed in Korean and I were dropped into the middle of the city blindfolded, as soon as I lifted the blindfold, I would be very hard pressed to determine if I were in New York, L.A., Boston, Bangkok, London, etc. So much of Seoul is just like any old city. In fact, while in Seoul, I didn't feel much of the Korean cultural difference that I feel in Ulsan or my actual town of Eonyong.
And with that said, Seoul is appealing in that it would afford me the opportunity to re-experience my freshman/sophomore year of college in which my primary focus was partying, hooking-up, and trying to figure out the perfect combination of Advil, water and sleep that negates a hang over, but then again, I'm not 18 any more, and though for this past weekend most of those old outlets proved still enjoyable, I would not want my time in South Korea to be on par w/ a "Jersey Shore" experience, but rather I want it to be, well, frankly, just what it has been so far: a relatively noticeable plunge into the UNKNOWN.
So, having seen the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), having done a little bit of partying in Seoul, trekking along part of the Seoul Wall (a wall that surrounds the whole city), visiting King Sejong's palace, and countless other Seoul-esq things, I must say, it is really really really nice to be back in Eonyong, forced again to use my broken Korean, not able to simply rely on my crutch that is English, and again feeling myself growing and learning in a way that I don't think would be possible in an ultra globalized city such as Seoul.
And before I go, just a quick story about my trek along the Seoul Wall.
Let this be a long story made short.
So, Nate and I, the only other guy that was on this past weekend trip, decided that a shopping trip in Itaywon (Ee-Tay-Won) was not our cup of tea (Nate is British, so that tea pun was intended), and instead decided to wander around the city and see what we could get ourselves into. Surrounding Seoul are some amazing mountains, so naturally, I wanted to walk up one. So, Nate and I stared out in the general direction that seemed to take us upwards, and 40 minutes later, sweat drenched shirts and swam asses like you would not believe, we neared the top of what we initially thought would be a small little hill. Well, the view was fantastic and gave is quite a perspective on what 10 million people in the are of Chicago means, but we wanted to still walk higher. Little did we know, we were nearing the star of the Seoul Wall trail. Perfect. We hoped on the trail, walked for a while, and eventually reached a section of the wall that is still used as part of SoKo's military defense scheme. We could have taken a tour, but neither of us had our passports, so we were not allowed to sign up for the tour.
By now we were both pretty tired, totally soaked in sweat, stinking like something dead and rotten, and hungry enough to snack on our toenails, but don't forget, we were essentially in the middle of the forest. Now, this is an urban forest, so off in the distance Nate spotted what seemed to be a restaurant, and we both decided to head for the food.
Well, there wasn't exactly a trail to the restaurant, so we ended up having to jump over two barb wired fences, follow one dried stream bed, and finally made it to what we thought was a restaurant, yet there was only one small problem. The "restaurant" turned out to be a super Bougie country club, keep in mind, everyone there is dressed to the 9's because it is South Korean Thanksgiving, and here are Nate and I, now not only sweat and stinky, but also muddy and having just crashed through some of the country clubs barbed wire fences. Suffice to say, we were wildly out of place and everyone at the club noticed.
In any case, we asked to look at a menu, and discovering the entrees ranged from $35-$70, we returned the menu and simply asked the hostess about how to get to the place we started our hike. We were not expecting what happened next, but as it turns out, the club has a free bus that went exactly where we wanted to go.
The End.
Seriously, the moral of this story is, if you ever decided to jump a country clubs barb wired fences and show up super nasty at their club restaurant, make sure they have a free bus that will promptly remove your rif-raffy ass from the premises.
Gottal love the spontaneity of living abroad.
More Seoul
Even More Seoul
So, I just spent the past four days in Seoul. By the KTX (Korea Train Express) it took about 2.5 hours, and driving it takes about 4.5 hours. Suffice to say, I forked up the $47 or (47,000 Won) to get there right quick.
In any case, Seoul is a wild place, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Literally, there are the same number of people in Seoul as there are in Los Angeles, but the are all crammed in to an area about the same size as Chicago. So, with so many people, the city is literally a crazy teaming froth of cars, trains, planes, people, bikes, pets, rivers, neon lights and of course Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King and bad ol' KFC. Which leads me to the figurative reason Seoul is "crazy."
If all of the businesses signs and all of the street signs were not printed in Korean and I were dropped into the middle of the city blindfolded, as soon as I lifted the blindfold, I would be very hard pressed to determine if I were in New York, L.A., Boston, Bangkok, London, etc. So much of Seoul is just like any old city. In fact, while in Seoul, I didn't feel much of the Korean cultural difference that I feel in Ulsan or my actual town of Eonyong.
And with that said, Seoul is appealing in that it would afford me the opportunity to re-experience my freshman/sophomore year of college in which my primary focus was partying, hooking-up, and trying to figure out the perfect combination of Advil, water and sleep that negates a hang over, but then again, I'm not 18 any more, and though for this past weekend most of those old outlets proved still enjoyable, I would not want my time in South Korea to be on par w/ a "Jersey Shore" experience, but rather I want it to be, well, frankly, just what it has been so far: a relatively noticeable plunge into the UNKNOWN.
So, having seen the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), having done a little bit of partying in Seoul, trekking along part of the Seoul Wall (a wall that surrounds the whole city), visiting King Sejong's palace, and countless other Seoul-esq things, I must say, it is really really really nice to be back in Eonyong, forced again to use my broken Korean, not able to simply rely on my crutch that is English, and again feeling myself growing and learning in a way that I don't think would be possible in an ultra globalized city such as Seoul.
And before I go, just a quick story about my trek along the Seoul Wall.
Let this be a long story made short.
So, Nate and I, the only other guy that was on this past weekend trip, decided that a shopping trip in Itaywon (Ee-Tay-Won) was not our cup of tea (Nate is British, so that tea pun was intended), and instead decided to wander around the city and see what we could get ourselves into. Surrounding Seoul are some amazing mountains, so naturally, I wanted to walk up one. So, Nate and I stared out in the general direction that seemed to take us upwards, and 40 minutes later, sweat drenched shirts and swam asses like you would not believe, we neared the top of what we initially thought would be a small little hill. Well, the view was fantastic and gave is quite a perspective on what 10 million people in the are of Chicago means, but we wanted to still walk higher. Little did we know, we were nearing the star of the Seoul Wall trail. Perfect. We hoped on the trail, walked for a while, and eventually reached a section of the wall that is still used as part of SoKo's military defense scheme. We could have taken a tour, but neither of us had our passports, so we were not allowed to sign up for the tour.
By now we were both pretty tired, totally soaked in sweat, stinking like something dead and rotten, and hungry enough to snack on our toenails, but don't forget, we were essentially in the middle of the forest. Now, this is an urban forest, so off in the distance Nate spotted what seemed to be a restaurant, and we both decided to head for the food.
Well, there wasn't exactly a trail to the restaurant, so we ended up having to jump over two barb wired fences, follow one dried stream bed, and finally made it to what we thought was a restaurant, yet there was only one small problem. The "restaurant" turned out to be a super Bougie country club, keep in mind, everyone there is dressed to the 9's because it is South Korean Thanksgiving, and here are Nate and I, now not only sweat and stinky, but also muddy and having just crashed through some of the country clubs barbed wire fences. Suffice to say, we were wildly out of place and everyone at the club noticed.
In any case, we asked to look at a menu, and discovering the entrees ranged from $35-$70, we returned the menu and simply asked the hostess about how to get to the place we started our hike. We were not expecting what happened next, but as it turns out, the club has a free bus that went exactly where we wanted to go.
The End.
Seriously, the moral of this story is, if you ever decided to jump a country clubs barb wired fences and show up super nasty at their club restaurant, make sure they have a free bus that will promptly remove your rif-raffy ass from the premises.
Gottal love the spontaneity of living abroad.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Map of My Home
Hey Folks,
The following link will show you a Google map of the coffee shop which is 1-minute from my apartment.
Why the coffee shop you may be wondering? It is the only place I can pick up wi-fi, thus the only place I can use my iTouch to determine my GPS location.
My neighborhood!
The following link will show you a Google map of the coffee shop which is 1-minute from my apartment.
Why the coffee shop you may be wondering? It is the only place I can pick up wi-fi, thus the only place I can use my iTouch to determine my GPS location.
My neighborhood!
Monday, September 5, 2011
Old and New Pillars: Rachel and________ (I'm figuring it out :-)
I just Skyped with Rachel (my sister for those who may not know her), and in an instant the vast majority of my homesickness/longing for American comforts dissolved away. I should qualify that last statement by saying, I'm not feeling super-weepy homesick where I just want to cry and go home, but rather, I am feeling that type of homesickness where I just deeply realize how wonderful my family and friends back home are, and thus how much I am going to miss them over the next year.
And...with THAT said...I can also feel myself on the brink of really just letting go of "back home" to the extent that I now have people and places here in South Korea to which I can grab and use for support. I don't mean 'let go of' in the sense of completely forget about, but I mean 'let go of' to the extent that I free up the mental capacity I need to form meaningful relationships here in SoKo. Fostering positive and meaningful relationships in one location is challenging enough let alone trying to juggle two different lives, one of which is only accessible via electronic means. And I don't want you to read this and think, "Oh great, now I'm not going to hear from Seth anymore," but rather read it as, Seth is getting his roots a little more established in SoKo, and is feeling less of the need to "lean on" the folks back home.
Any now I'm just thinking about my decision to leave the U.S. Was that selfish? I mean, I realize that I am also a source of support to people in my life, and now I've just up and taken off? Maybe my decision was selfish. Damn...I never thought about that before. Well, I'll say this. If you need anything, and I can help you from abroad, don't hesitate to reach out. And even if what you need is just a quick bit of conversation or someone to vent to, don't hesitate. Surely communicating electronically won't be like an in-person conversation, but it'll be close, and using Skype, it could be very close.
In any case, Skyping with Rachel meant a lot. Though I am finding new sources of support over here, it is really nice to be able to feel the support of the people back home. So thanks Roo. I love you so much.
Anyway, enough of this rant...
And...with THAT said...I can also feel myself on the brink of really just letting go of "back home" to the extent that I now have people and places here in South Korea to which I can grab and use for support. I don't mean 'let go of' in the sense of completely forget about, but I mean 'let go of' to the extent that I free up the mental capacity I need to form meaningful relationships here in SoKo. Fostering positive and meaningful relationships in one location is challenging enough let alone trying to juggle two different lives, one of which is only accessible via electronic means. And I don't want you to read this and think, "Oh great, now I'm not going to hear from Seth anymore," but rather read it as, Seth is getting his roots a little more established in SoKo, and is feeling less of the need to "lean on" the folks back home.
Any now I'm just thinking about my decision to leave the U.S. Was that selfish? I mean, I realize that I am also a source of support to people in my life, and now I've just up and taken off? Maybe my decision was selfish. Damn...I never thought about that before. Well, I'll say this. If you need anything, and I can help you from abroad, don't hesitate to reach out. And even if what you need is just a quick bit of conversation or someone to vent to, don't hesitate. Surely communicating electronically won't be like an in-person conversation, but it'll be close, and using Skype, it could be very close.
In any case, Skyping with Rachel meant a lot. Though I am finding new sources of support over here, it is really nice to be able to feel the support of the people back home. So thanks Roo. I love you so much.
Anyway, enough of this rant...
Running and Cooking
I still do not have internet at my house, so I wrote this last night and am posting it today.
9/5 8:00PM
They mountains in Eonyong are intermittently shrouded in wispy gatherings of clouds, and for a fleeting moment ever so often, the clouds scatter revealing the steadfast and mighty mountains amongst them.
I just got back from a run, and as a matter of fact, I’ve been doing quite a bit of running in the past weeks. Part of it is for cathartic sake, and the other is simply because the area here is so darn gorgeous. The scenery here reminds me of a mix between Colorado and Vermont. The mountains are somewhat tall and jagged just as they are in Colorado, and at the same time they are lush and green like the ones in Vermont. Imagine Colorado’s mountains being a bit shorter, not bald on the top but covered with lots of deciduous trees, and you’ve just imagined Eonoyong.
I’m sitting in my kitchen now, Discovery Chanel Korea (the only one I get in English) is softly playing on the TV in front of me, all my windows are open, I’m sitting on one of my two chairs, and in the background, the scent of sautéed garlic is wafting around the semi-humid night air which is circulating in my apartment. I’m cooking for the first time. I’m trying to make some sort of curry concoction. Basically, it’s got broccoli, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and tofu as well as some premade curry powder. I’m just happy to be eating some green vegetables.
The food here is somewhat strange. I love all of it. Literally, I have not found a single food that I do not like; however, much of it does not seem to be wildly nutritious. There are not a lot of green veggies that I have encountered, and moreover, everything is super salty. That is my only complaint. The food is good, but SALTY. So, I’m cooking for myself tonight because I’m tired of going out to eat, and because I cannot read Korean, only being able to base my choice of a dish on price and not what I actually desire. It’s actually quite funny how I order. I simply consider how much I want to spend, and then randomly point to something on the menu, and then I hope for the best. I don’t mind because I eat everything, but at the same time, it will be nice to master reading and then learn some basic restaurant vocab.
Reading is coming somewhat slowly, but in fairness, I have not committed much time to learing Hangul (the Korean alphabet). I am traveling to Seoul this weekend because I have a few days off next week for Chousok (Korean Thanksgiving), and I’m planning on using the travel time to study up.
Infancy
I value an experience, job, friend, challenge, etc. based on the amount to which it causes to learn and grow. Thus I am finding my experience here in South Korea to be priceless.
In essence, I am taking a crash course in the one subject I least enjoy: dependency/asking for help. I would rather "do it myself" in almost all situations, and though in some ways I am proud of this part of my character, in another sense I see it as a huge flaw.
So, here is a BRIEF list of what I've needed help doing over the past few weeks.
1. Eating (there is a somewhat specific etiquite on how/when to eat)
2. How to hand people money (you always hand it with two hands)
3. How to open a bank account
4. How to get the internet hooked up (I STILL don't have it...kind of killin' me, but eh.)
5. How to throw away my trash (there are separate bags for trash, recycling, and a special box for compost. Though, my neighbor told me to just throw my compost on the street or in a field because "in country [sic] things are different."
6. How to register as an alien-resident in SoKo
7. How to buy a bus pass
8. How/where to buy hangers for my clothing
9. How to BBQ (Korean style)
10. How to dry my clothes without them molding (in SoKo there are washing machines, but no dryers and super high humidity, so drying clothes has been somewhat of a challenge...now I know to use a fan/put the clothes on the rack, and then put the rack in my room when I have the AC on...both work quite well)
And frankly the list goes on...Here's the point. For a guy who likes to do everything on his own, it has been humbling to have to ask for help to do just about anything. And it's been a perpetual lesson on learning to rely/trust others, something about which I really think I have a lot to learn. And thus, being here in SoKo, though trying as hell at times, is hands down one of the most priceless experiences I have had thus far in life.
One last thought. And I had this the other day while walking in the beautiful bamboo forest in Ulsan (here's a link to a pic) because I often do some of my best thinking on the go...But, living abroad as an immigrant is far different than studying abroad and is surely a far cry from traveling abroad. Living here as an immigrant/alien-citizen means having to ask for help from random strangers. There is no study-abroad coordinator whose sole job is to take care of you. In fact, here, you are essentially on your own, left to have the courage and lack of ego necessary to walk up to, in some cases, complete strangers, and try to explain that you have taken what you thought to be the downtown bus but clearly have not and now need to get to where you are going. It is moments like those that I am completely at the whim of another, and I'm coming to realize, it doesn't have to feel tenuous and full of the potential for the other person to deceive me, but rather is a moment where I can bask in the goodness (most times) of humankind and feel thankful for the support that so often complete strangers here are willing to give me.
And people are people everywhere, thus the lessons in trust I learn here, are lessons I will carry with me back home eventually, and thus will likely become yet another, or rather, more defined facet of my personality.
Much love to everyone back home,
I miss you all. Truly, I do.
In essence, I am taking a crash course in the one subject I least enjoy: dependency/asking for help. I would rather "do it myself" in almost all situations, and though in some ways I am proud of this part of my character, in another sense I see it as a huge flaw.
So, here is a BRIEF list of what I've needed help doing over the past few weeks.
1. Eating (there is a somewhat specific etiquite on how/when to eat)
2. How to hand people money (you always hand it with two hands)
3. How to open a bank account
4. How to get the internet hooked up (I STILL don't have it...kind of killin' me, but eh.)
5. How to throw away my trash (there are separate bags for trash, recycling, and a special box for compost. Though, my neighbor told me to just throw my compost on the street or in a field because "in country [sic] things are different."
6. How to register as an alien-resident in SoKo
7. How to buy a bus pass
8. How/where to buy hangers for my clothing
9. How to BBQ (Korean style)
10. How to dry my clothes without them molding (in SoKo there are washing machines, but no dryers and super high humidity, so drying clothes has been somewhat of a challenge...now I know to use a fan/put the clothes on the rack, and then put the rack in my room when I have the AC on...both work quite well)
And frankly the list goes on...Here's the point. For a guy who likes to do everything on his own, it has been humbling to have to ask for help to do just about anything. And it's been a perpetual lesson on learning to rely/trust others, something about which I really think I have a lot to learn. And thus, being here in SoKo, though trying as hell at times, is hands down one of the most priceless experiences I have had thus far in life.
One last thought. And I had this the other day while walking in the beautiful bamboo forest in Ulsan (here's a link to a pic) because I often do some of my best thinking on the go...But, living abroad as an immigrant is far different than studying abroad and is surely a far cry from traveling abroad. Living here as an immigrant/alien-citizen means having to ask for help from random strangers. There is no study-abroad coordinator whose sole job is to take care of you. In fact, here, you are essentially on your own, left to have the courage and lack of ego necessary to walk up to, in some cases, complete strangers, and try to explain that you have taken what you thought to be the downtown bus but clearly have not and now need to get to where you are going. It is moments like those that I am completely at the whim of another, and I'm coming to realize, it doesn't have to feel tenuous and full of the potential for the other person to deceive me, but rather is a moment where I can bask in the goodness (most times) of humankind and feel thankful for the support that so often complete strangers here are willing to give me.
And people are people everywhere, thus the lessons in trust I learn here, are lessons I will carry with me back home eventually, and thus will likely become yet another, or rather, more defined facet of my personality.
Much love to everyone back home,
I miss you all. Truly, I do.
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