Thursday, July 21, 2011

Ben's Korean Adventure, edition 1

Hello and good morning.

I'm in Korea!  And it has been quite the trip, let me tell you. 

Just to recap for anyone who doesn't know (which is most of you), this journey has been a little bumpy so far.  I did get to hang out with a bunch of friends and some of my family the day before I left GR.  I have some pretty frigid' sweet friends, you know?  And if you didn't know that, you should let me know, start hanging out with them and then you'll know it for yourself.

So I boarded my United flight at 6am on Sunday in GR.  Whew.  All seemed well so far.  My next flight wasn't supposed to leave until noon from Chicago, making the direct flight from O'Hare to Incheon, Seoul.  I arrived without complication and went looking for my next flight.

Upon arriving I found one screen with lots of flights on it.  LIttle did I know that these were only the United flights from this gate, and that screen was not as comprehensive (of the whole airport) as I initially thought.  Note: maybe I'm entirely alone in this, but never having used a large airport before, I had no idea the scope of O'Hare.  Maybe most other people do some research in their spare time, or maybe they simply pop out of the womb already fully understanding such things, but if that were the case, apparently the knowledge fairy just completely overlooked me :(.

So I arrived in O'Hare, thought I had found the fight terminal for my flight to Seoul, and was 12 minutes away from boarding this flight when I discovered, much to my chagrin and surprise, that I was definitely not only at the wrong terminal, but also at the entirely wrong gate.  Haha.  Granted, that's not exactly how I responded at the time, but you get the drift.  And then I, like so many actors in too many films I've seen, began to hustle (nearly sprinting) in the right direction. 

Now as you can guess, I didn't make the flight, thus rather than have my last day in America in Grand Rapids, I decided that spending it in Chicago would be an adequate substitute.  Thankfully, again, my sweet friends stepped up, and I ended up spending some time with Joshua and Heather and spent the night in Josh's new apartment (which is pretty sweet, despite the fact that being in a hot, muggy Chicago and on upper floor, Josh and I would just sweat while sitting still, as if we had just played the final game in a World Cup match and actually won -- ooooo … sorry US Women … too soon?).  Spending the evening with Josh was definitely a highlight in and of itself, but we did also have some awesome Greek food for dinner, and I'm pretty sure that there was a Dutch guy sitting at a table behind me … just from the way he haggled with the manager over a red sauce that didn't really stand up to his expectations.  What a funny interaction that was to watch.

So that evening I had to rebook flights to still arrive in Gwangju at a reasonable time, which meant that because the next best flight from Chicago wouldn't depart for a few days, I expanded this whole adventure to include a little more of my native land, thus at 7am the next morning, I was headed to Los Angeles.  Prior to that flight, I'd never been farther West than North Dakota (and really, that's quite North as well … so I don't even know how much it counts in the "I've been out West" category).  The whole flight was gorgeous.  I didn't even look outside too much, but from the 4-hour flight and the times I did stare longingly outside, I gained a new appreciation for the expansiveness of our country and the simple beauty of plans and deserts and mountains and waterways. 

After I arrived in LAX, I made sure to know exactly where I needed to go … and I got there on time.  Whew.  I was almost on my way to Korea for real now.  I jumped on the large plane at about 2pm Monday, and skipping a few details in between, I hopped off it at about 6:30pm Tuesday … taking my first few strides on Korean soil.  The flight itself was great, and maybe I should be looking for a vocation in which I need to do more international travel because I could really get used to that.  Great food; superb views of the land below; newer media at your fingertips; and interesting people to talk with -- what more could you want?  Maybe a better place to sleep. 

I was seated next to a guy named Shim, who had been in the US for a business trip.  He was a really pleasant guy, and maybe I can call him my first Korean friend since being outside the country?  He gave me his business card upon parting, and he's actually headed to Gwangju in a couple weeks for holiday, so I'm hoping to meet up with him again.  We mingled throughout the flight, and in our last couple hours, I actually taught him some some card games, Briscola and Euchre.  We played with slightly modified rules in Euchre, but in both games, Shim came out on top much more often than I did.  I'm pretty sure he's a card shark ;).  (side note: I'm laying on the my bed at the Tomato Motel right now with the TV on, and it's some show that's showing interesting things with animals, and I just saw a woman give CPR to a cat … and I basically threw up a little bit in my mouth.  Ugh.  Hearing about that skill at the Red Cross was more than enough already, let alone seeing it in practice.  Weird.)  Beyond the chatting and gaming, I did get caught up on some newer flicks, so for anyone still wanting to watch Clash of the Titans, Rango, Sucker Punch, or that other one I watched that wasn't even good enough for its name to stick in my memory, you can probably just skip them, and you won't really be missing much. 

AND THEN I LANDED IN SEOUL! 

Korea is beautiful.  Wow.  Flying in and seeing the country from the air was a great introduction to the country.  On this part of the flight I felt pretty similarly to when I was flying over the States, but it was different, of course, because there is so much coastline; the water is gorgeous.  I'm looking forward to exploring more and more … but maybe not until I get a little more grounded here. 

In the airport this was my first time being in a situation where the majority of people spoke a different language than I did.  I had been thinking about that a lot over the past couple weeks, and it was cool and exciting and daunting and a little overwhelming and little underwhelming all at the same time.  Standing in line to go through security (and get my sweet stamp ;), it just clicked that I couldn't understand anything that the many people around me were saying.  My feelings were so mixed at that time because of the blending of isolation and connectedness that happens simultaneously in that situation.  I could, at any given moment, reach out and touch another person, yet at the same time, even with that tangible point of connection, I would still be completely cut off from open, spoken communication with that person.  It's a weird situation, I think, because talking with people is something that I do so often.  And now I have to learn a new way to talk with these people if I'm to step back into that habit. 

At the airport everything went mostly smoothly … except that my original checked luggage is still lost somewhere between GR and Seoul :(.  Ok.  For any of you planning to travel internationally in the near future (or distant future), please make your flights.  Ha.  That has been such a pain, and it continues to plague me.  So right now, I have basically 2 sets of clothing and a random mix of other things.  Ha.  What a joy.  Hopefully sometime today I'll hear more about the luggage and maybe, just maybe, it'll come back to me.  That'd be a really cool, great thing.  When it came time to bus to Gwangju, I ended up just talking with a man at an information kiosk, and he readily took me to the booth and made sure that I bought the correct ticket.  After that I went to another kiosk, and a swell gal there let me use her cell to call Don, and at 7:50pm, I was on my way to Gwangju.  Woo hoo!

Apparently the buses here are pretty top notch.  This opinion came from a couple other teachers at the school, and my experience only reinforced this idea.  I hopped on the bus at Incheon, and we only stopped once at a rest stop before arriving in Gwangju just over 3.5 hours later.  Again, Korea is beautiful.  Seeing the scenery as we drove past was very neat.  Granted, I will admit that ended up pseudo-sleeping through about half of the trip, but from what I did see, it was very interesting.  I definitely have more exploring to do in this area … just to see those things that I've missed. 

Shortly after arriving in Gwangju, Don showed up to retrieve me from the airport.  Meeting him for the first time was great.  It completely reinforced everything I'd heard about his so far; he seems very pleasant and personable, and I think it's going to be a great working environment for the next stint.  He drove me around Gwangju for a little while, and then we went to our neighborhood (where I'll be living and working), Pungam-Dong.  I'm going to save my description of this neighborhood for another day … one during which I can walk around and get more pictures of the place … just so that you all can see what I see.  Until then, though, know that I like it a lot.  The longer I'm here, and it's only been about 30 hours so far, the more I want to learn Korean so that I can more effectively connect with the city and people around here.

That first night (and until Sunday afternoon when I move into Brian's old apartment), I stayed/will be staying in the Tomato Motel.  Ha.  What a funny place.  I've heard some stories about this place, which, again, I'll save for another day, but it's a sweet little place, and the best part, without any doubt in my mind, is the shower.  Whew.  I took a picture of it … and it's pretty fancy-schmancy, as some would say.  Think about this: standing under a shower head, while having other spray massage your body and still having the option to employ a separate handheld shower head.  Awesome.  I've showered there twice by now, and it's pretty much the best thing ever.  Those of you thinking of remodeling in the near future, you should definitely look into this fantastic device.  I promise you won't look back.  Oh, and there's some sort of steam room option as well, but since it's been so hot lately, I've opted for cool showers instead.  The motel itself is within a quarter mile of the schools and my new apartment, so this morning I get to walk to school all on my own … let's hope that I get there ;).  Ha.  It's just down the street and around a few corners, so I'll be fine; no worries. 

Alright.  Since this email is already so friggin' long, I'm gonna end it here.  I have, since arriving, experienced my first day at school, so let that be a teaser … the next edition will include some about my first day at school: not having as cool of shoes as the rest of the kids, forgetting my lunch and being called a giant time and again.  Whew.  What a first day it was!

Much love to you all.

pfn,
bg

ps- if you want to see how awesome my friends are, visit:

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