First Impressions
So, I'm in Korea. I arrived at my apartment last night around 10:30 pm and it's crazy how full my time has been since than and how it's now 11:54 pm and I'm up writng this instead of being in bed. I've probably gotten around 9 hours of sleep in the past 3 days and I'm not even really feeling tired. My body must be messed . . . ah well. It's taking it well. I'm sure I'll crash hardcore in a day or two.
The trip over was pretty good. Thankfully I didn't have to collect my luggage at any of the connections I had and the flights played decent movies which helped the time pass. (Except MatchPoint, what a crappy waste of time). Not that I had anything else to do, but if I had watched it of my choosing I certainly would have felt like that was two hours of my life I'd never get back.
When I got to
Seoul I took a bus to Daegu (about 4 hours away) and so I guess that gave me my first real glimpses of Korea. I always hope when I'm in new countries that it won't feel like North America - sometimes I've been disappointed, sometimes I haven't. This was definitely one of the times when I was somewhat disappointed. I guess highways probably look pretty similar just about everywhere. (Thinking back I was even more turned off when I first took the bus from the major airport to Rome - but Rome itself delighted me beyond belief). The apartment buildings along the higway were horrid concrete monstrositiesSome things were decidedly different from home however. Every now and then there were little farming plots, rows of vegetables growing in abundance in the midst of rundown city areas. Reminding me a bit of Poland actually. Also, the trees were not what you'd find in my part of the world so richly green and they had clusters of leaves that resembled claws.
A little more than halfway through the trip the us stopped, the driver said something and everyone got off. This was my first moment of 'hmm, it'd be really nice to know Korean'. I decided to be a follower though so off I went not knowing whether this was the first station on the stop and some of the passengers were just getting off for a stretch or what. I quickly discovered this was just a rest stop but it was a very pleasant revelation and helped to heal my initial distate of the highway views. It was pretty much a food plaza but outside along the walkway there were these beautiful little imitations of a natural paradise. Not more than 4sq. feet and for sale, I imagine they were for the house or garden. Small trees and rocks with pools of water and often some type of fountain. Then as I walked along I came upon a regular life size example (ciomparable to a large fountain/ water area we'd find in a nice nature park) beautiful in a simple, naturally pleasing way that I don't often see at home (except in Oriental Gardens). There was a security guard or maintanance man standing not too far away from me. He didn't look at me except slighlty out of the corner of his eye perhaps and as I admired the area he slipped over and turned on the fountain. The burst of water in spouts, shooting up aproximately 8 or 9 feet in the air brought me a gasp of delight and I imagine influnced his decision to go turn on the large wooden water wheel a short distance away. Now it's entirely possible this had nothing to do with me, but I'm pretty sure he wanted to show off the little park to it's fullest advantage for the admiring foreigner. And there's no doubt it's VERY clear that I'm a foreigner. People don't turn and stare on the street, or slow their cars down to look at me like they did in Poland (well, children have often pointed and smiled, and laughed) but they do look at me and try to talk to me.
Just before deciding I better head back to the bus seeing as I had no idea how long we were allowed off I passed some Korean BBQ pits. My stomach grumbling with excitement about the food I imagine I'd be enjoying shortly (and I have . . . in a way I wasn't aware of - but more on that later!)
Getting back on the bus I finally started talking to some people. I asked about the next stop to assure it wasn't mine and met a man named Dr. Yang. He was very eager to chat and I found out all about his travels, his children and a bit about his work. He actually gave me his number and one of his daughter's number and said if I wanted some new friends because I was lonely I should give her a call. Her and I both went to school at UBC in Vancouver for awhile. I also briefly met a Korean girl who's living in Toronto and she gave me her contact information as well. As an interesting way to end my smooth travels I ended up on a street corner for about 40 minutes waiting for my ride from the school. I imagine it was a bit of a spectacle. There I am, luggage surrounding me, sitting on a corner at a main intersection. Then, joy of joys it started to rain! So, after deciding it was going to be slightly more than a drizzle I dragged all my stuff up against a storefront in an effort to get it as much out of the rain and under the awning as possible. Everyone staring somewhat quizzically at me as I passed by. I'm sure my parents would have loved to know that! (Which is exactly why I kindly asked them not to read this and said I'd send them personal letters. :D )
Well, that's all for now! Stay tuned if you've enjoyed.
The trip over was pretty good. Thankfully I didn't have to collect my luggage at any of the connections I had and the flights played decent movies which helped the time pass. (Except MatchPoint, what a crappy waste of time). Not that I had anything else to do, but if I had watched it of my choosing I certainly would have felt like that was two hours of my life I'd never get back.
When I got to
Seoul I took a bus to Daegu (about 4 hours away) and so I guess that gave me my first real glimpses of Korea. I always hope when I'm in new countries that it won't feel like North America - sometimes I've been disappointed, sometimes I haven't. This was definitely one of the times when I was somewhat disappointed. I guess highways probably look pretty similar just about everywhere. (Thinking back I was even more turned off when I first took the bus from the major airport to Rome - but Rome itself delighted me beyond belief). The apartment buildings along the higway were horrid concrete monstrositiesSome things were decidedly different from home however. Every now and then there were little farming plots, rows of vegetables growing in abundance in the midst of rundown city areas. Reminding me a bit of Poland actually. Also, the trees were not what you'd find in my part of the world so richly green and they had clusters of leaves that resembled claws.A little more than halfway through the trip the us stopped, the driver said something and everyone got off. This was my first moment of 'hmm, it'd be really nice to know Korean'. I decided to be a follower though so off I went not knowing whether this was the first station on the stop and some of the passengers were just getting off for a stretch or what. I quickly discovered this was just a rest stop but it was a very pleasant revelation and helped to heal my initial distate of the highway views. It was pretty much a food plaza but outside along the walkway there were these beautiful little imitations of a natural paradise. Not more than 4sq. feet and for sale, I imagine they were for the house or garden. Small trees and rocks with pools of water and often some type of fountain. Then as I walked along I came upon a regular life size example (ciomparable to a large fountain/ water area we'd find in a nice nature park) beautiful in a simple, naturally pleasing way that I don't often see at home (except in Oriental Gardens). There was a security guard or maintanance man standing not too far away from me. He didn't look at me except slighlty out of the corner of his eye perhaps and as I admired the area he slipped over and turned on the fountain. The burst of water in spouts, shooting up aproximately 8 or 9 feet in the air brought me a gasp of delight and I imagine influnced his decision to go turn on the large wooden water wheel a short distance away. Now it's entirely possible this had nothing to do with me, but I'm pretty sure he wanted to show off the little park to it's fullest advantage for the admiring foreigner. And there's no doubt it's VERY clear that I'm a foreigner. People don't turn and stare on the street, or slow their cars down to look at me like they did in Poland (well, children have often pointed and smiled, and laughed) but they do look at me and try to talk to me.
Just before deciding I better head back to the bus seeing as I had no idea how long we were allowed off I passed some Korean BBQ pits. My stomach grumbling with excitement about the food I imagine I'd be enjoying shortly (and I have . . . in a way I wasn't aware of - but more on that later!)
Getting back on the bus I finally started talking to some people. I asked about the next stop to assure it wasn't mine and met a man named Dr. Yang. He was very eager to chat and I found out all about his travels, his children and a bit about his work. He actually gave me his number and one of his daughter's number and said if I wanted some new friends because I was lonely I should give her a call. Her and I both went to school at UBC in Vancouver for awhile. I also briefly met a Korean girl who's living in Toronto and she gave me her contact information as well. As an interesting way to end my smooth travels I ended up on a street corner for about 40 minutes waiting for my ride from the school. I imagine it was a bit of a spectacle. There I am, luggage surrounding me, sitting on a corner at a main intersection. Then, joy of joys it started to rain! So, after deciding it was going to be slightly more than a drizzle I dragged all my stuff up against a storefront in an effort to get it as much out of the rain and under the awning as possible. Everyone staring somewhat quizzically at me as I passed by. I'm sure my parents would have loved to know that! (Which is exactly why I kindly asked them not to read this and said I'd send them personal letters. :D )
Well, that's all for now! Stay tuned if you've enjoyed.
posted by Charles at 7:21 PM
1 Comments:
i have enjoyed, and i will stay tuned!
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