More Adventures in Korea

Adventure Korea is now one of my more visited websites. (Click on the name to visit their site). I just signed up for two more adventures (I'm going with them to the Mud Festival tomorrow).

I have one of my weeks of vacation coming up (the other one is at Christmas, and I'm wrestling with going home or staying here) at the end of the month. So the first adventure I'm going on is the Summer Special Trip at the beginning of my week off, July 26th-27th. We're going to Doripo Beach on the western coast. A chartered bus, 2 meals, accomodations, and experience fees are all included for two days for less than 100,000 won (about $100).

We're going to travel to a small islet by boat and will do net fishing (in a traditional Korean way), clam digging, octopus picking, and swimming. And we get to eat the seafood that we catch right away. Pretty cool, huh? We'll also visit the Muan White Lotus Festival, where we'll take a boat ride along the lotus flowers road, make onion-kimchi (yuck!), and taste various foods made with lotus like lotus ice cream, lotus tea, lotus sandwiches, lotus-wrapped rice and lotus beer as well. (Should be very interesting...)

The second trip I'm taking is to the DMZ on Saturday, August 23rd. It's a day trip to Imjingak, which is as far as civilians can go to the North by themselves without permission, the 3rd tunnel, the Dora Observatory, and Tongilchon, one of two villages inside the DMZ.

And of course I'll be posting pictures from both of these. I can't wait!

Strange and Wonderful Things

I made a few discoveries today that I have to share. The first goes under my mental list of "awesome" things here that don't exist back home.
I'm usually bad with money, but I'm actually very good about keeping up with my check book. I'm not one of those people that will stand at the checkout and enter the total into my book, but I will go home, sort through all my receipts each night, and check what's in my checkbook against what's cleared on my account online. So after having to switch to a different bank, KB, because the first bank, ShinHan, wouldn't give me a check card, only an ATM card (which really defeats the purpose of having an account, don't you think?), I stopped by the ATM to check my balance since I got paid today. As I'm carefully looking through the menu options, I notice an 'Update Passbook' button. And I look a little more closely at the ATM, and notice that not only is there a place for cash, for your card, and for the receipt, but a place to enter your passbook, which is like a checkbook, but has your account information printed on it. So I hit the button, insert my passbook, and without even inserting my card, the ATM scans my passbook, determines what's already been printed and where, and then prints all of the transactions on my account since the last entry! How cool is that?!? Imagine being able to go to a Bank of America ATM, inserting your checkbook, and having the bank print all your missing entries. It's almost like a portable quickbooks or something.
Completely unrelated, but also wonderful, I found a tiny little shop in the metro station that sells body jewelry. They also do piercings, but it can't be sanitary. Imagine getting pierced in the subway station... uck. Anyway, they have a bunch of earrings that are my size (they go by millimeters here and not gauges), so if I loose mine, I know where to get replacements.

So tomorrow is Friday, and then I have to be at the metro station at 5am on Saturday. We're going with Adventure Korea to the Mud Festival. We're taking a chartered bus from the express bus station to Boreyung, where I'm going to spend the weekend at the Mud Festival. I'm really looking forward to it, and if I can keep my camera from getting too muddy, I'll post pictures next week.

Edit: I forgot to write about the Strange Things I encountered as well. It was in my lunch. Or to be more exact, it was my lunch. What was it you ask? Minnows. You know those little tiny fish that swim in shallow water? Yeah, those. They're dried, and caramelized. In soy sauce. I ate them in my rice. Other than the obvious squeemishness I encountered while eating little dried fish with their eyes still intact, they're actually not that bad on rice. Much better than the sponge-like substance that was in my soup today. When I say sponge, it was like they cut up a dish sponge, baked it in mushroom water, and then handed it to me in a bowl. Lovely.

Culture Shock, or the lack thereof

I had been warned by a few people that I would experience culture shock. According to wikipedia (not the source of all information, but still it's faster than most sites), culture shock consists of three phases:

shock (moving to a foreign country) often consists of distinct phases, though not everyone passes through these phases and not everyone is in the new culture long enough to pass through all three[3]:

The "Honeymoon Phase" - During this period the differences between the old and new culture are seen in a romantic light, wonderful and new. For example, in moving to a new country, an individual might love the new foods, the pace of the life, the people's habits, the buildings and so on.

The "Negotiation Phase" - After a few days, weeks, or months, minor differences between the old and new culture are resolved. One may long for food the way it is prepared in one's native country, may find the pace of life too fast or slow, may find the people's habits annoying, etc.

The "Everything is OK" phase - Again, after a few days, weeks, or months, one grows accustomed to the new culture's differences and develops routines. By this point, one no longer reacts to the new culture positively or negatively, because it no longer feels like a new culture. One becomes concerned with basic living again, as one was in their original culture.

Reverse Culture Shock - Returning to one's home culture after growing accustomed to a new one can produce the same effects as described above.

Last night I had a dream, where I was homesick. I couldn't get over the fact that I couldn't get frozen waffles, or read a menu in a restaurant. I missed being able to see my family, and trying on shoes my size, instead of 3 sizes too small. I missed the unconscious act of reading every single sign I passed by, instead of seeing symbols that I can barely pronounce, let alone read. I missed knowing that at a moments notice, I could hop in my car and drive to see my parents, or sisters, or friends for a special occasion, including the arrival of a new member into the family. I was crying hysterically, and flew back home immediately, just to hug my family. And then I woke up. It took me a minute to realize that I wasn't actually homesick. Yes, I feel frustrated at times that I can't read anything, and I can't shop for shoes within the country. Yes of course I miss my family and friends. I miss the independence of having a car.

But I don't miss the insurance bills, or the gas money. I've discovered the new independence of the public transportation system. I may not be able to tell where all the buses are going, but I know which ones to take to get me to the places I want to go. And at this point, that's all I need. And soon I will take the first bus that comes along and ride it as far as possible, just to see where it goes. The same with the metro. I don't miss feeling like I'm dragging myself out of bed in the morning to go to work, now I feel like I get to sleep in every day. The language is logical, and the grammar is simple. I'm excited to be learning a new and exotic language again, even though my mind constantly slips back into French when I try to speak it, mostly because it's the only foreign language I've ever known. I feel like I'm a student again, something I've missed for the past three years. I'm learning about a new culture, through total immersion. Yes, I am a foreigner here (they call it mee-gook). I'm reminded of it every day with the stares I get from people, and the lack of complete comfort in my surroundings.

But for some reason, I know that everything will be just fine. When I first arrived in Uijeongbu, I got off at the wrong bus stop. I didn't know a single word of Korean, despite my studying, and no one really spoke English. I didn't have any way to contact anyone here, aside from the fact that I'd never met anyone whose name I knew. I hadn't even written down the phone numbers of my contacts. But I still managed to get home and get settled. Without crying.

I think that first experience helped me to realize, once and for all, that no matter where I am, or what I'm doing, I can take care of myself. I can get to where I need or want to go, and I don't need anyone to help me do it.  Even in a foreign country. And now I want to continue to test my limits. See what I'm really capable of. I've become settled here within a month. I know I went through the 'honeymoon phase', because everything still fascinates me. Just because I can live my life on my own doesn't mean that I'm lonely, or want to spend the rest of it living by myself. But for now, I'm content with being independent, and exploring the new world that's been shown to me.

Always...no....Never...climb a mountain in flip-flops.

I've been eyeing this mountain for a month. I can see it from my desk at work, and in between the sky-scraper apartments while walking around town. I finally decided today as we were getting ready to leave that today was the day. I was told there were several paths you can take, and Cherita took me to the base of the mountain, which is very near her apartment. Mind you, I'm still dressed in my jeans, t-shirt, and flip-flops, along with my bag from work. But I figure, I'll try it. If I can't get that far, I'll just turn back and tackle it another day, with the proper clothing. But at least I know where the path is now. So I started to walk.

It was very scenic at first, and reminded me a bit of my parent's place up in Georgia. As I continued to walk, it started to get a bit steeper. 

And I got winded rather quickly. My calves started to hurt, in some places I would guess the angle was 50 degrees or more. Now I know why so many Korean women wear heels. They're nothing compared to walking up the side of a mountain (which is a national past-time. they sell hiking gear in HP like Walmart sells bikes and soccer balls). There were a few plateaus, one of which had an interesting mound, but I couldn't read the sign.

So I kept climbing. Mostly because I wanted to see how far I could go in flip-flops. And because I wanted to see if I could see my house from the top. I didn't make it to the top, partly because it was starting to get late and I didn't want to get caught on a mountain path at night with no flashlight. But I did get to see a great view:

My apartment is behind that little red building near the middle of the picture, which is a school. So after getting my fill of the view, and catching my breath, I started back down. That's when it got a bit tricky. Walking up dirt, gravel, and stone is one thing. Walking down is much harder. There are a few sections that have rope tied to the trees, but they're few and far between.

I almost slipped twice, so when I got to some of the bigger slopes with loose gravel, I decided it'd be easier to sit and scoot than to try and walk down. It worked, to an extent. I didn't fall, but I didn't realize how sharp the rocks were and how old my pants were, so one of my two pairs of jeans that I brought with me is no longer useable as they have a giant hole in them. Thankfully no one was behind me, and my shirt was long enough to cover me until I got to Cherita's house, where I borrowed a skirt for the 15 minute walk back home. So now I know (and knowing is half the battle) that I should come prepared next time with proper shoes and better pants. I can't wait to go back in the winter when it's snowing.