Monthly Archives: May 2010

Regular pizza

Some days, it’s tempting to eat Western food. For example, today I went into a pizza place, thinking I could get a slice of pizza, maybe a salad, just to have some easy dinner. The sign out front looked promising, except maybe for the broccoli and the sauce circled on top, maybe mustard. Still, it seemed worth a try.

I sat down and perused the menu. The four main pizzas offered were: sweet potato (with sweet potato, sweet potato mousse, peppers, onions, …), potato (potato, sweet potato mousse…), chili galbi, chicken potato. I’m usually able to eat a Korean meal for 5,000 won (less than $5), and these all started around 20,000.

hmmm, never mind, then!

Getting out the votes for Mayoral and Gubernatorial Elections

The talk of South Korea in the world is on the national level and the tensions with North Korea. But here on the streets of Busan, what I see is about the June 2 mayoral and gubernatorial elections. June 2 is a vacation day for many people to encourage voting.

How do people here work to motivate voters? I’ve seen:

  • A dozen women in matching t-shirts with the candidates number and white gloves, waving in unison to passers by, singing or saying the candidates name
  • Trucks driving down the street, with a microphone. In the cab of the truck sits the driver, in the middle is the candidate or his rep talking on the microphone, and on the right is someone working the audio controls and waving.
  • College age students with matching t-shirts and sashes worn diagonally over the shoulder, handing out flyers, in the crowded pedestrian areas
  • A candidate making a speech on a stage parked in a busy pedestrian area. A crowd of about 100 people listened and cheered. His speech was complemented by a shimmering screen (maybe 10′ x 15′). The images on the screen showed cartoon versions of the voting ballot, marking his name, and a cartoon version of himself with a superman outfit.
  • At the rear of this gathering, several people who were silent carried candles whose flame was shielded by an inverted paper cup mounted near the top of the candle. One carried a sign, “No vote. No kiss.”

Anyone who knows me would not say I was politically keen in my own country. But here, wow, there’s a lot I don’t understand!

How South Korea makes it easy

It’s hard to get over how many things South Korea has figured out that make life nice here for a traveler:

  • personal security (you can open your wallet, carry and use cell phones or cameras without notice, no rude comments as you walk the streets),
  • clean water,
  • warm showers,
  • fresh vegetables that you can eat,
  • free internet in hotels (and internet cafes on every block),
  • reliable, affordable (less than $1 around town) rapid transportation (subway and buses),
  • taxis that have meters (and no tipping)
  • and national parks aplenty (with signage explaining sites, accessible by public transport, free!)

Business Uniform and caring

I think in the US, we’ve come to think of dressing casual as a way to remove the barriers between hierarchies. We think of it as a nice thing to do.

In Korea, looking dressed up and professional is a way to show that you care about and respect whomever you meet and are working with.

If you dress sloppily, it means you don’t care about the other person. This is especially pertinent for the first meeting, first impression.

As you might guess, I’ve been dressing up a lot more than I would at home. Given this lens, it’s easier to take!

Kids chasing pigeons

Kids chasing pigeons

Two toddlers chased pigeons in Busan Station plaza, but they were too slow and the pigeons too cheeky, so they never actually got the pigeons to fly

Beomosa Temple Walk

A nice break from the busy streets of Busan!

Today we took subway then a bus up hairpin turns to the trail on Geumjeongsan Mountain, less than an hour from my motel.  We hiked on the trail upwards, then walked along the fortress wall from the now non-existent fortress Geumjeong. Think, very mini version of the Great Wall. After awhile we wound down a boulder strewn trail, under shady trees. There were hundreds of hikers on the trail, but it was a perfect walk altogether. We ended up at the Beomosa Buddhist Temple.

Not almonds

Today, I was in the convenience store in the subway, looking for a snack for our hike. I was thinking a sandwich, nuts or fruit. I found tuna kimbap (like tuna sushi) but thought that might not be good in the heat. I got excited when I thought I saw a can of Blue Diamond roasted almonds. But when I picked it up and looked closer, I realized those aren’t almonds. The label, luckily in English, said Silkworm Chrysalis. I settled for the candy coated peanuts and some cheese bread, happily.

Session vacation …doesn’t really mean vacation

During our first day of training, our instructor told us, “You know, there is no vacation with this job.”

Um, yeah, I muttered nervously. Everyone in the class also was nodding and chuckling. Yeah, ha ha.

But, I thought we had 8-10 paid vacation days!! Didn’t our contract state 8-10 vacation days! I don’t understand!

When we got to that section of the Instructor’s Manual, he explained: “8 – 10 session vacation days”means that during a 12-month period you will teach for 20 days per month. The extra days in the month, when the school is closed, you will not teach. That is your session vacation.

We received the 2010 Session Calendar…our work schedule.

Session vacations for 2010 were listed:

  • Wed March 31
  • Fri Apr 16
  • Fri Apr 30
  • Wed June 2
  • Thu, Fri July 29, 30
  • Mon, Tue August 30, 31
  • Fri November 19
  • Tue November 30
  • Fri December 24
  • Thu, Fri December 30, 31

Korean national holidays for 2010 are shown as:

  • Fri January 1
  • Sat, Sun, Mon February 13-15
  • Mon March 1
  • Wed May 5
  • Fri May 21
  • Tue Wed Thu Sep 21, 22, 23
  • Sat Dec 25

Notice that a good number of holidays are on Saturday and Sunday!

In the USA, we define vacation and holiday such that:

  • 8-10 days of vacation means you don’t have to do your regular month’s dutieis that month
  • you get to choose what days you take off for vacation, with adequate notice
  • you can take a week or two of vacation at once
  • holidays fall on days you would normally work

According to YBM’s interpretation of session vacation and holidays, none of these apply.

Beware if you are signing a contract in Korea, or maybe just with YBM, that you may not be getting the time off that you think you are.

Lots of people …and how to handle it?

I walked past roughly 1,000 people today in my brief three blocks through the underground shopping mall, and another 500 in the few blocks to my hotel.

It would be easy to think that it was all ‘too much’, since I’m definitely not used to that. But, I’m reminded of how someone told us that if we were going to Central America we should love beans and rice. Similarly, in a country with 50 million people (in S Korea, and another 25 million in N Korea), I decided in order to love it here, I am seeking ways to handle the crowds and be happy.

If I would have been at home, I would have done a foot soak in salt water …something I learned in my meditation class. If you believe that we are an electrical/magnetic being, it makes sense that when you’re energy gets mixed up and scattered that you want to get grounded and cleaned up.

I decided that meditating was probably a good idea, as usual. I downloaded some new meditation music and was happy to have a quiet spot to be in my motel room. Getting grounded, and connected.

You are here …or, I’m ready for a phone with GPS

Today, I’m trying to just walk around the area that I’ll be working and living. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, so I’m trying to take my time and soak it in. (Notice the map below, which would probably be helpful, if I could read Korean!)

Factors that make it a bit tricky are

  • Multiple levels: you operate both on the street level, then also underground in the shopping mall (which has a thousand tiny stores and two parallel aisles), multiple entries and exits up and down to the street.
  • Chain stores:  there are a lot of chains with lots of locations: SK Telecom, Family Mart, Paris Baguette, Starbucks, McDonald’s, so something I think is unique, I find a block later. (It’s like saying, meet me at the Starbucks in downtown Seattle!)
  • Street names and numbers: maybe there are street names posted but often I don’t see any. Also, I’ve read that addresses indicate more when something was built rather than the location in the block, but I don’t see those either.

I can get a phone until I get my alien registration card, and I can get that after I have my health check. When I do get one, maps and gps are features that I hope to have and use!

Fast, healthy, afforable food

In addition to the price of food being very reasonable (meals for less than $5 usually), the service is amazing too. You order within a minute or two of when you walk in. The food comes out within five minutes, max.

And since everything comes with side dishes, you can mix and match to get the perfect flavors to your taste.

There is cold, filtered water available (either self serve or they put a pitcher on your table), and there’s no tipping.

It’s great since I don’t have a way to cook for myself, that I can easily, affordably, quickly get healthy food anywhere, anytime. (There’s the small detail that I don’t know exactly how to order it or what I’ll get it!)

Ordering food …like gambling

Yesterday, I was given a tip on what to order at a nearby restaurant. I wrote down the name of the dish, “dongeseu”. So, today I went in and said the word. The woman there nodded yes, then asked me a question. I just kept saying yes, and she left. She came back and asked another question, with a few choices. I motioned, I don’t know. She asked again, so I picked one.

And like everything I’ve ordered so far, it was great!

What this process is making me realize is how much information we have about our own food, that we don’t even realize.

At home, if I see a restaurant, I might be able to tell from the outside if it’s Italian, Mexican, a Burger joint, a diner, Chinese, etc.  I also know what I might be able to order: Lasagna, Spaghetti, Enchiladas, Chili cheese fries, Moo goo gai pan.

Here, I don’t recognize what types of places there are, what types of food they serve, what they’re called in Korean (spoken or written), how it tastes, how to eat it.

Luckily, the prices of everything has been great. Usually you get a full lunch or dinner for less than $5. So, it’s not a big gamble, it’s just hard not to feel ignorant when your food knowledge is that of a two-year-old.

Fork!!!

Earlier today at the train station in Seoul, I ordered a Yogurt Dessert at the Red & White (fast food place). It also came with a fork (plastic). It was iceberg lettuce, red peppers, corn, and black olives with a strawberry yogurt dressing. Dessert? Ok! It was actually really nice! I saved the plastic fork.

Tonight, I ate at the vegetarian restaurant near my hotel (also near my school). The Loving Hut salad came with a fork, no chopsticks and no spoon! I was eating before I realized how odd it was. I haven’t seen a fork before today, since I got here.

The salad was great: yellow and red bell peppers, pear, red cabbage, green cabbage, parlsey?, and some kind of vegetarian protein chicken-esque strips.

What really set the meal off though was the scent of the lemon tea that came with it. More like warm homemade lemonade, with a lemon slice, the aroma of lemon while eating the fresh salad was so refreshing and calming.

Walkers

It was a perfect spring day today in Seoul. I took a walk and ended up on a mountain trail in Nansam Mountain Park. Think NY’s Central Park, but up a hill overlooking the city, still within walking distance of much of Seoul.

A good mile up the trail, in addition to many people casually out walking, I saw:

  • many businessmen in suits,
  • many women in high heels,
  • a woman carrying her Starbucks coffee cup,
  • competitive runners in serious running outfits,
  • an SUV that two tourists jumped out of, ran, took a photo and got back in the car,  (the SUV was on the walking path)
  • a woman who stopped to bow at the shrine to a former leader, along the side of the path
  • a man walking a tiny little dog. they stopped at an overlook. The dog waited next to him on the railing. (Don’t jump!, I wanted to say, but there were a couple levels of language barrier …Korean, and dog!)

Talk of War

When I logged on to check my email is the first mention I’ve heard since I’ve been here about the N/S tensions.  The headline was from Time’s website today “War on Korean Peninsula: High Tension Scenarios”. That is pretty different than “these skirmishes happen twice a year” that others report.

For now, I can’t comment either way, and I’m not sure if/when I could.

Follow up…

A coworker today said most people in South Korea would say, It’s disturbing and we wish it wasn’t so, but it doesn’t affect my daily life.

Training in Seoul

There are just five of us in the class: one Brit (whose dad is from Ghana, coincidentally), four Americans. One, was actually born in Korea, so she is expert on the two-finger sign that is the common photo pose here. I obviously don’t have that down yet.

Just one half block behind us and to the left is our company’s office. Just a few doors down in front and on the left if our hotel, the Samsung Hotel. (Samsung is an area in Seoul, as well as a Korean word that means ‘three stars’)

Topgol Park (1471 sculpture)



Right across from my company’s offices is a park with a carved sculpture and 10-story pagoda from around 1471. It’s a little oasis, where you have to stroll and meander (a refreshing change from the hustle and bustle of the street outside the gate)