Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Few of My Favorite Things...

On several different occasions, I've written about some culture shock issues that come with living here in South Korea.  I don't think that I've overly complained like "why don't they do it like they do in America?", but there have definitely been a few head scratching, WTF moments since I landed on these shores.  Luckily, there's a whole lot of things that make Korea really, really cool and so far they've overshadowed the strange for me.

The example that jumps out at me the most is the level of service you get at almost every place I go.  Now, admittedly, as a foreigner I don't always get that service, but any time that I go out with a coworker or have at least one Korean in the group, the service is usually stellar.  (Exceptions always apply, of course.)  Good service is just the norm.  In some of the higher end restaurants in which I've worked, an amuse or "gift from the chef" was common for any call parties.  Others did it for every table.  A half ounce of tuna tartarre over a crispy croquet is almost a joke when you compare it to some of the items I've received at no extra charge.  Order the largest pitcher of beer and more often than not, one of the workers will show up with hot wings and say "service, service" before placing it on your table.  Buy a deli sandwich at the local Family Mart, and you will occasionally get a free juice.  (The free juice is more like a coupon, but it's still nice.)  What does the server expect to get out of this little act of kindness?  Nothing.  For the most part, you don't tip in Korea.  That goes for taxis, doormen, servers, bartenders, barristas, you name it.  I do tip at some of the more western style bars, but most just assume that you made a mistake and force the money back in your hand.  Having worked in a tipping industry for almost fifteen years, it's hard for me to admit this, but it's nice to receive good service simply because someone regards it as doing their job... not because they think I'm going to leave a big tip.

Another upside to restaurants in South Korea is speed.  Eateries are set up a little different here than they are back home.  Variety is not as much of an option.  In general, restaurants are split up by the type of meat they serve and the style in which they serve it.  There are still "family restaurants" like Outback and TGIFriday's, but they are considerably more expensive and are usually reserved for more of a special occasion. We usually just decide that we are in the mood for chicken or pork or beef or octopus or whatever and we go to a restaurant that only serves that food.  If you have a large group, it can make the decision a little more difficult, but it usually ensures prompt service at every spot.  When a restaurant only has two or three items on its menu, you can have the majority of the meal prepped and ready to go almost immediately.  It's not fast food, per se, it's just food that comes fast.  It doesn't have all the MSG and other preservatives that make McD's and other fast food places so unhealthy.  One of my favorite local meals is a dish called Daeji Gukbap which is a pork soup with rice.  That dish is literally the only thing that's served in the restaurant where it can be found.  So, you're either in the mood for pork or you're not.  It's the same way with the Nakji Bokeum that has also become a bit of a staple dish for me since both shops are so close to work.  This dish is actually prepared in a small grill that's built into your dining table.  Here's a few pics of the dish as it's prepared.  Far left is uncooked and just placed over the flame.  The next pic shows the dish coming to a boil.  The bottom picture is the finished dish served over rice.



Coffee is another huge upside to living in Korea.  I know what you're thinking, "Starbucks is on every corner in the US."  In Korea, Starbucks is around, but the little mom and pop barristas are much more prevalent.  There are many other corporate-coffee places like Pascucci, A Twosome Place, and Coffeebean around the city, but it's the small coffee shops that I enjoy the most.  The Americano (espresso and hot water) is the beverage of choice over here and can be found at most of these shops for around two bucks.  (In the three months I've been here, there have been two seperate chart-topping songs dedicated to the americano.  I think the second one's a remix of Tu Vuo Fa L'Americano to a shuffle-beat but I don't have the heart to tell them it has nothing to do with coffee.)  The point is... Korean's love their capo and I love them for it.  It's close to impossible to get Monster, Red Bull, Rockstar, or any other true energy drink over here.  If they took coffee away, too, I might sleep for the rest of my life.

If you have some sort of strange aversion to a coffee shop experience, there are other ways to get your fix.  In the corner of every 7-11 or Family Mart, there is a stand full of bagged juice or overly sweet coffee options.  A sixteen ounce cup of ice comes complimentary at the massive total price of about $1.  I prefer to get my coffee freshly made at a shop, but these stands are great for a juice options.Strawberry or Blueberry Juice anyone?  Go with the blueberry, both are really good, but the strawberry tastes a lot more sugary.  
Another sheer stroke of genius is the milkshake-in-a-bag.  There a large number of little ice cream novelty treats at the local marts, all in different shapes and flavors.  There's a watermelon flavored ice cream that comes in the shape of a slice of watermelon, a drumstick-like treat that's a more flat and easier to hold, or a coffee flavored ice cream in a tube that breaks in the middle so you can share with a friend.  None of these are as awesome an idea as the milkshake in a bag.  You pull it out of the freezer and have to knead it with your hands to get it soft enough to eat.  Considering how hot it's been, crushing it up in your hands can be as refreshing as the actual ice cream.  Okay, that's bullshit... ice cream is always gonna be better than a cold hand.


These aren't my all time favorite parts of Korea, but each of them stack up nicely to make this trip that much more enjoyable. 

Friday, August 19, 2011

Fortnights and Fortitudes, part 2

(I've gone back and forth about whether to publish this story.  I do not want to ever single anyone out in these blogs and I go out of my way to try and leave names off the page.  These are my personal stories and you can take them or leave them.  Remember that there is a different side to every story told, though.  The guy referred to as Drunkie in this blog is just as alone over here as I am.  I do not know him that well, but everyone adjusts to a major life change in a different way.  He was very easy to target this weekend, but that doesn't mean I don't have a little sympathy for him.  Part 1 of this blog can be found here)

This past weekend promised to be a little more organized than the previous one, simply by limiting the number of people on the trip.  The more people on the trip, the more down time from bathroom breaks and stragglers.  Or at least that's the conventional wisdom.  We'd find out over the course of the weekend that it only takes one...

Most of the trips put on by this travel group are open to any of the 600+ members of it's Facebook page.  A few of them are a first come, first serve basis.  Every once in a while, Charles has an invite-only trip for people that have been on several excursions with him.  This was one of those times.  This one happened to fall right in the middle of summer break for many of the ESL teachers in the area and it was also a three day weekend.  The original plan was stream trekking all day Sunday, camping out that night, and letting Monday take us where it would.  A lack of camping equipment for everyone and a strong possibility of rain had us abandon the camping for a minbak, but that was the only real change.

I will start off by taking partial blame for the events that would transpire over the next 12 hours or so.  While I did not force anything upon anyone, I did provide the catalyst that would provide the group with a very, very long day.  I brought the Soju.  Now, this is not an attempt at braggadocio, but I've been known to imbibe a few times over the last fifteen or twenty years.  I've also been known to put myself in embarrassing situations.  I was once pulled over in a Jack in the Box drive-thru wearing nothing on but the skin I was born in.  (The cops couldn't keep a straight face long enough to ticket me, so they just followed me the one block home.  I miss Las Vegas.)  I understand that sometimes the thirst can grab you and take you to places that you didn't know existed... you're own little Oz.  Keeping this in mind, I try not to judge but it's not easy.  In retrospect, I should not have pulled out the first bottle of soju at 10am.

The five members of our little tour hit it off pretty much from the start.  Two friends had came together from a different city, but other than that, we were virtual strangers.  We played a few drinking games on the bus and basically set the table for the rest of the day.  We stopped for food around 1pm and that's when the first indication of future trouble really occurred.  One of the guys decided that he didn't want to eat lunch.  A beer or two would be enough to keep him going for the next seven or eight hours he said.  The rest of us gorged ourselves on the spicy duck with rice dish called oli bulgogi.  He continued to drink.  After lunch we headed to the stream and quickly saw that we were not the only ones who thought that the 3 day weekend would be a perfect time for a little nature trip.  There were people and tents everywhere.  The stream was completely inundated with Koreans on inner tubes.  At times, it looked like a lazy river ride at a waterpark.  Luckily, the further we went upstream, the more the crowds began to thin.  There were many good spots for jumping and swimming along the way, so we stopped when it suited us.  That was the best part about the small group; you can only be pulled in 5 different directions instead of 25.  Four of us were pretty much on the same page, but the lunch-skipper was starting to do his own thing.
The sign on the left says No Swimming; the sign on the right says No Jumping.  Oops.


I brought a little mini-cooler filled with soju and beer for the trekking and we were dipping into it pretty consistently, but the four of us weren't getting hammered by any means.  It was more like a casual day drinking at the lake.  Drunkie didn't get the memo, I guess.  The further we walked, the more he stumbled.  The river didn't split anywhere so we would occasionally leave him in shallow sections as we kept walking towards the next series of pools and jumps.  Towards the end of the day, Charles took us a little off the main stream into a side tributary that ended up being the highlight of the day for rest of us.  About thirty minutes later, Drunkie stumbled to where our guide was waiting at the split.  Eventually, he made it up to join us.

While the stream itself had been pretty busy, the hidden alcove had only one group of four Koreans at a small portable picnic table.  They were friendly with us all and even invited us to share their samgyupsal.  The alcove was protected from the sun by a bridge overhead.  That left the deep water several degrees cooler than the river had been just a few minutes before.  It was very refreshing.  The only real downside to this spot was that the water was much darker than the rest.  It was still clear, but the combination of a lack of sun and the depth of the pools left it difficult to see the bottom.  This was a particularly large problem for us considering we were having an epidemic of lost sunglasses and necklaces.  No one could seem to remember to take off their sunglasses before jumping.  Two of of the party members were divers, so that helped considerably.  Lost items weren't the only issue with dark waters, though.  As I was floating beside one of the rocks, I managed to get my feet tangled in some loose kite string.  The more I tried to free myself, the worse it got.  Finally, I had to pull float while one of the girls helped me out.  After finally getting free, I started pulling in the string so it didn't happen again.  Eventually, I got to the end and pulled up a small catfish attached to a hook on the end.  The Koreans at the that had joined us said that this was somehow a sign of good luck.  I was just glad the hook didn't end up in my foot. 

As the sun continued to go down, the alcove got darker and darker.  We said our goodbyes and went back to the river.  At this time, Drunkie decided that he didn't want to go the way that we were headed so he climbed out and tried to walk above the stream instead of in it like the rest of us.  That translated into more waiting for him to try to make his way back to the group.  By this time, we were fed up.  We went a little further up the river and spent some time at a waterfall shoot that was a blast, but every stop took twice as long as it should because he could not keep up.  As you can see from the picture, the sun was going down fast and the walking would be pretty treacherous if it went down completely.  This didn't help convince Drunkie to walk a little faster... or even stay with the group.  He again went off on his own as our guide tried to corral him towards the path while it was still visible.  We finally got to our stop as the sun went down for good.  The worst of Drunkie was still yet to come, though.

When we got to the spot were we were supposed to sleep for the night, we found out quickly that it was supposed to rain that night and, if it did, we would be stuck on the wrong side of the river.  So we started a twenty minute walk towards our bus to go to another spot.  There was a little confusion and our group got split up a bit.  When we realized what had happened, everyone stopped on a small bridge and waited to get everyone back together.  Drunkie did not stop with the rest of us and no one really noticed.   He decided he'd just meet us at the bus.  He must've forgot that he had no idea where the bus was parked or which road to take at the four way stop to find it.  We're in the middle of the Korean wilderness.  There are no lights and there are cliffs on all sides going down to the river valley.  We spent the next three hours trying to find him.  No one had eaten since early that afternoon, and all of us were fresh out of energy.  Eventually, he hit resend on his phone and called the bus driver.  Luckily, the guide had used Drunkie's phone to call the first time.  Stumbling around lost for three hours seemed to sober him up for a time, but it wouldn't last.

We finally arrived at our actual minbak for the night and Drunkie partially redeemed himself by making dinner.  When he had gotten back to the bus, he had attempted to put the blame on us for him being lost, but he was quickly backed down.  Despite everything that he done so far, that dinner was delicious.  It was augmented by some delicious grilled eel provided by a friend of the guide.  Unfortunately, that goodwill was short-lived as he started to drink whiskey with a group of Korean marines that were also staying in our minbak.

Minbak picture from a previous trip
About this time, I had decided to call it a night.  It had been a long day and another long day was planned for Monday.  I didn't really sleep, though.  I read for a bit and just rested mostly.  About an hour later the rest of the group started to come into the room.  The Koreans that Drunkie had been drinking alongside begged us to put him to bed.  Begrudgingly, the other guy in the group helped lead him into the room and directed him into his own little corner.  In the picture, you can see how a minbak is just an empty room with a pallets laid out on the floor.  It's nice and cheap and is a great way for large groups to travel together.  Snoring tends to be the only real problem with these types of rooms.  We had a different sort of issue on this particular evening, though.  Thankfully, we pushed him off into his own corner, because somewhere over the course of the night, Drunkie pissed himself.

The next morning we woke to fresh omelets and Mandu Ramyun.  Then, we were quickly greeted with the sounds of a dying giraffe coming from inside the minbak.  Needless to say, Mr. Drunkie had turned into Mr. Hangover.  After keeping quiet for a while, someone finally broke down and told him that he had pissed himself in his sleep.  He then came up with some convoluted excuse about how when he drinks he pisses on his post prized possession... like some sort of inebriated enlightenment.  When he picked up on the fact that nobody was swallowing his bullshit, he finally relented and just slept in the back of the bus.  The rest of the day was fairly laid back and pleasant.  No trekking on Monday... just swimming and lounging around.  We even got back to Pusan a little early and enjoyed the last hour or two of Haeundae Beach before having burgers at the best Irish pub in town, The Wolfhound.  Drunkie stuck with his m.o. and disappeared before we even hit the beach.  Finally, though, he was not our responsibility to watch.  No one looked for him this time.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Fortnight's and fortitudes, part 1

(I decided to split this post into two parts.  Part 2 tomorrow or later on tonight)

So it's been two weeks or so since my last blog and a whole lot has happened.  Most importantly, the internet service and AC that was guaranteed in my contract were finally provided after 3 months of promises.  I've also gone on two more mini-trips; one was awesome despite random acts of buffoonery, the other left much to be desired.  I've also made a decision to take a more proactive role in cutting a few pounds.  Eating right over here is a fairly easy thing to do as long as you avoid the quick and easy pitfalls, but the copious amounts of alcohol that seem to be consumed on random Wednesdays needs to be curtailed a bit.  I've also been a lot more active on the weekends with these trips, but a little effort through the week will go a long way I think.  Unfortunately, gym memberships are two to three times the cost of a membership in the United States.  We shall see.

I'm gonna put a bit of a disclaimer for this particular blog entry.  The second weekend trip involved one drunken individual that did many annoying things.  The problem is that several of those things would be ridiculously embarrassing for him and I'm just not as malicious as I was in the past(or at least I'm trying to not be.)  I still want to write about the trip and everything that he did adds a helluva lot to the story.  So, there's my dilemma.  I have a little catching up to do before that tale gets told, so maybe I'll change my mind by then.

I've been going on weekend trips with a guy here in Pusan that organizes everything for us in advance and then acts as a guide the entire trip.  He's been hosting these events for 12 years now and everyone that I've been on as been a blast so far, until this particular weekend, that is.  First things first, none of the disappointment was the fault of the organizer.  Things just didn't quite work out right.  I still continued the trend of meeting more like minded individuals and that aspect of the trip was a success. 

The weekend was billed as a White Water Rafting & Tofu Making excursion.  The day started off slow with several stragglers that pushed our start time back.  It wasn't an overnight trip, so there wasn't as much wiggle room with the itinerary.  When we arrived at the rafting location, I could immediately tell that this might not be what I was hoping for in the trip.  To start, you could see a lot of rafts in the water... water that was calmly rolling down the river.  I've honestly seen more white water coming from my faucet, but I was pretty sure that there would be more actual rapids down the river.  We could only see the launching area from the road, so of course it was going to be calm.  When we got to the equipment shack we were given life vests and helmets and made to put them on immediately. 

I thought both were a bit ridiculous, but in general, Koreans can't swim.  Or at least they can't swim very well.  If you go to the beach and you get out past your chest, a swarm of ninja's on jet skis will descend on you and corral you back to the beach.  (I call them ninja's because they are covered from nose to toes in a wet suit and many of them also wear a mask and hat of some sort to keep their bodies from seeing any sort of sun at all.)

Our group of 22 were split into two separate groups because they only had two guides available.  The boats were crowded to say the least.  This is where the experience split for the group.  The ten that ended up on the first boat had a blast;  their guide was fun, they were organized, and he spoke at least a little English.  My group of twelve was not so lucky.  Our guide was always in a rush, he couldn't speak any English at all (or he refused to), and he was terrible at steering.  We managed to get stuck on protruding rocks at least four times on a two hour float trip.  That was the other problem: despite the helmet and life jacket requirement, the water was calm for 95% of the trip.  The overloaded boat also meant that we bottomed out every time the water got the least bit shallow.  The guide's lack of competency, lack of English, or our own lack of ability pushed us into every major rock in the river.  After about an hour of this, our boat had a full on mutiny.  Helmets and vests were flung to the side and we jumped out of the boat for a swim.  The guide of course was not happy, but we couldn't understand him anyway. 

After we got back to the equipment shed, it became apparent that we would not have enough time for the tofu-making portion of our trip.  I was looking forward to that portion of the trip, but I wasn't that broken up when it had to be cancelled.  After getting a bite to eat and drinking a few more beers, it was decided to call it a day and head back to Pusan.  I'm not sure what the soup was at this particular restaurant, but it tasted like the juice from homegrown jars of green cooked in bacon fat for hours and hours..... delicious.  The beer, of course, just tasted like beer.

Despite the poor turn to the day, the trip was one of smiles.  Back home, its just not that easy to get a large group of people together for anything.  At SIU-C and in Las Vegas, it was a little easier, but most of the time everything was a still a last minute decision.  It takes a bit of an adventurous soul to decide to move to the other side of the world, to start.  The majority of us are twenty or thirty-somethings, unmarried and without children.  There are exceptions, of course, but it seems to be the exact opposite of back home where getting settled down and raising a family seems to be the norm.  I'm just not that guy right now.  I might never be.... sorry, Mom.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Summertime and the living's easy?

So last week started the beginning of the summer vacation here in Korea, not that it's been any sort of real "vacation" for me.  Public schools and universities are out of school for 5 or 6 weeks, but hagwons don't have the same schedule.  Most of them actually extend their hours during the break and turn into an educational daycare of sorts.  Despite the longer hours, most of the private hagwons do take a week or so off, but I wasn't that lucky.  We were closed for Thursday and Friday.  It wasn't the reload that I was hoping to receive, but it was still alright.  I had friends over here that went to Thailand, friends that went to the Philippines, and Japan.  I had one friend that tried unsuccessfully to go to Shanghai (Visa issues when they actually landed in China).  I didn't have that opportunity due to the short break, but I did my best to make the most of it.

I spent Thursday with a friend and pretty much stayed at home on Friday, in preparation for a highly anticipated trip on Saturday and Sunday.  The Uljin Nature Trip (a river-trekking and windsurfing 2day excursion) was billed as being one of the tour guides "top three Shangra-La" spots in Korea... it didn't disappoint.  To get to the spot was not easy and was not fast, but it was worth it.  We started out early Saturday morning, a feat in itself when it comes to ESL teachers in Busan.  The drive was said to take around 4 hours, but traffic got pretty bad in one spot and we lost almost 2 hours.  Unfortunately, that lost time would limit us later on in the day.  There were twenty-four of us on the trip, but lunch and bathroom breaks were surprisingly well coordinated... otherwise more time would have been lost.  As far as "missing out" on some portion of the trip?  Luckily, none of us really know what we missed out on doing, so it didn't really affect us that much.  River-trekking was the main attraction on that first day.


In general, the only downside to nature trips in Korea is the sheer number of people on the trail.  Hiking is a very, very popular sport here, and you never seem to truly get away from large groups of people.  On last weeks trip, we saw probably 50 or 60 people while we were hiking.  That was not the case this week.  With the exception of some campers when we first entered the river, we were the only trekkers in the water.  After a long bus trip, it was good to get out and stretch out legs.  After a few hundred yards, it became increasingly obvious why a waterproof bag was required for the trip.  The banks were high and rocky and the spotty pools got deeper and deeper.  Eventually we were swimming against the light current attempting to hold camera bags and such above our heads.  While the trekking was fun, the diving was when the real fun started. 

After walking through the water for an hour or so, we came to the first spot where diving was available.  There was a small outcropping of rock that only rose a few meters above the water, but the pool itself was at least 5 meters deep... plenty deep enough to dive without any problems.  We spent a little time at this one, but soon continued down the river with promises of taller cliffs and deeper pools.  The next spot was twice as high with cliffs on two sides and a waterway shoot just upriver from it.  This is where we spend the largest amount of our time. 


I think that every member of our group jumped from this spot at least one time.  Took a while for some of them to work up the nerve, but I'm pretty sure that every one of them eventually made the jump.  While the height doesn't look too perilous in this pic, the view from above was a bit different.  You had to jump further out from this particular spot... only a few feet, but it looked a lot more daunting.  On my second jump, I got some sort of pressure headache from the way i was holding my breath.  The only obvious solution was to lounge languidly in the water and pull out the beer and soju that comprised everything that I had brought in my backpack... it's always good to plan ahead.  After last weeks trip, I learned my lesson and brought plenty of alcohol.  Or at least I brought enough to get us a through the first few hours of the trip, but don't worry, there was a fully stocked store just a few feet from the beginning of the trail.  I told you before, Korean's take their drinking and hiking very seriously and very vigorously.  I agree with at least half of this philosophy.

Entrance to the river... the only other people were in the tents in the background

The day was starting to get long and the next set of cliffs was another two hours up the river... this was when our driving delays started to catch up.  Knowing the trip back would not be safe as the sunlight began to wane, we started back down the river and began the next part of the trip... a limestone cave tour with lanterns.

By the time, we had gotten to the hostel, the sun was already down and it was time for the cave tour.  We joked around a lot when we were required to wear the hardhats into the caves, but the ceilings were low, the cave was black except for our lanterns, and the majority of us were on the far side of a good drunk.  (One opted to sleep it off in the bus and skip out on the cave all together.)  All that considered, the hard hats were probably a good idea.  I don't know if they truly saved us from being accosted by low flying bats, but I think they helped.  (Despite all the written warnings, I still jumped a bit when one flew at my face.)  The cave was interesting, but I grew up just a few hours from Meramec Caverns so this one didn't have a huge impact on me.  The hand carved marital aids sold in a small corner store outside the cave, however, immediately grabbed my attention.  As you can see from the picture, someone must've been practicing their technique. 


After the lantern tour, we came back to the hostel to a huge dinner with boiled chicken and pork dumplings.  I'd tell you that after dinner we all retired for the evening, but I assume that you'd smell the lie and know that we ended up playing drinking games on the beach until the early morning.  After an eventful night of "I never", "3 truths" and several other games, our host woke us with Naengmyeon and soju.  The next day would prove to be as fun as the first.

Sunday morning was overcast with very little wind.  Luckily, it didn't stop us from trying to windsurf.  The convenient store beneath our hostel was strangely run out of beer and soju the night before, but luckily, the alcohol truck must've arrived before we woke at 8am.  At least it was lucky for me, I was hurting in a way that only a full-fledged continuation could fix... hair of the dog and such.  Windsurfing was now on the plate.

I'll start off by saying that the day would've been a lot more interesting if we had been granted at least a modicum amount of wind, but it wasn't in the cards for this Sunday.  Despite a severe lack of airflow, windsurfing turned out to be a lot of fun.  The staff that hosted our training session were really the reason for the good times.  They fully understood that it wasn't the best day for windsurfing and the "training" reflected that knowledge.  We all made our attempts, some of us were more determined for success and a few of us were more hellbent for a full on training session.  There were trainers there to meet those demands.  Thankfully for the rest of us, the whole day was very laid back and when the wind gods didn't cooperate, they brought out a motorized skid and several 2man rafts to extend our fun.  Considering that gravity has not been my biggest fan for the previous decade or so, the rafts were a welcome alternative.  Through it all, of course, there was an ample supply of beer and soju.  (I hope that you, the reader, are beginning to realize that the drinks are just part of the experience over here.)  I spent the highpoint of the day lounging in a raft (as evidenced by the strange "life-jacket-sunburn" that I've been sporting since returning from the trip.)  A little frisbee tossing and some catch with an American football and our weekend came to an end. 

.... except of course for the 4 hour bus drive back to Busan.