Bridging Cultures Day 1

Hey everyone! As Nick Plott would say, greetings from Seoul, Korea! These posts will be about my four days in Busan with Globalinks doing the "Bridging Cultures Program", basically a planned schedule of events to "bridge" our American culture with the Korean culture. Part of it was going to tourist-y sites, but some of it was legitimately cool and brought me closer to the country in which I will spend the next four months. So here goes.

Day 1: Arrival and Exploring.

August 16th, 2012 08:00. Waking up at the hostel on the semi-squishy pillow and the hard mattress was a blessing, just knowing the adventure was about to continue got me up and going. My flight from Gimpo Airport was supposed to leave at 18:00..and I had ten hours to kill. Not knowing Seoul at all, I decided to try to get an earlier flight. Now, I've tried this in the US...it's not the easiest thing in the world, but I figure hey, Korean might be different eh? So I spent as little time at the hostel as possible, though the owner was very nice and drove me to the train station, seven hours before my scheduled departure.

Well, I got to Gimpo without too much trouble. Seoul's subway system is complicated but incredible. Each train car has TVs and Wi-Fi on them (though it isn't free if you're not a KT-Olleh subscriber) and show exactly where you can transfer in both Korean and English. Once I got to Gimpo, I found my way to the ticket agent and asked if I and my massive suitcase could travel to Busan earlier than 18:00. She giggled and in five seconds booked me on a flight leaving in 20 minutes, saying I would have no problem getting there in time.

She couldn't have been more right. It took me 2 minutes to get through security, though I did make one stupid mistake. In America, when we say "come here" we motion with our palm up and our fingers moving towards our palm. That is extremely disrespectful in Korea. That is how they call over their dogs (though I have yet to see someone do it) and so instead you motion with your palm down as if you are swimming freestyle with one hand. Now, me being an oblivious American, when the security agent did this motion...I assumed she meant "stop", so I stood there like an idiot until she actually said the words "come through please". Got some snickers from behind me for that gem..

Anyway, I got to the gate and actually had time to spare, and one 45-minute flight later I arrived in Busan. Here are a few shots of the flight:

Whole album here.

The subway system in Busan is similar to Seoul, and I reached me destination stop and exit after some maneuvering through the purely Korean electronic way of paying. Unfortunately...this stop did not have an elevator where I needed one...so I had to lug my 55+ lb suitcase up 60-70 stairs in 90 degree heat, which of course left me looking studly as usual and not at all like Rosie O'Donnell after walking to her car.

After being lost for a few minutes and finally finding the hotel, I dropped off my luggage with the few other people who were already there. We were set to check in at 4pm, but we finagled it to 2pm. There were probably 20 doubles and 5 singles for people to be randomly assigned into. Luckily, yours truly received a single and promptly went upstairs to shower, change, and get back downstairs to explore Busan with people I had just met. Oh, and this was the view; not bad eh?

The first day ended with a few of us getting some Korean BBQ and just hanging out in different places in the city, but it was so hot that we were mostly indoors. If you'd like to check out some other random Busan pictures I took over those few days, head over to my Picasa album for it here.

Day 2: Actual Planned Events

Alright guys, the moment both of you have been waiting for, ACTUAL SUBSTANCE! So the first thing we had planned (after the excruciatingly long meeting we had every morning) was a trip with Charlotte, our resident Busan guide and total badass, over to the 해동용궁사, or Haedong Yonggung Temple, a beautiful Buddhist temple in Busan, and very tourist-y. This is totally fine with me because it really did help a lot of us feel closer to the Korean culture. We made our way through the temple's different buildings, and some of us learned some traditional Buddhist bows! All of the architecture and beauty of the buildings and landscape just made it a great place to start off the trip. I can't particularly explain the feelings I had..but I guess the closest word would be...serenity? It was a very peaceful place: no screaming children, no disrespect, no teenagers trashing anything, just very calm and respectful atmosphere against the beach. I'll post a few pictures but the entire album is here.

Once we had spent a couple of hours at the temple, we were taken to Haeundae Beach where we met up with a few Korean students who showed us around. Ours were very nice and took us to lunch at another Korean BBQ place near the beach which was amazing. Seeing how true Korean BBQ is done here just completely puts "Americanized" K-BBQ to shame. Haeundae is a beautiful beach but it's exactly how you'd see it in pictures if you'd Google it, extremely crowded. It's definitely better at night when all of the kids and older adults have gone away and it's mostly 20-somethings hanging out, but more on that later. Here are a few pics of the crowdedness:

Another thing I'll say about Haeundae is that Korea really has some things that are radically different than the US, things you wouldn't think about until you get here. For instance, they really have no concept of putting trash cans in places you'd actually need it. The trash cans here are few and far between, so much so that if you do actually see one, it's cause to get excited and throw out all the crap you've been carrying the entire day. Also, napkins are the tiniest, most thin pieces of crap you'll ever see here. They're like 1-ply toilet paper if it had been drenched with water, un-crumpled, and blow-dried. Some days I just hope to find a napkin like a US McDonalds has. That would make me extremely pleased. Some more of these tidbits will come along as I'm writing I'm sure. This part of the day ended with us walking along the beach and finally, after a couple of miles (yes, miles) got to a tourist center..which was a bit disappointing, but it was a nice workout and got me some great pictures. And since Leah had never been to the beach before, we had fun running around in the water, which was absolutely hilarious as I held my camera, phone, and wallet over my head in a vice-grip so as to not destroy them.

Anyway, the Haeundae album is here, but I'll toss a few pictures up now.

Interjection: Yes, the water is really that blue!

Me, Leah, and K-Buddy

Now we come to the part of the day that, when it was announced, I was most excited for; the Lotte Giants baseball game! As you (probably all) know, I'm a massive baseball fan, and even though most of you probably love my rival Cubs or Twins, I'll be a Sox fan until the day I die. As a random piece of information, my favorite Korean team is now the SK Wyverns. If you take a look at the manager of that team, you'll see a certain Lee Man-Soo. Now..if you're a true Sox fan, you'll know why I've picked them as my favorite team.

Korean baseball is...interesting. For one, they are absolute fanatics. They yell and scream and holler before, during, and after every pitch regardless of the score, count, or situation. Their traditional food isn't the hot dog, the brat, or even the famous Nacho Helmet...it's chicken. It's sold everywhere around the stadium...there's even a 7-11 type place next to the ticket booth for getting all the beer you need (which only costs $2 a bottle in the stadium). Too bad the chicken tastes sketchy and looks nothing like what you'd get at KFC...and is expensive. It's why most people stick to beer and why one of our group members got yelled at by security after 9 of them. Getting up to the stadium basically looked like this:

Pretty nice stadium eh? Yeah...it reminded me a bit of other stadiums I've visited...but only for very specific reasons such as being close to the field level like at Target Field or being squished by the people next to me like at Wrigley. During all the yelling, some baseball was finally played. A few people in the group hadn't ever been to a game before, and were confused by some of the aspects and why players did some of the things they did, and since I love baseball so much, I didn't mind explaining the rules in detail. However, the pitchers weren't very good...the fastest fastball was about 89, the curves were sloppy, the base-running was hilariously bad, and the hitting was on-par with the Japanese but nowhere near the players in the MLB. Nevertheless, it was a fun experience to see how excited everyone got. And of course...Gangnam Style was danced to by all as it filled at least two inning breaks accompanied by girls dancing on the dugout. There are a few videos in the album for this event.

Overall, very fun first couple of days. I'll toss some more events into another post because this will become...way too long if I throw it all into one post. See you soon!

Bridging Cultures Day 1

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