After my week in Korea, I would like to greet you with 'hello' in Korean, but Korean is really difficult and I didn't get the hang of any of it, so English will have to suffice!
It's late and I'm super tired - too much sleep on holiday backfired when I couldn't sleep last night. My cold (going on six months here!!) didn't help either. I ended up getting up and lying on the couch, coughing away as I finished my book. So the good news is I finished my book! The bad news is I don't want to know how little sleep I got (purposefully didn't look at the clock!).
Sorry, my point about all that was that I should be getting to bed now. But tomorrow I will have millions of student journals on my desk (there were 127 when I left, plus whatever was handed in last week :( ) and after that I need to get back into Wide Island View so I wanted to write something tonight while the experience was fresh in my mind.
(Side note: I'm sorry I've been so shite at blogging this year. I changed my gmail address but google won't let me change the address associated with this blog, so I have to log out of one email and log in with another to blog. It's enough of a disincentive to stop me, turns out!!)
Anyway, I have two main conclusions from a week in Korea: Busan smells of fish, and we are way more adjusted to Japanese life than we realise!
We got to Korea by taking a boat from Fukuoka, in Southern Japan and spent our first three days in Busan. I didn't realise Busan is, basically, a large fishing village. For someone who hates the smell of raw fish so much that she avoids the fish section of the supermarket, that perhaps wasn't my best holiday destination... Lonely Planet says about Busan that 'cultural mores prevent most people from initiating contact with foreigners' and locals can 'giggle at the sight of international travellers'. This is perhaps something I should have read BEFORE we went there! It doesn't seem a big deal when I write it like that, but you have to understand that in Japan, often we are stopped in the supermarket so people can say "Hello-how-are-you?" to practise their English, before they walk away giggling. When we go to the post office or bank, people apologise for not speaking English (because it's not like we're in their country, right??). So to come to a country that DOESN'T bend over backwards to communicate with us was somewhat of a shock! In Busan's defense, on our last afternoon there, shortly after a conversation about how much less friendly the people were, we had not one, not two but THREE people talk to a us in one train station - one a European guy checking we knew which platform we needed, one a Korean businessman based in Canada and one a local guy who speaks English for work!
The highlight of our time in Busan was, without a doubt, a couple of hikes we did in the mountains near an old fortress wall. The first day we got there a little late and just went for a wander in the foothills, where we came across an exercise circuit which we ended up playing on for 20 minutes. Jeff was much amused by my attempts to jump onto the parallel bars. It wasn't that I couldn't do it, it's just that while Jeff could jump up and push himself the last bit of the way with his hands in one smooth motion, I needed to stand on a rock next to the bars, put my leg over the closest bar, tuck my toe under the other bar, shift my weight forwards until I was straddling the bar, then bring my second leg over so I was sitting on one with my feet on the other, then I could position my hands and drop into supporting myself on my arms. Yes, I did gymnastics as a kid, yes I quit when I was holding Holly back because she didn't want to go up a level without me and I couldn't pass the damn Level 1 test. Anyway, my 'creative' way to get on the parallel bars gave Jeff an excellent opportunity for a laugh and some unflattering photos!
The second day we were more organised on our hike - we found our way to the bottom of the gondola that would take us up to the fortress wall, from where we could walk around some of it. Sucks for us, the gondola was closed that day! We ummed and ahhed and walked a little way up the forest track under the gondola. Then walked a little more. Then pondered how far we had walked and how far the track was, and walked a little more. We thought the walk was about 5km, all uphill, judging by the inaccurate-looking map at the gondola. When we had walked about 4km we finally committed to making it to the top!
Up there we bought a cold drink and checked out a bit of the wall, before walking down another path. The wall itself actually was a bit of an anti-climax - it was much smaller than we expected - not large enough to walk ON and there was a roped-off swathe of mown grass between the wall and the walking track. On reaching the bottom we both agreed that the winding dirt path going up through pine trees had been the best bit. The funny thing about hiking is that I rarely enjoy it when I'm doing it (uphill = hard and sweaty, downhill = tedious and hard on the knees), but you always feel so amazing when you reach a vantage point or hit the top!
Next: Seoul. In Seoul we spent three days in the city centre, then two days staying in Gangnam (hence Jeff's facebook photo, 'drinking beer Gangnam style!'). Just a few highlights here:
* Beauty product stores. Korea is famous for them. Lucky for this cheap-arse Kiwi, they like to give away free samples to encourage you in the door! Admittedly I did buy a few things (mainly face wipes and nail polish), but I came away with 26 free samples and 5 boxes of cotton face pads! SCORE!
* Fortress wall - Seoul also had a fortress wall available to hike. Only this one is still an active military zone! They even had a tree displayed bearing bullet holes from when a group of North Koreans tried to sneak in and attack in 1968. Considering the wall was first built in 1396, it's pretty impressive that it is still helping Seoul defend itself! This hike was nowhere near as peaceful and natural, but it provided some stunning views of Seoul and the mountains you were cresting. Sadly, for military defense reasons, photography was banned on much of the track.
* Last but definitely not least, Jump! Jeff had never been to see a show that didn't star one of my sisters, so he didn't share my enthusiasm about going to see something at the theatre in Korean. However, having read a little about it - 'martial arts', 'acrobatics', 'comedy' and 'Edinburgh Comedy Festival award', I was super keen - and was pretty certain Jeff would enjoy it too. What I didn't foresee was how much it would like him!!
I booked us seats halfway back so Jeff wouldn't get targeted for any audience interaction - a recent karaoke trip had shown me that Jeff does not have an exhibitionist bone in his body. Even after hours of all-you-can-drink-karaoke, when all the rest of us were trying on costumes, he still stayed firmly behind the camera, not even trying on the fetching blue wig Denzel was so taken with (look at the facebook photos if you haven't already!). However, my measures were nowhere near enough. Much to the delight of me and the two young women giggling beside me, before the show even started Jeff was approached by an 'old man' who first sat on his knee, then made him give him a piggyback down the aisle to the stage. When Jeff finally returned to his seat, the old man rummaged through his pockets until he found a lolly, which he held out for Jeff, while Jeff traipsed all the way back down the aisle to collect his 'payment'.
The show began - and was awesome. If it comes to a town near you and you enjoy martial arts, acrobatics or comedy (and if you don't enjoy any of those then you should see someone about that!), then I strongly recommend you go see it! If my recommendation isn't enough, in the program there is a page showing clips from the media about the show and it includes a picture of Prince Charles shaking hands with cast members. A Korean comedy act good enough to meet the Prince? What a winner! (Incidentally there was also a clip from the NZ Sunday Times there. Go NZ! Even though you had to be familiar with the paper to recognise that!)
Anyway, halfway though the show one of the cast came down off the stage and started waving you to Jeff. "You," they called, "come here!" At which point Jeff sighed, then stood up and followed the man onstage. The deal was he was to 'fight' one of the actors (much of the show was taken up with the actors versing each other in comical but brilliant martial arts tournaments). Partly prompted by the man who had called him up and partly working it out for himself (necessary when the other actor does a forward roll, then a backward roll into a handstand then flicks to his feet - and you are told to copy!), Jeff's moment in the spotlight involved him being discovered with about ten knives on his person, doing a forward roll, then 'scaring his opponent into submission' by brandishing a very bendy sword. Audience and actors alike seemed impressed at how game he was, doing a forward roll onstage - I guess that's what three years of teaching little kids has done to him! Jeff commented afterwards on what everyone who has acted in a real theatre knows to be your saving grace when you're nervous - the lights are so bright, you can't really see the audience! Playhouse Theatre, I think I feel another actor coming along ;)
So that concludes most of what I wanted to say about Korea. I just wanted to add to that something about my earlier comment that Korea made us realise how well-adjusted we are in Japan. I guess I expected Korea to be something like Tokyo with more beauty products, but of course that was totally wrong. Despite some of the things that Korea is known for - internationally known beauty products and tri-lingual pop songs - we found the level of English to be much much lower than we expected. Or, perhaps it was our 'lens' that was wrong. We always discuss how differently we view each country when visiting from Japan, as opposed to if we were visiting from NZ. In this case I suspect that my surprise at how little English was spoken was ACTUALLY a misunderstood surprise at myself for understanding no Korean/understanding a fair bit of Japanese. I think we underestimate exactly how much Japanese we understand, and how much we understand the systems in Japan, so that we acutely felt the frustration of having ZERO Korean.
We had silly situations like a coffee shop which displayed a sign saying 20% off drinks with your Jump ticket. But when we tried to get a discount, they shook their heads and spoke rapid Korean at us. I let the woman rattle on at me for a while with my best confused face before I finally cut her off saying "I don't speak Korean!" They then called over another woman (assumably because she spoke English?), but she also just shook her head. The three of them could do nothing but shake their heads at me, even though this was in a coffee shop in a central shopping district of the capital city. I was really surprised because I'm pretty certain that in a similar situation in Japan, I would have got at least a 'Not today, sorry', or 'This coffee no, sorry' from the staff. In the end I ordered our two coffees, then was only handed one - turns out the coffee Jeff wanted wasn't available anymore and they hadn't TOLD me when I ordered (again, no sorry, just head shakes). To top it off, my 'gingerbread latte' tasted like toothpaste! Coffee shop FAIL!
Anyway, communication situations like this - plus the fact that Koreans, like Japanese, often don't look where they are going and walk into you, only in Korea they don't apologise for it - meant that we struggled a bit. Surprisingly, there were some situations where our knowledge of Japanese helped, as most places had signage in Korean, English AND Japanese. I chose my smoothie by reading the Japanese list of ingredients when the English name didn't enlighten me! All in all, the experience made us (me?) realise exactly how adjusted to life in Japan we are. "Futatsu kohi onegaishimasu!"*
So, we now have less than three months left in Japan. Jeff is bored mindless at work and is fretting about how long we have left to go. I have a 'Before We Go Home To Do List' as long as my arm and am fretting about how short a time we have left to go. Midway between Jeff and I, there is a beautifully successful person...
Ok, now I'm off to add to my google docs To Do list; 'put together folder of 2013 lesson plans for successor'!
Have a good week all!
C
xo
P.S. Totally didn't finish this in one go due to tiredness. But you figured that when it wasn't posted just after our holiday, right?
P.P.S. Oh my gosh, totally forgot to mention the zoo! I'll only say one thing... BABY GIBBON!!! So adorable I could have watched it all day!
*Two coffees please. May or may not be correct spelling and grammar. But does successfully get you coffee!
The highlight of our time in Busan was, without a doubt, a couple of hikes we did in the mountains near an old fortress wall. The first day we got there a little late and just went for a wander in the foothills, where we came across an exercise circuit which we ended up playing on for 20 minutes. Jeff was much amused by my attempts to jump onto the parallel bars. It wasn't that I couldn't do it, it's just that while Jeff could jump up and push himself the last bit of the way with his hands in one smooth motion, I needed to stand on a rock next to the bars, put my leg over the closest bar, tuck my toe under the other bar, shift my weight forwards until I was straddling the bar, then bring my second leg over so I was sitting on one with my feet on the other, then I could position my hands and drop into supporting myself on my arms. Yes, I did gymnastics as a kid, yes I quit when I was holding Holly back because she didn't want to go up a level without me and I couldn't pass the damn Level 1 test. Anyway, my 'creative' way to get on the parallel bars gave Jeff an excellent opportunity for a laugh and some unflattering photos!
The second day we were more organised on our hike - we found our way to the bottom of the gondola that would take us up to the fortress wall, from where we could walk around some of it. Sucks for us, the gondola was closed that day! We ummed and ahhed and walked a little way up the forest track under the gondola. Then walked a little more. Then pondered how far we had walked and how far the track was, and walked a little more. We thought the walk was about 5km, all uphill, judging by the inaccurate-looking map at the gondola. When we had walked about 4km we finally committed to making it to the top!
Up there we bought a cold drink and checked out a bit of the wall, before walking down another path. The wall itself actually was a bit of an anti-climax - it was much smaller than we expected - not large enough to walk ON and there was a roped-off swathe of mown grass between the wall and the walking track. On reaching the bottom we both agreed that the winding dirt path going up through pine trees had been the best bit. The funny thing about hiking is that I rarely enjoy it when I'm doing it (uphill = hard and sweaty, downhill = tedious and hard on the knees), but you always feel so amazing when you reach a vantage point or hit the top!
Next: Seoul. In Seoul we spent three days in the city centre, then two days staying in Gangnam (hence Jeff's facebook photo, 'drinking beer Gangnam style!'). Just a few highlights here:
* Beauty product stores. Korea is famous for them. Lucky for this cheap-arse Kiwi, they like to give away free samples to encourage you in the door! Admittedly I did buy a few things (mainly face wipes and nail polish), but I came away with 26 free samples and 5 boxes of cotton face pads! SCORE!
* Fortress wall - Seoul also had a fortress wall available to hike. Only this one is still an active military zone! They even had a tree displayed bearing bullet holes from when a group of North Koreans tried to sneak in and attack in 1968. Considering the wall was first built in 1396, it's pretty impressive that it is still helping Seoul defend itself! This hike was nowhere near as peaceful and natural, but it provided some stunning views of Seoul and the mountains you were cresting. Sadly, for military defense reasons, photography was banned on much of the track.
* Last but definitely not least, Jump! Jeff had never been to see a show that didn't star one of my sisters, so he didn't share my enthusiasm about going to see something at the theatre in Korean. However, having read a little about it - 'martial arts', 'acrobatics', 'comedy' and 'Edinburgh Comedy Festival award', I was super keen - and was pretty certain Jeff would enjoy it too. What I didn't foresee was how much it would like him!!
I booked us seats halfway back so Jeff wouldn't get targeted for any audience interaction - a recent karaoke trip had shown me that Jeff does not have an exhibitionist bone in his body. Even after hours of all-you-can-drink-karaoke, when all the rest of us were trying on costumes, he still stayed firmly behind the camera, not even trying on the fetching blue wig Denzel was so taken with (look at the facebook photos if you haven't already!). However, my measures were nowhere near enough. Much to the delight of me and the two young women giggling beside me, before the show even started Jeff was approached by an 'old man' who first sat on his knee, then made him give him a piggyback down the aisle to the stage. When Jeff finally returned to his seat, the old man rummaged through his pockets until he found a lolly, which he held out for Jeff, while Jeff traipsed all the way back down the aisle to collect his 'payment'.
The show began - and was awesome. If it comes to a town near you and you enjoy martial arts, acrobatics or comedy (and if you don't enjoy any of those then you should see someone about that!), then I strongly recommend you go see it! If my recommendation isn't enough, in the program there is a page showing clips from the media about the show and it includes a picture of Prince Charles shaking hands with cast members. A Korean comedy act good enough to meet the Prince? What a winner! (Incidentally there was also a clip from the NZ Sunday Times there. Go NZ! Even though you had to be familiar with the paper to recognise that!)
Anyway, halfway though the show one of the cast came down off the stage and started waving you to Jeff. "You," they called, "come here!" At which point Jeff sighed, then stood up and followed the man onstage. The deal was he was to 'fight' one of the actors (much of the show was taken up with the actors versing each other in comical but brilliant martial arts tournaments). Partly prompted by the man who had called him up and partly working it out for himself (necessary when the other actor does a forward roll, then a backward roll into a handstand then flicks to his feet - and you are told to copy!), Jeff's moment in the spotlight involved him being discovered with about ten knives on his person, doing a forward roll, then 'scaring his opponent into submission' by brandishing a very bendy sword. Audience and actors alike seemed impressed at how game he was, doing a forward roll onstage - I guess that's what three years of teaching little kids has done to him! Jeff commented afterwards on what everyone who has acted in a real theatre knows to be your saving grace when you're nervous - the lights are so bright, you can't really see the audience! Playhouse Theatre, I think I feel another actor coming along ;)
So that concludes most of what I wanted to say about Korea. I just wanted to add to that something about my earlier comment that Korea made us realise how well-adjusted we are in Japan. I guess I expected Korea to be something like Tokyo with more beauty products, but of course that was totally wrong. Despite some of the things that Korea is known for - internationally known beauty products and tri-lingual pop songs - we found the level of English to be much much lower than we expected. Or, perhaps it was our 'lens' that was wrong. We always discuss how differently we view each country when visiting from Japan, as opposed to if we were visiting from NZ. In this case I suspect that my surprise at how little English was spoken was ACTUALLY a misunderstood surprise at myself for understanding no Korean/understanding a fair bit of Japanese. I think we underestimate exactly how much Japanese we understand, and how much we understand the systems in Japan, so that we acutely felt the frustration of having ZERO Korean.
We had silly situations like a coffee shop which displayed a sign saying 20% off drinks with your Jump ticket. But when we tried to get a discount, they shook their heads and spoke rapid Korean at us. I let the woman rattle on at me for a while with my best confused face before I finally cut her off saying "I don't speak Korean!" They then called over another woman (assumably because she spoke English?), but she also just shook her head. The three of them could do nothing but shake their heads at me, even though this was in a coffee shop in a central shopping district of the capital city. I was really surprised because I'm pretty certain that in a similar situation in Japan, I would have got at least a 'Not today, sorry', or 'This coffee no, sorry' from the staff. In the end I ordered our two coffees, then was only handed one - turns out the coffee Jeff wanted wasn't available anymore and they hadn't TOLD me when I ordered (again, no sorry, just head shakes). To top it off, my 'gingerbread latte' tasted like toothpaste! Coffee shop FAIL!
Anyway, communication situations like this - plus the fact that Koreans, like Japanese, often don't look where they are going and walk into you, only in Korea they don't apologise for it - meant that we struggled a bit. Surprisingly, there were some situations where our knowledge of Japanese helped, as most places had signage in Korean, English AND Japanese. I chose my smoothie by reading the Japanese list of ingredients when the English name didn't enlighten me! All in all, the experience made us (me?) realise exactly how adjusted to life in Japan we are. "Futatsu kohi onegaishimasu!"*
So, we now have less than three months left in Japan. Jeff is bored mindless at work and is fretting about how long we have left to go. I have a 'Before We Go Home To Do List' as long as my arm and am fretting about how short a time we have left to go. Midway between Jeff and I, there is a beautifully successful person...
Ok, now I'm off to add to my google docs To Do list; 'put together folder of 2013 lesson plans for successor'!
Have a good week all!
C
xo
P.S. Totally didn't finish this in one go due to tiredness. But you figured that when it wasn't posted just after our holiday, right?
P.P.S. Oh my gosh, totally forgot to mention the zoo! I'll only say one thing... BABY GIBBON!!! So adorable I could have watched it all day!
*Two coffees please. May or may not be correct spelling and grammar. But does successfully get you coffee!
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