Boracay, Boracay, Boracay

Greetings

By the time you read this we'll be on our way. In only a few short hours we'll be catching a red-eye bus to Seoul, where we'll wait for about three hours until leaving for the sunny Philippines.

Essentially, we'll be going from this:

To this:

(artist's rendition of a tropical paradise. )

Wellllllllll, I'd love to stay and blog all day but somebody has to sunbathe and drink margaritas all day, and it might as well be me.

We'll try and update from Boracay but I'm not sure how easy that will be. If not, see you in nine days.

Cheers

Shayne (and Jo)

Having fun in all the right places

Now that the weather's warmed up a little bit, Shayne and I have decided to get back on track exploring our city. This week we got a few extra days off due to Lunar New Year, so we called our new friends, Jared and Elia, and headed off across the city to visit the famed Ulsan Grand Park.

(Starting off with high hopes)

The park was built a few years ago with millions in city money, and is chock-full of games, fun and amusements. We intended to get the most out of our day...and our $2.50 in parking fees.

Here's Elia trying out the first thing we came across: a (very) small climbing wall next to what seemed to be a roller-skating fun course. We just walked along the fun course (being without roller-skates), and Elia mastered the peaks. (Shayne's note - for those of you out of the loop, a roller-skating fun course is Jo speak for a roller-skating track.) (Shayne's note part Deux - Who still uses the term rollerskating anyway?)

Ahh...just in case you weren't sure who sponsored the park, here's a giant, cabbage-rimmed clock to remind you: SK, "Korea's number one mobile communications company." And in case you were wondering, the time is correct.


Further on we discovered a serene lake, replete with a windmill. Perfect for romantic walks by couples in matching outfits.


On the other side of the lake we discovered something very cool. A huge area devoted to various outdoor games. There was Throw the Darts into the Bucket, Whip the Top, and what game area would be complete without...


...a row of mini teeter-totters - perfect for launching your date or child onto the mats so kindly provided.

But that stuff was all small-time. As we got deeper into the giant park, we discovered diversions that made our whole trip worthwhile.


Behold, the nylon sledding hill. For only 4,000 won (4 bucks, or so) you can slide down this hill as many times as you like. Of course, most people were better drivers than me. Somehow I just couldn't steer the damn thing.

...I guess that's why they have these handy inflated bumpers. Sigh...one more foolish foreigner feuling the myth that white people can't drive.


Take a close look at the above photo. This is by far the coolest thing I've ever seen in a public park. It's a mini roadway! And it has functioning traffic lights, crosswalk signals, a tunnel, and even a pedestrian overpass. Where were these when I was a child?


Look, the little guy is actually obeying the red light - sooo cute!


They even have a mini parking lot!


Anyways, the childhood fun didn't end there. Further along was this strange rubberised rope castle. That was okay, but the big money was next door. Check this out...


It's a freakin' trampoline mountain! I was born too late and on the wrong continent.

Anyway, we only made it about half-way into the park before our stomachs started crying out for some lunch. Unfortunately in all the planning, they didn't create any "fun" activities for adults....like a pub or something. So we heading back out of the park in search for something to eat. We came across this....


No, your eyes aren't playing tricks with you. It's a creepy white guy taking a crap...in a clothing store's shop window. I have no explanations.

Well, that was our day, such as it was. I'd like to end off with some incredibly insightful message, but I just don't have one. The dude on the toilet wiped all my insightfulness clean away...ba dum bum. Have a good one.

Jo

The Second Happiest Place on Earth

Greetings,

As our time slowly winds down here we've been working our way through a list of must do's. Although the list is still really long we managed to scratch one more item off the other day:

The Lotte Wheel.

The giant ferris wheel is one of the largest landmarks in Ulsan and probably the only landmark that's well known (relatively speaking, of course) outside of the city limits.

There isn't much information available on Old Lotte, but she was built sometime in the 1990's and she sits around 520 feet tall. She's also on top of a Lotte Department Store that has some great Mongolian food, but that's a different blog for a different day.

Some of our more astute readers might remember seeing her in a few other posts. But for those of you who don't remember the wheel at all, prepare yourselves.


Ah, there she is in all her glory. It's kind of like when the giant gates open in Jurassic Park and you get to see the dinosaurs for the first time.

I'm not sure why it took us so long to visit such a famous landmark, especially since we love amusement parks so much. I guess the allure of ferris wheels (even giant ones) just isn't that strong.

But it was worth going just to see the great signs they had. Like this one that warns you against committing such serious infractions as: eating food, running, and being elderly.


I have to admit that once I found out that I wasn't allowed to elderly, a lot of the attraction was lost for me.

But things went from bad to worse when I read the next warning sign.

Imagine having the nerve to tell us not to romp. I'll romp as much as I want and wherever I want to. No man, woman, or ferris wheel will take away my right to romp.

Aside from some humorous signs the wheel also provided some great views of the city.

Well, at least it offered some views. The Ulsan sky line is definitely still developing. But hey, we learned that we live near mountains - who knew?

We also learned what we already knew, that driving in Korea makes about as much sense as voting for the BC liberals (Ba dum bum boom).

Look at that picture. There are three lanes on the top of the picture that are turning left into two lanes on the bottom of the picture that are turning right. It's like a game of twister, but with cars. That's not that bad of a scene either. I wish we could have gotten a rush hour photo.

The busses have a little more order but not much. In the time that were watching there must have been two or three jams where every driver thought they had the right of way. I was hoping for a little bus rage, but alas it wasn't to be.

Ahh, such a happy couple. You should note the existence of my manly beard. It's taken about 24 years to grow, but it was worth the wait.

Being so high up gave us another unique view of the city. A view of the beautiful scenery to the south.

Ahh, who doesn't love the smell of a good petro-chemical plant in the morning? It's hard to see through all the pollution but there's at least twenty-five smoke stacks pumping out god knows what into the air. Make sure that you right-click and look at an enlarged view of that photo. That picture only represents probably a tenth of what this city has to offer.

Well, there ya have it. A quick blog about one of the city's fine attractions. Scratch one more off of our list.

But remember, wherever you go and whatever you do...

Big brother's always watching you:

Cheers

Shayne

I'll tell you where you can stick that test!!!

Greetings

When I moved here I made the solemn promise to avoid hospitals and doctors as much as humanly possible. Some days it’s a battle to communicate effectively enough to have water brought to our table so I didn’t want to be in a situation where I had to scramble to learn the Korean for “no, no, no reattach that at once”.

I had to break my vow a few months ago when I was forced to visit a local clinic to receive my final hepatitis vaccination. To say that the place was dirty would be an epic understatement. It wasn’t just that the waiting room was untidy or that the Doctor had some mustard on his tie from lunch. The place looked like it hadn’t ever been cleaned. There was dirt on the floors, mildew on the windows, and the walls were water stained. I was scared that the doctor would give me the shot and then spit some vodka (or soju) on the spot afterwards and start laughing like a banshee.

I’m sure that I just picked a bad clinic and that the Korean health industry is fine overall. Still, my experience, plus the stories I hear from our boss about how eating ground reindeer antlers and giant mountain snails are standard practice in traditional medicine, made me a tad hesitant to receive any further medical services while in Korea.

But alas, after missing two days of work, with a brutal cough and a fever, I was forced to visit another doctor. This time I skipped the local scene and went to one of Ulsan’s biggest hospitals, which is known for having a “foreigner’s clinic”. As per my usual luck the entire episode was one giant debacle after another.

To start with, man do the Koreans love bureaucracy. First, we had to navigate our way through the reception area. Back home most hospitals have a small reception area with a few nurses to help register patients. In Korea they have an army of receptionists lined up from one side of the building to another. There were probably over 15 or so receptionists typing away at their computers registering dozens and dozens of people every few minutes. After using some sign language, a few grunts, and drawing some scenes with stickmen, we were finally registered and sent on our way to the “foreigner’s” clinic.

It turns out the “foreigner’s” clinic is just two rooms staffed with the poor saps who probably speak the most English of anyone on the payroll. Everyone was very kind to us but communicating was still a rather difficult task. I wrongly assumed that with a title like “foreigner’s clinic” that there would be people who spoke English, my bad.

Anyway, after being weighed, and having my belly slapped ala the Goonies, I finally got in to see the Doctor. Dear god…The Doctor. I opened to the door to this:

Well, actually it was more like this:

The Doctor must have been all of twenty years old. I have baby blankets that look older than he did. If his age wasn’t enough to worry me he hardly spoke English and didn’t seem trained enough to handle the medical nature of my visit, a cough. No lie at all, when I mentioned the possibility of bronchitis he googled it to see what it was (using the Korean version). This doctor might has well have shouted out “Hello Everybody”, for all the confidence I had in him at that point.

But yet, it somehow got even worse (as it always does). He suddenly became scared that I had Tuberculosis and needed an X-ray right away. I’ve been struck with some strange inflictions over the years but TB? I only had a cough. I’m surprised he didn’t want to test me for cancer or maybe even tourettes or something.

I begrudgingly made my way for x-rays only to discover that I had to go back to the reception area to get an X-ray pass. When I finally got to the X-ray area I was confronted by one large room where the waiting area was inside the actual X-ray taking room. I’m not an expert but in Canada when you get one done the technician actually leaves the room and generally you are covered by a lead vest. Here, not only does the technician stay in the room, but so do the six or seven other people who are next in line. I’m sure that at this point there are either no children in my future, or that I’m going to awake tomorrow with green skin and super powers.

I was happy to notice that the actual X-ray machine was made by Canon (a fine corporation that made both my digital camera and my printer). Of course, mid X-ray I remembered that my digital camera stopped working one day and would only flash “Error-18” over and over again whenever I used it. Suddenly I was full of fear that the X-ray machine would break down mid shot and the technician would start screaming “Error 18” over and over again as my insides melted down my leg.

After losing the ability to be a father I then went back to the doctor’s office where I was cleared of both TB and tourettes, but diagnosed with Bronchitis (surprise, surprise). He then told me I needed some antibiotics and told me to go back to reception. It seems that in Korea doctors aren’t given the authority of a prescription pad. The fine people in reception then gave me a piece of paper to give to the pharmacist (which, of course, they charged me twenty cents for) and sent me on my way.

It turns out there really is no pharmacist on site, only a different kind of reception area where they take the paper given to you by the first reception area, which the doctor ordered, and then toss you out to find a REAL pharmacy somewhere outside of the actual hospital (phew, that was a mouthful).

For those of you keeping track my day looked like this:

From the Reception, to the “Foreigner’s clinic”, then back to Reception area, then off to the X-ray clinic, then back to the "Foreigner’s clinic ",then off to Reception area again, then to the Fake Pharmacy, and then finally off to the Real pharmacy

God bless bureaucracy. Anyway, it might have taken three hours, a few X-rays and the better part of my sanity, but eventually I got the antibiotics, and isn’t that what really matters?

If you lasted through this beast of a post, good work.

Cheers

Shayne

P.S – Thanks to anyone who followed my advice. It looks like it was a good day on the 7th.

Odo, I don't think we're in Victoria anymore

When Shayne and I were preparing to come to Korea we talked a lot about culture shock. I guess we thought that if we somehow steeled ourselves against it, that we'd be fine. But to tell the truth we really had no idea what culture shock was. We thought that it would be merely finding the differences between cultures strange and annoying... but if we were just open-minded we could overcome it. This was not how it was, and this was not how it happened.

In fact, we didn't even experience anything overly uncomfortable until a couple of weeks into our stay. Before then we were too wonderstruck and disorientated. It happened when we decided to wander away from the confines of our apartment and find something to eat...but not knowing what. An hour later we had poked our heads into a dozen different strange restaurants but were still no closer to a meal. Everything smelled bad, or looked strange, and we couldn't read the menus. We just stood in the middle of the sidewalk wallowing in indecision, and begging God for a White Spot to fall out of the sky. We ended up eating fiery-hot kimchi stew, and hating ourselves for not staying at home. And that was just the first time it happened.

Anyways, the point is that culture shock isn't some general thought or feeling, and it isn't predictable. It comes up and smacks you in the back of the head at 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 months with feelings of frustration, alienation, and resentment. That being said, we've found some ways to deal with it, and although we are by no means experts on the subject, we have 7 months in a foreign culture and a captive audience so I think that's qualification enough. Here are our five easy steps to culture shock recovery:

1. Learn to love the food
When we first came to Korea the food looked strange and smelled even stranger. Thankfully, due to a boss who introduced us to a wide variety of Korean cuisine, and our willingness to try it, we've come to love (almost) every Korean dish we've tried. This has made the single biggest difference in overcoming culture shock here. How can you long for home when the food is so good?

But how did we bridge the gap between aversion to appetite? First, we were determined to learn to appreciate kimchi. Being the number one Korean food, how could we not? So, every time it was served we ate at least one bite. At first it was unpleasant, but now we can't get enough. In fact, we just polished off a 1 litre container of the stuff (donated by a student's mother) in under two days. Shayne's even talking about learning to make the stuff! We have seen the light.

(It's smelly, spicy, and strangely addictive.)

Second, we agreed to try everything once...except dog meat. That means that even when the side dish looked like something scooped out of the sink trap, we tried it; even when the soup smelled like feet, we tried it; and even when we were faced with a styrofoam cup full of boiled pupae, we tried it. Are we heroes? No. Do we need breathmints? Maybe. But what we did do was discover some of our new favourite meals in the process.

2. Know the rules - when in Rome and all that crap
Nothing will lead to embarrassment and frustration more than doing the wrong thing at the wrong time and having a dozen Korean faces looking at you in disapproval. Even though we have a bit of diplomatic immunity as foreigners, it's still pretty uncomfortable. So, we've done our best to observe carefully and to ask a lot of questions, so that we can avoid these situations altogether.

Probably the best example of this is driving. Apart from basic rules like stopping at red lights, speed limits and not crashing into other cars or people, driving is very different over here. It's the unwritten driving culture that's the most different. Back home you would be concerned if someone didn't have their lights on after dark, but here if they're turned off when someone's stopped at an intersection, it's usually on purpose as a courtesy to on-coming traffic. Back home if someone cut you off, passed you on the left to turn right (when you're also turning right onto the same road), or honked at you incessantly to get by when you're no way in the wrong, it would probably eat at you all day. Here, this is normal and expected. Also, back home you have stop signs. Here, you don't. Anyways, driving sounds really hectic and stressful, and at first it is. All I can say is after two months of driving around town, I've learned to become super-defensive and super-aggre...ahem...assertive, and I've been all the happier for it.

My point is, I could have spent the past two months insisting upon driving according to the North American driving culture, and flipped out every time someone did something "dangerous" or "aggressive" but I would have been a lot more stressed out. Sometimes we just need to chill out and follow someone else's rules.

3. Read up on the culture - Confucius say...
Okay, now this one should be obvious, but to be honest it's one we didn't pay much attention to at first. One of our biggest annoyances when we first arrived was how strangers treated each other...which is badly. Pushing someone aside, cutting in line (especially in the women's washroom!), and generally being discourteous (to North American standards) is all standard practice here. Now, we could have gotten used to it except for the fact that Koreans are some of the kindest, most helpful people once you actually talk to them. It was all very confusing and frustrating...until we learned a little bit more about our new friend Confucius. Of all Asia, Korea has embraced Confucianism the strongest. And one of the main facets of Confucianism is hierarchy. Hence stranger behavior; if someone doesn't know you, they don't know where you sit on the hierarchy, and therefore, you don't exist....ergo, no politeness necessary. Voila! Strange stranger behavior problem solved! And with one "aniyo haseyo" you enter existence and that cold Korean exterior melts into pure sunshine.

(The man who influenced millions.)

Anyways, apart from explaining away the mean woman in the grocery store, learning about this has helped us at work too. Employer-employee relations are very different here; they're very similar to a strict Korean family: our boss is the benevolent father (or mother in our case), and we are the dutiful children. Not that I would recommend this set-up back home, but it has eased the stress of some work issues, once we realised the cultural motives behind them.

4. Move past grunting and sign language


Learn the language. It seems so simple, and yet deludes so many. You'd be amazed at how many people spend a year or more here and don't get much past "hello" and "thank you." But, as you might imagine, learning survival-level Korean has gone a long way in helping us integrate as much as two whities in an all-Korean neighbourhood can do.

5. Create a safe haven
No matter how much you integrate, just like Odo you'll have to revert back to your gelatinous state every 16 hours. There, now both Shayne and I have outed ourselves as shameless Trekkies. Anyways, my point is that one of the things keeping us sane over here is the ability to "go back to Canada" once in a while. Our apartment's the main base of operations with North American food, books, music and TV shows. It's like a mini version of Canada.We even have a room that keeps trying to separate from the rest of the house.

We also indulge, every so often, in a good night of venting with other ex-pats about the cultural idiosyncrasies we don't yet understand and the things we miss about home. Just like a vacation from work, it all helps take the strain off. .

(The man himself.)

Well, there you have it. All the wisdom that two young Canadians living in a foreign land can muster. Even more so than the strange cities, temples, and various Korean oddities, I think the most interesting experience so far has been watching ourselves adapt to a new culture. It's been really difficult at times, and totally not what we expected, but perhaps the most enriching experience we'll take away from this year.

Take care everyone,
Jo