Korea: First Impressions

I departed flight NW95 at 10 P.M. Korean time last night, tired and smelly. I was thankful that immigration went smoothly and all of my luggage had arrived. The cab driver who picked me up only spoke enough English to inform me that he spoke no English. I did not press the issue. I wanted my first impression of Korea to be some romantic reflection of citiscapes surrounded by majestic mountains but it ended up being far more comical than that. The Kia minivan I proceeded to climb into appeared to have several performance modifications, an early warning that my hour long ride to Suwon would not be mundane.

I had been hoping that technology in Korea would be more advanced than in the States and as I took in the giant GPS unit on the dash I knew I would not be disappointed. The thing was the size of a small television, not like those crappy little Garmins we have back home, and was in High Definition with a million differnt colors. It wasn't just a map either. Crazy little cartoon characters and explosions kept popping up on the screen and the information never stayed put. For example, a small part that I could read which indicated the remaining kilometers to the destination would sometimes be on the bottom, sometimes on the top or sides, sometimes just bouncing all over the place. Often it would just flash totally unrelated images of koala bears or poker chips. It was truely a feast for the eyes. The best part was that the voice sounded like that of a twelve year old prostitute and this girl would just not shut up. I think she was relating her entire life story. For a good ten minutes she kept chanting a single word, which sounded like "head" in English.

So here I am in a supercharged Kia minivan with this prepubescent GPS that seems to be reciting War and Peace and a driver who turns out to be craziest highway cowboy ever. This guy drove fast. Really fast! He was easily doing like 140 km/h the whole time. And he wasn't afraid of anyone or anything on the road. Once he even cut off an over-size load tractor trailer. I felt inches from death. Oh, Korea also has the United States equivilent of EZ-Pass but instead of an open turnstile like we are used to, these tolls have two steel barricades blocking the road that are spring loaded and shoot up and out of the way as soon your little RFID tag is approved. So the Highway Cowboy is driving at these barricades at full speed while the GPS keeps going, "Head Head Head Head Head," and I am bracing for impact. The car must have been two feet from being cut in half before they shot out of the way. The first time I let out a scream and jumped out of my seat, which the Highway Cowboy thought was the funniest thing in the world.

I wish that was the end of my highway adventure but it gets better. Halfway to Suwon I see the lights of a police car approaching from behind. You would think that the Highway Cowboy would pull over but instead he steps it up to 160 km/h. By this point I was no longer afraid and having accepted that I was in a foreign culture in which I did not understand the rules, I proceeded to cheer the Highway Cowboy on in his highspeed pursuit. The Subaru cruiser followed us for a good ten minutes and in that time we drove over one of those singing highways. It's really just some strips cut into the asphalt at intervals so the noise from your tires plays music. This song happened to be "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Eventually the cruiser just turned off his lights and gave up. He may not have even been chasing us for all I know. Regardless, I was no longer tired, just highly amused.

So we got to my apartment where I was met by the teacher I will be working with, Ms. Huh. She brought some blankets for me to use until I get my own and then took me to a store to get bottled water and food. Afterwards I thanked her and expressed how eager I was to get to work. After she left I decided to walk over to the public library, which is only about two minutes from my apartment, because despite needing a shower and sleep I really wanted to communicate with Rachael. I sat outside in the cold and used the free wireless, a practice I'm sure will be commonplace until I get my own Internet connection and phone. When I was done I returned to get a shower but alas, I have no hot water. Luckily the gas was on for the stove so I heated some up in a pot and poured it over myself. I was thinking about going into detail about my apartment but instead I'll just try to post a video as soon as the place is in order.

I only slept six hours last night even though I was practically awake for thirty. I was just too excited to get up and see the town. Just walked around for a little bit, trying to figure out what stores sold what. Most people just ignore me but I get a few weird looks from passerbys. It's something I expected. Haven't run into any English speaking foreigners yet but I hope I meet some soon. Stopped into a cool coffee shop and ordered an Americano which I thought was just regular coffee but was really like eight shots of espresso (I'll bet you already knew that didn't you Ray). Also went into a store that appeared to sell only light bulbs and after playing around with an electrical cord for a few minutes was able to make the owner understand that I needed an adapter. Hooray! I can survive here! For 500 won I a little plastic gizmo that will allow me to keep my electronics up and running.

Well, I'm going to head back and get dressed for work. Ms. Huh should be meeting me around 3:30 and I want to learn some common Korean phrases before I go.