Final Post

Allthough my trip has been over for a month or so, I'm writing this final entry to make sure I have enough blogging to satisfy the length requirement. These are some of the random interesting things that I remember from Korea that I did not mention. The first in the bottless water coolers. Since I used to try and sell these, I automatically was amazed by the amount of these they have all over Seoul. In our apt there was one. In the hallways, they had them. They were used to fill water in restaurants. They just had them all over the place. I love these things. They filter and chill the water. Some of them also dispense boiling water. I wish they had them all over the U.S. Then people could fill up their water bottles instead of drinking a bottle, throwing it away, and buying a new one. In Korea, you can use the same bottle as long as you wish.
Next, one day, we were on an elevator and pressed the wrong floor. We pressed the button again, and the light went out. The elevator did not stop at the mistaken floor. Anyone who has been in an elevator when multiple buttons have been pressed by some punk and no one is getting off or on on that floor knows how frustrating this is. Not all the elevators in Seoul were like this, but I have never seen this back home. I don't know why all elevators can't be like that one. It was super cool.
Next, very small police presence. I guess this is because of Confucianism and the idea of doing what is best for the community. The result of this is little crime which eliminates the need for police. Its not that I dislike police all that much, they are just kind of annoying and don't lend to a easy atmosphere. It was nice be over there and not have a bunch of cops who think they are SWAT agents all over the place. I was terribly dissapointed to get back to the US and see all the police everywhere. It was nice to just be in a place where it was safe because everyone pretty much gets along and doesn't cause trouble.
Thats about it. I had an excellent time in Korea over the summer, but it is good to be home. Time to head back to Jackson.
Annyunghaseo.

The trip to Busan was a four hour bus ride headed south east across the peninsula. The bus ride was a pleasure because it allowed us to see what the geography of the country looked like outside of Seoul. I particularly enjoyed this because I love taking trips by car and being able to check out the country side. A big city is a big city, to an extent, so I was thrilled with this weekend getaway. We left Seoul just before 6:30 am. Outside of the city, mountains began to appear. It was tough to see them clearly. I immagine this was due to the combination of both early morning clouds/ fog and air pollution. Korea is 70% mountains. The view from the bus was similar to I-40 between Knoxville, TN and Asheville, NC., except the vegetation appeared much more lush, green, and dense. There was a mix of hard woods, pines, and some type of tree with funny looking, kind of feathery, flowers. The sun looked liked a full moon through the haze. Lots of creeks and rivers. The majority of these were dried up. Leaving the city there were scattered business buildings, baptist churches, and multi-storied, boxy, drap, apartment buildings. As we went farther from the city, as one might guess, the more rural the landscape became. One thing I thought was strange is that quite often when we drove through the mountains, we literally drove through them. There would be a tunnel through the mountain, then the there would be a bridge across the valley and then you would drive through another tunnel through the next mountain. Some of the bridges appeared to be several hundred feet high. At the bottom of the valleys, there were small family plots of land that looked to be about an acre or so of land with scattered small houses. Another common sight on the side of the interstate were little cemetaries. These are easy to identify because the grave stone is usually a statue that looks kind of like a person or something else unlike the grave stones in the West. People buried their families in peaceful places so that they would rest in peace and that would bring the decendents good luck and fortune. I imagine they were buried there before the interstate went through because they are right on the side of the road and all appear at least every couple of miles. Not exactly peaceful anymore. Hopefully the families whose ancestors these are are not suffering or without money as a result of the road. My bet is that they are fine. As it became more agricultural, the plots of land got bigger, but nothing huge like the industrial agriculture in the US. I saw very little mechanization. Mostly people in pointy straw hats squatting in the field. Saw perhaps one or two tractors. Lots of greenhouses. The existence of livestock was virtually nonexistant. On the way there, I saw one field with about six horses. Occationally I saw some chickens or a goat. On the way home, I saw one place with about 50 dairy cows all clustered up in some sort shed. There were alot of crops covered by wooden skeletons and a tarp over it. I later learned that this was gensing. That land is still hilly and mountainous. Very little flat land. The tour guide on the bus informed us that there was once tigers, bears, fox, and wolves in the mountains, but when the Japanese camd in the early 20th century, they all exported and hunted. The Korean War finished off what ever was left of these animals. Today they have deer and birds. The county has been trying to reintroduce bears into the wild. There are eight bears in the Korean wilderness now. As it got later in the morning and we were farther from the city, the visibility became much greater. When we got the coast, it was fairly steep and rocky. Lots of scattered rice fields mixed in with the little buildings of the coastal towns. This areas is much different from Seoul. I was one woman tending som sort of crops that she had growing where a cement water way was crumbling by the ocean and I guess she found some dirt and planted stuff in it. Very strange. I guess you do what you've gotta do. These ladies in the field most likely had zero ego, which I liked alot. Much different from the women in law school. The women in these little fields seemed very down to earth. After the coast, we actually drove up into some mountains and was breathtaking. Saw some rivers along the road with some light whitewater, kind of like driving through the Nantahala. There was a very large lake up in the mountains and was just really relaxing. My kind of place. Different from Seoul, which I needed a break from, not that I don't really enjoy the city.

China v. Korea

It is quite nice to be back in Korea. Much more relaxing. As Prof. Bowman says, China is sort of like the wild west. It is fairly dirty and grimy. This is not to say that I do not like it. The people have to make money there, or they do not eat. So everybody's life revolves around making money. The best way for them to that, or an extremely lucrative way of doing so, is by charging tourists exorbotant prices for goods and services. The outrageous prices are not greater, and often less, than the tourist would pay for comparable goods and services in his/her home country. The thing is that in China, you can get these for a fraction of the price elsewhere in the world because of the abundance of cheap labor, all though it seems this is begining to change, as well as the fact that China keeps it currency at an artificially low value, which also may soon change. Anyhow, after exhaustive efforts at hangling with the people, you can drop the price to amounts many times cheaper than the original price. The buyer gets what he wants for cheap, and the seller still makes a decent profit. This process must be constantly delt with. Eating. Transportation. Shopping. Information. Bathroom (occasionally). And so on and so forth. A person can seemingly buy whatever he/she fancies in China for very cheap and it is fairly exciting. The people, when not on duty to make money off of you, are very pleasant. One night, we hung with a girl at a bar for a number of hours and it was a good time. The following night, I sat and watched soccer with two guys who spoke zero English for about two hours, and they would not let me buy any beers, which they bought many of. When they left, the young folks (my age) invited me to sit with them, and we discussed music, motorcycles, etc... During the day, the men, who care very little about appearances, lift up their dirty t-shirts to their chests and let their buddha-esque stomachs hang out with absolutely no shame. The place has the craziest driving I have ever seen as well. All in all, I really like it there, but it is dirty and exausting.

Back in Korea, things are much easier. The driving is tame and seems to be governed by some set of rules. The people here in the city are doing fairly well, financially. All the girls have seemingly perfect physiques. The girls are all trim and sleek. Fat people are mostly non existant in Seoul. The women all are very stylish and dressed up. Some fashion of heels are worn at all times. The majority of men dress in similar fine fashion, often in suits or designer clothes. Many are to the point of being very efiminate, not unlike girly guys in the U.S. Getting around here is not exhausting. It is actually quite pleasant. The problem with all of this is that NOBODY will speak to you. There is one girl who works at the international affairs office who hangs out with us sometimes who we speak to. That is all. Not kidding. Jake, Kip, and I asked her one night over drinks what we had to do to hang out with some people (girls). She basically told us most girls meet guys on blind dates, and we could not talk to anybody casually. It had to be formal and with long-term intentions. She told us we should "just leave them alone." Ask you may guess, not what we wanted to hear. Tonight Jake and I ate ice cream and the restaurant was full of people. Girls. We stay at a women's university. Every seat in the house, for the most part, was occupied, minus the four seats right next to us. No one would even sit there. Two girls finally came and sat at our table, with seats separating us, but quickly thought it unwise and promptly re-located. Far from flattering. Apparently, these people are shy. But come on. Anyhow, it will be nice to get back to the U.S. where it is possibly to meet new people with out being on a blind date.

This afternoon, we took a tour of the campus of our school along with the other international students. The school is just over 100 years old. It is an all women's university. The girl that gave our tour commutes an hour and a half everyday to get to school from her house, where she lives with the rest of her family. Apparently, this is quite common. In a city of 25 million people, I imagine her family may still live in the city. After the tour, we had dinner in what would be the equivalent of, perhaps, a ball room or a convention hall. It was on the top of one of the school buildings and had incredible views. The food was outstanding. The buffet table was probably 75 feet long. There was all different types of salads, vegetables, sushi, sushimi, seafood, beef, chicken, noodles, pasta, various types of rice, fruits, soups, and deserts. It was excellent. On the way back down on the elevator afterwards, we figured out that if you press a button on the elevator on accident, you can simply press it again and correct the mistake. I thought this tre cool. Now, I am drinking a beer, waiting for the next world cup game to come on.

The picture is from our balcony here at the penthouse. Notice the green scaping on the roof of the building. This is also common here. It prevents excess water run off, helps to insulate the building, and makes for a nice common space. You can see some of the school in the background.

June 10

Thursday, we went to one of the markets. I got some pretty sweet underwear as well a nice slice of pineapple.

We are staying at Sookmyung Women's University in downtown Seoul. We are on the eighth floor of a dorm staying in an apartment that is used to teach the girls how to cook, clean, host, etc... Similar to home ec. I imagine. We have a very nice kitchen, living room, tea room, computer lab, washer/dryer, and the bed rooms each have full bathrooms. The rooms are set up to accomidate four people, but we only have two people to a room, and I am the only person in my room, since there are only three guys. Our professors are staying in hotels right down the street.

Memorial Day weekend in Corolla.