Thank You, Bus Drivers

The bus drivers here in Korea are cool, fearless, sometimes easily irritable, lay-on-the-horn type, and have a "I'm bigger than you" mentaility when driving. One of the city bus drivers I see more regularly has shocking white hair, wears aviators, and changes gears like he's flying a fighter jet. 

Red lights are optional and the bus drivers are, if possible, more anxious and impatient than the riders themselves to get where they need to go. Express buses to Seoul from my city, where seats are reserved (see below for online-iPhone reservation how to), leave the second the scheduled departure time rolls by. Leaving from Seoul, there's a great stand-by system that let people pay for seats of people who miscalculated their timing and don't get to the bus on time. When arrived at the destination, the express bus drivers stand outside the bus door and bow as each of us passengers get off. 

On the longer trips I've taken (to Busan and Seoraksan National Park), the bus driver has had a set of indoor driving shoes, driving gloves, and a suit and tie hanging behind his seat, you know, just in case. The level of professionalism and pride of ownership - I drive this bus - is so right. I've noticed in other places - taxis and public places like bathrooms and elevators - head shots of those in charge (the drivers, cleaners, operators and maintenance workers). It seems like a good system to me, one that says, "Hey, I'm here working and making life that much nicer for you." 

Badger Blogging Blitz Daily Questions Collection

Here is a collection of the "Daily Questions" from the 2014 Badger Blogging Blitz, where five fellow University of Wisconsin - Madison alums and myself blogged for a week about our lives living and teaching in South Korea. I've updated the "Day Four" answers, and here is a preview of the questions.

1. What has been your most surreal experience in Korea so far?
2. What would you have told yourself before you got on the plane in Chicago, given what you know now? 
3. How does your school experience at the age of your students compare to that of your Korean students?
4. If you had the opportunity to change 5 things at your school, what would they be and why?
5. What teaching methods have you found to be the most effective with your students (What do they respond to?)?
6. Do you think you're making an impact on your student's English ability? 
7. What have you learned about yourself through this experience?
8. What has been the most difficult aspect of Korean life to get used to?
9. What's your favorite part of Korean culture/society? 
10. Have you been able or wanted to keep up on current events in the U.S. - new movies, your favorite TV shows, news, etc.? Also, how do those things differ in Korea? What topics are covered in the news? Are people there as interested in TV/movies? 
11. Do you always try all the foods offered? Have you made an effort to try a variety of new foods or do you tend to stick to the things you've found and like?
12. What plans do you have when the yearlong contract is up? Will you renew? Why or why not?

Catnaps in Korea

"Asian ability to sleep anywhere."

When I read this on one of my favorite travel blogs, I laughed out loud. Yeah, it's a pretty accurate description. Since living in an Asian country, I wonder just how this stereotype has been overlooked. There's some comedy gold where this goes.

It's not simply people sleeping on the soft grass in the park. It's not people napping on the lounge furniture at the spa. And it's not people snoring on buses or subway. It's the people zonked out on the tile floor of a busy cafeteria at the jjimjibang. The people asleep on a concrete wall in the middle of downtown Seoul. Those are the people that make sleeping anywhere an ability, a skill.

"Abby always falls asleep the
second we step onto the RER or metro"

I don't mean to brag, buuuut I've always been pretty amazing at sleeping. My bus ride home takes roughly 20 minutes, the perfect amount of time to be intellectually productive (read or listen to an educational podcast). Alas, how the story usually goes, I sleep. The bus makes an apparent left turn immediately before my stop. I've never missed it. Skill.

When I was about eight or nine, I was at a concert with my dad. I forget the particular piece that he was sure would "wake me up," but he did assure me it would. In the middle of the upbeat "crashing cymbals" and "banging drums" I closed my eyes and never looked back.

Fighting Bob Fest 2009. Freezing cold, rock hard bleachers. Squeezed in between my mom and dad, I had one of the best corn dogs and one of the best sleeps of my life.

These catnaps make life worth living. What is life without good, deep naps I ask you? Lesson learned and appreciated, Korea. Your move again.

Pushy Seoul

A group of people from my program have been taking Korean language classes in Seoul for five weeks now. They invited me along this past Saturday and with the class costing 1,000 won (less than a dollar) per class, I'm planning on a weekly trip to Seoul -- which is fine by me. I like Seoul; in a city of ten million, there's millions of things to see and do. And there are millions of people to gawk at.

There is also something neat about the fact that I was born in Seoul. It's one of those odd feelings that I can only describe as romantic. It's poetic but more straight cut than poetry. It doesn't feel like "I've come to the mothership" or anything like that. It's simply Seoul, the city and culture I was born into. 

After class, a few of us decided to go to the big fireworks show right outside the Yeouido subway station. With themed segements representing different countries - France and Cananda being two of them - the fireworks supposedly lasted for over an hour. My favorite part was the festival food. There were whole chickens rotisserie-style for 6,000 won, fried everything, and corn on the cob that tasted like the kernels were infused with rice. Rice is a main dish in Korea, but I don't know how they did that to the corn. Once the fireworks started, I really enjoyed watching the general reaction. It was as if the Koreans had never seen fireworks before. I mean, there were kids rightfully freaking out (one boy sitting on his dad's shoulders was pounding his little fists on his dad's head over and over in his excitement). But there were adults talking quickly in Korean with intermitant booming, imitating the fireworks. It was adorable. 

That being said, THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE. As one is in a different country, I'm glad I went. But I may just avoid major events like that in Seoul ever again. Or just make plans to spend the night and wait out the crowd. Walking into the festival grounds was an experience because the sheer number of people really got to me. Got to me in the sense that wow, there are a shit ton of people in this world, and I'm walking with ALL of them. It was like we were folllowing Moses into the promised land. Everyone heading for the same place. But getting home was a nightmare. We thought we would be fine leaving after the first segment of fireworks. And it might have been okay had the subway traffic been more organized and less pushy. 

I'm not sure if Seoul thought this fireworks festival was going to draw far less people than it did, but there needed to be a team of police dedicated to subway traffic control. It honestly would have been as simple as having a police "bouncer" outside the subway entrance to regulate the number of people going into the station. But they didn't and it was literally a suffocating experience. It took over a hour to get through a space that normally would have taken a few minutes. It wasn't the time that made me so angry but the pushing. We got down there, and there was no turning around. Koreans just shoving us into the crowd. It was completely unnecessary and excalated the situation into a trampling news-like story. There were families with really young kids that I was genuinely scared for. The kids were just wailing because it was so hot and they were getting pushed into -- it was not okay.

It changed my perspective a little bit about Koreans as a people. They are reasonable and polite; however, that experience was stupid. It made me recognize the selfishness and desperation that resides in all people when trying to catch a late night subway.  

I was trying to imagine if this would've happened in Paris or NYC, the other two cities I've been to with subways. It could most definitely. But would people push and shove like that? I can only hope not. 

First Trip to Seoul

Figuring out the bus from Icheon to Seoul was probably the most frustrating experience I've had so far. It was the most frustrating because I let myself get angry at the language barrier. The Icheon Bus Terminal is completely in Korean. The "English" website for the Terminal is most useless. The English help line was asking for my reservation number and when I said I just needed to buy a ticket, the girl said, "Oh. Sorry." Hang up. The tellers don't speak English and I was counting on friendly Koreans to help me. But as my friend from my program later pointed out, not everyone had the day off and a lot of people were probably heading to work and in a less helpful mood.

But there was this one girl. In her twenties. Pink sweater and looking like she might speak English. I'm like, "Oh yeah, she's the one to save the day." I could not have been any more wrong. She was SO rude. I just wanted to rip that pink sweater to pieces. It was a Scarlet O'Hara moment if I've ever had one. 

One eye-opening fb convo with the previous native English teacher later, I realized that all I needed to do was take any bus to Seoul; then, the subway would take me where I needed to go (duh). I'd been focusing too much on the specifics. So, I bought a ticket and honestly didn't know if I got on the right bus. But I did. And then I hiked up a mountain. It was a fantastic day. Subway love.