Anyong Haseyo!

Will and I are now safely in Korea, and even though we’ve only been here 3 days, it feels a little longer. As soon as we arrived here it felt like home. Maybe it’s because Korea is not all that different from North America, in culture and in appearance, or maybe it’s because we have a family and community to be a part of here, who embraced us immediately. Whatever it is, we are very happy to be here, and know that it is meant to be.

The journey here certainly had its stresses, as travelling goes, but everything worked out somehow. We had 2 bags overweight (they were underweight by Singapore airplines standards, but we forgot to check up on Air Canada’s standards), so we had to pay for that, and we had one extra bag to pay for (but we knew that). Our flight to Seoul was delayed by almost as hour because of engine problems (great….), then when we arrived in Seoul, Will’s bag of clothes was missing. Amazingly it was just sitting there in the lost and found, although I don’t know how it would end up there, as we were right there to grab our luggage at the carousel. Those aside, we arrived in one piece, and were met at the airport by one of the JVC leaders (see earlier blog post).

We stopped at a McDonald’s, and they had Koreanized McDonald’s food; McBulgogi Burger, or something. As much as I hate McDonald’s, I’m always impressed with the internationalization of their food. In India they had a McAloo Tikka burger. We were driven to Chuncheon, a beautiful city of lakes and green mountains, and taken to our apartment, where a “Welcome” sign awaited us. Chuncheon has a little blue mascot, as every Korean city has a cartoon character mascot to represent the city.

The next day we had breakfast at that same JVC leaders’ home, where fried tofu and soya sauce were included on the menu, then attended our first worship service at JVC. The church meets on the third floor of an office building, and it was beautiful, with a view of mountains from the window. We were asked to speak during the service, so we passed on greetings from friends who have been here, and that prompted a big applause. We were so exhausted from jet-lag, we found it hard to stay awake during the service. I HATE jet-lag. Amazingly, I’ve travelled to Uganda, Scotland and India, and have never experienced jet-lag like this. I know…it’s because Korea’s even farther away…but anyway, it’s awful. Will is so strict with not letting me nap during the day, and I know it’s for my own good, but man! It’s SO hard to stay awake. There was a pot luck following the service, and the spicy food woke us up. Among some of the new things we tried was sauna cooked eggs, which turned them brown, and some sort of jiggly chestnut thing. For supper that night we were brought to a fancy restaurant, and we had a taste of squid-ink dyed bread, which tasted pretty good to me (until I found that out). We then began to discuss our responsibilities here, and I thought I should mention that Will and I plan to start a family out here, which caused a big applause among the group. I corrected them and said, “No, not yet. We will start trying next year sometime”, to which one of the leaders said, “You can start trying tonight!” I guess they like kids.

We went grocery shopping yesterday, and as I suspected, there was no luck at finding many North American brands. What I found amusing was that any North American brands that were there were Korean-ized. For example, there were Pringles, but they were some strange stir-fry flavors. I saw Sun-Chips that were a spicy red pepper flavor. I also found some green tea Haagan Daaz. There are other North American products, but written in Korean, but they are just Korean-ized versions of the brand name: For example, Oreo’s are 오 레 오 (literally “o-re-o”), Cornflakes are 콘 푸 레 이 크 (literally “kon-pu-re-i-ku”), which if you sound out, sound like “Cornflakes” with a Korean accent, Skippy peanut butter is 스 키 피 (literally “su-ki-pi”). And so on.

Some friends of ours are also in Korea right now, and they sent us a welcome package. In it was a pair of plaid slippers, as Koreans like plaid apparently, a visor, as many Korean women wear visors, dried squid and peanuts (I don’t think I can bring myself to try that), and a gold pig for good luck. That was a good introduction into Korean culture. Today a woman came to our apartment, and handed us 3 packages of kleenex, with Korean cartoon characters on it. I don’t know if Koreans just highly value kleenex, or if she had seen me pick my nose earlier, but it was strange. Will and I went to a restaurant today, for the first time here, and we were kind of a “freak show” according to Will. First, we seemed to be doing okay with our chopsticks and spoon, but some lady from the restaurant came and gave us forks and proceeded to cut our 2 different kinds of kimchi with scissors for us, like we were little kids. Man, that was embarrassing. Then, when Will picked up his shoes from where he took them off (you have to remove your shoes when going into a home or a restaurant), and walked with them to the cash register, the 2 waitresses and cook laughed at him for a while. We couldn’t undertand why that was so funny, and none of them spoke English, so we’ll never know why that was so funny.

Other observations about Korean culture, is that it is very much like a developing country in certain ways (having been one in the last century), and yet they are very up-to-date with technology, and streets are kept very clean. Agriculture is mixed right in with city life, like a corn patch right beside a main street, and a rooster crowing underneath a highway overpass. Red peppers are put out to dry in the sun right on a parking lot. Very interesting contrasts.

That’s all for now. Will and I are very happy to be here, and feel very welcome and cared for. Till next time.

Kamsahapnida (Thank-you)