Ponderings whilst I wile away time

Wednesday, August 19 2009 11:30 a.m.

I have been visiting E-spirit this morning. Watching and observing Lauren as a teacher. She’s so great with her students, and is very inventive with memory cues. I am not allowed to stay throughout the whole period (since I am a distraction) and have ducked into a small café. I figured out enough of the menu to order a small toast sandwich and Dr. Pepper :) The sandwich is DELICIOUS! Basically a peanut butter and jelly toasted sandwich with banana. YUM, YUM!

E-spirit is only a walking distance away from Lauren’s apartment, so last night she drew up a DETAILED map. She described it as a 15-minute walk and gave me a time to arrive at her classroom. I, the ever careful and prepared traveler, left the apartment early to allow myself 20 minutes to get there. I arrived in NINE. :)

My trip has been all I hoped it would be…thus far ;) It is SO great to spend time with Lauren! I have missed her very much since she left for Seoul and it’s like fitting a Duplo into place. Now I feel more sturdy and myself. I was in need of a getaway and vacation, and it has restored my being. Lauren is the best medicine!

We have done so much already:

• Full body massage
• CO-EX the largest underground mall in Asia
• Korean cuisine:
• juk = porridge
• meat= bbq style
• hof= bar menu (you cannot just buy drinks here. You must eat AT.ALL.TIMES.)
• Met with American friends here in Seoul
• Attempted to see a movie in a Korean theater
• Story= We went to see Ice Age 3 at CO-EX mall. Lauren has seen movies there before. They have all been in English with Korean subtitle. I guess they do not do that for kids’ movies. We watched the whole first 10 minutes with the squirrel Scrat and then the talking animals appeared all dubbed in Korean. Makes sense since kids do not have the ability to read subtitles. We got a refund.
• Noraybong/ Karaoke
• 
  

Lauren introduced me to the hottest Korean drama, so on my days alone I have been relaxed watching it online. I have gone to the bank and an eatery or two on my own. Today we are to visit Dr. Fish. It’s an inventive pedicure. There will be a long tank filled with fish about the length of a hand. We are to place our feet in for about 20 minutes and the fish will dine on our dead skin cells. I asked Lauren how the fish know when to stop. She said they don’t, that’s why we take our feet out after 20 minutes :$

It’s been an adventure. ^_^

Traveler Lost

I'm gonna take you back to the beginning. Back to my first few hours in South Korea and Seoul. It was an interesting few hours, so...let us begin.

I luckily found the bus from the airport without a hitch. Seemed to easy. I gave Lauren a call to let her know that I had arrived. Voicemail isn't available; so she just saw a missed call but knew to expect it from me. I didn't sleep much on the plane- maybe an hour, so I was sleepy. I dozed off a bit on the bus, but not knowing when my stop was to come I tried to stay alert.

WELL, after about TWO HOURS I came to my stop. Upon arrival I was to find a payphone and call Lauren again so that she may send a friend over to pick me up (she had a class until 7:30 that evening). I arrived at the stop at 6:00 p.m. SHARP and began my search for a payphone. Shouldn't be too hard, right? It was. There wasn't a phone in sight. I sat fidgeting on a bench near the bus stop. There were a few large company offices behind me and I finally decided to enter and ask for directions to a pay phone.

Now, the only thing I really knew in Korean was "Can you speak English?" lol Upon entering an insurance office building, the gentleman at the front/lobby desk greeted me and looked at me expectantly.

It took about 5 minutes to try and explain what I was looking for. Expecting a pointed finger in a certain direction, to my surprise and relief, they handed me the office phone to use. I had to press 0 first, not 9 like in the states. Lauren answered and I told her I had arrived, and she sent Ellen over. I told her to look for me sitting on a bench wearing my yellow sunglasses.
I thanked the gentlemen for the phone and went outside to sit on my perch and wait for Ellen.

An hour later....no Ellen.

Too shy to return to the previous office building, I went to another. This time the gentlemen at the desk had no idea what I was trying to say. About to give up, a young gentleman briskly greeted me "you need a payphone?" in ENGLISH! He led me outside in order to show me and then realized there really are no payphones anymore.

"You are to call people in your country?" he asked. Mind you I had been toting my luggage this entire time.

"No, my sister who is here in Korea." I guess that answer sufficed because he pulled his own cellphone out of his pocket saying "use mine."

Turns out Ellen had arrived at the bus terminal (where I was supposed to be dropped off but I was across the street) and she had looked for me for nearly an hour before giving up. I sat waiting for Lauren until her class was over. Again we had forgotten to decide a meeting place. She had to call the number that I reached her with, spoke to the young gentleman to see where I was, and FINALLY, we were reunited!!!

More than four hours after arriving in Seoul and I was finally with my sister!

--THE END--

Korea is...different

I know it's supposed to be obvious that a foreign country would have its differences, but I am continually astounded as to how MANY differences there are.

So here are my findings, thus far, in no particular order:
1. WALKING- In the U.S., we are power walkers. Koreans? Not so much. Everyone takes their time. I think they know something I don't. Take today for instance- I began to sweat after half a block (humidity here is always 85% or higher). It seems that I must "go Korean" in walking in order to not run out of deodorant in the first week.

2. RECYCLING- South Korea is BIG on recycling. Nearly every product and its packaging has a recycle symbol located on the label. I almost expected my ice cream to be punched with a natural compost brand. All fast food restaurants have organized trash/recycle bins. ALL labeled -> lids, liquids, cups (all washable by the way), and every dish is washable! Well, we all know that places like this do exist in certain areas of the U.S. But Korea goes one step further!! It's great to have the chance to be green, but all in all, if someone tosses away their starbucks drink (ice, liquid, straw, lid, cup and all) it's a lost cause, right? WRONG! I walked by a janitor emptying a garbage can in the mall and he was SORTING thru it and sorting it out into his own compartmental cart!!!!! NOW THAT'S COMMITMENT TO A CAUSE!

3. WHERE ARE MY KEYS???!!
This is one important difference that I would like to see the States obtain. We've seen them on cars...KEYPADS! Today marks the first day that Lauren is teaching at school and I am left to wander on my own. Normally, in the States, I would require her key or copy of her key in order to receive access to her building and apartment. This is luckily not the case in Korea. Each apartment door provides a keypad on the door in which a code is the only passage needed to enter. Nifty, eh? PLUS, they all have buzzers for the door bell outside each individual door. If you are stopping by a friends, this buzzer contains a camera which produces a video conference between you and the tenant. NEAT!