Friday and Saturday were spent actually getting to Jeju. Honestly, it is not a convenient place to get to. I had to fly from Raleigh to Dallas, Dallas to Seoul-Incheon, take a train from Incheon to Gimpo (45 minutes), fly from Gimpo to Jeju, wait half an hour for a taxi, then take a 45 minute taxi to the hotel. Flying international, at least on American Airlines like I did, is awful. I brought my laptop and books hoping to read and play games, but that plan quickly ended because there was absolutely no leg or shoulder room. I barely got any rest, and I watched several movies, including Arrival, La-La Land, Why Him, the Magnificent 7 (2016), and Assassin's Creed, in descending order of quality.
South Korea is an interesting place, and I'm going to note some of the more fascinating realizations. First of all, Seoul is enormous. Every neighborhood surrounding Seoul has a skyline as big or larger than most US skylines, and I don't even think I saw the skyline of Seoul. Second, you can't assume people here speak English. At hotels and the airport, you can assume that about half the people have a rudimentary understanding of some basic words and phrases aligned with their profession, but when you want to get specific or detailed you are out of luck. Third, traffic is completely different. This is probably true with most countries, but in South Korea a lot of the police work is somewhat automated, i.e., unmanned radars, so drivers just find out the traps and drive fast and hectic when they're not near one. Any street that's not a large road is literally an alley, and unless it's a large road you can expect it not to have a sidewalk. Moped drivers, most of whom are delivering food, have a death wish. Last, popular styles for younger women here is large glasses that slightly resemble Coke bottle glasses, and 80's style bangs, which, combined with the general 'retroness' East Asian design sometimes evokes, made me feel like I had stepped into a time machine. Ok, one more thing: I'm pretty sure people here drink hot coffee with a straw.
After a night's sleep that consisted of completely passing out for 4 hours followed by 4 hours of stress dreaming, I had breakfast, the first food I'd had since noon the day before, which included scrambled eggs, seaweed soup, toast, salad, peaches, coffee, and tangerine juice.
On Jeju, at least the parts I've been to, tangerines are bountiful. They are common on fruit stands, and many small plots of tangerine orchards can be seen on the side of the road. This morning I took the bus to Seogwipo to attend Easter mass at the Seogwipo Catholic Church, the closest Catholic Church I could find to my hotel.
Mass started at 10, but I arrived early or late, depending on how you view it and, I assume, arrived about halfway through the 8:30 mass, but nobody spoke English so I rolled with it and decided that I couldn't understand anything anyway so I wasn't going to miss the first half much. Obviously with the global standard of Catholic mass, there weren't huge differences, but some interesting touches I saw were: the attendees were very emotive with their bows, likely because bows are used often in Asian culture; collection services were done so that everyone walked up in a single file line to give their money, which left me confused until I realized what they were doing; the exchange of peace was not a handshake, but a bow, which I thought was great; instead of a small bell ringing during the transformation of the Eucharist, it was more of a gong-like ringing. Despite not knowing what anyone was saying, I had some minor interactions with some parishioners, and they all seemed friendly. A few ladies handed out a dense, sweet bread after Mass, which tasted delicious. I'll look up what it is and relay back when I find out. Edit: After much searching I haven't found out what this treat was.
On Jeju, at least the parts I've been to, tangerines are bountiful. They are common on fruit stands, and many small plots of tangerine orchards can be seen on the side of the road. This morning I took the bus to Seogwipo to attend Easter mass at the Seogwipo Catholic Church, the closest Catholic Church I could find to my hotel.
Mass started at 10, but I arrived early or late, depending on how you view it and, I assume, arrived about halfway through the 8:30 mass, but nobody spoke English so I rolled with it and decided that I couldn't understand anything anyway so I wasn't going to miss the first half much. Obviously with the global standard of Catholic mass, there weren't huge differences, but some interesting touches I saw were: the attendees were very emotive with their bows, likely because bows are used often in Asian culture; collection services were done so that everyone walked up in a single file line to give their money, which left me confused until I realized what they were doing; the exchange of peace was not a handshake, but a bow, which I thought was great; instead of a small bell ringing during the transformation of the Eucharist, it was more of a gong-like ringing. Despite not knowing what anyone was saying, I had some minor interactions with some parishioners, and they all seemed friendly. A few ladies handed out a dense, sweet bread after Mass, which tasted delicious. I'll look up what it is and relay back when I find out. Edit: After much searching I haven't found out what this treat was.
After Mass I took the bus back and checked into the conference
Then, I got lunch at a place whose name I don't know, but I can do some research when my computer situation is improved and find that out, too. There I shared a meal with friends that included sundubu jjigae, aka, tofu stew, which surprisingly included mussels, banchan, and mandu, aka, dumplings.Again, when my computer situation is improved I will be able to find out what the dishes actually were, but I do know banchan off the top of my head. Banchan is a collection of Korean side dishes that are included with most meals. They are typically all you can eat. Our banchan came with hot peppers, bean curd paste, fried tofu (I think), kimchi, and pickled radishes that were similar in seasoning to the kimchi, the latter two I was particularly fond of. The woman who served us was amused when I told her "chal mogahsumnida", meaning "I ate well", probably because it is likely more of a formal phrase. If it was misplaced she appreciated the gesture nonetheless, and responded "kamse hamnida", or "thank you".
Then, I got lunch at a place whose name I don't know, but I can do some research when my computer situation is improved and find that out, too. There I shared a meal with friends that included sundubu jjigae, aka, tofu stew, which surprisingly included mussels, banchan, and mandu, aka, dumplings.
I also tried soju finally, and, sure enough, it tastes like watered down vodka, although it's pretty good for what it is, in my opinion, especially since the going rate here for a 360ml bottle is about $1.50 in USD. Put into perspective, a single bottle of MGD is $2.80. Another thing I'm fond of here is brown rice tea, which I'm sure exists in the US, but I've never had nor heard of it before. It's also called "popcorn tea", which is appropriate because it does taste like popcorn. Apparently this tea is made of a blend of green tea and roasted brown rice, hence the taste.
Sounds like an eventful 24 hours! Cant wait to hear about the rest of the trip.
ReplyDeleteVery cool!
ReplyDelete