5 years ago
Jan 25, 2008
Jan 24, 2008
Lost in Korea
***Blog Post from Blog I started before leaving Vancouver, yet due to various technological fuckery, could not figure out how to continue....
Around 5:30 tomorrow night I will be stepping off a plane, rubbing my eyes, struggling with ridiculously over packed baggage, and taking a good look around at what I've got myself into. "Don't go off with any strangers," I was warned by my employer over the telephone, though I have never met or seen a picture of the person who will meet me at the airport. I land in Incheon, and through ways unknown to me at this time I will end up at a place I just learned about today (thank you Wikipedia), called Yangyang County (Yangyang-gun), located in the Gangwondo Province of South Korea. It will be a year until I come back. I've never blogged before, but it seems like a good way to keep in touch since I am not sure how frequent my communication will be for the first while... I won't have a personal phone or computer for the first month, so if it seems that I have disappeared from the face of the Earth, don't worry... I am just in a rural, Northern, mountainous town on the complete opposite side of the world. Here is a link to the area I will be in:http://www.yangyang.gangwon.kr/htmlfunc/eng/index.htmlTake care, everyone. Email me your address, and I will send you a postcard!
Around 5:30 tomorrow night I will be stepping off a plane, rubbing my eyes, struggling with ridiculously over packed baggage, and taking a good look around at what I've got myself into. "Don't go off with any strangers," I was warned by my employer over the telephone, though I have never met or seen a picture of the person who will meet me at the airport. I land in Incheon, and through ways unknown to me at this time I will end up at a place I just learned about today (thank you Wikipedia), called Yangyang County (Yangyang-gun), located in the Gangwondo Province of South Korea. It will be a year until I come back. I've never blogged before, but it seems like a good way to keep in touch since I am not sure how frequent my communication will be for the first while... I won't have a personal phone or computer for the first month, so if it seems that I have disappeared from the face of the Earth, don't worry... I am just in a rural, Northern, mountainous town on the complete opposite side of the world. Here is a link to the area I will be in:http://www.yangyang.gangwon.kr/htmlfunc/eng/index.htmlTake care, everyone. Email me your address, and I will send you a postcard!
Jan 22, 2008
Transmissions From the Satellite Heart
At last, I have bent Korean Technology to my will! It has taken me forever to finally get to this blogging business, largely due to:
a) my lack of a personal computer
b) having to relearn everything I thought I knew about technology b/c Korean technology exceeds Canada's by lightyears
c) the fact that the school and PC bong computers I use have Korean OS' and keyboards, and apparently a deep hungry that is only satiated by gobbling up any words I manage to bang out.
But here we are at last, and I hope having an outlet for my recent surge of verbosity will lighten my recent heinous Facebook overload. At first, the transition from a small Canadian town, to a "small" Korean town was really difficult. I live in Samcheok, which is a small city compared to larger ones such as Seoul or Busan. Population and size-wise it is small; it reminds me a lot of Victoria. However, my apartment building alone is larger than any building in my hometown, Kelowna, and after living literally in the STICKS (ok, it was a boat), I initially felt very overwhelmed by how modern and urban Samcheok seemed, let alone the rest of S. Korea. My recruiters and various websites assured me that my province (Gangwondo) is a smaller, more rural, Northern province. I was lead to assume Gangwondo would be less of a transition, since like BC, there are many mountains, farms, ocean coastline, fishing villages, forests, national parks and less urban sprawl.
These are not untrue facts; However, the first thing I had to learn was to adjust my frame of references, because Korean porportions and Canadian porportions do not correspond what so ever. Seems like a given, but I had never travelled before, nor left Canada, or obtained a passport prior to last month. So when Koreans take you for a "small" hike up a "small hill" it's an excrutiatingly steep TREK up a mountainside. When Koreans apolgize for the "shabby, small" apartment you must habitate, you hold back the tears and try to explain to them that it's the nicest, cleanest, biggest place you've ever had (so many windows. no dingy Vancouver basement suites here)! When Koreans take you out for a small bite to eat, it's an endless bounty worthy of a Christmas dinner (and so cheap)! When Koreans give you a "Tylonal" and promise it won't make you drowsy or affect you, you hear a buzzing in your brain, see stars, and have to go teach a clas totally HIGH as a kite (now that was a fun class had by all!) So when you are told you live in a small town, it is small by Korean standards, but the lifestyle is absolutley NOTHING like the small town Canadian lifestyles I am used to.
Yet, after a month, it is a lifestyle that will be difficult to leave, because the longer I live here, the more aware I am of how overpriced, overworked, overstressed and underhappy most Canadians are back home (and I was, up until leaving), despite the dominant perception that "civilized" "modern" North Americans lead the most privileged, "cleanest", "safest" lives. Compare a picture of the downtown Eastside in Vancouver, and any street here in Samcheok and you'll be converted to my case. Anyways, I've been harping on that point endlessly, to all kind enough to listen, but I guess I am still not over my utter culture shock.... shock that our North American culture continues to progress in such a destructive, defective manner.
Been on a huge Flaming Lips kick ever since I first heard their new album on the flight over Japan. All those awesome songs about struggling to defeat robots hits all the right spots right now, since in technology obsessed Korea, it's nearly impossible to escape those evil machines. So, I leave you with an oldie but a goodie...
Song of the Day: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1
"Those evil-natured robots!
they're programmed to destroy us!
she's gotta be strong to fight them,
so she's taking lots of vitamins'
Cause she knows thatit'd be tragic
if those evil robots win
I know she can beat them...."
a) my lack of a personal computer
b) having to relearn everything I thought I knew about technology b/c Korean technology exceeds Canada's by lightyears
c) the fact that the school and PC bong computers I use have Korean OS' and keyboards, and apparently a deep hungry that is only satiated by gobbling up any words I manage to bang out.
But here we are at last, and I hope having an outlet for my recent surge of verbosity will lighten my recent heinous Facebook overload. At first, the transition from a small Canadian town, to a "small" Korean town was really difficult. I live in Samcheok, which is a small city compared to larger ones such as Seoul or Busan. Population and size-wise it is small; it reminds me a lot of Victoria. However, my apartment building alone is larger than any building in my hometown, Kelowna, and after living literally in the STICKS (ok, it was a boat), I initially felt very overwhelmed by how modern and urban Samcheok seemed, let alone the rest of S. Korea. My recruiters and various websites assured me that my province (Gangwondo) is a smaller, more rural, Northern province. I was lead to assume Gangwondo would be less of a transition, since like BC, there are many mountains, farms, ocean coastline, fishing villages, forests, national parks and less urban sprawl.
These are not untrue facts; However, the first thing I had to learn was to adjust my frame of references, because Korean porportions and Canadian porportions do not correspond what so ever. Seems like a given, but I had never travelled before, nor left Canada, or obtained a passport prior to last month. So when Koreans take you for a "small" hike up a "small hill" it's an excrutiatingly steep TREK up a mountainside. When Koreans apolgize for the "shabby, small" apartment you must habitate, you hold back the tears and try to explain to them that it's the nicest, cleanest, biggest place you've ever had (so many windows. no dingy Vancouver basement suites here)! When Koreans take you out for a small bite to eat, it's an endless bounty worthy of a Christmas dinner (and so cheap)! When Koreans give you a "Tylonal" and promise it won't make you drowsy or affect you, you hear a buzzing in your brain, see stars, and have to go teach a clas totally HIGH as a kite (now that was a fun class had by all!) So when you are told you live in a small town, it is small by Korean standards, but the lifestyle is absolutley NOTHING like the small town Canadian lifestyles I am used to.
Yet, after a month, it is a lifestyle that will be difficult to leave, because the longer I live here, the more aware I am of how overpriced, overworked, overstressed and underhappy most Canadians are back home (and I was, up until leaving), despite the dominant perception that "civilized" "modern" North Americans lead the most privileged, "cleanest", "safest" lives. Compare a picture of the downtown Eastside in Vancouver, and any street here in Samcheok and you'll be converted to my case. Anyways, I've been harping on that point endlessly, to all kind enough to listen, but I guess I am still not over my utter culture shock.... shock that our North American culture continues to progress in such a destructive, defective manner.
Been on a huge Flaming Lips kick ever since I first heard their new album on the flight over Japan. All those awesome songs about struggling to defeat robots hits all the right spots right now, since in technology obsessed Korea, it's nearly impossible to escape those evil machines. So, I leave you with an oldie but a goodie...
Song of the Day: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt.1
"Those evil-natured robots!
they're programmed to destroy us!
she's gotta be strong to fight them,
so she's taking lots of vitamins'
Cause she knows thatit'd be tragic
if those evil robots win
I know she can beat them...."
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