seoul searching...
February 10th 2007 07:18
welcome to seoul!
after an 18 hour trip from melbourne we finally arived at kim's guest house, seoul, which was to be our residence for the next two days. and what a journey it was to get this far. we were prepared partially for the language barrier, as everything that i read said that koreans could all basically speak english. i had the basics down and was well confident that easing into the culture wouldn't pose that much of a problem. i think that was my biggest mistake!
after proceeding through customs (which wasn't too difficult) we exited out the front door and was bombarded with signs all written in korean. all we had to do from here was find the correct bus to haepjong station and all would be taken care of. after asking a few people, that didn't understand if i was asking for directions or trying to mug them, we established the correct bus and a friendly old man that found us most amusing. he told us to stay on the bus until the first stop and we would be ok.
we did just that and after about a 45 minute bus ride we were at haepjong station, with two backpacks, a map, and a feeling of excitment mixed with anxiety and probably a dash of 'shiting the pants'. what to do. what to do. we asked a friendly young women where we were in relation to a map, and after a game of charades with her, she asked a passing by business man. he could speak english and helped us in the correct direction. shortly after we were lost again, and must of had that look of 'duh!' on our faces. a young school kid then approached us and asked if he could help us in broken english. we showed him the map and he told us the guest house was next to his house and he would show us. aahh the gods were smiling!
finally we arrived to here:
our new home...ish
here we found a warm place with a shower and a cup of tea. so relaxing to drop a big ass bag, have a shower, and contemplate what we are in for.
that night i lay considering what we had just been through and what joy is to come our way as we endeavour to experience an eastern culture through total western eyes. the koreans are completely at ease with themselves it would appear, and are on the whole welcoming to westerners. at this stage the younger people are happy to see us (most of the little kids point and laugh), and the older generation are still quite wary as to who we are. they are kind and gentle and go completely out of their way to help in any way they can. i think i am going to like being here. this ends day one of south korea.
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Comment by The black man
I was going to say be good but where's the fun in that...
Have a ball y'all
T-man
Comment by Jonathon
Anthroblogogy