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Culture Shot: Being A Pedestrian

"How different could being a pedestrian be?" I thought in my innocence when I first got here, "It's not like I'm unused to walking to where I need to be". How wrong I was ladies and gents, how very wrong I was. 

First, the footpaths are a crowed place with people headed to a wide variety of places for an even wider variety of reasons. In order to navigate through the masses, I have found it best to square my shoulders, point my elbows, and march as quickly as possible to where I'm going. The pointed elbows are a key point in this method, as without the jab of an elbow to remind folks coming too close you will be overcrowded in seconds. Secondly, the five Ds: Dip, Dodge, Duck, Dive and...Dodge your way around old people and couples as these meanderers will hold you up for half a week and are guaranteed to step right into your way every time you attempt to overtake. And don't for one second think that you can step off the footpath and go around wide because the streets are not the place a pedestrian! Mostly because a car might decide to park on your leg should it happen to land anywhere off the footpath, and hey that's the driver's prerogative.

Image via Wikipedia taken from
 An anti-jaywalking poster created in 1937 

Following on from the danger of stepping off the footpath for even just a second, you can forget about just strolling across the roads, no matter how small or narrow. This is due to the fact that Korean drivers have two settings: driving like a lunatic and stationary. I believe this is the reason everyone has automatic cars here, because no one could shift through the gears manually at the rate required for the short-distance bursts of speed drivers favor here. Well, aside from maybe The Flash that is. Now I know this attitude of strolling across the road is possibly uniquely Irish, or perhaps just Galwegian, as our Medieval streets afford crossing in two strides or less throughout almost the entire city. Luckily, I'm a quick learner and have not been foolish enough to wander across the 8 lanes standing between the supermarket and my flat.

This cheerful chappy has hit 3 children and a granny
for a total of 150 points!

Most of you are probably thinking "Ok Emmet, we knew you should stay on the footpath (or pavement,  if you're from the US) you're in a metropolitan city not a town with a cathedral". I hate to break it to you folks the footpaths here are not all that much safer! At any given moment cars, in setting number one, can come hurtling forth from a concealed entrance to an underground car park or an apartment building, and it is your job, as a pedestrian, to see them because God knows they are not looking for you. However, as if the dangers of Crouching Toyota, Hidden Daewoo weren't enough, another danger lurks on the sidewalks. Zipping from place to place. Zooming around trying to make good time and be a general menace to society these creatures pose a threat to anyone brave enough to walk to work. What are they? Scooters. Not the silver steel children's variety either, but full-on motorized scooters that require a licence to drive. These mainly belong to the delivery men of fast food chains like McDonald's and Lotteria but can also include workmen and people who are just too terrified to drive on the road. So between dodging other pedestrians, and avoiding stepping into the lanes of traffic you must also avoid the 'toot-toot' and the 'put-put-put-put-put'-ing of the delivery scooters who are looking to deliver their precious cargo of fried food by the quickest possible route which includes going through you if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact, the other night the man who brought my 3AM McDonald's also delivered to my doorstep, four casualties and a flattened teenager he had struck while bringing my McChicken-something-or-other. 

I think this is one of the biggest changes I've had to get used to over and was a shock to the system that I can be in mortal peril if I don't keep my wits about me and my eyes open on my journeys every time I leave the house. Listening to an iPod carries a massive health and safety warning too because if I miss even one 'toot-toot' it's curtains for me!

Urban Exploring: Gayaland Adventure.

First and foremost, apologies for the long delay in getting this post out there. I've had a busy week and a half what with catching up on my sleep and Gaelic tournaments, but more on that later! 

I've mentioned before how, as a waygook (foreigner), you get some leeway with rules, regulations and the bounds of society in general. In order to take advantage of this a group of us decided to explore an abandoned amusement park in the neighboring city of Gimhae. Getting a taxi to drop us at the entrance prooved easier than we expected as we had anticipated having to make up some nonsense place we were actually visiting that was definitely not an abandoned amusement park. However, never baffled by the strange requests of a waygook, the driver obliged and left us right at the gate. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Gayaland.

Pretty sure it was us and the Griswolds at the gates for this one.

As you can see there's still quite a lot of the park standing, if looking a touch run down. What better enticement to trespass and explore (finally I understand the line in the 'Our Father', I, at last, have trespasses to be forgiven). As we looked at the entrance we began to wonder if there was a back way we had to sneak in, as going through the gates seemed too bold, even for seasoned explorers such as ourselves. After a quick reconnaissance mission to scope out entry-ways we notices two things: 1. It's main entrance or no entrance and 2. There were workmen on the site next-door. It was only then that I thought about any repercussions being found in Gayaland might have seeing as I am a guest in this wonderful country. What if the workmen called the police? And hell we don't have two trailer park girls to go round the outside to find us another way in. However, given the lack of interest the workmen showed in the group of 8 foreigners hanging out by the turnstiles, we decided to brave the passage beyond the gates. Did anyone hear them calling us back? No?We're in!

Through the arch is the lair of the ferocious
beasts!

Once through the gates, we crossed a bridge leading to the real entrance to the amusements. As we approached the steps up to the park proper we saw the 'guard dogs' waiting at the top, daring us to come even one step closer. Or, perhaps begging us to come one step closer and rub their bellies and loosen the ropes which had begun to dig into their shoulders. But, to be on the safe side we skirted around the dogs for now.

Many other posts about Gayaland that I've read have noted the creepy atmosphere and unusual feeling in the park, due to the dilapidation. However, I'm not sure I would agree. Perhaps because of the larger group of us there, or maybe the afternoon sunlight beaming down from above dispelled the ghosts of fair-goers past, but for me the overwhelming atmosphere was mystery and nature taking back its land. One thing I will note is the fact that in spite of the ruin of the rest of the park there is one building which remains locked, and through a window on the second floor you can see an office which looks to but operational still. Unusual, sure, maybe even suspicious if I were theatrically inclined, which, as I'm sure you know, I am not! 

150cm seemed pretty tall given the
average height of a man here!

Apparently the theme park was at least somewhat active up until three years ago, according to a Reddit thread I found while trying to figure out exactly how much trouble I was risking getting myself into by venturing to Gayaland. But there's a surprising amount of growth back in the place given how thoroughly the Koreans usually cover everything in nature-resistant concrete. Just check out the entrance to the roller coaster here. This was probably the most used ride for the active years of Gayaland and now it looks like a prop from the new Jurassic World movie. Being the curious soul that I am I went through the barriers to get to the tracks in the hopes that I could get access to the maintenance stairs which runs along by the tracks of the coaster, however, the overgrowth was too dense to beat through and I gave it up for a bad job. I will post the rest of my pictures on imgur as there are far too many for one post.

Before coming to the roller coaster we explored the rocking pirate ship, which, was the first of the hydraulic rides we came to after taking a quick right at the bottom of the steps of the dogs. The whole boat section is mostly intact, if a bit covered in cobwebs and dust. Naturally I jumped into the boat to grab a fun snap sitting in the ride, not thinking that the brakes were probably broke (or that the whole thing could come down around my ears at any moment). Of course at the motion the boat gave a small rock, hinting at the vaulting swings of its past, following which I let out a shout, or a squeak of surprise and leapt out of the hanging carriage. 

The main square has certainly seen better days!

Following up a slight incline was the main square of the park towards the big wheel and the roller coaster. This area kind of gives the impression that the park was pretty small given the standards of today and also rocks a very 80s or 90s vibe with weird metallic merry-go-rounds and neon hand rails. Unfortunately, it was just out of frame that the biggest of the guard dogs was tied up. The dog was more of a deterrent than sentry as when approached he licked our hands and let us pet him, although from the look of him he was starved of human affection, among other bare necessities like shelter and water. It was both one of the highlights and lowlights of the trip as +1 for dogs but animal cruelty is not high on the list of things that float my boat. After seeing the abused dogs it was time to shape up and ship out without seeing the water slide section of the park, but I'll definitely be back for that soon!

What really happened to Natalie Portman at the end of Black Swan

Overall, Gayaland was definitely an amazing place to visit, especially given that usually anything that closes down is torn down and rebuilt as a GS25 or 7/11 in a matter of hours. So, I have finally become one of the new 'Urban Explorers' that have sprung up around the net. Speaking of nets, stay tuned for the next post on my foibles and fumblings in and around the nets of a Gaelic pitch.

Culture Shot: We (Like Alcohol in the System of an Expat) Are So Easily Assimilated

It's Friday night. The week has been filled with work, in my case kids screaming answers to questions they've only half listened to with answers they've only half formed before they started talking, and you (and I) both want to get as far down a bottle, or many bottles, of soju as one can over the course of a night. In a respectable way of course, we're civilized here in the Neon Republic of South Korea. 

So where do we go? Well, I'm no expert but I'll take you under my wing and show you around, it can be hard for the un-initiated to grasp the concept of drinking like a Korean here. 

"Chopsticks? I prefer chop-knives-and-forks but if you
insist!"

Round 1: The bell rings and we're raring to go at it with the old one-two. So we decide on where to go, seeing as we're probably Hank Marvin after a full day teaching English we'll go somewhere we can get some substantial food, and drink

of course. Barbecue is a great choice, we can cook our own meat and eat at the pace we set while feeling like Gods of the Griddle with out personal barbecue on the tabletop. We'll start with wine because I'm somewhat faint of heart and soju can be a struggle to start with. Especially when drinking the traditional rice beverage neat as Koreans are prone to doing. 

Round 2: We've made it through round 1 with barely a scratch on our sobreity, or so we are aware. We're here to drink, not to count bevvies! We move on up in the world and decide we're still feeling somewhat classy and hit on another bar. In here, as in most bars natives frequent, you must buy food with your alcohol

"Oh yummy, my favorite, I love red lettuce"
"Emmet, that's steamed octopus tentacles"

otherwise you definitely have  a drinking problem. We could exempt ourselves as we are foreigners or waygookin as we are co-called in Korean, but we're still fitting in and trying to keep in with the culture. Here we get more soju to accompany our delightful platter of: steamed octopus, raw beef which is to be mixed through with raw egg, pear strips and red pepper strips... Delicious. We're fitting in remember? One must not turn one's nose up at food no matter how unusual or downright incomprehensible it seems to our Westerner palettes. How does it taste? In truth, I've only had this once and the beef was tender yet tasted somewhat like what I can only describe as a rare steak and sawdust. However, the sauces on the side did something to temper the sawdusty taste of the beef. The octopus, red pepper and pear was all very delicious. Round 2 also features games played with the caps of the soju bottles which we've ploughed through like a John Deere through slurry. Each person takes a turn to attempt to flick the metal coil from the cap and whoever succeeds is the king and selects two other members of the party to drink. GUNBAE! Whew maybe we are getting drunk. By the way is it just me or are those silkworm cocoons looking more and more delicious? 

Oh dear... It was just me. At least I can't remember what my lessons this week were about

anymore, we're getting somewhere now. The last of the soju has been drank though so it's onwards and upwards.

This is the only photo I have of a Norebang and
I haven't any form of memory of being there.

Round 3: We're feeling happy, undoubtedly the best kind of drunk. Where to next? Well we whiled away many the hour with the soju and beef so our next choice could be Chicken and Beer but I can't drink beer so we'll opt for the most popular form of late night entertainment in Korea: The Norebang. "Emmet, are you quite sure?" "Oh definitely the natives go there all the time!" "But what on Earth is a norebang?" Well, I'm glad you've asked, because they are wonderful. A norebang is a building in which there are many private rooms with couches and TVs and karaoke machines, as well as more soju, just the ticket at this hour! So we sit for hours warbling along to the dulcet tones of Sinead O'Connor and Enya and even brave the gravelly tracks of U2 just to remind everyone that we are Irish! Lest they have forgotten it after our evening of assimilating. Maybe it's the three bottles of soju we've already drunk, maybe it's the thirst worked up from belting out The Cranberries Linger for the fourth time but the soju goes down much better in this place. 

Now, I'm afraid I'm going to have to call it a night because I'm tired and the crushing weight of how Irish I am, or perhaps my inebriation has left me feeling rather unwell and I fear I may throw up. But please let me know how rounds 4 and 5 waiting for the subway to reopen to take you home go.

Disclaimer: This is not always the typical foreigner night out but is a compendium of what a typical Korean night out has been for me here with my workmates. Also I nicked the norebang picture from Jamie on Facebook. Please find it in your hearts to forgive me.

Scene Unseen: This Traveler's Experience of 'The Unseen Korea'

"Ah look: a temple."
"Yep must be Asia, I guess... South Korea"

In the brief time I've been here in Korea I've begun to notice the picture my friends and family back home have of Korea is that it's all bright lights, neon signs and temples, lot of temples. For example the one above is the Haedong Yonggungsa Temple (해동 용궁사) or the Dragon Gate Temple as I was told it translates roughly to by my bosses husband who showed us around. No, you aren't wrong about any of those things we have them here in abundance. On my way to school I can take a wrong turn and end up in a neon sign temple... Although that may be a love motel but that's a story for another time. However, there is so much more to see and do here, even in Busan alone there are more tourist attractions than you can shake a stick at! Not that I'm implying you, dear reader, go around shaking sticks at tourist attractions and the likes. Busan has even made it onto the Huffington Post list of '15 Places to Go Before They Get Famous', which if you give such articles credence is a big compliment to the city.

"But Emmet, we've seen all this sort of stuff before! Have you sold us the false promise of lesser known attractions of Forn Parts?" And to this I can hold my head high and say: I have not tried to cash in on the usual empty promise of something "unseen" and show you a part of Korea that not only are you unlikely to have seen but are also unlikely to expect.

Emma's is smiling because you may be struggling with believing this picture was taken in Korea.

This picture shows us the Gamcheon Cultural Village here in Busan which features a number of unusual buildings including the two you can see to the left of the center background that are designed to look like a white mug and a red lighthouse. This village was built during the Korean War when refugees from other parts of Korea flocked to Busan where the threat of fighting was far lower than the rest of the peninsula and so it began its life as somewhat of a slum as the refugees settled on a hillside close to the fish-monger district of Jagalchi. The village as it now stands is a colorful ramshackle of building crowding together to bath in the sunlight which lasts almost all day! We Irish, however, were lathered in sun lotion as our countenances are rather more sensitive to the harsh rays than the buildings and their residents.

As you travel through the narrow streets you follow arrows depicted as fish which lead the way to the art installations which have been housed in some of the empty buildings.These works of modern, contemporary art are a deliberate juxtaposition installed when the government decided to open the streets of Gamcheon as

"I see...But what is it?"
"It's art, you uncultured swine!"
"You don't know either it seems"

a cultural village. It is important to note that this didn't come without a lot of grumbling from local residents who were loath to be looked upon as some kind of quaint token of poverty-stricken art-installations and as such some streets are off-limits to tourists and have signs asking for quiet so as not to disturb the inhabitants. I think this is rather a fair request from those who do not want to be a tourist attraction and wish to remain undisturbed by noisy wanderers. There is also a trail you can follow around the village using your guide map on which you collect stamps from each of the buildings of note to show you've seen the whole place. Although, in typical fashion, Emma and I only discovered this on our way out of the maze of buildings.

"Did we just accidentally go hiking?
Cuz I'm telling people we went hiking"

After we left the village we stumbled upon a hiking park just outside the gates and decided to explore in search for the "Sculpture Park" which we assumed would have all manner of lewd statues, because, well, sometimes our Westerner roots put strange ideas into our heads about what societies on this side of the world make statues of. Sadly, we never managed to quite find our way to this park and so it shall have to remain in our imaginations as a shining stone conference of smutty statues. What we found instead was a long walk and some sore feet as neither of us had worn footwear appropriate for walking uphill and downhill like the men of that grand old Duke of York in search of the promised statue garden.

So you see, Korea is not just a country hundreds of temples all boasting the birth of some religious figure or other nor a Neon Republic of bright lights and big cities. As this single example has shown there is definitely more to this scene that that which we are used to seeing or hearing about. There is a veritable cache of historical sights to be seen.

So if you are planning a trip to visit, which I hope at least one of you readers are, there is much more here to be seen through the telephoto lens.

And hey, if you get here soon you can be one of those to follow the HuffPost's advice and get in before the floodgates open and the trove has been picked clean of all the original photos to post on Instagram!

Time May Change Me...

I even have photographic evidence to prove my attendance!

Since I've come to Korea I've realized (I know this isn't right and my whole heart rails against me when I type 'zed', for it is definitely not 'zee', instead of 's') that Bowie was correct in assuming that one day we will all have to turn and face the stranger we have become. I have myself undergone some changes here. No I haven't had surgery, even in spite of the great deals available for a double eye-lid surgery or liposuction which are advertised on every subway train. What I have done is gained somewhat of an interest in soccer.

Prime seats indeed!!

"Stop the presses, this can't be true!" I hear you roar back home, and I understand the shock seeing as the last time I was in proximity to a live football match was roughly half my lifetime ago. It's true folks, I have a team to cheer for, albeit after just one game, I am a proud supporter of the Busan Transportation Corporation FC. But I was there, and I cheered (moderately) and jeered (somewhat less moderately) when we bottled it and lost 3-1 to our opponents Ulsan *spits into the dust*. We were prohibited from any more than moderate cheering due to the recent ferry disaster although when the final whistle came we were somewhat under the influence and thus lost our restraint. But who can blame us! It may be too soon to claim empathy for football hooligans but I've definitely gained insight!

The stadium was host to the preliminary rounds of the 1988 Summer Olympics and has a capacity of 25,000 people. Naturally, for our game the stadium was not even one tenth full but still had a respectable turn out for a match in the third division of the Korean soccer league, the result of which did little to change the standings on the board. So, at the end of the game we remained top of the league, however, as I missed our most recent match I cannot comment on how the league standings are at present. Overall it was a great day out, I even won a prize in the raffle, which is one of my greatest petty passions, and got drunk and make new friends which is another of my favorite (oh the hUmanity of having to omit the 'u') pastimes.

Here's one with players to further substantiate my claims! 

I am actually very much looking forward to our next match later next month! By the time I get home I'm just gonna have to be a different man I guess.

Culture Shot: Making Friends.

This post is hopefully going to be the first of many "Culture Shots" which I will use to detail things which have left me reeling. This week's shot focuses on making friends.

Making friends here, as a foreigner, has been possibly one of the easiest experiences I've had with making friends. Mostly because my first time meeting and speaking to another foreigner here was basically the exact same as the first day in school: "Hey dude, I have no friends. Wanna be friends?". The only differences being of course that when I was 3 and a half I didn't actually know the word "dude" and the fact that this time I uttered the phrase in a supermarket next to some watermelons. But overall the result was the same: I made a friend. Done and dusted.

"I'm only friends with you because we're both 8"..."and cartoons".
KicksterAsh

However, my native counter-parts may not have it so easy. Here in Korea being friends is either a whole lot harder or somewhat simpler depending on how one looks at it. I have been informed by my co-workers who are all Korean natives that the word "friend" in Korean is more or less the same as the word for "peer" or someone who is the same age. I had noticed this in some of my classes when I told students to look at their friend's work and they would repeatedly insist "But he's not my friend, I older!!"

This didn't surprise me. Oftentimes I was the one playing the "I'm older than he is" to avoid dealing with bratty relatives (no, not you, but all the others!) and being confused with being their "friend" how much street cred could I keep being friends with someone one full year younger than me? But then when I grew up it stopped being a big deal. This is not the same for the average Korean to whom image and social standing mean quite a lot.

Therefore, by and large, Koreans are not friends with people older or younger than themselves unless there are mitigating circumstances such as one of the pair to become friends is a foreigner. This is, I am told, due to the fact that westerners are just exempt from certain social graces. And thank god for that! My mind was literally blown when my co-workers marveled at the fact that some of my friends are even five years older than me, even more so that I have friends even older than that. Now I know this is often not the case and people usually hang around in similar age-groups back home but it is not unheard of to have friends from work or college who happen to have that bit more life experience. Over here, that would probably not happen and if it did there would still be honorifics and specifics and all manner of other "-ifics" which impede the development of a real friendship. To me this seems somewhat horrific.

This has been your first Culture Shot. Thanks for reading!