I think I’ve basically decided not to do a post on Japan. There’s just…not much to write about. I went and came back. I might do small posts on the more interesting parts of it later.

Well. Ciao.

Storm Drain

Calling it “the rainy season” here in Korea is a bit like calling a summer in Phoenix, Arizona “the warm season.” Even the northeast US’s storms have got nothing on what it was like some days here. That said, my (Korean) friends have insisted that this really isn’t normal, and sure enough, the news seems to agree with it. I was actually intending to meet a friend on the day of that article, but I showed up at Sadang Station (사당역) to find the place fortified with sandbags* with emergency workers milling about or directing traffic…and as the picture in that article shows, well, the red bus I was intending to board never came. Probably for the better, really.

Sadang Station

*The station entrances are already elevated off the surrounding sidewalk; the sandbags are in addition to that.

The first time I noticed something might be amiss was all the special announcements coming over the subway station’s intercom as I entered the first station. However, the audio was so badly distorted I doubt I could have understood it even if it was in English. My friend hadn’t checked the news either, so we didn’t realize the extent of the flooding until my being stuck at the station prompted him to investigate.

Under an Arch (Suwon Fortress)

Unfortunately I didn’t get a shot of it, but while taking the subway the day before I passed over the Han river (runs through the middle of Seoul, for any unfamiliar with the city). Running along the river is a park, but if you want to actually get to the edge of the water, you have to descend a fair bit. That’s where I originally took the cloud picture, incidentally. But when I passed by on the subway, the bridge of which is (fortunately) very far above the water… the only sign of the park was the tips of tree branches visible.

Moreover, running parallel to the subway lines on the bridge are the express ways (highways). I’ve mentioned this before, but space in Korea is tight; the on/off ramps extended over the edge of the river.  Normally they, too, are pretty high up… That day, however, the river had very nearly risen to its level. Later the roads there were closed, but at the time traffic was backed up…probably from earlier closures and flooding. I would hate to be stuck there.

To anyone thinking about visiting Korea, I’d really recommend coming during springtime, say late April or early May. Otherwise, you might get pretty much shut down by weeks of rain at a time. Or, if you are willing to brave the rain, South Korea’s authorities seem to do a wonderful job of keeping the infrastructure, public transit, et al.

I still need to do a post on my short little trip to Japan…Which was well over a month ago now? Yeah, I’m pretty far behind on things…

Han River Cloudscape at 24mm

Spotlight across the crowd

Last week, a friend that had access to free tickets through volunteer work he was doing offered to invite me to a concert. He wasn’t necessarily a fan of the groups that were coming, but, well, as mentioned, it was free. I accepted, naturally, and made my way over at the appointed time.

These waiting children would only be disappointed when the picture event was cancelled.

First, he explained, was “picture taking time,” that is, where fans would get a chance to get their picture taken with the singers et al. His role was to keep the small crowd from pressing forward, and I just tagged along and tried to shoot pictures under some of the worst light you’ve ever seen. If these shots seem a little noisy–it’s because I had to lighten them. Although there were lights just inside, where people were actually standing/waiting there was nothing at all.

On the Radio

Anyway, the crowd was soon disappointed when the pop stars cancelled the picture event, citing lack of organization. The children actually seemed to take it pretty well–no one seemed to cry, or get angry, etc–they were just quietly led away. On the other hand, one middle-aged woman in particular was outraged and was shouting at anyone she had an excuse to–my friend, when he tried to calm her down, and even at me a little. In the end we just left them to deal with it.

The concert itself–Well, it was ‘interesting’ (read: a bit strange), but I can’t compare it to American ones. This was my first trip to a concert ever, so I don’t have over experiences for it to go up against. The music, while loud, wasn’t earsplitting. On the other hand, the screaming of the fans was–I covered my ears, my friend didn’t and later told me they still hurt after the concert. Many of those people have to have shouted themselves hoarse but, another thing he pointed out, it’s a mark of pride here, a way of showing your loyalty to whatever it is you’re a fan of.

Fans at the concert

Here’s a short sample video clip I took. It was really more of a test of some special video firmware for my camera and, naturally, the sound quality sucks, but if you’re interested here you go. Concert Clip

The Costs of Living in Korea

Scooters for sale

The other day I went with a friend to pick up his scooter at the repair shop. When I asked about the prices involved, I was shocked about what he was paying. While in Provo I got my first (brand new) 150cc Chinese scooter for $700, he payed $500 for a heavily used one, a mere 50cc’er (top speed of about 23mph/37kph). The repair bill would run him another $400. When I asked him about the price of a 150cc here, he estimated around $2000. Ouch!

Engine problems

Is it cheaper or more expensive than the US? Well, as it turns out, a bit of both. In the end, I’d have to say the overall cost is higher, but there are ways to economize and knock it down a bit. Same with Japan, really, but also like Japan, it doesn’t change that it’s a pretty expensive place overall.

Transmission problems

Real Estate: If you want to actually live here and, say, get a condo–absurdly expensive. Quickly goes above $1 million. Renting’s not cheap either. However, on the lower end of the scale–You can get a room for pretty cheap. They’re tiny, but you can find rooms for a bit cheaper than Provo might cost. (Right now I’m paying 32만원 or ~$320/mo). Provo’s certainly cheaper during the summer but it’s not terrible really.

Exit 6

Groceries and Food: Well if you’re OK with living on purely rice and maybe one or two very simple sides, you can do it for cheaper than the US (but you could do the same thing in the US too haha). Generally, though, the portions are much smaller. And normally, I would like that–less waste if I don’t use something fast enough. But instead of smaller prices, it’s actually more expensive than the States. Even things you’d think would be cheaper, like the cup noodles available at every convenience store here, are marginally more costly. Incidentally you cannot buy milk/drinks/juice in any size larger than 1.5L, and milk not even that much at a time. A shame because I usually buy and drink milk by the gallon…

Tuition: Here Korea wins out over the US. Maybe they don’t have guaranteed loans, so the schools can’t simply ask any price and get it? In any case, it’s substantially less than Stateside, by like 40% at least.

Vehicles & Gasoline: Substantially more expensive in Korea, as with the above about scooters.

Taxis and Public Transit: Once again Korea wins out. If you want to take a taxi (something I’ve only needed to do at the behest of the BYU program’s professor), it won’t cost you much. And as I’ve said before, Korea’s got a fantastic public transit system. Using rail alone I’ve been able to cross from one edge of the country to the other more than once already, buses will take you to the more outlying areas, and it’s all very cheap. The base cost of the subway is $.90, with another $.10 added on for every certain number of kilometers you travel and maxing out at $1.90. My two-hour-each-way commute of my first two weeks here ran me $3.80 per day, which is far cheaper than a car’s gas would cost even in good times. Nevermind car insurance, maintenance, etc.

The Subway Runs on Windows XP

Though I can’t really hold this against Korea, the bank fees can really mount. I found out mine charges not only a flat foreign ATM fee, but also a portion of the balance withdrawn. I’ve lost probably about $150, maybe more, to these fees already. And a ticket to Japan on the jet ferry, in better times, would have run $260; it costed me $325 thanks to the exchange rate. All in all, my trip’s run a bit overbudget… :S

Two things I want to cover here; think of this as two posts in one.

Korean Rail

Shaded Tracks

Standing by for Departure

My brother, who is working on a documentary via a cross-country trip in Russia with a friend of his, discussed the ordeal of buying a train ticket there. It was pretty interesting to me; he essentially says the sellers are not of a very cheerful disposition, don’t care to slow their speech for foreigners or otherwise make accommodations, and close without warning.

It’s a pretty big contrast to Korea. Rail–both the local subway systems and the KTX–they’re very well organized. For a start, a line usually feeds into several booths, and the wait, if there is any, is pretty short. If you’re going by the KTX and need a ticket to ride, the clerks are pretty willing to help–if not by attempting some English, then at least by showing you their screen to communicate the details and cost.  I’m sure the guard standing by the subway gates would be just as willing, if you had trouble figuring it out for some reason. Or just got lost. They’d certainly never dream of closing the line on people without taking care of them first.

Ground Wire

It’s a pretty well oiled system.

Oido Station

Actually, that about sums up South Korea in general. Most people are more than willing to help. Occasionally you might get a grumpy or rushed person that swears at you though–but that’s pretty rare all said. And even with all the modern amenities, it’s still dead easy to buy a ticket. No stupid ID checks or tedious security lines of brawny guys waiting to grope you, as would undoubtedly happen if the USA tried to do something like this.

Anyway, if a documentary of the small towns in Russia and how they survived (or didn’t) the economic collapse of the USSR sounds interesting, I’d recommend following my brother’s journey. They’ve got some nice shots there besides.

A Morning at 옥구공원 (Okgu Park)

Twilight creeping onward

Last night I decided to try pretending I’m a landscape photographer. Among other things, this means creeping about around 3am, waiting for the perfect light to photograph things. But the subways/trains don’t start running until 5am; dawn would be, according to meteorological sites, at 5:10am. Twilight would, of course, be much sooner than that.

I ended up taking the last train of the night out to Oido. I’m going to sidetrack here and go off on a small tangent. People on the train were unusually chatty… Normally I always get left completely alone. After close to two months of this I was pretty used to it. So I found it odd that people were approaching me and just chatting. Most people, though, upon finding out that I attend Sogang and live near 서초역 or Socho station, looked quite baffled about why I was on the last midnight train to the far edge of the city but didn’t ask why. One guy, however, gave me his business card and asked me to contact him later.

Morning City Lights

Well, I thought, may as well, always good to have more friends to practice with. I guess this manager of the QA department of a game development company must be pretty eager to learn English. But I sent him a message today, and received a response in the form of an actual call. As it turns out, he had no recollection that we’d even so much as met–despite being well mannered and seeming sharp at the time, he had been quite drunk. Heh. He cut the conversation short and I don’t think I’ll ever hear from him again. But apparently, if you want conversations, after happy hour is the time to take the subway.ㅋㅋㅋ

Right then, back on target. I arrived at 12:20, a bit after midnight. Unfortunately the buses had stopped, so I had to walk to the area I was planning on–about 50 minutes, including getting lost. I killed a few hours in a PC-bang, a little too much as is turns out twilight starts before 4AM. Hurried my way up to the top of the mountain… and realized the rock outcropping from the shot in the last post, that thing was blocking the sunrise direction. Ran back down, haha, but found a good location.

Dawn

Incidentally, for the single person out there that might want the technical details–the sunrise shot was taken using, in order from inbound light to lens, a 10-stop ND, a 2-stop GND, and a UV filter. The 10-stopper, I found, increased the color saturation of the lateral areas a surprising amount. It’s also useful for looking at the sun when you want to see exactly where it is without burning out your eyes. Also discovered I’m not as good at handling my 50mm lens as I thought. Oops.

Lighthouse in the Distance

Dawn but with less red

Towards the end I came down off my caffeine-and-sugar high and turned into a zombie. I starting making more and more mistakes, so I packed up my gear and made my way to the bus and then subway station. Just keeping my eyes open was torture, and afterwards, well, sleep’s never felt so good. Despite that, though, the whole thing was a lot of fun, and the sights and pictures were worth every minute of it.

I’m way behind on my emails. If I haven’t answered yours yet…Sorry, I’m working on it!

Just Inside

Rock "Massage"

Just before June started, I took the KTX, Korea’s high-speed rail system, up to Seoul and I’ve starting attending Sogang University (서강대), or more specifically their language institute. There was a bit of a hitch–they insisted I’d placed at level 2 on the phone interview (I didn’t take the phone interview) despite the teacher telling me level 3 at the end… Well, I tried attending level 2 but it was really boring, so I retook the test and level 3 again! Sigh.

But actually, things have been going pretty well.

Rock Outcropping

Yesterday we celebrated one of my classmate’s birthday a day late (Monday was a holiday, a sort of Korean veteran’s day). Her name is Kayo, a Japanese national married to a Korean one. There’s a fair number of Japanese in the class, though most are younger and merely students. Anyway, we went to the cafeteria, had lunch, and then a cake they brought with them. I also got to practice Japanese a lot. And, I don’t know why exactly, but unlike with BYU students… I felt that I didn’t need to be on my guard. I could just sit back, enjoy the food and friendly company.

The Way Down

It felt particularly nice to return to the old language. It’s like returning to a favorite book, or movie, or place. Even though it’s not my first language, it was relaxing… and in Provo, there isn’t much chance to really use the language.

Korean is still really stressful for me, haha.

Right now I’m trying to get into Sogang’s photography club. The regular students are in finals season, so I might have to wait a bit. And this month I need to plan a visa run to Japan…Hmm.

Perimeter Fence

Anyway, I’ve done a few random things. One particularly notable even was exploring a park with a friend. That’s where all these photos came from. We got lost on the paths a bit ㅋㅋ. They’ve also got this sort of rock garden thing… The rocks are set into concrete at differentangles and patterns… depending on which sections you walk over, it’s supposed to do a sort of massage therapy on your feet. For some reason we decided to go twice. Those things really hurt, though I seem to have fared better than my friend.

I think that’s about it for now…

The theme change, incidentally, is due to the other’s poor picture handling. If I figure out how to edit it I may change it back.

I got to the local university we’re partnered with, Inje U, just after classes. Met one friend, chatted for a bit. Met another after that…and surprisingly, he teaches a Korean class. He invited me to sit in with it. And though I suspect it’s largely the novelty of it (everyone else in the class in Chinese), the classmembers seemed to like it and I’ve been invited back for tomorrow. And after that, I met yet another friend and practiced some more conversation.

A little more on the class. Well, grammar-wise I’m far, far beyond them. But, as I had the disadvantage of studying only in America… They’ve got much more vocab and their pronunciation is better, so I still learned quite a bit. And a review of grammar never hurts.

One more thing I want to say though. We Americans tend to catch a lot of flak for not knowing much geography outside of the states–or, going by the stereotype, any at all. Well, after that class, I really don’t think anyone’s in a position to criticize us. My teacher friend thought California was on the East Coast, no one knew where New York was (let alone Utah), or Las Vegas, etc etc. Which was fine really, it was fun to teach them the basics of US geography, but if you’re ever thinking of launching a volley of stones, make sure your own artillery site isn’t glass!

I’ve also made a number of new connections today, nothing solid with friends yet but over the next few I think it’ll develop. It’s nice, things are finally taking off.

In a way I dread my transfer. I’ll have to start all over again in two weeks…

But that’s life really. I’m really glad it’s starting picking up so well here and now.

Before getting into that, though, I’ll start with what’s been going well.

I took advantage of our host university here and paid a visit to their campus, with the intention of making a few friends. It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. In any population, it’s a given that most people aren’t interested in learning other languages. Still, I hoped it might be at least 10%, but it wasn’t even that. Nonetheless, I eventually met two girls and they were willing to tolerate my rather terrible Korean. Turned out they were both majoring in Chinese, not because they wanted to work or live there but due to the country’s increasing economic strength and relevance. They also didn’t want to attempt to learn two languages at once, for which I can’t blame them!

The next day we went as a class and I was able to make a few more friends. From here it should be pretty easy–the outset is hardest but, as I’ve mentioned before, once you know at least one person you can ask them who’s interested in learning English, or just might be willing to help you practice your second language if not.

So, 4 or 5 new numbers in my phone and some plans to meet. As far as salvaging goes, it’s not bad at all. I can definitely use the half-month I have left here. On top of that, I’ve started to befriend 1 or 2 people from within the study abroad group too. But with this little time left, I don’t think it’ll really develop much.

By the way, if I have any advice for people traveling abroad to learn a language it’s this: get a cell phone. It’s a real pain to do in a foreign country but it pays for itself many times over.

Anyway. So in the previous post I complained about how things were being run a bit. This shouldn’t be terribly surprising but when I have to get up at 6am (bathroom sharing and all…) and then don’t get home until 9-10pm, when most places are closed and it’s too late to do much of anything, and when we’re walking around most of that, crammed into a van beyond its rated capacity for the rest, doing things that I didn’t come to Korea to waste my time on… Yeah, my mood tanked a bit. I tried not to make it too obvious but I do think I was a bit sullen and irritable.

Well the professor took me aside for a little the other day. I guess it must have been pretty obvious.  First he does the usual spiel that I’ve been hearing since 4th grade or so (that is, about 12 years old)… Speak up, talk more, etc etc. As though one’s personality can be changed as simply as flipping a switch.

Then he asked if I was taking or had been receiving counseling. Okaaay, a little personal there but I told him no. His next batch of questions completely blew me away. “Have you been hearing voices?” Er. What? I hope I hid my surprise from my face, but as with the above, I probably didn’t. He went on to ask some other similarly themed questions. I still can’t quite believe it: my professor thinks I’m freakin schizophrenic. (Yeah, yeah, save the jokes for later).

That would take the cake if the implicit threats that followed weren’t so serious. One thing you need to understand is that a number of higher jobs–the government being the most well known for this but some private companies do it as well, something my professor is well aware of–do background checks. I don’t mean some online service that lets them check you for a criminal record; they actually send people out to interview people you’ve known, past employers, etc. And a study abroad program sticks out like a roman candle in the dead of night.

My skill set–languages, computers, things technical–means that ending up in one of those jobs is a very real and unfortunate risk. Well, maybe not such a risk anymore, and maybe my professor is really doing me a favor–I don’t want a job that invades my personal life, really.

I really should have just come here on my own to study. Not only would I have sidestepped the obscene cost of BYU’s thing, but I could have focused on language and making friends in one place from day 1, and, well, I would have avoided this professor. Even with the positive notes above, participating here something I really, truly regret. It’s going to be something I regret and feel the effects of for a long time. I leave at the month’s end but it’s not something I’ll get away from for years and years. Sigh…

Anyway. One of the nice things that Korea has is something called the PC방. Not sure how to say it in English–PC cafe or something? Anyway, a small fee (1,000 won/hr, or a bit less than a dollar per hour, at this one), you get to use a gaming-spec machine for a while. Quite a number of games here, though all in Korean of course. And, I can safely say, Starcraft (the original, though I’ve seen SC2 as well) is alive and well here. If in the minority of games I see people playing. If nothing else, the 27″ screens are nice for writing on as well.

Downside to these nice little places is the cigarette smoke. The people in these places tend to go through a pack pretty quick too. There are quite a number of fans running to help but it’s still a pervasive smell. Even so, it’s a way to get online when my current lodging has nothing in the way of internet (or hot water, haha).

Back to the topic of studying abroad, I’m beginning to think more and more that I made a big mistake in signing up for my university’s program. I didn’t do it because I thought it would help me acquire the language, but because I wanted a Korean minor. I wanted that little line item on my credentials to assure people that I know something about Korean (hahahaha). But I hoped I’d learn some in the process.

So far it’s been the worst thing for my Korean since coming to the country. I’m regretting it more and more, particularly after spending the lion’s share of my savings on this. Some mistakes are necessarily to learn but this is not a minor one and it’ll cost me dearly.

The classes start the day with lecture field trips. I suppose some people must like the tourist sites and history but honestly it bores me. I’d rather be in a classroom where I can sit to write and have a board I can copy notes from. The content is not interesting either way but I can keep better track with the latter. That’s not the part that’s such a critical failure, however.

The part that is boils down to the whole extrovert/introvert thing. We’re supposed to chat up people we meet on the street, sit next to, or whatever else. Essentially approaching people at random. We have a number of returned missionaries in our group and, naturally, this works pretty well for them…They’ve had two years of experience doing it on the difficult topic of religion. But I can’t operate like that. No point in explaining, really; extroverts can’t understand either way. My professor can’t understand.

And the heart of the problem is as simple as that.

It’s perfectly possible for highly-introverted people to do very well in language acquisition. Read into the academic literature a bit and you’ll find introverts even tend to do much better in several areas. Read into it further, and you’ll also find that one of the field’s biggest problems is programs are misaligned with the types of learners that the students are, which in this area, it’s something that has a huge impact on the success (or failure) of a program/class.

The way I can work, and do…make a friend. Not a ton, I can’t do that either, but even starting with just 1 is fine. But the ones I do make are usually pretty good ones. From there, make friends of friends…and before you know it, you’ll have more than you can manage. Do it right, and they’ll be the kind of people you really want as your friend as well.

But it takes time to cultivate. Moving around is bad, as it severs local relations…and we move around a lot here as well. I was just starting to get some roots in the city I left before (시흥시) too–made sorta friends with 2 shopkeeps, involvement in the local church community, etc.

An ancillary problem is…I don’t really have friends in this group, which again, largely consists of RMs. That became painfully explicit when I returned to our lodging. Not a soul was there. Everyone else…out with their friends in the group, shopping, visiting museums, eating, or whatever else. As per the normal of cliques everywhere, they’re not exactly looking for others to invite along and I’d probably only tips things further away if I tried to tag along all of a sudden. Then again, it’s all English amongst themselves anyway…

What I’m not sure of is how to salvage this exactly. Fortunately, my attendance at Sogang U (a notable Korean university) starts midway through the program so I’ll be making an early exit. But it’s a month of what precious little time I have here, too valuable to write off. So, how can I salvage it…

I really don’t understand why they make it so difficult, though, especially if you can provide the phone. I mean, what’s the worst someone could do, make some prank calls? A bank account is a little more understandable, there’s some potential for fraud there.

Things I love about Korea

First, great public transportation. Subway system and bus system here are fantastic. In my hometown…the 3 bus lines they have are pretty useless. Subway’s not hard to figure out, and the bus system is, by its nature, a bit more complicated but very nice. Everything’s rather modern, e.g., almost all bus stops (and, of course, all subway stations) have displays telling you when the next bus (or subway) of a given route number will arrive.

Stops are all announced via automated systems (just Korean on the bus, Korean, English, and sometimes Japanese and Chinese on the subway)–no need to try and guess where you are if you’re new to the area. All public transportation costs are paid by an RFID card you can buy at any convenience store, though with cash is a more expensive option if you lose it or something.

Next…there’s none of that “99 cent” crap here. All prices are nice even numbers. Quite a few places smaller places only have a cash box–no need for a register when the math is this simple!

From Here

I’ll be leaving today if possible, tomorrow if not. My next place is very unlikely to have internet access. Might be a bit.

Also, there are some new pictures up and I’ve got more to add when I have time.