감 사 합 니 다 - Thank You!

             It’s been almost two weeks since leaving Korea and I would be lying if I didn’t say there was an adjustment period back to American life. Being home feels great but at the same time I will certainly miss the daily activities that took place in Korea. The hardest part of adjusting was getting off a diet heavy in rice and cabbage and getting back into eating breads and drinking milk. For the first few days I could barely eat half of my Cheerio’s before going to work. In Korea we started work at 8am and in California I am at my desk before 6:30am, I definitely like the Korean hours more.

The flights home were pretty smooth and I flew business class on the new Singapore Airlines, Airbus A380. The seats were actually too big and they forced you to sit on an angle while watching the TV directly in front of you. The A380 was the long haul flight from Tokyo to LA but first I had to get from Busan to Tokyo on Japan Airlines. Japan was very comfy and they had some very exotic sushi and seafood for my meal. It was not that big of a deal to eat one more mystery meal before going home to LA.

JAL Lunch

The only identifiable items were white rice, Miso soup, and buckwheat noodles

Singapore's new A380

Business Class Cabin

Awkward, off-center footrests

A Singapore Sling to start the flight

Flying into LAX. The Channel Islands are off to the left

The same plane but for a different airline

            When I came home my plan was to surprise Courtney because she thought I wasn’t going to be home for a few weeks. She had a softball league happy hour about 30 minutes away in Pasadena and I had every intention of getting home around 4:00pm and then meeting her and her team for a fun night of socializing around 6:00pm. My plan went sour from the start when I walked through my apartment door. My car keys were not in the same place as I had left them and I soon realized she had them in her car. Thinking on the fly I emailed her that something happened in Korea and I needed to talk to her right away. This would mean she’d come home early from the happy hour so we could talk online. I never told her what happened, just that I needed to talk. Unfortunately at around 8:30pm when she walked in the apartment door and I yelled, “Surprise!”, she burst into tears. 50% was excitement I was home and 50% was sadness that I had made her so nervous by saying I needed to talk but never telling her about what.
           They say that Disneyland is “The Happiest Place on Earth” and it should also be known that Korea is “The Nicest Place on Earth”. Koreans should take great pride in the kind and welcoming personalities they have as well as what they have accomplished in their small country. Not once in the past three months did I ever feel unsafe, unwelcome, or unclean while living in the Korean culture. Coworkers, hotel employees, waitresses, and taxi drivers really seemed to all go the extra mile to guarantee my smile. The white background of the Korean flag stands for cleanliness and I believe this has a much deeper meaning than just clean sidewalks. Insides and out Koreans are a very clean and pure culture that wants to better themselves by helping those around them. My college fraternity, Theta Chi, stands for a Latin phrase that means “Helping Hand”. In addition to all the Soju and Hite beer, all of Korea really felt like college because of how outgoing and accommodating the citizens were.

Thanks Korea for such a great visit and please keep in touch if you are ever planning to visit America. It would be a dream come true to play a round of golf outside in California or to spend a day at the beach with all of the great friends I’ve met west of the Pacific Ocean.

Mother Nature

           Two famous nature attractions in Changwon are the Rose Park and the Junam Wetlands. About halfway to work there is a peaceful park filled with thousands of roses, all different colors. This was a great place to surprise Courtney near the end of her visit. By the looks of the park only about 50% of the roses were in bloom either because of the recent high temperatures or maybe different roses flower at different times of the year. Regardless of reason, there were more than enough flowers there to look at.



"Jong Mi Gong Won" is Korean for Rose Park

 

The park center



The coolest rose in the park



A stone path with varying textures. Koreans will walk on these barefoot as they believe different pressure points on their feet are related to body organs.

            About 15km west of the hotel at the very edge of Changwon is the Junam Wetlands. These wetlands are famous for the migratory birds that stop there as they continue to their next destination. The wetlands were vast and also a very peaceful sight. There was a cool two story lookout tower to climb for a better viewing angle that even had five or six tourist telescopes to look through and identify birds. Unfortunately there weren’t many birds there but on the other side of the road was a very large lotus field. The lotus’ were in bloom and gigantic. Never before have I seen such large petals on a flower.

Junam Wetlands



Lotus city



Courtney matched with the Lotus'

            Both nature scenes helped to show that although Korea is constructing so many buildings and roads they still respect the land they live on. Roughly 70% of Korea is mountains and with my guess another 15% is for growing rice. With such little land to actually settle on, Korea really goes the extra effort to make sure their surroundings are beautiful and a good escape from their hardworking daily lives.

Packing Heat in Changwon

            On Saturday the weather outside was perfect for going to the shooting range. Min Gu and Jongil picked me up at the hotel and we drove to the Changwon Firing range where we met up with their boss, Sung-Keun Kang (Mr. Kang) and his two kids. His son, Jeng Ug Kang, is a high school student and his daughter, Da Hyun Kang, is in middle school. As excited as I was to shoot some clay pigeons, it was just as much fun meeting another Korean family.

            We all decided to shoot clay pigeons and paid W22,000 each for a rental 12 gage shotgun, 25 shells, and 25 clay pigeons. Due to the weight of the gun for a young girl, Da Hyun shot an impressive ten rounds before the men all stepped up to the range to shoot our 25. All lined up at the same time there were orange discs flying in front of us nonstop for a good five minutes. Out of the 25 shots, Jongil was in first place with 17 hits, I finished second with 14, and the rest of the crew came in under 8.



Da Hyun shooting her targets

About an hour after taking this picture I was ready to ice my shoulder



The rental shotgun



We made a mess



The shooting gang

            After shooting we went to the neighboring college, Changwon National University, for some food and drink at the pub. The pub was outdoors on a hill and was more like a campground than a bar. The older Koreans ordered a range of food while I talked with Da Hyun and Jeng Ug as they spoke English perfectly. As usual, we had way too much food and by the time the afternoon came to an end I was full and ready for a nap. Getting to go to the range was on my list for a long time and luckily I was able to squeeze it in during my last days in Korea.



Fried kimchi and tofu



Spicy pork and vegetables



Meel Myen (Spicy, cold, thin spaghetti soup)