I woke up this morning at 6:30, sure that it must be after noon. I guess that is the jet-lag kicking in, although I have never been one to fall victim to that syndrome before. Eventually, I was able to go back to sleep and then woke up again at around 9. After taking a few minutes to orient myself, I put on my new pair of running shoes and headed downstairs to take a jog. On my way out the building, I stopped at the front desk to ask the receptionist if there was a park anywhere around that would be good to run to. In very broken English, she handed me a shoddy map of the area and told me there was something about ten minutes away, but I couldn’t tell if that was driving or walking- I assumed the former, by the way she said “very far”. I’ve only had a few interactions with locals so far, but honestly, I’ve been a little surprised by how little English people speak. I know that it’s not a good idea to assume that people will speak my language perfectly, and I am going to try and be as patient with that as possible, but I expected that at least the stewardesses and receptionists would be able to speak English. No such luck.
I left the hotel and took a left down the major street that the hotel was off, trying to avoid getting completely lost on my first venture out into the city. I expected to get some funny looks on my way, as a tall white guy in little blue running shorts, but I actually didn’t notice all that much attention. The streets were filled with Koreans on their way to work, but thankfully not overcrowded to the point that I had to do very much ducking or dodging. I tried to do as much visual reconnaissance of the area as I could, and noticed that every other storefront seemed to be a coffee shop, including at least five or ten Dunkin Donuts places. I went about as far as I figured I should without running into a park or anything that looked remotely like a park, so I turned around and headed back toward the hotel, stopping on the way at a little convenient store to pick up some strawberry milk and shampoo. Of course, despite my attempts to remember where I was going, I ended up getting lost trying to find my way back to the hotel, going up and down a few wrong side-streets before I eventually found the right one.
By the time I’d gotten back, I had to rush to shave and shower to be back downstairs by 11, when I was supposed to be met by a driver to take me to get a medical exam and drug test. I got downstairs and found another American, Eric, and the driver waiting for me, so we got in the van and headed out. The drive to the medical office was about thirty minutes, during which I got to know Eric a bit. He was also a first-time visitor to Korea, but had been out of school for a long while and apparently teaching elementary school English in Texas for the last 10 years. We also drove a good distance across the city, and I started to get a sense for just how big of a city Seoul really is. We crossed over the Han River, which basically divides the city in half, and it was almost as if there was an entirely different city lying on the other side of the water, with different architecture and a unique feel to the area we were in before (which I'm pretty sure was downtown). I think it’s going to take me a while to really get a feel for Seoul's size, neighborhoods, etc.
We got to the office and our driver, a middle-aged Korean man, ushered us inside the building, where a couple of women took our weight, height, and blood-pressure before we had a quick dental exam (lasting literally 30 seconds), had our blood drawn, took an eye test, had a chest x-ray, and a urine test.
And that is where it all went downhill for me. Not really remembering that I was going to have to take a urine test, I didn’t drink much water after coming back from my run, so I was pretty dehydrated when we showed up at the office. After one of the women handed me to two cups, I headed to the bathroom but quickly realized that I couldn’t pee, so turned back around and went out to the water fountain next to the front desk, beginning to chug as much water as I could. After about five minutes and 10 or so little cups of water, I went back to the bathroom, but again, nothing. At this point, just about everyone in the office seemed to take an intense interest in my “issue.” The women behind the counter were giggling, pointing at the water fountain and telling me to keep drinking. Our driver, up until that point simply an interested bystander, came over to me and began signaling me to rub my belly and jump up and down, apparently convinced that this would help me go. We went to finish up everything they needed to do for the rest of our test, then came back to see if I would be able to pee. I chugged a few more cups of water then headed back into the bathroom, this time with our driver following me into the stall, pressing the flusher, and pointing at the toilet, I guess in some kind of last-ditch effort to summon the pee out of me. By this point, I think what was keeping me from going was more nerves than anything; having a group of people in the waiting room all sitting expectantly added some really unnecessary pressure to the situation. Finally, after another five minutes or so, I was able to elicit a brief stream, just enough to fill both cups up to their respective lines.
Yikes, that was close.
After we got back to the hotel from the medical exam, I met up with Eric again and we went to get some lunch at a place around the corner from our hotel. Eric is a Seventh Day Adventist, and thus vegetarian, so he had some trouble finding something to eat on the menu. I told him a little about kashrut and my difficulty with eating while I was in Spain a year ago, trying to let him know that I felt his pain. I ordered a duck dish, which as it turned out, ended up coming with five or six different side dishes of vegetables, soups, and teas. Just about everything was very, very spicy. I knew that coming in to Korea I was going to have to adjust my palate to the local cuisine, but I guess I hadn’t prepared myself well enough; I was literally sweating from the brow from the moment I picked up my chopsticks. Lunch was good, though, and for 6,000 won (about $5.50) very affordable.
After eating, I decided to head back to the hotel to lay down for a while, so I parted ways with Eric. What was supposed to be a short nap ended up turning into 3 hours, so when I woke up at around 8 I was groggy and hungry. I changed and left the hotel to walk around a bit and find some place to eat. In the neighborhood of my hotel, there are a ton of restaurants, almost exclusively of Korean food. When I got nearer to one of the major train stations, I did see a Bennigans and a burger joint, but decided that I would try and stay local for at least the first couple of days to get a sense for what kind of Korean food I like and what I don’t. I ended up settling on a place a couple of blocks from the hotel. A bunch of restaurants I passed were set up with small tables only a few feet off the ground, with people sitting on little mats on the floor with their shoes off. I almost went in to one of these, but then decided that I would wait until I was with a little bigger of group before I took that adventure. For dinner, I got a plate of meat kebabs, and once again the spice-level knocked my socks off. I was hungry, but after eating about half the plate of meat, I literally had to stop because the food was just too hot. I am really going to have to get used to this, or at least start figuring out how to order some dishes that won’t require me bringing a handkerchief to the table.
So here are a few of the mist important first impressions that I’ve made in my first day and half in Korea:
-Casaville Residence’s trademark: “Service like at a hotel, living like you are at home” rings relatively true. I especially like the two pairs of sandals that come with the room, and the working AC is stupendous.
-I’m pretty sure I could make a living working for Korean companies trying to post signage in English, if I could only convince them of how inaccurate their English is in its current condition.
-The food here is HOT, and I mean very, very, very hot! But at least the strawberry milk is rich and delicious.
-I have to start working on my bow; more generally, the hand gestures and body signals here are completely different than what I am used to back home.
-I think signing up for a Korean class should probably be one of my top priorities. Or at least getting better about carrying around my Berlitz pocket-guide.
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