Korea brings a new "Hite" with some Soju.

“So tender, yet strong. How is this prepared? Is it always in a soup?” I inquired.

I have been here almost two weeks now and I still haven’t grasped the seriousness of my situation. Living in a country where the average height of a female is 168cms and not understanding a word of Korean can create a daunting task for some like me.

My first indication as to where I was going happened to fall onto an old Korean man at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. After getting off my first flight from Toronto there was a mad rush to jump terminals to reach the Asiana Airlines counter in Terminal 5. Being a tall, dark haired Caucasian male it is usually expected that once I took my place in line that no other human would attempt to pass me in line. I was mistaken. It didn’t take more then 2 minutes before a small, aging Korean man and his frail wife just elbowed their way in front of me with no attempt to realize that I was there first. In fact, the 6 other people behind me also didn’t exist in his eyes. Ah yes, the mentality I was told about. They will most likely be drunker then you, pay little attention to you, and definitely not let your size become a factor in their compact world. I could tell that this next year was going to be exciting.

Another myth I was fooled by was that a lot of the Asian flights were pretty comfy with extended leg room, personal TV’s and a cocktail or two. K...forget the cocktail, but the rest was fine by me. Let’s start with the leg room. Zero leg room. The plane was brand new in the mid 80’s. I haven’t flown on a plane like that most likely since the mid 80’s. It appears to me that this particular Airline was given hand-me-downs from another airline during the depression. On top of all that I was fortunate enough to be seated in the middle of the outer row of seats. AWW MAN. No window seat and I have two old Korean ladies sitting on either side of me AND I get to star at a wall the whole flight because the ancient projection screen is positioned in the middle of the cabin. No biggy, I’ll just switch my seat with one of the ladies husband. Problem solved? Hells no. all of a sudden the stewardess is switching passengers around so the mothers of tiny little screaming children can sit next to me. Not all that bad. The kids were out like a light after take off, and so was I. I managed to miss all the movies and watch the back of my eyelids for 8 hours on a 14 hour flight. Oddly enough, that’s exactly what I wanted.

As the plane began descending through the wee hours of the morning I was surprised that my anxiousness didn’t take over. My whole attitude about this trip was very relaxed and that comforted me. In the past my nervousness and excitement to see family in Austria was more then the thought of me moving to a country where I knew nothing.

As I stood up and turned to retrieve my carry-on luggage I realized how much of a minority I had become. Yes, other white men and women were on the plane, but they had just landed at their last stopover before continuing onto Thailand for a much shorter time period then what I was about to endure.

The first thing that came to mind as I walked through Incheon Airport was that there were lots of Koreans, but everything else seemed to be the same. Just so you know...the country has placed itself in tenth spot for its largely growing economy. They attribute their success to their technology industry and their 4th place finish in the 2002 World Cup. Ok, one of these doesn’t really make sense, but with the World Cup fast approaching I don’t dare to mention to them that their luck has run out before it even begins.

I never thought that I would actually have someone greeting me with a sign saying “RYAN”. I was

As dawn broke over the island that I flew in on, everything around me began to light up. Not in a way where the sun breaks out of the clouds and shines in my eyes, but more like a dull hello appropriate for my jet lagged body.

I was greeted and driven to my apartment by two of my fellow teachers; one Korean and the other from England. I was brought to my new home in Incheon city and to what is now the smallest place I will ever live in.

That was almost two weeks ago. Since then I have been trying new foods and drinking new kinds of alcohol. One being Soju. For those of you that have never heard of the volatile drink there is only one way to explain it, dead mans drink. Literally. Formaldehyde is found in this drink and it is also found in preserved dead people. If you want to feel dead the next day then drink this stuff. If you want to feel like a Korean, drink that and the water.

The teaching is what I came here to do and has already been the most interesting part of my time here. Screaming little children speaking a language that I don’t understand most of the time and attempting to speak what I am teaching them, in some way, can be rewarding. I’ll let you know how it goes. As for the boss man, he has been treating me well with setting me up in my place and by taking the foreigners out for lunch. This is where my journal began…with tender yet strong.

Much of the food here is a bit hot, but tasty. Chop sticks are not a problem but the sitting is. Have you seen me EVER cross my legs like we did when we were young? Probably not. I just can’t sit that long and expect to walk out with feeling in my lower extremities.
The boss man was gracious enough to start easy on me. As we approached our table our food was all laid out for us with side dishes and all. Yes, there was Kim chi (a spicy cabbage dish) and other things like acorn and ginseng roots. “Try this, said James”.
“Mmm, that’s interesting. So tender, succulent, but yet strong”. It was somewhat comparable to my ‘whole chicken in a soup’ dish. One thing comes to mind…

RUFF!!!

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