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Published: June 27th 2013
It's been a twelve hour flight. We step off the plane, and what do you know? Its morning again, and I feel
exhausted. On top of that? Its my birthday.
Dad and I took the long flight from Seoul to Vancouver. Instead of doing the entire trip home to Toronto, we're having a layover for two days in Vancouver to slowly get adjusted to Canadian time.
I still remember my first step outside into the brisk March air.
Has Canada always been this quiet and empty?"
Having spent one full year living in Seoul, I suppose I had gotten used to living in a city of ten million people, and everything that comes along with that. So my first breath of Canadian air was a welcome surprise. It's incredible how quickly you can get used to a certain way of life, and completely forget what was once considered "normal." When we arrived in our hotel in Vancouver on Robson Street (where the notorious riots took place a few years earlier), I literally had to ask dad if I could drink the tap water. I was used to boiling my water for the past year!
After taking a power nap, dad and I began strolling
Famous tree!
800-year-old red cedar tree.around the city, and eventually ended up at the harbour front. The view there can only be described as breathtaking. The mountains shrouded in fog across the bay looked photoshopped. Everything seemed much
bigger and more
crisp than my past year in Korea. It's funny now, to think about how shocked I was at my new surroundings, having grown up in Canada my whole life.
I was feeling the distinct repercussions of
reverse culture shock.
I was comparing everything around me to Korea, from the food to the culture. I noticed almost immediately that I could finally eavesdrop again. You don't realize until you're living in a country where nobody speaks English, how often you tend to casually listen in on other people's conversations when you're walking past or sitting near them. Finally I knew what people were saying again. I felt so
connected!
While sitting at dinner that night, dad and I went over how many hours our day had been. As it turns out, I was having my first, and probably last,
forty hour birthday! We had crossed the International Date Line while flying over the Pacific. After having Canadian salmon for dinner, and a
Lion's Gate Bridge
Biking over the bridge... free birthday dessert, dad and I headed home to finally get some sleep. It had been a long, but wonderful day.
The following day was our one and only full day in Vancouver and we wanted to make it worthwhile. We took a bus tour around the city, which was great- especially when the guide insisted on stopping and pointing out eagle's nests every now and then. After the tour we decided it was a
must to bike around Stanley Park. Another comparison I made was how much more strict Canada was on wearing helmets. In Korea, we would rent bikes without a worry at all, but in Vancouver they insisted we wear our helmets or we could be fined substantially. Koreans wouldn't have wanted to ruin their hair!
Stanley Park was fabulous. We biked around the entire Sea Wall, and even took a detour to bike over the Lion's Gate Bridge! What spectacular views. We saw the famous Red Cedar tree, which has been documented in National Geographic more than any other tree on earth. We saw the English Bay Inukshuk, an iconic Canadian image. And why mess with a good thing? We ended our day at
the same restaurant as the night before, and even ordered the same meal!
I think it's safe to say I learned something that day; the simple line from The Wizard of Oz was true:
There's no place like home. There truly is no place like home. The more I've travelled, the more I've realized that I won the lottery of life by being born in Canada. It's a beautiful, safe, clean country, with so much to offer. My Korean co-workers were always mind boggled as to why I would
leave Canada to live in Seoul with them. They would do
anything to be able to live in Canada.
I don't think my love for travelling will ever die, but I hope my appreciation for my country will only strengthen.
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Linda
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What an interesting blog! Interesting how travel can build appreciation for one's homeland! Its also interesting how immersed one can get in another culture, to the point that returning home actually causes reverse culture shock. Love the picture of you and your dad in front of that famous tree. So... iconic- light-years away from Psy and Gangnam Style:)