May 11 Home again, home again!

I celebrate my 61st birthday today by leaving Daejeon, boarding an airplane, and returning home. Seeing Patti again at SeaTac Airport will be the best birthday present ever. (Yes, it is my birthday at 6 pm when my plane takes off from Seoul, and still my birthday the next afternoon when my plane lands in Seattle, courtesy of the International Date Line. This year, my birthday lasts for, oh, I don’t know, something like 40 hours.)

Although I can’t wait to be home, there are many, many things I will miss about Korea. Here are the top 10:

10. Walking to work, to stores and to restaurants in my very active neighborhood

9. Unfailing politeness
8. The public baths
7. The lights at night

6. The Buddhist temples, especially on quiet days with no crowds

5. The subway

4. The singing and chanting at Hanwha Eagles baseball games

3. The running path along the river

2. Some, but not all, Korean food: bibimbap, pajan, takboki

1. Koreans

So that’s it for my trip and for my blog. Thanks for following along. It was fun for me to keep track of all the things I saw and did. I hope you got a kick out of it too, and that you’ll have your own opportunity to visit Korea someday. It’s quite a place!

May 9 Surprises

Just when I think I have things figured out, Korea and Koreans surprise me.

On Monday, as I was leaving the office, I checked in with Cho Jung Jae about some work we had collaborated on and then said, “See you tomorrow!” as I turned to go. “Oh, no, not tomorrow,” he said. “Why not, aren’t you working tomorrow?” “No, nobody will work. It is International Children’s Day, a holiday.” “You mean the office will be closed?” “Yes, of course.” “And nobody mentioned this to me?” “Well, everybody already knew,” meaning, I suppose, that they assumed that I knew too.

So on Tuesday morning I had time for a run along the river. I was joined by a fellow on a bicycle who had pedaled alongside me on one of my runs several weeks ago. “Hey, Seattle!” he called out. I asked him about the marathon he had just run in Daegu, and we chatted about races and training and how far I planned to run today. He told me his name and age, and asked me mine. Eventually he waved and shot on ahead, and I assumed that was the last I would see of him. But on the return half of my run he was waiting for me with a cold bottle of water and a slip of paper with his name and email address so that we can keep in touch and exchange race information.

I’m surprised yet again by the names of some of the stores and restaurants here. What are they thinking?

And, after twelve weeks, I am still surprised the by typical garb of the ladies who do their power-walking along the river path. The sun visor, the face mask, the gloves, the jacket—it was about eighty-five degrees out when I took this picture.

In spite of the solid education I received at the Museum of Chicken Arts in Seoul, I am surprised by how pervasive chicken images are in Daejeon.

As I try to fit everything into suitcases, I’m kind of surprised by how many good-bye gifts I have received: twenty-six at least, although some of those were given to me to take home to Patti. They are not all going to fit in my suitcase and garment bag, so some will have to be shipped back to Seattle.

And finally, I am surprised by how much I’m already starting to miss my friends here—it was hard to say good-bye to everyone when I left the office on Friday. (But I will not miss sitting on the floor to eat!)

May 4 What Is Your Religion?

The second most popular question in Korea (after “How old are you?”) seems to be “What is your religion?” This is a little disconcerting at first, because in the US it is not a common topic of discussion in the government workplace, nor is it one of the first things asked when meeting a new acquaintance at a casual social gathering. In Korea, the acceptable answers are a) Catholic; b) Christian (meaning fundamentalist/evangelical); c) Buddhist; or d) None. Any answer may be followed up by “Do you go to church?” “What do you believe?” etc. (I have read, however, that it is considered somewhat impolite and intrusive to ask what someone does for a living in Korea. Different cultures have different approaches to personal privacy.)

I had the opportunity to explore two of the four options in a bit more detail this weekend. Saturday was the Buddha’s birthday (or at least the day it is celebrated in Korea.) My friends Cho Han Sic and Lee Im Moo decided it would be a good day to take me to Beopjusa, a large temple complex in the National Park at the base of Songni Mountain. The place was packed with visitors.

The main feature of Beopjusa is a 100 foot high bronze Buddha statue. While the temple complex is 1500 years old, the statue was built just 20 years ago. I personally find the other features of the site, such as the large but graceful pagoda, much more attractive.

Beneath the base of the bronze Buddha is a prayer room with a smaller Buddha and a display of some of the artifacts from the site.

These ancient chicken stamps confirm everything I learned at the Museum of Chicken Arts in Seoul.

Then on Sunday afternoon I went with my friend Kang Yeong Yang and his wife to their church picnic, which was held in a park along a river on the edge of town. The event consisted mostly of playing a little badminton and grilling meat.

Afterwards the men sat and ate while the women served.

Everyone was extremely nice to me and kept giving me lettuce and tomatoes and some kind of root and sliced melon and rice and sweet potatoes. The children had a great time too. The little boys threw rocks into the river while the little girls sat and chatted—in the river.

Between my two weekend religious celebrations I went for my usual Sunday morning run on the path along the river here in town. About three kilometers into my 16k run I happened upon the start of a 10k race which, by coincidence, followed the same route I was running and started just a few seconds after I ran past the start line. So suddenly I found myself in the midst of several hundred very fast young runners who greeted me cheerfully as they blew on by. They were all decked out in appropriate race day attire—shorts and technical shirts or tanks with a race number pinned to the front—while I was slugging along in my jogging pants with my jacket tied around my waste. But everyone seemed pleased or at least a little amused to have this ancient foreigner straggling along. I crossed the finish line proud not to have been last, took advantage of the water station they had set up there, and then continued on at a slower pace to complete the final three kilometers of my run. But the time I spent on the trail with the Korean runners reminded me of how much energy I get out of competitive running, how much I miss it, and also how much work I have to do if I ever want to be competitive again.

May 1 Book Club

This week I spent with Bill Stafford of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle. Bill is bringing a study mission of business, government, and education leaders to Daejeon in a year and was here to plan the itinerary. Their program will include presentations from local experts regarding science, technology, transportation, and education. It should be pretty interesting.

One place they will visit is the National Science Museum of Korea, which is located in Daejeon. The museum is a lot like the Pacific Science Center in Seattle except that it includes a large cultural history section (not really science) and it is less interactive. To its credit, they have an outdoor exhibit which includes a larger-than-life replica of the swine flu virus.



Speaking of which, I am already worrying that the spreading pandemic may cause Seoul and/or Seattle to close its airport to international travel just when I am leaving to come home (in ten days!) Fortunately, I was not asked to work in Seattle’s other sister city, Mazatlan. Although, come to think of it, other than the danger of an agonizing death, there would have been some advantages.

Yesterday I was invited by some people at work to join them for book club. Book club is held in a restaurant after work on the last Thursday of each month Instead of everyone reading the same book and discussing it, this group has found it more fun for each member to read a book of his or her choice and then give a brief report on it while everyone eats and drinks beer. Last night three of the five attendees (besides me) were men. There were no reports. Instead we just talked about literature, culture, and travel. They asked me for some recommendations on books to read, and naturally I could not think of any. Perhaps it was the beer.