Sunday, Day five: Church and then Jinhae

We started out going to church with Dr. Park, he drove. His wife is in Seoul so it was just him. We went to the Smyrna Presbyterian Church, the second largest church in Changwon with usual Sunday attendance at 1500. Geoffrey has been going with them and that is where he met Da Won (다원). We parked in the basement and took the elevator up to the sanctuary on the third floor. Dr. Park took us to the second row, the first being reserved for the pianist when she sits to listen to the sermon, or other musicians.They have a small orchestra (seven strings, four woodwinds, two brass, a timpani) and a choir of maybe 60. I, later with the help of an electronic dictionary at lunch, determined the church is 장로교 (Presbyterian).

Sitting in the pew a couple thoughts came to mind. Hearing them recite responses to the readings I thought of the AA admonition "Fake it until you make it." You will believe it if you repeat it enough. I recognized that we are all God's children. And the oboe player was a young woman, stylish with reddish tinted hair and she had on 6" ankle boots; I thought of those boots an comparable to foot binding, both done for style and both injurious to the health. 

After the service we went down stairs for coffee out of a machine and were joined by another man who I learned later was an "elder."  Geoffrey says they often stay for lunch but today after coffee we all went to a Chinese restaurant, the Peking (북경). On the way I mentioned I would be at Quaker Meeting in Seoul the next week, and explained Quakers by saying it is Ham Sok-Hon's church. When we got there they ordered tangsuyuk and jampong for everyone, even after I said I couldn't eat anything spicy. Of course the jampong was hot and I couldn't eat it. I managed with the tangsuyuk and rice, and a little clear broth soup the waitress brought. 

Himself on Jinhae breakwater

After lunch we got in his car and went back to the church to drop off the elder. When he got out I did too and tried to give him W10,000. He thought it was for lunch and refused until I explained that in American churches there is a collection and they don't have one so this is for the church. That he gladly accepted. Geoffrey and I thought we were now going home, but without a word of explanation Dr. Park took us to Jinhae (U.S. Navy  has a base there but spells it the old way, Chinhae). He had asked Geoffrey if he liked the shore and from that decided to take us there instead of going right home (Geoffrey says he does that kind of thing often). 

Geoffrey with Dr. Park and dog.

He drove past the Korean Naval Academy gate but we couldn't get close. He then drove back to the area across from the Navy Training Base. We got out and walked up and down the walkway along the breakwater.  After a while we got back in the car and drove to another area. I mentioned shipbuilding and he took us past the STP shipyard, pointing out a very large crane he designed. We finally came home at about 4:00. 

Geoffrey and I then went shopping at Lotte Department store for food. I got some decent crackers (imported Wheatables with a label in Korean stuck to one side), sardines in sunflower oil, decent cheese (Laughing Cow, Philadelphia Cream Cheese), and more coffee. 

Geoffrey and Wayne figuring out 월남쌈

At 7:00 Geoffrey took me, Dr. Park, and Wayne to a Vietnamese restaurant in Sang Nam Dong (상남동), the central commercial and night life district, and had Vietnam-sam (월남쌈). We got home at about 9:00

After dinner walk in Sang Nam Dong

An apartment complex in Changwon

A young couple at Seokguram Grotto

Big differences I see in are driving: when I was here before the only drivers were professionals, e.g. cabbies, truck drivers. I tell the story of driving the health center jeep when the driver was away because no one else there could drive. Now everyone is driving. Also, families are different with fathers taking more involvement. In the 1960s I would see fathers walking separately from mother and children, now the family is a unit, and fathers carry babies in chest slings.  There is the industrial development (shipbuilding in Jinhae) and the huge apartment complexes everywhere around cities, and, of course, miniskirts and six inch heels and couples holding hands and public displays of affection (but no kissing Geoffrey tells me). 

When we got home we talked while working at our computers. We talked about the Korean language of course, frustrations, girls and Korean girls in particular and their assumptions and expectations, the Korean family and father son relations, how to get to the post office, train station and a particular Buddhist temple, and plans (short range and long).

Saturday, Day Four: Bulguksa and Seokguram Grotto

Eating eel soup

We set out to visit Gyeong Ju, and the Bulguksa Seokguran Grotto complex, all UNESCO World Heritage sites. We didn't get off until about 11:00 but it was a good trip. When we got there we stopped for lunch along the road and had eel soup with the usual side dishes. The eel is minced so it could be any fish. It was tasty. Geoffrey said the eel soup he had is Changwon was better and we'll try it next week. 

Main hall at Bulguksa

Geoffrey at Bulguksa

We went first to Bulguksa (Buddha Nation temple) and I did a lot of walking and climbing, especially of steps, and my knees got weak.The place is on a mountain side and is approached by a path going up. At the main complex there are stone steps  everywhere (random height). I managed but when we found out the Grotto was at another location 8 km. further up the mountain I wondered if I could walk mountain paths all over again there. We did see the major halls and on the way out I got a Buddhist rosary (108 beads) and some post cards. Geoffrey bought us coffee. We then went back, got in the car, and headed up to Seokguram Grotto. There were pull offs every couple klicks along the road and he pulled off at three to look but the trees obscured the view. 

Ringing the bell at Seokguram Grotto

When we got to Seokguram Grotto there were more stairs. At the top of the first set was a "bell for suffering" which one could ring for ₩1000. We each paid and rang it. We then walked along a path down and then back up to the Grotto. It was listed as .6 km but it seemed like more; I dreaded the walk back which would be mostly up hill. We had to climb more stone steps to get to the Grotto itself and I needed Geoffrey's help to make it. I wondered aloud how much merit I earn by doing this, but I am very glad I did it.The statue is very impressive. It and the grotto date from the 8th century (Silla dynasty). It is all enclosed in glass so you can see the Buddha and two guardians in karate stances on either side in bas relief, but you can't see the sides or the ceiling. Wikipedia says it is "3.5 meters in height and sits on a 1.34 meter tall lotus pedestal."

UNESCO picture of Seokguram Grotto Buddha

Going back I kept telling myself "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" (not strictly true I suppose). One time when I was sitting, resting, we saw a father playing with his son on the path; I asked Geoffrey "Don't you want one of those?" meaning the child. I quickly added "but I don't want to encourage you to do anything ill considered." Going up it seemed much longer than coming back, strange in that coming back was more up hill.

It was too late to go into GyeongJu, and we saw what was important to me. Geoffrey agreed and seemed anxious to get back, so we headed back. We did stop at a coffee shop for Geoffrey to get some GyeongJu Bang, a small cake with sweet bean mash inside, as gifts for the Parks and others. North of Busan we pulled off in a town for dinner and to give Geoffrey a rest. We found a traditional working class type restaurant, kind of dingy (the kind I remember) on a side street and went in. There was an older man sitting at a table by himself, quite drunk and singing, probably the owner's father or grandfather. I referred to him as the entertainment. He tried to engage me in conversation but after a couple questions (How old are you? I'm 80.) I started to ignore him. Geoffrey and I both had a stone hot rice pot (dolsotpap = 돌솥밥) with lots of side dishes to mix in, most spicy which I couldn't eat so I had less variety, but Geoffrey let me have the whole eight inch fish and acorn paste jelly (not sweet), to compensate.  

Geoffrey did all the driving. I offered to do some on the expressway (I wouldn't drive in traffic) but he declined. In Changwon he allowed as it would be nice if I could drop him off at the hotel to meet Wayne since he would be taking a cab home (they'd be drinking) but I just said I'd get lost getting home; I had already said I didn't want to drive in traffic. We got home at about 9:15 and Geoffrey went right back out to meet Wayne. 

My knees in particular are wobbly and my calves ache. I had trouble getting out of the car and up the steps, but it was a very good day, we had a good time together and saw the temple and the grotto. There were so many people it wasn't a spiritual experience, but it was full of cultural and historical meaning. Geoffrey promises tomorrow will be less strenuous.

See more pictures at Picasa.


 

Friday, Day Three: Walk to Changwon National University

Today, during a breakfast of two hard boiled eggs, cheese and crackers, I read my mail, the comics in the Post, the Times, and an article Heaven is Real posted on Facebook by Peggy from the Daily Beast. It was by a skeptic neurosurgeon who had a spiritual experience while in a coma. It seems meningitis shut down his neocortex, the seat of the self, but he was aware of spiritual presence. 

I walked down the hill and across the bridge for lunch at a Chinese place Geoffrey had pointed out. It was in a basement and kind of dingy. I ordered tangsuyuk (탕수육, sweet and sour beef, but not like the Cantonese version we get in the states) and when it came I was able to select those pieces not soaked in the sweet sauce. It was good and I regretted having to leave some of it that was just too soaked. 

Himself at the gate to GyeongNam University

Yongji-Ro coming up the hill from the University

From there I walked up the street that followed the stream, toward the University (Changwon National University where Geoffrey's landlord, Dr. Park, teaches mechanical engineering). The street was full of students and lined with shops catering to their needs. When I got to the gate I took some pictures of students coming and going. I didn't go in far, just looked around and started back.  I had gotten off to a late start and didn't know what time Geoffrey would be around to pick me up. I came back going up Yongji-Ro to the Art Institute. It was quite a hill and I stopped to rest twice. 

Geoffrey with block that gashed his leg

Back at Geoffrey's I called the post office to request delivery of a package they couldn't deliver before because nobody was home to accept it. Geoffrey got home at about 4:30 and we hung out until about 6:00 when he called Duke at the International Hotel where the team was staying to make arrangements to meet for dinner.  The team is the group that came in this week for the special project: from Ducom there was Duke, Wayne (project engineer), two Korean women (the CFO Sung Hee, and Jessica  who served as translator), and of course Geoffrey; Steve was the  liaison from the U.S. Army (a civilian); and later Mr. Kang, the head honcho from a Koline arrived. 

We ate at a nearby restaurant that specialized in Samgyeopsal (삼겹살), a pork dish I had never tried, or even heard of for that matter. It was cooked at the table, and was very good, eaten with a sesame oil, salt and pepper dip. Daenjang (a soy paste similar to miso) is an option but it had been mixed with Gochujang (a chili pepper paste, hot!) so I avoided it. They ware all drinking beer mixed with soju. Geoffrey only had one or two as he was driving, and of course I had none (Geoffrey consoled me later saying the beer wasn't very good). We left at about 9:00 and I was in bed before 11:00. 

Thursday: Day two - shopping and hanging out

I woke up at about 7:00, just as Geoffrey was leaving. I made coffee and breakfast of cheese and crackers and yogurt, read my mail and the Times, edited yesterday's blog, showered and dressed, and called Pat, in that order. I called Pat last to try to catch her home, and I did. She is under a lot of pressure, what with Natalie's father dieing last week, and now her aunt Gerry died. She will be going to the burial, probably this weekend. I will pray for her, Gerry yes but more for Pat; Gerry has everyone else praying for her and her death was not unexpected and probably not unwelcome. 

Planning to do some shopping, I walked down the hill and had lunch at a Chinese place. It looked very Korean, only the calendars were Chinese, but most of the food was Chinese so I asked when I left and the woman at checkout agreed it is a Chinese restaurant. It is called something Cha Jang (짜장) and specializes in cha jang dishes. Cha jang means salty sauce, and cha jang myun was a noodle dish I used to enjoy at least once a week for lunch in Gongju. 

After lunch I walked down by the stream and went to a drug store to try to get some ganmaoling (Chinese antiviral medicine). I brought some and showed the pharmacist the bottle, but need some more as I am fighting a cold. They didn't have it. I then went into Caffe' Bene (Korea's answer to Starbucks) for coffee and just to watch people. They seemed to be mostly university types. I was reading Ko Un and a sijo came to me which I sent to Phil for his 70th birthday this month.

   A tortoise lives two hundred years; a mouse lives only two.
   A butterfly has a summer, a mayfly but a day.
   In the Biblical* three score and ten, we all have just this moment. 

*Psalm 90 in the AV (King James)

I then went to the grocery store Geoffrey suggested and got eggs, cheese and what looked like whole wheat biscuits (probably aren't) for breakfast. On the weekend we'll do some proper shopping. I don't think he eats here much, not much food in the place. Walking back I passed Geoffrey's hair stylist. Geoffrey pointed me out to them last night and they recognized me and bowed, so I bowed back with a tip of my Denver hat; not a very Korean flourish but it felt right.  

"Home" now, I took a brief nap. The plan was to have dinner with Geoffrey's uncle Duke and the team which came in town this week for  installation of new equipment. But Geoffrey called to say he'd be late, thing aren't going as planned, then he called again to say he'd be very late and dinner with Duke and the team will be tomorrow. That is fine with me. 

Geoffrey got in at about 9:30, and soon we went out so he could eat. We went to a pulgogi place at the bottom of the hill and he had chicken pulgogi with a beer. I had a few bites, but I had eaten something at home and on top of that it was spicy so I didn't have much. After that  we came back.

I had been tired but now we wanted to talk.He gave me a Japanese 5 yen piece with a hole in the middle, explaining that "go yen" sounds like good luck in Chinese (Mandrian or Korean Chinese?) and people hold them for that reason. He has two hooks in his room to hold them. I explained a grammatical construction I used to ask to take the leftovers home (the term doggie bag would not have occured) and we got into a discussion of his difficulty with compound (or complex?) sentences. We talked about Gyeongju (plan to go Saturday), church on Sunday, and driving in Korea (Geoffrey says they have been driving only a short time and safe driving in not part of their experience yet). He compared Korean and Japanese aesthetics (to his mind Koreans suffer in comparison, particularly as regards color coordination of clothing). We'll go to a movie next week. We wanted to talk and stayed up until almost midnight.


I decided on this blog as a way to share my experience with Pat and anyone else interested, and to provide a record for me to use to look back on this trip (to live in the past? maybe). It is also a good way for me to process the day.

Wednesday: Day one - lost in SaRim Dong (사림동)

Me in front of Geoffrey's apartment (on top floor)

My lunch of oyster soup and side dishes

In unison, they greeted me with 안녕하세요?

I woke up a little after 8:00, and after a cup of coffee started to feel good. I seem to have beaten jet lag. I had half a turkey sandwich left over from the airport in Detroit and a container of yogert for breakfast, and I read the mail and New York Times on Geoffrey's computer. A little before 12:00 I went out for lunch, forgetting my bag with the phone and medical stuff. Geoffrey left me ₩50,000 (Won or KRW, in this case $44.81)) in case my card didn't work in the ATM so lunch was the priority. I walked up the hill to Yongji-Ro, the main street that passes the park and Art Institute, and found a place with 굴국밥 (oyster soup and rice with bean sprouts, seaweed [Kelp?] and a raw egg which cooked in the broth when put in); it came with the usual side dishes (see picture). I then went to the park, and walked around, watched a school group (see picture), and did some taichi. After a full round and postures for the camera my knees started to bother me, so I quit. I went to the ATM at the bottom of the hill but it wouldn't accept my VISA card (it accepted my CUCard later). I walked around and sat in a gazebo along a stream with a couple students and some middle aged women. In the old days that stream would have been crowded with middle aged women washing clothes on the rocks.

When I went back to the house I couldn't find it. I walked up and down the hills checking each street. It was good exercise but by four o'clock I was getting frustrated, and by 5:00 I was getting worried about my blood sugar, what with all the exercise. I went to the Art Museum across the street a little before they closed and the young woman at the desk tried to call. She couldn't read the number and I read it to her. She said the number was not in service but I think she miss dialed (probably confused 일 and 칠 but I didn't think of this then). I waited for some time at the top of the hill, thinking that is how he would come home. I ended up taking a taxi downtown, at which point I was feeling weak and so I found a convenience store and got a bottle of water and a Snickers bar just in case I needed it (I didn't). I then went to a Mr. Pizza and ordered a small pizza, and called Geoffrey on the store phone. I was suprised to see him pull up just as I started eating. I had eaten half, and he had the other half driving home, his first pizza since getting here.He was busy when I called from Mr. Pizza but when I explained what happened he allowed that all the houses look alike (or rather there are several on each street that look like this one).

We came back to his place. I must have passed it a dozen times (really!). After going up to his place for a while, we went down stairs (funny stairs outdoors, very narrow, steep,  and not all the same height) to meet his landlords and stayed about half an hour. They were watching Christian television and asked if I had been a missionary when here before, and I told them I had been in Peace Corps. I told them about Geoffrey's aunt who was a missionary, and Geoffrey's mother who was a college student. Knowing about Geoffrey's family allows them to put him in context, important in this still very Confucian society. It was an interesting but tiring day. My calves are tired and knees weak, but all in all I feel good.

Tuesday: Arrival in Busan (부산)

We landed in Seoul (Inchon)  on time. A young lady met me with a wheelchair and took me to the next gate. She bypassed immigration (입 국) which I didn't understand. I assumed I'd go through immigration on arrival, and it seemed the way the system worked one could slip past immigration, but I asked twice and she was firm that I was a transfer, and she was right. I had an hour wait for the Pusan flight, which stretched to almost two with delays before boarding and then on the tarmac. 

A short flight during which I slept briefly, and we were in Busan. Again I was met by a very polite young lady (none of them look strong enough to push me and a heavy backpack) who took charge of me through immigration (including a photo and photo fingerprints) and customs. On the other side of immigration Geoffrey was waiting for me. We got a cell phone (010-6884-2875) and then went to the car. On the way home I warned Geoffrey I'd spend the next three weeks marveling at how different Korea is ("get used to it!). 

He took me on a brief tour of the neighborhood, showing me where things I'd want to get to in the morning are (ATM, restaurants, drug store). He carried all my stuff in.  I had a problem getting my CPAP machine to work. It turned out the problem was that the adapter didn't fit tightly and Geoffrey went out to get some rubber string to tie it in to the power strip securely. Sleep is welcome.

Monday: Departure

Detroit:  Geoffrey called last night, just to check in before I left. This morning I got up at 4:00, showered, fed Sophie, had a light breakfast, packed the CPAP machine and final medicines. I caught my cab and got to the airport in plenty of time. Security was uneventful.

So, I flew out of Philadelphia this morning at 7:15 AM on Delta flight 1611. I have a few hours here in Detroit before the long leg of the trip on Delta 0159 to Seoul, then on to Busan (Gimbae) on Korean Air, to arrive at 6:50 PM local time (5:30 AM Philly time) on the 9th.  Detroit was a hub for Northwest and Delta took them over so I guess it is the Asia hub for Delta now. We were served two meals and a snack in the middle. We flew north from Detroit through Canada and over the Artic Ocean, comming down in Siberia and following the Russian coast to the Sea of Japan (East Sea), then once below the DMZ cut west to Seoul.

I brought a few books: Don Clark's on  Korean Customs and Culture (read a little on the plane), and some Sudoku puzzles (did a couple). I also brought The Tragic Sense of Life, Ko Un's What? 108 Zen Poems, and a Korean phrase book but am too tired for anything so serious, or that I'd have to study. I slept some and watched television on the monitor (one "Big Bang Theory" I hadn't seen). 

 The map on the monitor was set to display the great circle route which would have taken us over North Korea; I knew that couldn't be right but when I asked the attendant she said she'd check with the pilot, and she later said he confirmed it. That is the same pilot that said we would fly over Russia (correct), Mongolia (no way!) and China (possible if we cut west to avoit North Korea but not likely), and later said (but not in public) he misspoke.