As my final week in South Korea begins, it's become time for some personal reflection.  Much of my efforts this week will be focused upon finishing my final exams, preparing to depart the school and then Korea.  Today I thought it might be prudent to discuss a few things that I will miss about my time in Korea, and then a few that I won't miss as much.  This is by no means a comprehensive list but it is hopefully at least some small indication of my thoughts about Korea.

One of the things I will certainly miss about Korea is finding very odd things that you would never have guessed would be here.  Whether it's Mr. Toilet House or a poster for Zorro The Musical, there are plenty of very peculiar things that you'll stumble upon in the ROK.  Of particular interest in the 'weird' department are signs for stores - some are oddly phrased, some are even the names of stores in America but totally different inside.  Clothing too can have weird and random phrases on it, as long as it's English.  For example, a woman's shirt I saw in Songtan that said 'Hockey Night in Canada'.  Or the hat I actually purchased that proclaims 'Exciting! Since 1845'.  There just isn't anything similar in America really.



I'll also miss the Korean people I've met these past 4 months.  So many of them have been more friendly and helpul than I could ever have hoped for.  Case in point: the nun in the above picture.  I attended a church in Cheonan regularly and she greeted both myself and my friend Emiliano the moment we stepped inside.  By the second week she had already offered to prepare English notes for the service to assist us.  It's when people will go out of their way to help a relative stranger that has left a distinct impression upon me.  Other people have been very helpful, and those people will be mentioned in my final followon project blog.  This is because I think they deserve special recognition beyond a few words in this blog.

Public transportation in Korea is both a thing I will miss and something I'll be glad to put behind me.  Specifically the train system is something I will miss being able to take advantage of.  Stations are easy to navigate because signs are both in English and Korean, and every exit has a neighborhood map so you can double check which one to take.  As long as you have a map of the subway system you can get pretty much anywhere in the Seoul metropolitan area for a very cheap price.  Inside Seoul trains come incredibly regularly - often I've seen two or three trains, one after another, stop at a station.  No need to worry about missing a train when they come so often!  Getting back to Sinchang is tricky since later at night the trains don't head that far out regularly, but overall KORAIL is something I will miss.

Food is also a thing I'll miss.  There are so many restaurants just near the school to try, and most are relatively inexpensive; this makes it much easier to eat a good meal here. The staff at the restaurants are almost always polite and if you frequent one enough (kimbap Nara in my case) they even learn your name and make small talk with you.  Much of the food is really tasty, and I've come to like all kinds of things I never would've tried in America - vegetables, mushrooms, and even occasionally mustard.

Finally I think the museums are also something I'll miss.  While there are many in America they almost always charge some kind of admission fee.  In Korea this is hardly ever the case.  Very good museums are free for the permanent exhibitions and have plenty worth going to see while you're here.  The National Museum of Korea and War Memorial of Korea are just two examples of places I've been to which have amazing exhibits for that best of prices: free. 

Like I said earlier, public transportation has been both bad and good.  The bus system is something that I have found to be very confounding to say the least.  While it was easy enough to get to Everland on Suwon's Line 66-4, it was pretty confusing when I was attempting to reach Mr. Toilet House.  None of the busses I saw were headed to the right station even though the signs indicated they would go that far.  And many were headed the same direction and had the same line number but were not going to the same stops as their final destination.  It was very confusing and I eventually took a taxi.  So if you want to take a bus, get a Korean to go with you so you have some idea of what bus to take.

My dorm is something else that I'm not going to miss really.  While I have really enjoyed getting to know my roommate, it's also nice to have personal space.  The walls aren't very thick to the room so any somewhat loud noise from outside sounds as if the door was open - like you're practically in the same room.  Add to that that the bed is small and the mattress leaves much to be desired - it's very hard to sleep comfortably - and the dorm suite isn't really that great to live in.  The bathrooms as well are narrow and thus more difficult to use for a Westerner.

Large crowds are yet another thing I won't miss about Korea (Seoul is the main example of this); it can get a bit old when you're constantly watching to make sure you don't bump into somebody.  Popular shopping areas and the subway both get very crowded and difficult to navigate because of this.  There's also an increased chance that you'll miss something just because there are too many people in your way to see/reach it.  The small size of the land and large number of people contribute to this, so it's something I won't take for granted in America any longer.

So that's it for the first of my final two Gilman Scholarship followon project blogs.  Thanks for reading throughout this semester!  Look for my final entry in two days' time, when I'll share a few pictures I haven't used for anything else this semester, as well as a couple of Koreans who have been incredibly helpful during the semester.

You can email comments and questions about my blogs to: HangukMartyn@yahoo.com
My project's weekly video blogs can be found at my YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/SuperBombadillo?feature=mhee