Korea Happy Morning Time

Friday, June 20, 2008

It’s about 7:20 am here—5:20 pm on Thursday back home—and that’s as late as my body will let me sleep, even after a heinous 29 hours straight of traveling (via plane, bus, train, and car) and very little sleep before and during that time.

I’ve had a few long flights before on the way to Europe, 9 or 10-hours, but those extra few hours that make it 14 were killer. I was trapped in the middle seat of a 3-seat row, with a heavy sleeper on the aisle, so I only got up twice, which I can tell you was not nearly enough to prevent an aching backside. However, I’ve got nothing but praises for Korean Air, which made it as pleasant as possible … and has the most fashionable flight attendant uniforms I’ve ever seen.

We’re here in Hayang, Daegu (which is like the county), South Korea. Last night as we waited at the train station for a staff member from the university to come pick us up, a Korean man approached us simply to practice his English. I guess this happens a lot. Many Koreans are taught English in school, but few of them get to practice it conversationally. The last thing he asked us before leaving to catch his train was, “Why are your suitcases so large?”—which is something I was asking myself after having to haul mine on and off all of the aforementioned modes of transportation.

Our rooms here at the university are nice. Nicer than a lot of hotels I’ve stayed in. Very clean and open and a lot larger than my dorm room as an undergrad, also it’s own bathroom, a small balcony, and I have the room all to myself. Although I am sleeping on some sort of pebble-filled pillow, I feel decently rested. Hopefully I can adjust to the extreme time change quickly.

I am thankful for having taken a trip prior to this, to the Dominican Republic, where I was an extreme minority and got stared at a lot. I think that was good preparation. I’m also trying to keep my loud American voice to a minimum on public transportation.

Two phrases I know so far:
Ahn-nyung-ha-se-yo = A standard greeting, equivalent to “How are you?” but literally “Have you eaten today?” or “Are you at peace?”
Gahm-sah-ham-ni-da = Thank you

I’m also working on sil-le-ham-ni-da (“Excuse me”) and jwe-song-ham-ni-da (“I am sorry”) for when my clumsy self is bumping into people, which makes me realize that I’m not so tactful about that at home because my standard “Excuse me” is an often barely audible sound—“Whoop.” I’m scared to admit that I think it’s a shortened form of “whoopsie daisy.”

Enough for now… I better go try to wrangle with that shower, which isn’t a “shower” as we think of it back home but a handheld sprayer, whose name is the “Da Da Seven,” and a bathroom floor that apparently has a drain in it. There may be a typhoon in my bathroom.