Travel is a great teacher.
When you travel to a new place, it’s impossible not to pack
a few expectations along with your passport.
Rome? One expects traffic, the Coliseum,
and model-handsome men on Vespas.
Hawaii? Beaches. Pineapples. Volcanoes.
South Korea? The DMZ. The Korean War. Kias.
Gangnam Style.
But when I visited my daughter and son-in-law last month in South
Korea I learned a lot I didn’t expect. Here are a few of those lessons:
The most humbling lesson? I learned what it is like to be
illiterate. Korea uses a complex character based alphabet called hangul. In general, South Korea does a
great job of bilingual Korean/English signage in tourist spots, better than
China or Japan according to my globe-trotting daughter. The airport and train
stations were particularly English-friendly. But once outside these areas, I
found myself groping for clues. Did that symbol mean coffee? Was it okay to
enter this door? After awhile I just relaxed and relinquished control, relying
on my child to guide me. Also, many Koreans, especially young people, speak English
and were friendly and eager to help.
Pokemon Go? Try Tourist Go. You, as a Westerner, will be the
star of many vacation photos. Those aforementioned helpful young people will
want to take a selfie with you. I wondered if this was a homework assignment –
ask an English speaker for a photo. My blue eyed, blond daughter took these
requests in stride. I still laugh that somehow I landed in Cindy from China’s
Instagram feed.
South Korea is more technologically advanced than we are.
Modern Korean apartment doors open with keypads that not only spin a cool safe-cracker
wheel but also play a little musical ditty I think of as “Don’t Worry! Be Happy!
Your Door Is Locked.” Trains and buses are sleek and run on time. When the
train approaches the station a “Rocky” fanfare plays. However, traditional courtesies remain: Conductors bow upon entering and leaving the train car.
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| Enjoying the Hello Kitty Cafe |
As you might have guessed from the playful musical
embellishments, South Korea has an inner child unafraid of self-expression. Young women who could grace the cover of any sophisticated
fashion magazine sport sparkly pink headbands and Minnie Mouse bows. Guys wear t-shirts with cartoon characters you’d
see in American kindergartens. Speaking of cartoon characters, every town has a
cartoon “ambassador” to brand their city. I think this is a reaction to being
not many years distant from a devastating war and living so close to a country
run by a madman. As my professors would say, “Discuss.”
Even so, my daughter reminds me that most Koreans are more
concerned about finding a parking space in Seoul than they are about North
Korea.
There are not only Hello Kitty cafes in Korea, but also
sheep cafes, cat cafes, and raccoon cafes where you can enjoy your coffee while
you visit with the animals.
The food was great. I ate a lot of things I couldn’t
identify, but it was all good.
Except for lotus. Lotus tastes like wood.
There is one trashcan in all of gigantic Seoul train station
and no paper towels anywhere. South Korea’s 50 million people share a
mountainous country approximately the size of Indiana graced with ancient palaces, temples
and natural beauty. Conservation and recycling are a way of life.
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| Chilburan in Gyeongju National Park |
Because of those spectacular mountains, Koreans like to
hike. Grandmas in house slippers zoomed by me on the trail up Namsan Mountain
in Gyeongju National Park. In addition to the beautiful scenery there, one
hikes past ancient Buddhist statues and a temple where you can stay and take
part in the life of the nuns and monks. At a rest stop on the trail by a
centuries old statue of the Buddha, a nun-in-training greeted us with hard candies
and tea. Not only did she speak English, she was from the town where I live!
The most important thing I learned? The world is small.
What have you learned on your travels?
