::A Geek in Korea::

I did this short story once with my advanced elementary school students. Seeing this short film version is just as good, and possibly even more strange.

Plans were made for today. This was the first day both my wife and I had off that gave us both an extended weekend in a long time. The break was caused because this was both Buddha’s birthday, and the last "Children’s day". They canceled a holiday about spending time with children, so we wanted to make sure we tried to celebrate it the best we could this last time. We were determined to do something this weekend instead of lounging around the house. So many inconveniences happened between the time we tried to make those plans to the time we actually tried to do something, it leads me to believe there is some deity personally trying to give me a good messing with. It simply wasn’t to be.

For example, our original plan was to go to Jeju island, specifically, Udo. We called the travel agency only to learn we were trying to book tickets at the very beginning of the tourist season, where rates shoot up to ridiculous levels. Seems everyone had the same idea we did. Also, since Udo is on the north eastern side of Jeju, almost the opposite of where most people stay, we weren’t able to confirm hotel reservations to make a package. We were going to have to rely on our luck and find an empty room at one of the min-bak. We tried to call some friends to see if they wanted to come with us, but they balked at the price.

Next, we decided to try to go to Boseong for it’s green tea farms. Nothing says hyper-caffinated like traveling to a series of green tea farms to sample their different teas while enjoying nature. This place has also been our destination in the past, pre-marriage. We still haven’t worked out an easy way to reach it. Trains that usually are reserved no sooner than a week in advance had already sold all their tickets. The only we could have gone was by standing on a train for four hours each way. No thank you.

Next, we attempted to get to Buyeo. This is the largest city near my grandmother-in-law’s house. My mother-in-law was planning to go visit her, and we were going to ask to be dropped off in the city to make our own trip around there easier. This would have been easier than try to take a bus due to traffic. We heard about the trip to Buyeo yesterday, and called this morning to see if we could come along. Turns out that since my mother-in-law was feeling under the weather, she didn’t want to go anymore.

Our third destination ruined, we decided to head to the river near a park. There we could relax, take a nap, and read. We packed up, got our bikes in working order, then set off for our much closer destination. Two blocks into our trip, my wife’s bike tire popped, and we had to divert our trip to head to a bicycle shop to get it fixed. We told them the problem, and they replaced the inner tube, which promptly exploded as well. It was rather loud. Seems my wife’s outer tire had gotten damaged when the air of her tire had been let out by the bicycle thieves that stole her valve. When I had re-inflated the tire, something had been out of place which popped the inner tube. To get it replaced, I had to pay 28,000 won (~30 USD). I’ve gone from "slightly annoyed" at bicycle valve theft, to really pissed, since it’s cost me the equivalent of 30 valves to replace the tire.

Once we got to a park that seemed like a good place to stop, we headed to a pagoda to lounge. We sat, with one other girl, and read in peace for about twenty minutes.  The park was almost entirely empty. The pagoda was near the entrance of the park, so whenever anyone went by, we had to hear the children. Every single time, people decided that instead of going out to the rest of the park , they would hang out near the pagoda, speak loudly about what they were going to do, and basically keep around us. There was a huge park to run around it, yet they stuck to the 1% that was near us. I wanted to grab our picnic mat and clothes and relocate in the exact middle of the park, away from the pagoda to see if the people would follow us. I had a feeling they probably would. I know Korea is a small country, so people are used to being in groups, but the park was really big. I just wanted to yell, "Don’t annoy everyone just because you can’t handle small groups. Get away!"

At this point, I had a less than pleasant headache. It might have been caused by the oncoming rain. We had no chance to move our picnic, because it looked as if it was about to storm any second. We grabbed everything, left for home on our bikes, and started working our way, block by block, back home. On the way, a bright red American style school bus with a loud speaker advertised a new restaurant.

The concept of "noise pollution" doesn’t exist here yet. Frequently people advertise nightclubs, fruits and vegetables, as well as anything else by simply getting a vehicles, strapping the largest possible sound system on it, and then driving around. There are laws preventing these sorts of trucks from parking in large apartment building parking lots and pissing rich people off, but nothing that stops them from driving by banks, hospitals, and schools to annoy everyone. I don’t know what Koreans think of this style of advertising, but it pisses me off.

Since the modus operandi of this style of advertising is, "damage the eardrums of as many people as possible," the bus drove incredibly slowly. Say, around the exact same speed as a bicycle that would happen to be traveling on the sidewalk. The same speed as my bicycle, which was trying desperately not to get caught in the rain that was about to fall at any time. Since I had the choice of either getting really wet, or being annoyed by the bus, I kept riding, and luckily the bus turned at the next intersection. I could hear him from a block away, and even saw a police car go in the same direction that had to be able to hear what he was doing. I can only hope they caught and punished him.

We got home before the rain, I took some aspirin, and simple gave up any attempt at trying to have a nice day. My firewall has been actively fighting the usability of my Internet experience, Windows Explorer is locking up from time to time, and I have bloodshot eyes from looking at my screen trying to figure out what’s going on. All and all, I’ve been having a horrible day despite my best efforts not to let things get me down. Sometimes I don’t know why I try, it was simply not to be.