Sunday Blog part 2 - Home Stay

I am still trying to catch up on my updates so I will try to finish another blog today so I do not fall any further behind. Friday was the day for our home stay. I have to admit that after a busy week in Seoul and a late night, the only thing I really wanted to do was spend a nice quiet evening at the dorm. The fact that I was nervous about going to someone's house and making a total ass of myself by doing something wrong was also added to my overall hesitation to about the home stay. I couldn't imagine what we could do from 1 PM Friday until 5 PM Saturday.

I was paired with a student from the University that will be travelling to Vancouver next year to study English. He arrived at the dorm just before 1 and I was introduced to him by my roommate. We headed out to the bus and made small talk (he had a list of questions written in a book). It was quickly evident that he was extremely nervous and he smiled and laughed nervously the entire time we were together. Although his English was not very good we were able to communicate fairly well but he kept apologizing for his English and I tried to tell him that we were in his country and it was me who should apologize for my horrible Korean (what little I know). We headed to Ilsan beach which was a little over an hour away by bus. The bus ride was interesting to say the least. I sat in a single seat right at the front of the bus and the bus driver (who was about the angriest bus driver I have ever seen) kept looking over at me like he did not trust me. His driving was very agressive and he would honk at cars if the other driver even thought about coming into his lane and speed up so he would not have to let anyone in. When pulling up to the stops he would open the door a half block away and you better hurry to get in because he was not very patient. Several times if someone was in the door too long he would scold them loudly and get them moving. We stopped at a red light near one bus that was at a stop and when I looked in it there was a woman in the doorway with her arms wrapped around a pole and the driver was trying to push her out of the bus. I made sure I was on my best behaviour and got off the bus quickly when our stop came. I have always appreciated the bus drivers in Regina but I now have an extra appreciation for them.

At the beach we walked up a hiking trail to a park that was up on top of the hill and then a trail that led out to a point made up of some rocks. the park was really nice but had the usual cluster of stalls selling food and other things and the park had speakers throughout that had a radio station playing. I guess Koreans do not like too much peace and quiet. The view from the point was very nice and I took quite a few pictures. The overall hike was also very nice except it was very hot and humid and considering I was carrying everything I needed for my home stay (including a book that I had brought for a gift) I was a sweaty mess by the time we were done. We then jumped another bus (this time the driver was not so bad) and headed downtown to meet some of his college friends. His friends spoke English fairly well and so communications became easier. We all went to a restaurant and had chicken soup (a small whole chicken filled with rice cooked and served in a pot of boiling broth). With my less than ideal chopstick skills it was a bit of a challenge to pick the meat off of the chicken off of the bones but I managed to do OK.

Afterwards we went to a pub and drank some beer and visited. It is kind of a different feeling being the center of attention. Everyone had alot of questions about what things are like in Canada. The communication was difficult at times but I learned to talk slowly and my home stay partner had an electronic Korean/English dictionary so this helped. I did feel kind of bad though because he did not say much and just let his friends do most of the talking in English but I think he preferred to just listen.

Afterwards we caught a cab back to his home which was on the 9th floor of an apartment building. His father had just got home from work and his mother was not yet home. After saying hello (his mother and father do not speak English) we watched TV until his mother was home and she cut up a platter of fruit for us to have. I had a shower and went to bed and that was the total extent that I seen his parents (his father had to go to work at 4AM and his mother at 6).

The next morning we had a breakfast of rice (rice is served at every meal), a pork and fish dish, an egg dish, and many other things, his cousin came to pick us up to go to Gyeongju, which was the capital of the Silla kingdom (ruled Korea between the 7th and 9th centuries) and has numerous archaeological sites.
We made the 1 hour trip in his cousin's car which is made by Samsung (he told me some of his friends do not like his car because it is not a Hyundai (probably 80% of the vehicles on the road in Ulsan are Hyundai. We visited the Bulguska Temple (which has a large number of buildings) and the Seokgulam Grotto which is on top of the mountain and has fabulous views.

The Buddha statue in the grotto is very nice and at one time (before a building was built to protect it from the elements) the sun would rise on the Buddha on the summer solstice.

We headed back towards Ulsan, stopping at a beach where we had lunch. By the time we were back at the University it was nearly 5 and I really wondered where the day had gone. Although the home stay was not what I thought it would be and I did not really experience home life in Korea, I felt it was a good experience and an opportunity to talk to people who were interested in using their English and finding out more about Canada.

Saturday evening a group of 15 of us went to a restaurant near the university for supper. We had a good meal with pork and rice and a tofu soup along with the various extras you always get at a Korean restaurant and it only cost us 3000 won each ($3). Afterwards we headed back to the dorms and a bunch of the students were headed out to a dance club but one of the guys in the room next to me and I decided to go for a drink instead. By this time it was raining so I was able to put my umbrella to use again as we walked down to the bar where we ran into 3 other students from the program. While having drinks, a table with 3 quite inebriated Korean men came over to our table and asked Danielle (a blond from Alabama) if she would join their table so they could practise their English. Of course they just wanted her to sit with them and could barely speak any English at all (especially in their state of drunkenness). In the end we all got a good laugh from it (especially when the one came over to our table a stood there swaying for 5 minutes trying to think of what to say) and they sent over a few beers to our table.

Quite a few of the people in the UIP program like to go to one of the many Karaoke places in the evening, so we decided to go. I am not a big fan of it but enjoy sitting with the group listening to the others sing (or try to). The karaoke places here do not serve alcohol (most of the people just bring a bottle of soju in with them) and you rent a room which means it is only your group which seems to make it alot more fun. We joined up with another group of students that were headed there and spent a couple of hours singing. On the way home we stopped at McDonalds which is my first american chain restaurant I have eaten at since I arrived. When I got back I checked the score of the Rider game and headed off to bed looking forward to spending today relaxing.

This week should be interesting as we go to a sports festival, ice skating, tour Hyundai Heavy Industries (ship builders), the Hyundai car plant, try traditional Korean folk music and make another trip to Gyeongju.

I hope everyone enjoys the remainder of their weekend!

P.S. If anyone is interested in seeing more pictures from the program, check out http://www.ulsan.ac.kr/eng/international/uip03.aspx?o=L . Also, I have been having a horrible time with the internet while writing this blog todya so if anything looks funny I am sorry but I am tired of trying to fix it. Thanks.