Korean Angel

I arrived in Korea last night after 10 pm. While the airport was new and clean, I was not impressed by the design. As soon as we deplaned we walked the terminal to a train platform. It seemed all the arrivals were funneling down to one platform where there was no enough room for all the passengers. I was already making comparisons.

Then after taking our luggage they had only two customs officers who were examining our customs forms. It was a bottleneck of travelers with carts and luggage. Poor planning I thought.

I decided to take the bus into the city. A man on the bus platform directed me to the correct bus for which for I paid 10,000 won (9.00 USD). The bus make prerecorded announcements in Korean and then in English of the forthcoming stops but I had difficulty hearing the Korean pronunciation of my stop: Sung Kyun Kwan University.

My seat neighbor asked me in English for my stop. “I think I missed my stop,” I replied and showed him the name of the stop.

He nodded, “Yes, that was your stop.”

I was unperturbed, “That’s OK. I will just get off on the next stop. I have to take a taxi to my address anyway.”

He got up and walked to the driver to ask if I could be let off. All indications said that he could only stop at designated stops. I got off on the following stop and he followed me down. I showed him the address (it was in Hangul) to which I was to arrive.

“I will get you a taxi,” he offered.

He hailed a taxi and I piled my belongings in the back seat. He asked me if he could come along and he got into the front seat. He mentioned that he was an information technology specialist working at Incheon Airport as we drove to my final location. Maybe someone else was working on the logistics of foot traffic.

When we arrived at NIIED, the address, the building was not visible from the street so he walked with me. At the security gate we were told that NIIED was further down a dark passageway along a construction site. My guide offered me his cell if I had a number to call. I told him I might need it.

We came upon a parking lot and I recognized the NIIED sign. “This is it.” I entered the building and told the security guard my name and he gave me an envelope from Carol and a room key. I was grateful to have arrived. I was grateful to the kindness of a stranger. His name was Hon Young Son. What a wonderful welcome to Korea.

Public art in Hyehwa.

DMZ

I had the opportunity to visit the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on my second day in Korea The zone is an artifact of the this country’s history. While South Korea is a developed wealthy country, the zone is evidence that it is still at war with North Korea. The only way to visit the 38^th parallel, which divides the Korean peninsula in half, is by tour which allows for visiting many places in a brief time.

Visting the DMZ was a surreal and contradictory experience. On one hand are the hopeful signs for unification: the sculptures and memorials to peace, Dorasan train station the farming villages that live in the area and the resurgence of wildlife in the zone. Dorasan train station was built by South Korea for the time when travel between Seoul and Pyongyang will occur; but it has the feel of a wistful movie set since it has never been used. On the other hand you there are the signs of hostility: the barbed wire (it is ubiquitous; it marks off the Han river as you drive north), the land mines that saturate the area, the four discovered tunnels North Korea has dug to infiltrate the South, the restrictions on taking photos, the checking of passports, and the unavoidable military presence. But life is often contradictory, so why should I be surprised that the desire for peace lives along the pride of war.

After visiting the DMZ we saw what looked like a Lego Hotel. I was later told it is a love hotel.

© Hector Lee, 2010