Korea – first impressions

After my arrival to Incheon International Airport (“A WORLD BEST AIRPORT”, as they proudly write everywhere), I had to fill in and sign a few papers. Although I messed up several times, the personnel were very friendly and extremely helpful (even the security guys, unlike the security hag in Schiphol who made me throw all my stuff from my bag, and then felt the need to doublecheck my umbrella (it’s an effin umbrella, what did you expect?)).

After a while of free airport wifi, Kim-sabomnim arrived to pick me up and brought me to Hanguk Kiwon, the Korean go center, where I had the pleasure to watch woman pro-tournament. I was surprised that most participants were girls apparently younger than me. I was expecting them to be extremely skillful players, but I was still completely taken aback by their complete and utter concentration combined with calmness. Also, some of them were very pretty (yes I took photos, yes they will be online, just you wait).

To me, Korea is full of contrasts. A lot of stuff is simply the other way around. All the Koreans drive Jaguars, SUVs and business-class cars. It never ceases to amaze me to see a farmer living in a small, falling-apart hut, next to which his brand new hyunday genesis is parked. Which leads me to accomodation…

There are no family houses in Korea (actually, that is a mild exaggeration, as in the villages you can find family houses, because that is practically the only way to live there). But it appears to me that in Seoul, everyone lives in appartments.

Koreans work hard and they apparently enjoy their work. I haven’t seen anyone slacking off here (Czech builders spend 90% of their time just looking around).

Korea smells. I’m no sewer expert, but I think they are doing it wrong.

Korea is covered by wonderful hills/mountains, which all look about the same: spiky and steep, rising few hundred meters above the valleys, completely covered with forest. The forests are sort of normal, with similar to European vegetation, but they are a little more dense, which (in combination with the steepness of the hills) makes them practically impassable. Hiking is difficult, I haven’t found a single tourist path yet.

Korean food. I can’t say I like it. It’s basically rice + something so spicy that you can’t taste anything but fire (often, that “something” is kimchi). Although I’m not a huge fan of rice, I have to say that Asian rice can’t be even compared to European. It is simply something different – in Europe, it’s either overcooked slimy thing, or undercooked hard pieces. Here rice is slightly sticky, solid, and tastes ten times better.

Korea is mostly cheap, you can get a nicely sized dinner for about 3€.

I believe there is no single bakery in whole Korea. Chocolate is hard to find, expensive, and it sucks.

Koreans drink water, you can get free potable water practically everywhere. It’s awesome.

The weather is mostly rainy, but the last few days were surprisingly sunny. I heard that winters are real cold around here.

Stay tuned – the next post is going to be about KBC and why it is much harder to study here than you might think.

[EDIT:]
One thing I forgot to write – Koreans don’t speak English. But they speak Korean. And I speak English. So we usually understand each other pretty well.