I. L. Chang

It’s getting to the end of a semester and though I am not in school, the month of May was filled with squeezing in part time work, writing and field trips. The muggy, hot summer heat is impatient. Summer vacation cannot come sooner.

Colleagues

I met some other writers and remote workers. One in particular was writing his PhD dissertation – in German. Though the product of our writing is different, the emotional turmoil and the labour of the mind is the same. There was a solace found in sharing our past struggles and current state of affairs. A co-worker. A colleague. He found a co-working space at a start up hub which was free with an inexpensive cafe and cafeteria for lunch. It was a resemblance of the office life I didn’t realize I missed this much.

A rendezvous in Seoul

A friend came to visit me for a week. I made him break record in the most amount of steps walked during the day. There were new places I went to and also places I had already gone to a few times. We explored a mixture of historical, educational, and modern life in Seoul.

I was asked what was trending in Seoul these days. I think the travel vloggers and influencers can tell you more. But I see keychains on every girl’s bags. They call it ‘key ring’ here. Some are procured by purchasing from underground malls or shopping streets. Others are collected from playing at a store front filled with gacha machines. I have three – two from the gacha machines and one gifted by a friend.

The gacha venues looked like a child’s casino, except no children were in sight. The bright neon lights and the melodic twinkling of the machines lured those in their 20s to 40s to come try their luck. It even captured the attention of an elderly lady. She couldn’t take her eyes off of a young blonde girl dressed in a white fashionable zip up with long pink nails, tapping her card for a new try without hesitation each time she failed to grab the prize. They were both invested in the exhilaration of the claw holding the prize. Could it be “this” was the time it would drop into the retrieval box?

A seaside excursion in Busan

Busan was only 3 hours away by KTX. The coast hugging the sea and the endless horizon was so accessible. My friend commented that the sea looked dangerous and marveled at its majesty in fear. Perhaps the fishermen who make their living on the water would agree. Could this be why?

Although our trip to Busan was short, we enjoyed the more relaxed pace of life, the beach, the cheaper cost of living compared to Seoul, the beautiful and good value hotel room and the food. Him – Indian, a pleasant surprise to find four of them on the same street. Me – gukbap and milmyeon.

School kids

May seems to be the time where the school kids were out on their field trips. My friend said he didn’t notice many students on field trips in Vancouver. I said, it was because we were in the office while they were out.

In Busan, we saw a few groups at the Gamcheon Culture Village, the Haeundae beach, and the Mipo Blueline Park. In Seoul, we saw them at the National Museum of Korea, the War Memorial Museum, and Gyeongbokgung. He said it was hard for him to differentiate between the teachers and the kids. Colloquially, we term it the “Asian genes”. Middle schoolers looked like they were in elementary and high schoolers looked like they were in middle school. The hardest to recognize were the young teachers who looked like they were high schoolers.

The students were loud and obnoxious. They laughed aggressively at things I couldn’t understand and use slang I didn’t recognize. They looked barely grown, but acted decisive like adults. Many of them carried a worksheet to fill out at the museum. The younger students snapped pictures mindlessly. Some were staring blankly elsewhere while the tour guide was explaining about the history and artifacts. Their backpacks were too heavy and was falling off their shoulders pulling down their jackets. Watching them brought me back to my school days. Some would have called me a nerd. I was awkward and shy, pimply faced with oily hair, dressed in clothes too mature for me. I like myself better now, but I do miss these field trips.

At Haeundae beach, we saw some preschoolers out on an excursion. They were digging in the sand for treasures that were hidden by the teachers beforehand. Many of them fumbled in the sand with their little legs and hands. It was adorable to watch them explore new senses.

In contrast, the teenage girls at the beach were gathered in a group at the beach, following their teacher. When they passed by two shirtless men with a defined muscular body playing beach volleyball, all went ‘oooh and ahhh’ in unison.

East sea bound

A friend’s brother and his wife took me east bound to see the beach and to eat seafood. It was his birthday. He had also gotten the news of receiving his working holiday visa to Canada and they would be leaving some time in June. The past two times we met were always full of surprises and good laughs, no exceptions this time. I experienced the relaxed modern Korean life – good food for lunch, sight seeing, cafe, more sight seeing, and then dinner.

We went to a cute cafe with an ocean view that was called P.E.I. coffee – a little taste of Canada in a foreign country.

The brother of this friend was someone I met at a church retreat back in 2017. It amazes me how one meeting of a person can lead to new connections and experiences. Her brother and wife treated me like a sister. They bought me food, gifts and drove me everywhere. They took me home back to Seoul even though they lived almost an hour away from the city. I am deeply grateful for their hospitality and generosity. I want to experience more of this and also be someone who could give like this.