Yesterday was a beautiful day, so of course I was itching to get on my bike and ride far, far away. With a friend, I set out to explore Ulsan a bit more - this time, to NamGu we went. (That's the southern section of the city). We pulled out the ol' Korean map and pinpointed our destination - a tiny symbol of a tree and a bench, chosen because it was the only remotely interesting/understandable thing in the area.
Now, I'm a bit of an optimist. One of those annoying "I see beauty in everything, really!" people. However, NamGu held little beauty. It was heavily, heavily industrialized. A coal plant, petrochemical plants, chemical processing plants and any other manner of heavy-polluting, ugly-looking, completely suspect complexes lined the roads on the way to the harbour. Ulsan has become such a successful little city by totally whoring itself to some of the biggest polluters in Asia, I suspect.
Needless to say, we bailed on the ride, and headed back into the city, more familiar turf. Back in the core of the city, we paused at a street corner to decide on a direction for our ride. I was just pulling out the map when a helpful Korean in his car explained to us in terrific English - "Go straight and then turn right!"
Korea rocks. I mean, how random is that. We don't even know what direction we want to go in, but a stranger in a car rolls on by, proactively solving our problem with complete confidence AND in English!
Clearly, we went straight and then right. Which took us to, well, a building with blaring K-pop and a whole bunch of Korean suits who started at us while we waited for the light to change. We really couldn't find what the helpful man thought we were looking for. Or, we didn't see anything that looked like it would be something we were looking for. So back across the river (towards home!) for some Indian food (!) and that oh-so-fun summer sport of boywatching on an outdoor patio...
Sigh. And another Sunday in Ulsan passes by... Friday will be further adventures in NamGu - I'm determined to find something pretty in that quarter of the city. Even if it kills me. Which, with that air quality, it just may.
One last note: my students are everywhere. As in, I am in the downtown for 1 hour, and see at least 25 of them. The downtown is NOT close to my little Hogye-dong. Yet, I walk down the street and hear "Oh! Katrina-teacher! Katrina-teacher, hello!" or "Oh! Katrina-seng! Katrina-seng, hello!" (same thing, but in Korean).
BUT for the next three days - ALL of the students in my middle school (all 1800 of them) are out of town on a field trip! That is three whole days of going wherever I want, doing whatever I please, and not having random behaviours and sightings reported back to me by my students in class or in the hallways... example: "Teacher! Shinae! What? Boy! Hat! Boyfriend?" - which translates to "Teacher, I saw you in Shinae? What were you doing? The boy wearing a hat (that you were with) - is he your boyfriend?"
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