So After lunch we decided we had enough of Haeunde for one trip and we wanted to see what some of the other subway stops had to offer. So we went back to the subway station and collected our luggage, and made our way to the one stop that was home to a University. Expecting to see something like the Korean equivalent of Chapel Hill, we were excited to go.
We thought Joseph's dad would appreciate this menu we saw outside the Haeunde Subway station.
This subway ride turned out a bit more sour though…. This part of the story needs a bit of preface… let me take you back to 2008 in June… I was talking on my cell phone after work and tripped while going up the stairs… yes… up the stairs, I hit my knee really hard on the concrete steps, and for lack of a better phrase, banged it up pretty bad… or more like… split it open…. I probably should have had stitches, but I was chicken and didn’t do anything till it was too late… So now I have a really cool scar on my right knee and occasionally it gives me a hint of pain… especially if I have been walking on it a lot. As you well know in Korea, we don’t have a car, and while sightseeing, we do plenty of walking, so my knees have been under slightly more stress than usual… So I was glad to be riding the subway, because 1.) my feet hurt, 2.) my knee was acting up and 3.) I have a hard time keeping my balance on the moving subway trains…
So when we walked into the subway station and it was super crowded I was not assuming we would actually get seats… which of course we didn’t… but since we had a long way to go, sometimes seats open up so you can sit for part of your journey… this is what happened. We got on the subway and stood for the first 4 or 5 stops. One Lady was in such a hurry to get off the train her tiney arm hooked on my backpack and almost dragged me off the train with her.
*Note, this is completely unrelated to teh scenario at hand, but relevant to Korean culture in general terms, Koreans are very kind and accommodating people if they are serving you or if they know you personally, but if they don’t know you they could care less. That is a hard cultural difference to get used too…. People will push you in line at the grocery store ( I had a lady hit me with her cart), people bump into you passing you on the sidewalk, and the complete disregard for traffic law is astounding... and the horns during traffic….… ohh lord the horns….. there is a very “me first” attitude in this society. I am shocked sometimes with the lack of concern about anyone else… they figure you can take care of yourself, which is a good thing, but come on, do you really have to walk into me? I know you see me! Sometimes I push back… just a little…I use the excuse “I am trying to conform to the culture!” *
So with that in mind... the story continues....
Finally a group of teenage boys got off the train car we were in, relinquishing their seats, and nobody else got on, so Joseph and I happily took their place. My knee was throbbing so I didn’t really care when a group of business men go on, there was an available seat next to me, and one of the men took the seat, so there was no problem. One stop later, and I noticed two young girls get on the subway, again they were wearing way to short skirts for the winter weather, so I almost felt bad for them. I saw out of the corner of my eye ( because it is hard to not stare at people on a subway… you sit and wait and stare) that a woman in her mid 40’s had moved over to them and was talking to them… She kept pointing at Joseph and I… and I saw one of the girls make a move toward us, and then hesitate and retreat… I figured maybe the woman was encouraging her to come speak English … which happens a lot, and so if I am bored I usually play along. Now this is where the trouble started…
the Train stopped stopped and a group of "Older" women got on, but none of them looked feeble, mind you, they didn’t even really seem that old, but they took hold of the pole in front of where Joseph and I were sitting.
That is when I saw the older woman, push the girl in our direction… I tried to engage Joseph in conversation so maybe she would leave us alone, but she came right up to me and held her cell phone in my face. On it was translated, "seats go to the elderly"
"Dang it" I thought… "We have to give up our seats… " we had them for two stops, and now we are being told to get off by a 15 year old girl via a cell phone… I almost wanted to pretend I was Russian and spoke no English, but I didn’t want to offend anyone, so I quietly told Joseph… “Umm I think we can’t sit here”.
The older ladies were actually blocking us in, so i hesitated and I heard the 40 something woman say something in korean to the other young girl, although I don’t know what.
Now I know It is Korean custom to let the feeble elderly have the seats on a bus, so I kinda figured the same rules applied... but the women in front of us were laughing, and talking to each other very animatedly and didn’t seem to need the use of a seat, and had I felt they needed to sit, I would have given up my seat in a heartbeat as soon as they entered the train. So even though I didn’t think these women in front of us qualified as elderly I started to try to get up to move…. The women realized what had happened, and One actually stopped me and pushed me back down into the seat, she waved her hand at me, and gave me a knowing look that said… "I still have some life in these bones, don’t worry about me. "
So there we sat.... awkwardly.....
Now two things bother me about this…. One… that some Older woman made a young girl come confront me… if she had a problem with me sitting in a seat I came to first, she could have made hand gestures and told me herself, or just ignored it. And two, I know she had been on the train when the younger Korean boys had been in our seats, and there were some even older women holding on to the bars then, and she said nothing to them… so why us?… because we were foreigners?, because we were ignorant of this particular Korean custom?, because those ladies happened to stand in front of us? Because some 40 something lady was old fashioned and wanted to make a point…. Why?
Ohh and a third thing that I just though of… it was kind of inconsiderate…. I mean, they didn’t know us.. We could have been really tired, or hurt. I mean my knee did hurt, not to the point I could not stand, but what if it had… I would never tell someone off I didn't know, because you don't always know the circumstances either... so many emotions were flowing through me, all I wanted to do was get off that subway… but we still had a few more stops. After the confrontation all three parties ignored us.. The 40 something hateful lady got off. And the two girls moved farther up the train car… I think the one girl was really embarrassed she had gotten harassed into confronting us… The older women just smiled and let us know no hard feelings, but I still felt upset. I have never in my life been in a situation like that where I felt I was discriminated on because of my race, and that is what happened that day. Being from America, Iam used to seeing people of different races every day, and I don’t make a point to rub my customs in their face. Everyone is different, and everyone has their reasons for doing what they do. Usually people in korea see Joseph and I, and they acknowledge we are different, and don’t expect us to know the rules or even to follow them... All I am saying is It could have been done nicer, or just ignored, because in the end, we still kept our seats. But now there was this awful feeling in the air. It was a really odd situation, and I was glad to be at our stop so I could get off that subway train.
University map!
Cool Simpsons Store... but upon closer inspection it contained no simpsons merchendise... false advertising.
This one just made me laugh... aparently people thought the store was stupid too and didn't shop there so it had to close... at least this place didn't have false advertising...
Sign outside the university... English.... F.
Busan did have automatic signs that told when busses "should" be arriving... now if only we knew which bus when where...
And we saw Papa Johns... check out the phone number....
Nice delivery car....
So since the town was smaller than we thought and we were getting pretty tired, it was back on the subway to go to Saha-gu to catch the bus to go home.
We had dinner at a pizza Hut and my camera died so no more pictures after this… but nothing of interest can really happen on a two hour bus ride to Tong Yeong, or a 30 minute bus ride back to Geoje… Well no I take that back. This trip ended on a sad note. I totally fell asleep on the bus ride to Tong Yeong… and upon awaking I had about two seconds to gather my things and get off the bus to change to another bus… and in the midst of changing busses I lost my new cool hat… yes the one I got the day before is now heading back to it’s home in Busan… I was really upset about that too.
But even though the trip ended on somewhat of a sour note, I still had a good time, and still enjoyed seeing the sights. And for the amount of sights I got to see and time I spent there, it was a relatively cheap trip in the end, so not all was lost… ( just my hat)… But now I have another excuse to go back.!
I forgot to take a picture of the whole burger, but this was what was left when I remembered I wanted to do a special blog on this dinner! They cut the burger in half for you and spear both sides with crazy sword plastic things...or should I say "Kraze" sword plastic things...
I got the Matiz Burger which had bacon and BBQ sauce on it, and Joseph stuck with the norm and just got the Original... very standard mustard ketchup, lettuce and onion....but they have all kinds with different toppings, garlic, mushroom, onion rings ( I KNOW, ON THE BURGER), Poached egg(?), bacon, cheese of many flavors and chili.... it is very westernized so we were pretty happy with what we got.
Joseph needed a bit more ketchup... or as they call it " Sun dried tomato".... no that is something you get at Bruggers... oh well, it was still a great burger!
AND FINALLY pickles as a side dish was totally appropriate! ( Although I am starting to enjoy them with my pizza and spaghetti too!)
Yeah we both cleaned our plates...save for the Kraze plastic sword things.
