The start of a new adventure

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Trip Start Aug 28, 2009 Trip End Sep 28, 2010 Next
Entry

  Suwon, Gyeonggi, Korea Rep.
Friday, August 28, 2009

We found out in mid June that Ania was accepted on an exchange program to study in South Korea, and it was then that I began the process of finding a job and getting a visa. Finding a job wasn't a problem, as a post on Dave’s ESL café resulted in a response from a teacher at a private school in Suwon who was soon to finish his contract. A couple of emails and a long phone call later and I had myself a job teaching business and conversational English to adults. Next up was sorting out a visa. With nine weeks until I was due to start, it seemed I had plenty of time to gather the required documents. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. Without wishing to fly home to Australia, I was forced to wait five weeks for a Korean company to verify my degree, and before I knew it Ania was due to fly to Seoul, and I was still without a visa.

Accepting the fact I wouldn’t be able to travel over with her, I began planning a two week trip through southern Spain. However, as with my plan for travelling through Wales, this too fell through when my school suggested I fly over and do a visa run to Japan once my documents were ready. With a studio apartment courtesy of my school waiting for me it seemed the perfect solution, and after an hour or so online I had a ticket booked to come over with Ania.

Our flight from Dubai was delayed by about two and a half hours, which meant we arrived at Seoul’s Incheon airport right on sunset. The final part of the flight was very scenic, passing over South Korea’s scenic western isles. We were met at the airport by someone from Ania’s university, and after picking up a couple more students we jumped on a bus for Suwon, just 40km south of Seoul. This was where Ania’s university was located, and where we would be spending the next 12 months. My first impressions of South Korea were pretty much as I imagined, with freeways bumper to bumper with traffic. As Ania was getting accustomed to the Neon lights outside, an American student nearly knocked me out of my seat as she scrambled to take a photo of a Mcdonalds. Of all the photos to be taken out of the window, that was her first.

I left Ania at Suwon’s Hotel Castle, where I was met by my new boss Pete. He took me straight into my new school to meet powers that be, and collect a key for my studio apartment. After settling in we went for a meal of fried potatoes and beer, where I was soon brought back down to earth. It seemed that although Pete was my boss, he didn’t call the shots, and I would have to wait a while for the school to reimburse me for my flight as promised. Actually, how the school hierarchy actually worked was a bit of a puzzle to me, with at least four different people above me with different roles.

Our first week in Suwon was spent settling in, getting used to our surroundings and seeing a little of the city. It wasn’t long before a few of South Korea’s little quirks became apparent, including the presence of meat in every single dish (the biggest challenge), traffic lights which seemed to have no set pattern, plastic tables and chairs outside convenience stores, and the obsession with mobile phones and small dogs. More surprising was Suwon itself though. For a city of over a million people, there really didn’t seem much to it. Apart from an impressive 18th century fortress and palace, the city was basically a giant village of tower blocks. There was very little in the way of a city centre and it immediately felt like there was almost nothing to see or do.

After a couple of days to get over the jetlag we found the energy to visit the aforementioned fortress. Hwaseong was the original wall surrounding Suwon, 4.5km long and more than 95% complete. We began our self guided tour at 'Paldalmun’, the southern gate, before climbing up hundreds of stairs to ‘Paldalsan’, the highest point in the centre of Suwon at 143m. There was quite a view from here, out over the sprawling tower blocks to the hills in the distance. There was also a giant bell and a number of sentry posts. It was an impressive sight, but given we had taken our time and only explored about a quarter of the length of the walls we decided to leave the complete walk for another day. We still had time to visit the palace Hwaseong Haenggung though, and it was just a short walk from the summit back down the hill to the entrance. The palace was also impressive, with courtyard after courtyard revealing some stunning, colourful, old Korean architecture. The wooden corridors and rooms were very different to what I had seen in South East Asia, revealing something of what I expected from the countries to the north.  We returned here on the weekend to see the Jang Yong Yeong Security Guards Ceremony, where we could see a military ceremony and training performed by guards in their traditional dress.  It was more interesting than I thought it would be, although a touch too long at half an hour.  Once it was done, we explored another part of the fortress, Baksumun Hwahongmun, which was a floodgate at the north of the fortress.

Whilst having to wait a few weeks for my visa was a little annoying, it did give me opportunity to settle in and wind down after a ridiculously hectic summer with EAC in Exeter and Edinburgh. Whilst Suwon didn’t seem the most exciting place in the world, I was there with Ania and set up in a cozy studio apartment with high speed internet, which is all I really needed. However, once the jetlag passed I began to get itchy feet, and looked into my first trip to the country’s capital, Seoul.

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More Pictures

A local girl with a mobile and a small dog	In Maetan park	Paldalmun	On the steps up to Paldalsan
View over eastern Suwon	Sentry post at Hwaseong	View over the south east of Suwon	In front of a guard tower at Hwaseong
Faces on the guard tower	Guards in their traditional dress	Asian soft drinks. Love em!	Hwaseong fortress walls and Suwon
Striking the bell three times	View over eastern Suwon from Paldalsan	Guard tower on Paldalsan	Ania at Paldalsan
Seafood truck near Hwaseong Haenggung	At the entrance to Hwaseong Haenggung	Prayer bags, or donations	Hwaseong Haenggung
Ania with some locals	Inside Hwaseong Haenggung	Ania relaxing in Hwaseong Haenggung	Coutryard in Hwaseong Haenggung
Having a break in Hwaseong Haenggung	Corridor in Hwaseong Haenggung	House in Hwaseong Haenggung	With Ania at Hwaseong Haenggung
The Royal Guards of King Jeongno	Military Ceremony at Hwaseong Haenggung	The king makes an appearance	A picture of concentration
Hwaseong Haenggung and Paldalsan	Ania by Buksumun Hwahongmun	What could happen	Having a nap at Buksumun Hwahongmun

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