The Christmas holiday (or rather New Year's holiday due to general unobservance of Christmas as a day off and some schools still have classes) is usually fairly short, generally two weeks at the most, and is the first real opportunity for year abroad students to go travelling in a bigger way than the previous three-day weekends allowed. Some people went to one of the major cities for the large celebrations there; some people even went home to the UK, perhaps unable to bear the absence of gravy, proper bacon or cheese. I went to Korea.In the UK at least, Christmas is very much a family time, where everybody gathers for lots of eating and reunion-ness, whereas New Year's is usually the time for friends, where you go out with a group of peers and go out drinking in a bar somewhere. In Japan the trend is ever so slightly reversed - New Year's, being the bigger of the two celebrations, is the family time, where everybody gathers at the family home then perhaps visits a temple for the New Year's celebrations there. Christmas is very much a couples' day - the more romantic parts of the Western tradition taken and turned into a sort of festive Valentines. Along these lines, I figured to turn up at my girlfriend's doorstep unannounced capable of cooking a British Christmas Dinner (or nearest equivalent, I can't really cook) could be a half-decent present. Lianne was only a short hop across the Sea of Japan teaching English in Korea, so the plan was set.
I armed myself with a few bits and bobs that would come in handy. First was Hangul, the Korean alphabet. I reasoned that it doesn't matter if I can't speak any of the language, just so long as I could read, write and recognise place names and addresses. Google Earth doesn't work in that region of Korea for whatever reason, and the only alternative was an all-Korean map website, so this was pretty much necessary anyway. Hangul isn't that complicated, and this didn't take much time. Alongside this was taking the necessary spy satellites and making some sort of map of the city so I knew where I'd have to go, and learning one or two things about how to gesture to whichever poor taxi driver picked me up.
Next was how to cook the dinner. Subtly spying over Lianne's shoulder on the webcam to find out what equipment was available - two gas hobs, but notably without any oven. Thankfully Grandma provided a very good steamable Christmas pudding recipe, which I made a kind of strange amalgamation of with the two other recipes/bits of guidance I'd found online, cooked, then tested on people living in the dormitory. Nobody died, and setting it on fire was great fun in any case, so I assumed it would be fit for the task, then cooked another. The rest was simply vegetables - mashed potato instead of roast, boiled/fried vegetables are doable, and homemade chipolatas aren't so complicated either. Gravy and stuffing was kindly sent over for me from home, along with brilliant decorations and a CD of carols. All set.
Getting there wasn't much of a problem - I knew Nagoya Airport, and when I had arrived at Pusan's and dodged past the swarm of taxi drivers asking me where I was going I found the bus stop right outside, and was instantly glad I'd learnt Hangul, so I could quickly see the bus to Lianne's town was not too far away. Not that I really had to worry much - I got into a conversation on the bus with a half-Korean half-Japanese girl coming home for the holiday, which was joined by a Korean student coming home from Tokyo, giving me enough information about things I was curious about. On the other end, I caught a taxi with the girl, who kindly made sure we found the right address before letting me out onto the street again.
The rest, as they say, is history.
About the whole experiencing the different country of Korea bit - this was perhaps entirely opposite to the experience than those people who have been to Seoul only, since Seoul is entirely touristy and shiney, whereas the city I went to was a practically foreignerless industrial mess of broken roads, grey faceless buildings and tired, empty identical restaurants. Pollution everywhere, undrinkable tap water, and everybody's usual stares taking on a much more miserable, detestful look, as if asking why is a free-to-travel foreigner even here in the first place. Due to the exchange rates, everything was very cheap, and you sometimes got the feeling that that would be a suitable answer to the stares, if you didn't really care about where in the world you were. It seems to draw in the smoker crowds - not much tax to speak of, very cheap living costs and no laws against smoking in public places meant that almost every other foreigner I met was smoking like a cigarette factory on fire. Hm.
It wasn't all bad. The city had "The World's Largest Park", which was oddly just a fence and gate on the edge of the city leading out to the countryside. Shopping and taxis were incredibly cheap, so getting around was never a problem. We found bottles of Port being sold for the equivalent of 50p which tasted like undiluted Vimto. I managed to eat dog, which tasted like thin beef by itself, and with the soup tasted like everything else I ate at Korean restaurants - of vegetables and kimchi. I lost my hat (again). New Year's was marvellous with the enormous fireworks very close to the appartment window. And it was just the break I needed from Nagoya, and a great time spent with my girlfriend.
