If you are going there maybe you should read this before your departure.
Korea 1994
Anyo Aséo!
Anyo ki Kaséo!
kamsamnida!
1994
I went there as a teacher.
I tough it would look good on my curriculum vitae.
First impression
Very long flight
Montreal Vancouver Tokyo Seoul
waited 8 hours
Chong Ju airport
pick up for miss Tremblay
Yes! it's me.
Let's go! We have to take the bus said the stranger picking me up.
No way! Call your boss, I order. I did not travel all that way to take the bus. We take a taxi or I go back to Canada.
I managed to deal with the man on the phone.
ok
we left the airport in total darkness.
Oh my god!
I realized, from that moment I sat in the taxi, that I had become
blind, death and could not speak either.
I could not understand anything and could not read anything.
This is what I said to myself until I arrived in my sleazy prostitute hotel room
Oh my god!
No first class hotel here. No hotel at all, besides that one.
I can not read
I can not talk
I can not hear
a word
I am handicap and extremely tired.
I had to cross a big boulevard in the middle of the night, the size of the turnpike 89 in Boston, with my suitcases to go to the school and be presented to the director; who was not even there in his office to welcome me:
The hassle.
Where is the school? I was screaming. Where are my bags?
The language school was on top of a restaurant. I could not believe it.
I told the secretary I needed to go to the washroom
Oh my god!
She told me: take this.
-What?
She gave me 4 squares of toilet paper to go to the washroom;
A hole in the ground.
-For god sake, I signed a contract for a year, to come here!
They had a fax machine, it all looks good on paper, pictures, right!
I was exhausted from my trip. That night, all I was saying was:
I was going back home, I was leaving tomorrow...and was crying my heads off from the big mistake I made.
But after a good night's sleep, on a floor mattress on a plastic floor. I decided to stay a little longer.
I stayed there until the nuclear war rang in the footsteps of South Korea.
4 months to be exact.
On my last field trip.
I was working in Chong Ju South Korea. I went down to Pusan
for a day outing.
I took the train and then a hydrofoil to go to Pusan.
On my way there, I saw submarines and military ships all around us.
We were passing warships.
I took a hydrofoil to get to Pusan but I got so scared of my ride there, that I decided to take the train on my way back. I saw for the very first time of my life, soldiers wearing a protective mask in case of nuclear attack and all the protective gear you need to have. Scary.
I did not like that, one bit.
I had nothing for my protection.
People were demonstrating all over town.
This was surreal for a peaceful Canadian girl.
The ride on the train was quite something, I had to ride standing up almost all the way to Chong Ju. Smelling all those people who drank so much soju it was hell on the train too.
I was late from all this and unfortunately, that night, someone follow me off the train, I could feel it in the back alley, the road to my apartment, I picked up a rock but I was not fast enough, I did not walk fast enough, he got me from behind, he jumped on me, the street was not light up only 1 street light but when I screamed for help I could see the light's from all the apartments around lighting up to see what was going on but no one did anything; no one came to my rescue. I was attacked on my way to my apartment from behind and did not like that one bit.
The man had grabbed my arm and pushed me near the wall.
I knew tae-kwon-do but I told myself, if I start to fight back, he will definitely finish me. Korea is the country of Tae kwon do. But I was not going to let him grab me any longer, when I turned around to kick him, he realized, I was not a little girl from Korea and let go of me. He was cut by surprise seing a stranger instead of a schoolgirl from the University next door.
Afterwards, I ran like hell to my apartment.
After my encounter with him, I rushed to call the police.
Oh! well. Another nightmare happened, trying to explain in Korean what happened was useless. I called the police to report the incident and I realized this was out of my league. They did come to my place but all they wanted is to look at the foreigner's apartment.
And anyway how could I explain what happened how could I describe the person who attacked me with my very basic Korean knowledge.
Asian man, black hair, with an orange sweater.
Right!
There must be a million an a half-person here who are having just about this description.
When I realized this. I asked them for a cigarette and asked them to leave.
They were useless to my case.
And I was useless to my case as well.
I smoke the cigarette and decided it was time for me to hit the road.
That night, I looked at all the bottles of Soju my roommates had drunk during that day and red the note they had left for Seoul. So I decided to pack my stuff and leave the country without telling anybody until I was in Japan.
It was time for me to leave and even more so when you know they have nuclear power to destroy this country and the other one around it.
I was sad not to see my students again but not sorry to leave a country where they eat dogs. I could hear them bark early morning on my departure.
South Korea is also a corrupt country don't get me wrong it's not all that nice like any other one.
Halfway to the airport, the taxi driver had stopped the taxi and ask me for more money or else he will not start the car again.
After, debating with him, I put some cash on the dash and told him:
-fine, go! or else I will miss my flight to Japan.
-assle!
When I got out of the car
I grab my money so fast and my stuff he didn't have time to react, that assle.
South Korea country behind me forever, I told myself on board the plane flying over fields of black plastic fields.
1 month before my departure, I remember, that I tried to call my Canadian Embassy for assistance and there was nobody who spoke French or English in my very own embassy.
Unbelievable!
Try the emergency number afterward the same problem.
Unacceptable! I yelled on the line. Get me someone who speaks English.
After a very long time waiting on the phone, Imagine for an emergency where your life is at stake what you have to go thru. Anyway, I finally got someone to talk to me on the phone.
I asked them what would they do if worst comes to worst with North Korea regarding a possible war, nuclear situation, I would like to know just in case, what are the procedures you intend to take for your Canadian citizens as you know we are talking about nuclear war here between North and South Korea.
This is the exact answer I got.
They told me:
-We will inform you by mail.
-What the fuck! By mail|
-Do you know how the system works here?
This was my address in South Korea:
Ou Jong Mansion Koumon Dong
meaning:
(I was leaving in the building next to the fire station)
Ou Jong Mansion Koumon Dong
So imagine in a time of war.
-My problem was I was leaving in the middle of the country
in Chong Ju and to escape from South Korea to go home I would have to go up North towards North Korea has Seoul is further up than Chong Ju.
So bottom line, Canadian Embassy would do fuck all for me, is that what you are trying to tell me?
Great!
Watch television.
But for god sake do you have any knowledge about this country or not.
On television, in Chong Ju, all you have is a karaoke channel and some kind of love soap no news here sir. NO CNN either.
It was time for me to pack my stuff and get out of there for sure my very own Canadian embassy was useless. No serious measure is taken in case we needed help to escape a.s.o.p.
Imagine.
This was in 1994
We are now in 2013
I wish I could call the Canadian embassy in South Korea now to find out if someone answers the phone in English.
In 2017 we are now facing an atomic war North Korea has an H bomb.
Its time for the Canadian embassy in Korea to send emails not mail with a stamp but email to evacuate the country.
nuclear war was not my cup of tea and money is not everything in my life.
On weekends, I would go out and visit cities around the country instead of looking at my roommates English teachers who would sleep with young Korean girls...get drunk on Soju.
( its a very hard liquor with an insect inside.
If I recall all the kids at universities would drink this to a point of no return. They would actually die from an overdose of Soju)
All week-end long.
Not my style of living.
My American roommates were learning karate instead of tae-kwon-do just to annoy the Korean. Did not speak a word of Korean either...
I was stuck there for a year.
My first real visit outside Chong Ju was with one of the teachers there. She took me to the American air force base to church.
Oh! boy! I thought I was going to see the good looking pilots, soldiers, no, we were going to church.
OH! my GOD!
Right!
This was not my cup of tea either.
I went along anyway to see the country sight and to see another American military base. I went down there many times to the base in Kuwait when I was there it was fun.
So, on one hand, you had the very religious person, who would take a bus for 2 hours...to go to church and call me a sinner because I was smoking cigarettes and on the other hand, you had those young Americans who would sleep with teenagers and couldn't care less when those poor girls came in crying at the apartment because their father whipped them all night from sleeping with American boys who were just freshly out of American university and all they wanted was to have fun with girls. university.
I was a qualified elementary school teacher in French immersion looking to travel the world while teaching abroad and knew very well that it is forbidden for a teacher to sleep with their own students.
We were definitely not from the same school!
So on weekends instead of seeing all this and hearing their horrors stories with the young girls, because my room was next to the kitchen, I would spend my time out to avoid them. The director of the language school was too busy playing golf instead of looking for another apartment for me. I had no choice really, the first apartment he offers me there, was the apartment of a teacher who committed suicide in there and it was smelly.
So the weekend of my assault, I actually went down to Pusan to see the nice eucalyptus flower trees that week-end and I found this instead.
These are old picture I tried to take with my cell to put it on
submarine just got out of the water next to me or military ship, I don't remember very well but all I remember that day at sea was really bad and everyone was vomiting on board except me.
The captain had white gloves on and was smiling at me.
I was scared. There was no life vest in sight.
Worst, our hydrofoil suddenly went faster than the military people, I taught that day, I was going to die drawn in water and no one to search for me as no one will know about this outing of mine.
The waves were so big it went up the hydrofoil and cover the entire front of the boat. That was the scariest ride I ever took on a ship.
Pusan surrounded ready to be
One group of police
All the other pictures where you see the police wearing an oxygen mask these ones were in a different blue uniform.
Very young country.
I have met a judge who was 26 years old.
Women have a major role in society.
They get together once a month and invest in one building, shop...
Shopping in Korea will make you seasick too many people.
Capital of food is Chong Ju
The best fake items are Korea.
Who invented sushi I would say the Korean.
Who had destroy all the temples in South Korea all the Japanese?
This is why....
I wish I had seen the island of (Seju) and gone to the largest medicinal village in the world ...forgot the name...
But if I was living there right now I would get the fuck out of there.
Chongju is the place to appreciate food.
Pimbimpap the best in the country.
Gingseng tea,
pogogy,
takogy,
sea food in Pusan.
Learn how to read the word dog. You don't want to eat dog.
Springtime is beautiful in Pusan especially flower blossoms everywhere however in the mountain across the water you can see soldiers watching...
If you are sick:
Take Korean ginseng in all its forms.
Since that visit, I take Korean Ginseng every time I fly its perfect for an energy boost it beats the jet lag.
Go see the temples around the country it is worth it and remember Japanese sushi as nothing to compare with Korean sushi There is a lot more variety in Korea.
Anyo Asséo!
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