Day 12: Technical Difficulties

I've decided that to provide some balance for my diary entries, I'd do up a small list of all the things that I find really difficult here in Korea, or just the things that happen to be stressing me out at the moment! You've heard all the rosy wonderful things so far, now it's time for the other side of the coin.... Enjoy!

1) Loneliness/Isolation - This would definitely be my number one stresser-outer! Being a foreigner is a great experience, and one I really do reccommend to everyone to try first-hand at some point in their lives, but it's also very lonely at times. There are days/times when I miss my friends and family back home soooo much! I live in a part of town where there's not many other foreigners, or anyone who speaks English really, so it's been really difficult to make friends. I'm used to having a very busy social calendar and not spending so much time at home. Hell, just ask any of my Vancouver friends - while living there I had a social life that could rival that of any Hollywood socialite!!! :-) Now I have sooooo much "alone time" and it's just something that I'm not used to. It's been a good learning lesson for me, and has made me a stronger person, but it has not been easy. I'm very much a social creature by nature and need to feel connected, and these days I feel a little lost and alone at times....

2) Language Barrier - Unlike other foreign countries I've been to (they were all in Europe), English is not spoken very much in Korea. Also, the Koreans have their own alphabet, so unless you're familiar with it (fairly easy to learn I've been told) you can't even 'sound out' words or signs or anything like that. I guess this one ties in with the first point I made, but there's some days when I'm just DYING to have a conversation with a native English speaker!!! The very limited conversations that I have with my kids or boss just do not do enough to stimulate me, and hence the reason why I'm so eager to make new friends. And plus it makes every single day-to-day task that much more difficult - ordering in a restaurant, buying food at the grocery store, asking directions or finding out how things work......all in involve speaking to another person, and therein lies the language barrier! But I'm the foreigner here, not them, so it's my responsibility to learn Korean so that I can communicate with them, not the other way around! I've picked up a few words here and there, but have a lot more yet to learn.

3) Food - My diet here in Korea has not been the greatest! Familiar foods are hard to find, if not impossible, so my diet has been very un-Atkins friendly!!! (all carbs baby!!! cereal, pasta, bread...those are my staples...LOL!) The bit of Korean food I've tried has been tasty, but there's a lot of stuff here, mainly in the strange seafood category, that I know would not go down very well... Probably as time goes on I'll become a lot more accustomed to the dietary change. Still, there's so many things I'm DYING for - like chicken parmesan, or a grilled salmon fillet, or a giant mother-fuckin sandwich, or tacos, or caesar salad, or ANYTHING WITH CHEESE....the list goes on.... And I'd give my left nut for a Delany's mocha or soy chai right about now!!! haha!!! All these are things that I'm sure will taste *ABSOLUTELY AMAZING* and *BREATHTAKINGLY DELICIOUS* the next time I get a chance to enjoy them!

4) Distance - This also ties in with #1, but the fact that I live way out in the 'burbs is very frustrating. Shihung City is a pretty cool place, but it's still really quiet, and because is under a lot of development (new towns being built, etc.) it still feels a bit...incomplete...like living in a half-finished city or something. If it was right on a subway station or closer to the central city it wouldn't be so bad.... Any time I want to go and visit the central city, where the bulk of the entertainment and sights (as well as foreigners) are, it involves a 1.5 hour trip. This is a normal part of life for Koreans here (the big commute) but I'm still getting used to it. The trains and buses also stop running around midnight so it's something I have to take into consideration when I'm out at night. At least taxis are cheap and easy to find!

5) Smells - This one is pretty minor actually, but one I'm still adjusting to. I have a fairly weak stomach for certain smells/foods/sights (this is a quality that I *definitely* inherited from my mother - if you don't believe me just sit back and watch the performance that occurs whenever she watches "Fear Factor"!!!) The smells here are ones that I'm not used to at all, and for the most part that's a great thing cause it adds to the 'newness' of being here, but the smell of raw seafood/squid/other gross squishy sea things in the market can be, at times, enough to make me almost gag! Let's just say that I've become really good at 'breathing through my mouth' whenever I'm in the market!

So that's my list of things that, at the moment, are all rather stressful or unpleasant or make my life difficult. It's important for me to emphasize though that they are all things that *I* need to adjust to. They're not going to change, and I don't expect them to. Like I mentioned before, I am the foreigner here and it is me that has to get used to certain things. But it is these 'temporary unpleasantries' that make life here challenging and exciting. If it was all so easy it would be rather boring, I think. Eventually, in time, all of these things will be conquered, and I can look back and laugh at how much stress they caused me, and be proud because I was able to overcome them. All in due time I guess, one day at at time...