Mornings I wake up around 07:10, wash my face, down a yogurt and go stand next to the road at 07:30 looking like “boy” on the street corner. I dress neat wearing a shirt and a beanie to keep my wild-morning-hair down, which I drop in my back pocket as I enter school.
Everyday I have a different teacher that picks me up outside my apartment. Charles (who also works on Seokmodo Island at a middle school) and I share the ride to the ferry. Monday mornings used to be the worse. Charles’s co-teacher would pick us up in his small automatic car and chase it to Oepori (the ferry port). The conversation would consist of the church, blind dates and that it’s time to settle down with a girl, the English language and stressing about whether we would make it in time to catch the ferry or not (we usually make it with a few seconds to spare).
He has since bought a new car which makes me feel a little bit safer and we now get there on time.
One thing that all foreigners and even Koreans agree on is that Koreans can’t drive for shit. Always in a rush, lacking confidence and skill or sometimes over confident is the cause for numerous accidents. A red light acts as a yield sign and gets ignored most of the time. Their hand will be put on the hooter before deciding how to take control of the situation. Impatient and always on the hooter, but never a: “Hey fuck you (middle finger), look where you’re driving!” The first few weeks were scary, especially on Mondays, but I have become used to it now. If I do die in Korea then it will be in a car crash.
He has since bought a new car which makes me feel a little bit safer and we now get there on time.
One thing that all foreigners and even Koreans agree on is that Koreans can’t drive for shit. Always in a rush, lacking confidence and skill or sometimes over confident is the cause for numerous accidents. A red light acts as a yield sign and gets ignored most of the time. Their hand will be put on the hooter before deciding how to take control of the situation. Impatient and always on the hooter, but never a: “Hey fuck you (middle finger), look where you’re driving!” The first few weeks were scary, especially on Mondays, but I have become used to it now. If I do die in Korea then it will be in a car crash.
At Oepori I board a 15min Ferry ride across to Seokpori. My mornings start off with the beautiful soundtrack of the ferry engines and the nod of the head to all the familiar faces on the ferry. Charles and I go stand on the deck where he smokes 2 cigarettes and we absorb the morning view. On the other side I get a lift to school with whoever stops first to pick me up.
At the end of the school day I must always ask around to find out who will be going to the ferry port. I just say the ferry port name: Seokpori. There have been days that no one can take me to the ferry and you don’t want to miss the ferry, because then you wait another 30 minutes for it to return, resulting in missing the bus too. So on these days I decide to hitchhike and I get picked up real quick as this is an island with only one road that goes around. I’ve become good at it and some of the teachers without a car follow me to catch a lift. A South African showing the Koreans how to wing it! At school rumors are going around that I am a professional hitchhiker and they laugh at me, but when they too want to go home they follow me and take the back seat.
Seokmodo is an island visited by old people and tourists with kitted color matching hikers’ gear who come here to climb Haemyung Mountain. You’ll also find tourists flocking here to see Bomunsa Temple (the main tourist attraction) and then leaving as soon as possible to not be stuck on Seokmodo. All these tourists have one activity in common, which is to feed chips to the seagulls hovering around the ferry looking for a free meal. It’s an exciting event that I also often participate in. It’s a great opportunity to take photos and for Korean’s to show off their latest SLR Cameras.
Back at Oepori I walk in the road hoping that someone feels sorry for me and picks me up so that I don’t have to wait for the bus. It’s happened several times that someone has picked me up, but I often end up taking the bus back. I wait 15 minutes for the bus to arrive and with my Ipod blasting I take the back seat (the seat with the least chance of having to stand up for an old person) and I fall asleep till I arrive back in Ganghwa 20 minutes later.
A total commute of just under an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. I could compare it to sitting in Cape Town rush hour traffic – just with a little bit more excitement.
A total commute of just under an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. I could compare it to sitting in Cape Town rush hour traffic – just with a little bit more excitement.
