McKorea

For our second Korean cultural tour, we were taken to Busan on Saturday. The city is one of the largest cities in South Korea and in 2005 played host to APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation). After an hour and a half experiencing Korea's driving culture (a fancy way of saying we were on a bus), and a brief humid walk, we were at the APEC meeting building where there was a small display giving a background to the conference held there. We took a short self-guided tour through the facility, seeing the chambers and a garden paying homage to each of the attending nations... although I don't know how Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) and Hong Kong are counted in that figure. Then we followed the path to the spot where all of the conference members (Bush Jr. included) stood for a picture in traditional Korean garb. There was a mild rush for the United States plaque but after that was settled, I took my spot as China in honor of one of my roommates from school... he's Chinese if you couldn't pick up on the subtlety.

After our stint at the APEC location, we walked along an oceanside (or perhaps it's 'seaside' since I'm not so keen on Korean geography) and across a beach into the busier city of Busan. Something interesting to note about the city is the abundance of motels which I have been told is the result of a high degree of infidelity. We're not talking about a few motels, we're talking about 8 or 9 within plain sight from one spot on our walk to the lunch restaurant. Another delicious family-style chicken barbeque later topped with a taste of home (Pepsi) and we were too stuffed to walk back past the motels. Put some ice cream in our bellies and somehow the motivation changes drastically and we were once again on the move.

Busan is a nice city relative to Ulsan because it has more diversity, and by diversity, I don't mean a large wooden ship used in the civil war (movie reference), but rather there were European cars. Foreign cars are more expensive here in general but couple that with the Hyundai manufacturing hub of the world and Ulsan becomes almost hostile toward foreign cars. It's probably a sad thing but German cars have almost become a treat here so Busan was like foreign overload with the concentration of wealth and slight distance from Hyundai central.

For our second excursion of the day, we were taken to another Buddhist temple, which I'm afraid to say loses its luster after the more interesting examples from the previous Saturday (see my article titled: Buddha-licious).

FYI: There is a guy looking at pictures of scantily clad women two computers down from me. I'm not complaining per se, but it isn't the sort of internet browsing you typically do in public.

Like the prior weekend, we had a cultural tour on Saturday and a free day to sleep in and explore on Sunday. My mission this time was to try some of the activities Americans regularly pursue back home and see if they are any different here. The afternoon began (because of course we weren't awake early enough to do anything in the morning) with a bus ride to the Hyundai Department Store across from the shipyard. It's a large building that gives off a Nordstrom's sort of vibe inside and is by no means bargain shopping apart from the 'Power Sale' going on outside with merchandise that's there for a good reason... unless plaid polyester sport coats and cheap t-shirts are your thing. American department stores are typically separated by gender into different sections or floors. Clothing here is a bit different and is instead separated by brand, often grouping the same style and color shirt for both genders side by side. This unexpected juxtaposition was confusing at first as we were constantly worried about admiring an outfit for the wrong gender, but I finally put two and two together when I remembered how much Korean couples tend to dress alike when they go out.

And now for the namesake of this post. You must ask yourself: what is the most American food out there? Here's a few hints: it's not apple pie, cracker jacks, baba ganoush. It is, however, the most visual representation of America's obesity and high cholesterol problem. Yes, you guessed it, (or perhaps you didn't but the title of this post was a dead giveaway) we're talking about the big golden arches: McDonalds. We wanted to know if the American staple had transformed for the better on its journey across the Pacific. Well, the fries are a little less salty, but the consensus is that it's all the same. There is a bit of an Asian influence on a few menu items such as the bulgogi burger which I'm told has something to do with soy sauce and/or special seasonings, but my dining companions who ordered Big Macs and a McFlurry seemed to revel in the familiar flavor. I don't typically trust McDonalds a la Super Size Me (movie reference), so I figured I would play it safe with an order of McNuggets. They came with some sort of gingery sauce, displaying the Asian influence of the menu and the flavors worked well but the nuggets were the same low quality ground up chicken bits that you get in the states. The street system is also a bit different in Ulsan than back home so there is no drive thru window at this McDonalds. Don't let that get you down though because there is another way of getting your 'heart attack on a bun' without requiring you to walk, a medium of transport forbidden in the fast food rings apart from Jared at Subway. This motorized alternative is called: McDelivery. If you don't believe me, take a look for yourself.

Until next time,

-David Rood