In a previous post, I had talked about the joy and beauty of Getting Lost. Well, getting lost is a great and wonderful thing, but if i was constantly getting lost, i wouldn’t get places and sometimes i do want to get somewhere. Usually, i know how to get to where i want to go, but since moving to Korea and living in a city i’ve never lived in before, i now usually, if not always, don’t know how to get to where i want to go, so that’s where maps come in handy.
Since i’m new to Korea, and haven’t been gainfully employed yet, i have a lot of spare time on my hands. I mean, i work out, i study language acquisition theory and other English as a Second Language (ESL) methods to try to develop an innovative curriculum for my brother who wants to open up his own school, and i climb mountains, but aside from that, i’m pretty free, so i do a lot of walking. i’ve found my walking can be divided into daytime walks and night time walks. i find that my night time walks are where i just wander around, probably because everything is closed after 11 pm, except for nightclubs, bars, and 24-hour convenience stores, all of which are not really worth walking to (although walking to a 24-hour convenience store can be useful, but since there are so many, it’s pretty much the same as random wandering about).
My daytime walks, however, tend to have more of a focus, perhaps even what you may call a “goal” since most things are open during the day so there are many destinations to choose from. Usually, what i’ll do is stand in front of this huge map of Goyang (the city and surround area where i’m living) and decide on a place to go to.
This stands in a large public square just 10 minutes from my apartment
In this particular instance, i decided to check out the Cactus Research Station, since i’ve grown some cacti in my lifetime (i actually went through a cactus phase i’ll tell you about when i blog about my plant growing interests). On the map, you can see a glare from the sun in the upper left corner. Beside the glare, there are some large letters that say, “Ilsanseo – gu” and right under that is the Cactus Research Station.
So, once i scope out the place (i also did the Kintex Conference Centre, but i probably won’t blog about it, although i will probably post some pics), i just start walking in the general direction of that place. The place from which i start is called Lake Park, the green-wooded area near the bottom right corner. My apartment is just across the street from the park (too bad our view faces the damn parking lot!) Although all man-made, Lake Park is quite beautiful in its own artificial way; it reminds me of a huge, carefully manicured garden.
However, if you notice, the map isn’t exactly to scale, so little did i know what i was in for. After over an hour of walking, i still hadn’t reached the place and i began to despair, when i finally saw a sign:
That gave me renewed hope, but if you look carefully, you’ll see that the damn sign doesn’t mention how far the place is. So, i kept walking and walking and another hour passed. I’d been walking for so long that i was actually in farm country.
The only thing that kept me going was the occasional sign that promised that the Cactus Research Station is indeed coming up. Eventually, i almost gave up. I seriously thought about turning back and going home. I mean, I had been walking for over two hours and it would be another two hours back home and i was getting hungry.
I decided to ask somebody where the Research Station was just to see how close i had come before giving up. I spotted a gas station attendant and tried to ask him where the Cactus Research Station was, and since my Korean is terrible, he couldn’t understand what i was asking, so i just pointed to the picture of the sign on my smartphone. He looked at the picture and nodded. Yes, smartphones really are smart! He pointed to the next intersection. I couldn’t believe it, but it was true. I was there!!!
And, i wasn’t disappointed. This place was a serious cactus research station! Greenhouse after greenhouse filled with rows of cacti, and a real research station with a lab and everything. I started to take some pictures, but it was like trying to take pictures of Mount Everest with a toy camera, the scope of the cacti was just too immense!!! Well, they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Then, a video is worth a thousand pictures. So, without further ado, i just started to shoot video.
Here you go….there are two parts. Enjoy!
Part One
Part Two
By the way, in the second video, i mentioned the art of pumpkin carving posted by another blog called Chicquero. You gotta check this out: The ART of pumpkin carving.
Rumi Supertramp 