h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, here I am. I've been here a week.

The more accustomed I get to this place, the stranger it seems.

Leaving Ottawa was emotional. The protracted proceedings involved with getting my visa, arranging my contract, packing up my life, and threatening bodily harm to the DHL delivery guy had left me in a bit of a floating limbo state, where I couldn't tell you what I was thinking or feeling. The surreality disappated somewhat when I finally boarded the plane... and then I got off of it in Korea, and surreality returned with a vengeance.

The flight itself took me to Chicago's O'Hare airport first, where I transferred to an Air Korea flight direct to Seoul. Landing in Chicago I could see out the window the big building (whatever it's called) by the waterfront owned by Oprah Winfrey... Karen pointed out to me once during a visit there. Queue a bit of romantic nostalgia. Onward northwest, over the Canadian Rockies, up to Alaska (hi Meirig) and across the Bering Straight, down the coast of Siberia and into the Asian Pacific. I was able to track our progress on the GPS screen they had on the plane. It was more hypnotic than watching your hard drive defrag.

Coming in low over Incheon, I could see isolated clusters of skyscrapers and a web of roads. The cloud cover was thick (it's almost always thick here), so there was mostly white for a while, and then a sudden burst of scenery as we got under the fogbank. I got a good view of Korea's western coast, there are a considerable number of Islands big and small. I could make out the wake from dozens of fishing boats steaming in formation to and fro from the islands to the harbour.

It took a bit of asking around but I finally made my connection from Seoul to Busan (a 25 minute flight) where I met my recruiter Darlene. She pointed at a bus and told me to cough up 3000 won. I got on it and she told me to get off at the last stop and my boss would meet me there. I did as she said, and an hour later I was in Masan being shown around town by Mr. Park.

Mr. Park is ok (so far). He's a little uptight about small things. I think that's the Korean way. For instance, as I struggled into my apartment with 100 lbs of luggage under my arms, he hissed at me to remove my shoes. Lesson one: Koreans are really anal about footwear.

I had been conscious for about 30 hours straight (I may have dozed off for all of an hour enroute) so you would think I would have done a face plant into my bed, but perhaps not oddly, I couldn't sleep. I mostly lay in bed wondering, "Oh my God what the hell have I done?" I decided to get up and take a walk. I toured around ShinMasan on foot for about an hour, taking in my surroundings. Finally I felt tired. I went home and went to sleep.

First impression: ShinMasan means, roughly, "central Masan". Knowing this, and having seen on my walk so many blinking lights, signs, balloons, neon flashy bits, highrises, blaring speakers, and so forth (at 2 am no less) that I had to fight off an epileptic seizure, I naturally assumed that I was in the heart of downtown.

Wrong.

As I was informed afterwards, I live in the suburbs. Of a very small city (500,000 people).