THE BEST KIND OF SURPRISE - A KOREAN SURPRISE
- Sophia Phieros
- Mar 27, 2015
- 5 min read
I have always been a huge fan of surprises - most people, although they don’t like to admit it, are.
In Korea, we are fortunate enough to run into one every now and then. To the ‘waygook’ living in Korea, it is more commonly known as ‘The Korean surprise’.
Opposing what most tend to think of these surprises, I am inclined to be quite fond of them. Now, I am not saying they are all marvelous surprises at all, nay, they can be quite crushing. For instance: “Surprise!!! None of the T.V’s work in any of the classrooms, so the lesson plan you spent all evening working on has been rendered redundant and you will have to simply wing it.” Or “Surprise!!! It is photo day today, even though not one but many of your students and colleagues have asked if you have been suffering from a rare Asian cold due to your scruffy appearance and that giant, pulsating chorb you decided not to cover up today.”
Surprises, sometimes, are not so much fun, but if we look at the silver lining they are pretty good learning curves – in other words, don’t spend all night on a lesson plan that might not ever get the chance to see the light of day. And make sure you either look like you have been hit by a freight train all the time or always look like a bloody supermodel – you decide.
On the other hand, surprises can be the most wonderful things in the world. “Surprise! You have no classes today because the students will go on an outing.” Or “We will have a school dinner tomorrow night, the principal is paying.”
Then of course there are those that balance on the fence between bad and good. For instance, being a single man, sitting at a 노래방 (music room) and being told that the youngest girl in the shop has been bought for you. This happened to a friend of ours. Now I know some might think… ‘Soph, you’ve placed this one in the incorrect category’, but no, this one is equivocal depending on who is reading and therefore has to go into the neutral category. Take it as you will.
Moving on - Sean and I experienced one that succeeded in containing elements of all 3 types of surprises. We were given 3 days to pack up our Booyoung apartment, in Chungju, in its entirety, in order to move to Uljin. Me, being the person I am – thought to myself, “Why spend 3 days moving stuff from one tiny room to the next when you can do all of it in a full day?”. Sean, being the person he is, agreed.
We decided to get our documents, slips and cancelations in order on Monday, collect what we needed from our schools on the Tuesday, (hopefully receive the boxes we had ordered on Gmarket – my weakness) and spend the whole of Wednesday packing everything we need into specific boxes and throwing what we didn’t need, away. As a result, come Thursday, we would put everything on the moving van and leave at our designated time. (I am certain that our friends living in Korea, reading this, are having a guffaw right now).
We were lucky enough to be told to take whatever inexpensive cutlery and crockery we would need for our next apartment, this being more of a blessing than we expected as we essentially moved into an empty shell. When Monday arrived, I finished off all my ‘goodbye present wrapping’ and took a walk to Lotte Mart to collect as many shrimp chip boxes as I could carry, as our box delivery was delayed due to the Lunar New Year being celebrated over the weekend. Now that we had boxes I could continue to look around at the inexpensive cutlery and crockery, to, how can I put it, mentally tag all the things I was going to shove into a box.
Tuesday came and we faffed about, to be perfectly candid, I don’t even know what we kept ourselves busy with, but we sure as hell looked damn busy, until finally, packing day dawned upon us. Having a ‘1-full-day-packing’ mindset, I hopped on the 777 bus to my old school to say my last goodbyes, while Sean went to check whether our boxes had arrived yet. Roughly 10 minutes in, I get a frantic phone call from Sean. “Uhm, honey…” he says, “are you at school yet?” “No my love, still on the bus.” I reply “Why?” “Well, the driver from the moving company just strolled into our house, he keeps jabbering on about something. I think he wants us to move out today!” “NO.” I say firmly, “Can’t happen”. Sean then ensures me that he will call his now ex-coteacher to find out what is going on and call me back, adding in that the boxes haven’t arrived yet and that I should try to call the delivery company.
I call the delivery guy and speak the little broken Korean that I know, coming to somewhat of an understanding that the boxes will be delivered at 2pm. Under the impression that all has been sorted out at home, I relax, go upstairs, hand out my gifts, have a coffee and a laugh and say goodbye. Before I can start packing up my desk I get another call. Surprise!!!! The driver forecasted rain for the Thursday morning we were planning to load the truck, so we needed to have everything packed and on the truck by 5pm that day. He told Sean that he would be back in 2 hours. Shit!!! Now what?
I cram the contents of my desk into my backpack and a plastic bag, run to my locker and grab my 2 pairs of inside slippers, jab them into the bag too and sneak into the admin office to collect my pay slips which weren’t ready. “I’ll be back at 4!” I yell as I ran down the corridor, hustling to call a taxi. Slowest taxi ride of my life. Typical.
I got back to the apartment at around 1:30, Surprise! Boxes arrived slightly early, yay! As I walk in I see Sean sitting wrapping coffee mugs in bubble wrap. I grabbed the nearest box and tape and started sweeping entire cupboard capacities into boxes. At 2:30 the driver arrived with his son to start loading the truck. We packed EVERYTHING. We became packing demons. Things that we needed, things we didn’t. EVERYTHING. Our whole apartment along with bicycles, camping gear and gym equipment, bar the big things like a bed, couch and cupboards, was packed and loaded by 4:00pm. I fetched my slips at 4:30 and by 5:00pm we were sitting in our empty home, eating the last of our food.
A complete combination of good, bad and in between, the Korean surprise can be a wondrous thing. Excluding the fact that we still have a load of crap with an absence of space to put it in, it must have been the best packing experience of my life.
If you have experienced a Korean surprise at some point in your life, please let us know in the comment section.
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