Musical Cars
Or maybe the Korean Car Shuffle would be a better name.
One interesting aspect of Korean culture is the desire to help other people...or possibly to get in other people's business. If you ever see someone having difficulty, you usually see several people around offering advice or giving directions. This comes in quite handy as a foreigner. :)
I went to Chinhae this weekend to visit my friend Amy. She lives at the top of a hill on an alley. The alley is wide enough for two-way traffic, and hits another alley behind her building, so there are two ways out. Unfortuantely there is also a school at the top of that hill, and it just so happened that the school had a homecoming this weekend. There were cars parked all the way up the hill on both sides of the alley, leaving a lane for one-way traffic if you folded your mirrors in. The alley at the top of the hill was completely blocked in by parked cars and rendered useless.
Our adventure started at 1240 when we attempted to leave for a salon appointment at 1:00. We go out to find Amy's car blocked in. Fortunately, all cars put their phone numbers on the windshields because parking often requires periodic shuffling, but Amy and I don't speak Korean well. We called, but the nice gentleman just hung up on us. Luckily several Korean men were standing around outside, and noticed our plight, so they started calling the gentleman as well. One even attempted to maneuver the car out of its spot for us, but the guy came and moved his car after about 15 minutes of blowing his phone up. Unfortunately, because of the tight parking situation, he couldn't move his car far, so the same guy had to get Amy's car out. It was WAY to tight for us.
So, twenty minutes later we finally have the car out, and we're ready to head down the road....except there is a taxi parked in it. He is waiting for us to move so he can go out the alley at the top...but he can't because it is completely blocked in, and he can't turn around because there is not any space. His only option is to back all the way down the hill. And he doesn't want to. So the guy driving Amy's car get's out and goes to talk to the taxi driver. Several other folks go to talk to him as well, after about another five minutes of arguing, the guy starts backing down the hill. But he CAN'T DRIVE! I've never met a Korean taxi driver that couldn't maneuver in an alley, but I guess I shouldn't judge. Amy tried to drive forward down that hill and nearly took the mirrors out within twenty feet...doing it backwards must have been awful. The nice man who got the car out of the parking spot came running back and motioned Amy he would drive us. So he jumps back in our car, and a couple of other guys go down to give the taxi hand signals to help him down the road. This took about another 15 minutes.
Forty minutes after walking out of the house we were at the bottom of the hill, 100 yards from where we started. We had been helped by no less that five Korean men, all complete strangers. And of course one of whom drove our car for us without us even asking! The whole situation was completely comical, and would have been funnier if we hadn't been late for an appointment. And the people could not have been nicer. Yes, we were all a bit grumpy in the process, but we were all talking with gestures and our limited Korean/English. Mainly, we couldn't stop laughing at the strangeness of the situation.
One interesting aspect of Korean culture is the desire to help other people...or possibly to get in other people's business. If you ever see someone having difficulty, you usually see several people around offering advice or giving directions. This comes in quite handy as a foreigner. :)
I went to Chinhae this weekend to visit my friend Amy. She lives at the top of a hill on an alley. The alley is wide enough for two-way traffic, and hits another alley behind her building, so there are two ways out. Unfortuantely there is also a school at the top of that hill, and it just so happened that the school had a homecoming this weekend. There were cars parked all the way up the hill on both sides of the alley, leaving a lane for one-way traffic if you folded your mirrors in. The alley at the top of the hill was completely blocked in by parked cars and rendered useless.
Our adventure started at 1240 when we attempted to leave for a salon appointment at 1:00. We go out to find Amy's car blocked in. Fortunately, all cars put their phone numbers on the windshields because parking often requires periodic shuffling, but Amy and I don't speak Korean well. We called, but the nice gentleman just hung up on us. Luckily several Korean men were standing around outside, and noticed our plight, so they started calling the gentleman as well. One even attempted to maneuver the car out of its spot for us, but the guy came and moved his car after about 15 minutes of blowing his phone up. Unfortunately, because of the tight parking situation, he couldn't move his car far, so the same guy had to get Amy's car out. It was WAY to tight for us.
So, twenty minutes later we finally have the car out, and we're ready to head down the road....except there is a taxi parked in it. He is waiting for us to move so he can go out the alley at the top...but he can't because it is completely blocked in, and he can't turn around because there is not any space. His only option is to back all the way down the hill. And he doesn't want to. So the guy driving Amy's car get's out and goes to talk to the taxi driver. Several other folks go to talk to him as well, after about another five minutes of arguing, the guy starts backing down the hill. But he CAN'T DRIVE! I've never met a Korean taxi driver that couldn't maneuver in an alley, but I guess I shouldn't judge. Amy tried to drive forward down that hill and nearly took the mirrors out within twenty feet...doing it backwards must have been awful. The nice man who got the car out of the parking spot came running back and motioned Amy he would drive us. So he jumps back in our car, and a couple of other guys go down to give the taxi hand signals to help him down the road. This took about another 15 minutes.
Forty minutes after walking out of the house we were at the bottom of the hill, 100 yards from where we started. We had been helped by no less that five Korean men, all complete strangers. And of course one of whom drove our car for us without us even asking! The whole situation was completely comical, and would have been funnier if we hadn't been late for an appointment. And the people could not have been nicer. Yes, we were all a bit grumpy in the process, but we were all talking with gestures and our limited Korean/English. Mainly, we couldn't stop laughing at the strangeness of the situation.
posted by Claire | 8:15 PM
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