Annyeonghaseyo Korea

I can’t help feeling like a five year old in a candy store as I write this and as trite as that analogy is, it is but true.

Korea has been nothing short of breath-taking, so much so that I couldn’t help mouth a ‘wow’ as I made my way into the high speed train that operates within the airport that took me from the departure gates to immigration where traditionally dressed ushers (I take the liberty of calling them ushers as their job was to usher us bedazzled visitors to the immigration counters) greeted us with a smile as radiant as the smiles that were worn by the remarkably sweet Korean folk in the advertisements that were constantly playing on the innumerable flat screens installed on every wall of the airport.

Incheon International Airport has been voted as the world’s best and this we realized as do many of the millions of its visitors who do their best to absorb in awe, the many ways it has depicted Korea’s characteristic and simplistic elegance with its love for surging ahead in technology.

It’s been nearly two weeks that we’ve come here and we’ve taken to love the city we’re living in- namely Daejeon.

It’s a quiet city with lovely people and is Korea’s research nerve centre with a huge number of universities and research establishments within its bounds.

To describe how this city represents the truly indomitable Korean spirit would take more than just one blog post but I’ll try to as much justice to it as I can here.

Daejeon is systematic in the most infallible literal translation of the word.

And Korea’s insatiable desire to create a perfect blend of its illustrious past with its promising future is evident everywhere.

From the smart phone savvy shop keepers and restaurant workers who say – ‘hwangyong-hamnida’ as you enter their establishments to the taxi drivers who smile broadly as they ask you for the address of your destination so that they can enter it into their GPS systems, this wonderful fugue of tradition and modern day technology really makes you wonder how ideologically superior these people are in comparison to the rest of the world.

Never have I had cars stopping to let me cross a street and I surely haven’t ever come across an iPad wielding youngster help an aged cleaner carry a trash can out of the elevator.

It really is exquisite.

The institute I’m working at also exemplifies this beautifully- students bow gently when a professor or any familiar elder walks past and these are the same students who are studying and developing cutting edge technology in an environment that is unbelievably conducive to scientific thinking and rationale.

Research at KAIST is serious business and the millions of dollars the government is pumping in into every project that every department undertakes is most certainly paying dividends and why shouldn’t it?

Diligence and sincerity always do.

And it isn’t limited to just research mind you.

The immaculately dressed security guards salute as the campus shuttle bus enters the premises and the cashiers in the cafeteria never take more than a few seconds to complete a transaction.

KAIST takes the word efficiency very very seriously and I have reason to believe that so does the rest of this wonderful nation.

This is just the beginning of your ‘Korean Adventure’ as the very hospitable Professor who is guiding me likes to phrase it.

I am yet to undergo the neck craning exercises required to see the high rises of Seoul and I still have to visit the enchanting beaches of Busan.

Blog posts there will be many, but I have fairly understood what this country tries to put across to each of its visitors.

‘This is our home and we’ll do what we can to help you feel like it’s yours’.

PS- Food has been a problem, yes but I’ve been brave enough to try most of what has been offered to me and I consider it all part of a thrilling life experience of sorts.