This was originally posted as part of 30 Days of Biking, a group dedicated to riding their bikes “every, friggin’, day.” Since it was a few months ago now, and I promised to cross post it here, I decided it was time for this post to be cemented in the memory of Schoolhouse ROK readers everywhere. It’s worth noting that about a month following this post, the air pollution and heavy traffic got to be a little exhausting and I stuck to riding to school and back only. With that caveat, I stand by my words that Korea is a great place to explore by bike.
I had that dream again, the one where Lance Armstrong visits my little city in the Seoul suburbs as part of a new tour for LIVESTRONG, and for some reason, the powers that be put me in charge of giving him the bike tour of the city. It’s a strange dream for a few reasons, chiefly among them being that I’m not Korean but in fact a temporary resident of this town, here to teach English for the year and then be on my way. It starts at my tiny office-tel apartment wheeling my Surly out of the oversized walk-in closet of a living space I call home.
“We’ll go out on the main road right in front of the apartment here, take a left and head toward Lake Park, then loop around Daehwa-dong, and follow the Gyeonggui railroad line around the north end of town,” I tell Lance on the elevator ride down, “it’s one of my favorite rides.” Lance, of course, does not need to cram his bike into the elevator because his bike is waiting with some team hands from his crew. We strap on the helmets, and then head out.
Someone who has won the Tour de France as many times as Lance might not find this route incredibly thrilling, but the options are limited in this city, and this really is one of my favorite rides around the Ilsan district of Goyang, and it probably is the one I would take Lance on if I were so fortunate. The trickiest part of the whole loop is fending off the traffic.
In Korea, especially in the bigger cities, traffic can be a bit intimidating. Drivers on the mean streets of Ilsan are erratic at best and inattentive at their worst. Because biking is so popular here and traffic laws are a bit looser, drivers are used to sharing the road with smaller, slow-moving, non-motorized vehicles, which sometimes makes biking on the streets easy. The problems then, tend to be more with regard to people parking on corners, stopping in the middle of intersections, and being impatient at stoplights. It could be worse, but it’s the best option available.
Goyang prides itself on being a city of fitness. The tagline “Let’s Goyang” is plastered all over the city, and there are wide sidewalks and bike lanes along most major roads. A network of parks, parkways, and pedestrian zones make this town surprisingly easy to navigate on foot or by bike, despite its lack of street names or real addresses—as long as you have a good mental map. Most of the parkways stem from one central point, Lake Park. Here, a 5km bike/jogging loop winds its way around the largest artificial body of water in the peninsula. It’s a fine ride around the lake, and generally the earlier you can get out the better, particularly on the weekends. Since it is the only real place for sustained, outdoor recreation in Ilsan, it gets a bit crowded.
The off-street bike lanes in Korea suffer from the same problems that off-street lanes elsewhere face. They are rarely separate from the walker-only sidewalks, and if they are, it is even less likely to see a physical barrier between the two or see those barriers respected by cars, busses, and delivery scooters. Usually a white stripe painted down the center of the sidewalk, or a strip of the same stone the curbs are made from, marks the lanes. If the sidewalk narrows, the bike lane is the first to go, and regardless of how clearly marked the bike lane is, pedestrians will meander on over to the smoother, less crowded pavement on your side. The other problem with riding on the sidewalk is that sidewalks have curbs, and curbs hurt when you take them at 30kph (18mph) (if you can ever get going that fast on the sidewalk). These are curbs are not your run-of-the-mill, rounded-concrete corners, these are a little under a foot tall, mini-walls of granite meant to deter cars; just imagine what it would do to a road bike tire.
Riding on the streets may be dangerous, but it is definitely my preferred method. The ride I dream of taking Lance on is one of the longer rides I’ve managed to map out around Ilsan, and it was supposed to be longer, but to my surprise, half of the road on the far end of the trip was under construction. The only thing harder than biking around cars is biking around construction sites. This may be a universal truth, but in Korea, where as little of the road is closed as possible, it’s particularly prudent to wear a helmet, ride defensively, and react quickly to the unexpected.
My ultimate goal is to figure out how to get to Seoul from Goyang on my bike, but for the month of April, I’m determined to map a new route each day. Who knows, maybe Lance will show up some day.
I recently began participating in a great online group called 30 Days of Biking. The goal, to ride your bike every day during the month of April. So far I’ve only missed one day, and it was because I was at a wedding in Incheon all day and had no time to get out on the bike. Sad, I know. I’ve been doing well so far though, and contacted the folks running the blog to see about being a guest writer and they were thrilled. This morning, Seoul time, my piece was published. I talk about my recurring dream of showing Lance Armstrong around Ilsan, and try to give readers some idea of what it’s like to be on the road out here.
In Korea, especially in the bigger cities, traffic can be a bit intimidating. Drivers on the mean streets of Ilsan are erratic at best and inattentive at their worst. Because biking is so popular here and traffic laws are a bit looser, drivers are used to sharing the road with smaller, slow-moving, non-motorized vehicles, which sometimes makes biking on the streets easy. The problems then, tend to be more with regard to people parking on corners, stopping in the middle of intersections, and being impatient at stoplights. It could be worse, but it’s the best option available.
You can read the whole thing on the 30 Days of Biking website. The group has gotten quite a bit of media attention, and they are welcoming riders from around the world. They are tracking miles on DailyMile, and keeping up a healthy conversation on Twitter. I’ll be writing more about biking in Ilsan for this blog soon.
After a week spent in the crunchy snow and shiver-inducing temperatures of the Midwest, my winter boots got plenty of use. When it came to packing them for my trip back to Goyang, South Korea, I nearly left them behind, thinking of the snowless streets I had left behind only days earlier. Over-packer that I am, I jammed them in my suitcase just to be safe, and by Monday, I was glad to have them. Christmas day brought a light dusting of snow, leaving about 2 inches of packed powder to derail my rolling suitcase on the sidewalks, but little more than that. As I woke up, jet-lagged and groggy, on Monday, I looked out the window and thought, “Is it snowing?” And snowing it was. A lot. And the flakes didn’t just make an appearance in the morning, but consistently fell in a white flurry all throughout the day. More
All the students at school would like to wish you a Very Merry…Thanksgiving! I admit I’m a bit late with this sentiment, as that day of family feasting is likely fading in some people’s memories as Christmas approaches, but the kids are as cute as they were a month ago, so don’t be deterred.
Of course they needed a little prompting to shout, “Happy Thanksgiving,” for the waiting camera, but you may be surprised by just how much they understand about the holiday and its history. The video may not show it, but my first grade students can even rattle off the name William Bradford and spout off a fact or two on the Wampanoag Indian tribe. I suspect that is more than I could say at their age.
Do you ever wake up in the morning, pour some milk into a bowl of cereal, and think, “Hmm, I wonder what on Earth children in South Korea eat for breakfast?” Find the responses to this query and plenty of other questions about the daily life of a student in South Korea in this video created by fellow teacher Seth Mattern.
Seth is a certified educator in the United States, and after the logistics of international pen-pal projects and video exchanges proved too messy, he created this website with another teacher in Colorado as a convenient forum for cultural exchange between students the world over.
In addition to this, which I imagine is only the first of many videos to be posted in the future, poke around the website to read some essays by both Korean and American students, and responding comments. If you’re an educator anywhere in the world, and are interested in participating in the site, just send an e-mail and I would be thrilled to put you in touch with the appropriate people. Even if you’re not an educator, I know the kids would love to read any comments and answer any questions you may have.
These students are in fourth and fifth grade and recorded this around 8:00 at night, since they stay at our school until 9. You’ll find that later nights and longer hours spent in schools of all varieties are not the only differences between Korean and North American students. And as for breakfast in Korea, I’ll let the kids speak for themselves, but I suspect many will be surprised by their answers. Enjoy!
The trash piles on the ground floors of apartment buildings in Korea are veritable gold mines for the visiting foreigner looking to furnish a studio-size room. Everything from kitchen supplies to living room furniture, can be easily found lying on the ground left by the latest resident to move out, into fresh digs. The Urban Crowd Effect is the force that compels people to ditch some of their larger belongings and buy (or find) new furniture to replace that which could not survive the trip. It pays dividends for foreign Hogwon teachers still awaiting their first paycheck but hoping to decorate the apartment a bit to make it feel, you know, a little like a home instead of a few blank walls, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. While the couch we found this week may be a couch from the trash, it is still a couch. The cushions covers are washable, and the rest of it can be vacuumed; it’s also not too shabby for found furniture. More
The trash piles on the ground floors of apartment buildings in Korea are veritable gold mines for the visiting foreigner looking to furnish a studio-size room. Everything from kitchen supplies to living room furniture, can be easily found lying on the ground left by the latest resident to move out, into fresh digs. The Urban Crowd Effect is the force that compels people to ditch some of their larger belongings and buy (or find) new furniture to replace that which could not survive the trip. It pays dividends for foreign Hogwon teachers still awaiting their first paycheck but hoping to decorate the apartment a bit to make it feel, you know, a little like a home instead of a few blank walls, a tiny kitchen and a bathroom. While the couch we found this week may be a couch from the trash, it is still a couch. The cushions covers are washable, and the rest of it can be vacuumed; it’s also not too shabby for found furniture. More
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