Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

This week in Ulsan is the International Archery Championship since we have a lot of time on our hands, and when else are you going to get the chance to see an archery tournament, we decided to check it out. Jacob passed on the morning trip so it was just me, Zanelle and Janelie (our SAfrican friends and co-workers). We left the apartment complex at about 930 so we’d have a bit of time to watch the tournament before heading back in for work.

I had looked up the buses that would be able to take us to the event using trusty old google maps. Google maps seemed to work fine, it just was trumped by Korean logic. Now for some reason, in Ulsan they have two stadiums named the same thing, Munsu Cup Stadium. I of course looked up the buses for the wrong one.

 We hopped on a bus this morning and asked the bus driver if he was going to Munsu, he said no, but then headed in the right direction anyway. So we stayed on the bus, figuring that worse case scenario we get off after he strays from teh course and we get a cab or another bus. We drove along for probably about 15-20 minutes when all of a sudden while stopped at an intersection the bus driver starts yelling for us to get off the bus. He has opened the door in the middle of traffic and wants us to get on the bus stopped next to us.

This is somewhat of a common problem living in Korea. Since you can’t speak the language when someone else decides they no best you can’t argue and end up just cooperating. Similar to the time I bought 15 bananas when only wanting 5. So now the three of us are on a new bus, much to the amusement of everyone else on the bus.

We eventually arrive at the Munsu stadium, but there is no archery tournament insight. We, wrongly, assumed that since it was a major international tournament there would be at least one sign pointing us in the right direction. This is when we see the balloons and flags for the tournament, about 5 km away.

We eventually found the shuttle to the tournament but it wasn’t leaving for another 20 minutes. Since we had already been traveling for about an hour and a half we didn’t really want to wait any longer. A taxi drove by a couple minutes later and we flagged it down only to have the other Koreans wave it away because they didn’t think we should take a taxi, just wait for the shuttle.

Then the day took a turn for the better. While sometimes being a foreigner has a lot of disadvantages, ie being stared at, being assumed you are an idiot, and always being told what to do in a series of wild hand gestures, sometimes it works to your advantage. This very important looking man pulled up in his car and offered to drive us to the archery stadium. We hopped in and after passing the place 3 times we eventually took the right turn and made it in.

We wandered around the stadium for a little while, found the Canadian team, got a complimentary paper visor (just in case you had forgotten yours at home) and were making our way over to the SAfrican team when we were flagged down by an important looking official and waved into the VIP area. We still have no idea why this happened, I only assume its because I’m a foreigner. We ended up sharing our area with the mayor of Ulsan and his minions much to the chagrin of the other Koreans. The mayor even shared his rice cakes with us.

Most of the day can be chocked up to Korean logic and realizing that there is never a dull moment in Korea, but it was so far one of the highlights of my time here.

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