Put Another Star on the Calendar!

By the grace of God and the goodness of my brother Harry Jee, I accomplished another first today. I must readily admit that it was not as "Korean" as my first taste of kimchi a few weeks back, but on the other hand, it was just as dangerous, or even more so. Today, I drove for the first time -- and the drive was not just around campus, but along the winding country-side roads from Handong south to Pohang.

So, I borrowed David Mundy's Hyundai Accent (GM's and Ford's are a bit rare in these parts -- in any case, I had no interest in drawing attention to the car that this foreigner was driving), picked-up my new colleague, Dr. Harry Jee, and we were off. I introduced you to Harry several weeks back (read more). We are both new faculty here at Handong this semester, although he has a definitive advantage over me -- he's a native-born Korean and speaks his first language quite well even though he's been in the States for the past two decades. Evidently, speaking one's mother-tongue is much like riding a bike -- you never quite forget how to do it, and once you pick it up again, things just start rolling along.

So too with driving a car -- I hadn't been behind the wheel of any vehicle for over eight weeks. Even in my advanced state of age, I imagine it would take a little more than two months to rob me of sufficient recollections necessary to operate a car. I'm just thankful the Accent was an automatic and not a manual. Had I needed to clutch and shift, that would have presented a problem. I've never been very good at a standard transmission. Just ask my son, Justin.

The drive actually went quite smoothly. I only made one wrong turn on the way to the restaurant, and then, after a few trips around the blocks nearby, I finally spotted my landmark -- two golden pigs atop the gateway entrance to an apartment parking garage. Next door was the Chinese restaurant I was looking for. Harry was quite impressed that I had found the place. All along, he was thinking that he would have to find a place for us to lunch after I had finally given-up on my search.

We enjoyed a fine feast on sweet and sour pork (which I ate, mind you, with chop sticks, no less) and then, topped off our luncheon by sipping several cups jasmine tea. Now satisfied, we set off on our return trip to Handong's campus. Harry suggested that I take the new highway back, and I did not hesitate to heed his challenge. I was quite confident that this Eagle Scout could find his way anywhere even in Pohang, Korea.

Well . . . after making a couple of circles around the new district of the city where our restaurant was located, I decided to venture out on one particular road and began to see some landmarks that looked somewhat familiar. We were indeed on our way toward the new highway that led back toward the campus. We discovered, though, that the exit off the new highway that was suppose to connect to the road in front of Handong was not yet completed and thus, we were now on our way toward the Sea and the new port.

At the last intersection before entering the port authority, we made a right turn that turned out to be right as it led us back toward the winding road we had traveled on our way out to lunch. The trip out from campus had taken about 15 minutes. The trip back, took over 30, but we did make it back! The old saying still holds true: A boy scout is never lost, only a mite bewildered.