Stranger in a Strange Land

Peace Corps Korea Memories

Stranger in a Strange Land Peace Corps Memories

568 words

         In 1979, I first went to Korea as a Peace Corps Volunteer and worked for two years in a rural healthcare center as a TB control worker in Gapyeon, a mountain area two hours east of Seoul. In those days, it was considered deep countryside. Nowadays, it is a distant exurban suburb of Seoul and a popular weekend getaway destination. But back then, there were only a few foreign residents and a few English-speaking locals. I had to learn Korean to survive, beginning a lifelong struggle to master this difficult language—a struggle I continue almost 45 years later.

         After a long plane ride, my first international flight, we spent the night in Japan—my first time outside the United States. The next day, we flew on to Korea.

         We arrived at the old Gimpo Airport, which was then considered the edge of Seoul but is now almost downtown. it was filled with armed military policemen as Gimpo was less than ten miles from the DMZ border with North Korea and was considered a military sensitive zone. It still is but has a lot less security these days. I now live near the old airport, about five miles from the DMZ..

          After a chaotic, crazy drive through Seoul, we arrived in the town of Chuncheon, where we completed our four-month training course. Chuncheon was known as the Lake City, as it lay between two lakes, and was a pretty town. It had a U.S. Army base, which became one of my hangouts—I went there every other weekend for American food and American toilets! For six months after the Peace Corps ended, I lived nearby and went to the base almost every day to study in the library. I took practice GRE exams, practiced for the Foreign Service exams, studied Korean, and prepared my graduate school applications. I was preparing to go to graduate school in the U.S. and eventually join the Foreign Service.

         This was my first visit to another land—my first foreign travel to a strange place. I borrowed books from the library every other weekend and first read Stranger in a Strange Land. I felt as though I were living the story, as Korea was a strange place to me. It was filled with exotic people, strange sounds and sights, and the smells of Korean food everywhere in the air. Ah, the food! at first I had a hard time eating Korean food three times a day. I often dreamt of waking up to eat an American breakfast, which I enjoyed every other week at Camp Page's officers club breakfast buffet. One morning I woke craving Kimchi, rice, fish and soup and knew that I had finally adjusted!

         Over time, it became my second home. I met my wife about a year after finishing the Peace Corps, and we stayed in Korea for a few years, teaching ESL and later returning to work as consular visa officers.

         Now, almost 45 years later, I have returned to Korea, living next door to Gimpo Airport, where my journey began.

On April 10, 1925, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby was published. The story's protagonist is a Midwesterner who ultimately fails to integrate into the glitzy and debauched world of 1920s "flapper" culture on the affluent East Coast of the U.S. The novel contains many autobiographical touches, as the author faced similar difficulties.

Though the book initially suffered from lackluster sales, its popularity surged when it was circulated free of charge to American soldiers during
World War II. It subsequently became an influential staple in American high school curricula.
For tomorrow, write a poem or story set in circumstances where the protagonist finds themselves out of place in a culturally unfamiliar setting. How does being out of place present an obstacle to achieving their goal, and how is that obstacle ultimately overcome—or not?