Barbara J. Hamby

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Pusan, South Korea

Pusan Building

Pusan Pier

Another day at sea passed quickly. On Tuesday morning, May 23rd, I attended a lecture on Global Immigration by the same University of Michigan professor I had heard two days before. Her statistics were impressive, but not memorable and I refuse to take notes these days. The various ways that global immigration impacts all of us prompted discussion that began to become contradictory and heated in some cases. I left before the end of the question period. Global immigration has existed longer than the oldest profession and far be it from me to suggest a way to control, change or limit it.

All night at sea the wind whistled (35 mph) and whitecaps topped the waves. We were rocked around a bit, but not seriously. I awoke several times, read a little, watched some TV, and napped intermittently.

We arrived in Pusan, South Korea, about 8:00 a.m. With all the “set the clock ahead, set the clock back”, we were confused about the time and were up earlier than necessary. Al was up about 4:00 I think, so he could watch everything that went on in the morning. I got up at what I thought was 7:00, but must have been 6:00 so we had a lot of time between breakfast and our 9:15 meeting time for our tour.

As we left the ship to board our tour bus, we were each given a colorful fan and a map of Pusan.

The first stop on our tour was at a high hill (they call a mountain) with a tower atop it. We elected not to pay extra to ride to the top of the tower, since our time there was quite limited. Instead, we took pictures and went inside a building. As soon as we stepped inside, a young Korean woman tried to talk us into turning left to a jewelry store. Instead, we turned right and went into a modern art gallery. I haven’t been in a modern art gallery in our country for some years, but this “art” brought back memories of Andy Warhol. Some of the pieces were more far out than his, even. We have pictures of a few exhibits.

Our tour guide told us that Pusan is the fifth ranking harbor in the world for the amount of shipping handled. Al was glued to our balcony during most of his spare time because the pier and all its activity were directly visible from there. Containers were stacked all over and many of them were being moved by trucks, forklifts and cranes. A huge ship berthed nearby was being loaded with containers.

Another piece of information our guide shared with us concerned family life in Korea. Parents are very anxious for their children to learn English so they can get better jobs. To that end, pregnant mothers play American pop music, theorizing that their unborn children will pick up some English. English speaking job applicants are more in demand by the leading employers such as Samsung and Hyundai.

Children in Korea begin “kindergarten” at age two and graduate to elementary school at age six. This allows more freedom for mothers to provide extra income for the family. To improve the quality of their children’s education, and especially their English, many mothers take their children to the U.K. or Australia or U.S. and some send them to private schools, if they can afford it.

The fathers remain in Korea, working to support the families. She painted a scenario where they go to work with no breakfast, grab a hurried lunch, and go home after work to an empty house. Some become depressed and commit suicide. She didn’t mention whether or not some of the fathers found other entertainment in the evenings, but my cynical mind wondered.

The overall unemployment rate in Korea is 4%, but the rate among college graduates is 9%. The cream of the crop among college grads, especially those with good English and/or other languages, is hired for the best positions. She told us that apartments can cost from $200,000. to $300,000. or more, and starting salaries at Hyundai for college graduates are around $20,000. Starting salaries at Samsung, the highest in the country, are $30,000.

The above information was shared with us while we were traveling between stops on our tour. After a stop at a hotel gift shop, we were taken to an auditorium for a “cultural” performance. We heard Korean music played on many instruments, most unlike any that are familiar to us. Several groups played different pieces, but all had the common thread of sadness, at least at the beginning of each piece. Our guide attributed the sad music to the difficulties of life in Korea.

After we returned to the ship, we left Pusan at 5:00 p.m. and noted that activity on the pier was “business as usual.” Only one man turned and waved to us as we pulled away, in severe contrast to our huge sendoff at Vladivostok.

After dinner Tuesday evening, I got through on AOL to discover an email from the young man who sat by us on the plane from Portland to San Francisco. He is in Vietnam and asked us to email him to tell him about our trip. That was the good news. Also, no news from our realtor, which is good news, since he would email only if a glitch occurred in the sale.

The bad news is an obituary sent by a friend, letting me know of the death of our mutual friend in Vancouver. She was a good poet and just my age. She lost her husband five years ago and has seemed somewhat lost since then. So she will be at peace.

We spent a quiet evening in our cabin and had a good night’s rest.