Then and Now

I've been making mental notes over the past few weeks of things that have changed since I first arrived in Korea nearly 10 years ago, but I'd been wondering if some of them were actually differences between 1997 and 2007 rather than differences between small-city Mokpo and megalopolis Seoul. Well, I visited Mokpo last weekend, so now I can report on a few.

THEN: I learned quickly that "coffee" on a cafe' or restaurant menu actually meant "warm, brown, mildly caffeinated liquid." The upside was that I started to order tea instead, which is how I discovered maeshil cha, a sweet plum tea, and yooja cha, a tea made from candied citrus rinds - both delicious and, as far as I know, uniquely Korean.
NOW: Good coffee is widely available. There seems to be a Starbucks on every corner here in Seoul, and a couple of new Korean coffee shop chains also offer up good strong cups o' jo. Even independently-owned cafe's in Mokpo now have espresso machines that produce the read deal. Honestly, I'm surprised the coffee craze didn't hit Korea sooner; it seems like green tea wouldn't give people here quite the kick they need to make it through their frenetic days. Koreans never cease to amaze me by how much they work and study and how little they sleep.

THEN: public restrooms were often, well, less than pleasant, and toilet paper was almost never available.
NOW: Most of the public bathrooms I've used have been pretty clean, and only once have I been saved by my old habit of carrying a packet of tissues with me wherever I go.

THEN: the trip from Mokpo to Seoul took five hours.
NOW: Korea has a new bullet train system. Mokpo-to-Seoul, KTX time: 3 hours, 15 minutes! There's even a coffee cart on the train, so you can sip a cup as you watch the scenery whiz by at nearly 200 miles an hour. It doesn't actually feel like you're going that fast, but that's the speed Lonely Planet reports.

Fortunately, many of the things I love about Korea haven't changed: the people are just as friendly, the food is just as good, and my teaching here is just as rewarding as it was the first time around.

NOW: I have 40 article summaries and 65 quizzes to grade, so I'd better get to work.