Evening in Suwon – The Beauty of Going Slow to Go Fast

 This working while traveling thing is quite the interesting concept.  I’m almost envious of people who travel for work.  It sure does slow down my normal crazy pace – and gives me time to take more in.  And when it is on Chris' work’s dime … it doesn’t get any better than that, does it?  I’m sure it is a “grass is greener” thing and it really isn’t all it is cracked up to be.

 “Going slow to go fast” was reverberating in my head yesterday.  My boss actually just applied the term to our work last week.  It isn't a new concept for me; for two years I’ve been trying to slow down my marathon training.  My boys just shake their head at me.  It is not in my blood to go slow in anything I do.  Maybe this trip is helping me get there.  (But then again, probably not.)

 

Positioned as the world’s 11^th largest economy, this tiny country the size of Indiana has achieved remarkable transformation and success in recent decades.  There’s no way they coined the phrase Go Slow to Go Fast.  Hastiness here is actually a “syndrome” – Korean’s most widely known characteristic is “Bbali bbali”, which means “hurry, hurry”.  I can relate to that!

 

I’m trying to understand the work concept here in Korea.  From what I read, it is apparently “the law” to work 9am-6pm.  But that might be in response more to create an 8-hour shift to stop the culture of overworking employees.  Here you model after your boss, so if he works long hours, then so do you.  It’s teamwork and the Korean way.  Chris was provided with three daily meal tickets to cover his breakfast, lunch, and dinner from Samsung’s cafe.  As the norm here, it clearly doesn’t phase them.  They’re obviously used to it, as evidenced by their cure for Chris’ "early" 6am wake-up time.  “Oh, you need to drink more beer!”   (I wonder what they'd recommend for my 4am start?)

 

Another concept I’m struggling with is the commute.  Chris has to go a whopping 12km to work.  But it took his taxi about 45 minutes to go that ~7 miles.  The alternative is the free shuttle bus Samsung runs…which takes even longer and wouldn’t get him to the hotel/train station until 7:30pm.  Working such a late shift plus the long commute definitely put a kink in our sightseeing plans, forcing us to combine our daily workout + sightseeing + dinner.  We didn’t let the heat, or all the people, or the long stop lights (no jaywalking here), or the uneven sidewalks stop us from our training plan.  We literally ran back to my new obsession - Hwaseong Fortress - and the area we missed yesterday.  I don’t think I could ever get sick of seeing it.

Simply breathtaking!

Reflections in Yongyeon Pond

I'm in love with Hwaseong Fortress!

Banghwasuryujeong Pavilion stands tall over Yongyeon Pond

For dinner we tried a place near the fortress walls that was recommended to Chris by one of the guys at Samsung.  Compared to the price of Korean food in the US, ₩47,000 or $34 is a steal for all this food!