Election Day

Today is election day in Korea and I couldn't be more excited. Finally, all of the election campaign trucks will be silenced.


Lately, I haven’t been sleeping very well. I could blame it on the afternoon coffee or the diet coke that I had at dinner or even leaving my heating system on by accident and the apartment becoming much too hot causing me to drag myself out of bed towards the fridge looking for water like a man in the Sahara for 30 years. But even with all of those things, I could have slept on had it not been for the Korean election trucks.

It all started about 3 weeks ago when I heard pop-music blasting from outside my window. Nothing new, restaurants opening and cars driving by with over-the-top sound systems have been a regular occurrence around here. But, when I looked out my window, much to my surprise, I saw a huge truck with one side completely covered with a flat screen television and a giant megaphone perched on the top.

That’s it. I thought. Get out the Canadian Consulate’s evacuation plan. Kim Jeong-Il has finally invaded.

After listening to the truck for a little while longer and squinting down at the screen that covered the entire side of the truck, I finally saw a date flash up – 12.19 – then in sunk in, the Korean election. It was an election truck trying to gather up votes.

The candidate promotion has continued every day, at all times of day until this very morning. On week days, I awake to blaring pop music as one truck sits across the street. On the weekends, I wake up to what sounds like two televisions at full volume sitting on either side of my apartment playing the Super Bowl half-time show. Thinking that I’m having a horrible dream, I roll out of bed looking for a remote to turn the noise off but instead am faced with election trucks on either side of the street with dancing supporters dressed in matching jackets.

While I give Candidates 1-12 (too many names for the populace to remember, so they use numbers) credit for interesting methods for drumming up support, I thank the powers that be that it’s all over today and I never ever have to listen to those damn trucks again.

That's my building in the background. I'm on the fifth floor yet I can hear every word from the truck as clearly as if I were standing next to it.

*Photo Credits: Kelly took these wonderful photos and I infringed on copyright and stole them after I accidentally deleted my own.