LITTLE CURRENT—Ship designer Seongwoo Kim of Mokpo-si South Korea worked two jobs a day after completing university and a two-year stint in the South Korean navy to save up enough money to come to North America and set out on a vision quest.
“I went looking for my dream,” said the 26-year-old during a stop at The Expositor office in Little Current en route to the Chi-Cheemaun ferry in South Baymouth. Mr. Kim was seeking a copy of the newspaper as part of his on-road educational experience. “I read at night to help with my English,” he explained. “I hope to learn to speak English well.”
Mr. Kim set out on his journey on March 5, flying into Vancouver for a 10-day visit to get his bearings before catching a regional flight to his jump-off point in Anchorage, Alaska. From there it was a very up and down hill ride, as he wound up crossing the Rocky Mountain ranges twice before hitting the prairie flatlands of Alberta, Saskatchewan and western Manitoba.
Learning English is a very challenging goal for someone used to Korean. “Everything is different, the words, the grammar, the vocabulary, everything,” he said.
But he set out with determination and a plan. “Every night I listen to the radio in my tent,” he said. “I talk to people every chance I get.”
Mr. Kim’s choice of transportation is quite challenging as well, his bicycle sports 16-inch wheels and a somewhat unconventional design. “I don’t want to do the same way like other people, I am crazy,” he laughs. But there is a practical side of the design for someone who is exploring a lot of different terrain. “It is good for the city, for putting in cars or taking the subway,” he explained. “It folds up.”
His home town of Mokpo-Si lies about four hours south of the South Korean capital of Seoul. But there was little to prepare him for the sheer vastness of Canada.
Mr. Kim was looking forward to visiting Niagara Falls before setting out for Quebec and Newfoundland.
Things are fairly smooth sailing right now, but setting out in the early spring proved very challenging. “It was very cold,” he said. But the real challenge was the lack of space on the sides of the road to set up a tent in the long stretches between cities. “I would go to the door on a house and knock to ask people if I could set up my tent on their property,” he said. Everyone said yes, but more often than not the homeowners would insist that he not camp out in the cold, inviting him into their homes when it was cold, providing a warm bed, a hot shower, laundry facilities and a meal before sending him off along his odyssey. “They helped me a lot,” he said of Canadian hospitality.
As for his dream, Mr. Kim said he remained confident that he would discover it along his journey.
