Another day another city...

September 29, 2010

I arrived in Gyeongju just before sunset and paid for a 2300w (~$2.25) cab ride to my lodging. This time I’m staying in a traditional Korean home (hanok). It has a bit of a camp atmosphere. I’ll take pictures tomorrow when it’s light and post them. Gyeongju is just a bit north of Busan so when I fly out Saturday I can take a bus from here to the airport. This small city is known for its Buddhist shrines, temples, etc. as well as hiking. I slept most of the bus ride, but when I opened my eyes I always saw lush green trees spreading across the mountain landscape. The road was flat because the gov’t just blasted lots of tunnels through the mountains. Only the cities seem to be in the plains, the rest is all mountains.

Before leaving Seoul I wanted to get a peek at the secret garden of Changdeokgung (a palace I saw last week) that I missed because of the rain last week. It turned out you can only go through it on a tour and the English tour wasn’t for awhile I wanted to hit the road. So I was a poser and joined the Korean tour. Thankfully there was an Australian couple in the same predicament so I didn’t have to be a mute for the length of the tour. Which the length of the tour was a bit excessive – 2 hours! I had no idea when we started out. Maybe if I knew what the guide was saying 2 hours wouldn’t have seemed so unreasonably long. The secret garden makes up 60% of the palace grounds, but calling it a garden is a misnomer. It should be called the secret forest. It is not really landscaped and the flora is all trees – even an 800 year old one! The buildings were nice to see, but not too different from what I’ve already seen. The weather has also changed dramatically and there is a fall chill in the air (I wasn’t dressed quite right for it). I didn’t bring a jacket with me, but I think I’ll be out of Korea and to hot Singapore before I can’t get by without one.

Oh, I just had to include a picture of the soap in a Seoul metro bathroom. The public bathrooms are nice and clean here, but I got a kick out of this soap. The other public ones usually had liquid soap.

I just saw in the news that North and South Korea are going to meet at Panmunjon on Thursday. I'm lucky that wasn't the day I wanted to visit, but also cool to think I know where they will be meeting. I wonder if the SK soldiers will still wear their sunglasses so that the NK cannot see their expressions or reactions...

I’m off to scavenge some food and then go to sleep early.

As I was working on the post the owner of the hostel hanok came and showed me a well they use that's inside the house now. It's used for showering, but not cooking or drinking. He also said the house is 120 years old! Tonight as I lay in bed I'll have to imagine what other people have paced that floor and all the history that those people saw. He also asked if I was married and when I said no he got me a dried pod from a bush and inside are 3 tiny brown seeds. Each seed has a beige heart on it. He said it's called the proposal seed and that I should plant it when I get home. I'll add these tokens to my luggage - at least they are lightweight and small!

Are you shocked at how short my blog is?!

International Incident?

September 28, 2010

I escaped the North Koreans! How auspicious that I visited the day that Kim Jong-un was appointed general. Heading to the DMZ was an interesting experience. The highlight was seeing a North Korean soldier eyeing us through his binoculars!

I did the tour with the USO and we first hit the Third Tunnel. There are four tunnels that SK has uncovered and more are expected. A NK tunnel surveyor defected to SK in the 1970s and informed SK that the tunnels existed. Once a tunnel was discovered the SK pumped water into it and left it in one for 3 years. In some areas the water never filled the tunnel. One tunnel had some water shoot out because the NK had dynamited in the tunnel. The North Koreans have denied they built the tunnels instead saying SK built it to invade the North. They also painted some of the granite black to claim it was a coal mine. So sneaky! We had to wear hard hats in the tunnel and it was one of those fortunate times that I’m so short. There was a rhapsody of hard hat pings as people would hit the ceiling.

There was a sculpture symbolizing the hope of reunification and I feel like in the US we always hear (or at least think) that all Koreans want reunification. I spoke with our young guide thought and she said it’s a generational thing. That those who are separated from family or lived through the Korean War want reunification, but NK is an intangible imaginary country in the minds of the younger generation because they cannot visit it and there is no transparency. She said for the younger people the thought of unification mostly brings anxiety as they just focus on how hard the transition will be. For them SK is so prosperous and the reunification is a threat to that. This point of view makes sense, but I had been under the impression that Koreans looked forward to reunification. The US sure does, but we don’t have anything to lose really.

We headed to the northern most railroad station in SK and it is eerily new and clean, but empty. Trains from the south can stop at the station, but there are no trains north. This and other buildings are just standing at the ready for unification.

The DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) is 2 kilometers wide on either side of the Line of Demarcation. A positive indirect effect of the DMZ is that wildlife has flourished here and there is hope that the area will be protected even after reunification. We went to the Joint Security Area overseen by the UN (using SK and US troops) and stared down the North Koreans – well one. I’m sure there were many eyes on us, but only one guard was outside. He walked along a bit to get different views of us. We were allowed to take as many pictures as we wanted of the north side and the SK & US troops right at the line, but we could not take many of the JSA area. We also went into a smaller building where the two sides sometimes meet. The audio recorders on the table are actually on the demarcation line! So once I walked to the other side of the table I was in North Korea!!! We were told we could take pictures with the SK soldier, but not to touch him – so you can see I was a bit anxious. :)

I had a slight insight into being in the military as we were ordered how to form lines, told regulations and spoken to in rapid monotone language. I was very surprised thought that we never had to go through security screening. There was just one part where we couldn’t bring our bags with us. This seemed a bit insecure and made me nervous that it would be easy to wreck havoc there.

The bridge is called the Bridge of No Return because it was last used to exchange POWs after the Korean War. I’ve included a picture of the NK flag which they made to “beat” the size of the SK flag. It weighs 600 pounds!

So I might not have set off an international incident, but I did have a moment of fame in Seoul. Last night I was interviewed by an American (actually went to a rival school of where I taught) who is a radio DJ. He interviewed me about a rivalry I’ve felt. I took me awhile to decide, but I talked about my sister and our heated card games and such. It played while I was on the tour today, but he’s supposed to send me a copy.

I’ve also included for the foodies out there another picture of street food I bought. It’s a fish flavored fried doughy thing (sorry I can’t give a better description). It was pretty good and shockingly there was no chili sauce!

Off to Gyeongju tomorrow...

Food, Art, History (and no drama!)

September 27, 2010

I’ve had a few nice days exploring Seoul and hanging out with people from the hostel. I have put many miles on my feet. Hopefully, that will counter the 3 desserts I had before dinner last night - more on that later. :)

I explored a neighborhood near the two main palaces that has some of the traditional homes (hanoks). The government is subsidizing to help revitalize the area and many of the shops and classes there revolve around traditional customs and arts. These homes were for the top officials of the dynasty who needed to be close to the palace. The homes are surrounded by a high wall and then open to a courtyard. As you can see the style has many similarities to the palaces. I also tried a street vendor’s snack of something doughy with chili sauce. That’s the picture of the food in the cup. The tubular part doesn’t have much of a flavor, but is chewy. There were also flat pieces with a fish taste.

That night I went to a BBQ restaurant with a group from the hostel. Switzerland, USA, Canada and Australia were represented at the table. We had good laughs and I tried the Korean liquor, ???. You can see how scissors are used to cut the meat. You won’t find knifes on the table at Korean style restaurants because they are seen as hostile. We then hit a club that featured buckets of alcohol mixed together and one straw per bucket. No I did not partake in that delicacy! And who knew clubs could cause such injury! I had someone bump me into someone else and in the process my beer bottle hit my lip. I almost had to make use of that crazy glue!!! Alas I just got a tiny cut. Now it just matches my bruised hand from the shrew and my other bruises from falling on the subway stairs. I had fun dancing for a bit, but then crashed and headed to the hostel.

Needless to say I got a slow start the next morning, but made it to the National Museum of Korea. First I had chicken BBQ with a friend from the hostel. I might have figured out the mystery of the napkins - they are hidden in the table!

The museum was very good and had artifacts from the Paleolithic Age to modern era. I got a kick out of the shoes. I don’t think I would have fared to well walking in those all day! The stirrups were also interesting so I’ve included some here. In one picture you’ll see Bronze Age coins that look more like bookmarks with a hole at the top. Later the coins became circular, but kept the hold because they are easy to string and carry about. The long pod looking thing is a jar coffin used in the 5^th century. They also had a cookie mold and given my love of baking I just had to include it here (its two long wooden pieces connected). The greenish pottery piece is the famous celadon. This piece is an incense burner, but the celadon is a method of glazing and firing that can no longer be duplicated. I also included one Buddhist painting of a king being judged upon his death. It is being determined which level of hell he’ll go to. It was made in the 19^th century and it seems to have many parallels to Last Judgment scenes in European art. You can’t see it well, but at the bottom there are fiery fires.

For the evening I went to a popular area, Myeongdong and had those desserts I talked about. The first was a disc of fried dough (similar to funnel cake) and it was filled with melted cinnamon and sugar. It was very good – and sticky! My next taste was of a dessert that traditionally was made for kings (or so they told me). This is the one in the pictures. You’d never guess that the white stringy bit is honey! A small block of honey is heated over a fire for days and then cooled for 7 more. The man put the block into a mix of flour and cornstarch and with this the honey softened and he made a large ring out of it. Then he folded it over and repeated it until he had thousands of tiny strands. He was swift and made it look easy. Then he pulls off some of the honey strands and puts chopped nuts into the center and wraps it. It looks a bit like a square cocoon. It tastes good, but I think I enjoyed watching the process just as much. Then I headed to Mister Donut. I had to be able to compare it to the other shops, right? I indulged in a mocha frosted one that was good, but no match for Krispy Kreme and definitely no match for the local shop I grew up going to. After my progressive dessert trek I found a cheap restaurant and tried their cheapest meal – this Mexican pizza. It’s fun to see what the end result of food fusion is!

I planned on a quiet evening of organizing my pictures (yes, I filled the memory card all over again!) and watching tv. I did have a couple of couch potato hours and then the owner of the hostel (a man of 30) and some of the guests asked if I wanted to join them in the sitting area for drinks. The owner’s friend also joined us. I happily joined and we had some really laughs. I had some more of the “king’s dessert.” :)

Given that age is so important for ranking here, we got on the topic. It had already come out how old most of the others were and I knew I was the oldest (but sshhh!). I haven’t told many people on the trip my age. Since I’m going the hostelling route I am usually one of the oldest guests. In any case, it is sort of a refreshing experience to choose what to reveal about myself since I’m a stranger to everyone. I don’t lie, but I can keep my age under wraps and avoid the drama of saying I was married once upon a time. There are other things I can keep reveal as a like... Last night though the Korean guys were telling us what we would call them and they of us given our ages. They assumed I was younger so said I should call them “donsa” (spelling). I decided I was comfortable with them enough at that point to reveal that in fact I was the oldest at the table. I didn’t reveal right away that I’m 35, but said I was born in a different decade then all of them (one was born in 1989! I could have been his teacher!). They were surprised and then when my real age came out they thought I was lying. My face stayed red for awhile as they had a long conversation about my age. But it is also fun to shock people a little bit every once in awhile. I guess one benefit of my age is that by custom I don’t pour anyone else’s drink from that group, they just pour for me. :) But since we are a mixed group we didn’t stay strictly to it. We need more perks in America about getting older. At 4am I finally called it a night.

Now off for more unknown adventures...

Drama to Regained Composure

September 25, 2010

So I think I’ve decompressed enough to explain the homestay disaster. It went down on Thursday and since then I’ve been staying at a hostel and doing more sightseeing. I’ll start with the drama and end on the lighter note of my sightseeing.

After having a bit of a sore throat for a few days (catching it from the kid who we had taken to the hosptial), I woke up Thursday morning with a fever and very sore throat. Of course that didn’t stop “the shrew” from expecting me to work. I didn’t say a word and played with the boy and tried to teach him so English. Over breakfast things took the crazy turn. In Korean culture it is polite to for the younger folks (and others in positions of inferiority) to put more food into the bowls of the elders. Seo did this for me and his mother using the spoon he’d been eating with. I didn’t stop him, but I also didn’t want to eat it (I wouldn’t want it from her spoon either). To me young children are very germy – even with high school kids new teachers get sick a lot from the students – and I’ve seen what this kid does. When the mother suggested I eat more I just said I was full and didn’t want a confrontation. She pushed me on it and I told her my reasoning. She got really upset. She’s telling me how clean he is. This is after she had already yelled at me in the morning for touching ice cubes with my newly washed hands that her son then was eating. She said how everyone in the world knows my hands would be dirty. So once again our different cultural standards of cleanliness came to a head, but she didn’t see her views as cultural choices rather than the norm of the whole world. When I’ve known of what Korean etiquette is around cleanliness I’ve follow it, but I’m still learning. She doesn’t have the flexibility to deal with my learning curve and is not worldly enough to see that Korean standards are not universal.

So with her fury that I didn’t want to eat from her son’s spoon she told me to leave. I thought she meant the room so I went to do some dishes. I was trying to do some deep breathing to calm down and focus on getting through the month. She came to the kitchen and explained she wanted me to leave the house for a spell! At that point my ability to tolerate the job ended and I went to pack my bags. She was yelling at me and telling me not to talk at all.

Once my bags were packed I asked for the pay she owed me for the week and a half (my blood pressure is rising just writing this). Not to my surprise she refused. I said I wouldn’t leave until she paid me. She turned violent and kept threatening to hit me. She searched in the playroom and found a wooden hanger to threaten to strike me with. I didn’t flinch and told her I would call the police if she hit me. She also looked around to check that I didn’t steal anything from the playroom! This was so surreal and ridiculous to me. Here I am 35 and about to get in my first physical fight of my life with a 35 year old woman! She never did strike me, but she started yanking at my bags to try to throw me out. I said I would leave as soon as she paid me my due. She said how I’ve been sleeping in her home, using water and I made a (quick!) call to the US (this was after days of my imprisonment when I knew my mom would be worried). I said the housing was part of my salary and that I would pay her for the call if she paid me my salary. Of course, she kept refusing and I had no legal options to pursue. She was screaming at me and at one point in her attempts to grab my bags she hurt my left hand. I didn’t realize it until later, but I had a hefty bruise and bump from my forefinger down to my thumb.

The doorbell rings and a building security guard walked in. Of course he didn’t speak English and who knows what lies she told him. And his job is to keep his residents happy so with that I was out. I feel so badly for the child who has this kind of mother to contend with. I left crying and didn’t stop crying for awhile. The episode itself was so upsetting, but also my hope of having this job help with the remainder of my trip was dashed. I have no desire to stay in Korea longer and just hope my mom’s optimism is right and that the troubles of my trip are just concentrated at the beginning. I have little hope that something else will come together here and even though I have met some nice people here she has spoiled Korea for me. At least for now. I am going to visit the DMZ on Tuesday and soon after head to Singapore.

My first casualty of my trip is my black business suit dress. I left it at the apartment because she was going to help me take it to the dry cleaners (shocking she never actually helped me) and I forgot it was on a table. That and my soap and soap dish. At least she didn’t break my computer or camera with all her violent struggles. My one hope of consolation is that her husband will blame her for me leaving. He seemed more reasonable and stable – as well as questioning of her.

On to more pleasant topics – I had a nice walk around the city yesterday. I hit yet another palace – and I think there are 2 more. I happened to catch the changing of the guard which was cool. This was quite small, but did house a contemporary art museum. They had a fascinating exhibit on realism in modern Asian paintings. I know western art modern art pretty well, but not Asian so it was interesting to see. The exhibit was looking at how history (i.e. colonialism, escapism from colonialism, nationalism, independence and propaganda) was influencing the art. I really enjoyed it because the works were so different from the traditional Asian styles I’ve seen.

Near this palace is City Hall. A new one is being built that is quite an interesting design. It's the one with lots of colorful plates (photos of people). I also visited a mountain side that has both a Shamanist shrine and Buddhist temple. They were humble structures, but the paintings on the temple intrigued me. Maybe the starving Buddha is to show that he is content and has succeeded in not wanting and therefore he doesn't suffer. He has attained nirvana. That is my rudimentary interpretation with my basic knowledge of Buddhism.

I also walked up to the top of Namsan mountain to see views of Seoul at night. I was saving money by not paying for the cable car and had the added benefit of a hefty workout. I was so proud I didn’t have to stop to rest! Towards the top and Korean man and I happened to be next to each other at the same pace. We didn’t have any exchange, but when we reached the top I bowed to him in celebration. He then asked if we could have our picture together. I guess he had fun with this American hiking up with him. :)

The top has the N Seoul Tower, but the views were nice enough that I didn’t pay to go up. This area is a popular spot for lovers and you can see the picture of the “Christmas” tree filled with tokens of love. I had fun with this – Christmas being my favorite holiday and all. On the walk down I took a wrong turn that added about an hour to my walk. I could have grabbed a bus, but was content to walk off my dinner a bit. I had to digest a little more before I ate my donut from Krispy Kreme!

Today I’m hoping to catch a Taekwondo practice at a temple and maybe hit another museum.

One thing I’ve noticed here is that American styles are very popular. I’ve never been to a country abroad before where most of the people (at least in the cities) dress like Americans. If they were in the US I’d just figure they were American. Baseball hates are very popular which isn’t surprising given the country’s love of the game. I saw a woman yesterday with a Red Sox (Go Sox!) hat and a Yankees shirt. How sacrilege!!! Rightfully so, I see more Red Sox hats than Yankees ones.