Korea, Part I
We are a few days past the halfway mark of our time in Korea. We have been having a very nice time here. The people seem to have an affinity for Americans due to our involvement in the Korean War and our continued military presence. Everyone has been very friendly.
The culture is much more Westernized than Japanese culture. We recognize many brands and food chains including TGI Fridays, Bennigans, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Chilis and more. The style of dress is similar to America. You see many people in jeans and t-shirts. Surprisingly, less people seem to understand English here though. The Japanese school system seems to emphasize English more than the Korean school system. We have been told that the Korean schools teach English grammar and vocabulary, but it is primarily through reading and writing. Many Koreans do not understand English pronunciation. People also seem a bit more stunned by my blonde hair. I have gotten more people pointing, staring, and giggling. The kids and teenagers seem especially surprised about it. I would imagine this is partly due to tourism. I believe more Europeans and Americans visit Japan than South Korea. Outside our hotel, we haven’t seen many other tourists. All the people who work in our hotel must pick an English name when they get their job. Some people pick normal names like JoAnne, but some of them pick funny names. There is a man named June and the full-time concierge at the hotel have chosen the names Hammer, Fox, and Dragon.
When we arrived in Seoul, I came down with a terrible cold. We spent the whole first weekend resting while I recovered from being sick and Dave caught up on some work. Beginning on Tuesday we went sightseeing. The first place we went was called Insa-dong. It is an old district of Seoul that is well-known for its antiques. It was interesting at first, but it seems the antique shops have been taken over by tourist shops because all the shops began to look the same after a bit. It was still nice to get out and see some of the traditional pottery and arts.
The next day we found ourselves at Gyeongbokgung Palace which is the largest of the five palaces in Seoul. It was a very large area with lots of buildings. You couldn’t go into any of the buildings but there was definitely plenty of things to look at outside them. The Korean Folk Museum was also on the property and we wandered around it for a bit. It took the full afternoon for us to see this palace and we definitely got our 3000 won out of it (about $2.50). We had heard about a nearby Secret Garden that was recently opened to the public. We discovered why this garden was a secret when we tried to find it. We spent an hour wandering around downtown Seoul to no avail. Oh well.
We then went over to Itaewon, a district near the military base. We didn’t spend much time there since it was very touristy and commercialized, but we had good tacos at a local Mexican restaurant.
The following day, we went to the Korean War Museum. We learned a lot from going here. Neither of us knew much about the war before we went here, but we learned a lot about it. We plan to go to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) later this week.
That evening, we went to Nanta, a musical about four chefs who must cook a great wedding feast in a short amount of time. It was very funny. I ended up getting chosen to participate in the show. I was the only blonde in the entire theater and I was sitting in an aisle so I was an easy target. They brought me on stage and I had to eat some soup for a bit and then I found out I was the bride in the wedding. I sent out a photo of it to everyone. It was quite a funny experience.
The next day, we saw a few more sights around Seoul. It is really beautiful around here right now since the fall colors are so vibrant. It actually reminds me of Minnesota because there are so many different colors - red, orange, yellow, purple. We went to Yangjae Citizen Forest which boasts 25000 trees. We had a little difficulty getting there though. There was something lost in translation with our taxi driver and we ended up at a park called Alice Park. Alice as in Alice in Wonderland. Dave and I were looking around the park and there were all these humongous recreations of items from popular children’s stories. We spotted a 30 foot boot like the one from the nursery rhyme about the old woman who lived in a shoe. Dave wandered into the shoe curiously and a woman came running out from a ten foot pink marshmallow nearby and told him he could not go into it. "That is where we live," the woman explained. Sure enough, there were shoes at the door and ski poles and other assorted things near the doorway. She proceeded to tell us the park was private property for an English immersion school and the teachers live at the school in the big shoe. It was really bizarre. She asked how long we were in Korea and we told her we had one week left. She then asked us if we would please come be part-time teachers for the rest of our time here. Needless to say, we did not apply for work visas before we came and are not really interested in spending more time than necessary working while we are here. It was so funny. She directed us to Yangjae Citizen Forest nearby.
It was a warm and sunny day to take a walk and the colors were so beautiful. We spent a few hours walking around the park and then found our way to Olympic Park where Seoul held the 1988 Summer Olympics. It was fun to see the Park and Olympic Village.
These are our adventures thus far in Korea. I am going to try to post one more entry on the blog before we leave here, but then we will be taking a leave of absence. I just discovered that our blog is censored in China and so I will be unable to access it while we are there. I think I should still be able to send photos and e-mail though. We are in China from November 10 - December 8. I am looking very forward to our time there. It should be quite an experience. Be watching for pictures and one last blog post in the next week or so!
The culture is much more Westernized than Japanese culture. We recognize many brands and food chains including TGI Fridays, Bennigans, Burger King, Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Chilis and more. The style of dress is similar to America. You see many people in jeans and t-shirts. Surprisingly, less people seem to understand English here though. The Japanese school system seems to emphasize English more than the Korean school system. We have been told that the Korean schools teach English grammar and vocabulary, but it is primarily through reading and writing. Many Koreans do not understand English pronunciation. People also seem a bit more stunned by my blonde hair. I have gotten more people pointing, staring, and giggling. The kids and teenagers seem especially surprised about it. I would imagine this is partly due to tourism. I believe more Europeans and Americans visit Japan than South Korea. Outside our hotel, we haven’t seen many other tourists. All the people who work in our hotel must pick an English name when they get their job. Some people pick normal names like JoAnne, but some of them pick funny names. There is a man named June and the full-time concierge at the hotel have chosen the names Hammer, Fox, and Dragon.
When we arrived in Seoul, I came down with a terrible cold. We spent the whole first weekend resting while I recovered from being sick and Dave caught up on some work. Beginning on Tuesday we went sightseeing. The first place we went was called Insa-dong. It is an old district of Seoul that is well-known for its antiques. It was interesting at first, but it seems the antique shops have been taken over by tourist shops because all the shops began to look the same after a bit. It was still nice to get out and see some of the traditional pottery and arts.
The next day we found ourselves at Gyeongbokgung Palace which is the largest of the five palaces in Seoul. It was a very large area with lots of buildings. You couldn’t go into any of the buildings but there was definitely plenty of things to look at outside them. The Korean Folk Museum was also on the property and we wandered around it for a bit. It took the full afternoon for us to see this palace and we definitely got our 3000 won out of it (about $2.50). We had heard about a nearby Secret Garden that was recently opened to the public. We discovered why this garden was a secret when we tried to find it. We spent an hour wandering around downtown Seoul to no avail. Oh well.
We then went over to Itaewon, a district near the military base. We didn’t spend much time there since it was very touristy and commercialized, but we had good tacos at a local Mexican restaurant.
The following day, we went to the Korean War Museum. We learned a lot from going here. Neither of us knew much about the war before we went here, but we learned a lot about it. We plan to go to the DMZ (demilitarized zone) later this week.
That evening, we went to Nanta, a musical about four chefs who must cook a great wedding feast in a short amount of time. It was very funny. I ended up getting chosen to participate in the show. I was the only blonde in the entire theater and I was sitting in an aisle so I was an easy target. They brought me on stage and I had to eat some soup for a bit and then I found out I was the bride in the wedding. I sent out a photo of it to everyone. It was quite a funny experience.
The next day, we saw a few more sights around Seoul. It is really beautiful around here right now since the fall colors are so vibrant. It actually reminds me of Minnesota because there are so many different colors - red, orange, yellow, purple. We went to Yangjae Citizen Forest which boasts 25000 trees. We had a little difficulty getting there though. There was something lost in translation with our taxi driver and we ended up at a park called Alice Park. Alice as in Alice in Wonderland. Dave and I were looking around the park and there were all these humongous recreations of items from popular children’s stories. We spotted a 30 foot boot like the one from the nursery rhyme about the old woman who lived in a shoe. Dave wandered into the shoe curiously and a woman came running out from a ten foot pink marshmallow nearby and told him he could not go into it. "That is where we live," the woman explained. Sure enough, there were shoes at the door and ski poles and other assorted things near the doorway. She proceeded to tell us the park was private property for an English immersion school and the teachers live at the school in the big shoe. It was really bizarre. She asked how long we were in Korea and we told her we had one week left. She then asked us if we would please come be part-time teachers for the rest of our time here. Needless to say, we did not apply for work visas before we came and are not really interested in spending more time than necessary working while we are here. It was so funny. She directed us to Yangjae Citizen Forest nearby.
It was a warm and sunny day to take a walk and the colors were so beautiful. We spent a few hours walking around the park and then found our way to Olympic Park where Seoul held the 1988 Summer Olympics. It was fun to see the Park and Olympic Village.
These are our adventures thus far in Korea. I am going to try to post one more entry on the blog before we leave here, but then we will be taking a leave of absence. I just discovered that our blog is censored in China and so I will be unable to access it while we are there. I think I should still be able to send photos and e-mail though. We are in China from November 10 - December 8. I am looking very forward to our time there. It should be quite an experience. Be watching for pictures and one last blog post in the next week or so!
posted by Lindsay | 10:15 PM
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