South Korea Trip Extravaganza Supreme Big Time Fun

I just got back from Korea yesterday. I had an amazing time! BUT I just spent two hours updating before losing the whole friggin' thing, So here is the abbreviated version...kinda...

Monday

7:30 - arrival

Took the hour bus ride from the airport into Seoul proper. Seeing as how I dont know any Korean (words or people), getting around and knowing where I was going was a bit tricky. Sure, I knew my hostel was located in Anguk-dong, but reading it is one thing, hearing it is another. To the untrained ear every bus stop sounded like Anguk-dong over the crackling bus speaker. I got a little nervous that I'd completely miss it. Fortunately a couple people around me (and a goodly amount of the Seoul population in general) spoke great English and helped me decipher the static code that announced my stop.

Coming from the pristine Japanese countryside, downtown Seoul has many smells I considered unpleasant, but they were only noticeable that first night. I believe this was due to two things.

1. the nose is the most adaptable sense

2. you tend to not notice smells that are similar to your own (more on that later).

I was so tired having travelled all day that, after a quick jaunt to a 7-11 down the street to get some food, I went to bed.

Tuesday

8:00am - Breakfast is Served

. . .and consisted of the the guy at the front desk putting out a loaf of bread, a bowl of butter, and a bowl of jelly next to the two toasters in the hostel kitchen. While the word breakfast usually implies more than said toast to me, at $18/night I expected no more, and wasnt about to complain. It also seems that toast is indeed the breakfast of choice in Seoul. Half the morning street vendors were selling some form of it. Toast. Toast with butter. Toast with jelly. Toast with egg. Toast with with sausage. Goooo toast!

9:00am - Topgol Park

By pure chance I stumbled upon this park while walking around. In this is the square, thousands of Korean students declared their independence from Japan on March 1st, 1919. Japan had occupied Korea since 1910, but the protests ignited a uprising that would lead to a 26 year struggle and thousands of deaths, until Korea gained sovereignty in 1945 after Japan's surrender in WWII. It blows my mind how different the world was just a lifetime before I was born.

11:30am - Chongdeokgung Palace

I took a tour of one of the five palaces in Seoul during the Josen era; the last era of the Korean monarchy that ended in 1910.

2:00pm - Korean War History Museum

I'm not a fan of military matters and their byproducts, but since the art exhibit that Simon (a fellow traveler I befriended at the hostel) and I had planned on seeing was located further away than anticipated, we decided to head over to the war memorial and museum instead. Although any history museum is prone to present the events they catalogue in a patriotic light, I sill really enjoyed it. I wish there was some way I could see the North Korean War Memorial and Museum, if there is such a thing, just to see how the same history is reported on the other side.

The Korean War Memorial.

When learning about events I am not directly connected to, it's easy to see them as abstractions; to come to conclusions based in reason, free of emotional connection. It takes some artistic expression of the event for me to feel any emotional response; to connect to it in a human way. Once I view that expression though, it's usually very easy to connect empathetically; it all just sort of comes together, hits me, and often I can't help but weep.

North and South Korea, divided

9:00pm - Dinnertime

After resting at the hostel (I should have brought my tennis shoes, my docs were killing me the entire trip), I went to dinner with another backpacker and l and had my first taste of fresh korean kimchi. Having really only eaten the Japanese variations, it was so strong I could barely stomach it, though drinking 3 beers helped. The restaurant we were in closed, and we were booted to the street as soon as we finished our last drink. Wanting to have a couple more, we attempted to go to 3 other bars but were denied service each time when we told them we just wanted to order a beer. Tired of the constant rejection, we settled on buying a couple of cool ones at a 7-11 and drinking them in the hostel kitchen. While we were drinking we related to Simon about our beer woes and the lack of service. He laughed and told us that you cannot just order drinks in Korea. you have to order food as well. This could just be a bowl of peanuts, but apparently you have to order something with your drinks. Sheesh.

Wednesday

10:00am - Korean Museum of Modern Art

I don't know what to write except that this was the most incredible collections I have seen. When I normally visit an art museum, I will come away with a couple peices that stick out in my mind, but this museum had so many impressive pieces. I noted a big difference between Japanese and Korean culture as well. Western influence was obvious in many of the pieces, but where Japanese artists tend to emulate and be praised on technical mastery, the work presented here seemed to hold creativity and emotional self-expression in the highest regard.

4:00pm - Demons

Tim and I randomly picked a restaurant off the street, and I had my favorite Korean dish so far. Rice with bean sprouts, tuna, kimchee, green onion all mixed together. Since my stomach had been exisiting off the subtleties that is Japanese food for the past 3 months, all the spices from two days Korean food were starting to give me "demon-stomach." On multiple occasions, I had to find "shrines" where I could exorcise these demons, who were neither quietly nor peacefully banished.

10:00pm - Shopping

There was no way I was waking up at 5am to catch my flight, so I took an extended nap to get the energy to pull an all-nighter. After waking, I went to the Dongdaemun shopping district. This area was crazy! It was basically a series of large shopping malls and streets lined with all sorts of vendors that stay open until the morning. While a small portion of the population was stumbling drunk to the point of embarrassment, at no point did i ever feel unsafe. I often saw teenage girls walking around shopping by themselves at midnight. Despite its popularity for shopping, I couldn't find any omiyage for my friends. As I was heading back to the hostel, one of the street vendors shoved a sample of something in my hand that ended up being squid jerky. It tasted awesome, so I bought two bags to take home.

Thursday

11:00am - Home

After an uneventful but pleasant morning I caught my flight back to Japan. On the flight, perhaps due to staying up all night, I had a waking vision while listening to The Chemical Brother's Surface to Air. I was overcome with an incredible feeling of peace. The details of the vision are less important right now, but suffice to say, I felt a section of my life completing and a wonderful new part beginning. I had returned to the same place physically I was a week ago, but I felt a major focal shift on that flight. Going through immigration, I was given my new visa status as an instructor. I took the time to go to the public bath and felt exhilarated as I washed off physically what had been shed mentally. "Home" was now Japan. After three months, I truly felt ready to begin this next phase of my life, and see whatever it surprises it might bring.