Visiting Suwon

I traveled thirty minutes south of Seoul by train three weekends ago, to visit a satellite city and the castle located in the middle of it. I have been to around a dozen Korean cities beforehand, but somehow I was surprised by how similar this one was to Seoul, Yeosu, Jeju-si, Mokpo, and the rest. Like always, the main streets were a hyperstimulating riot of pc bang, cafe, restaurant, and cell phone storefronts. Just out of the city center were the identical apartment blocks, their even rows evoking tombstones.



The one unusual feature of Suwon was that the city center was encircled by the remains of a fortress constructed about three hundred years ago. If you look closely on the left, you can see the green ring of grass and castle wall dividing the low-rise apartment buildings.



The fortress itself was great to see, quiet and cool because of the trees that had grown up around it.



This was a fantastic public restroom, one of many in Korea. I won't go in to too much detail, but the lighting and decorations made it look nicer than many apartments that I've stayed in. It even had a name, Azalea Flower Restroom.

While I have been too busy to do much sightseeing on this trip to Korea, traveling to Suwon reassured me that, for better or for worse, I haven't missed much. Put simply, all of the populated areas in Korea look very similar.

Commuting

I normally just drift off into a half-sleep during my commute, but in case it would be interesting to any of you, I've put together a short video of the way I take every morning and afternoon.

My school for 2011-2012

I also took a quick trip to my future university today. My M.A. program in Hawaii includes a year at Korea University (고려대), so I figured I should visit the campus and get a picture in my mind of where I'll be living. To my great relief, the campus is actually quite beautiful, quite different from other campuses I've visited here. True to form, I left my camera at home, so I will have to rely on a publicity shot.



Among the groups of faux-Ivy League buildings, there was an amusing set of banners accusing the government of misleading people as to the true cause of the sinking of the Cheonnan. Having heard every conspiracy theory, ranging from a Korean War mine to a warmongering America attacking with one of our own torpedoes, my only response to such shrill polemics is shaking my head.

Travels with Auntie

Differently from the last year when I was a student in Korea, my days are now kept busy with going to work and commuting. While it feels fine and dandy to finally be working 9 to 6, wearing a suit, and using Outlook, it means that I get little chance to travel or spend time with friends like I had last year. Instead, I end up spending the few hours each night between the gym, dinner, and sleep, watching Korean soap operas with my host mom and her sister. What I have lost in raucous exchange student revelry, I have gained in gossip and overacting. Both women are fun to talk to, and probably the best language teachers I have ever had, if only for their patience and constant willingness to answer my questions.

My host mother is actually suffering from some kind of pain in the nerves in her neck, (as well as a half a dozen other symptoms, I really don't know what to call her illness. She is also apparently supposed to avoid bread and milk, per order of her doctors) so she doesn't get out of the house very much. When I am finally free from work on the weekends, she decides its a fine time to go on trips. Most of the time, I tag along on her excursions.



She is literally the most high-spirited and outgoing Korean ladies I have ever met. It was a stroke of luck that I found her through a homestay website the first time that I came, and now she insists that I call her Imo, (이모) which means "the sister of my mother". The picture above is from when we went to park in the middle of the river that runs through Seoul. As you can tell from the massive sun visor she is wearing, as well as the parasol her sister is carrying in the background, they both share the Korean woman's primal fear of sunlight and getting a tan.



The above is a picture I took earlier today, when we went to visit her two younger brothers, (both married) at an apartment in the northeast of the city. Today is the day before Chobok, traditionally the beginning of the hottest period of the summer. In order to make it through this draining period of high humidity and higher temperatures, people normally eat chicken stew with their relatives. I was just glad they didn't ask me to dine on dog, another food that is supposed to restore energy.

In the picture, she was sitting with her family and playing games with the children on one of the flat wooden platforms that Korean use instead of picnic tables, or tables in general.

My host mother originally took care of her three younger siblings when they all moved into a boarding house in Seoul in order to go to a decent high school. Children living apart from their parents (who remain in the countryside) in a city in order to go to school isn't that unusual.



You probably know this scrub. I'm standing in front of a tomb of one of the Choson-era kings. The setting is quite nice, which is why my host mom's family chose to picnic in the area. The only interruption to the quiet forested tomb was the sound of gunfire from nearby, as it is adjacent to a military training camp. Bullets sound remarkably like firecrackers.

I'm in the midst of planning for a trip to Shanghai right now, I have about a week in between when my internship ends and when I have to report to Hawaii, so I want to see a little bit more of my neighborhood. If anyone has any specific suggestions for things to see in the city, let me know in the comments.

Donating to your Uncle

I found this link today, to a U.S. Treasury website that accepts donations to pay off the national debt. While there isn't much connection to Korea, it reminded me of the national drive here back in the final years of the 1990s to pay off the loan taken out from the IMF. Koreans remain very proud of having paid back the debt years before the scheduled date.

I hope you are all doing alright amid the current heat wave. It isn't much cooler here, my host family and I cope with a combination of half a dozen oscillating fans, cold watermelon, and cold showers.

Hi ho, Hi ho

I started working at a law firm here in Seoul almost one week ago, located in one of the central government areas. I would love to say that it is an interesting experience to be in a law firm in another country, but to be honest there has been a baffling lack of anything to do. I am learning more and more about the life of a lawyer though, all of the summer interns had a lunch with one of the attorneys here to find out what its like being an arbitrator for international cases. The work sounds interesting and the firm where we work is certainly impressive, but both the senior attorneys and older law students whom I have met seem to have no great love for their job.



The firm where I work employs around 750 people, so this building is only one of four in the area that belongs to them. This building, the headquarters, stands out from all the others for the identical black chauffered sedans that always park in the front. I came to this firm in particular to learn more about how the elite live in Korea live, in that respect I am learning a great deal.



On my way to work, I pass through an expanse of boulevard, dotted with statues of famous Korean icons.

I also pass by these two buildings, which I'm sure were the biggest around when they were first made. I had no idea that the U.S. Embassy (the builing on the right) was so close to the middle of Seoul.

I work at the law firm until the late afternoon, take a crowded subway home, and then have dinner with the rest of my homestay family. While it can sometime be a bit stressful to live in a place where I will feel like a guest for a whole month, it's still better than the alternative, bunking in an impersonal room alone in the city.

At night, I meet friends, many of whom I haven't talked to since I left Korea over a year ago. Sometimes it can be fun to see old faces, but the passage of time can also erode what little common ground we had. When I have nights free, I watch Korean soap operas with my host mom and her sister. From time to time she asks me questions about life in America, I appreciate the fact that she is still curious about where I live even after I have been with her for such a long time. While watching a soap opera this past Saturday, one that is famous in Korea for its first portrayal of gay men not as an oddity, but as a normal couple, she asked me "are there many gays in America?" (in Korean). I have come to realize that the word "many" is nearly useless in such conversations, and have to come up with other metrics to convey the reality in America. To me and perhaps to most Americans, "many" gay people is a term associated with Fire Island, Greenwich Village, and Dupont Circle. To my host family, any location with more than one gay individual would suffice to produce a similar impression.