Hello, this is a link to the latest article published in my university newspaper, The GW Hatchet. I am discussing a trip to an expatriate bar in Apgujeong, one of the more upscale neighborhoods in Seoul famous for its plastic surgery clinics.
If anyone who reads these pages ever has a question, just post it and I can provide some more details^^
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Travel part 3-Jejudo
The final stop of my cross country trip was Jeju-do, an island that is a three hour ferry ride from the south of the peninsula. Jejudo is normally about ten degrees warmer than the rest of the country, and is the only place that could be called tropical.
Jejudo is famously known in the rest of Korea for three things, stone, women, and tangerines. Stone because it is a volcanic island, replete with carved statues of the ancient residents. Women, because Jejudo for a long time farmed shellfish from the ocean floor as a means of survival. Diving for shellfish, which was done with just a knife and a pair of lungs up until recently, was a job that women were thought to be biologically better suited for, increasing their importance in the community as breadwinners. And tangerines, because there are an unbelievable amount of the things growin on the island. Hanging on tress next to the sidewalks, overflowing roadside stalls every mile or two, we were even given a crate as a desert gift by the owner of a restaurant we visited.
While I did enjoy all of Jejudo's three famous attractions, we spent more time among the natural beauty of the island. Watefalls that pour right into the sea, tumble-down sandstone cliffs, and when the snow got too bad, a great botanical garden, (the trimmed pine trees).
There was one strange stop we made on the island, a replica of the ship that carried the first Europeans to Korea. After learning about a group of Dutch sailors who were imprisoned for a dozen years by the isolationist government, we walked around the nearby cliffs and saw what might have been a shop dedicated to the Netherlands, I'm not sure. The sign is talking about the Netherlands, and I get the windmill, but I'm not quite sure how dinosaurs or a boxing Nixon represent the country. Nearby was proof that the Vikings even pillaged Asia, further testament ot the prowess of the Danes.
Yes, that is an amusement park ride.
Jejudo is famously known in the rest of Korea for three things, stone, women, and tangerines. Stone because it is a volcanic island, replete with carved statues of the ancient residents. Women, because Jejudo for a long time farmed shellfish from the ocean floor as a means of survival. Diving for shellfish, which was done with just a knife and a pair of lungs up until recently, was a job that women were thought to be biologically better suited for, increasing their importance in the community as breadwinners. And tangerines, because there are an unbelievable amount of the things growin on the island. Hanging on tress next to the sidewalks, overflowing roadside stalls every mile or two, we were even given a crate as a desert gift by the owner of a restaurant we visited.
While I did enjoy all of Jejudo's three famous attractions, we spent more time among the natural beauty of the island. Watefalls that pour right into the sea, tumble-down sandstone cliffs, and when the snow got too bad, a great botanical garden, (the trimmed pine trees).
There was one strange stop we made on the island, a replica of the ship that carried the first Europeans to Korea. After learning about a group of Dutch sailors who were imprisoned for a dozen years by the isolationist government, we walked around the nearby cliffs and saw what might have been a shop dedicated to the Netherlands, I'm not sure. The sign is talking about the Netherlands, and I get the windmill, but I'm not quite sure how dinosaurs or a boxing Nixon represent the country. Nearby was proof that the Vikings even pillaged Asia, further testament ot the prowess of the Danes.
Yes, that is an amusement park ride.my travelogue Part 2
So... continuing my post from a month ago, here is the second part of my trip around the country. There are a lot of windy, barren views in these pictures, but the countryside isn't nearly so lifeless. About three months from now the whole countryside will be a brilliant green due to all of the rice fields.
After heading to Andong, which is a very traditional area near central Korea, my mother and I continue our drive.
Yeosu is a port city that is just about as far south as you can go on the Korean peninsula.
Fishing trawlers lined up off shore to enter the port city, and silos clustered around where they would later dock in the city.
Nearby the city were a few secluded beaches, which looked like they would have been great during the summer. The picture above shows fish drying on a line by one of those beaches, they're abandoned during the winter.
This little guy jealously guarded an old farmhouse by the beach, up until my mother, with her deep for all things dog, convinced him to come up to us. It is very rare to see dogs in Korea, most of the ones in Seoul are strays. Unfortunately, eating dogs is still pretty popular among older Koreans and in certain traditional areas. I took care to avoid showing my mother those traditional butcher shops.
Spicy red peppers are used in literally 90% of all dishes in Korea. The above sacks were about as big as my whole body, deposited outside of a kimchi store near Yeosu. We bought some bulk kimchi there for my host family and for my mother to take back to America. There literally is nothing more Korean than Kimchi in my mind, extremely potent, always available, and not easy for foreign palates at the first bite.
One last picture of Yeosu at night, this is near the hotel where we stayed.
After heading to Andong, which is a very traditional area near central Korea, my mother and I continue our drive.
Yeosu is a port city that is just about as far south as you can go on the Korean peninsula.
Fishing trawlers lined up off shore to enter the port city, and silos clustered around where they would later dock in the city.
Nearby the city were a few secluded beaches, which looked like they would have been great during the summer. The picture above shows fish drying on a line by one of those beaches, they're abandoned during the winter.
This little guy jealously guarded an old farmhouse by the beach, up until my mother, with her deep for all things dog, convinced him to come up to us. It is very rare to see dogs in Korea, most of the ones in Seoul are strays. Unfortunately, eating dogs is still pretty popular among older Koreans and in certain traditional areas. I took care to avoid showing my mother those traditional butcher shops.
Spicy red peppers are used in literally 90% of all dishes in Korea. The above sacks were about as big as my whole body, deposited outside of a kimchi store near Yeosu. We bought some bulk kimchi there for my host family and for my mother to take back to America. There literally is nothing more Korean than Kimchi in my mind, extremely potent, always available, and not easy for foreign palates at the first bite.
One last picture of Yeosu at night, this is near the hotel where we stayed.Wednesday, 21 January 2009
오바마-"Obama"
In honor of the Inauguration, which I was quite sad to miss, here is the link to the GW Expat article that I wrote back in November. The article was published two months ago, but I never got around to putting it up here.
Friday, 2 January 2009
Travel around South Korea, Part 1
Hello y'all, been busy during the past month with the end of the semester and having my mother visit for two weeks. Rather than returning to America, I decided to explore my adopted home country instead.
Starting last Thursday, we rented a car and braved the roads of South Korea. Korea gets very different once you leave Seoul, going from millions of people jammed into the metro to valleys populated only by ancient apple farms.
From this:
To this:
The trip started out rather inauspiciously, stuck in the elevator of the rental car building. To make matters worse, it was Christmas morning, but we still managed to find an elevator repairmen who could get us out of there.
Our first destination was a famous mountain in Korea by the name of Seoraksan. The mountain attracts bus loads of mountain-climbing old people from all over the country. Despite it being a particularly cold time of year, we managed to get to the summit and see a great sunrise from the nearby beach.
Seoraksan is in the upper southeast corner of the country, by the end of our trip we would be as far in the southwest as possible. In between, the weather went from snowdrifts to palm trees, then, weirdly enough, back to snowdrifts on the supposedly tropical island in the south.
Seoraksan is actually part of a mountain chain that contains buddhist temples, famous waterfalls, and immense columns of rock. We were only able to see a few of the sights, but every hour spent in the open rather than in the apartments of Seoul was priceless. It's hard to realize just how closed in a city is until you finally escape it.
Finding a motel by the mountain and getting around by car was the beginning of a long period of being forced to speak Korean with strangers. The bad news about walking up to strangers was that they assumed if I could ask for directions, I could understand whatever rapidfire answer they shot back at me. The good news is that saying just a few words in Korean to people in rural areas is pretty astonishing, after saying nothing more than, "how do I get to the hotel?" you might have thought that I just recited poetry from the suprised and appreciative responses I received.
Traveling outside of cities in Korea also brought me in contact with a lot of older people and children who have seen very few white people. The kids were cute about it, staring open-mouthed and running over to their parents once they laid eyes on me. The older people were less endearing, mainly glaring at my mother in I with looks that ranged from surprise to disdain. I'm used to both reactions, but it was harder for my mother to get used to strangers being much less friendly than they are in the U.S.
I'll finish up with a shot of lakes in Korea, taken by Andong. Later on, we traveled to Yeosu, Mokpo, and Jejudo, that'll be for another post.
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Trip to Yonmunsan
There are a lot of Buddhist temples in Korea.
Some are more picturesque than others, and making a pilgrimage to the really nice ones is a popular activity for believers and nonbelievers alike.
My sociology professor managed to turn the trip into a school-sponsored excursion, and so I got my first chance to leave the city in three months.
As you might be able to see, this trip happened to be during the height of the autumn foliage in Korea, which is pretty amazing, even for a jaded New Englander like myself. People here love their leaves, and I'm happy I was here to experience a season that doesn't freeze my hands shut or drown me in hot rain. :)
Our professor managed to secure us an interview with a monk at the working monastery, who was pretty welcoming to our questions about his life and Buddhism. I finally found out why they always wear those cool grey robes, (supposedly, they are the least bothersome garments, allowing them to focus solely on meditation), that they can use any modern convenience so long as it does not tie them further into the self-destructive bustle of this world, (you might be able to see the computer behind him), and why Buddhist like babies (they are a pure, neutral metaphor for the soul a Buddhist wants to attain).
Also at the temple was an 1100-year-old gingko tree, which was supposedy planted by the staff of a Boddhisatva. I'm a little skeptical, but the tree could be that old. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the thing must have been at least 80 feet tall. The monk said it is the oldest living fruit-bearing tree.
I also got a picture of the mountains around Seoul on our way back into the city. It felt really good to be away from the skyline for a while.
And this is a picture of my campus at about the same time, its ringed by mountains.
Some are more picturesque than others, and making a pilgrimage to the really nice ones is a popular activity for believers and nonbelievers alike.
My sociology professor managed to turn the trip into a school-sponsored excursion, and so I got my first chance to leave the city in three months.
As you might be able to see, this trip happened to be during the height of the autumn foliage in Korea, which is pretty amazing, even for a jaded New Englander like myself. People here love their leaves, and I'm happy I was here to experience a season that doesn't freeze my hands shut or drown me in hot rain. :)
Our professor managed to secure us an interview with a monk at the working monastery, who was pretty welcoming to our questions about his life and Buddhism. I finally found out why they always wear those cool grey robes, (supposedly, they are the least bothersome garments, allowing them to focus solely on meditation), that they can use any modern convenience so long as it does not tie them further into the self-destructive bustle of this world, (you might be able to see the computer behind him), and why Buddhist like babies (they are a pure, neutral metaphor for the soul a Buddhist wants to attain).
Also at the temple was an 1100-year-old gingko tree, which was supposedy planted by the staff of a Boddhisatva. I'm a little skeptical, but the tree could be that old. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the thing must have been at least 80 feet tall. The monk said it is the oldest living fruit-bearing tree.
I also got a picture of the mountains around Seoul on our way back into the city. It felt really good to be away from the skyline for a while.
And this is a picture of my campus at about the same time, its ringed by mountains.
Comfort Women Protest
A long time ago at GW I started learning about "comfort women" a euphemism for the Korean women used as sex slaves in Japanese military brothels during WWII. While their continuing demand for a sincere apology from the Japanese came up often during discussions of lingering animosity between Korea and Japan, it was difficult to grasp the intensity of the continuing struggle until I saw the women in person.
Every Wednesday afternoon, former "comfort women" collect in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. There aren't many women left at this point, a vast majority were either executed or died from disease during the last days of the war. Still, a large group of young Koreans gather to support the women and to listen to their strident appeals for reparation and admission of guilt.
(it's really interesting to look at the faces of the women in this photo)
As with many events in Korea, I felt uncomfortable lunging in front of protestors and snapping a photograph, they aren't there to be tourist curiosities.
While apologies have been offered by the Japanese government, there still remain right-wing officials who claim the women were not coerced or were even privileged to be serving the Imperial Army's ambitions.
At the protest, the most spirited of the remaining women shouts a fiery oratory at the front of the embassy, denouncing the Japanese and her own government for not forcing an apology out of their neighbors. I don't know if the event has ever turned violent, but there are always riot police between the two parties. ( the second picture shows just how young and bored-looking riot police are in Korea. Despite the fearsome reputation of Korean protests, most of the day for the policeman, who are serving as part of their military term, is just spent standing around).
During the protest, there was a speech by a representative from Amnesty International, which is working diplomatic channels to secure an apology. The audience also collectively sang and danced for the women, a measure that would "give them strength" to continue. I think more protests should involve dancing.
Throughout the protest, the Embassy remained silent, with all windows shut, a rather forbidding metaphor for the country's longtime feigned ignorance toward the phenomenon of Japanese sex slaves during the war.
If my language sounds strong, it's because many violent episodes in Korea's past seem far less settled than those I am familiar with in America. The women who suffered are still alive to press their case, those who suffered under the military dictatorship in the 60s and 70s are up and walking around, and other episodes seem barely under the surface.
Every Wednesday afternoon, former "comfort women" collect in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. There aren't many women left at this point, a vast majority were either executed or died from disease during the last days of the war. Still, a large group of young Koreans gather to support the women and to listen to their strident appeals for reparation and admission of guilt.
(it's really interesting to look at the faces of the women in this photo)As with many events in Korea, I felt uncomfortable lunging in front of protestors and snapping a photograph, they aren't there to be tourist curiosities.
While apologies have been offered by the Japanese government, there still remain right-wing officials who claim the women were not coerced or were even privileged to be serving the Imperial Army's ambitions.
At the protest, the most spirited of the remaining women shouts a fiery oratory at the front of the embassy, denouncing the Japanese and her own government for not forcing an apology out of their neighbors. I don't know if the event has ever turned violent, but there are always riot police between the two parties. ( the second picture shows just how young and bored-looking riot police are in Korea. Despite the fearsome reputation of Korean protests, most of the day for the policeman, who are serving as part of their military term, is just spent standing around).
During the protest, there was a speech by a representative from Amnesty International, which is working diplomatic channels to secure an apology. The audience also collectively sang and danced for the women, a measure that would "give them strength" to continue. I think more protests should involve dancing.
Throughout the protest, the Embassy remained silent, with all windows shut, a rather forbidding metaphor for the country's longtime feigned ignorance toward the phenomenon of Japanese sex slaves during the war.
If my language sounds strong, it's because many violent episodes in Korea's past seem far less settled than those I am familiar with in America. The women who suffered are still alive to press their case, those who suffered under the military dictatorship in the 60s and 70s are up and walking around, and other episodes seem barely under the surface.
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