This is the end --my final images from my Korea trip! I had a great final week, thanks to these folks:
To any readers out there who have reminded me about writing this blog entry in the past several weeks, I apologize that this has not come sooner! I've been enjoying being back in Colorado, and making up lost summer days by hiking, biking, tasting, working, and spending time with friends. (Especially to Kelsey, who sent me many of these photos so that I could have higher quality images as well as some of myself to share!)
The final few days of my trip in Korea were spent at a third palace (my favorite, Changdeokgung) and the mountainous national park just north of the city (Bukhansan) with Jon, buying a few gifts in the traditional area of Seoul (Insadong) and heading to a local baseball game with the EAPSIers left in Korea, and finding good eats and coffee shops with Kelsey. It was a fun-filled but also relaxing last few days ---two months is quite a while to be gone from home now that I'm a little older and have responsibilities back in Colorado. While I obviously enjoyed my time in Korea and there are things I wasn't able to fit in during my time there, I think two months was enough for me to be away from my home and work. Along that same vein, I thought I'd share some thoughts for travelers and upcoming EAPSIers, both to Korea and other places in the world, that I've collected during my trip. If you're a fellow EAPSIer, feel free to add more via comment!
- Plan ahead and make sure you have as little as possible to do right away when you get home! I left a few things, like getting a roommate and finishing my hikes for Poudre Wilderness Volunteers until I got home in August. While this has worked out just fine, it was a little stressful and I've left some things (like blogging) undone until several weeks after getting back. I also felt the need to get home maybe before I needed to while abroad. So sublet your apartment, put your stuff in your friend's closet, and bust your buns to get everything taken care of before you get on the plane. I know I'll be doing that when I go abroad again!
- Bring a phrase book. This was invaluable to me as a new-comer to Korea because I didn't have to spend too much time learning the language before I got there to get around. Lonely Planet had a great (and funny) guide in Hangul, which I also own for Japanese. Of course, the accent never came for me, and if you're going to someplace rural by yourself, Rosetta Stone might be a good purchase, too.
- Get shower shoes. These are available everywhere, and they make you feel quite a bit cleaner if you pack your own. An old pair of plastic flip-flops are great --I didn't feel bad about throwing them away at the end of my trip.
- Bring an international license. One of the most freeing parts of my trip was being able to drive on the island (Baengnyeong). It was necessary for my research, and it also gave me the freedom to explore the whole island (I probably could have biked it, but there aren't a lot of light, non-cruiser bikes that I found in Korea). You can get this for about $15 at your local AAA office --just bring in your license, passport and some passport photos. The driving rules were surprisingly similar, which I think is the case for many common destinations for Americans. More info is available here.
- Blog your thoughts and photos. I had an overwhelming response from people at home, within my department at school, among my friends, and in my family, encouraging me to keep writing on my blog. It's an easy way to keep in touch with everyone and share all the amazing experiences you're having --the images are particularly nice (a picture is, after all, worth a thousand words). Blogger has free, nicely laid out pages, and I'm sure there are lots of other options. I also recommend providing links to your blog entries via social media such as Facebook. I got most of my more than 1,000 visits (thanks, readers!!) via Google Plus and Facebook.
- Make sure your bank allows purchases in your area of travel. This was a real problem for me in the first couple weeks, and I haven't ever had this issue while being abroad. I was unable to use ATMs in Korea, including those that other expats suggested as working for them while they were in Korea (for the record, they must be marked "global ATM", and you have to choose "foreign card" ---the ones in subway stations in Seoul and at Wooribanks worked well for me). Unfortunately, although Korea is the safest place I have ever traveled abroad, without a doubt, my credit union had marked it a dangerous place for banking, and I had to call them and tell them specifically where I'd be and for how long. This is even though I'd already warned them via email that I'd be traveling before I left. Since I didn't have a phone that worked, I had to use google voice on my computer at a coffee shop to this --what a hassle! So call before you leave and check that the region you're visiting is not marked as an unsafe area with your bank.
- Korea: Get a wifi "egg". Phones were a serious issue for all of us EAPSIers when we got to Korea. Our U.S. phones often don't work, their Korean phones don't accept our SIM cards, and their data plan cards that you can buy at convenience stores don't always work. You can purchase a cheap phone while you're there, rent one (not sure I met anyone who tried that), or just use your phone with a service like Google Voice when you're within wifi range (no, there's not free wifi everywhere --that's just not true). Here's a good solution: the wifi egg. It allows you to have wifi anywhere this little device gets a signal (not on Baengnyeong, but almost anywhere on the mainland for me). I don't know the price specifics, but I heard that it wasn't too expensive.
- Get travel insurance!! Several people in my group had medical needs during our stay in Korea, and it turned out that the travel insurance promised to us only covered a tiny fraction of the cost of a stay at the hospital. Hospital visits for check-up sorts of things in Korea are actually cheap and easy (like when you go to the ER for a strep culture or ear infection meds here in the states) --so do go to the hospital for little things. However, if you stay or need tests, this can get spendy. If you're a student, chances are your school provides some type of insurance for you while you're abroad --CSU, for example, requires us to purchase HTH Worldwide Insurance coverage for the duration of our stay, and it was only about $100 for me).
- Korea: Talk to strangers! This is a weird phenomenon you'll encounter in this country: people are friendly and trustworthy, so when they invite you to follow them to a place they know ---bring a burly friend and do it! I had several encounters where people expected to be friends after meeting me on the street, and I just didn't know how to handle it. My U.S. culture mind send out a "psycho!" alert, but really, Korean people are just extremely friendly and interested in Americans. So, within reason, embrace the friendliness of strangers (not literally, though --unless they're particularly used to Americans, Koreans do not hug).
- Korea: don’t assume it’s ok to put things down the toilet... This is a final note about being in Korea that I wish I hadn't need to learn. It's probably the least of the sanitary concerns for Americans traveling to other, less westernized nations, but it was a bit of a shock to me. People don't flush their used toilet paper in Korea --they put it in the trash bin next to the toilet. At times, even in fancy public restrooms, the bin can get quite full. Ick. Thinking logically and a tidbit graphically, all solids should go down equally, but I don't know sewage systems well enough to say that with authority. Just be aware of this phenomenon ---that's probably what the sign in front of you while you're in the stall says.
The smaller doors on the side of the gate leading to the archive building, as well as many throughout the palaces, were for officers of the royal family, so that they bowed while entering.
As was common in the palaces, the buildings had these intricate paintings and clay caps on the roofs. These in particular had a phoenix on them (this was within an area that signified the geography of Korea, although I'm not sure how the phoenix connected to that). This pavilion in particular had script on the side that likened the king to the moon, as an authoritative ruler of his people.
The shape of this pond was similar to the basic shape of Korea, and the pagoda was built to give the feeling that one was on a boat within the pond.
Exiting from this building signifies leaving behind the mistakes of yesterday, and the officers had a particular way of marching away from it to signify their maturity and contemplative states.
This complex, with white and brown color because it's a living space within the palace, was heated by a fire underneath the floors --you can see the area where the fire was behind the doors on the left in this picture. I mentioned this in another post, but Koreans used this system to supply warmth under the house ---which meant that they enjoyed before close to the floor. They traditionally sit cross-legged at a meal, and often squat when resting. I wasn't as limber as the Koreans and found this difficult, but it makes sense if their heating came from under their feet!
This tree is about 750 years old! It's a juniper that's been in this palace for longer than most of the buildings have lasted. You can see it's supported by lots of wood and rope structures now, but what an amazing symbol of wisdom!
Here's the receiving building of Changdeokgung, which is near the front of the complex. As usual, the five guardian mountains of Seoul were painted behind the king's throne.
On a following day, we went out to Insadong to find some gifts and to get Dan, our recovering un-appendixed friend, some exercise.
You can see here that he was still carrying a bag of fluid with him after his surgery, which concerned us, but he trooped right along and enjoyed being outside. He and his brother Brandon (with the bag of mixed drink, not bodily fluids) are in these pictures.
Here's one of Jon, going in to buy one of these very odd ice cream cones...
I think I mentioned this funny sign before ---this says "seu-ta-beok-seu kapi" in hangul.
Another funny sign --"It's skin"! This is one of the many, many skin and body product shops in Seoul, complete with an airbrushed K-Pop singer cardboard cutout and some store-keepers, ready to follow you around within about three feet while you browse.
For dinner after shopping at Insadong, we went to the night market, dongdaemun, for some street food. We had our first course of noodles and dumplings at this stand --delicious and cheap!
This sashimi vendor was pretty strict --you sit, you get what they give you, and you drink soju with it! I passed on this one since I was a little nervous about uncooked fish on the street, but a few of us stayed bravely behind to enjoy this one.
There were lots of places to choose from, usually including a small row of carts with similar wares (fives carts with dumplings, four with rice cakes and sushi rolls, three with packaged seaweed crisps).
This stand had lots of different items you could get in bulk --mushrooms, veggies, and seafood... you can see the small, whole crabs in the bottom picture.
Several stands also included pajeon ("Korean pizza"), which smelled great!
Here are Kelsey and Dan enjoying some sushi rolls and blood sausage (the latter is called "Sun-dae", which is pretty funny to an English speaker).
My favorite building in all of Seoul, the Kyobo building! They sell life insurance (and they have a GIANT bookstore below with a big English section).
On an afternoon when others in Seoul were busy, I opted to check out the Seoul National Museum of History, which is a museum constructed about the Seoul area. It's free and there are some really neat features. The English doesn't cover everything, but you can walk the history of the area in chronological order from its construction, through the occupation by the Japanese, to the current rise of the city.
A feature that I enjoyed in particular was this very large-scale model of the city. You can stand above it or walk just over it, and see the layout of the sprawling urban area that is Seoul. I couldn't orient myself all that well other than finding the Han River (in the top picture) --it's SO huge!
The before and after pictures were also an interesting feature of this museum, and underscore the lingering anger that many Koreans as a culture have toward the Japanese because of their brutal occupation of this country in the first half of the 20th century (1910-1945). The image below shows the city of Seoul before and just after Japanese occupation: the city was entirely transformed as old buildings were used for new purposes and many new structures were built.
These propaganda postcards with statistics of the Korean area issued by the Japanese-controlled government were also interesting ---I was thinking that maybe one reason I couldn't find postcards in most parts of Seoul (travelers, get a pack in Insadong!) was the historical significance of postcards here...
The very small section within the museum about the "Korean War" as Americans see it was an artistically laid out section with bars in front of the images and artefacts. This bit on the enforced Japanese assimilation is sad and to the point.
This was the only piece in the entire museum on the Americans' "Korean War" --such an interesting contrast between our history book perspectives. The tile at the bottom reads, "Korean War, Seoul in Runs: North Korean troops invaded the south on June 25, 1950, triggering the Korean War. Seoul feel to the invaders in just three days, and the city was devastated during the fighting."
As a testament to the initial reconstruction of Seoul and the very prominent speed with which Koreans rebuilt their country and Seoul in particular after the war era, this image shows the Han River which divides the city in 1960 (top schematic view) and in 1970 (bottom).
This panoramic contrast shows Seoul in 1929 (top) and in 2009 (bottom). The hill in the center is Namsan, with the tower that I climbed to the foot of during my last week in Korea. At the foot this hill was a Japanese shrine that was constructed in place of a Buddhist temple, which I thought was particularly insulting. Although it's not visible in this image, there is a creek running left-to-right within the city (the one we walked down on the second night in Seoul) that was the divider between the Japanese and Korean parts of town. To one side (away from Namsan), the Koreans lived in poverty with extremely poor sanitation; the Japanese lived on the other, with sophisticated clothing and modernity that was shown within the museum.
A funny but thought-provoking t-shirt in English (in contrast to the shirts that you see in English in Japan that just don't make sense at all): "A film in two parts, the second of which never ends."
Bukhansan! This national park is an easy bus or bus/subway ride from central Seoul, and well worth the visit. It's not as crowded with trendy Korean hikers as you might anticipate, and there are really nice places to visit within this city of mountains. There's a fortress wall that runs along the inside of the mountainous park, and you can follow it or use it as a guide to help you not get lost. Heh.
Jon and I chose to start with Baegundae Peak, the tallest point in the park, and found a few temples and points of interest on the way up. This first temple, along with the one across the valley from us, had a Buddha statue of stone that was very beautiful. You could hear the familiar sound of a harshly ringing gong in the distance.
These dragon head features were different from other temples' designs.
We also saw quite a few small Buddha figurines stacked around the temple site, which may have been from visitors paying their respects to the temple. Another interesting aspect of the temples in Korea shown in this image is the use of swastikas. I found an article online that discusses this symbol: it gives an explanation that I think is poetic, but I don't know the accuracy of this quote. "It represents the intersection of two truths ― the vertical line indicates truth of the universality, meaning truth remains equal for all life forms. The horizontal line indicates the truth of eternity, meaning truth remains unchanged over time." (Source).
These cut-out lotuses were also a different piece of the design of this temple from others.
These three dots within the circle are a common symbol on Korean temples, and represent, according to another internet site, the three jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the teachings of Buddha, and the followers of Buddha (Source).
This temple was named after me! I don't actually remember what the name was, but I thought it was pretty perfect with some purple flowers out front!
As with Gwanaksan and Hallasan, the path up to Baegundae was stone steps pretty much the whole way up! Fortunately, once we got there, we walked along the ridge of the park and didn't have too much climbing to do.
The climb for the last 100-200 feet of Baegundae is straight up. Thank goodness for this rebar guide that was put into place --we scrambled up these rocks along with a crew of other climbers.
Here's Jon on our way up! What a slope. I caught these in a rare fog-free moment during our ascent.
And here's the top! We ate a little lunch up here (mostly consisting of some cookies --my first tim tam experience; yum). You can see the little steps that are carved into the granite, which were essential on this particular day because of the deposited fog.
We opted to use our trusty maps and tour around the peaks of the park (we never actually climbed onto another clear one... just apparently went by them), and met up with this fortress wall frequently.
Here's Jon at one of the gates checking out the map (it was a really great map --only 1,000KRW at the entrance to the park).
And even though it seemed like we were way up and out of the city, when the fog cleared, there it was! It took us about an hour to get back to the main part of Seoul via bus and subway. Fortunately, I think there are buses at almost every visitor center outside of the park.
This beautiful little temple on the way out of the park for us had an ancient pagoda statue and the smell of ginseng tea pervaded the area. A recording of Buddhist chanting played for us as we walked through.
And here's after! All gone!
Here's the cook making our pancake appetizer.
Almost every morning, I went to a coffee shop near Kelsey's goshiwon --there were lots since it was a school area. We found this one on one of my last days there, where we got to sit on the ground like at a fancy Korean set meal (also, they had great coffee!).
Jon agreed to go with me to experience a jimjilbang (I didn't take any pictures in here ---it's the public bath, and I thought it would be distasteful to shoot photos of Koreans bathing in the nude). There were seven floors at this particular bath, including two for women and two for men with pools of various temperatures and herbs, saunas of different temperatures (one at 70 deg Celsius with Himalayan salt ---yikes!), and a napping area. There was also a very interesting "uterus cleaning" room for women, although I didn't try that. I sampled each of the baths and saunas (I think I lasted nearly 15 seconds in the hot sauna!) and Jon and I shared some nachos in our funky old gym short outfits reading "Drago Hill Spa". Of the experiences I had in Korea, the bath was not at the top of my list ---but it was an interesting afternoon.
On my very last night in Korea we went to a baseball game! It was between two Seoul teams, so there was apparently quite a bit of tension ---which was shown via very polite, organized cheers by each team's fans during their turn at bat, led by a uniform-clad MC. As opposed to American stadiums where the food is expensive and to be bought inside, we carried in three (?) whole fried chickens and a bag of beers, which weren't terribly pricey.
We also got this noise-makers (ok, Dan, I should have bought some). I brought them home and gave them to my neighbors.
It turned out to be a fun game that went late into the evening. I'm not much of a baseball fan and couldn't exactly follow the score board, but Brandon (who loves baseball) was pretty excited about it.
Here's one of Kelsey, me and Brandon in our correct seats (about half way through the game, someone came up and was confused because we were sitting in their seats --surrounded by empty ones---and we figured out that the people below us were seated incorrectly... how rude).
The end-of-game lineup:
Me and Kelsey, last night together in Korea! Miss you, Kelsey! ( :
Now that I'm back in the U.S., I'm excited to try cooking some Korean food! I brought home some makkgoli (got it in the airport at Duty Free... Get some cheap stuff at a GS25 and put it in a plastic bag in your checked luggage instead --this was a pain!) and I'm planning to get some friends together someday soon to have some bibimbap, haemul pajeon, and radish kimchi (three recipes I tried yesterday!). I found a tiny Asian grocer with some soybean paste and chili paste, and this cookbook that you can get online is really, great for cooking at home in the U.S.
Before I sign off, I want to say thank you to my Korean advisor Dr. Taehyoung Lee, the students in his research group (Jungmin, Sungwon, Taehyeon, Kyeonghun, and Chihwe in particular), the researchers at the Baengnyerong Island Atmospheric Research Center, the professors in the Chemistry Department at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Global Campus (especially Dr. Jeffrey Owen and Dr. Guyoung Kang), the Korean National Research Foundation, the U.S. National Science Foundation (especially Elena Hillenburg), my CSU advisor Dr. Jeff Collett, and the wonderful 2014 Korean EAPSI group for making this trip happen, and making it wonderful. Chan (cheers)!
No comments:
Post a Comment