Day 2 began with a brief history of Korea. Legend has it that the first Korean was created when a bear and a tiger both desired to be humans. God told them to live in a cave and eat nothing but garlic for 100 days and when they emerged from the cave, they would be humans. The tiger gave up, but the bear emerged as a beautiful woman. However, being a woman-bear made it difficult for her to find a mate, so god decided to just give up his son to marry her (and I don’t mean Jesus; despite the fact that a LOT of Koreans are Christian). Bada-bing, bada-boom, the first Korean was made. Then, throughout much of their history, Koreans were divided into strict social classes (similar to the Hindu caste system). In the 20th century, their royal system came to a halt when Japan decided to claim Korea as a territory. After imposing somewhat of a brutal regime upon the Koreans, they finally became free when Japan lost WWII. Like WWI, the victors of the war began to divvy up territories of the losing side. When it came to Korea, the US and then ally, USSR split Korea at the 38th parallel (completely arbitrarily I might add) and decided that the US would look after the southern portion, with the USSR keeping tabs on the north. This worked pretty well until communism began to take hold in the northern portion. Tensions over this led to what became the Korean War. Although it may be a “forgotten” war, almost 3 million casualties were incurred, many of them from the US, and other countries (like Ethiopia!?). The keynote of the lecture seemed to be that despite Korean pride, they often times have been marginalized throughout history; whether by Japan, the US or a simple history book, Korea is left out. Even in international discourse, it seems like Korea gets pushed out of the picture, being that North Korea is a rogue state, Japan is even more tech oriented and developed and China is becoming a major powerhouse. There’s just not a lot of room for South Korea. So that’s one of the points of this trip is to show the reason why it should be a big part of the picture. Part of me is excited for that to happen, but it still has a long ways to go in terms of making itself more open to that possibility…
After the lecture, we got back on the bus for a city tour of Seoul. But first it was lunchtime! Ginseng chicken soup—a Korean classic typically enjoyed in the summertime (why sweat a lot, when you could eat soup and sweat more!? Apparently it’s cleansing…) was on the menu. Initially I didn’t know what to expect, only knowing that it was a whole small chicken stuffed with rice and ginseng root. I sat down to find exactly that sitting in front of me on my plate. Our server ripped open the entire chicken in one graceful slide of her chopsticks and we all followed suit to reveal the delightful innards of rice and root. The chicken had a simple chicken taste, which I was glad about and happily devoured both its little breasts. The broth was delicious, tasting of simple chicken broth, but with a refreshing taste that only can be described as “Asian-y”. You know the flavor, I guarantee!
Full of some cleansing ginseng soup, we drove over to the “blue house” which is where the president lives. It’s actually not a fully blue house. It just has a turquoise roof. But a spectacular palace nonetheless. Instead of touring through the blue house, we went to this—eh, museum? It wasn’t really a museum, though. It was mostly a high-tech info center promoting Seoul. Like the rest of Korea, everything was high tech with interactive booths, maps, graphs, photo booths and a robot that guided your tour if desired.
Then we drove over to Gyeongbokgung Palace, whose grounds seem to be endless and the magnificence of the palace just as endless. Even more remarkable was the fact that it was preserved next to the modern skyscrapers of downtown Seoul. A common motif of Asia—the battlegrounds where old meets new in a spectacular display of lights and centuries old practices. I definitely think my pictures of Gyeongbokgung Palace will display it better than I can describe.
Just a few blocks away from the palace is the bright, noisy, colorful and cultural Insadong street, with the greasy, sweet and fishy scents of street food to lure you in further. Many shops along the street sell the typical Asian kitschy souvenir stuffs. But if you can navigate your way through the been-there-done-that knick knacks, you can find some tea houses, art museums, delicious and/or interesting street food (there were 2 bug-roasting stands—where was Andrew Zimmern!?). While meandering down Insadong, I was approached by two girls who couldn’t have been much older than freshmen in high school. One asked if I didn’t mind answering a few questions, and being a sucker for surveys and true to my xenophilic roots, I wasn’t about to pass up a questionnaire from an adorable Korean student who probably had this as an assignment to practice her English. She asked basic questions and questions about my knowledge/appreciation of Korean culture while her friend recorded me with a cell phone. I was so impressed with her English; really anyone that speaks a language completely unrelated to English gets a lot of credit in my book. It took me 3 days just to master hello, good-bye and thank you…and that’s just speaking it, not even writing it in Hangul…
To wrap up the day, we headed to the Korean War Memorial Museum. I was shocked to see a whole hallway filled with the names of those lost to the war from top to bottom from all 50 states and several other countries as well; lives that I feel, while not lost in vain, were essentially lost for nothing as Korea ended up in the same position it had been in before the war (not geographically, but socially and politically). Maybe that’s why everyone tried to forget it? Regardless, this essentially the end of my day. I returned home and in lieu of going out, I stayed in to work on my first few entries. On that note, kam sam ni da for reading along, despite this not being updated everyday. I’m trying, given my busy schedule and limited time out. My entries come in waves.
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