And Onto Seoul!

I love Seoul.  It’s huge and full of people and alive and reminds me of New York.  This all further confirms that I am a city girl.  I have been enjoying myself on the trip so far, but on the bus rides I would usually fall asleep after looking at the beautiful mountains and trees for just a few minutes.  However, Wednesday night when we drove into the Gangnam area (yup, that Gangnam), my face was glued to the window, awestruck by all of the buildings and lights.

Me asleep on the bus

 

Bustling foot traffic in Seoul

Picture Times Square.  Now multiply that by maybe 5.  Then add Los Angeles, a little Las Vegas and maybe Chicago.  Put that all together and you have Seoul.  It’s. So. Big.  Think of a busy street in Los Angeles, like Sunset Boulevard.  That street has 2-3 lanes going each way if I remember correctly.  A comparable road in Seoul has 6 lanes going each way.  6.  And they look like this:

Seoul traffic on a Wednesday night 

around 9:30 PM 

Between the traffic and the bustling energy of all the people and shops and restaurants, I feel right at home here. Plus, they have this:

 Law & Order in Korean

 Too bad they're mirrors aren't quite tall enough.

The first night in Seoul we went with George’s family to a really nice Chinese restaurant.  Korean-Chinese.  It was really good.  Definitely my favorite meal since I’ve been here.  Until the next day when we went to a dumpling house in Insadong (a nice shopping area).  There was a line out the door, and as we waited for a table we could watch 2 women in the window as they made dumplings.  They were delicious.  I want to try and learn how to make them when I get home.  

The dumpling restaurant

Watching the women make dumplings through the window 

Before lunch we went to Gyeongbokgung Palace (the royal palace).  It was gorgeous.  It reminded me of Versailles, but I think better.  The grounds include a beautiful pond and lots of really pretty trees. 

 Entrance to Gyeongbokgung Palace

Exchanging of the guard ceremony 

 Now that's what I call a group picture

   Pond on the palace grounds

He was very still.

But then he moved.

And I ran away.

After lunch we did some shopping.  It’s probably a good thing I haven’t had much time to shop here because otherwise I would spend a lot of money and also need another suitcase to bring it all back.  

A woman picks herbs outside her restaurant in Insadong 

 Shops in Insadong

George bought me a cute little elephant statue.  I’m not too sure about the souvenir he bought for himself, though.

George's new pillow 

That night we went to a restaurant where we sat on the floor.  I had seen rooms with people sitting on the floor in the restaurants we’d been, but this was the first time I’d done it myself.  It was a little tricky for me…my legs are a lot longer than everybody else’s. 

This morning George and I watched a beautiful sunrise from our hotel window.  A sunrise in Seoul.  Pretty surreal.  I am so grateful to have been included on this trip, and I would love to come back again sometime.  Maybe with less than 350 people, though.

Seoul sunrise

I’m now at the Incheon Airport in Seoul.  George and I just got chair massages, and I’m tempted to go back and get another one.  I seem to have acquired a cold, which is making me nervous about the half marathon on Sunday, but hopefully I can sleep it off on the plane. 

I will end my final post with a segment I’m calling: “I Am Obsessed With Korean Kids.”  Or maybe I should call it: “I’m a Creepy White Lady.”

Thank you for reading my blog and for all of your encouragement and support while I’ve been gone.  Next time I see you, let’s go eat a cheeseburger.

Tuesday, October 22

Today we went to the southern coast of Korea, which was about a 3 hour bus ride.  You know how karaoke is really big over here?  Well, the bus is equipped for karaoke.  As in, a big flat screen tv up front and a microphone that can reach to everyone on the bus.  George’s aunt, Yuh Kwan Jang Nim Harmon (Yuh Kwan Jang Nim is her title, Harmon is her married name) said she wanted everybody to sing.  (She’s a 9^th degree black belt, so everyone tends to obey her.)  If there was a lag in the microphone being passed around she would say, “Sing!  I don’t hear singing!”  George and I sang “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”  Everyone asked George’s aunt to sing, and she sang “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” but with her accent, she pronounces it “Itchy Bitchy Spider.”  I died laughing.  So funny.  Apparently it’s a running joke in her family and in the school that she can’t pronounce it, so they always ask her to sing it.

On a side note, this is the aunt that wrote a book that I’ve talked about.  Her story is nothing short of amazing, and I highly recommend it. 

Once we got to the southern coast, we took a cable car up to the top of a mountain.   Again, these pictures really don’t capture just how beautiful the view was. 

Should have moved the purse.

Looking at these pictures you might think to yourself, “Gee, that would be a good place to propose,” and someone did.

A Kuk Sool couple from Texas 

moments after getting engaged

That brings me to something else I’ve noticed as I learn more about Kuk Sool.  There are a lot Kuk Sool couples.  I’ve asked around to see if there’s a slang phrase for it, but there is none.  Kuk Sool-mance?  George’s aunt met her husband in Kuk Sool (if you read her book you can learn the whole beautiful story), and one of her daughters just married a man she met in Kuk Sool.  There are so many couples here that met through practicing this martial art.  It makes sense.  Kuk Sool Won isn’t just about the kicks and swords and punches.  It’s also about character and morals.  It is a way of life.  And then as can be expected, some of the children of these couples do Kuk Sool and on down the line it goes.  It’s a family affair. 

This evening, the hanbok tailor came to help George and me pick out our hanboks.  I had been charged with looking through a few books and picking the ones that I liked.  I already had a feeling that my favorites would not be well received:  I like darker, earthier colors, and in the hanbok store the day before, George’s mom seemed to be loving all things pink.  So I wasn’t surprised that when I showed the tailor my favorite one (dark green top with a blue/gray dress), he scrunched up his face and motioned “no way” with his hand.  He then explained to George (in Korean) why that was the wrong choice.  I only understood one word, but I knew what he was saying.  “Grandmother,” was the word I understood.  When George’s mom came to see what we had chosen, she asked if I had decided to go with the tailor’s suggestion.  I told her yes because my choice was no good; it was for a grandmother.  She wanted to see it, so the man flipped to the page for her.  She collapsed in her chair, laughing.  She almost looked like someone was tickling her she was laughing and tossing so much.  George said he had never seen his mom laugh so hard.  Pink it is.

Monday, October 21

Now that the tournament is over, all of the sightseeing begins!  Have you ever been to a tourist spot and seen a gajillion charter busses?  That’s us.  There are 10 busses, just to give you an idea.

I was without George today, though, because he went to the doctor.  Nothing is wrong; it’s something his family does whenever they come to Korea.  You know how in the US everyone’s all crazy over Obamacare, and everything costs so much and blah, blah, blah?  Well in Korea, you can get a whole slew of tests done at an affordable price.  So basically, whenever Koreans who have moved away come back to visit, they make sure to go to the hospital and get the Full Works Deluxe Check-Up.  That’s not what it’s called; I just capitalized for effect.  You name it, they check it out and send you the results in a week or so.  Eyes, ears, mouth, blood.  They put you under and stick a camera down your esophagus and check that out.  Chest x-ray, lungs, CAT scan.  Mammogram and a gyno exam for the ladies.  And all of this comes to a total of….$1,500.  I’d have to do some research and a little math, but I think a plane ticket to Korea + $1,500 is still less than how much all that stuff would cost in the US. 

So anyway.  George wasn’t with me today; he was getting poked and prodded.  Our first stop was a Buddhist temple.  Because we are travelling in such a large group, there wasn’t time to walk around on your own and, you know, get all Buddha-like.  But what I was able to take in was just so gorgeous.  When we got to the first temple where people were praying and monks were chanting, George’s mom asked me if I was wearing socks.  “Yes, ma’am,” I say.  “I need to borrow,” she said, “It’s tradition.  Respect.  I can’t go in there barefoot.”

Is it weird that I’m perfectly happy to give this woman my socks?  That I’m almost flattered that I’m the one she asked?  I was definitely grateful that I didn’t wear my Halloween socks.

After I got my socks back and my shoes re-tied, we were on to see the largest Buddha in the world.  It is literally breathtaking.  You are walking down a path and then you round a corner and there it is.  My pictures don’t do it justice.  

After that we went into another temple, and George’s mom borrowed my socks again.  I was a little embarrassed that she saw my feet without a pedicure, but I figured since I was loaning her my socks that I was in the clear.

After the temple we went to a market in Daegu.  So you know how there’s a lot of people in Asia?  I think they’re all at this market. 

The end of the market, close to the street

A main thoroughfare in the market

Throughout a main thoroughfare, people sit at tiny restaurants

Mmmmm....squid.

One of many tiny restaurants in what feels like a department store of restaurants.  

Those are George's aunties and Dad.

Again, these pictures aren’t showing just how expansive this place is.  There are multiple alleys lined with shops and doorways.  And when you go into any one of these many, many doorways, you’ll find yourself in a maze of about 200 shops.  The shops are separate rooms; it feels like one big store, but each section is a different shopkeeper.  It’s kind of like being in a Ross or a Michael’s but the aisles are smaller and it’s huge.  The one I was in was all textiles, so it was like walking through a giant maze of blankets.

For the trip’s video, George’s mom wanted footage of certain people trying on hanbok.  Hanbok is a traditional Korean dress.  Technically it’s a skirt that you tie around your chest and then there’s a little vest that goes on top.  The men where pants, also tied around the chest, and have a jacket on over it.  These dresses are so beautiful.  I’ve seen George’s sisters-in-law and mom and cousins where them on New Year’s Day, and his aunt wore one at her daughters wedding.  When they walk in them, they look like they’re floating across the floor.  So elegant. 

Korean hanbok

A woman from the trip tries on hanbok

Hanbok shopkeepers look on during the process

 Haggling is expected at the market, and that is what 

George's mom is doing here.  Very well, I might add.

After we got footage of girls from the trip, George’s mom said I needed to come with her.  I followed her out the maze of textiles and back out onto the street and through the crowd of people around to another maze of textiles where we met George’s cousins who had been trying on hanbok, too.  George’s mom spoke in Korean with a man holding a tape measure and told me to take off my shoes.  Then she spoke more with the man.  Was I going to try on a hanbok?  This often happens when I am with George’s mom.  I follow her around and follow her instructions and wonder what is happening and don’t usually figure it out until later when George explains it to me.  The man measured me, and I started to get excited about trying one on.  That didn’t happen though.  George’s mom told me to put my shoes back on and handed me a bunch of hanbok catalogues.  Luckily, George’s cousin translated for me that she wanted me to look through the hanbok and pick the ones I like.  I’m very honored that she wants to buy me a hanbok and excited to wear one.  But I have my doubts how this short-haired white girl is gonna look in one…

  

Yesterday ended with a formal dinner at the hotel.  And speaking of hanbok, George’s mom wore the most beautiful one I’ve seen. 

George's parents enter the party

Medals were given to all of the masters and a special award was given to the best judge from the tournament.  (The judges were these same masters getting medals.)  The award is meant to recognize the person for having a positive attitude throughout the competition, an ability to go with the flow of whatever arises, and the dedication to being fair.  The man who won talked about how Kuk Sool Won made him the person he is today.  He said he grew up very poor and that without having Kuk Sool in his life from the age of 8, he would have gone down a very different path. 

I'll end on a personal note.  I have always really liked George's family, and now I feel that I have fallen in love with them.  Being on this trip has been so great because I’m spending so much time with them.  Not only his parents, but his cousins and aunts and uncles, too.  Since George wasn’t with me today, I had the opportunity to talk a lot with his cousin Emerald.  She is like a little sister to George, and we get along really well.  By talking to her I was able to learn even more about George and his family.  I really want to master this Korean language thing.  I know it will take time, but I want to be able to know his parents and his brothers on a deeper level.  More than just the few phrases I can say in Korean and the sentences here and there in English.  Given the facts of Korean culture, I know that even if become fluent I may not have a close relationship with them.  But, I want to at least be able to learn the subtle parts of their personalities.  To know what they are saying to each other to make each other laugh.  I got to watch George with all 3 of his brothers and his parents the other day.  It was a joy to just watch them interact with each other.  It reminded me of being with my own family, when we’re all there together.  I just wished I could be in on it, too.