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A Getaway in Gwangju
Apparently I’m a fan of Gwangju related alliteration. Anyhow, Gwangju is a city about 4 hours south of Incheon. If you recall my friend Garrett visited me about a month ago and now it was time to see if he could match the incredibly high hosting bar I set. It ended up being one of my best weekends in Korea, so yeah I guess I’ll give him a passing grade.
I got in late Friday night so all we basically did was go back to the apartment and go to bed. But Saturday morning we were up and raring to go by about 8:00 AM so we could hike while it wasn’t too hot. This turned out to be well planned as it was about 27 degrees and sunny that day. The object of our hiking furor was Medeungsan, the biggest mountain in the area. As it was a Saturday, and hiking is basically the national sport of Korea, it was pretty busy but that just made it more entertaining. I found Gwangju-ites (Gwangjuers?) to be very friendly people. Lots of people smiled and said hi to us as we went up. Kids tended to be especially vocal as Garrett is a giant redheaded dude, which they find very amusing. Now I’m quickly going to segue into something weirdly fascinating to me.
I did not get a picture of it, but Koreans are VERY cautious about sun exposure. Part of it comes from the fact that white skin is very desirable here, and I think the other part comes from health reasons too. Which I totally get, I’m pale and sunburn really easily. Hell I was being careful and reapplying this whole day and I still got wicked burned on my shoulders. Anyways most Koreans take this to the whole next level. Almost all the other hikers were wearing full jackets, and pants BUT there were also lots who had that plus gloves, hats, a sun visor, sunglasses, and a face cover of some sort. There were more than a few people who were completely covered from head to toe. It seems weird to me that you would go outside only to not let outside touch you at all, let alone the heat factor. I was hot just in a shirt and shorts. Anyways I’ll try to get a picture someday.
All in all the hike up took us about 2 hours. That was including a sizable break about 3/4 of the way up. It was pretty steep in chunks, the last 1/4 took me a while, but Garrett was very patient with my out of shape-ness. But finally we made it to the top and damn was it worth it.
It’s hard to describe the view, but it was one of the best I’ve ever seen. Partly because that was one of the toughest hikes I’ve ever done. But mostly it was just special to see the green mountains go on and on into the horizon. It’s not something I’ve really ever seen before, and it felt good to sit on the edge of the world.
The climb down the mountain ended up being rougher, as we were tired, and climbing down is really hard on the knees. Both of us felt like arthritic old ladies by the time we got down. So we took a quick rest and then moved on to the May 18 Memorial Park in Gwangju.
In 1980 Korea was basically run by a military dictatorship. The movement for democratization started in Gwangju with student protests that turned violent. It was the catalyst for the true democratization of Korea.
From there we wandered over to a small river and strolled along it. This was around late afternoon and the path was delightfully peaceful and lovely. It was wonderful. And we saw a crazy bird and some fish.
And that was basically it for Saturday night. It took us a while to get back because the bus took forever and we were really exhausted and dirty when we got back. We just got some takeout gimbap for dinner and then watched Taken, which is a badass Liam Neeson movie.
Sunday morning was a little more relaxed because we were still pretty tired from Saturday. We slept in a bit before walking down to the Gwangju National Museum, which is a pretty great museum. We saw a great exhibit of old books, which sounds boring but was actually pretty cool. They were all the state records from around the 1600s which had been kept in France for a long time. They came with a bunch of other cool stuff like giant royal seals and explanations of illustration methods. And while we were there some reporters interviewed Garrett about the exhibit. We pretty much looked like the craziest tourists ever because we were all sunburned from the day before. So I’m sure the news caption would be something like “Dazed Foreigners Like Books.”
From there we walked through a set of parks around what will be the Gwangju Design Biennial later this year (which I’m pretty excited for). We got some delicious Korean style hotdogs with cabbage, mustard, mayo and bulgolgi sauce (a sweet barbeque thing). Sounds disgusting but it was actually insanely delicious, and the lady who made them was really sweet. I also got an awesome chocolate/vanilla swirl cone from a convenience store for 1000 won! That’s about 90 cents! Yum!
From there we caught a bus out to the outskirts of Gwangju into a really old, small farming neighbourhood. And for some reason I didn’t take any pictures. But I really loved it, as I’m realizing that I really love decay and growth. This place had a wonderful mix of broken things, repairs, and new things. Then we tromped out into some random peoples fields to find the river nearby. The river actually had a nice path next to it that apparently ran for around 120 km or so. Pretty impressive. We wandered over to a bridge and then started to head back when we met Snuffles.
Snuffles is a dog, a particularly adorable one too. He was chilling under a truck we passed while (we assume) his owners were working in their garden. We oohed and ahed over him because he was super adorable and he seemed to like us because he started to follow us. And he continued to follow it. And as he ran he made adorable snuffling noises, hence my name for him. Except he kept following us. We didn’t want to be accused of stealing this dog so we awkwardly passed him off on a Korean family.
And from there we basically went back to Garrett’s place, got a GIANT pizza and watched Drive until it was time for me to catch my bus.
Overall I really enjoyed Gwangju as a city. It reminded me a lot of Wroclaw (the city I lived in Poland) actually. It had a very similar vibe as a smaller, mature city with a very neighbourhoodly feel. It’s really hard to describe but going there was definitely what I needed. I was really bummed to be heading back to the real world in Songdo. I really hope to return soon and haul Garrett to more places we can get sunburned at.
-Steph
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Temple Stay
I am getting really bad at this spacing out my updates thing. This is actually my temple stay from 2 weeks ago. I’ll add my Gwangju stuff tomorrow.
I spent a weekend at a Buddhist temple and monastery, which was definitely one of the more unique things I’ve ever done. And I’ve ridden an elephant and jumped out of an airplane. But before that I have a tale of shame to beguile you all with.
So the bus left Seoul at 8:30 on Saturday morning. Living as far out as I do that means I had to get up at 5:50. Anyways I went out for drinks with coworkers the night before and got fairly drunk. Was in bed by 1:00 and woke up at 5:50…still drunk. So when I made the jump to get out the door I forgot my camera. And then sobered up on the subway ride into Seoul, which is an unpleasant experience. Anyways the only pictures I have were a few from my phone.
Anyways I had a good rest on the bus ride and we stopped for lunch at of of Korea’s many giant roadside rest stops. Seriously, Korea does rest stops right. There’s huge clean bathrooms, and tons of food and drink shops. We got to the temple and sadly it was raining, a trend that would continue all weekend. But it was very pretty, and this temple was also beautiful. Every time I think “Okay this is it, I’ve seen the prettiest temple in Korea” the next one goes and proves me wrong. Geumsansa had several large buildings with stunning decorations. Obviously I have no pictures but trust me on this one. The highlight for me was a 3 story building with a 2 story Buddha inside. It was one of the most beautiful pieces of iconography I’ve ever seen.
So first off we got our awesome monastic gear, which is basically comfy pyjamas.
By this point in the day my shoes were already soaked through and they would not dry out until the bus home the next day. After that we got a sweet introduction video that was begging to be MST3K’d. Then we got to make Lotus Lanterns! This was pretty much my favourite part of the whole weekend.
Oddly working on the lanterns reminded me a lot of being in university. I was sitting on the floor in comfy clothes, working on a repetitive task. I remembered how meditative my art practice was.
After lanterns we went to have dinner, which was just mixed rice with veggies. Then we got to go participate in the evening service. It was really interesting and a little nerve racking because I didn’t want to screw up. But there was a lot of chanting and bowing and it was only about 25 minutes long. Very different from most other religious services I’ve been to!
After that we had tea and conversation with one of the monks. He was our main guide for the weekend and was a really nice guy. He had a great sense of humour too. He took our inane questions about Buddhism for a while and then it was off to bed! Good thing too, because we were due to get up at 3:00 AM! The morning service at the temple starts at 3:30 AM! Yikes! So needless to say I was not the most alert for that service, but luckily we got to go back to sleep afterwards. All the way to 5:00 AM. Then we had to get up for guided meditation, which I almost immediately fell asleep for. I think I’d rather meditate with paint and plastic. After meditation we had a traditional monastic meal. It’s a complicated way of eating that focuses on not wasting anything. You have to use water to clean out a set of bowls that all fit together. Then you get your food and have to eat it all. At the end you use a piece of radish to clean the bowls out, and you have to drink your rinsewater! It was a cool experience, although I honestly would have appreciated it more if it wasn’t 5:30 AM.
Luckily after that we got to go back to bed, all the way to 9:30. By then I was finally feeling human again. We took a nice walk out to the Hugging Trees, which are two trees that have grown together over the years. It was a really nice walk especially because the rain had mostly stopped. The area around the temple was really gorgeous, spring has finally sprung and everything was green. The rain made all the mountains misty and it was very very quiet.
The last thing of the day was making a set of prayer beads. This involved stringing 108 beads (it’s a lucky number) on a string. The catch is that after each one you make a bow. This can be anything from a full prostration to a hapjeong (half bow). Needless to say, I opted for the half bow. So I went to the building with the 2 story Buddha and put my beads together.
And after that it was home time! All in all it was a great experience even with the early rising. I made some friends and learned about Buddhism. I would definitely recommend it to anybody who wants a unique cultural experience.
-Steph
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Why I Love Songdo’s Emptiness
I took a walk around town today and swung around to a part of town I hadn’t been to yet. One of my favourite things about living on an island is that I can just pick a direction and walk until I hit water. Today I went way down south, passing through a number of new areas. One was full of R and D companies, the next was a little more industrial including Songdo’s waste water treatment plant. The further south I got, the less people and more empty space and construction I saw. But I also found some really lovely new parks with some good looking picnic spots.
Anyways it came upon me suddenly why I like living here so much. I’ve mentioned before how Songdo’s lack of population gives it a bit of a post rapture vibe. And many of you may know that I’m somewhat fascinated by post-apocalyptic themed media. I realized that what I really love about Songdo is that it looks very post-apocalyptic. When you get further away from the center of town you start to see things like lots and streets that were put down years ago but haven’t been used. So they’ve just been sitting there for years unused with plant life growing and refuse piling up. I really wish I had brought my camera to illustrate my point better. But basically even though they’re new they look abandoned and decaying. There’s this beautiful skyline of futuristic looking buildings contrasted with half finished streets and piles of construction debris. And no people. Like anywhere.
It’s delightful and I’m glad I get to experience this before the city really starts to get built up and populated. And yes this very well be my own brand of weirdness that finds it fascinating, but I love it. And I’m itchin to go back there with a camera and a sketchbook to try and capture it.
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Pictures from Seoraksan, Seoul, and Gyeongju
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Triple Post of Awesome
I realized this weekend that I have three weekends of adventures backed up that I haven’t blogged about. Silly me! I’ll give you the condensed version so as not to overload everyone.
So three weeks ago I went to Seoraksan National Park east of Seoul. Seoraksan (san means mountain) is the tallest mountain in Korea, not to mentioned quite beautiful. I find the Korean mountains really interesting, they look like a bunch of giant pebbles all glued together. Unfortunately the day we left Seoul it started to snow. And then it kept snowing. And kept snowing. By the time we got to the mountain there was about 10 cm, not to mention a vicious wind that kept blowing it around. The temperature was about plus 1, so it wasn’t cold but that did mean everything was melty and slippery as hell. None of us had proper gear because we didn’t expect that much snow at the end of March in Korea! I should mention that “we” is a tour company called Adventure Korea. They run weekend trips all over the country for expats like me who work all week. Great people! Anyways we slogged up the mountain as best we could, but it got to a point where it was way too slippery and dangerous to continue. It was still really beautiful up there with all the snow and the sun, but the higher we got the more snow there was. Near the top there was over a foot and it made using the stairs and ropes impossible. So one day I will have to go back to Seoraksan, because I really want to get to the top!
Two weeks ago my friend Garrett came up from Gwangju (a city down south) for his first weekend in Seoul. He came to Korea about a month after me but hadn’t been to Seoul yet. We did a few things that I had already done and knew were awesome, like Changdeukgung Palace and Bukcheon. But we also did some cool new things like Namsan Tower and live Starcraft! We were on TV! Oh yes, it was a damn good time. I’ve never even played Starcraft and I enjoyed it immensely. So that was another good weekend.
And this weekend just passed I went to Gyeongju, which is in southeast Korea. Gyeongju was the capital of Silla, one of three ancient Korean kingdoms. There are ruins lying around everywhere and I mean that quite literally. Because Korea is so mountainous, almost every inch of flat space gets used for farms and gardens. So most of the old monuments and whatnot are in the middle of fields. Anyways it was lovely, so many cool things to see! It was supposed to be a cycling trip, but since I dislike cycling I just walked the whole thing. I still saw a ton and walked about 15 km all together! It was delightful.
So after three weekends of long days, short nights, and more sightseeing than you can shake a stick at you’d best believe I’m going to take it easy this weekend. Course the weekend after this I’m going on a temple stay, and after that I’m going to Gwangju to visit Garrett. Such a busy girl I am.
-Steph
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This one I will actually say is true in the Korean aging system. Koreans have their own age system which is very confusing and results in super young kids (like 3 or 4 years old) being in school.
So here we go:
1. Koreans believe that the minute you are born, you are 1 year old. So no matter what happens you are always at least one year older than your international age.
2. Part 2 is where it gets tricky. In Korea your age doesn’t go up on your birthday, everybody’s age goes up on New Years Day. So while they celebrate birthdays, it doesn’t affect your age.
So I’ll use myself as an example. So when I was born on August 14th, 1989 I was 1 year old in Korean reckoning. Then January 1, 1990 rolled around and my age went up with everybody elses. So even though I was only 4 months old, in Korean age I was 2. This carries over year after year. This is how we get kids in a program for 5 year olds who are barely 3 years old.
So this is how you figure out your Korean age. If your birthday has NOT passed yet in the year, then you are 2 years older than your international age. So because my birthday has not passed yet, I am actually 24 in Korean age as opposed my 22 in international age. If your birthday HAS passed then you are 1 year older than your international age.
So when my birthday rolls around this August I will remain 24 in Korean, but my international age will go up 1 year.
Make sense? No? Go drink some soju (cheap Korean liquor), then you will understand. Or run down the street screaming. One of those two.
-Steph
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Korea Has a Thing for Poop. No Seriously.
Hey Korea, we’ve been together for about two months now and I like you a lot. You have great food, scenery and lots of fun things to do. But…there’s this one thing.
Korea has a bit of a national poop obsession. Sometimes it’s cute, like kids making poop jokes. That’s fine, kids in Canada do that too. But Korea just takes it a little further. For example, you can often find toys made to look like piles of poop. We have a poop wand and work, and last week I saw little plushy poop keychains. When I asked my students about it all they said was “Poop is funny!”
…Oh yeah.
Anyways I was teaching a debate class that uses adapted Korean folk tales to tell debate topics. Last week I came across a particularly poop-centric one and I would like to share it with you now:
“Deep in the woods, there lived a widowed woman. Her son was a lazy fool. “I’m so ashamed of you! All the others sons in other families are working hard to succeed! What is it that you do?”
The pressure made him feel nervous and his legs shook. He got up and dug a hole in the yard. He pooped in it and covered it with soil. Then, he thought hard and came up with a great idea. “I will prove that I’m not a fool.” He sprinkled sesame seeds over the same hole.
A few days later, a strong plant started to grow out of the hole. With the sesame leaves, the fool made ten jars of sesame oil. Then, he went out and bought a puppy. He dipped it in the sesame oil many times until it became slippery and shiny. Finally the fool tied one end of a thick rope around the puppy and the other end to a tree. Soon tigers smelled the puppy. A tiger came and swallowed the puppy. However the puppy was so slippery that is slipped right out of the back end of the tiger. Then came another tiger. This happened many times, connecting several tigers together. The fool went to the market and made a fortune by selling the tigers”
WTF? This is an actual story from an actual textbook that I teach. And it’s about pooping in holes and daisy chaining tigers together through their intestines!
And you thought Japan was freaky.
-Steph
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I cannot get enough of Woodhands lately. Especially this song, which has a very Electric Six vibe.
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Snacktime, Korea is doing it right.
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This has actually happened to me a few times. My students are convinced I’m pregnant, which I’ll admit is sort of plausible. My fat tends to collect in my stomach but the rest of my body is normalish. So to a child I probably look pregnant. But they don’t believe me when I tell them I’m not.
