ike a combination of New Zealand, Greece, and other places I haven't been

Ahh. Last week we went to visit 2 islands that turned out to be just gorgeous. One of them, Hongdo, I actually consider to be The Prettiest place I have ever visited. It was like an amalgam of all the pictures of places I desperately wanted to visit at some time: the rolling green hills seemed like something you could only see in New Zealand, while the little houses set on the hill looked like something straight out of Greece (at least, from the pictures I've seen)... the aqua water (surprisingly clear!) reminded me of some place in South America, and the jungle like forest looked like something straight out of my book on orangutans in Borneo.

This time, when I talk about "We," I mean my dad's best friend's family (the mom, dad, and two daughters aged 23 and 26). We grew up together sharing Christmases and holidays which were all recorded on home videos which we watched endlessly while I visited them. Their family ended up moving back to Korea, and, it's interesting to see how the girls I used to play with grew up so different from me, leading the life I could have lead if my parents had moved back to Korea too. I have to say, it's been so much fun hanging out with them/girls/young people again. We may have gone on extremely different paths, but, we picked up right where we left off.

On the day we left, we took a KTX train from Seoul to Mokpo, a city on the southern most tip of Korea, where we boarded a ferry for a 2.5 hour ride to Hongdo (Korean for "Red Island").
Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Almost uninhabited by people due to the designation of the majority of the island as a nature reserve, the island combined the things I love most.
After Hongdo, it was off to Hooksando (black mountain island), another island (10x larger, and with a whopping population of 4,000 people).

We chose to leave right in the middle of Olympic fever time, when all the events Koreans are good at were playing on tv. As a result, no matter where we went, Koreamania took over and people were crying, yelling, and hugging on the ferry and in restuarants. God love nationalism, even if it's not exactly my nation! If you know what event is happening at what time, you can literally tell the result by listening for the cheers or moans of agony that penetrate through the apartment walls or permeate from the streets below. Loves it!


Pictures:


The general reigning over his land at Mokpo.




Mokpo: the rock that was covered with white powder to give the appearance of a large pile of rice to intimidate the Japanese that were going to invade on ships. The Japanese were intimidated by the "cornucopia", and instead of attacking, fled for home.



On the ferry riding to Hongdo! I heard once that Korea is the only place in the world with overlapping mountains and weather that makes for these types of black and grey scenes... probably not true (Japan for one), but, so pretty nonetheless. The sticks are the borders of fish farms.



Arrival at Hongdo!

Hongdo: I look like a tool, but, this is the only pic I have of Hongdo's forests.

One of Hongdo's green green hills (the only one you can walk up)

A closer look at the stairs leading up the hill. I just realized that the colors seem to be off on my camera... either that or the light was really different at different times of day

The little village of Hongdo, nestled inbetween the hills.

Mini praying mantis

That pier is the one where I want to get married someday. Maybe. Probably?

View of the sunset from the restaurant where we had fish we saw swimming not 10 minutes before.

Then it started raining, but, nothing could dampen our spirits (or our backpacks) on the pier

View from our ___'s window (not a hotel... not somebody's house either... don't know what to call it!)

View from the ferry at Hooksando. That rock happens to look EXACTLY like Korea! Everyday the basic tv channels "take a break" from 4-6, but, when tv resumes at 6am, they play the national anthem with a slideshow of great images of Korea. We saw a handful of those images while at Hongdo and Hooksando, and, these rocks comprise one of them

Cloud forest at Hooksando

Ji Hae and I made a surprise birthday dinner for her mom's bday! I will miss that family tons.

It for now; leaving in 1 week, can you believe it??

Sara

$

The going rate for luxury items in Korea:

-Calvin Klein bra: $100

-Victoria's Secret underwear: $50

-Seven or True Religion Jeans: $500

-Jacket from a department store: $300

-Coach purse: $600

-Starbucks Coffee: $4

-Foreign car prices: On average, 119.8% more expensive than in the USA

-Gas: Not sure, but, it takes my friend $130 to fill up her tank and she has a sedan.

-Eyelash grafts: $300 (they transplant hair follicles onto your eyelids... the problem is, they keep on growing like the hair on your head does, so, you need to trim them or be visually impaired)

-Anything Burbury: Priceless?

YES

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Demo(nstration) Mad(cow)ness

SHOOT (pun intended), Korea's soccer team which I love is playing in the Olympics and I need to see this!! Quickly, let me get something off my chest:

I think one of the most disconcerting aspects of my stay in South Korea is the widespread negative sentiment that ebbs through the entire country, exploding into waves of protests almost daily in the streets of Seoul. Daily we drive by armored "riot buses," buses with grills on the windows and filled to the brim with Korean police officers wielding shields and clubs. In front of the subway stations are typically 4-8 of these riot police officers, ready to spring into (violent) action at the merest hint of a "Demo" (short for demonstration, or, protest).

The negativity stems from much that we, as Americans, can relate to. Distrust, and even anger towards the conservative president. A tanking economy coupled with job shortages. Crazy weather.

What I, as a product of a Western and capitalistic educational background, CANNOT relate to is the sheer numer of demos occuring, and the content of the demonstrations. I am all for social activism, and even for political dissent to keep politicians on their toes. But, demos, riot buses, 16,000 police officers clogging the streets daily? I'm having trouble understanding.

This was one of the first cases where I realized in a slap in the face realization that I come from a very different cultural background than those around me who share my skin color and blood.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak who grew up in extreme poverty to extricate himself using very "American" and non-traditional methods in Korea to become the youngest CEO of Hyundai is a very classic example of a strict economist who uses basic business principles to try and draw win win situations. Him, I get. His economic strategies, I get. I think the biggest example of his nothing short of genius political acumen and savvy business skilz is his turning a gross, swampy garbage stream that nobody wanted to live by into a scenic, pleasant river (Cheungecheon) that runs through Seoul spawning much desired riverside properties and beautifying the city during his time as Mayor. That earned Lee Myung-bak his thumbs up from Time Magazine as the "hero of the environment", and, that's about when I slowly started to give my approval to the atypical businessman from Seoul who promised Korea the 747: 7 % annual growth in GDP, $40,000 USD per capita, and a rise from 14th to 7th in world's largest economies.

But, Lee has a 17% approval rating from Koreans. And, it's declining. A huge contributing factor to this disappointing number is the pro-American, pro-trade attitude Lee holds. He made the decision to re open trade with the United States beef industries after trade was closed in 2003 after the first reported case of mad cow disease.

Well, Koreans went ballistic. And continue to demo DAILY in protest of American beef asking for Lee's resignation.

I can't claim to know anything more about the status of Mad Cow Disease in American beef than the lay person in America. But, from my meager knowledge, I don't think that it's a large, or even close to large threat. For the most part, I'm behind the self declared "CEO of Korea, Inc." Mr. Lee.

The last few days have been especially tense as President Bush himself has dropped in for a visit en route to Beijing. At night, the streets are alive with raucous protests from middle school aged students to about middle aged professionals.

The Koreans I have met are lovely, and, it really puzzles me to hear their political tirades against the President. Maybe I will meet somebody or see something that suddenly will illuminate a side to the story that I currently don't understand... I will try to keep an open mind.

For now, I really can't concentrate on writing any further; I love Korea's soccer team (as evidenced by the times my dad and I woke up at 3am to drive two hours and see the World Cup games in a Korean supermarket with 600 other fans) :) More on the riots later... with pictures next time.

Extra pickles please

K, so, just had some pizza in Korea. In addition to having shrimp on the top and coming with a side order of pickles (the fried chicken came with radishes...), the crust was stuffed with YAMS.

Mmmm... so much for eating less. Once again, WORTH IT!

Full and content. And unable to fit in my jeans.

Did Miss California really ever happen? Sometimes/most times, I think I dreamt it all!

Suwon and Halmoni

In the last few days I visited Suwon, a place just outside of Seoul, to visit my (brace yourself), father's mother's sister, father's mother's sister's husband, and their son, wife, and daughter. Whew. Unbeknowst to me, a good chunk of the fam I've met here in Korea are in medicine, like this Uncle and Aunt who are both doctors (well, the wife is now a professor at the Aju University hospital). Oops... maybe law school isn't right for me? Just kidding!

It's funny because my relatives referred to Suwon as "rural," when, to me, it looked just like Seoul. Only with Hwaseong, a really impressive fortress wall that is 5.7km long with command posts, entrance gates, fire-beacon platforms, etc, and Hwaseong Haenggung, the palace.

Quick didja know fact: King Sejong was the father of Hangul, the Korean writing system. He created Hangul to unite Korea under one, simple alphabet (according to my travel book, "anyone can learn it in 2 months" though having spent a semester trying to learn it at Harvard, I kind of doubt that...). Since his aim was to teach everybody, even the poor, to use Hangul, he based the characters' shapes on where the readers should place their tongues to make it especially easy to learn. Quite remarkable, and a good idea, though, I tried it just a second ago, and I'm not so sure that ㅊ looks like my tongue when making a "ch" sound, or ㄹ looks like my tongue when making an "r/l" sound.

최세라 (Choi Sa Ra). Hm... maybe the tongue rule made sense back then.

Quick day trips to Insadong and the War Museum, and then off to "Emo Halmoni"'s, my mother's mother's sister's house (which is what "emo" means, haha). She's also a doctor, and, she's still working as a primary care physician at 80 years old! She is very headstrong, and, I love her for it. She argued with the movie theater people about starting the film earlier so we could see it, and then demanding that they seat us in good seats (it was open seating). She ended up walking into a film that had started 30 minutes ago, but, we watched it anyway, and she exclaimed LOUDLY during it. This was her first visit to the movie theater, and, she's a little hard of hearing which came in handy when she overrode the movie theater people's explanations.

For whatever reason, my folks here are obsessed with taking care of me, and demonstrating their love in really bizarre ways. For example, the first house I stayed at housed my aunt who immediately asked me if I had had bowel movement that day. When I said no (BIG BIG BIG mistake), she produced thirty vitamin C tablets and, what I can only describe as bowel movement yogurt. She refused to take no for an answer! I thought, how harmful can yogurt be, right? Wrong. Needless to say, after that first yogurt, I refuse her yogurt three times a day (not even an exaggeration)

My emo halmoni was obessed with making sure I was cool enough. It hasn't been particularly hot in the last few days, yet, she cranked the ac to 17 degrees celsius (let me do the conversion right now... that's 62.6 degrees fahrenheit!!!) AND, insisted on putting a fan in my room (which I turned off asap). Her clinic was even worse. I think the real reason why she loved the movie theater was because it was so darn cold inside.

One universal way my family is showing me they want to take good care of me is by over feeding me, and feeding me fatty, delicious things all the time. The food here is the best I've had, and I'm not one to back down from finishing an entire bowl of spicy hot nangmyun which I've done no less than four times here. I am gaining weight at an alarming rate here seeing as we eat out twice a day. I made a heartbreaking resolution to refuse to eat out starting now because this is ridiculous, and I just threw 2 months of twice a day work outs down the drain.

Worth it!

Pictures:

View from the top of Seoul

I feel like an awful person for a) taking this picture, and b) thinking what I did, but, come on. The only two white people I see on this entire trip are carrying McDonald's AND Starbucks (though you can't really tell from this picture). It made me think of Wall-E... I KNOW, I'm an awful person!!

Part of the reason why I went to Emo Halmoni's was to get some missing parts of our family's history when they lived in North Korea. Unfortunately, she's the only living member of our family who also lived in North Korea, and, she is getting on in years. These are pics from her family albums.

So, in a nutshell, some of the missing pieces go like this:

My great grandparents lived in North Korea, and owned a rich lumber company that transported logs. In 1950 (later than I previously thought), my folks crossed the 38th parallel by US boats and landed in the southern part of South Korea where they lived in houses made of cardboard for 3 years. My emo halmoni had been proposed to in North Korea by a childhood friend, but, declined. In South Korea, they ran into each other on the streets in front of her cardboard house, and, they got married. She lived by a school, so, at night because there was nothing to do, she went to school and learned English.

This same emo halmoni rose to become a doctor... everybody loves a true rags to riches story :) I taped her speaking so my mom can help me translate the parts that I missed.

Korean traffic

Me being a tourist in ancient admiral clothes

The war museum. On the left are flags from all the nations that participated in some way in the Koraen War

My ridiculous cousins behaving ridiculously! The small one on the right is CRAZY. She would not stop singing "DOMO ORIGATO MR. ROBOTO"!!

Cousins and dad's mom's brother's wife on the right :)

Hwasong

The heat has broken, and, I've discovered this smokey mosquito repellant for night times, so, I have not had another mosquito bite since the last post!

Therefore:

Waistband 10; Family history 10!

It could be worse :)

Trying to update as much as possible

Coincidentally, especially for this blog, one of my fellow toga riders who I met on the infamous "Toga Tour" while attending the Institute for Humane Studies seminar on Poverty and Prosperity is now in South Korea for his Fulbright! I just read his blog, and it is absolutely dead on in so many regards. Here is an excert that I felt especially hit the nail on the head:

"Also I should note that since being here and hanging out almost every night with Korean people, I have noticed how open and honest they always are with everyone. Sometimes this is bad, like if they think you are overweight, but most of the time it is a doorway to awesome conversation and thought. They are so sincere, and will not hesitate to tell you that seeing you has made them very happy. This frank style of talk is refreshing, but is also somewhat intimidating because any judgment they make about you is likely to be verbalized. "

Along the same vein (forthright and outspoken), my mom's side of the family is pretty darn chunky, especially for Koreans. While eating dinner a few nights ago, my entire family kept on bringing up the fact that my cousin (or one of them anyway), had gained all the weight she had lost 2 years ago right before her wedding. I felt so bad for her! But, it's just the culture here, and, she completely took it in stride.

Another thing is, here, you define yourself by your family. I remember in my human rights anthro class hearing Prof Theidon talk about how those from America define themselves by their job, hobbies, interests, and appearance, but, here you are made up of your blood first before anything else. And, it's easy to see why: for family, people will pull out all of the stops; for family there is no such thing as discomfort.

For all my soul searching and self searching in the last few years, I really never once thought to look deep, deep inside... in my blood. The answers to questions I have been asking are slowly being answered :)

Now, I'm off to take a nap in my first BED of this trip! Many Koreans still sleep on the ondul (heatable floor), and, my back is craving a nice, cozy bed!

Besos, erm, popos!
Sara