Crowds

Some of you may be aware of where Michael and I lived before we came to Korea.  Here is a picture of my old yard and newly-turned vegetable garden.  Note the absence of people.  I'm sure it was cold that day, but relatively quiet and, of course, beautiful.

Below I will contrast for you the population density.  It did not take any special trips or special occasions for me to encounter humanity in such dense proportions.  This is daily life, although the majority of these pictures were taken on weekends.

The street outside our apartment building.  The intersection is often clogged because drivers inch their way into the intersection hoping to force the light to turn green by being closer to it.  Buses and taxis also believe they are King of the Road and therefore above mere things like red lights.  On Friday nights there is sometimes a traffic director at this intersection.

The subway station

A guided tour

Seoul

And have I mentioned that the sense of personal space is quite different?  When you walk through these crowds, you are subject to being bumped, checked, brushed, or pushed.  The only people who will say "excuse me" for such offenses are Westerners. :-)  So the fun part is that you stick your elbows out, put your head down, and pretend that no one is around.  Bump, check, brush, and push to your heart's content.  No one minds except the Westerners.

War of the Worlds, 2008

Some of you might have heard on the "World News" portion of your evening news that there have been many candlelight protests going on in Seoul regarding the importation of U.S. beef to Korea.  This has been an interesting craze that has been developing over the months, and many of us Americans sort of twitch our lips in a half smile when Koreans get upset over this issue.

Here's the story: About 5 years ago,  a case of Mad Cow disease was detected in a cow that was imported to the US from Alberta (I think--I do remember when it happened).  Because of this, the US froze its exports of beef for 5 years until the problem was sufficiently dealt with.  The 5 year halt on export has now been lifted, and the US has been trying to broker a deal with Korea: beef for electronics.

Well, the Koreans are furious because they are convinced (and I am not kidding) that they are more susceptible to Mad Cow disease that white people and that they will all die from this miserable and obviously rampant disease.  Their protests in the streets of Seoul are numbering around 80,000 people.  80,000+ people who truly believe that Mad Cow taints most US beef at the present time.  All of this seems to be in complete disregard for the fact that there is Avian Flu and apparently Foot and Mouth Disease in their own country.  They will not die of either of the latter before they die of Mad Cow.

I liken this frenzy to a time that I know nothing about--when people panicked because they thought aliens truly had invaded Earth because they heard a fictional story on the radio.  This does not seem all that different.  May we all learn a lesson in all of this--please base your mass protests on fact, or at least some semblance of a fact, before you look stupid to the entire world.

A Trip to the Countryside

Many of you are familiar with our Korean friends, Jimmy and Sarah, who have been great friends and helped make our experience in Korea enjoyable and memorable.  We appreciate them so much because they allow us to see parts of Korea that would otherwise be inaccessible to us. 

 Case in point: Yesan.  Jimmy works as an executive for a major steel company called Posco.  He is currently in charge of a steel-cutting plant in a small town called Yesan, about 2 hours south of Seoul.  He has an apartment there, as he spends several days down there during the work week.  The wonderful thing about this place is that he often invites friends to join him and his wife there on the weekends, and we get to enjoy hiking, small town/countryside diversion from the city, and their famous hotspring.  I've included some pictures of the time we spent there last weekend.

My favorite part of this trip with train ride we got to take.  For about $8.00, we took a 1.5 hour train ride.  The seats almost fully reclined, and Michael discovered a massage chair that really made the trip for him.  :-)

Ahh, one of the quintessential icons of Asia--the terraced rice paddy.  They are very lovely and peaceful to see.

We climbed this mountain.  When we got to the top, Jimmy asked some folks with way was best to go back down to the bottom and they sent us the wrong direction.  So we went down the mountain the wrong way and had to go all the way back up and then down the correct side.  We climbed that dumb thing twice.

At the top--the first time.

Surf and Turf, Part II

Our weekend of hiking first began by going to the beach--a real treat for both Michael and me.  I didn't expect to get to see the ocean, so we were both very excited.  

...Here is an interesting note that is not beach-related.  As we left the province that we live in, our car was sprayed and sanitized at the toll booth.  Why? you ask.  Well, avian flu is currently in Seoul.  In fact, it's in most of Korea, so health officials are spraying everything that could possibly have a virus on it with strong chemical disinfectants.  If our fertility hasn't been ruined by the water, this ought to do the job.

Anyway, back to the beach.  Here is a great example of some of the lovely coastline we got to enjoy.  The body of water you're looking at is the "East Sea" if you're Korean, or the "Sea of Japan" if you're Japanese.  The weather was great.  We spent Saturday afternoon laying in the sand.

Michael and I are always looking for the perfect opportunity to show Calvin Klein what hot and lucrative models we could be for them.

Boats for rent.

Ah, now here is a piece of Korean history that is still alive in the 21st century.  Michael is holding what we would all know from science class as a butterfly larva.  The noteworthy thing here is that he is going to eat the butterfly larva.  Back during the Korean War (and most likely before, when the Japanese were starving them), there was very little food.  The Koreans found themselves eating things like insects to ward off starvation.  But this delicacy has remained, and you can buy cup-fulls of these things from any street vendor.  They are disgusting.

It was a good day.  I definitely belong by the ocean.

Surf and Turf, Part I

We had an excellent opportunity to visit a very well-known national park in Korea, known as Seorak National Park.  Pronounce: Sor-ahk.  We were gone for a long weekend, and it was quite honestly one of the best times I've had in Korea yet.  Seoraksan is located near the East Sea (or Sea of Japan, depending on your nationality--Korea or Japan), so we were extremely fortunate to be able to stay with some friends of friends who lived about a 10-minute's walk from the ocean.

Seorak Nat'l Park is about as popular as Yosemite, and the crowds reminded me of Yosemite (and here I am only imagining) in high season, perhaps on the 4th of July.  It was crawling with people, but the natural beauty helped me to filter them out.  As you see our pictures, I'll explain along the way!

View from the top.  I was told that this peak is about one kilometer tall.  A kid told me that, so it is open for interpretation.

This is the biggest Buddha I've ever seen.  He was several storied high.  There was a large temple area at the base of the mountain, and many people were there to worship, especially because this was the weekend that Buddha's birthday is celebrated.

A dry riverbed.

This is a view from about 3/4 of the way up the mountain.  At this point, we were hiking up a metal staircase/ladder, which had 2-way human traffic on it.  If you fell, you would suffer a serious injury.  In fact, they built this staircase up the rock face that you can see a few pictures down.

Me and our friend Jimmy, relaxing on the top.

This is Seorak Mountain.  We went to the top of this thing.  In fact, if you look closely, in the middle of the rock face is a shadow, and it was through that crevice that the staircase went.

Worshippers in front of the Buddha.  We have learned that if you want to find natural beauty, look for a temple, and you'll find a nice place to hike.

Well, that's it for now, but there is more coming, so stay tuned!

Parks and Pets

We discovered a great park a short scoot away.  Yuldong Park is huge and has lots of walking trails, bungee jumping, an outdoor amphitheater, lake, etc.  In the picture below, you can see a guy attached to the end of the bungee rope.  Pretty entertaining to watch!  Don't worry, there's a lake beneath him.

sculpture park and maybe some kind of cemetery temple

outdoor artwork

a lovely day for lazing under a tree with a good book

the hostas are out, and I love them!

bleeding heart

a wonderful, green garden

The following pictures are of Michael and his short-term pet, Hal.  Short-term because we are going to eat him soon.  Michael enjoyed netting Hal at the supermarket and letting him flop around in the bag on the way home.  Hal is apparently a very small halibut, and I look forward to enjoying him with a nice dill sauce.

mmmmm.  Hal....

Glorious Identity Crisis: Vehicle or Pedestrian?

The glorious thing about scooters is their versatility.  You are both vehicle and pedestrian, which gives the driver lots of decision-making power on the road.  

For example, you encounter a red light.  If you were only limited to the road, of course you would have to stop.  But on a scooter, you can sidle over to the sidewalk and cross at the crosswalk.  After that, you are on your merry way again, minus the traffic.

What this usually inspires in my husband is a complete disregard for traffic signals at all.  We stop at the light, squiggle between the cars up to the front of the line, and when the intersection is relatively empty, off he goes.

I recently heard through the grapevine that South Korea has achieved a "third-world" rating in the category of traffic.  It's congested, the drivers are irresponsible and erratic, and the pollution from cars is awful!  It makes for an exciting scooter ride each morning and evening.  

However, the very best thing about the scooter, especially in this day and age of over-sized and unnecessarily large gas-guzzlers is, you guessed it, the fuel efficiency.  In two weeks, we have paid a total of $4 for gas, using the scooter almost every day.  That' s in a country where gas is $6 a gallon!  Don't be shy people, buy this cute little machine and enjoy times of zooming, weaving, sneaking, holding on tight to your loved one, and best of all, saving $$!