The beds over here are three inches off the ground. Half the size of a normal bed mattress. To say that my bed is comfortable would be a stretch for even the strongest of imaginations. In fact, my bed is harder than a typical dinning room table and not as straight. It's comparable to camping without a tent, on rocks, while your cold and wet, and... well you get the point.
Seoul is a humid and hot place in the summer. In a stuffy apartment, you need an air conditioner. The air conditioner just so happens to be right above the bed. So cold air will blow on you while you sleep. I don't like cold air blowing on me, cause I always wake up with a sore throat. If this one isn't obvious enough, when I turn the AC off I wake up sweating. Many nights I struggle juggling between the two options. Moving the bed just puts me right in the path of the sun, so that is not a viable option either.
Bright and early, on a Saturday morning, with little sleep, Meg and I headed out for an adventure. You could say that I was a little testy on this rainy morning. Well Joe cheered me right up. Joe was our volunteer guide. He had a real passion for Korea. It also turns out that he went to the University of Missouri. It really is a small, small world. He took us through a Korean park that was once a Japanese Garden. Japan pillaged Seoul in the early 1900's up to World War II. Many of Korea's monuments have been destroyed, and that is hard for an American to relate to, at least it was for me. The park was small, and I was at a loss to pay it the proper respect it deserved. As a park it was less than impressive visually.
This park is where the Japanese played and planted their cherry blossoms during their imperial rule of Korea. Atrocious war crimes were committed on the Koreans during Japanese rule. Horrible crimes like: mass executions, women raped by the army, villages burned to the ground, and human experiments performed on live Koreans. It is because of America that Japan is no longer here. That's why I am celebrated here and Japanese are hated. It is why an old, old man went up to my friend John, and told him "You are beautiful." I am on the other side of world, where you ended up as a child after digging a big hole in your backyard, and I am beginning to understand the hardships of war and imperial rule. As an American, I'm so fortunate to have never known the hardships felt by so much of the world. I criticize our government so much, (they deserve a lot of it) but I can tell you Korea is happy that we came to their aide. I can tell you Joe is named after George Washington. A Korean named for an American President! I'm happy to say I would not be here, if my grandpa didn't put his life on the line for Korea. I'm also glad to say Koreans are happy for his service too. There is a lot of emotion tied to that park.
Deep breath, next we went to Seoul Tower. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Tower The view from a top that hill was amazing. Seoul according to Wikipedia is the second largest city in the world. There is no skyline, it's more like a sky of buildings. There are as many skyscrapers here as homes in Kansas City. I was beginning to feel like a celebrity at this point. A couple asked Meg and I if they could have a picture with us. Just randomly.
Then we went to an old Korean village. I painted a Korean flag at a side booth, and a woman wanted to get a picture of me. Next I was watching a Korean woman pound rice with a huge mallet into rice cakes, and another woman wanted to get a picture of me pounding the rice. This is the closest time I will ever get to rock status, and I loved it. Meg and I had a wonderful day. It was a free tour, hell, Joe even bought us a Korean cookie proving that the best things in life are free.
2 comments:
nice, gotta go.... expect comment later
I liked this blog post. It had some nice history tidbits that I wasn't aware of. Makes sense now why they like Americans. I wonder how Japanese folk think of us in contrast (since the U.S. nuked a couple of their cities).
I just checked the medal counts by the way. South Korea is #8 in total medals and #7 in golds. They are just behind Germany, France, Great Britain, and Australia. It looks unlikely that they'll catch up with Russia, China, and the United States. But they are just ahead of Japan, who is #9 overall.
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