Avocados and 1.5 hour Grand finale

So

this weekend was a weekend of some siginifcant 1sts for me--- Here is the list:

I have been blessed to see some great fireworks displays in my time... who can forget the "Fireworks of Death" in Grundy, VA? But this was unlike anything I have ever seen!

1. Orange line meets Green line of the subway

2. "Is that an avocado!?"

3. Hidden bookstores

4. 1.5 hour Grand finale

5. Italian you say? Grandma would be so proud!

6. EWW toe rubbing

7. Opening of the National Museum of Korea

Now allow me to explain:

1. Orange line meets Green line of the subway

Saturday started late after a long evening of hanging out with some new Korean friends-- mostly teachers from the Hakwon (school) and their friends, but the night out for a few drinks turned into an odyssey of sorts--- my headache led to little drinking, but my exhaustion from the long week was all the intoxication that I needed. The night was fun and as I am discovering most "nights out" here involve some sort of big meal, dancing to loud music of the Korean techno beat and impromptu singing--- in this case a 5 min. rendition of Happy Birthday that we snuck onto Toni as means of getting something free. ANYWAY the night ended late and thus the late start Saturday..........

Saturday welcomed us with Fall in full force-- the slight chill that we had a night only seemed to sink into the whole day and while it was sunny it was very chilly. Kristi introduced me to the Korean subway system, which until this point I had yet to ride on AT ALL. My first impressions are that it is very user friendly to a city girl like myself, but HUGE. Now, I know all the John Smiths out there are chuckling at this one, but I would like to again point out-- SEOUL IS HUGE! Where I am in Ilsan (burbs for sure, but not outer at all) it was a solid hour on the subway into center city, which really wasn't quite downtown. The subways remind me of a cleaner, better version of NYC--- it is quite impressive! It was interesting to see all the people that were selling random stuff and panhandling as well--- similar to the states. For those like me that have not mastered the hangul (Korean alphabet) they also number all the stops, so all I need to know is Im going from stop 311 to 340 if I cant read or say where I am going. They also have the stops written in English letters as well, so it is easy to communicate where you are going. Like taking the Metro I really enjoyed this because it people watching.

2. "Is that an avocado!?"

Inevitably when you travel there are things that you miss, but worse is when you miss them and then you cant even find them in the whole country. In Africa oddly enough it was soy sauce and cheese. Here it is avocados-- they don't really grow them here. Walking around Gangnam-gu ("gu" means "area" similar to neighborhood; Gangnam is like the Dupont Circle/East Village of Seoul-- hip, wealthy, business meets college and foreigners type) we saw a sign for "Dos Tacos". Interesting.....but it must be like Korean mexican food--- you know, sticky rice wraps with red beans, cabbage, kimchi and gogi (meat of any sort). We are curious enough to walk off the beaten path and check it out. Here indeed it IS real Mexican food--- tacos, burritos, even Coronas and DosXX chilling in the fridge. Now I have not been away from the States for that long, but for my fellow teachers this was a prize find. After reviewing the menu we discovered indeed they had avocados--- served fresh and sliced!! Well I was in heaven and happy to have a whole avocado to myself! It is funny to think back on all the avocados that I ate in Ghana and now here they are a rarity! What a funny world we live in! One day I am sure I will be excited to find some rare kimchi.

3. Hidden bookstores

The next stop was a "hidden bookstore" that was actually not all that hidden, but hard to find. In a huge office building the bottom 3 floors we found the rumored book haven called Kyobo. One half of one floor held a fantastic foreign book section (read: English books). Now, this might not seem like a big whoop, but if you think about it nothing is written in English here, so it is really exciting when you can see a whole section of books that are readable. Well as you could most likely guess I went buck wild and for about 40 bucks (\38,000) I got some great finds including two classics that I had never read (Lolita and The Good Earth). My reading has been great so far on this trip and despite being so busy have really gotten into a good reading habit. So, YEAH bookstores!

4. 1.5 hour Grand finale

Saturday evening we went to the 3rd Annual Seoul World Fireworks Festival, which was on the west side of town in an area called Youido, the financial district of Seoul. The area is a small island of sorts that sits directly on the Han River looking into both the north and south sides of Seoul. It is home to the Trump towers, all of the exchange buildings (wall street if you will) and the largest building in Seoul-- YuckSum (63) Building. A park sits on the riverside where a huge stage was set up for pre concert and speeches. My best guess was that some 200,000 people were there-- maybe more maybe less it was hard to tell at night, but it was a huge event!

Now I have been blessed to see some great fireworks displays in my time-- I did grow up in the nations capital where every 4th there is an impressive show and who can forget the "Fireworks of Death" in Grundy, VA? But this was unlike anything I have ever seen! Apparently this was a 2 weekend event with several countries showing off their latest. Saturdays event was the climax with the Americans and of course Koreas blasting everyone off their seats. I can best describe it as an hour and a half grand finale. Just when we thought it was over-- it was actually an "intermission" and then the Koreans did their show, which also included one of the bridges turning into a water fall of fireworks. Huge speakers blared an impressive soundtrack complete with Superman theme, 2001 Space Odyssey theme, Elvis, Beatles, Louis Armstrong and Dueling Banjos. All of the fireworks were synced with the music and made the show just amazing! it was really just beautiful! More pictures to come.........

5. Italian you say? Grandma would be so proud!

After the show we grabbed a late night dinner of all things--- Italian spaghetti. It is quite popular here--- in fact all noodle dishes are. One of the most impressive things that have seen so far in regards to food were fresh noodles being made similar to how you would toss pizza dough. Dough is laced through the fingers and swung above and below, twisted and then doubled making them multiply and become smaller. Anyway, this pasta was actually Italian-style with real sauce--- maybe a little on the spicy side for grandmas taste, but certainly a nice find!

6. EWW toe rubbing

Saturday night Ken and I spent the night at the jimjibam, which has come to be one of my favorite places to go. They are popular spa/sauna rooms that are open 24-7 all over the city. The first part are split gender shower/spa rooms and then co-ed saunas of varying degrees. This particular jimjibam had several medium and hot rooms with American movies running in them as well as a HOTHOT room and a ICE room. The HOTHOT room was literally a kiln in shape and seemingly temperature. It is so hot when you crouch in you have put a burlap sack over you so that you are protected. I could only last for about 4 min and I felt like a champ--- there were older women in there for upper end of 10 min---incredible, I don't think she was human. After that you go into the ICE room which is quite literally a freezer--- wall to wall ice and wooden floors. Again I lasted about 4 min. After that the 70C saunas seemed like a breeze. It was so refreshing and very addictive.

One of the more hilarious things about the jimjibams is seeing how everyone is just literally sprawled everywhere--- sleeping, watching movies, eating, talking, reading, caring for children, doing work, etc...I remember being quite amazed at all the things that people tried/did in African bush taxis and buses (ie make tea with hot coals), but this is on a whole other scale. First, everyone is in the uniform given at the door (baggy shorts and plain t-shirt) and then there is an open space and some rooms where people are just everywhere doing everything and anything. At night the areas look like (pardon the bad visual description) prison camps with people just everywhere sleeping where ever they can find space.

Somewhere in the mix I lost a mat that I am sure I stole from someone else who left it unclaimed for 30 sec (they are a hot commodity) and as a result slept fitfully on the hard floor, which oddly enough I am getting use to. The only negative part of the night was some sktechball pretending to sleep and rubbing my toes. Each time I moved he moved too until I finally got up and pushed Ken 1/2way off his mat. I found out later that this is a sexual thing here, which weirded me out. I mention this because it was the ONLY time I ever felt uncomfortable here. As a woman it can be a little daunting to travel but of all my travels this is has been the safest and least outwardly sexual place for a foreigner to travel and for that I am grateful. It means that that marriage proposals are at the minimum, but between Europe (hey baby, wanna go to McDonalds), a summer in Morgan Co., Ghana, teaching ESL in DC and drunken nights with 1822 kids (love you too, Claire) I think I have gotten my fill. Besides, now I know to bring socks!

7. Opening of the National Museum of Korea

On a slightly cooler note to end on the weekend Ken and I went to the opening of the new National Museum of Korea. In the Yeongsan area of town this once US military helicopter launch pad sight was converted to the new sight for the Korean museum. It opened this weekend and free to the public Sunday. The museum is very impressive and blows the Smithsonian out of the water. The museum itself is the largest in Asia and 6th largest in the world. We got to see the main building full of Korean history, art and art from all over Asia. The museum is surrounded by a small lake and huge gardens, which wasn't as impressive with the winter weather creeping in. One of the coolest things about it was all the people snaked outside to get a peak. We waited in line for about 45 min with a few thousand other people. During the wait I got interviewed by a local news station that I am sure was excited to get the "white foreign girl" perspective. It really was a special event and seeing SO many people excited to celebrate their culture and history--- it was a great Korea moment!

Something that I have been struck by is the newness of this country. I haven't had the luxury of reading the complete history of Korea (my next book--- which is like "The Scramble for Africa" for Korea--- epic and long), but from what I have gathered Korea in some ways suffers from similar problems that many African countries suffer from--- it is so new as a country. It wasn't until 1945 that Korea was actually independent from Japanese colonial rule and before that there was power grabbing from both China and Japan for the peninsula. After WWII there of course was the Korean war, which decimated most of the country (again) and then left it split along a relatively arbitrary lines. As mentioned before there is more of a public outcry toward Americans than toward North Koreans here because of the hard feelings since the war (Ill talk more about this later).

Anyway, Seoul and all of SK has gone on great lengths to rebuild itself and it really is a beautiful example of a country that HAS in fact made a positive world name for itself both on an economic, but also a political and humanitarian scale post serious conflict. And they will play an even bigger "middle man" role as NK, Japan and China continue to make into our front pages. Anyway, to see so many SKans celebrate a history that in all honesty isn't just theirs, but also one of Japans and China was really beautiful--- to see that recognition and reconciliation that they have with their neighbors and see them celebrate something that is solely Korean at the same time was inspirational. Knowing all the hard feelings that many people/cultures carry into modern days and all the conflicts and wars that are started because of it I think that we all have a lot to learn from our Korean friends.

I am so inspired that I am ready to forgive northern VA for taking their half of DC back----- DONE. "What are you from Virginia or something.........." Still one of my favorite stories, though. Cant stop telling that one.

So, here ends my weekend. I love you all.

Sa-Rang, Rose