추석 weekend
So
I was thinking a few days ago how the time goes by so fast and I had a moment
of feeling sad that my time here will come to an end. I didn’t let it bother me for
more than a few minutes because there is so much yet to do while I am still
here. This weekend is the beginning of the Korean holiday of Chuseok (that’s
phonetic or something; it’s pronounced Chew-Sock). The holiday actually is
Monday and Tuesday, and we Americans get the day off on Monday. A sweet 3-day
weekend twice in a row. I went into Seoul again on Saturday and visited Gyeongbokgung.
‘Gung’ means palace so I didn’t say it twice, although it would have saved the
space of my explanation if I had, but since I am not paying for this space, 괜찮아요. Translating from English
to Korean language is tough because a lot doesn’t translate perfectly and all
of our colloquialisms get seriously lost in translation. Back to the point: The
palace area was HUGE with big pavilions and buildings and a museum scattered
across a large landscape in downtown Seoul.
I wandered from there to an area called Insadong which was rife with
nice shops mixed with souvenir shops and craft kiosks. It was also very crowded but not as much as
the tourist targeted Namdaemun Market. Such a throng! I met up with my new
awesome friend SangYeop and went to the N Seoul Tower. The N is kind of a mystery thing although it
stands for Namsan which is the name of the hill it stands on. We got there after sunset so it was all lit
up and by the time we went up to the observation deck the city was all lit up
in all directions. Amazing to see the sprawl of such a big city, bigger even
than Pensacola; over 10 million in the city proper and over 24 million in the
greater metro area. For reference purposes Pensacola has about 53K. Seoul is
about 20 times the population of Atlanta and is bigger than New York and Tokyo
by a couple million each. We ate a side street diner and then had beers after wandering
the labyrinthine alleys. I still don’t have
a good grip on the chopsticks here (pun intended) because they are metal so
when they are wet it is kind of hard to pick stuff up, especially if it is also
wet. I look drunk trying to eat with
them falling out of my hands, dropping food in my lap and poking myself in the
eye, but fortunately I had a deft artisan of metal chopstick manipulation who
coached me and kept me from hurting myself. The next day I went to the Korean
War Memorial which is a pretty impressive and expansive museum of Korean War
history (not just the one the USA was involved in). After coffee and market
exploration, I finally forced myself onto the train to my homestead an hour
back upstream. Despite the overcast sky and the extensive walking, it was a
great weekend. Today I chill, iron
clothes for the workweek and spend a little me-time reading and vegging out,
thinking about life, love and renaissance and looking forward to my next
adventure to the DMZ and the doctor fish.
So
I was thinking a few days ago how the time goes by so fast and I had a moment
of feeling sad that my time here will come to an end. I didn’t let it bother me for
more than a few minutes because there is so much yet to do while I am still
here. This weekend is the beginning of the Korean holiday of Chuseok (that’s
phonetic or something; it’s pronounced Chew-Sock). The holiday actually is
Monday and Tuesday, and we Americans get the day off on Monday. A sweet 3-day
weekend twice in a row. I went into Seoul again on Saturday and visited Gyeongbokgung.
‘Gung’ means palace so I didn’t say it twice, although it would have saved the
space of my explanation if I had, but since I am not paying for this space, 괜찮아요. Translating from English
to Korean language is tough because a lot doesn’t translate perfectly and all
of our colloquialisms get seriously lost in translation. Back to the point: The
palace area was HUGE with big pavilions and buildings and a museum scattered
across a large landscape in downtown Seoul.
I wandered from there to an area called Insadong which was rife with
nice shops mixed with souvenir shops and craft kiosks. It was also very crowded but not as much as
the tourist targeted Namdaemun Market. Such a throng! I met up with my new
awesome friend SangYeop and went to the N Seoul Tower. The N is kind of a mystery thing although it
stands for Namsan which is the name of the hill it stands on. We got there after sunset so it was all lit
up and by the time we went up to the observation deck the city was all lit up
in all directions. Amazing to see the sprawl of such a big city, bigger even
than Pensacola; over 10 million in the city proper and over 24 million in the
greater metro area. For reference purposes Pensacola has about 53K. Seoul is
about 20 times the population of Atlanta and is bigger than New York and Tokyo
by a couple million each. We ate a side street diner and then had beers after wandering
the labyrinthine alleys. I still don’t have
a good grip on the chopsticks here (pun intended) because they are metal so
when they are wet it is kind of hard to pick stuff up, especially if it is also
wet. I look drunk trying to eat with
them falling out of my hands, dropping food in my lap and poking myself in the
eye, but fortunately I had a deft artisan of metal chopstick manipulation who
coached me and kept me from hurting myself. The next day I went to the Korean
War Memorial which is a pretty impressive and expansive museum of Korean War
history (not just the one the USA was involved in). After coffee and market
exploration, I finally forced myself onto the train to my homestead an hour
back upstream. Despite the overcast sky and the extensive walking, it was a
great weekend. Today I chill, iron
clothes for the workweek and spend a little me-time reading and vegging out,
thinking about life, love and renaissance and looking forward to my next
adventure to the DMZ and the doctor fish.
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