Hi Seoul Festival!

This weekend there is going to be lots of events for the Hi Seoul Festival! There will be music, dancing, water events in the Han River, and even a Monster Ballet. :-)

See you there :-)
Hopefully I'll have some pics to show too!

A Much Bigger Palace: Gyeongbokgung

We made our way over to Gyeonbokgung Palace last week as well on our touristic safari of Seoul. This palace is probably 10 times bigger than Doksugung where I ventured to on my own on my first weekend in the city. Some cool things about this place is the changing of the guards that takes place every hour, on the hour from 10:00 to 16:00 and the free English tours which take place at 11:00, 13:30 and 15:30 every day. I love the fact that you can find free English tours here at almost every tourist site. Anyway, in the photo above, you can see some of the guards at the entrance into the palace. Not quite as rigid as the soldiers in London or at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

A quick history of the palace before I show some photos. This was the main palace during the Joseon Dynasty in the year 1395. It was destroyed by the Japanese in 1592, and was not rebuilt until 1868 during King Gojong's reign. During the Japanese ocupation in the first half of the 20th century, most of the palace was yet again torn apart by the Japanese, save for only a few buildings. The booklet that I recieved upon entering the palace describes the restoration effort as "ongoing".

Gyeonghoeru: This building was generally used for events held to entertain foreign emissaries because of the wonderful views that you can't really see in this photo.

Figures on the top of Gyeonghoeru

Geoncheonggung: Described as a palace within a palace, this was a place where the royal family might go to relax or drink tea. The Empress was assasinated here by the Japanese in 1895.

The National Folk Museum. This museum is right next to the palace, and has free admission for the next few months, and has some very interesting exibits of Korean culture and history. You can see what kings and queens wore in various dynasties, see 20 different kinds of kim chi and view some old skool cars.. and anything in between. And its free right now, so it makes it even more worthwhile. :-)

This was outside the museum, but it shows something that we saw within the palace. Before they had things like clocks, people used the sun to tell the time (duh), but instead of saying a number representing the time of day, they used animals of the Chinese zodiac. Each animal represented a position of the sun, so for example, midnight would be mouse time, and... some other time of the day would be monkey time. (Haven't you ever wanted to shout that it was monkey time?) This shows it in a sort of sun dial the animals. I think two of the animals were left out of the Korean time system, but I don't remember which ones....

Anyway, if you want to check out Gyeongbokgung and/or The National Folk Museum, take subway line 3 to Gyeongbokgung Station and use exit 5, and you will find yourself right in front of the palace.

My new favorite thing to cook :-)

So I picked up this package of curry in the Home Plus Express last week, because it looked yummy, but I then realized that I couldn't read the directions. So, in my eternal wisdom, I found the web site on the back of the package and found that they not only have a web site with directions how to cook thier food, but an entire English language part of the site with cooking directions :-D :-D

This is so easy to cook and it makes several meals, which is my kind of cooking. All you need is like one carrot (which for some reason tend to be huge here), a potato and an onion. Chop 'em up, fry them, then boil them, once they've boiled for a little bit, throw in the curry mix, and let it thicken. Throw some rice on the burner while you're at it and once they're both done, voilá! yummy dinner.

Oh, and I'm not sure if you noticed, but that does in fact say Ottogi Vermont Curry Medium. Yes, folks Vermont. We Vermonters are world famous, evidently. Here's the description straight from the product description on the web site:

1. Created with concern on health, using original apples and honey from Vermont in northeastern US.
2. With added apples and honey, everybody can enjoy this premium curry.

Anyway, for anyone ready for yummy cooking time, check out the web site for cooking directions: http://www.ottogi.co.kr/index.jsp . The English option is up at the top of the page.

War Photos from Iraq

So, while listening to NPR on podcast (I'm an NPR addict, even over here... I'm a geek, but I'm proud of it) I head about this blog:

http://www.zoriah.net/blog/

This blog is by a war photographer named Zoriah who takes some incredible photographs. He is significant right now though, because he was embedded within a battalion in Iraq when there was a suicide bomb attack. He was able to get photos of many of the casualties before the military officials of his unit were able to stop him. They tried to confiscate the memory card of his digital camera, but he refused to give it up, because that is not within the regulations regarding journalists in Iraq. He posted many photos on this blog, but within hours the military had discovered what he did, and essentially dragged him out of the his unit and shipped him back to the Green Zone. Although the military tried to get him to take the photos off his blog, he refused. Now the photos that he took of dead American soldiers are some of the only that exist in publication of the entire Iraq war because of the extreme control the military has put on free press regarding photos taken in Iraq.

If you want to see these pictures of this suicide bombing in Anbar, you can find the link here:

http://www.zoriah.net/blog/suicide-bombing-in-anbar-.html

But, please keep in mind that these are real images of a real suicide bombing attack. It is gruesome. But, as I see it, it is the truth.

Oh, and if anyone is interested in the NPR podcast, it was broadcast on August 1st, 2008 from the program called On The Media. Just search for the program in the iTunes store, all NPR/PRI podcasts are free. It was very interesting, and had an interview with Zoriah himself.

Incheon

On Thursday, we decided to leave Seoul for the first time since we've gotten here and head over to Incheon. It's about an hour on Line 1 on the subway, unless you grab the express train which skips over more than half the stops between Yongsan and Incheon Station.

Our first stop when we got here was lunch in Chinatown. This is the only Chinatown in all of Korea. According to the CIA world factbook, there are only about 20,000 Chinese in South Korea, although I have a feeling that is a slightly low estimate. But, either way, it's still a small number. We got cha-jang myon 자정면 , which is black bean sauce with noodles. It's I guess the Koreanized form of Chinese food. It's pretty good, a nice break from the crazy spicy Korean food.
From Chinatown we just climbed the stairs that are half way down the main street and went through the big gate to get to Jayu Park (Freedom Park). Within Jayu Park, if you climb as high up as you can, you can find the US Treaty Memorial. It has a very interesting design if nothing else.
To one side of the park, a short walk from the US Treaty Memorial, you can find the monument dedicated to General McArthur.
After Jayu Park we caught the #2 bus and headed over to Wolmido (do means island, so I guess you could call it Wolmi Island, although, its really more of a peninsula than an island). You can catch this bus right in front of Incheon Staion, and it costs the same as a Seoul city bus and T-Money cards work too. In Wolmido we stuck our feet into the Pacific Ocean, which is always a nice accomplishment to have when you're from Boston. There is a boardwalk here with some restaurants and such.
We walked over to Wolmi Park, where there is a hill you can climb over or around. We sort of took a middle road. We'd had too much climbing after our trek up Inwangsan to think about climbing another hill. The paths here were paved and nice for walking. If you can read Korean, there were signs showing the local flora and fauna to keep your eyes out for. At the bottom of the park, you can find a small park with some nice buildings to check out.

The Dokdo Island Controversy

Have you heard? Maybe not. The past few weeks have brought out some good old anti-Japanese sentiments. Why? Well, Japan published in some text books that the Dokdo Islands were considered part of it's territory. These islands were seized by Japan when they took over the rest of Korea in the early 20th century, but theoretically, they should have been returned to Korea after world war two in 1945. For some reason though, the nationality of these islands has been a bit ambiguous over the years.

To make matters worse, about a week ago, the U.S. board of geographic names (didn't know we even had a board of geographic names) declared Dokdo as "Undesignated Sovereignty" giving more legitimacy to Japan's claims on the territory.

Furious, Korea pulled its ambassador temporarily out of Japan. Protests were held in front of the Japanese embassy here in Seoul on the 18th of July, and even some adds for Japanese products were pulled out of the metro.

The Korean government staged a large military drill over the island this week which included maritime police and six naval ships including a destroyer and the air force's newest jet, the F-15K.

Things are finally settling down though here. Bush apologized for the mistake of changing the nationality of the islands, and restored it to Korea, it's obvious rightful owner (at least in the eyes of Koreans). Ambassadors have been sent back to Japan and things should be back to normal soon I think. Now the Koreans can go back to being angry about US beef again.

So, what's the big deal about these islands you ask? Well, let's first start with the island's population. There are TWO permanant residents.. who are by the way of South Korean decent. There is a a Korean police department there, and light house staff. What's on this island that everyone wants so bad? Well, here's a picture. you tell me.

Yup, these are just two hunks of rock in the sea.

Ok, ok, there might actually be some value to these hunks of rock though. It's more about the water surrounding these hunks of rock. I won't admit I totally understand the politics of it, but the owners of the islands also will control the fishing rights surrounding the islands, and any other potential natural resources that might be present.

In and around Insadong

Today we ventured into Insadong, another shopping area of Seoul, but very different from Myeongdong. Streets here are lined with shops containing Korean Celadon pottery, antiques, caligraphy brushes, pressed paper, and plenty of other odds and ends. Saturday and Sunday are the best days to go, because the streets are closed to vehicle traffic, and there are many stands in the street vendors in addition to the normal stores.

While we were here, we passed a small anti-China demonstration. These folks were protesting China's treatment of North Korean refugees. Many North Koreans who manage to escape across the river into China are rounded up and shipped back to North Korea... where god only knows their fate once the North Korean Government gets a hold of the escapees. This picture below is some Koreans acting out the Chinese turning over North Korean refugees to the North Korean soldier. I'm not quite sure what it is, but I've found that Koreans like graphic demonstrations of injustices committed against them. First I saw at the prison the life-like torture demonstrations and figurines. Now this. The "North Korean soldier" was acting out kicking the two "escapees". Oh, and by the way, if you're interested more in the topic of North Korean refugees in China, you should read The Ginseng Hunter by Jeff Talarigo. It takes place in fairly recent times, and really shows the strife of the North Korean people, not only in North Korea, but the hardships that they may face when they make it into China as well.

We wondered out of Insadong after a little bit of wandering, and found ourselves in Tapgol Park. This is a small park with some a memorial to the revolutionaries of the Sam-Il (March 1st) Movement. The Sam-il movement was an independence movement that started on March 1st, 1919, against the Japanese occupying forces. If you go to the Prison museum, you can learn a lot more about this though.


These folks here featured on either side of this monument are two of the most famous revolutionaries of the Sam-il movement. To the right is Yu Gwan-sun who was a 16 year old student leader of the movement. She was arrested, and died in Seodaemun prison. To the left is Kang Ugyu (I think.. but please correct me if I'm wrong), who was an independence fighter who threw a bomb at a Japanese official as an assassination attempt. He was also imprisoned in Seodaemun as well.

Another view from within Tapgol Park