It’s been quite a busy week. Getting settled here at the Academy was pretty easy, everything’s well organized. Apartment is nice, as you can see. My room is pretty spartan, I packed quite lightly. Most Koreans sleep on the floor, on this waterfilled pad about an inch thick. It's hooked up to a water heater and a small pump, so your ass gets warmed in the middle of winter! Pretty cool if you ask me. I might have one of the only western style beds in Gimpo.
Kevin and I spent the weekend touring Seoul. Visited Deoksugung, a 15th century palace. It kept getting destroyed by various rampaging hordes, including Chinese, other Korean Kingdoms, the Japanese, and by Koreans in retribution when the present King at the time capitulated to Japanese Invaders. Rebuilt now with many relics from each dynasty, it's a tourist hotspot. Most of the tourists however are Korean nationals, who seem to visit it with a sense of patriotic duty.
Very Impressive Statue of King Sejong Himself:
Was a King's Residence, now a museum of American art (ironically enough).
Scoping out a nice large Bell. Notice to the left, the 15th century precurser to Nebelwerfers and Katyushas (For Joe and Keith's benefit.
Walked around downtown Seoul for a little while after, there was a large gathering of Evangelical youth in a square just outside city hall. Korea was one of the only SE Asian countries that welcomed missionaries in the 18th and 19th century; as such there's a significant Christian population. You can pick out churches on the Seoul skyline by the red neon crosses all over the place.
They were chanting "Christ-Jesus-God" in Korean to the suited dude on the right. There were groups with diff. coloured shirts representing various churches all over the field.
Headed down to Cheonggyecheon afterwards. Cheonggyecheon is a creek that flows east-west through Korea. After the war is was used as a dumping spot for industry, and was paved over to form a giant pollution culvert through Seoul. President Lee Myung-Bak decided this was not cool, and spent about $1 Billion in reconstruction. It's now a great place to see other white people and courting Koreans.
aannnnd now I'm tired of adding pictures.
Soon to come: Our night out in Sinchon (the 'Ho Bar', meeting Marines on the Subway etc), City Planning in Seoul (For My Father and Mac's sake), Dating Habits of South Koreans, and a brief synopsis of my experiences with Soju.
Cheers,
Evan.
1 comment:
aww, in sk and still thinkin of me. what a friend.
looks awesome there, cant wait to hear more. oh, and try to rep the red cap if you happen to find any there!
ps: you coming back to the loo in january? i miss you!
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