Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Korean Independence Day, Part the first
I went downtown on 8/15 to check out the Korean Independence celebration (Yun Jung went to her grandmother's old house in the countryside). I've already posted the shots of the City Hall (which is across the street from where Katrina lived last year when she was in Seoul). It's about a 20-30 minute subway ride from Sang-il Dong. Sang-il Dong is in the far eastern outskirts of Seoul and it's the neighborhood in which Yun Jung pretty much grew up. It's certainly a lot more interesting than the suburban whitebread where I grew up. The name, if you can read Chinese, translates literally to "above one neighborhood". I am the only foreigner I've ever seen there, and I spent a week there last year and a week there this year. In fact, one little girl said "Mom! Look, there's the guy that can speak English" (in Korean) when she saw me. I only caught part of it, but Yun Jung heard her say it.
Kids are cute everywhere, but Korean kids are f**king adorable.
Anyway, so I took off for the subway and on the way took a short, 1-block detour to take this picture:
That is the edge of Seoul. On the left side of the picture, the one where we are, is Seoul. The other side is ... well, it's not Seoul. This is weird for me to think of since the sum total of my time in Korea was pretty much spent in Seoul and I was a few feet from leaving the only place I knew in the country.
Anyway, so I went downtown to the GwangHwaMoon station. I knew where it was because it is where Kyobo Bookstore is, and Kyobo has a big section of books in a foreign language. Namely, English with some books in Japanese, Chinese, and French.
This is the Kyobo building:
The neighborhood is very modern and has a somewhat "Times Square" feel to it, except less crowded and not as tacky. There are several "downtown" neighborhoods in Seoul, and this is one of them.
here's a closer look at that middle building, which actually says "GwangHwaMoon Post Office" on it.
The skyline in one direction (it's not as easy to get your north/south bearings in Seoul as it is in New York) was dominated by two Korean flags tied to balloons.
In the other direction, the festival was capped by a statue of the Korean hero Yi Sun Shin, who repelled a couple of Japanese invasions a few hundred years ago. The last form that you have to learn in TaeKwonDo (the martial art, not the sport) before you get your black belt is named after this guy.
Right near the statue is this little thing tucked away in the crowd of buildings:
The festival itself had music, both Korean and American, games, and traditional Korean drummers.
Also nearby was this big rock with Chinese letters carved into it:
and this bus stop with a Bat Boy advertisement that I couldn't resist taking a picture of:
Part 2 of this post is coming soon
Kids are cute everywhere, but Korean kids are f**king adorable.
Anyway, so I took off for the subway and on the way took a short, 1-block detour to take this picture:
That is the edge of Seoul. On the left side of the picture, the one where we are, is Seoul. The other side is ... well, it's not Seoul. This is weird for me to think of since the sum total of my time in Korea was pretty much spent in Seoul and I was a few feet from leaving the only place I knew in the country.
Anyway, so I went downtown to the GwangHwaMoon station. I knew where it was because it is where Kyobo Bookstore is, and Kyobo has a big section of books in a foreign language. Namely, English with some books in Japanese, Chinese, and French.
This is the Kyobo building:
The neighborhood is very modern and has a somewhat "Times Square" feel to it, except less crowded and not as tacky. There are several "downtown" neighborhoods in Seoul, and this is one of them.
here's a closer look at that middle building, which actually says "GwangHwaMoon Post Office" on it.
The skyline in one direction (it's not as easy to get your north/south bearings in Seoul as it is in New York) was dominated by two Korean flags tied to balloons.
In the other direction, the festival was capped by a statue of the Korean hero Yi Sun Shin, who repelled a couple of Japanese invasions a few hundred years ago. The last form that you have to learn in TaeKwonDo (the martial art, not the sport) before you get your black belt is named after this guy.
Right near the statue is this little thing tucked away in the crowd of buildings:
The festival itself had music, both Korean and American, games, and traditional Korean drummers.
Also nearby was this big rock with Chinese letters carved into it:
and this bus stop with a Bat Boy advertisement that I couldn't resist taking a picture of:
Part 2 of this post is coming soon
