Doing Some Seoul Searching

The time period around October 1st is China's national holiday. Most people in China have a break off from work during this time period. Leewen English School gave all the foreign teachers a week off, which is my first extended time off during my trip to China. At first I wanted to go to Beijing and see the major sights there. However, after talking to several of the teachers that have been in China longer than I have, I discovered that Beijing will be ridiculously packed during the holiday. One teacher described her trip to Tiananmin Square as standing shoulder to shoulder with Chinese people the entire time. Not wanting to battle such a mass of people some of my fellow teachers and I decided to check out other options. We managed to find a travel agent that could speak English, which was a major feat in my mind. After weighing our options we decide that, for the money, a week in South Korea would best quench our wanderlust. On September 25th I was off to see my second country in Asia. After landing in Incheon we paid for a shuttle to our hostel in Seoul. I have discovered that hostels are the way to go. We paid $13 dollars a night to stay in Seoul when a hotel would have been much more. My first impression of Seoul was a good one. Looking out the window of the shuttle at night I saw the lights of a booming City of 11 million people. I also noticed that when we were on a high point of the freeway I could look out over the city and see several red fluorescent crosses sticking up over the city, some places more than six at a time. I knew that Christianity was fairly widespread in South Korea but this still struck me as a surprise. I remembered reading somewhere that the main proselytizing came in South Korea during the time of Japanese occupation during WWII. While the Japanese were treating the people very harshly the Christians came in and provided food and medical supplies. It was obvious looking at all the crosses that the South Korean people did not forget the generosity of the Christians during that time period.

On my third day in Korea I found a fortress in my travelers guide. The book didn't say much about the fortress just what direction I had to go in to find it and a picture of one of the gates. We went to where we expected to find the fortress we discovered that there was a 4 kilometer hike up a mountain to get to it. I decided that wanted to test my woodsman skills and head up the hill. It was a challenging hike. A little different than the climbing the hills of north Missouri. About half way the other two people said they were hungry so I made a make shift bow and arrow out of branches and bark and tried to find a squirrel, but then I remembered that they don't have Squirrels in China so they probably don't in Korea either. We eventually get to the top only to discover that the fortress was a huge wall that surrounded the entire mountain top. Inside the fortress was a town that had been there since the 7th century. We were very lucky to find out that there was actually a cultural festival going on in the town that is only once a year and happened to be during the time we were there. We showed up just in time for the opening ceremony and the parade. We hung out there for awhile and then treated ourselves to some Korean style BBQ, which is one of my favorite things I have eaten since I have been in Asia. After walking around we found out that we could have simply taken a bus to the city and avoided the three hour hike. Although I am glad we didn't because the way we found the city and fortress was an experience in itself. We were just walked out of a forest and found a cultural festival! The picture on the top is from the Eagles nest of the fortress. One side overlooked Seoul while the other was of hills and mountains. If you look at my photbucket site you can see more picture from the festival. You can also see some videos that I took of the festival. I will also put up a video I took of some old guys break dancing to some Korean pop music in the subway. It might just be one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life.



This picture was taken at a Korean restaurant with no tables and chairs. One of the tour guides told us that along time ago in Korea houses had huge stone floors. The houses were heated by building fires underneath those floors. The people who wanted to stay warm had to sit on the floor and did not have any furniture. The ceilings are also typically very low to hold the heat in. Many homes today are still heated with the same technique, but instead of using fire below the floor they use heated water pipes.


Thanks to everybody who reads my blog. I apogize that it takes me so long to update it. I want to make sure that I have something interesting to talk about when I post. Anyway I really enjoy getting emails and facebook messages from people telling me how they are doing. Also I have to many stories about Korea to fit in one post so check back and I will have another Korea post up shortly. If you cant find the link to my photbucket site it is at the very bottom of the page for some reason.

Quote of the Week:

A Korean person, a Japanese person and a Chinese person go to Heaven to talk to God. God tells them they can each ask him a question and he will give them the answer. The Korean person goes first and ask, "When will Korea win a World Cup?" God replies "ten years." The Korean leaves happy because he will get to see his team win a world cup. The Japanese person steps up and ask "When will Japan win a World Cup?" God replies "80 years." The Japanese person starts to cry and yells, "I won't see Japan win a World Cup!" The Chinese person steps up and asks "When will China win a World Cup?" After hearing the question God starts crying and says "I can't see, I can't see!" -A joke of of my Chinese students told me and he thought it was about the funniest thing he had ever heard.

P.S. I didn't really make a bow and arrow and try to kill a Squirrel in Korea.