Korean Independence Day
Trip Start
Jun 20, 2009
1
10
14
Trip End
Aug 24, 2009
Seoul, Seoul, Korea Rep.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
In the bathroom, you must wear the bath slippers. And the shower is open to the rest of the bathroom, so I set my clean clothes on top of the toilet so they would not get wet. I took off my jewelry and set it on top of my clothes. After my shower, I picked up my clothes to get dressed, and my rings fell. This was the beginning of a multiple hour stressful episode with my new home-stay family. One of my rings fell just behind the toilet, so I was able to find it. But, my mom's wedding ring (which I am wearing while I am gone to feel closer to my family) got lodged in between the toilet bowl and the tank. At first you could see the ring shining a little bit in the dark slit. I told my home-stay family, and my sister shoved a piece of newspaper in the slit to try to nudge the ring out, but instead it got lodged further into the slit. My parents took their turns trying to get the ring out using various instruments and a flashlight, but nothing seemed to work. My mom called the plumber, but they said they were not able to come today. I was not going to give up, even though you could not see the ring anymore, I knew it was there. I found a way to unscrew the toilet from underneath. This way we could slightly lift up the tank. Then, I lifted the tank a little bit, and luckily my mother has small hands and she was able to slide them in and grab the ring. We were all so happy; we all hugged and smiled a lot. It was soo very stressful, but I am very glad that I now have the ring back. Even though I was very nervous, I kept my composure and just kept trying different things- just like my mom would have done. When I was finally able to get dressed, my home-stay mother came into my room and we laughed about how it was just what we needed to happen to get to know each other better.
Now, my sister and I were ready to start our day-long tour of Seoul. We met up with her friend, MIn Hee, who studied abroad in Kentucky for a year and was really nice! First we went to the city hall, where we also saw an entrance to a palace. At this palace they were doing a special parade because of Independence Day. We watched this and dressed up in traditional Korean garments. I got to see the stream that I was not able to see the day it poured. There were also fountains all over the place that little kids would play in, because it was so hot! It was an awesome place to take pictures, because the kids' faces were so lit up with emotion. Next, we went shopping in a district that had many American stores, such as Lacoste, Ralph Lauren, Apple, Forever 21, and the list goes on. It was sad that everything was so Americanized- but I guess that is everywhere. After looking in many stores, I also noticed there were not many cool shirts that said things in Korean- nearly every shirt was in English. We ate ramen at a Chinese restaurant- the servings were huge!
After shopping for a bit- I restrained myself from buying anything!- we went to the Seoul tower. To get up to the Seoul tower, you take a tram car that hangs from a cable. Once we got to the top, the views of Seoul- although very hazy- were incredible. My favorite thing up there was this really long fence, that had hundreds of thousands of locks decorated all over it. It is a special place where couples come and attach two locks together on the fence with a plastic heart that says something. It is said that when you do this, your relationship will last forever. It was a fabulous place to get cool photos of the various locks. There was also another performance at the top; men were fighting with swords. We did not go all the way to the top of the Seoul tower, because it cost extra money, but the views from the base were still awesome! It is kind-of the same idea as the space needle, except this place was used to send up smoke signals during the day and fire signals at night when an enemy was approaching during war.
Throughout the day we took the subway everywhere, which is very confusing, especially when everything is in Korean. When we got back to her apartment we rested for a little bit- I read the Korean Herald (an English copy) that I bought in the subway station and she watched music videos on the TV. After a short amount of time, my H-S mom told me she was going to start preparing dinner. I asked her if I could watch her cook and maybe help her a little bit, because I love to cook. She made a traditional Korean dinner that is only made on special occasions. I wrote down the recipes to everything, so I am looking forward to having a Korean cooking party/class with all of you when I return! We ate: LA Kalbi, white rice with grains, salad with homemade dressing, dried seaweed, kimchi, sesame leaf, korean-style black beans, anchovies with red pepper sauce, Jabchae (vegetable noodle dish), and Pajeon (green onion pancake). It was so delicious!!
After dinner, my sister and I left the house to meet up with two of her friends- Min Hee (who we were with earlier) and another girl but I forget how to say her name. The new friend was very shy towards me, because she is afraid of foreigners. One time when she was in 6th grade she went to California and on the plane she could not figure out how to fasten her seat belt so she asked the person sitting next to her, and they said something mean to her, so now she fears all foreigners. She knew English, but she would get so nervous trying to converse with me, that she would forget just about everything she knew- she could barely speak in Korean. She would always hold a piece of paper in front of her mouth and speak very low. The odd thing was, was that she was very interested in the United States. She is going to New York City for Christmas vacation and all she would talk to me about- timidly- was how much she loves American fashion and her favorite actors in the states. She goes to a public high school in Korea and said that she is not very smart, but she loves art. After watching the Devil Wears Prada, she realized she wants to become the editor of the magazine in that movie. It was really strange having people fear me. Also, everyone on the street stops in their stride and watches me walk past. Some people even point and whisper. We went to a movie with her friends- Public Enemy- it was in English with Korean subtitles. (The majority of their movies are in English with Korean subtitles.) It was a horrible movie, with a lot of shooting and bank robbing. We left before it ended because we were all falling asleep and had no idea what was going on. Min Hee was hungry, so we walked to McDonalds and talked while she ate. Then, my H-S father came to pick us up. We were supposed to take the subway, but because it was so late, my H-S parents wanted to pick us up.
When we got home, my sister and mother got in a fight, and it was really awkward. Before we went to the movie, my mother suggested that we go for a walk, rather than a movie, but my sister really wanted to go to the movie, since she never is able to. (She is always studying). Because the movie was bad and my H-S could tell that I was tired (we all were) she was upset with her daughter for taking me to a late movie. It was really awkward, because I had no problem with it and had fun talking with her friends, even though one of them was scared of me. They were screaming in Korean, so I just went into my room and uploaded my photos onto my computer and then went to sleep.
-Lauren
