Aaaanyway that left me drained of any and all social grace for the rest of the day but I did end up having a really interesting conversation with one of my Korean friends. She's cute, fun, intelligent, and has a great job, but because she's in her 30s and single, she completely views herself as a failure. Korea has a spinster syndrome gone mad, I've heard men say that women completely exist to be beautiful and get married and so if they don't, their entire life feels like time borrowed against money they don't have. I have to say I hate that mentality because I know more than one woman here who feels like that and it pervades their entire way of thinking, like there's no escape from the social and personal pressures they put on themselves to go past the mile-markers of life in perfect time. To be fair, though I do think that Korea is a bit sexist so women have it harder, I've also heard women say that men exist to pay the bills. So unfair expectations go both ways to an extent.
Now. As I've said before, I've truly made my peace with Korea and have spent a good 20 or 30 odd posts exploring what I like about it. But today, in the spirit of that conversation, I want to air some of the exceptions to that satisfaction here: Public spitting. Absolutely NO regard whatsoever for pedestrians...like ever. The sacrifice of childhood for education. Completely unpredictable hours in restaurants. "Oriental style" toilets, ie. troughs. Natio
nal hypochondria.Phew OK that's done. Most of Korea I really really like, I promise. On that note, on Saturday, Chad and I went to Suwon which is a UNESCO world heritage site. It's basically a giant fortress wall that circles the old part of a city that has turned into a suburb of Seoul. It was amazing. We spent about 2 and a half hours walking the whole of the wall and about every 200 ft. there was a sentry tower or an armory or a pagoda or pavilion or niche or something. It was recently renovated (along with almost everything else in Korea including the WHOLE of Daejeon- why there are no old buildings in my city- it was flattened during the Korean war) so 90% of the wall is walkable. That last little 10% briefly dipped us down into the city's downtown and through a market with a ton of heaped up vegetables and hanging raw meat. I even saw cow and pig heads. When we found the wall again, it was an up up up trek to the top of a hill smack dab in the middle of the current city which was the crescendo of the wall. When we got to the top, there was a leg off to the left that jutted out and was a really peaceful stroll in the snow, guarded by pines until the trees fell off and at the end, with this mini-temple, you saw all the ramshackle buildings of the city. It was absolutely love
ly and Chad made me close my eyes to feel the winter sun for a bit and listen to the icicles melting in drops onto the snow. We went back and continued the circle around. This was absolutely my favorite stretch of the wall because the city fell away and we were just in the middle of a park and I actually smelled NATURE for the first time in almost six months. Chad and I literally inhaled the hill. We walked a bit and came to "The Bell of Filial Piety" which is the centerpiece of the wall. One of the kings of Korea built it to honor his father, who had been buried alive in a rice box by his father because he was afraid of being overthrown by his own son (as you do...). Hence the bell. On the hour, it tolls three times- once to honor your parents, twice to honor your family, three times to realize your dreams. I would have liked to see it ring, I only heard it faintly before we saw it. Then
, we came to a gorgeous temple on the very very top. It was in the middle of this open space and huge yellow banners rolling with the wind. It was a stunning view of all the multicolored chaotic rooftops and the domineering omnipresent Korean apartment buildings and very very peaceful. We clambered down from the hill, closed out the circuit, and started wandering around for lunch. Suwon is famous for galbi, but after seeing that it is SO famous that it charges 40,000 won a person (about 35 bucks) for something for which in Daejeon, 10,000 won is considered expensive, we opted for fast food. After that, we went in search of this huge golden Buddha we'd seen from the wall and found it in this little tucked away temple. It's about 30 ft. tall and very pretty. Then, we wandered to a museum of the Hwaseong Fortress (the wall) that we found on our way to lunch. That was fun because we had just gotten in (for all of 1,000 won- I must say I do love Korean admission prices) when a docent came over to tell us, "You've been asking about the tree, right?" We hadn't but were game to find out what exactly we were meant to have been curious about. He lead us over to the ticket desk, gave us special paper and markers, and t
old us to write a wish. He then leaned over to Chad and said, "If I might make a recommendation, I'd wish to get married to your beautiful girl friend..." which was made all the more funny because not only are we NOT in a relationship, but Chad's gay. But, we went along with it and played happy couple while we tied our wishes to this bundle of brush kind of resembling a tree. Yesterday, Lunar New Year, they burned it and sent our wishes to the sky, to be fulfilled by the new moon. I really liked that!I hopped a bus back home and made some shrimp pesto pasta for dinner and then went to bed early because I was feeling sick. This got steadily worse through the night and all through the next day because, despite a nap, lots of liquids, and babying myself with Disney movies, I felt terrible and came down with a fever. Channeling my mother, a mere trifle of a fever and headache and chills did not stop me from making salmon, mashed potatoes, stuffing and salad for Chad and my Valentine/ Lunar New Year Dinner. Oh, no. However, after dinner we both felt so terrible that all we could manage to do was lie on the floor of my apartment for an hour. I do have a strange attachment to my floor. Somehow, I miraculously slept last night and after a well-timed Ibuprofen, my fever's gone and I am only dealing with some lingering sniffles and that hot husky man voice that comes with congestion.
The good news is that despite the fact that it is Monday, I still have one more day off! Woohoo! We had a little 4 day break for Lunar New Year. This and Chuseok are the biggest traditional holidays of the year so I was surprised we didn't do anything at school. But, I did get two random hand towels, chocolate, and Khiel's face cream from various students and of course, the requisite toothpaste and soap bars from ECC. Enjoy the end of winter everyone!! Love!
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I appreciate the pictures!
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