I don't know where to begin. Korea has been my playground. My PC man helped me navigate the complications of Korean phone software. Now I have enough pictures from my phone to span an entire web page. I have some catching up to do. This weekend I met face to face with overexertion. Friday we had off of school because it was Jo-an Elementary's birthday. Apparently avoiding the place is how we celebrate that it's still going strong.
I couldn't sit still for a day of rest so I ventured Seoul-o to Gyeongbok Palace. Apparently only a few dozen structures remain on this ancient site since the Japanese takeover of Korea in 1910. You can see how the royal archtiecture is preserved amid rapid Korean construction.
I couldn't sit still for a day of rest so I ventured Seoul-o to Gyeongbok Palace. Apparently only a few dozen structures remain on this ancient site since the Japanese takeover of Korea in 1910. You can see how the royal archtiecture is preserved amid rapid Korean construction.
In contrast to Suwon, the city that mingles with the walls of the old Hwaseong fortress, Gyeongbok is a palace contained completely within its walls. Within these walls are hallways, meeting halls, royally important rooms, and fancy-dance buildings.
There were also two museums. Museums for me are usually boring, unless I find an exhibit that strikes a cord. The former of these two museums contained old stuff from inside the palace. It was a bust. The latter was the Korean Folk Museum and inside I discovered some unusual things. The first series of showcases were set up to teach its visitors a brief overview of Korean history. Things all got started with three old agricultural kingdoms which eventually convened into one great dynasty that went by the name Choson. From 1400 to 1910 the land progressed steadily alongside the Western world in terms of science, health, and prosperity without much global interaction. One of the first artifacts to seize my attention was an old etiquette book written by King Sejong in Hangul.
Hangul is the only invented language, guided in its creation with a direct purpose--to give correct sounds for a unified land to communicate and give instruction to each other. This reminds me of Ben Franklin christening the word "Americans" for the mixed people of the United States struggling to find a single identity. Franklin said this word would last, for it provides for the people of the New World a common fellowship. Hangul has lasted, giving the people of Korean their Korean language today--distinct, efficient, and wickedly scientific. Korean language (aka Hanguke) exists in stark contrast to its brethern Chinese. Instead of tens of thousands of symbols to learn, there are only 24 symbols; each symbol ready to fit with 3 or 4 other symbols to make a single syllable. This makes the alphabet ridiculously easy to learn but listening for meaning terribly difficult: because there are few sounds there are many words that sound increbily similar (especially to a Western ear). Moving through history pretty quickly I was transfixed by the Western influences that finally found their way to Korea. Around the 1960s (after the Korean War~ the U.S. protected the South while the North adapted Soviet communism). I see phonographs, radios, coal burners, and a refridgerator that looked like the one my grandma used to own. . . but smaller of course. I had to laugh at the electric fan--a symbol of the dangers of assuming so much foreign technology. If you're not sure what I mean, google fan death. Of course, pop culture found its way over seas as well. Check out this vintage Korean Beatles album:
Find the original evil instrument of death.
Before I found my way out I saw a pair of acupuncture dolls. The art of acupuncture, developed by the Chinese, maps a network of energy flowing through the body. By poking certain points with a needle stress or pain can be relieved at another specific part of the body. I wonder how much superstition precedes medicine. From what I recall this art of healing was a success. The same exhibit also had some interesting videos of healing rituals and dances. Recently I've been sick and all I got was a pocket full of drugs. My prescription called for a carefully planned out, 14-step drug schedule. Each bag contains a different combination of different colored pills that I must take each day. I don't know what's inside each thing, but is it really that much more far-fetched than mapping a grid of sensations on the body?
Those needles are inserted into these dots. Better than a back massage?
That evening I return to Yangpyeong as usual to get my weekly poker practice. This is part one of my holiday weekend. Coincidentally, my school's holiday in Korea coincides with the big fireshow holiday in America. Armed with an excuse I keep pushing!
