My friend across the street now calls me a world traveler. Maybe I am. I told Tyler the other night that the world doesn't seem so big anymore. Nor so scary. I feel like I could get around places . . . as long as the signs had a little hint of English.
I first have to offer my thanks to Mr. Kim Jong-il, that crazy North Korean dictator (or Dear Leader as his countrymen refer to him).
KAMSAMNIDA!
Without his crazy missile, er . . . satellite launch, an entire day in Seoul would have been lost to San Francisco's airport. Our initial flight out of Salt Lake
was delayed an hour because of snow AND we only had that hour between connecting flights in San Fran. I offered up a prayer somewhere over Nevada that we would make our overnight flight. If we didn't, the next flight out wasn't until 6 am the next morning. I faithfully watched the clock as my faith waned. I KNEW we would be looking for somewhere to sleep. Our plane touched down with only ten minutes until the next departed. When we finally retrieved our gate-checked luggage, it was a sprint through the airport, and as we rounded the corner and saw the waiting area empty, Ty's faith faltered. But ahead I could see the doors were still open and ticket counter accepting boarding passes. I never felt so relieved to be sitting on a plane, knowing our plans were still intact. We were almost the last two people on. Shortly after settling in the captain came over the PA to explain how they were INTENTIONALLY delaying the flight 15 minutes to ensure we would not be flying close to North Korea during the window of time they might launch a "satellite." He was also changing the flight path since the previous one would have taken us directly over North Korea. We had a very crazy time getting to Korea, but what a fantastic week to experience another culture.
Jet lag wasn't too bad. By the time we got to our hotel, it was about 9pm and we were ready for bed. Although I continually awoke throughout the night, we still slept decently on VERY HARD beds. The EXTRA SOFT big pillows made up for the bed. That first night I woke up about 4:30 to the sound of a gong. It took me several minutes but I realized it must be the gong across the street at the Buddhist temple. And every morning that was our wakeup call.
Our agenda really consisted of visiting places Ty had been as a missionary some 17 years ago. Sunday took us to the Seoul Temple which is quite small on the outside, maybe not quite bigger than a church building. Most of the temple is tucked away underneath. When we exited the subway we took off in some direction, walking down little alleys and side streets, looking for familiarity, trying to find a hill that Ty recalls the temple being on. Well, Seoul is all hills and valleys. It reminded me a lot of San Francisco. Sometimes I even mentioned that the alley we were walking in looked like a dead end. Tyler's response was "there are no dead ends." And he was right. You might have to squeeze between a fence and a building but it led somewhere. At one point we spotted the steeples and knew we were headed in the right direction. But then we lost sight and didn't see them for awhile. It wasn't until we were headed down a street and I was looking up for street signs. Angel Moroni stood out like a shining beacon among a sea of buildings. Ty was right again. The temple is on a hill, but it doesn't captivate attention. Our joke that day was that the Angel Moroni guided us in. We kept our eyes on him and he eventually brought us to the temple.
Sunday also included a visit to the old ward. Tyler recognized a few faces, even his mission president he had for the concluding 2 months of his mission. It was fast and testimony meeting. I didn't understand a thing, but how refreshing to know that I could go halfway around the world and the gospel was the same. The church was still the same. The sacrament was exactly how it is at home. The songs were the same. The spirit was still as strong.
In our wanderings we also happened upon the post office Ty used to send mail. Also, dressed in our Sunday finery, we passed a Korean woman a street over from the temple who was explaining to her friend that we were "Mormon".
One of the items on our agenda was the DMZ, or Demilitarized Zone. I love history and that area has such history behind it. We even went so far as to book reservations but hadn't paid. Tyler didn't feel comfortable going, and I didn't want to force the issue. Maybe if it was a different week and North Korea hadn't just experimented with a missile launch. Instead we took the subway as far north as you could go to Uijeongbu, the last area Tyler served in. We didn't find the exact house he lived in but this was close enough. We went hiking up the mountain and discovered old Korean War trenches and remnants of old war huts.
We visited palaces and Buddhist temples, shopped, and hiked a lot. I wish I had thought to bring my pedometer just to see how much we walked. We often left by 7am and didn't return until 9:30pm with aching feet and sore leg muscles.
I would have to say the highlight of the trip was the hike we took up Namsan Mountain.
Ty would tell me that sentence is redundant since san means mountain. Namsan literally translates as south mountain. It's a very high hill in the middle of Seoul with 10,000 steps to the top. At least it felt that way. Coming down my legs were Jell-O; I seriously was afraid they would give out on me. When we finally summited, this was the view:
Lots of little Korean children taking a field trip (I suspect they took the cable car to the top instead of climbing). We sat and observed and made some friends:
They relished the opportunity to practice their English with "Hi," and "What's your name?" After our brief conversation they proceeded to roll out their mats, take off their shoes, sit on their mats, and pull out their lunches to eat. One little boy even offered Ty a piece of a sushi roll and was quickly scolded I'm sure for talking to strangers. In the end as we were leaving, they all told us bye and "see you next time." I think Ty relished the opportunity practice his Korean. He was surprised at how quickly it came back, and I think most people were surprised at his knowledge of Korean.
We sampled authentic bulgogi and I was introduced to hoddeok, a scone or pancake with a cinnamon filling. These you can buy from the street vendors HOT, and they are so good. I will admit that by Thursday afternoon when we walked through the huge underground mall connecting our hotel to the subway station, my eyes spotted Burger King and nothing sounded better right then than a whopper and fries with lots of salt. And oh did it taste good. I didn't even think of all the calories and fat grams my body had just consumed.
Spring is a beautiful time in Korea because of all the cherry, magnolia, and dogwood in bloom. However, it is also very smoggy due to "Yellow Dust" that blows in from the desertification of the Gobi Desert in China. I would love to visit again but later in the year to see the contrast.
Observations I had while in South Korea:
- There aren't a lot of benches or places to sit and rest in Korea and often resorted to sitting on the curb to rest our wearied feet.
- You don't see a lot of fat people. They walk too much and even have exercise parks with ellipticals and weights on their hikes.
- I felt very safe everywhere. There were several underground tunnels we passed through to get to the other side. Neither of us would have ventured through them in the states. You just didn't know who would be waiting for you. Not in Korea.
- The men wear dark suites and white shirts and ties. The women wear high heels. Even hiking up a mountain which is a very popular pastime.
- You are never alone.
- Their toilets are not like ours. Thankfully our hotel had a normal toilet. I refused to use one of these:
- When they say thank you (kamsamnida) they will bow their head slightly. That was the only word I dared to utter. Even hello was too long for me to try and pronounce correctly.
- A garbage can was very hard to find. And if we did, it was most likely filled to overflowing.
- The Koreans take their handicap areas very seriously. After a long day walking and hiking my feet screamed for some rest. That didn't often come on the subway that was very packed. I did however notice that at the back were seats reserved for the handicap, elderly, pregnant women, or women with children. Several times I took a seat if no one was sitting there, but soon learned that is taboo. Just like we don't take the handicap parking if no one is parked there, they don't sit in those seats just because no one is sitting there.
Another favorite moment occurred before we even left the Salt Lake airport. As I waited to board our plane, I noticed a couple of young boys maybe 5 or 6 years old approach the Korean girl that was obviously going home to Korea. They asked her if she spoke Chinese which she did. Tyler says this is uncommon. Most Koreans know Korean and English. Then one little boy said, "I can speak Chinese too . . . Hola!" We began to board the plane and as the boys and Korean girl parted company, she told them "Adios."
So adios to a very exciting, enlightening trip. I can't wait to go back.
