일월 (설날과 서울여행) | January Monthly Report (Lunar New Year and Seoul Trip)

This month, I began my two-month break from school. On my blog, I already summarized what happened during the first few weeks of break. During these weeks, I celebrated New Year’s Day, went skating, visited my extended host family in Gwangju, and attended my school’s English Camp. After the English Camp, I went to visit Sejin, one of my counselors from Korean Camp, in Suwon. In this monthly report, I will instead talk about the things following the trip to Suwon in more detail.

One of the major Korean holidays during this month was 설날 (Seolnal), the Lunar New Year, which was celebrated on January 23^rd. During this holiday, much like 추석 (Chuseok), which is a holiday I experienced earlier in my year here, Korean families go to the towns that their ancestors are from. Unfortunately, my new host family could not bring me with them because of a space issue, but I was able to spend the week surrounding the holiday at my first host family’s house instead. During this holiday, I was able to participate in 세배 (Sebae), a traditional activity during which the children of a family bow to their elders, receiving money in return. We also visited their ancestor’s graves and went on a hike during the holiday, along with eating the traditional soup 떡국 (Tteokguk). During the holiday, everyone advances in age by the Korean system of age, which makes me 20 years old here, even though I am still only 18 in the system used elsewhere.

 

쫑구 (Jjonggu), my first host family's dog and my exchange mascot, was happy to see me again.

The other major event that happened was that we went on our Rotary Trip to Seoul. To do this, we five exchange students took the train from Seocheon to meet with 지원 (Ji-won) and 효림 (Hyo-rim), two past outbound students from Donggang Junior High School who were showing us around the first day. The first place we went was to Gyeonbukgung Palace and Gwanghwamun. Although I visited some of the complex around these when I was here before with Sejin, this time I was able to see more of the attraction, which was very interesting to see.

 

Part of the Gyeonbukgung Palace Grounds

After seeing the Palace grounds, we went to Insadong and had tea, following which we shopped a little bit in the market. After being here, we went to a department store and spent our evening walking along Cheong-gye-cheon, a reclaimed stream that goes through part of the city. That night, we stayed at a place called “Rainbow Guest”, which was a nice bed and breakfast sort of place.

 

Salmulnori band in Insadong

The next day, we met up with another past exchange student, 예은 (Yea-eun), and went to the Korean Basketball League All-Star Game, which was a very unique and interesting experience. There were actually a lot of similarities to sporting events that I have seen in the US, but it seemed mainly to me as if the Korean style was more focused on making a show of the experience, while in the US, it would be more about the game. After the game, I was able to go up Namsan Mountain again to see N Seoul Tower. From there we walked to Seoul Myeongdong House, which was our place to stay for the night. At this house, we got to know one of the other guests, Richelle, who was visiting Seoul for a few days before embarking on an adventure to study in China. It was interesting to talk with someone who was just embarking on her adventure from the position at the midpoint of mine.

 

At the Basketball Game

On the last day of the trip, we went to the theme park Lotte World, which was a fun way of ending the trip. After we finished there, we went back to the train station to take our train back home. Originally, we were supposed to go on to have three more days in Daejeon, but those plans fell through. I was not to upset though, because I found myself rather exhausted by the intense trip that we had taken to see the city of Seoul.

Lotte World

수원하고 서울 | Suwon and Seoul

Last weekend, I went to Suwon to visit Sejin, one of the counselors I met at 숲속의 호수 (Sup Sogui Hosu), the Korean Camp at Concordia Language Villages. While there, I also got to see a lot of the city of Seoul, which I considered my first real visit to the city, because I had only seen a museum there during my first visit to the city. Upon visiting it, I felt that Seoul was definitely one of my favorite cities in the world.

To go to Suwon, I took the train from Gunsan. For me, the train ride was already an interesting experience, because it isn’t really a travel option for me in the United States. I have taken trains before, but never as the only mode of transportation for a trip and also never alone. It was not too difficult to do the trip though, because I only had to take one train and get off at the correct stop. In Suwon Station, I met with Sejin and we took the bus over to his apartment so that I could leave my bag there. After having lunch with him and his wife, I was going to be spending the day in Seoul. To get there, Sejin and I took a bus from Suwon to Seoul. It was a long trip, but Sejin had a movie on his computer that we watched.

Seoul Subway Car

Once in Seoul, we got onto the Subway and went to Insadong, which is a district of the city that has many more traditional shops. Where we first walked into the main street, a large crowd had gathered around a group performing traditional dance. They were wearing masks and were accompanied by musicians playing the traditional Samulnori instruments. From there, we walked down the street, looking at the many shops. One of the most memorable for me was a large tea shop that had free samples of their tea from Jeju Island. We got into the line that had formed inside the shop and had some of the best green tea I have ever tasted.

The Dancers at Insadong

From the market, we walked a few blocks away to wander the streets of the Bukchon Hanok Village. A hanok is a traditional Korean house, and this area was notable for the sheer quantity of them being preserved in one place. It was interesting to see the beautiful architecture of the houses in this part of the city. While we were looking around, there was a Chinese travel show that was also filming in the area, so there is a possibility that we might have made it onto Chinese television.

Sejin and I at the Hanok Village

After seeing the Hanok Village, we walked over to the National Folk Museum at Gyeonbokgung. It was part of a large complex around Gyeonbokgung Palace. We looked at some of the buildings in the area that we didn’t have to pay for, as I might be going back to see the Palace during the Rotary-sponsored Seoul Trip that I will be taking later in the month. From there, we walked by Gwanghwamun, the Gate to the Palace, and over to Cheonggyecheon, which is a reclaimed stream that goes through part of the city. Along the stream, they had walkways, bridges, art, and greenery that made it into an interesting walk.

We turned off from Cheonggyecheon after a few blocks, and we went to Namdaemun Market, which is one of the busiest market districts in Seoul. It was rather overwhelming, because there were people everywhere. Our major stop here was to get dinner. We went to a noodle shop, named 명동교자, that had extremely good food and was apparently rather well-known. When we went in, the restaurant was rather crowded, but we were able to get a spot very quickly, but when we were leaving, the line stretched out the door.

Namdaemun Market

Once we left Namdaemun Market, we took a cab to Namsan Mountain to see the North Seoul Tower (also called Namsan Tower). To get up the mountain and to the tower, we climbed up the stairs instead of taking the cable car that most people take, which has a very long wait. As soon as we reached the tower, they announced that they would be starting the tower light show, so we sat down, and watched the light show that was projected onto the Tower. We were extremely happy with our good timing to see that show. Although we didn’t go up to the observation deck on the tower, we admired the view and the attractions around the base of the tower. One of the most interesting of these attractions is the many locks that are attached to the fence on part of the viewing space on the top of the mountain. The reason for these are that couples will write a love message on a lock, attach it to the fence, and then throw the keys for the lock over the fence. After we finished at Namsan Tower, we took a bus to get back down. Because of the large demand to go up and down the mountain, the bus was one of the most crowded that I have been on. When we got down from the mountain, we took the bus back to Suwon and went to bed very tired.

Namsan Tower During the Light Show

The next day, I went with Sejin and his wife to pick up their kids from their Grandparents house in a nearby city. I spent most of the day with the whole family. We did not do as much on this day, because I was very tired, but I got to see more of the city of Suwon. We visited one of Suwon’s major attractions, Hwaseong, a fortress wall that extends around the main part of the city. Here, I walked around part of the wall with Sejin and his daughter. It was interesting to see the ties to all of Korea’s history still being visible in a major way. Most of that day, I got to spend with Sejin and his family, which was something that I really appreciated, but the next morning I had to take the train back to Gunsan.