A Seoul-ful New Year: part 5

Well, well, well... we've reached the final day of my Seoul train.

First, a shot of my room that Breda found for me. Even though it was tiny, it had a fantastic heating blanket, was cleaned daily, and only cost $10/day! And it was only a few blocks from Breda and Gio. A great setup if you ask me (thanks, cuz!)

As is often the case outside the US, the bathroom doubled as a shower stall, which meant that one has to employ constant vigilance for stray puddles when doing one's "business". It also meant that I got to shower in front of the large mirror that served as a wall. 

Which brings me to something that I'm sure I won't deal with enough cultural sensitivity: widespread unabashed vanity. I won't be passing too much judgment (I shan't be a hypocrite, now), just expressing my impressions. 

mirror of Erised: Gio sees himself as Breda

Compared to China, mirrors were ubiquitous in Seoul! I suppose it's fairly standard around the world to have mirrors in bathrooms and elevators, but I'd turn a corner and bam! I'd meet my chiral self in stairwells, subway stations, and next to restaurant doorways. I actually saw two women having coffee together when one pulled an ornate handheld mirror out of her purse to fix her makeup/admire herself. Actually, Breda says that she had to confiscate such mirrors from her students.

I don't mean to say that having an interest in one's image is bad. But it was a tad odd to so frequently have the opportunity to check one's self out AND for it to be so socially accepted. Furthermore, I saw advertisements all over the place for cosmetic surgery (for both genders). Although I may joke about getting "work done" in the future, I think that confidence and self-respect can have a more striking affect than getting nipped and tucked. Of course, everyone is free to make their own decisions (and certainly there are deformation cases that in my opinion warrant surgery), but if we've learned one thing from Hollywood plastic surgery, it's that you should take what you have and just slightly adjust it- not get a face transplant (Jennifer Grey, anyone?). Many of the adverts were shockingly extreme.

Breda says that any girl whose family as any money at all will get at least the double eyelid surgery. Maybe I'm just unaware of how often people in the US get cosmetic surgery, but considering that certain of these surgeries are so common for pre-teens rather than rational adults, I started to feel like I was in an Aldous Huxley novel with a borderline narcissistic society.

Okay, enough of that discussion. Really, the people were very caring and kind and accepting of me, but the vanity was a bit shocking overall.

So for my last day in Seoul, I checked out a great big palace. It reminded me a bit of the Forbidden City, but the color schemes and layout were a bit different. However, as can be seen in the following photo, they followed the feng shui thing were you build a palace with mountains behind and a river in front.

the statue in the center of the photo is of the emporer who commissioned the invention of the Korean alphabet.

To our delight, the palace had hourly military demonstrations where "cast members" marched around in awesome costumes.

look- he's playing a conch! Just like in Lord of the Flies!

then there was a guard chicken.

and very cool tapstries

I've mentioned once or twice that Korean palaces have a bit of a different style to them, and the following photo is a bit of an example.

It's never safe to generalize, but most of the palaces that I've seen in China have looked like a box of crayons exploded on their eaves into intricate patterns. In contrast, many Korean structures have a more subdued color scheme:  earthy colors, and lots of natural wood use.



Korea's mythological guardian creature is Haetae:

Personally, I think he/she looks more like Mr. Snuffleupagus than a fierce guard dog, but perhaps evil Korean ghosts are afraid of being licked and tickled to death (....again).

For my final supper, we went to a Korean bbq place. Thanks to Gio's excellent meat-flipping skills with chopsticks, Breda and I had a constant stream of freshly grilled beef to slurp up. It was pretty awesome.

So that was my New Year's week in Korea! I loved getting to see another Asian country that shares many characteristics with China but definitely has its own brand. And it was especially fantastic getting to spend time with my cousin after 14ish years of not seeing each other. We had plenty of "remember when grandma/grandpa" memories to share (though I really should keep to myself the time when I walked in on my grandma disrobing) and had a great time exchanging stories from our respective parents' points of view ("Well my mom says that your dad was taunting her and that she was totally justified in throwing the flashlight at his head when he won the cat's affection").

I have the best family ever.