Seoul, South Korea
I've made a video of our trip with a lot of our pictures and videos to give a feel for Seoul.
What follows now is my very long-winded love affair with Seoul, which you can read or not as you please. :)
We loved Seoul.
That's the beginning. We arrived before the sun on Saturday morning. We went to the 7-eleven in the airport, where the bottled water was less than 50 cents. I, personally, am still stuck on that. Prices ran the gamut of things here, somethings cheaper and some things much more expensive (Hellooooo spendy peanut butter), but I miss 50 cent bottled water.
Then we talked to the transportation guy and he said our program manager knew what she was talking about and we were headed to the right bus. He wrote down our destination for us, and we were off to see the city.
The first thing we learned about Seoul is that it's a city that lives more at night than in the morning. So we checked into the guest house and then paced back and forth in front of the only pastry shop that would open at 7. Then after talking to some Australians at the guesthouse who were on their last day, and had the most adorable little boy ready to go home with them, we thought we wouldn't waste our first day. Once down to the subway, we realized that the subway maps and systems make absolute perfect sense for anyone who speaks english.....unless their brains are befuddled by jetlag. Which is a very strange feeling. So we opted to wander around our local neighborhood, Hongik University.
Between us and the neighborhood was a six lane road, but the moment you turn down a side street, you get into a wonderful maze of small streets with tiny little shops lining both sides. If a sidewalk or side street is wide enough, there will be street vendors selling most anything, from food to clothes, nick knacks to toys. And restaurants everywhere. This is by no means just specific to just Hongik Univ. It was just the first neighborhood we wandered into. And even though there is Taco Bell and McDonalds (Which delivers, by the way), people do not eat while walking. Even at the street vendors.
Sunday we were feeling much more up to the subway system, which did indeed make perfect sense. We made our way first to the Dongdaemun area, which is the fashion district and wasn't open yet (we were still getting our clock straight and so were there WAY too early.) But we did get to see the Great East Gate, which gives the area it's name. It's also known as The Gate of Great Benevolence. It would be my first introduction to the beautiful colorful eaves I've been staring at pictures of so long as we pondered this trip. We decided to walk all the way back downtown to Lotte department store. Part of the way we walked on the street past tiny store, after tiny store that sold plants, seeds and gardening tools. Then we made our way back down to the stream and walked on the walking path that follows it.
We were headed to the Lotte department store to eat. It's 10 stories above ground and we rode the escalator from there all the way to the basement. On each floor all of the attendants were standing at attention in their section of the store, their respective uniforms fitting their department. The basement is like Disneyland for the food lover who loves Korean food. We had all sorts of good food in Korea, but in the basement of Lotte, you can buy a little bit of everything at different vendors, for lack of a better way to describe it, so you can try a little of so much. We had planned to go back there, but we never did make it.
We wandered around a bit more looking at shops; then we wandered up through the lantern festival looking at all their informational booths about different types and aspects of Buddhist life. This was all happening on the road in front of the Jogyesa Temple. We got to the temple as they were having some sort of ceremony, so I didn't take a picture of the beautiful large, golden Buddhas they had inside. However, walking under the multicolored lanterns out of the bright sun and away from the hustle of the city, I would have been content to stay there.
We made our way up to Gyeongbok Palace which was originally built in the late 14th century, but was destroyed by fire and later restored. Aside from trying to knock down the Queen's rooms with my head, I loved the place. From it's guarded gate entrance you walk up through a second wall to the massive courtyard in front of the throne hall. All of the separate small living quarters are behind this massive building. Every one of these buildings was brightly colored and there were amazing gardens in and around them. To the west of the main palace was Gyeonghoeru Pavilion where the King would hold feasts for foreign envoys.
Then we headed back down to Dongdaemun and visited the Gyeongdong Market, which was amazing. About two people can walk down either side between the little shops and the line of food vendors, as well as the people eating at those vendors. The place was packed, vibrant and so colorful. At that point we were exhausted and we headed back to the guest house.
Monday was a big day. We were scheduled to meet with the Director of the adoption agency, have lunch with the staff, and then, finally, meet our boy. To say we were excited barely scratches the surface. :) Since we didn't want to stray too far, we did take a short walk up the other direction of our street. Where we learned that we were in the woodworking part of town apparently. And yet, these different shops made beautiful things, spiral staircases, small bridges, all sorts of things, but their shops were still tiny, yet they were filled with their wood storage and all their tools. There is a picture of one of the shops in the video and what you are seeing is pretty much the whole shop. You can certainly see the whole back wall.
Then it was time. I was nervous because we were supposed to meet the Director on our own, but at the last minute they realized there were too many families for her to meet each of us individually as she usually does. So she came and talked to all of us at the same time. I should not have been nervous. She is an amazing and welcoming woman.
And then it was time to meet our little philosopher. His social worker walked us up to the playroom where he was already playing. He was very attached to his foster mom and also very shy. So he would interact with us only from her lap, with one exception. At one point there was a toy that our social worker said was broken, so Mr. J picked it up to look at it. Turns out there was something stuck in it, so we went to work on it. Our guy left his foster mom and ran over to watch what he was doing.
Without going into too much detail and breaking my stride, I will say we both knew how lucky we were with how well that visit went. We were both on cloud nine when we left there, though it was clear the hand off was going to be hard on him. We were just beyond floored by how amazing he was, and I was glad to see that he felt comfortable with at least Mr. J.
We headed out on the town to celebrate and to do a little shopping. I had 14 hours of entertainment for the plane, but we were not prepared for an extra two nights. So we walked up to Sinchon which was a few blocks away and wandered around there. It was hard for me to decide which was my favorite area of Seoul, Sinchon or Hongik University. I could get lost in those neighborhoods just walking and looking forever. But we couldn't find the grocery store we'd been pointed to. So finally we decided to hit the subway to go back and there it was, down on the subway level. (well, it was across the busy street, so we didn't see it.) We loaded up on yogurt and the rice and seaweed that would save our lives in 24 hours, but we didn't know it yet.
The next morning we decided to head off and see the Bongeunsa Temple, which was on the south side of the river. Even though this has been the number 1 thing on my list for over a year, I had decided it was too far and we had so little time. Luckily for me, Mr. J convinced me I was insane. We weren't scheduled to pick up our little until late afternoon and we might as well go rather than seeing things we had already seen. I'm so glad he convinced me. First we got to experience the subway during rush-hour...that was an experience. Made me realize how lucky we are to have personal space here. :) Then we got to the Temple and it blew my mind. It's land area was much larger than Jogyesa's, which is shoved into the downtown area. But even though there are busy streets on every side and you are surrounded by high rises, peace descends when you walk onto the premises. You can wander from building to building, up and down paths, and it is so quiet and green. There is even a beautiful walking path just through forest. They have many Buddhas, but the most impressive is the one that Mr. J estimated was 60 feet tall. I just wanted to stand there and stare at him for the rest of the stay. Bongeunsa, like many of the temples in Korea, allows temple stays. So you can go and live like a Buddhist monk. If I had more time and was just there for vacation, I would do that in a heartbeat.
Then we headed back to our side of town, did a little more shopping, and tried not to just lose our minds. It was almost time. Finally, 4:00 arrived and we headed down to meet with our little philosopher. We sat in a different playroom with him and his foster mom for about an hour. Then they ushered us into the lobby of the guest house with another family we had spent the week with as they got their son. We had opted for the prayer that they offer during the handover and I'm so glad we did. His foster mom got to hold him during the prayer. One last quiet cuddle. Then she handed him to Mr. J, hugged me, and our social worker urged us to get on the elevator. His foster mom was tearing up, but she smiled and waved and said bye bye to him as the doors closed. She was so amazing.
The other family peeled off into the common room, but we escaped to our room to stare at each other. Our little guy fully understood the enormity of what had happened. He was tired and inconsolable for a long time. But eventually we got some rice and seaweed down him and all got quiet in our room. Then Mr J got a hold of a wind-up caterpillar our friend had sent with us (thank goodness!) and he found his joy again. For the most part, he's been there ever since, with a few moments of missing his Uma since then.
The last full day in Seoul, we mostly took it easy and started to really meet our son. There were a few errands that needed running though, so we each got to run out and explore a little on our own, also giving each of us a little time with the philosopher. He mostly played with his friend and ran up and down the hall.
I soaked in my last taste of Seoul. I do not expect it to be our last visit.
Click to viewWhat follows now is my very long-winded love affair with Seoul, which you can read or not as you please. :)
We loved Seoul.
That's the beginning. We arrived before the sun on Saturday morning. We went to the 7-eleven in the airport, where the bottled water was less than 50 cents. I, personally, am still stuck on that. Prices ran the gamut of things here, somethings cheaper and some things much more expensive (Hellooooo spendy peanut butter), but I miss 50 cent bottled water.
Then we talked to the transportation guy and he said our program manager knew what she was talking about and we were headed to the right bus. He wrote down our destination for us, and we were off to see the city.
The first thing we learned about Seoul is that it's a city that lives more at night than in the morning. So we checked into the guest house and then paced back and forth in front of the only pastry shop that would open at 7. Then after talking to some Australians at the guesthouse who were on their last day, and had the most adorable little boy ready to go home with them, we thought we wouldn't waste our first day. Once down to the subway, we realized that the subway maps and systems make absolute perfect sense for anyone who speaks english.....unless their brains are befuddled by jetlag. Which is a very strange feeling. So we opted to wander around our local neighborhood, Hongik University.
Between us and the neighborhood was a six lane road, but the moment you turn down a side street, you get into a wonderful maze of small streets with tiny little shops lining both sides. If a sidewalk or side street is wide enough, there will be street vendors selling most anything, from food to clothes, nick knacks to toys. And restaurants everywhere. This is by no means just specific to just Hongik Univ. It was just the first neighborhood we wandered into. And even though there is Taco Bell and McDonalds (Which delivers, by the way), people do not eat while walking. Even at the street vendors.
Sunday we were feeling much more up to the subway system, which did indeed make perfect sense. We made our way first to the Dongdaemun area, which is the fashion district and wasn't open yet (we were still getting our clock straight and so were there WAY too early.) But we did get to see the Great East Gate, which gives the area it's name. It's also known as The Gate of Great Benevolence. It would be my first introduction to the beautiful colorful eaves I've been staring at pictures of so long as we pondered this trip. We decided to walk all the way back downtown to Lotte department store. Part of the way we walked on the street past tiny store, after tiny store that sold plants, seeds and gardening tools. Then we made our way back down to the stream and walked on the walking path that follows it.
We were headed to the Lotte department store to eat. It's 10 stories above ground and we rode the escalator from there all the way to the basement. On each floor all of the attendants were standing at attention in their section of the store, their respective uniforms fitting their department. The basement is like Disneyland for the food lover who loves Korean food. We had all sorts of good food in Korea, but in the basement of Lotte, you can buy a little bit of everything at different vendors, for lack of a better way to describe it, so you can try a little of so much. We had planned to go back there, but we never did make it.
We wandered around a bit more looking at shops; then we wandered up through the lantern festival looking at all their informational booths about different types and aspects of Buddhist life. This was all happening on the road in front of the Jogyesa Temple. We got to the temple as they were having some sort of ceremony, so I didn't take a picture of the beautiful large, golden Buddhas they had inside. However, walking under the multicolored lanterns out of the bright sun and away from the hustle of the city, I would have been content to stay there.
We made our way up to Gyeongbok Palace which was originally built in the late 14th century, but was destroyed by fire and later restored. Aside from trying to knock down the Queen's rooms with my head, I loved the place. From it's guarded gate entrance you walk up through a second wall to the massive courtyard in front of the throne hall. All of the separate small living quarters are behind this massive building. Every one of these buildings was brightly colored and there were amazing gardens in and around them. To the west of the main palace was Gyeonghoeru Pavilion where the King would hold feasts for foreign envoys.
Then we headed back down to Dongdaemun and visited the Gyeongdong Market, which was amazing. About two people can walk down either side between the little shops and the line of food vendors, as well as the people eating at those vendors. The place was packed, vibrant and so colorful. At that point we were exhausted and we headed back to the guest house.
Monday was a big day. We were scheduled to meet with the Director of the adoption agency, have lunch with the staff, and then, finally, meet our boy. To say we were excited barely scratches the surface. :) Since we didn't want to stray too far, we did take a short walk up the other direction of our street. Where we learned that we were in the woodworking part of town apparently. And yet, these different shops made beautiful things, spiral staircases, small bridges, all sorts of things, but their shops were still tiny, yet they were filled with their wood storage and all their tools. There is a picture of one of the shops in the video and what you are seeing is pretty much the whole shop. You can certainly see the whole back wall.
Then it was time. I was nervous because we were supposed to meet the Director on our own, but at the last minute they realized there were too many families for her to meet each of us individually as she usually does. So she came and talked to all of us at the same time. I should not have been nervous. She is an amazing and welcoming woman.
And then it was time to meet our little philosopher. His social worker walked us up to the playroom where he was already playing. He was very attached to his foster mom and also very shy. So he would interact with us only from her lap, with one exception. At one point there was a toy that our social worker said was broken, so Mr. J picked it up to look at it. Turns out there was something stuck in it, so we went to work on it. Our guy left his foster mom and ran over to watch what he was doing.
Without going into too much detail and breaking my stride, I will say we both knew how lucky we were with how well that visit went. We were both on cloud nine when we left there, though it was clear the hand off was going to be hard on him. We were just beyond floored by how amazing he was, and I was glad to see that he felt comfortable with at least Mr. J.
We headed out on the town to celebrate and to do a little shopping. I had 14 hours of entertainment for the plane, but we were not prepared for an extra two nights. So we walked up to Sinchon which was a few blocks away and wandered around there. It was hard for me to decide which was my favorite area of Seoul, Sinchon or Hongik University. I could get lost in those neighborhoods just walking and looking forever. But we couldn't find the grocery store we'd been pointed to. So finally we decided to hit the subway to go back and there it was, down on the subway level. (well, it was across the busy street, so we didn't see it.) We loaded up on yogurt and the rice and seaweed that would save our lives in 24 hours, but we didn't know it yet.
The next morning we decided to head off and see the Bongeunsa Temple, which was on the south side of the river. Even though this has been the number 1 thing on my list for over a year, I had decided it was too far and we had so little time. Luckily for me, Mr. J convinced me I was insane. We weren't scheduled to pick up our little until late afternoon and we might as well go rather than seeing things we had already seen. I'm so glad he convinced me. First we got to experience the subway during rush-hour...that was an experience. Made me realize how lucky we are to have personal space here. :) Then we got to the Temple and it blew my mind. It's land area was much larger than Jogyesa's, which is shoved into the downtown area. But even though there are busy streets on every side and you are surrounded by high rises, peace descends when you walk onto the premises. You can wander from building to building, up and down paths, and it is so quiet and green. There is even a beautiful walking path just through forest. They have many Buddhas, but the most impressive is the one that Mr. J estimated was 60 feet tall. I just wanted to stand there and stare at him for the rest of the stay. Bongeunsa, like many of the temples in Korea, allows temple stays. So you can go and live like a Buddhist monk. If I had more time and was just there for vacation, I would do that in a heartbeat.
Then we headed back to our side of town, did a little more shopping, and tried not to just lose our minds. It was almost time. Finally, 4:00 arrived and we headed down to meet with our little philosopher. We sat in a different playroom with him and his foster mom for about an hour. Then they ushered us into the lobby of the guest house with another family we had spent the week with as they got their son. We had opted for the prayer that they offer during the handover and I'm so glad we did. His foster mom got to hold him during the prayer. One last quiet cuddle. Then she handed him to Mr. J, hugged me, and our social worker urged us to get on the elevator. His foster mom was tearing up, but she smiled and waved and said bye bye to him as the doors closed. She was so amazing.
The other family peeled off into the common room, but we escaped to our room to stare at each other. Our little guy fully understood the enormity of what had happened. He was tired and inconsolable for a long time. But eventually we got some rice and seaweed down him and all got quiet in our room. Then Mr J got a hold of a wind-up caterpillar our friend had sent with us (thank goodness!) and he found his joy again. For the most part, he's been there ever since, with a few moments of missing his Uma since then.
The last full day in Seoul, we mostly took it easy and started to really meet our son. There were a few errands that needed running though, so we each got to run out and explore a little on our own, also giving each of us a little time with the philosopher. He mostly played with his friend and ran up and down the hall.
I soaked in my last taste of Seoul. I do not expect it to be our last visit.