Carrie and Bradley's Excellent Adventure!!: Chuseok and a visit to Seoul

Hello all, this is Carrie. Last weekend was Chuseok, or the Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving in America. They celebrate the harvest by getting together with family and sharing a meal. Also, some of my students said that they go to the tombs of their ancestors, clean them off, and have a ceremony offering them food and drink to remember them. Anyway, for us, it meant a 5 day weekend!! So, we decided to take a trip to Seoul, the capital of Korea.

We arrived on Friday late at night. On Saturday, we went to the War Memorial Museum, and learned all about the numerous conflicts Korea has been in. This place was HUGE and had lots of interesting exhibits. The most interesting for me was to learn about the Korean war and how the U.S. was involved. In the 1950s, communist North Korea invaded democratic South Korea, and the U.N. and many other nations responded by sending troops, supplies, and medical aid to South Korea. In the museum, there is an exhibit about the South Korean people's thankfulness to these countries, and they have made special monuments to each country throughout Korea. In addition, there was a movie and exhibit about the American General McArthur who commanded the forces in Korea, and who the South Korean's acknowledge as one of the main reasons they were able to drive back the invading North Korean army. It was different to see an outside view of America and learn about the conflict which I knew little of.

Next, we went to N. Seoul tower, an observation tower on the top of a large hill in the middle of Seoul. We hiked up the hill, which took about 30 minutes, and by the time we reached the top it was dusk and we got a BEAUTIFUL view of the city. We then rode to the top of the observation deck (in the worlds fastest elevator) and got to see gorgeous Seoul twinkling below us. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants on top of the mountain and it was just amazing!!!

Sunday was Chuseok, so we headed to the Gyeongbokgung Palace, the royal palace in the 1400s-1500s. There were lots of kids there dressed up in hanbok, traditional Korean costumes; this is something fun that parents enjoy doing to their kids on major Korean holidays! And they were cute! We learned that the whole palace was destroyed when the Japanese occupied Korea from 1900-1945, and they built their administrative offices on top of the site! It is so sad to hear what people do to eachother . . . but, since Korea became an independent nation, they have rebuilt much of the palace and are still working on parts of it.

Nearby there is the National Folk Museum of Korea, where they display outdoor recreations of what life was like in villages in rural Korea. They had special booths and performances set up for Chuseok, and we got to eat the traditional snack for the holiday, songpyeon, a special stuffed rice cake that is sweet. We also tried on hanbok ourselves! In addition, we got to see an AWESOME Korean traditional dance, that was just amazing! While we were watching it, Bradley and I both looked at eachother and said, "I can't believe we are here doing this!"

In the evening, we went to a show called Nanta (Cookin') which is a non-verbal performance of actors using hand gestures, kitchen utensils, and food to tell the story. There are 4 actors that are playing chefs who have to prepare several large meals for wedding banquets in a short amount of time. They use gestures, pantomime, and body movements to tell the story to the audience. They also use the food and kitcen implements as drums and musical instruments. Paula Levitt told me about this show, and we are so glad we got to see it, very funny and entertaining!

On Monday, we went to the Seoul grand park zoo. It was a very nice zoo, with the most active animals I have ever seen. We soon discovered why; while there are many signs posted asking you not to feed the animals, nobody follows the rule. We saw bears rear up and beg as people tossed them popcorn, and monkeys stick their hands out of cages for a treat. It was cool to see the animals so active but also not, because we all know that stuff isn't good for them . . . we decided not to feed the animals, but we got some great pictures!

Tuesday was our last full day, and we went to the headquarters of the largest sect of Buddhism in Korea. They had huge golden Buddhas, the largest indoor Buddha statues in Korea. It was so peaceful and beautiful on the grounds.

At the end of the day, we walked around our hotel's neighborhood, trying some of the various street foods for dinner. Some you wouldn't think of seeing in Korea, like corn dogs, and others, such as dried squid, which I wasn't brave enough to try! Maybe next time; there are street vendors all over the place in our city of Gwangju as well.

Wednesday morning, we took the 4 hour bus back to Gwangju to prepare for class the next day. We had an AWESOME Chuseok, and Seoul is an amazingly beautiful city.

From the War Memorial: