The Korea Series - the Friendliness of Strangers

As most of you know, I'm an abnormally small girl. People will always guess my age to be younger than 23, All throughout college; I could have been passed off as a high school student. Now, as a professional, people guess I am a college student. I'm told I'm lucky, that this is an advantage compared to those that appear their age or older. For the most part, I'm completely accustomed to these assumptions. It's not until now, living and traveling in foreign countries that I feel grateful for my young-looking appearance.

I think others are more willing to go out of their way to help me since I appear so young and helpless. So many examples of this in prior entries. However, these examples are all from Japan. Now; I can say Koreans are just as willing to help pathetic looking foreigners as Japanese people are. I was going to do some traveling on my own since Corey had to work. I shuffled through my Korea Lonely Planet Guide and chose my itinerary for the day. I was first going to head to a small Buddhist monk village to check out the temples and area. From there, I was just going to finish up by going to the War Memorial Museum and see that part of Seoul before meeting Corey for dinner.

I woke up Corey to get some help with the trains and headed out on my way. I rode on public transports until it was my stop. I had my Lonely Planet(LP) so I figured I'd have no problems finding this buddhist town that LP coined the Inwangsan Shamanist Hillside Walk. According to my guide, I was to exit out of the train, make my first left down a winding alley and keep walking uphill until I reached the village.

I do as I read. I find the alley, no problem. It's certainly winding; I'm shocked that I am actually able to follow these really vague directions. And then, it was almost like walking right into a brick wall. One word: Construction. Shit. What do I do? I turn back around and make a slight right to see if there is anyway to get around it. Nope. I walk back, look left, nothing. Shit. I've come this far to get here; I have no back up plans. I'm standing in the middle of the street trying to make a decision. It's nearly my last day in Korea, I don't want to waste it.

Suddenly, a Korean woman with glasses and quite hip looking asks me "hfdsfjhsdkfhasdj?". Okay, I don't know what she asked me. But, if I could understand Korean, my guess would have been, "Can I help you?" or "Are you lost?". I responded to her in English & Japanese that I don't understand Korean. She then asked me, "hfjdskiahfdjfhjdskafhjsdkhfskd?" Which, I interpreted as, "Where are you going?" I showed her my LP guide and tried pronouncing the place in what I thought Korean would sound like.

Well, she understood either my made up Korean language or could read the English I was showing her. She then told me, "hfjksdajfdsjkfs" - which, certainly meant "Follow me." I followed her first to a store and then to someone's house. Whatever it is she was asking them must have not been the information she was looking for. Next, she was on her phone. Then she said in English, "daughter, apartment". I figured she wanted me to go to her apartment, so sure, why not. I followed her up the street and went into a parking garage. She told me to wait and she pulled out a woolly mammoth sized truck. Of course, I hopped into it because I'm all about adventure.

We drive maybe only three minutes and stop. Not saying anything to one another because neither of us really know a word of the other's language. Suddenly, a girl and a young boy hop into the back seat of the car. The girl introduces herself to me in English! She brought me to her daughter who speaks excellent English to help me! I tell the girl where it is I want to go and show her my LP.

No problem! They are going to take me there! Along the way, I chat with my new friends. The girl is 19 years old, the son is 8. Her mother is a housekeeper and the father a business man. They are proud Catholics and her godfather is from California. I told them my story and then bam! We've arrived. I figured that I would only be dropped off and go explore on my own. This is not what my new Korean tour guides had in mind. Apparently, they'd really like to show me around with the daughter as my guide.

This little village is located rather high up on a hill. When you're towards the bottom and look up - it kind of looks like the houses are all built on top of eachother. The colors are old very asian looking. It seemed that no matter where in the village you stood, you were never at the top and could always look all around you to see plateou's of houses everywhere.
This picture below shows a bronze bell that signifies the entrance to the largest temple in this area. My tour guides told me it was rung on New Year's Eve and it was heard all over the area below the village. I asked them if they heard it and they had. I was particularly intrigued by the bell because of all the inscripted Korean all over it. Additionally, I found the roof the bell house to be exquisitely painted.



After walking past the bell, you come to a gate. The gate had two doors that swung open. On the gates; were identical paintings. The picture below shows one of the doors. The paintings portray guardian kings of heaven who protect Buddhist people from evil.

Once walking past the protective paintings, you walk up to the largest temple named Bongwonsa. As a tourist, generally you are not allowed inside. However; the heavens were with me that day. Not only finding me my very own tour guides, but having them have the right friends to let us inside. So, basically, no one is allowed inside. But, my tour guides spoke with the monks that were around and they let us go see!
Inside, there were five golden Buddha statues. From a quick glance, they all appear the same. At a closer look, you see each of the five statues have a personality of their own. Each of their hand positions were different. In front of the five statues, was a large taiko drum. This drum was also eloquently painted to match the outside of this temple. (see picture above) The ceiling had many pink lanterns made of paper. I asked my guides about them because they loitered the ceiling and I assumed there was some significance. According to my guides, they said they symbolize Korea's national flower. To the right of the shrine was hundreds of small candles. I felt so honored and lucky to be able to view the inside of this temple. How was I so lucky to get inside of a building that tourists aren't allowed to see?

We finished up inside and headed up some more stairs. I felt bad making my translator get all this unwanted uphill exercise. We saw the outside of a shamanist shrine named Guksadang. My Korena tour guides didn't know much about it but according to my LP guide, it was originally built on this high hill in the middle of Seoul called Namsan (I will write about that later) but was demolished by the Japaense colonists in 1925. The Korean shamanists quietly rebuilt it on this hill. This shrine I wasn't lucky enough to see inside but again, my LP states that inside there is usually food offerings such as rice cakes, fruit, meat and to me, most notable - a pig's head.

We kept ascending heaps of stairs until we reached large, looming zen rocks. There was a man meditating in front of them; so we headed around the back of them so we could talk about the area. In the picture below; you will see a wall in the distance. This is called the Seoul fortress wall. This wall dates back to 1396 and is currently being renovated. They also told me that just beyond that wall in this area is a prison - so if you get too close, you may come into contact with prison guards. That seemed scary to me.


When the man was finished meditating, we headed back down to look at the rocks. I didn't take any pictures even though they encouraged me too. There were several times that I was prompted to take pictures - but I felt the situation was inappropriate even though the citizens of the country urged me to do so. There were two rocks that had several divots in it that had somehow been eroded away. I was told that over the years, many people had renamed these rocks because they always seem to morph into a new creative shape. At the moment, they are named because they appear like human skulls. It was quite an interesting way to imagine the rocks. My guides told me that Korean women come to these rocks to pray for sons. To try to make conversation; I asked the Mom if she had come here to pray for her son. It got quite awkward when she reinformed me that she is Catholic so she would not come here to pray for a son. Oops.

When finished with the abstract Zen rocks; we started heading back towards the car. They asked me where I was headed to afterwards. I told them I wanted to see the War Memorial Museum. I was invited to see a historical prison with them if I had time. I was interested in seeing it and I only had to meet Corey by 5:00 - so I accepted the invite.

This prison is called Seodaemun Prison. It was constructed in 1908 under the name of Gyeongseong Gamok. The name changed 6 more times before finally resting on it's current name since 1998. The prison now serves as a museum that tells of the history of Japanese colonialism in Korea. The picture below is what is left of the front gate of the prison.

My brochure from the prison states:
"Seodaemun Prison History Hall is a living education site for Korean history where visitors can pay a high tribute to the patriotic ancestors who valiantly fought against the Japanese invasion for sovereign independence, and renew the determination of the spirit of independence."

I found the whole situation to be very enlightening. I have always been aware that the Japanese invaded Korea years ago; but I never realized the extent of things that happened here. I won't bore you with historical facts but it was all very new to me. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to have a Korean family translating the facts to me. I could learn the history and ask their opinions and views of it all. I love history so this was great for me to see. You really couldn't view this prison without a translator; there were very few things in English. I still find it very shocking that our school system doesn't focus much on any World History or culture. I felt very ignorant and embarrassed to admit to my hosts how little about their country I knew. I suppose my hands on learning experiences are much more memorable than reading out of text books anyways.

I'd love to talk to anyone about my experience at this prison. I just feel it is not entirely appropriate to post it on here. The prison offered a lot of historical artifacts, pictures, information and eye opening re-enactments. The buildings that I was able to view included the entrance gate and watchtower (picture 1), the execution room, punishment cells, and seven of the original 1 5 buildings. If you happen to read Korean - here is the website to it: http://www.sscmc.or.kr/culture2/main.asp

After the prison - we went to this memorial in the picture below. After this wall, it got awkward. It was time to depart ways. We stopped walking and they told me that the there was nothing else to show me. I didn't know what to say or do. I mean what would you do if this family picked you up off the streets and showed you around for 4 hours in the middle of the afternoon? I didn't know if they wanted money or what their whole motive was. I asked if there was anything I could do for them; but they told me no, they were just very happy that I am interested in their country. I hugged them goodbye and tried showing my gratitude as best as I could.

I walked down towards the subway station. I had tears in my eyes because I just can't fathom how kind people are in this world. It's one of those situations that touches you emotionally. There was no way I could repay them for their kindness and it's so rare to see that kind of friendliness in America. I really wish I could express to you how I felt at this moment, but I can't. I don't know if I could ever express it in person either. There's a book out there - a travel writer's book called something along the lines of this post's name. I want to read it. It feels so amazing to know this world is filled with kind people when you most need them. I could tell you many stories from when I traveled Tasmania by myself and how people came out of the woodworks to help me there, too. And a few stories from New Zealand. I bet by the time I settle down, I could write a book on the friendliness of strangers as well. Perhaps, someday.

After, becoming lesser teary eyes, I decided to walk back up the stairs and check out the park that is next to the prison.

The park is called Independence Park. The structure below is named Dongnipwang or in English - Independence Hall. It was used for forums to promote national dependence, self - reliance, and rights of the people. The original one was actually destroyed by the Japanese, but this new one was reconstructed in 1996 for symbolic reasons.


This is Independence Gate which was built by the Independence Club in 1898. According to my LP, it was built where envoys from Chinese emperors used to be officially welcomed to Seoul, a ritual that symbolized Chinese soverainty over Korea, but was ended when the King of Seoul declared himself emperor in 1897.......


I found Korea to be much like America in many ways. The attitudes and ways of Koreans on the street reminded me a lot of home. It was very different from Japan. I felt Korea was almost more like America in many ways. After learning a bit more about their history on this day and speaking with a Korean family; I can understand why. I hadn't realized just how many times this country has been invaded by many nations. They are very proud of their independence and individualism. Much like how America had to fight for their independence, so has Korea. Maybe, this is where our countries have similarities that create the citizens of the country to be very individualistic. Just a conclusion, that a very young, possibly ignorant person like me can draw.

Next blog: Part 2 of this day

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Other than my Korean blogging; things are going alright over here. It was really good to see most of you that read this two weeks ago. I did it, I handed in my recontracting papers yesterday. I am here until August 2008 atleast. I've been keeping busy with dinners with friends. I was a guest speaker on Sunday and am in tonight's newspaper. I dicussed the confusion of certain Japanese words that have been borrowed from other languages with an English professor at a nearby University. I made some new contacts that might be helpful.
Hopefully, soon; I will finish my Korea stories and get back to my everyday life in Japan.

One more thing: I am entering an essay contest where I might be able to win some money(I think only like 5 get money). If not, I'd still be ecstatic to get published. The stipulations are that is has to do with the program I am here with. If you could leave a comment or send me an e-mail about your favorite story from my blog (non- Korean or any weekend traveling trips)- I will take the highest tally and rewrite it really well to enter it into the contest. I want the one that has stuck in your mind the most, or touched your heart the most, or made you laugh the most, or made you wish you were here in Japan, etc. Thanks!