our last day in korea was bittersweet. i was looking forward to going home and relaxing a little before having to go back to work. though i love korea and of course my family (as noted in previous posts) maintaining the level of respect, etc that is required by cultural laws always prohibit me from feeling 100% at ease. i never want to offend family especially when they spent so much time showing us love.

note the large box i have in the picture on the right. my uncle bought us seaweed. LOTS of it. i thought i was going to have to declare or even get taxed on some of it. thankfully not. some friends in nyc got to share in the bounty and the bulk of it went to my mom to help dispense to other aunts.

before leaving, joseph took the time to take pictures of the more communal areas at my aunt’s home in Bundang (a suburb of seoul about 45 minutes via bus). there are two half baths. one with a toilet, and sink, another with a shower head and sink.

my aunt’s family live in a good area and are basically surrounded by a local park, so that means no more development in their specific neighborhood. one day joseph and i actually decided to walk up the park, but too bad we forgot to take pictures. maybe next time

this concludes the korea posts. definitely going out with a massive fizzle instead of a bang. if you want to see more pictures of our trip they’re here:

http://gallery.agapeshack.com/main.php/v/Backup/Vacations/2008_Korea/

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Post tags: blog, food, joseph, korea, korea trip, koreans, memories, theresa

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After the trip to GyeongJu, we spent the night at my uncle’s home in Gumi.

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It’s a small and modest house in what most of us would consider a very rural area. this is where my dad’s family’s land is. most of it belongs to this particular uncle, since he was the only son to stay in korea, while the other two sons went off to the states. he built this home from “scratch”. he and his wife saved their entire lives in preparation for retirement.

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americans typically think of retirement as moving to florida, hanging out with other old people and going to denny’s for the senior grand slam special. koreans have a different view. my uncle and aunt spend their time farming the family land. the grow their own soybeans, and other vegetables. they do everything organically so everything is cooked simply and the flavor is amazing! they make their own soy sauce, tofu, soybean paste (dwenjang), red pepper paste (ggotchujang), and a number of other things.

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On basically what was our last full day in korea, my uncle gave us a tour of his home. extremely proud of what he’s been able to provide for his family, and also to show us that he’s taken care of our family land. he pointed to some of the dried greens that were hanging from the garage and said that it was my dad’s favorite vegetable. so he dries plenty of it each year hoping my dad comes for a visit. he showed us the mill he uses to grind the beans.

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before getting ready to take us to kimcheon, he wanted to show us one more thing. my dad’s best friend’s burial/memorial site and the buddhist temple the man had built and worshipped at. though my dad’s family is catholic, they were good friends with this man and also proud of his acheivements.

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i don’t know his name, but my dad showed me pictures. he was the provincial wrestling champion. but also a devout buddhist. he would go to a local cave and meditate for days without food or water. later he became a famous buddhist monk and raised money to build this temple. along with the temple he had a deep desire to serve the disabled and mentally handicapped. there is an adjacent home to the temple. we didn’t get to visit the facility so no pictures. unfortunately, my dad’s friend was murdered by one of the mentally ill. he was buried next to the temple.

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we then decided to take a quick trip to kimcheon. there’s a park there that features different types of art. including some very interesting statues like these:

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the first is joseph pretending to play a children’s game where you attempt to hop on someone’s back and play a game of rock, paper, scissors. next joseph was told to rub the buddha’s belly so we would have good luck in trying to have a baby. i proceeded to touch the belly button instead. the last two were all in good fun of course

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there should be no vacation/travel posts without the gluttonous amount food consumed! we went to a pork bbq place. instead of the usual vents that are fixed on the ceiling, you could pull these vents down towards the table and then push them back up and out of the way to eat. this basically concluded our trip to the kumi area. before we left my uncle proceeded to say “i’m sorry if they did anything wrong”. after this lengthy post of the hospitality and the family love they showed, suffice to say there was NOTHING wrong that they did. in fact, joseph and i probably should’ve said what they had said instead. we intruded on their quiet lives and they welcomed us with open arms.

my aunt and uncle put us on a high speed train back to seoul. this by itself is a treat. it’s like taking the acela instead of the regional train. time difference between the two is a few hours because there are also far fewer stops in between.

it actually dropped us off not too far from namdaemoon. so guess were we went next?

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this outdoor street market is HUGE. it’s a maze. i tried to be as diligent as possible to make sure we either knew where we were going, or at least know how to get back to where we came from. it’s a sea of wholesalers of all different types of stuff, of everything from clothes, socks, bras, pots, knives, computers….you name it, they probably have it. apparently there are alot of tourist from china and japan looking for korean ginseng. all the sales people kept yelling at me and joseph in cantonese, mandarin, taiwanese, japanese and korean – unsure whether we were one or another.

lastly, the last nite of being in korea meant that we finally got to spend some time with my cousin. usually he’s the one i spend most of my time with when i’m in korea. but this trip was obviously different. he’s also far busier now, running the furniture company that my uncle built. it used to be living room, bedroom and dining room furniture company. my cousin decided to change the direction of the company based on his research and noticing the fair share of furniture companies in asia. it was a smart investment and business strategy for him. the new direction was to build wardrobes for apartments. much like in the US, the real estate market BOOMED all over asia, with new buildings and renovations happening all over. guess who was building new wardrobes through many of korea’s new/remodeled homes?

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we ended up starting at a chicken place. like i said before, joseph was so smitten with kyochon, we looked for every opportunity to eat more of that kind of chicken. my cousin ended up taking us to this place where one of the owners looked like my aunt #6. we had some beer and chicken and caught up. instead of staying after we finished eating though, we headed off to a second place. some japanese place to eat more food and drink some more. by this time we get to this second place, i’m already a little tipsy, on the verge of drunk. i don’t think joseph was, though he did get quiet and looked very happy with a huge grin on his face. this is probably why there aren’t many pictures of our time spent with my cousin. man koreans can drink.

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Post tags: acheivements, Add new tag, baby, beer, buddha, buddhist temple, building, business, chicken, china, cooking, cousin, dad, denny, dries, drinks, family, food, games, good friends, goodness, greens, gumi, gyeongju, japan, japanese, joseph, korea, korean, koreans, locals, memories, money, moving to florida, pepper paste, post, red pepper, rural area, s, scissors, scratch, seoul, soy sauce, soybean paste, soybeans, tofu, tourists, vegetables, water, worshipped

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so i’m a big fan of this show called The Wire. I’ve only finished seasons 1 and 2. But I’m hooked! I’m curious as to why it only lasted 5 seasons, but perhaps the remaining 3 aren’t as good. In any case, this is a great show. For those of us who grew up in and around Baltimore, it’s a magical show; bleak but magical.

I recently read an article on CNN about The Wire and the overly bleak picture the show seems to display regarding the youth in Baltimore. [ref: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/TV/12/22/the.wire/index.html] And it made me sad.

Is growing up and living in Baltimore that hopeless? No. I know. I’m a college-educated, 20-30something asian american living what most probably consider “upper-middle-class”. But I grew up/worked in some of these neighborhoods.  Whenever I mention that I grew in these neighborhoods, people are shocked.

I was far privileged than many of the characters on the show, but what made me different? Joseph says that sometimes he can’t understand what I’m saying when I’m back in Baltimore talking to some of the “urban locals.”  So it’s definitely not the way I speak.

So what makes me connect to show? ….

My parents used to own a store called “Charles Carryout”. Thanks to Google Maps, I think I found it:

across the street used to be an abandoned lot. People used to park their cars there with no rhyme or reason.  My dad used to park our beat up 12yr old station wagon there. And next to the lot, i don’t remember ANYTHING as nice as the building that is there now, which sort of looks like an office building.

My parents lived above the store. My brother and I lived there on the weekends and summers. It was just a block or so from the projects and the schools were horrible. so my brother and i lived with my grandmother during the week (more on that in a future post perhaps).

what i remember most was running from the station wagon to the store to avoid potential gun fire, lewd comments, and getting harassed. entering the doors, and still being told to run to get behind the bullet proof glass doors that were locked at all times.

my favorite memories were playing ms. pac-man and centipede with some of the neighborhood kids. the guy who owned the video game machines would give us 20+ free credits when he emptied out the bins. other memories included playing/sleeping in tents that fit over the twin sized mattresses our parents bought me and my brother. the huge dogs that lived in the backyard. i only ever got to see them from afar since they were so scary.

just a little insight into my strange but fun childhood

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Post tags: 30something, 5 seasons, asian, brother, building, car, cars, cnn, dad, doors, games, glasses, google, grandmother, gun fire, joseph, kids, lewd comments, locals, locks, maps, memories, office, parents, rhyme, showbiz, sleep, station wagon, upper middle class

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on the websites it said there was free wifi. i was skeptical. shady chinese folks trying to lure people away from using the bolt bus or any of these new fringe benefit bus companies. well.. behold. it’s true. the shady chinatown buses are no longer as shady. maybe i should start from the beginning….

last nite i checked out the times for the bus and the website gave the information on where the bus was located, the fare for oneway and roundtrip, and lastly an icon that is widely used to represent wifi. i got excited, then remembered that this was the chinatown bus. they don’t even let you use the bathrooms (not that anyone would want to anyways).

the 10:30am bus said it was “sold out”, so i figured i’m going to get on the 11:30 bus. But I’ve been on these buses before, and know that the system is sort of loose. so i got to the stop early 9:45. i saw the ticket lady and asked if i could get on the 10:30, she said “sure”, took my ticket and put a number on the back of it.

the bus finally came at like 10:15. one of the ticket people started calling out numbers. finally mine was called and i got on. there were at least 30 people without numbers tho, just standing around since they didn’t bother to check in with the ticket folks.

they then called for people who bought tickets for the 10:30 bus online but didn’t bother to check in. they got on the bus next. then the folks who bought tickets online for the 11:30 but wanted to get on earlier got on.

then the rest of the folks. sad. about 15 didn’t get on. they had to wait for the 11:30 bus. some were irrate about how they had waited in line and complained about the unspoken rules. walked away in disgust only the line up for the 11:30.

now i sit on this bus to blog about my experience. here’s the key take aways:

1. buy your tickets in advance whether from the ticket folks or online

2. Get there early and checkin with the ticket folks to get your number or get an idea if you’re going to possibly get on the bus

3. don’t just assume that since you were there early you’ll get on the bus, and be prepared to get on the next one if you don’t follow step #1 or #2.

have a great memorial day weekend, friends!

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bathrooms, blog, bus companies, buses, chinatown bus, disgust, fringe benefit, last nite, memories, oneway, roundtrip, ticket lady, unspoken rules, wifi

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it doesn’t sound very exciting. why would this be such a fun place to go to on a vacation so far away? i dunno. probably memories from when i was a kid. and i like history. history was always a subject i didn’t have to study that hard for, it just seemed to come naturally. ironically, i have one of the worst memories in history.

there’s plenty to do. they have different performances throughout the day. starting with traditional dancing:

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some seesaw and tight rope performances:

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then a reenactment of a traditional korean wedding. not sure if he looks very excited that he’s getting married for the 100th time:

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i guess horseback riding and archery were a big thing too:

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there’s also some old school playgrounds. here’s me attempting to swing. but failing due to some residual pain in my knee:

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then of course we can’t forget the food. joseph had the kalgooksoo with some grilled pork on a stick. i had soojaebi. the food at the village is really good. usually tourist spot food stinks, but they do a great job of trying to be authentic.

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whoops. i guess we forgot to take pictures of the pork =P

© hehmin for agapeshack, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: archery, colonial village, favorite places, food, horseback riding, joseph, kids, knee, korean folk village, memories, ns, tight rope, traditional n wedding

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