Korea

A whole lotta Lotte

Yesterday my family decided to get out and see a little more of Seoul.  We read up on some of the sites we could visit, and we finally decided to go to Lotte World, a famous family-friendly site in the suburbs of Seoul.  Lotte World is one part Mall of America, one part Disneyland.  Lotte is one of Korea’s chaebol, or conglomerates, best known as a retailing giant.  It is quite the place.  We wanted to take our young son to someplace indoor where he could run around and play.  We were happy to find out that Lotte World, a mega-mall/entertainment complex, has a place for babies and toddlers called "Baby World."  We spent a lot of time in "Baby World" letting our son play on the jungle gyms and slide down the slides.  They were just the right level of complexity and size for him.  He literally wore himself out playing hard on the equipment and with other children playing at "Baby World."  It’s one of the few times when we were able to sit back and watch him without having to chase after him.

We didn’t visit the Lotte World Adventure theme park, which is more appropriate for older children, but we enjoyed looking up at some of the sights and sounds of the theme park situated above us.  The mall portion of Lotte World features an indoor ice skating rink and a carousel.  One floor above the mall, surrounding the ice rink, is the theme park.  It includes fantastic buildings, cute creatures, a monorail train, and trams shaped like hot-air balloons that run along the roof of the building.  We only explored a small portion of Lotte World, including the mall and Lotte Mart, the supersized grocery store.  We ate lunch at the large Lotte Mart food court.  The food is carefully orchestrated so that after you pay for your food you head to the appropriate food counter for a variety of Korean dishes.  We ate kimbap, Korean sushi, along with chicken katsu and a curry chicken dish, topped off by a green tea ice cream cone.  Not bad for mall food.  My son especially enjoyed watching the fish in the Lotte Mart aquarium.  The Lotte World help in turn really enjoyed watching him.

Congratulations to the University of Washington Men’s Basketball team for beating Arizona 81-72 to win the Pac-10 tournament title!  Arizona won the conference title, but Washington beat Arizona to become the Pac-10’s official representative at the Big Dance, the NCAA Tournament.  It’s the first time the Huskies have won the Pac-10 tournament title.  Congratulations!  Go Huskies.

A few firsts in Seoul

As I mentioned in earlier blog entries, I haven’t seen much of Seoul yet.  This morning I had the pleasure of driving past two of Seoul’s most famous monuments, Seoul Station and Namdaemun (남대문).  Seoul Station is Seoul’s central railway station.  Built in 1925, has served as Seoul’s rail hub for 80 years.  It is still a fully functional rail hub.  The building’s structure is a classy design that reflects the architecture style of that period.  It is one of the few remaining structures built by the Japanese during the colonial period.  I also saw Namdaemun (literally "South Gate"), the former southern gate of the City of Seoul.  The wall that once surrounded the city was dismantled by the Japanese during occupation, and only a few of the prominent gates remain.  Namdaemun is perhaps the most famous.  It is especially well-known for its large open market situated just to the west of the gate.  The gate has been beautifully restored.  Because it sits on an earthen island in the middle of one of Seoul’s main traffic arterials, Namdaemun reminds me of an Asian version of the Arc du Triomphe in Paris (or vice-versa).  The ancient gate in the middle of modern Seoul serves as a reminder of the city’s pre-modern history.  Although I was only able to view Seoul Station and Namdaemun from a car window, I enjoyed seeing them for the first time.  I read about them often while learning the Korean language, and now I finally know what they look like firsthand.  I want to revisit them as soon as I can as a local tourist.

I also encountered my first demonstration (데모) today in Seoul.  It is well-known that demonstrations are common in Seoul, especially near the U.S. Embassy.  This is the first one I have seen, and it was very orderly.  Police outnumbered the number of protesters, and the protesters marched peacefully, waved colorful banners, and chanted with bullhorns.  Traffic was snarled near downtown, but otherwise the protest passed without incidence.  A Korean friend mentioned that these protesters were primarily street vendors protesting recent changes in the law on how they can conduct business.  I don’t know much more than that.  I observed the protest with curiosity while I was stuck in traffic.  It was not an anti-American protest, as I feared it would be.  Local police patrol vigilently in large numbers at key points in the city everyday.  It’s a strange feeling wearing a suit and overcoat and walking past an armored vehicle with a squadron of police in riot gear armed with shields and batons.  It’s one of the surreal aspects of Korea I’ve encountered since I arrived.

Half a month

We’ve already been in Korea for half a month.  Can you believe it?  It doesn’t seem so long until you realize that it’s 1/48th of our 24-month tour here in Korea.  I wish I could say that we’ve had a good taste of Korea, but for the most part we’ve either stayed home or gone to work.  That will hopefully change during our next 15 days here.  It was a beautiful day today, and the temperatures are supposed to creep up into the 40’s (Fahrenheit) next week.  I hope the weather will stay nice for a few weeks before the Yellow Sands (황사) start blowing in from the Gobi Desert.  We can finally get out and do some outdoor activities such as visiting outdoor markets like Namdaemun.  Until I get better though I won’t be going anyway.  This cold/flu has been nagging, and I plan to take the day off tomorrow to rest and recuperate.

Well, yet another Seattle sport team disappointed again.  The Husky men’s college basketball team lost their final game of the season to Stanford 77-67, and the Arizona Wildcats clinched the Pac-10 Conference championship with a 70-68 win over Arizona State.  Maybe next year.  I think many of their best players will graduate, so who knows how the Huskies will be next year.  They can still redeem themselves during the NCAA Tournament, but who can blame a perpetually disappointed Seattle fan for being pessimistic?  Illinois looks unstoppable this year.

Yahoo! recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.  They offered customers a free ice cream cone to be redeemed on their birthday, March 2nd.  I downloaded the online coupon hoping to use it at a local Baskin Robbins, but then I noticed it was only good for one day.  One day?!  There was no way I was going to break away from what I was doing for a free single-scoop ice cream cone in early March.  If you ask me, that’s a gimmicky birthday stunt.  At least Yahoo! could have extend the validity period for the coupon over one- to two weeks, even one month.  How many people actually dropped everything on March 2nd to go to BR for a free 3.5 oz. ice cream cone?  I bet that on Google’s 10th anniversary they will offer a much more practical birthday present to customers.  Google is awesome.