Changdeokgung Palace

I was fortunate enough to take a tour of what is called the Changdeokchung Palace, located north of the river that runs through Seoul. The word ‘Palace’ in this context does not refer to one specific building, but rather to a series of many across an expansive tract of property. The royal families/dynasties throughout Korean history lived at this site continuously until the last Queen died there in 1989. Now, the country employs a democratically-run system of presidential elections. The first president was elected in 1987, right before the nation’s capital, Seoul, hosted the Olympics in 1988.




















This first picture I took shows Injeongjeon, the main palatial throne hall. This was the most important site of major state affairs. The coronation of new kings of Korea occurred here, as well as the ceremonious reception of important foreign diplomats. If you look at the raised walkway(s) in the center of this courtyard, you will notice that there are actually three leveled paths. These were used for introductory processions for those kinds of ceremonies. The middle walkway is the highest, upon which the King, Queen, and other highest nobles walked upon. You NEVER walked on that highest tier unless you were large and in charge. The other two walkways on either side of that middle one are a bit lower, and were for all the important nobles of authority. Once the tour guide explained this, she enthusiastically invited us to proceed through the courtyard on the center path. I was a little hesitant, questioning my worthiness, and almost wasn’t going to, but the person I was with made me.

You will also notice, on either side of the three walkways, what appears to be a long stretch of gravestones. However, engraved on those stones are names of people and their ranks. During processions, the respective person stood by their stone. They begin at the highest rank nearest to the temple and work their way back.

If you look closely on the left and right edges of the top layer roof, you can see notches on top that extend to the tips. I believe there are nine. These are small gargoyle statues, put there to ward off demon sprits from the area of the building and palace. There is good luck and karma to be had based on the number of these defender-gargoyles placed on a palace roof. You ALWAYS put an odd number on each side the roof, NEVER even. Even more particularly, you either had to put 3, 5, 7, 9, or 11. I think this one has nine. The number chosen often reflects how high-ranking in society the affairs of that building are.

The building itself bears the appearance of a two story building. However, inner inspection reveals it to be a one story palace with a luxurious ceiling. You can see a picture of the chamber within below, with the throne and the like.


We eventually proceeded to what is called the “Secret Garden(s),” which were places of repose and meditation for the royal family and company. There is a pond in the middle, with fish, and smaller huts for relaxation around it, complete with gardens with many different types of plants and bushes. I could imagine myself here reading for hours, as a prince in a royal dynasty or whatever.

You can also see here, in the picture below, a large set of stairs leading up to a building with a royal library and reading room, which overlooks that secret garden pond. You can see the three doorways near the foot of the stairs. The rules about rank that I mentioned on the three-leveled walkway apply to the passing through of those doorways as well.

We were also shown the nightly resting places of the King and Queen, who both always slept under different roofs. This is in accordance with Confucianism, which also decreed that the woman never left her separate chamber to go see her husband. The King, however, could leave his hold to go see his wife, since, under that philosophy, men were supposed to fulfill the active, dominant role and female the passive. But what if the Beatles made a surprise one-time appearance on Ed Sullivan, and only the wife happened to catch it? Too bad. She couldn’t tell the Mr.; he’d just have to wait 50 years to catch it on YouTube.

Finally, here is a picture of our tour guide. Every day, there are about ten or fifteen tours that you can join with a tour guide speaking in Korean, about three or four in English, and two in Japanese. Before the tour began she moseyed through the crowd, inquiring where the tour participants’ home countries were. I was the only one from the U.S.! There was a large group of tourists from Canada, who came on a bus as part of some larger thing and all wore tags around their necks that had that red leaf or whatever from the Canadian Flag. There were also a few people from Hungary. The tour guide was interesting. She wore a headset which connected to a box-speaker on her belt to amplify her voice. Most of the words she said were pronounced in the sort of manner in which you would say certain syllables extremely meticulously, like Chris Tucker trying to get his message across to Jackie Chan when they meet at the airport at the beginning of Rush Hour. And also, you HAVE to love the parasol. My love for parasols was created by my initial encounter with them in the game Animal Crossing. One time, senior year I went for a random walk alone on the PC campus at night, and it wasn’t raining either, but I brought an umbrella. For a goof. I encountered none other than Kennedy King, who asked, “What’s with the umbrella?” I answered, it’s actually a parasol. He then emoted a look of comprehension and approval, nodded his head, and said something along the lines of, “Bad-ass.”

The Coex Mall

I wish I could somehow convey just how big Seoul’s Coex Mall is, but I can’t. Many readers of this blog are probably familiar with the Providence Place mall, which is decent in size. But the Coex is immense by comparison, and its intricate (and borderline confusing) multi-level size and modern feel completely trumps it.

It is only about a ten minute walk from the place I live. It has both indoor and outdoor areas. The map console you see here, located at one of the mall’s billion entrances, displays the mall’s different levels, spots, and stores. This map is a touch screen, and you can click on locations to discover more information about events, sales, and general announcements, etc.
I wish I could tell you more about this display here, but I can’t read Korean characters (yet). What you see here are numerous pairs of cardboard-framed red-tint glasses. They were free for the taking. My assumption (a product of my well-known genius intellect, see: CNN) is that they are for some sort of scavenger hunt. Perhaps you scour the mall scavenger-hunt style to look for clues on displays that are only perceptible using these (potentially 3-D) glasses. Maybe the prize is a car. Maybe it’s a free hamburger. Maybe it isn’t. But the mall has McDonald’s, as you see here, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and even a Quizno’s.

I was told by folks on the inside back in the states that Quizno’s is generally a notoriously unprofitable franchise to open. But the one in the Coex Mall survives, apparently. Hell, Wal-Mart tried to make it in Korea but was driven out of business by a Korean-owned competitor named E-Mart. Go figure! More on that in the future.

They have a very large and well-renowned bookstore in the mall, which had a considerably large section of books in English (and a section in Japanese, too). The first time I went to that bookstore I quickly stumbled upon the Korean-translation Harry Potter books! The ones here are all in paperback though, and they aren’t that big- so the last book, for example, was divided into four or five parts, each of which was contained in a separate book. Gyp, I say! I wonder if the books are available in an un-segmented form, perhaps only in hardcover.

I went to an arcade in the Coex mall- pretty similar to U.S. arcades. There are many large up-to-date games, but the row of games you see here (there is another row directly behind it that is equally as long) is a mix. The consoles are all the same shape but include both games with ps3 graphics as well as classics like Tetris and Bust-A-Move (similar to “snood”, if that helps). I spent 500 won each on two games of Tetris, which means about 40 cents per play. In both attempts I couldn’t make it past the third round, but I’ll be back. Maybe I’ll become Seoul’s first internationally known Tetris champ. Maybe I won’t. But jup my words, thank ya.

I also could not help but venturing into the Nintendo store, which was state of the art, complete with DS’s and games in the display window rotating on platforms for the eyes to adore. You see here a large row of seats with handheld games (DS’s, most likely) that you can pick up and try. “The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess” had a huge display setup as well as couple of large flat screen TV’s featuring that game’s footage throughout the store. I think that game was released simultaneously with the launch of the Wii (2006) in the U.S., but apparently it’s still a big deal here. Also pictured are a few instant-classic DS games, featured here in their Korean formats.




Finally, movies are a big deal here, and I was told that about 70% of new movies released in major theaters here are American Hollywood movies with Korean subtitles. The picture here is a poster for the new movie “Gamer,” an action movie that I saw trailers for before no less than two movies in the summer of 2009. Though I have not seen its inside, apparently the movie theater in the Coex mall is very large and nice. If I can, I’d like to go see that new Mike Judge movie, and maybe it having Korean subtitles will help me take another step towards understanding the Korean language.

Barbra Walters Has Nothing on my View

I live on one of the top-most floors in this thirty-floor building. What you see here is my bedroom, which (as you see) just beyond is a small enclosed porch-type area looking out onto the heart of Seoul. I have dividers that I can pull down to block the sunlight, providing me access to darkness when I need it (for sleep, etc.).

This second photo was taken by me, looking out of my room's window. I decided it would be appropriate to present these photographs in the largest format possible, to give you as much of an idea as possible just how MASSIVE the environment I live in is (though these photographs can by no means capture it completely). At the busy points of the day that street below (it has no name, if you recall) can get pretty busy, but I will say that it is never clogged or symptomatic of what is known as a "traffic jam" common in a location such as New York City. More on the differences in Korean road and traffic laws later.

Finally, below I present to you the more up-looking spectrum of the horizon visible from my room's perspective. Though you cannot see it here, to the left of that taller building on the left side of the picture is a large field of trees, which is a sort of park. You can actually see here, to the left of that same building, an open field with a walkway on it, which leads to a temple- this is part of that park. When I have some time I will explore that park with more up-close pictures. For now, I will simply say that this is an absolutely wonderful sight to percieve when I wake up each morning, and I truly cannot think of a more suitable way to begin each day.

Lotte World

Yesterday was one of the most bizarre experiences of copyright infringement I have ever experienced- yet somehow, the place is still in business (Disney hasn’t sued). Yestderday I went to “Lotte World,” which is owned by a gigantic multi-industry corporation, called Lotte. "Lotte World" is a Disneyworld-esque indoor amusement park. As huge as it is, the park is just one part of a gigantic building that includes stores, restaurants, a large public skating rink, and a cultural history museum.

We began our day touring the history museum, which began with exhibits on cavemen and progressed chronologically through Korean history. As you see in the pictures here, there were large-scale models of the people in the different time periods. The first one is Paleolithic folk hunting, the second one, men toiling at Korea’s first version of the printing press. There were also models of important iconic landmarks and buildings, with little models of people to show how they would have been arranged in traditional ceremonies.



<-------A very large scale model of an old Epic Temple Meeting Place





Then we went to Lotte World. This picture of the ice skating rink gives you an idea of the general layout of the place, but the picture really doesn’t give you a sense of just how vast the place is (there is an outdoor section as well). The park area had lots of rides and games, which appeared all the more funny to me after having just watched the movie “Adventureland” during my flight to Korea from the United States.

One ride we went on was more like a game, in which a group of about 25 people sit on horses that rock, while you shoot a revolver at a huge screen that acts as one Giant Wii…so it knows when you hit the targets in the Western-themed animation sequence that is displayed. You compete for the highest score, and then it took pictures of the top 3 ranking gunslingers-which were displayed on the sceen at the end (I did not place. I’d like to think it was because the Western character who gave instructions and exposition was speaking only in Korean, so I’m sure that I missed a couple of key instructions that, had I known, would have ensured my victory). We also went on some more traditional rides, with their own Korean spin, like a log flume (that was Sindbad the pirate themed) and the rocking boats, and THANK GOD, a merry-go-round. I commented that it had been about 15 years since I had ridden on a merry-go-round, and that it felt VERY good to be back.

At about 8 pm was the nightly parade, which goes around that top floor’s circular permeter around the ice rink. The lights dimmed and the music went on, with the Lotte World themes, etc. Then a large procession of lit up floats and lit-up dancers gradually made its way around the concourse. It was quite the spectacle, with some very impressive choreography. I could tell that the five year old girl we were with was awestruck with wonder. Let’s not kid ourselves- I was pretty much enchanted, as well. The characters in suits would wave and sometimes pose for pictures. They also came close up to the young ones, occasionally giving them candy.

Finally, you can see in the pictures of the logo and the outdoor castle that the entire theme of the place was designed to look EXACTLY LIKE ANOTHER CERTAIN CORPRATE MONSTER’S THEME PARK SCHEMATIC. I laughed my janus off, noticing all the intentional similarities. The two mascots are named Lotte (Loe-tay) and Lore (which rhymes with Lotte, and the r is pretty much silent). Mickey and Minnie, anyone? It’s just business, and voodoo economics…

iCarly episode: iHeart Mini Stop

A prominent convenience store in America is 7/11, and Korea actually does have a number of them, too. But the convenience store industry, at least from what I have observed in Seoul, is dominated by two companies. They pretty much have the exact same kind of store.

The first is “Mini Stop.” They are all over the place. You can’t walk two blocks (in any direction) without going past one. I think Mini-Stop is a brilliant and hilarious name. First of all, they really are mini. Each one has three aisles, similar to a place like PC Mart. But, the aisles are short in height- they reach about my shoulders, and I’m not a tall person. They are also short in length, the average person could take about three or four steps and get from one end to the other. In general, the entire store is packed in tightly, yet you don’t feel claustrophobic when you walk within. It’s efficient.

There is a “Mini Stop” (again, isn’t that such a great and cute name?) attached to the lobby of the building I live in, which is very nice. There are two entrances to the lobby: you could walk into the mart and swipe your card into the building from that side door, or just go through the front door. More to come on the amazingness of my building in a future update.

The main competitor for Mini Stop is “Family Mart.” You can find these littered about the city just as often as the Mini Stop, if not a little bit more. I find the name Family Mart funny too, because it suggests the imagery that a large, loving family of five should take a trip down to the ‘Mart to pick up snacks/convenience store items for the week…with an aura of wholesome excitement in the air. What’s funny about this hypothetical scenario is that if a family of a mere five people all went into one Family Mart, it would be noticeably and inconveniently crowded for other customers.

The clerks that work the register at continence stores are very quick-acting. When you give your things to be scanned they do so very fast. The first time I bought a couple of items from that store I was still in the process of orienting myself with the value of the Korean Currency (won, also to be covered in more detail in a future post). I was shifting through my wallet and sort of reaching for a 10,000 won bill (which is green), not really knowing what to pay with. He saw my 5,000 won bill (blue) and imperatively pointed at it, uttering a brief remark (in Korean) that it was the bill he wanted.

Once I gave it to him and he gave me my change, our transaction was complete. In Korea once you have finished doing business in this manner, the employee concludes the affair with a social-ritualistic bow. You might envision a drawn-out, almost ninety degree bow, like in movies, i.e. when Morpheus fights Neo in the training program (STOP TRYING TO HIT ME AND HIT ME!!!). But, the bows from a convenience store clerk, in fitting with the quick-acting vibe of Seoul, bow only a little, and very quickly, but never (at least in my experience in this area thus far) without at least some sort of smile to convey approval and good wishes.

On Addresses, and Taxis

In Korea, addresses are less specific than they are in the U.S. (and many other places). In your typical United States neighborhood, your street has a name and each building has a number. The numbers down the street are in order. You tell the taxi driver "I want to go to 21 Jump Street," and he gets there accordingly, wether it be a GPS or a combination of road familiarity and logic.

In Korea though, the street names are limited and there are no assigned building numbers. The studio apartment complex I live in has a name, and the most specific element of my address (not including the room number) is that name of the building. The next most specific element is the district of Seoul I live in- Gangnam-Gu. There is no street name and no number in between.

Insanity, right? Just asking for confusion? When you get in a taxi, how are you supposed to explain where to drive? (Taxi fares are cheap, by the way, about a quarter or a third of a typical fare in somewhere like NYC, I was told.)

The know-how of taxi drivers (or any driver) is based on memory, made easier by the whereabouts of iconic landmarks. When the cab driver asks you where to go, all you say is, "Okay, drive near the Trade Building on the west end." or "Please go to the Hyndai building." Then, when you finally get to that area, you start giving him more specific instructions by pointing, explaining, etc. until it leads to your destination.

I think that is a beautiful idea, that the citizens here are so in touch with their lands that they do not need numbers or streets.

One more note about taxis. When I was riding mine from the airport to my new pad, there were occasionally a barrage of frantic noises coming out of the large gps console. The school's associate director explained to me that the car's computer knows what the speed limit is of the area it's driving through at any given moment. There are radars along the road that, if they catch you speeding, take a picture of your license plate which is included with the speeding ticket that is mailed to your house.

So, if you're exceeding that speed limit (in kilometers per hour, by the way), then sounds from the gps start to chirp at you...i.e., a soundclip of a young korean female voice yelling HEY! (among other things), and, I SWEAR TO GOD, the sound effect from the old Sonic the Hedgehog games when you ran through a checkpoint.

I'm not messing with you. Want proof? I don't have it. Believe me. But I do have another interesting fact--- I've encountered numerous cashier machines in the U.S. that feature the sound effect of Sonic grabbing a ring. Other side of the world. Just sayin'.

I've Arrived (And To Prove It I'm Here)

Good evening. This is the first post in a blog that will publically document my adventures in the Republic of Korea, which began (on time) on Tuesday, September 7, 2009.

I flew into Incheon Airport at about 4 am and was picked up by the school's Associate Director. I've never had someone I've never met before waiting for me at the arrivals section of an airport, holding a sign with "Mr. Alex Donnelly" on it. In the past I had only seen it in movies, and for other rich folk at the airport. This was one of many firsts.

The airport is on a small island off the coast of Seoul, so we took a cab into the heart of the city, where I am to live, where I write from as you read this. She gave me the lowdown of my apartment which is VERY NICE. Studio Apartment, I am on the 29th floor. AMAZING view out of my window which, the entire wall is glass, and overlooks many tall buildings. In one area behind some buildings is a very large park. between the hours of 7 and 8 am, before a nap, I walked around the perimeter of the park. It was large. It was a nice solitary journey, watching the everyday rustle and bustle of such a densely populated areas.

There is already, not even 24 hours into my stay here in Korea, very very much to say, a large amount of it interesting. But, it will come in installments.

Cheers, Alex.