By chance (i.e., human error) I was able to go back to the moonlight tour of Changdeokgoong (Changdeok Palace) with a couple of friends. Changdeokgoong was one of the main palaces of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). It was completed in 1412, and while only 30% of the original palace remains, it is still a sight [...]
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Bruce Cumings’ The Korean War: A History (July 2010) is worth a read if you’re looking for a quick (288 pages) primer. The Korean War (1950-1953) is often referred to as the Forgotten War… and for good reason. There’s not much good to come out of it on the American side (we lost, we helped [...]
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31 is my favorite number. And 31 is the birthday I’ve been waiting for for years. Last year I wrote how excited I was to turn 30, and that was true… I couldn’t wait to be liberated from the terrible twenties. But the big one for me is 31. This last year has been very [...]
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I have been rather busy lately. I started studying Korean at a private academy (or hagwon), which has taken all of my money and all of my time. But, I’m really enjoying it. I am thinking of buying a new camera and I can’t decide on the Canon 60D or the Nikon d7000. The Nikon [...]
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When I first moved to Korea over a year ago, I did not understand all the cuteness. Now, after succumbing to Oh! and Balloons (quite possibly the cutest thing ever) and countless other cute things, I think it’s time I fully embraced my love of Korean cuteness. I love Girls Generation‘s new video, Hoot. It bothered [...]
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I went to Nami Island this weekend with two friends (who write the very funny and frank blog, Shotgun Korea). I love the Fall. It is my favorite season, and so happy that I get to see beautiful places like this. The only drawback was that out of the 5,488 people there, I was evidently [...]
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I went to Buseoksa (or Buseok Temple)… it was incredible. It is one of the most beautiful temples I’ve seen in Korea (along with Naksansa and Donghwasa) sitting in the beautiful mountains of the Northern Gyeongsang province. The history of the temple is quite impressive. It was originally built in 676 AD during the Silla Dynasty [...]
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I had the rare opportunity to visit Changdeok Palace at night. The Palace is normally closed at night as it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and has limited electricity. It was one of the best things I’ve done since moving to Korea. It was incredible. They only allowed 100 people in this tour, and [...]
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It’s no secret that I’m afraid of other Westerners (i.e., white people) in Korea. I don’t like being around them, and I try to avoid them most of the time. I know I’m missing out on a lot of potentially great friendships, but I’ve had some bad experiences… The two hours before my Korean language class, [...]
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After my plans of going to the countryside were thwarted by thousands of festival-goers, I quickly went online to find the nearest cultural landmark to my house (one great thing about Korea is that you’re almost never more than a few minutes away from a National Treasure, temple, or cultural asset). So, I went to [...]
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I have never known what MSG was. I knew through osmosis that it was supposed to be really bad for you, and I just assumed that the trial lawyers had taken care of the “problem.” I never imagined that it would be sold in the grocery store by my house and I never imagined that [...]
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Last week I went on and on and on about how awesome Korea was for making me love my most hated vegetable — the cucumber. As it turns out, I was not eating cucumbers, I was eating 애호박, or the Korean version of the zucchini… or what all my friends seem to call a “young [...]
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I bought a regular size bike last month, but it was stolen after 4 days… I took this as a sign from the universe that I was not meant to have a big sturdy manly bike, and that instead I should buy one of the metro-sexual Asian mini velo’s (to go with my man-purse). So… [...]
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A few years ago I was volunteering for a mayoral candidate in Hartford in hopes that he would defeat the now imprisoned Eddie Perez. A friend and I asked him what his plan was to get people downtown. His answer was “street theater.” We both kind of stood there with our mouths gaping because all [...]
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A few weeks ago some friends and I went to see our hometown “professional” soccer team play — the Seongnam Ilhwa. There’s not much interesting to say about it except that the only people there (aside from us) seemed to be young Army soldiers. I grew up in an Army town, but I’d never experienced [...]
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I don’t like sunrises. One has to wake up obscenely early or go bed obscenely late, and either way, 5:30am never feels good. And if I don’t like sunrises, I positively hate the photos we take of them. I don’t understand how we, as a species, could be so universally attracted to the sunrise & [...]
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After seeing Naksansa, I took the bus back to Sokcho. I wanted to see Abai Village/아바이마을 (Korea’s tourism info). Abai Village is a small enclave of Sokcho, officially named Cheongho-dong. Evidently, many North Koreans from the Hamgyeong province (wikipedia) moved here during the Korean War (1950-1953) and since many of them were older, the village [...]
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UPDATE: Because I am idiot, I just realized that these are NOT cucumbers… they are zucchinis. One reason I love Korea is that they have somehow managed to make me love (make me love so much that I buy them now) my most hated and despised vegetable… the cucumber. But, it’s not just the cucumber, [...]
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Last year I read several blog posts about Naksan Temple, or Naksansa/낙산사 (wikipedia), and I really wanted to visit. It is one of the few temples that are on the coast (as most are on top of mountains). But, living in Andong and getting out of work at 11pm really prevented me from traveling too [...]
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It is Chuseok (추석) week. (Here’s some info on Chuseok, commonly called Korean Thanksgiving.) I already wrote about re-visiting Andong and Hahoemaeul last weekend. After Andong, I came back to Seoul to rest as I thought I might be getting sick… but I ended up traipsing all over the city all day. I started with [...]
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