Tuesday, May 28, 2019
A second late start day in a row?! Woah. Class didn’t start today until 1pm, which meant a whole morning to myself. After catching up with folks back home, thanks Facetime, and working on my project (this is a school trip) I did regular life things and ran a few errands. It took me a few days, but I finally got around to finding a post office, so I have a handful of post cards going back to the states.
On my walk to the post office, I met a new friend named, Rie. She went to Ewha (the school I am staying at) and graduated a few years ago but had a meeting on campus. She helped me find the neighborhood post office and asked me if this is very common in the states, post cards, because she sees them in movies. Apparently, sending letters home while on vacation, or really snail mail catch up letters at all is very uncommon in Korea. She was interested in my studies and we chatted a bit about my research topic: the portrayal of Korean culture in advertising. She had some really interesting perspectives. What a lovely, accidental meet up.
Now onto the fun stuff. I went to McDonalds today. Usually, I’m not a big McDonald’s person. Sure, a ham egg and cheese bagel and fountain Coke do wonders on certain Saturday mornings, but it’s not a go to meal spot for me. Here’s the thing. International McDonald’s have funky menus, and I had to try it out here.
First off, the restaurant. Some McD’s back home have kiosk ordering, but still have in person ordering options. Not here, and I’m okay with that, because the kiosk had an English option. Most of the menu was pretty normal, but they had a few differences, fried chicken for one, and a bulgogi burger.
I’ve had a lot of chicken over the last few days, so I went with the egg-topped bulgogi burger and a plum chiller (which I think was actually peach flavored). The meat texture is different than what I remember McD’s burgers tasting like, but it was pretty good. The fries were the same, but the ketchup was way sweeter. I would eat this again, but probably not this trip, plenty of other cute spots to try out in the area.
Our academic program was all about the cultural history of Seoul. I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly going into it, but it ended up being an overview of sorts of the religious changes throughout the country. Buddhism makes up 60% of South Korean residents, Christianity makes up 20%, and Catholicism makes up 8%. On our tour we saw a few landmarks starting off with a monument for Emperor Sejong, he is responsible for the creation of the Korean character system in the 1400s. It was designed to be easier for less educated residents to read and understand the written language, compared to Chinese characters that had previously been in place. So that’s pretty cool.
While he was a Confucian supporter, his statue marked the location where Pope Francis stood in 2014 to canonize South Korean saints. In the US where there is such a blend of religions, it is a big difference to be here where it seems to define a person more.
On this walk, we wandered through a few traditional spots nestled into the heart of the big city. One of the most impressive was the Jogyesa Temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples in the city. The courtyard was covered in lanterns of all different colors. I was curious, and learned that any colored lantern was a prayer for someone who was still living. Any white lantern represented a prayer for someone who has left this world. It was a very peaceful space, and had a different feel than any other religious space I have been in before.
I may have mentioned before but there are five palaces located in Seoul. On this trip I have now visited three of them. Today was the Unhyeongung Palace. It’s one of the smaller palaces in the city, and in my opinion, one of the less ornate ones. Unlike European palaces the ones I have seen in Korea have been made up of many smaller buildings all housed on the same compound. Each building had a different purpose. Eating, sleeping, entertaining, etc.
Next up was a stop to the Seoul Archdioceses. When Catholicism was introduced to this country, those who chose to align with that religion were heavily prosecuted. The church had a modern feel, different than others I had been to. I’m lucky to live in a time and place where I can believe what I choose, without fear. It was a much different tour than I expected, but one I greatly appreciated having.
Despite this being a class, we haven’t had too many lectures. Tonight, that changed. We were able to join in on a class at Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul to hear from one of the operating directors of the Kiwi Media Group, which is a K-Pop development/management firm. Our speaker went into detail on the work needed beyond the talent on the stage for one of these bands to make it big, and a lot of it comes down to public relations and advertising. I’m still not the biggest K-pop fan, despite the music being so catchy, but it was eye-opening to see how much work goes into the whole production. And, I guess I should have thought about a lot of it before. Most of these stars are like 15 years old, they are folks there tutoring them, not in school subjects, but in language skills so they can communicate with fans while on tour. They are going through media training, they are operating on no sleep to make all of their appointments, and many are working on building other promotional lines. BTS is the best example with the implementation of their BT21 character line. I don’t think the K-pop PR industry is where I see myself going, but more power to the folks who take on that challenge.
Let’s back track for a quick minute to talk about SKKU. Their campus is BEAUTIFUL. It is set on top of a mountain and has some amazing views. This school was traditionally the place for all of the royal students back in the day, and now the campus is made up of traditional and modern buildings. Also, I hope they don’t have a gym on campus, because no one needs a workout after navigating around the classroom buildings there. So. Many. Stairs.
Furthermore, the US needs to get on this affordable and DELICIOUS dining plan. Tonight I had a freshly made bowl of teriyaki pork udon noodles, kimchi, and pickled radishes. I’m not sick of Korean food yet.
Today was long and filled with sun, a quick ice cream and some Korean television filled my Tuesday night, and I’m very okay with that. There is only so much shopping anyone can really do over here.