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“Are You Bored?” Inquiring Minds Want to Know
Since the chemist began working at the lab every day during the first week of September, many of you have asked what on earth the counselor is doing? Here is a ramble through my rambling days, complete with my “real-world” photos. (In other words, I promise to get you back to the chemist’s much prettier photos in the next post!) The truth is, my days look pretty different from my usual life, which is not the easiest transition but is part of the point of this year. What’s the good of living in another country if you try to make your life look exactly the same as it always did?…
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Urban Hiking Challenge on the Baegak Mountain Trail
Before we left the U.S. for South Korea, we told a group of friends that even with our 250-pound luggage weight limit, we were going to make room to pack our hiking boots. Even in COVID times, hiking is still open and (mostly) free. Well, it’s finally cool enough in Seoul to do some real hiking, and those boots are getting a workout! Seoul City Wall We prioritized hiking the Seoul City Wall (Hanyangdoseong) as a way to see as much as we can within the city. The 18.6 km-long wall originally was built in 1396 across the four mountains surrounding Seoul: Baegaksan, Naksan, Namsan and Inwangsan. Called Seoul Fortress…
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“Have you guys voted yet?” It’s more important than ever.
If you’ve been following along with us since August, you know our voting process has taken some research and some effort. We did request absentee ballots, but with the USPS having difficulties over the past weeks, we became concerned about whether our mailed ballots would ever make it to Pennsylvania. For that matter, we were unsure when we would actually receive our requested absentee ballots. Rather than waiting for them to arrive, we opted to complete and send the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, which overseas voters can use if they don’t get absentee ballots in time to vote. In another bid to ensure our votes arrive in the U.S. and…
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Noryangjin Fish Market: This Post May Not Be Suitable For Vegetarians
Just across the Han River from Yongsan-gu, our home away from home, sits the futuristic glass and concrete building housing the Noryangjin Fish Market. I think it looks like a cruise ship from above, and it certainly houses enough sea life to make this a fitting image! The old Noryangjin market was an outdoor, covered market, but in 2016 this updated, indoor version was opened. Parts of the old market still operated until very recently, but now the old market is gone and just the new building remains. It was easy to walk through the wide, well-lit aisles. We never felt crowded. I can imagine the old market felt much…
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A Series of Unfortunate Events: Korea Edition
I am so sorry to tell you that, as is so often true, nice travel photos don’t capture the complicated reality of traveling to and living in a new country. So here is your (Lemony Snicket-inspired) warning about this post: these stories are all about the inability to be truly understood, the endless waiting around for the slow-grinding wheels of bureaucracy, and the frequent annoyances caused by sheer bad luck. You will most probably slip into an unbreakable spiral of depression and anxiety while reading this post, so just go ahead and skip to another post that I have kindly decorated with pictures of brightly colored temples and delicious food…
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Surviving the Last ‘Dog Days’ of Seoul Summer
Staying outside as much as possible is a necessity in Seoul’s current semi-lock-down, but wow has it been hot and humid here! There’s no option to escape into a cool museum or a pool. It has been a time to get creative with planning! So what is there to do outdoors in Seoul in these last days of summer? Ansan Jarak-gil Trail Ansan Mountain looms over the former Seodaemun Prison, now a museum surrounded by Seodaemun Independence Park. The museum is closed because of COVID right now, so I won’t say much about it as hopefully we will get to visit it someday. The Independence Park is a monument to…
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A Private Tour Of Changdeokgung Palace and VIP Dining
When we arrived for our tour of the Changdeokgung Palace’s Secret Garden, we were welcomed by this sign: We had booked our tickets in advance after reading that it can be very difficult to get a tour, especially if you want the English-language version. Well, just prior to Seoul’s COVID shutdown our tour looked like this: Don’t get us wrong – we do not wish a COVID outbreak on any country for any reason. However, in the ‘making lemonade out of lemons’ category, the current situation here has meant that anything open is also empty. If we can see it outdoors in relative safety, we’re going while we can. For…
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High Drama at Lotte World Tower: Fear, Vanity, and Greed
Walking out on to the Sky Deck at Lotte World Tower was terrifying. I did it, but I did not look down. Our recent visit to the tower took us to dizzying heights, but also led us to explore how and why the tower was built and the soap-opera story of the Lotte tycoon and his family. Lotte (low-tay) World Tower is currently the world’s fifth tallest building. It stretches 556 meters (1823 feet) into the air and is the tallest building on the Korean peninsula. By comparison, its roof line is a bit higher than the pinnacle of One World Trade Center in NYC. Compared to other super-tall buildings,…
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What’s happening with COVID-19 in South Korea? Buckle up if you really want to know.
We pause our fun travel stories for a moment to let you know about COVID concerns here. When we arrived in South Korea (ROK) on July 31, the count of new COVID cases for the day was 36. On August 14, our first day out of quarantine, that number was 103. On August 27, it was 441, the highest total since the pandemic spiked here in March. Cases have spread to all 17 regions of the ROK rather than being localized to one area, which was the case with previous outbreaks. Despite this all starting as we finished quarantine, we’re pretty sure we didn’t cause the new outbreak, but here…
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For better AND for worse: What’s the price of peace in Ihwa Mural Village?
One of my favorite sites in Seoul is Ihwa Mural Village. This neighborhood of tiny steep streets adjacent to Naksan Park is decorated with lots of amusing and imaginative street art. Add to that the area’s 180 degree views of the city, and you have a tourist attraction that I will run to see. With Seoul being entirely devoid of short-term visitors, we had the place basically to ourselves. We wound our way up the tiny streets and took our time posing for silly photos. In 2010 a Korean reality-TV show was filmed in the village and created the “wings mural.” It and subsequent versions of it have attracted many…
