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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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Is there anybody out there? Traveling through quiet Seoul.
Liberation Day, also called Gwangbokjeol in South Korea, literally means ‘Restoration of Light’ day. It is celebrated each year on August 15 and commemorates the Allied Forces’ prevailing at the end of WW II, which subsequently liberated the Korean peninsula from decades of Japanese occupation. It is the only Korean public holiday celebrated by both South and North Korea. Ordinarily, we might have looked for some public celebrations over the weekend, but with COVID circumstances being what they are, it seemed like the city of Seoul was really discouraging any event that might draw a big crowd. There was a huge political rally downtown despite the warnings, but we stayed…
