Won, Sweat and Meals

It must be something like 5 a.m. in Chicago right now. Elliot and I just got back to Seoul from Mokpo, which is the small seaport town where my dad grew up on the southwestern tip of Korea. The "Shee-gol," or rural country. If any of you are timid at all of sushi, you should've seen what we had for lunch today. Fresh cut octopus, still moving as the waitress brought it to our table... you had to really pull on the wriggling arms to unstick them from the plate. Our two uncles cautioned us to chew hard before swallowing, otherwise the arms could stick to your throat and choke you. They said some guy died that way. The octopus was coupled with a spicy fish stew and a kimchi made out of what looked like garlic, but wasn't, and was better than any other kimchi I've had in my life. My breath probably still reeks (but I don't know it) and my mouth still waters just thinking of the taste.

We've been getting a lot of what you could call "culture", especially over the last two days hanging out with our two uncles (my dad's bro's). We were in Gwangju yesterday, which is like a more crowded and busy Gary, Indiana: dirty, industrial, and always carrying the curious smell of sewers. At night, there's a stretch of alleyways that light up with stores and clubs -- high school kids are out at 10 o'clock on a weeknight just walking around, chatting on their ultra-modern cell phones, and eating. That's one of the things that's going on all the time wherever you go in Korea, eating. Food vendors are everywhere, selling anything from dried out squid to rice cakes to all kinds of sweets. It's a little weird to see those high-tech kids standing next to an old lady selling corn from a rickety wooden cart.

We stayed there one night in what people here call a "love motel", which is like any other motel, but is especially catered for illicit love affairs. The covered parking garage (for anonymity) and selection of video porn in the lobby were evidence of that. Before that we went to see the Buddhist temple in the Gwangju mountians were our grandma's ashes are kept. Tucked away on a forested slope, it was basically a large room with bare straw floors and rows upon rows of sealed wooden cubbies lining the walls. A statue of Buddha sat in the center of the back wall; we lit four incense sticks and bowed to the statue three times, then to our grandma's ashes twice. I can only imagine (with sick pleasure) what my Christian cousins would've done in the situation. Then we went to a stream in the mountains, dipped our feet in ice cold, brisk moving water, and shared some kind of rice wine that was milky with a sweet aftertaste.

Korea is actually a really mountainous country. I didn't realize it before I came. It's probably something like the landscape of the Appalachian Mountains, with rolling, forested hills dotted with large rocks and cliffs. And people love to hike them.

Sorry I got no pictures to show yet. Seoul isn't as wirelessly wired (does that make sense?) as I thought it would be, so I've got nowhere to transfer the pics from my camera. But you'll see them eventually. We're doing some laundry and resting up at the guest house right now, waiting to see what a Friday night in Seoul is like. There are more stories from the past week (one I'm not even sure I want to tell yet) and I'm sure the next week should bring some more. Hope all's well in the beautiful U.S. of A. See you soon.