Is Korea Anti-Foreign?

I went to a lecture entitled "Is Korean Anti-Foreign" It was done by someone who had written a book called "The Koreans, who they are, what they want and where their future lies." It was an interesting take, he commented on stories of the Korean identity being centered around race, while other countries are focused on other issues (like the US is based on an idea of freedom, while European countries identity might be based on language) He also mentioned stories that while foreigners complain about experiences in Korea, they also speak extremely positively about the country. Korea attracts the most loyalty and also frustration. (His end conclusion was that Koreans are not anti-foreign, but in fact anti-Korean. In order to explain his whole argument would take too many blog entries!)

I will say though, I have heard Koreans as being described as the cowboys of Asia. And I feel my race much more acutely than I have before. Sitting in a cab with my friends who are Thai or Taiwanese, and they ALWAYS will look at them first (and even turn their back on me once at the airport). It makes you realize what you are used to growing up when you are in the majority.

Parks around Seoul

Seoul is really beautiful in the fall, with the leaves changing and the number of parks I went wandering around one with my friend Sunghee one Sunday. Around the palace, the leaves were all turning yellow, and even a few trees next to the office at work (although I swear they re-planted trees to make the office building have more colors when the leaves all fell off one tree).

All Saint's Day -- Samsung Holiday

Not for the reason above, but instead it the anniversary of the founding of Samsung Electronics. A group of 4 of us headed to Soraksan, which is an area famous for the fall foliage. The first night, no thanks to my co-worker Gavin, we were all up until 3 am drinking. We definitely were moving slowly the next day, but we managed a little hike, and discovered why it was less crowded that weekend (it was COLD, and the wind was insane!) But so many colors of foliage, and we made the mistake of trying to hike up to a waterfall (turned out to be a trickle).

In the evening we went to a famous town on the sea which had amazing sea food. We had red snapper sashimi (we picked the fish from the fish tank), and sea urchin roe). Finally a brief stop at a hot springs (or public bath), that was the perfect end to the day!

Guests!

My friend Eddy from college came for a couple of days, and was the first to actually use my guest bedroom. It was mid-week, so no craziness other than some nights of drinking. Got a great gift of a nice bottle of single malt scotch =) It was fantastic to see him though, he has been traveling around the world for the better part of a year (better than m time in business school, and part of a bit of time off between law firms in DC and the next step in LA).

Engrish.com

I recently found this site, and it just totally cracks me up. Of course I look for similar things around Korea, this had to be one of my favorite signs though! It is in the middle of Itaewon, the foreigner area (and near the US military base) in Seoul.

Apparently I needed to live here

There are three places in Seoul (within a 10 minute walk from my house) named Angus. What are the odds?

The Hawaii of Korea

I spent a weekend down in Cheju, dubbed the Hawaii of Korea. When I visit Hawaii in May, I will be able to accurately describe whether that is true ;) It was a great weekend exploring various parts of the island with Michelle. Kevin, one of my Korean co-workers laid out a detailed itinerary for us, set up the rental car, and even where to stay. I did learn my lesson about the Korean beds though, and brought a Therm-a-rest to sleep on top of the concrete-like mattress ;) We could see the sunrise on the ocean from the hotel room, walked to several waterfalls, made pottery (mine needed A LOT of help from the woman working there). We also ate some of the main dishes there, including five-layer pork, and went to an ethnic village (and PAID way too much for some local tea).

The most interesting aspect was driving around in a rental car with GPS. I did learn the Korean words for left and right quite well (to the point of I needed to figure out how to turn the volume down!) The GPS has all of the speed traps listed, and numbers for each of the restaurants and the famous tourist spots.