versione italiana
September 2003 - Seoul, Korea (
Building 63 Yooksam, Ewha University & Everland)
(Chuseok in Korea) – The biggest
national holiday in Korea is called Chuseok and this
year it meant a five day break from work for us. Chuseok
is compared by Koreans to the American Thanksgiving
Day. Chuseok is also a big family holiday, during which
Korean families gather together, eat, play games and
hold celebrations to honour their ancestors by visiting
their graves. It's a real stressful time for most women
as they spend days preparing food for all of the relatives.
The photo below I took on our way back from Building
63. Building 63 (which
actually has only 60 floors), is a building housing
an aquarium, an Imax theatre and a terrific view of
the city. As we walked around lost in another part of
Seoul, trying to find the bus stop to get home, we were
suddenly hit by the sunset below.
All
photos by Valeria Lo Iacono & Paul Symonds
On Chuseok we went to the biggest amusement park in
Korea, Everland (see www.everland.com). I went to Disneyworld
many years ago and had forgotten what a pain in the
derriere it is waiting one and a half hours, for a ride
that lasts 45 seconds. That is exactly what happened
as I queued for the sledge ride at the Alpine Village
section. The Safari World section also took a wait of
over one hour and it only lasted 10 minutes. I am done
with amusement parks. The two photos below are from
Safari world in Everland, taken from inside the safari
bus.
While I spent a torturous wait at the
sledge ride for my 45 second ride, Valeria walked
around the park and took some photos. The photo below
was taken in an area of the park called European Adventure,
with European style buildings and a rose garden. In
the picture below you can see a Neoclassic style fountain,
as the sun began to set in the early evening.
This summer has been one of the wettest
in history in Korea. Back in the UK and parts of Europe
it has the hottest in history. All of the rain has
made me a little home sick for England. On this Chuseok
weekend, a hurricane hit
the southern port of Pusan in Korea. The first we
knew about it was when the phone calls started coming
from Valeria's concerned family back in Italy. We
never watch the Korean news because the 10 Korean
words I have learnt make my ability to understand
the news somewhat limited. Valeria speaks much more
in Korea and takes lessons. I have been focusing on
learning Italian.
The
4th of September marks Valeria's birthday so I
brushed the cobwebs off of my wallet and bought
Valeria a good meal in an Italian restaurant in
Itaewon, Seoul, that following Sunday evening.
Together with several friends (including - Hayden
(Australia), Anthony
(Korean), Alex (American-Korean) and Mi Sun (Korean
who speaks fluent Italian and English) - all shown
in that order below right), we celebrated
in style. Below left is myself, Valeria and Dong-Mi.
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Culture in Korea update: This month the
thing which I was most interested to find out was that in
one of the main universities (Ewha University), they have
a sleeping room so that students can catch a nap in between
lessons. In Korea the pressure on students to study up to
12 hours a day is immense. Korean men have to do 2 years
military service and by the age of 45 to 50 companies are
looking to kick them out for younger people. This pressure
means that everyone wants to get into the best university
and also to make the money to give their own future children
the bets education and as soon as possible. It's a very
competitive environment, so much so that Ewha University
have the sleeping room. That would never work in British
Universities as people who never get up for classes. Ewha
also,up until this year, would NOT allow any MARRIED woman
to study there. Ladies who were married had to lie about
it or wait until they had finished university. I cannot
tell you why they had that rule.
Final photo for this month below, we took at the aquarium
in building 63 in Seoul. A young Korean girl stands
waiting for the fish to swim to her side of the tank.
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