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March & April 2004 - Seoul,
Korea ( Yong Pyeong and St.Patrick's Day)
(The funny side of Korea & St .Patrick's
Day) - This month an introduction to the funnier
and more unusual side of Korean life. To kick off, a
gigantic gorilla the size of two stories, can be seen
(below left), climbing the side of a building in the
trendy area of Apgujeong, Seoul. It is a permanent fixture
which advertises backpacks - the concept is that any
giant gorilla who wants to roam in a city, if he is
trendy, must have one. (Below right) - a full sized
cow sits in the lobby of a hotel in Yongpyeong.
All
photos by Valeria Lo Iacono & Paul Symonds - 2004
(Below left), a lady walking during a warm and
sunny spring day in Children’s Grand Park. Carrying
an umbrella in warm/hot weather is commonplace in Korea,
in contrast to Westerners who at the sight of sunshine,
will do anything to get a tan. The sight of top less men
with big beer bellies, as one sees in the UK and Ireland,
is not something one has the pleasure to see in Korea
during the summer. Koreans have little interest in catching
the sun. In beauty shops here, you can find lots of whitening
creams.
(Below right) - a Korean wedding hall. There
are lots of them all around the city and it is where most
Koreans get married. The ceremony and the reception are
both held there. Those who have more money to spend, get
married in hotels. It is quite rare for Koreans to get
married in churches or city halls. Wedding halls usually
have a Western looking architecture, as shown below. Koreans
seldom have a fully traditional Korean ceremony; nowadays
they prefer to get married in western clothes and to hold
a western style ceremony. After the western ceremony they
also hold a small traditional ceremony, in traditional
clothes, but it involves only the bride, the groom and
the groom’s parents.
Below, two shots of girls in long socks. In spring,
it is very common, for Korean girls, to wear skirts
and long socks, like a Scotsman in kilt and socks.
Their socks are usually black, but it is also possible
to see pink or violet ones, sometimes with stripes.
It is not uncommon to see girls wearing long socks
with high heeled shoes. The attire can be casual,
but also classic.
In Seoul, motorbikes very often cross where pedestrians
cross in Gangnam (Kangnam). It is quite dangerous for pedestrians,
considering that motorbikes go fast, very close to people
and they always avoid hitting you at the last moment. It
almost seems as if they find it amusing scaring pedestrians.
(Below left) you can see a motorbike waiting to cross with
pedestrians. You may also notice, the two guys on the left
are hugging each other. It is common in Korea and it is
not a sign of homosexuality. The physical contact between
two people of the same sex is very normal, whereas physical
contact between two people of different sexes is not accepted,
unless they are a couple. It is also very common to see
girls, even in their late twenties, walking hand in hand.
Another unusual aspect of Korea is that people often wear
masks when they walk around, as you can see in the picture
below on the right. They do it especially in winter, when
they have colds/flu etc to stop it spreading and also sometimes
when the Yellow dust comes from China.
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For St. Patrick’s celebrations in Seoul, a short
parade was held near one of the biggest universities in
Seoul, Ewha Women’s University. It was nothing comparing
to the parade in Dublin, but at least it was an attempt
to make the Irish population feel at home. As it turned
out, the most enthusiastic about this celebration, during
the parade and in the pubs, seemed to be the Americans.
In the last picture, a typical big screen
at the end of the one of the main streets: A common feature
on Seoul streets.
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