Weeks 14 and 15: Olympic Park and SEOMUN XXVI (October 31-November 12, 2023)
Olympic Park was built for the Seoul Summer Olympics in 1988. It is located in Songpa, almost directly north of the school and about a 30 minute bus ride away. When Sarah and Nimmi and I arrived on Friday we had about an hour before it got dark.
We enjoyed a lot of beautiful views, including several of Lotte Tower, which is sort of my go-to landmark. I put a lot of photos and videos of Olympic Park into this week's video:
And here are some of my faves again:
The gingko trees were dazzling. This pathway in front of the park was the welcome we got as we exited the bus. And you can see that the leaves have really become sparse in the trees around the park. I think in two or three more weeks we will be looking at a lot of bare branches.
One of the highlights of late summer/early fall is the pink muhly grass that can be found in several parks and along the Han river. It is actually native to the USA (in the southeast) but they grow it here and it attracts a lot of attention. We found the area where it had been growing in this park but it was almost all gone. I think we need to look for it in September next year. But the orange cosmos were fantastic.
Sarah is the tall one right in front of me and Nimmi is the one on her right. When the three of us go places together we attract a bit of attention.
SEOMUN XXVI was a great experience. I really cannot express how impressive the kids were. There were about 400 kids from all over Asia. They spent 3 days working on resolutions they had written about topics from Ukrainian refugees to the US Embassy in Palestine. They were focused, engaged, passionate, and brilliant. I spent 10 hours a day at SEOMUN on Saturday and Sunday. Then it was back to work (and school) on Monday morning!
The closing ceremony on the 5th at 4pm, and the debrief meeting in my room on Wednesday at lunch. It was good to see the kids reflect on the work they had done and honor their advisors!
Interesting column structure in the hallway at COEX, and egg salad and hash brown lunch at Eggslut. The food was great. Truffle oil in the hash browns!
Week 15 was much colder than it has been. Temperatures at night dropped below freezing. I brought enough cold weather gear and I am glad that I did. I have needed all of it! I got to visit with Hailie and her dog, Kylie, one day of week 15. And then on the 11th of November people here celebrate Pepero Day. Since it is 11/11 they give one another boxes of candy that is made of chocolate-dipped pretzels. Hailie gave me lots of gifts that day, including homemade Pepero!
I have been very lucky in the friend department in Korea. Hailie had been collecting things for me that I had mentioned wanting, like lotion (the weather got very dry all of a sudden) and a calendar that hangs on the wall (everyone here seems to use a desk calendar and I had not been able to locate a wall-hanging one). I feel very well taken care of by all these dear people!
On November 11th (which was a Saturday) I went to Namdaemun Market with my colleague and her daughters. Ally lives in Korea but she is from the USA. She had not ever been to this Market before though, and we were all interested in trying the kalguksu noodles, for which it is famous.
We got there before the street food vendors were set up. But after we had noodles they were all out on the alley. I tried two different things (after the noodles).
The noodles were handmade and seasoned with chicken broth, seaweed, and chives. They were scrumptious. I had a little trouble eating them with the chopsticks but I got most of them onto the spoon (eventually). The row of little noodle restaurants was long and crowded. People go in and sit down at a counter (there are like 30 of them on the row) and start eating soup. It was only about $6 for my meal. Very tasty.
The street food that I tried was hotteok (a pancake filled with syrup and sesame) and egg bread. Both are sweet. The egg bread has an entire boiled egg baked into it!
After we ate, Ally and her kids and I walked all over the market and found a flower market! I got to bring home some lovely daisies. I quite enjoy being able to get fresh flowers for $3-6! Lots of places were set up for Christmas too. I think it is about to be hot chocolate season!
I have a pretty busy week ahead. We get two days off for Thanksgiving on Nov 23 and 24 but that means we need to be wrapping up the semester in just a few weeks. Much to do!
Next Saturday we are going on a school-planned trip to the DMZ. I know it will be cold. I hope it will not be raining. Right now the weather looks clear but things change on a dime here.
I hope your fall weather is lovely and that the transition to the end of Daylight Savings Time did not throw you off. Korea doesn't do DST so I am now 17 hours ahead of the western USA. This can make phone calls and zoom calls challenging, but the holiday weekend might be a good time to catch up if you are so inclined!
All the best to you!
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