Places that you must go in Seoul

Hi Michelle, Hi Brad!

It's my honor recommending you the places to go in Seoul, my hometown!

I wish my best for your visit to be phenomenal!

I categorized places from 4 stars(must go) to 1 star(a light recommendation)! and I also added public transportation(subway) information too!

**** Kyungbokgung Palace

There are 5 palaces in Seoul, and among them, it's the main palace of Joseon Dynasty that was used from 1392~1592 and 1865~1895. And it's the palace that represents Seoul in 21st century at the same time. 

Nevertheless many traditional architectures had been deconstructed during the annexation of Imperial Japan from 1910~1945, still various buildings have remained and it's still aesthetically beautiful. Furthermore, you might be able to see the blue house, the residential place of president of Korea. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpYq1lSce1U

the gangnam guy, Psy's music video, "korea" was taken in this place. If you want to see how the palace look like ahead of visits, it's a really good idea to watch this video. 

*** National Folk museum of Korea

It's inside of Gyungbokgung palace. The tall pagodas are now used as a museum. 
so it's really easy to acess! 

Nearest station, Gyeongbokgung Station, Line number 3

** Deoksugung Palace

Deoksugung palace is the most recent palace that was used in Seoul. The last Emperor of Imperial Korea was residing here until 1919. The harmony of European Gothic buildings, Korean traditional palace buildings, and 16th century Korean nobility's mansion is quite astonishing. It is right next to Seoul City hall. 

Nearest station - Seoul city hall station, line number 1 and 2

This is Seoul city hall. If you have no idea where to go, just saunter around the city hall and you will find something. (All the tour place is near here. Since it's in the middle of old downtown area)

**** Seoul National Museum

 Abbreviating, but never exaggerating, "4000 years length of History of Korea" is right here. 

Nearst station - Ichon station, Line number 4

*** Insadong

Mecca of shopping for foreigners. You can find so many traditional souveniers around here. 

And if you go into small alleys, you can find the atmosphere of 1930s~ 1970s of Seoul. 

Nearest station Jonggak Station, Line number 1

*** Seoul Station and Namdaemun

When Seoul was surrounded with wall, Namdaemun was the door that everyone had to pass by. At that time, wall was about 2m higher, and it was the first place that the cirt train passed through in 19th century.  Right next to it(about 5 minutes away on foot), Seoul Station is standing. It was also constructed about 100 years ago and the old platform is now used as a museum of Seoul Public transportation. 

Nearest station - Seoul station, Line number 1,4

**** SamchungDong, AngookDong

From traditional buildings of 19th century, to the modern architecture that was built yesterday, the harmony of these small houses are great. It's a great idea to look around the small alleys too! The only demerit of this place is, that it's on the hill. It's in between Kyungbokgung Palace and Changdeokgung palace. 

Oh, by the way, at the end of the hill, you can find my old highschool!

Chungang Highschool, my "alma mater" ! 

Nearest station : Anguk station, Line number 3

** Myeongdong 

The mecca of shopping in Korea. There is literally everything. 

Also, it has the oldest cathedral of Seoul that was constructed 150 years ago. 

Nearest station - Myeongdong station, Line number 4. 

* Korea University

Korea university has the same status of Yale university in the United States. 

It's one of the best universities in Korea, and furthermore, the campus is old and beautiful!

Station - Korea university station, Line number 6

*Songdo International city

I am not highly recommending this place to visit since you can see these cities in the United States too very often. It's a small version of Chicago in Korea.
Though it's really close to the airport, and it's a really good place to chill out during the day I think.
It takes about 1~2 hours from Seoul. 

Nearest station - Songdo centralpark Station

These are my preliminary recommendations to visit in Seoul, Korea. 

And I highly recommend you to download an application called "Transit"

It will guide you to the place that you want to go in a fastest way!

Hope you to enjoy the trip!

My American history class

It has been about a month since the new semester started, and I chose a little bit more loose class compare to the last first semester. 

Sometimes I realized that time flies so fast, whenever I remind the time that I've experienced in Minnesota. It is certainly true whenever I date back up to the memorizable moment such as soccer season, first day of school, home coming dance, overnights, and country fair, it feels like it was a yesterday but the real time has passed from a month to even 6 months. What a surprise that my exchange year in Minnesota has passed more than a half!

Anyway, one of my plan that I was planning was learning the history of the United States of America, to understand how the United States has been a superpower and conquer the international diplomacy, economic, military relationship in 20th~21st century. 

So I started to take American history class, and even though the class is still talking about the glided age, westward expansion, and industrializations even before that they started to dominate everything exclusively in the international relationship. (Is my quote a little bit weird?)

So it is certain that the pioneer and immigrants crudely oppressed, prosecuted and even slaughtered the native americans during the westward expansions. ( It was common situations in America, Africa, and Asia, that lots of tributes and races were invaded by European countries during the age of imperialist, in 19th century)

The populations of native american had reduced dramatically in a century, and they had to be locked inside of the area of reservation.

Not only physical oppression was there, but also there were lots of spiritual suffers for native americans by forcibly going to the boarding school on the purpose of "Americanize" the native american children. It is true that some of native americans are still having hard time with poverty and low quality life.

What I surprised is next, that americans are willing to teach what their ancestors did in the past, and never hide it, to prevent the same mistakes happening. It was really impressive because I knew that there are some nations, even around my home country, are trying to hide their faults to other nations during the age of imperialist in 19th~20th century, and even never apologize for invading other nations around them. I hope that they will be more responsible for their every 

conducts, and try not to make same mistakes, by teaching their children the right history, not by hiding their faults. 

Crazy weather in Minnesota

The weather is totally crazy

The lowest temperature is 30 below Celsius, and the windchill is 50 below !

Even though it is cold....

Before I arrived here, I had lots of changes to search for the information about Minnesota, and the most impressive one was how cold the Minnesota weather is. As Minnesota is located in about the same latitude with North Korea, I expected that it might be pretty cold, but I didn't expect that it would be like this.. 

So, right now, the temperature is 25 below Celsius which is about 10~15 below Fahrenheit and the wind chill is even far less than that. There was no school in Minnesota for 2 days, and it is going to start to open tomorrow. I could hear the news about the car accidents which were caused by the slippery and icy road for whole day, and some people even passed away because of the enormous low temperature.

While I was suffering from the crazy weather, I could also experience an awesome scientific moment.

  By the way, few years ago, I had an opportunity to watch a YouTube video which was uploaded in Moscow, Russia, and it was showing me a unorthodox and outrageous scene that a cup of water just changed into whole bunch of snows after spreading into the cold air.... To be honest, I didn't believe it at all, thinking that somebody might fix this video with a graphic effect to tease YouTube users including me.

 But..........

 It really happened to me yesterday.

I just boiled 1.5L water and moved it into a big glass cup, mixing it with a red color to make it more bright and beautiful. And then, I just threw it into the cold freezing air! And like a magic, it just turned into a WHITE SNOW (it is disappointing that my intention to make a red colored snow failed....). 

I just stand up there, opening my mouth with astonishment, watching the fascinating moment that I've never experienced, and also I've never imagined that it can be really happened on the Earth...  

Even though I couldn't go outside for 2 days because of the enormous cold weather, I could see an amazing moment, and.. at the same time, I'm perfectly ready for the school starting tomorrow again!

Gunho Park

Christmas in the United States

Christmas

WOW. It takes lots of time to finish a post in English, and to be honest I'm not sure that I'm using a right term and phrase..And it is inevitable to face lots of problems during translating sentences from Korean to English through my brain.. But at the same time I believe that it will be better and better and someday I can speak and write English as a pre-native English speaker..

Christmas in Korea and America

Christmas is not a big deal in Korea

I still remember the Christmas in 2009. One of my best friend asked me to go to the movie theater to watch "Avatar" in 3D! It sounded great to me, as Avatar was a renowned movie with a lot of praises and nice comments at that time, and someone even started to compare this movie with the great masterpiece "Titanic". (Later, Avatar broke the record of Titanic in the number of audience as a result.... Well... both of them were tremendous movie, but I think Titanic is a little bit better..)

So, I enjoyed the best movie in the world with friends in 3D, and.... that was it! I even cannot remember when was the last time that I got the presents on the day of Christmas....Yes.. Christmas is not a big deal in S.Korea.. Well, I mean it might be a pretty big deal to Christians or some couples,,, but it wasn't to me,, and I think my parents started to think that I'm too old to get a present in Christmas since my middle school years..

And I could communicate with my friends through Facebook during this Christmas break, and the funniest thing was..... They should took the final semester test until this Christmas Eve!!! Even though Korean high schools are pretty challenging and getting a lot of bad reputations from their students, they are not that much cruel not to let their students take a rest during the big holiday like Chuseok( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuseok) or Lunar new year ... So it means.... Yes! Christmas is not that much a big holiday in Korea!....

My first Christmas in MN

This week was my first Christmas holiday in the United States. Of course even before this week I could find many ceremonies and decoratings  for being ready for the Christmas such as choosing and and cutting down the Christmas trees and decorating them. Oh, I could find the difference even in the way of treating trees, as people usually cut down the trees and put them in their own house in the US while I've never seen a person to cut down the trees just for the Christmas in Korea.

Well anyway the first impressive thing was that there are almost several weeks of break not only in school but also in some firms(But I was depressed after I heard that there are no winter vacation in school after this), as most of school vacation in winter start after Christmas and before New year in Korea.

And the second one was that all family members celebrate Christmas all together! All 3 generations from grandparents to their grandchildren  spend their time together on the day of Christmas Eve and Christmas, eating meals and saying hello to each other. Not only embracing and kissing each other with lots of happiness, they also spend their time for the "best moment" in Christmas, opening the Christmas gift that they got! Waiting for my turn to open the box, guessing what I got as a present by touching to feel the texture of the inside of the box was really fun.

And the last one was the church and the Christmas, even though all my dad's siblings are all Christians, my parents don't have their own religion at all, so I didn't have chance to go to church on Christmas Day. But as my host family Finks are Christian, I could go to church on Christmas Day for the first time in my life. It was holy,solemn and beautiful.

With these new impressive experiences, I also meet new nice people during the Christmas, and it was really amazing to meet them and spend terrific time celebrating the Christmas. I just want to say thank you to all of them.

Oh. I almost forgot to write this! What I got as presents were Minnesota sweater, headband, warm fluffy shoes, a lot of Korean foods, cute screen wiper, glass with Christmas decoration, card game, hand warmers and 10 bucks. I just appreciate to giving me these amazing and lovely gifts, and at the same time, an amazing memorials about my Christmas in Minnesota.

Gunho Park

The sports

The sports, and the people

Girls' participating, and people's cheering for their hometown team.

1. girls' participating

I still remember the game that I watched pretty long time ago, and it was the women's soccer game, S. Korea vs. U.S.It was pretty shocking to me, as the result was 4:0. What the hell is happening! I was yelling,  thinking that U.S isn't that much good at soccer. But I realized that it was just my stupid stereotype right after I participated to the soccer season of high school in Minnesota.
I had some opportunities to watch the games of girl's varsity or JV soccer team, and I still had a stereotype that girl's might be "suck" at soccer.. But my opinion just shifted dramatically right after I watched the girl's varsity game. It was so awesome that they seemed to understand the strategy far better than me, and their sights were terrific that they were used to make some amazing vertical long-pass to each other. And girls in my high school in Minnesota are participating not only soccer but also a lot of different sports in all seasons.

These are  not common in S. Korea, as there are still traditional stereotypes remained that sports are only for males. Even though the social status between males and females has been developing horizontally , it is still hard to find women participating to some sports.
Actually I think some of them even have negative opinions about sports, I still remember one of my anonymous girl-friend's(the friend who is a girl :D) reaction after listening to the result of Olympic soccer qualifying game in 2011 on TV, she asked me "Why are you guys crazy at those stupid balls! And Korean soccer is suck nowadays!".. Well I couldn't deny her last phrase :( ..But it was pretty sad to hear her voices that sports are not fun, even before she participated..


So,, it is not that much weird to see the result of friendly match of women's soccer team between Korea vs. U.S, as the demands and interests of women at the sports are TOTALLY different..

2. Why so many people are cheering for the "highschool game" !!

2002 World Cup was a amazing national event in S.Korea. Nobody expected that Korea would beat Poland, Portugal, Italy, and Spain and go to the semi-final game in the World Cup. Millions and Millions of people went out to the street just for cheering the national team in the World Cup. (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HliB9VSxU28&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHliB9VSxU28 )

Not only the World Cup game in 2002, people have been crazy at the fascinating games of the national sports teams and players, including the figure skating games of Kim Yuna.

Wait a minute, Didn't I write that the women's participating on the sports are really low? But why "all the people" , not only males but females are enjoying these national sports teams' playing?

Here is a Korean's unique characteristic, they are watching the national team's playing, not just they are enjoying that sports, but they think the team "Korea" is really important team enough to dedicate their passions and interests on it as they are Korean. It is  nice to see the people falling in love with watching Olympic or World Cup day and night, but the problem is..... After the Olympic or World Cup, most of them usually lose all the passions and interests on sports, and never keep paying
attention to their hometown sports teams or city sports teams as they don't feel anything special about those teams.. For example, it is pretty hard to see the people watching FC Seoul's soccer match on TV, even though those people were dedicating their time and passions for the South Korean national team soccer in the last World Cup.


So you might think that Korean's are crazy at soccer after you watch the video that I linked above this post, but... The fact is.... Many of them were watching those games not they love soccer, but they love big national team, so they have no reason to watch another small games that are always held in their small hometown..



After I came to Minnesota, I got some chance to watch the football game of my highschool. Actually, I didn't know anything about football at that time, but I just went there to experience the culture of America..
Hmmm. I was expecting that there would be few audience at the first time, as "Highschool game" wasn't a  big deal at all in my home.  But right after I arrived to the stadium, I could find hundreds and hundreds of people cheering for the "Highschool game" Not only the highschool students but also the citizens living in Northfield. It was pretty impressive that people are paying attention to such a small game. There must be someone who were watching these game just because they are in or they came from that high school,not they like the sports "Football",  but the most impressive part was that they didn't ignore their hometown game and give interests only of the "big team",  as Koreans often do..

The first post from Northfield.MN

I always thinking of some way to record my unique experience in Minnesota, but to be honest, I couldn't think of using a blog for recording it as I've never done that before.
But momentary I noticed that posting on a blog might me the best way to show not only my amazing new experience but also my opinion about the cultures and daily life of Minnesota.
So.. Comparing to my posts on Facebook, I think I might write about more formal topic, but at the same time, more interesting story for everyone!

Gunho Park, from Northfield.MN