Clifford Garstang's Blog, page 127

Seoul -- Day 4

It's Sunday, and I'm basically adjusted the time now. At breakfast this morning, several of us decided we would search for a the Bukchon hanok maeul, a traditional neighborhood of Korean-style homes not unlike the hutong neighborhoods of Beijing. Like the hutong, hanok are disappearing and the cities where they exist have belatedly embraced preservation. When we lived here decades ago, though, these neighborhoods were common--and there was no need to call them by this special name, or take any steps to preserve them. The were just normal. When we did get there, we found them interesting but a little disappointing, simply because they were so familiar to us.

On the way, we passed by the east edge of Gyeongbukgoong and the Folk Museum. You can see part of the structure through the gate in this photo.














The walk toward the hanok was somewhat uphill.












But eventually we got there, and found a spot for some interesting photographs of the rooftops of the neighborhood.










One of the houses had these hot peppers growing right outside the front door, and then we saw these growing in front of several more houses.










We kept walking around and eventually headed back toward downtown, when we found this little part that had a lot of mostly older men playing paduk and changgi.









And finally we found a little restaurant in Insa-dong where we had a couple of different kinds of chiggae--spicy stews, and some refreshing cold beers. Wonderful lunch!









We then came back to the hotel to register for this program that begins in earnest tomorrow, and during and after dinner we had our "orientation" -- reminders of what our schedules are. We've got a pretty full week.

Seoul -- Day 3

It rained heavily Friday night, but Saturday morning continued to be foggy and almost cool, with more rain threatening. More of our group arrived, so there was much sitting around the dining room getting to know each other, or catching up. But finally we roused ourselves to head out for our days.

I really wanted to go to the Folk Museum, which is inside the grounds of the Gyeongbukgoong, the main palace of Korea's Jeoson dynasty. It's a short walk from the hotel, and the visit brought back many memories. On my very first day in Korea in January 1976, this is where I went. We had just arrived and were staying in a cheap inn not far away, and it was bitter cold. We were due to travel down country to our training site later in the day, but first we wanted to do some exploring of our new home, so several of us found the palace. Now, though, the grounds are even bigger than they were then because the government has continued to work on restoration. It's a little bit redundant, after a while -- the very many buildings begin to look the same -- but still it's a great place to visit. And if it weren't so humid, it would be a pleasant place to wander around.

But then finally I made it to the museum. It was overrun with kids, who made the experience a little less enjoyable than it might have been, but I'm glad they were being exposed to it. Because much of what I saw in the museum was the way we experienced the country as Peace Corps volunteers.

I was particularly looking for exhibits about shamanism folk beliefs, and found only two. And some of the exhibits were repetitive of what I'd seen in the National Museum the day before, but still it was worth the visit.

I then walked to the other side of the grounds to the National Palace Museum. Drenched in sweat, I recovered a bit in the restaurant--a very nice, and very well-airconditioned place--with bibimbap and a beer, before exploring this museum, which is all about the royals. A nice contrast with the "folk".

I explored the downtown area little bit more, found a bookstore I used to visit, an ATM, and generally walked around getting hotter and sweatier, before heading back to the hotel to rest before our group was to gather at 5pm. We assembled in the hotel lobby and walked together over to Insadong where we had the upper floor of Chon reserved for a makkoli party. And then a group of us stayed for dinner as well.

Some more pictures from the day:
Banner at the hotel welcomes our group
The magpie is a noisy bird!
One of the grand halls at Gyeongbukgoong
Pavilion at one of the ponds

The famous Gwanghwamun

Seoul -- Day 2 (continued)

I reversed the subway trip, except that there were a million middle school kids crowding the ticket dispensers--not enough machines for a crowd like that, which seems to be a common problem here--so I had to join the mob to get mine.

I then strolled through Insa-dong, a touristy area near my hotel that has lots of kitschy shops and art galleries. It used to be a chic neighborhood for galleries and antiques, but that seems to have been lost. Lots of restaurants now, and tourists. My real target, though, was the nearby Jogye-sa, the main temple of the Jogye sect of Korean Buddhism, which claims to be the largest sect in the country. (Korean Zen, or Seon, Buddhism is also big -- I may try to get to a Seon temple today, although the one I know about is outside the main city.)





Next to the temple, the Jogye sect runs this "Central Buddhist
Museum" and a very helpful volunteer showed me the
beautiful collection of paintings and statues

Seoul -- Day 2

It was cloudy and very humid all day on Friday, but it didn't rain. After I did some work in the morning, I walked the block to the Seoul Metro stop, figured out what was what (they've got great ticket dispensing machines that switch to English at the press of an on-screen button), paid my money (1000 won, or about $1, plus a deposit of 500 won), and boarded the train. I had to switch lines, which was no problem, and pretty soon I was walking toward the "new" National Museum of Korea.
National Museum of Korea (from Main Gate)Entry to the permanent exhibits is free, and I started on the first of three floors, which illustrates the history of Korea from paleolithic times through the founding of modern Korea. I found that fascinating, and a valuable refresher for my long forgotten reading about the various kingdoms and unified states and conflicts with Japan and China. I then went up to the third floor, which is devoted to Sculpture and Crafts, including a large gallery of Buddhist sculpture. I spent a lot of time there, and also in the Celadon gallery. Across the hall there are galleries devoted to the arts of other Asian countries, and I strolled through, although I didn't linger.

View from Third Floor, National Museum of KoreaThe second floor has galleries devoted to calligraphy and painting. I especially enjoyed the calligraphy, as it brought to mind the Chinese character calligraphy studies I did when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer here. Also on this floor were several galleries of donations from private collectors.

By this time, I was starving, and after an unsuccessful stop in the museum shop, I found the "food court". There's also a Korean restaurant in the building, but I was in too big a hurry for that, so I just got a plate of "curry rice" -- a dish I enjoyed from time to time when I lived here. It was great!
Curry Rice in museum "food court"And that was that for the museum. I strolled around the grounds for a bit, and here are some more shots:
Museum entrance (the banner celebrates the selection
of Korea as host of the 2018 winter Olympics)
Reflecting pond

Seoul -- Day 1

Travels yesterday went smoothly. In fact, the flight from Narita to Incheon/Seoul arrived 20 minutes early, alleviating the small anxiety I had about missing the last airport bus to the part of downtown Seoul I needed to get to. The Incheon airport (ICN) isn't as great as its cracked up to be, in my estimation--passenger traffic flows off of aircraft, into the people-mover, and through immigration could be better designed. But we arrived, I was processed, I got my bag (eventually), and entered the country.

I exchanged money. I rented a cell phone. I found the kiosk to by the airport bus ticket. I found the bus stop. I had missed the bus by a couple of minutes, so I had to wait for almost half an hour for the next one, but it came on time and off we went. It was rainy and dark, so there wasn't much to see on the long ride into downtown, but after half an hour or so I had a sense of where I was, and recognized the stops on the route: Yonsei University, Ehwa Women's University, Kyongbok Gung, and finally my stop, AnGuk--just a block really from my hotel.

Getting settled into the room was a little bit of a hassle--long story that isn't worth going into--but eventually, near midnight--I was ready to sleep. And although I thought I was wide awake, I must have dropped off pretty fast, as I don't remember anything until about 6AM local time (which is 13 hours ahead of the US East Coast).

Checked email--internet in the room works just fine--made coffee, headed down to breakfast where, as I expected, I ran into Jon, the "leader" of this trip. So we had a nice chat.

And soon I'll be off for a little exploration, on a day that promises to be rainy. I'm definitely going to the new (to me) National Museum, which will involve travel on the amazing Seoul subway, the map of which I've posted here. You can get just about anywhere on the subway. And then we'll see what else I can fit into the day.

Paging . . . your main character

I'm sitting in the United Airlines Red Carpet Club at Narita International Airport (Tokyo) waiting for my connection to Seoul, where I'll be spending the next ten days. And the first thing I heard as I was settling in for the layover was a passenger page . . . for a woman who shares the name of the main female character of my novel--a Korean woman.

That was cool. Although this trip has other purposes--mostly, in fact--I do plan to work on the book some while I'm in Korea. I want to continue the editing work so I don't lose the thread of the book in my head, and I also plan to absorb (reinforce old memories of) the sights and sounds of Seoul, where some of the book is set. And if I have decent connections, I'll try to post some while I'm there. We'll see. There's a lot on the agenda.

The New Yorker: "Aphrodisiac" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

July 11 & 18, 2011: "Aphrodisiac" by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
This story is okay. Nothing to write home about, so to speak. It deals with Kishen, educated in England, who returns to India with the dream of writing the Great Indian Novel. Meanwhile, his elder brother Shiv, successful in the Indian Administrative Service, marries a girl from the country. They all live together in the home of Kishen and Shiv's mother, which suits Kishen fine as he is infatuated with Naina, his sister-in-law, who proceeds to have a couple of sons and gets Kishen, with the aid of the witch-like nurse, hooked on betel. He's powerless against her.
Eventually, Kishen's mother grows ill, whether because of the stress in the household or the witch-nurse's poison no one is sure. The mother tries to get Kishen to apply to grad school in England, but under Naina's influence he doesn't apply, and lies to his mother about it. Shiv finally insists that the mother go to England to see doctors, and Kishen will accompany her. But, again Naina intervenes.
There is, perhaps, something going on her that the American readers won't readily see. A commentary on contemporary Indian society, maybe? There certainly is a clash between the family of Kishen, which values education and enjoys a certain kind of taste, and Naina and her nurse, who represent a different aspect of India—crass, tasteless, greedy.
Is there more than that?

Literary Saturday

It looks like a gorgeous day out there--I trust I'll make it outside eventually, as there are surely things that need to be done in the garden.

In the meantime, I have various literary chores. Since I'm going out of town, I needed to get ahead on my lectures for the online class I'm teaching at Writers.com. Just finished that.

I'm judging a short fiction contest. There aren't a lot of entries so far, but I need to read the ones I've received before I leave town.

The next issue of Prime Number Magazine is scheduled to debut shortly after I get back from my trip abroad. Since I doubt that I'll be able to get much layout work done while traveling, I'd like to get the bulk of it done before I go. I can read submissions on the road, but that's about it.

I'd love to do a little work on the revision to my own novel, but I don't see getting back to that until Monday, which means that I won't finish until well after I've returned from Korea.

I saw a great production of The Tempest last night at the American Shakespeare Center's Blackfriars Playhouse, so I guess I won't be going to the theater tonight, but I'm reading a very engaging short story collection, Burning Man by Ed Falco. I hope to finish that tonight.

Coffee House Press Giveaway!

Check out the Fall lineup of books from Coffee House Press and enter to win prizes!

Prime Number Magazine -- update 7.7 is now live

Exciting news! Prime Decimals 7.7 -- the latest and last update to Issue 7 of Prime Number Magazine-- is now live! Breaking with our tradition (is one year a tradition?) of publishing flash fiction in the updates, we are pleased to present a full-length story by David Meischen that I think you're going to love: "Center Wheel, Balance Wheel, Escape Wheel. We've also got poetry by Jay Rubin, Marc Harshman, and the singularly named Donnarkevic.

This wraps up the first year of Prime Number! It's been a blast, and I think we've presented some fantastic writing. We're now in the process of putting together the Print Annual, so stay tuned for news about that.

And we're already hard at work on the next full issue, Number 11, which is due out in late July. It's a blockbuster!