The second part of my week in Korea was consumed with exploring its capital and megacity, Seoul. My grandpa had told me stories of the city in the late 1940s, telling it as desperate place rank with poverty, illness, and mud that vacillated between extremes in weather. I guess I should tell him that Seoul has since come in the world, significantly so, and that the city today, with its modern amenities and confident manner, puts most American cities to shame. The Koreans are proud of their peninsular nation, and if Seoul is used as the measuring post with the rest of the world, then rightly so. It’s remarkable to think that 60 years ago it was a pile of rubble.

Time was, once again, working against me. As the others had already taken in Seoul’s sites and Ian felt no need to (figuratively) hold my hand around town, I just started my days early with an ambitious plan of attack, taking advantage of the extensive metro system to provide my transport. I know most people don’t care and get glossy eyes when I talk about rail transit systems, but places like this, especially contrasted with other large cities without said systems, make even the uncaring value at least the convenience, speed, and reliability a high-quality metro system can bring. Now off the soapbox…

My first stop was Gyeongbokgung, one of several large palaces that has been maintained in Seoul since the days of the Kingdom. The layout and architecture displays the historical influence of China over her neighbors and I am trying not to draw to many links. A nice touch, and in line with Asian tradition, was the placement of the Blue House, the seat of the Korean executive, directly behind the back end of the palace. Later after wandering a bit around downtown, I discovered a cheap and delicious form of lunch in the guise of convenience store rolls of sushi. The only snag to this $1.25 of deliciousness was the writing all in Korean. Ever investigative, I did my best to sniff it out until the clerk came over and told me…’spicy tuna’ ‘tuna kimchi’ and so on. With the mystery solved, I took a seat and watched the world pass by.

Later in the day I explored one of the larger Buddhist temples of Seoul and then visited a grouping of traditional Korean courtyard homes set on the slope of one of Seoul’s many hill parks. Here, five homes dating from the 19th century were packed up from their old homes in Seoul and reset on the mountainside. It was pretty cool to see the homes and made me wish I were in some type of position to build my own home in a similar style and just sit in a little office on the floor looking over some pine trees writing books. But then I digress… Later that night I met with Ian and the rest of the gang and we went out for Korean barbecue. True to form, the food was spicy, plentiful, and delicious. Score some more points for modern Korea!

The next day was much the same, fitting my formula of early arising, touring museums including the excellent National Museum and later checking out the War Memorial Museum which had an amazing collection of military hardware from a wide span of time as well as a particularly clear and seemingly balanced view of the Korean War. A summer plan here is to see the Chinese version of the war at the museum commemorating the War of American Aggression, as its known here. Politics aside, I made lunch with a sushi roll or two and then explored the Cheongye stream, an impressive feat of urban greenery made of a rebuilt stream on the edge of the city center. It was a wonderful, peaceful place to walk and join the other Koreans dipping their feet in the cool water. I hope someday China can and will emulate projects like this in their cities.

Dinner this night was on a different scale than the past. I went to Noryangjin, the biggest fish market in Seoul, where I met my friend Sangkook. He is a really nice Korean guy with great English who I met at a homestay in Adelaide last summer, where we were together two weeks, and it was really cool to see him again on his turf. I got the chance to meet two of his friends as well, both likewise cool people. We ate some sashimi cut fresh in one of the basement restaurants beneath the market, where I got to be the one foreigner and enjoy some of the great Korean beer and the rice wine soju. It made for a nice last night.

The next morning I said goodbye to Ian and Lindsey, a little jealous of them being able to stay in Seoul when my time was so brief. The train out to the airport was effortless and by bedtime I was back home in Shenzhen. The summer has come and my contract has run out, setting me on the eve of a busy couple of months that include a trip through China with 3 of the sisters, my first trip home in a year and a half, and culminating in a move to Beijing to teach English at a university. All three events are exciting, though in markedly different ways, and if anyone who bothers to read here is stateside I hope we can meet. Until then, the road is calling.