Photo Journal: Korea

A photo journal using a few of my favorite photos of our trip to Korea. 

We spent the first two and a half days of the trip in Seoul where we visited a palace, a shrine, a Buddhist temple, the Korean War Memorial, climbed a huge hill to the Seoul Tower, went to a giant park where 

legions of old men play Baduk (Go), wandered through a few large markets, and ate a huge variety of Korean food. 

Highrises stretch as far as your eye can see in any direction.*

Gyeongbuk Palace

One of the emperors would use this island to practice his archery.
So much for the art of Asian contemplation.

An historic reenactment of the changing of the palace guards.

Jogyesa Temple at dusk, our first Buddhist Temple.

We took a bus to Seoraksan (se-rock-san) for one day. (It was the most comfortable bus I've ever been on.) We stayed in the National Park at a lovely hotel with a gorgeous view of the snow capped peaks and blooming cherry trees. We took an early morning hike up to a cave before breakfast. It was an exhausting, continuous climb, ending with hundreds of steps up the side of a rugged cliff. After breakfast, we visited the temple nestled in between the mountains, rode a cable car up into the mountains, and hiked to a waterfall, while Nathan climbed to the teetering rock (another thousand steps) and then came back to hike to the waterfall. Even he had to admit to being worn out that afternoon.

After hauling myself up the final metal steps, only to
discover the vendor carts and realize that people have
climbed this route while carrying a whole cart along.*

One of the rugged craggy
peaks we saw as we climbed.

McArdles in Korea

Water for purification and cleansing.

"Tongil Daebul," bronze Buddha statue.

Sinheungsa Temple at Seoraksan

You could make a donation and write a supplication or prayer on a
curved slate that would later be used in roofing the temple buildings.
The slates were covered in every imaginable language.

From Seorakson, we headed to Daejeon (tay-jyan), Jenny's current hometown. There, we saw the university and a few other places where she volunteers and spends her time, went to a jimjillbang, an art museum, the arboretum, explored the town, ate some more delicious Korean food, and tried to go to a baseball game but got rained out, so we headed to a bar instead (not all that different from Chicago with that one).

Feeling my lousiest at this point of the trip.*

From Daejeon, we took a train to the port town of Busan (poo-san), where we stayed at a love hotel, saw a group performing traditional dancing and drumming in a square near our hotel, went to Jagalchi, Korea's largest fish market, where we had some delicious grilled fish for breakfast, headed to the shore, and then went to the UN Memorial Cemetary.
 

Cherry blossoms in the background.

The white ribbons you can see looping through the background
were actually attached to the end of some of the dancers' hats.
They would whip their heads around to make the ribbons fly.

One of the fishmongers at Jagalchi
preparing something we could never identify.

The shore in Busan almost looks like the Emerald City.

We said goodbye to Jenny, Susanne, and Shirley in Busan and then headed to the island of Jeju for three days. We arrived on Sunday night, took a long bus ride to our hotel in Seogwipo, and then had a Korean dinner of sea urchin and broiled mackeral. Our first morning we saw Jeongbang Waterfall and then headed to rent a Vespa. When we had the motorbike, we headed east to see the resorts, Yakchunsa Temple, the volcanic columns, Cheonjeyeon Falls, and then had some delicious black bean sauce noodles for dinner. Our final day on Jeju, we headed north to Halla-san (Halla Mountain), went to the Bijarim (Nutmeg) Forest, the Sangumburi Crater, hiked along a volcanic cave-filled coast, and climbed up to Sanbanggulsa, which had a temple, a shrine, and a larger mustachioed golden Buddha before heading back to Seogwipo to have some of the island's famous black boar and explore the port. After we returned our trusty Vespa, we explored the open markets and considered buying our own Baduk game, but settled on a pile of snacks for the trip home instead. In the morning, we took a harrowing taxi ride to the airport and began our long trip home.

Our comfort level on the bike dramatically improved after two days of maneuvering.**

All the Buddhist temples were preparing for Buddha's
birthday on May 10th by hanging lanterns everywhere.

Yakchunsa Temple, our first stop after getting the bike.

The beautiful insides of the temple.

The matching outfits and peace signs
required of "real" Jeju tourists.

Offerings to Buddha at Sanbanggulsa

One of the Korean fishing ships in port in Seogwipo.

*Photos by Jenny McArdle. 
**Photo by motorbike rental guy.
All other photos by Hanna McArdle. Please ask permission before using.

Hipster Animals

I think I appreciate these especially living here in Chicago where I encounter these hipster types milling around so often. (Btw, I love that the lion has one of those spacer things in his earlobe!)

I love this artist.
"I could say something about having no decent paid work in a shit economy and trying to trick myself into being busy to keep the gnawing anxiety at bay or that it’s a dry run for a book pitch or something equally half true but the number one reason anyone does anything on the internet: I want people to send me free stuff."

My kind of gal. And my kind of clever art.

Adventures in Showering

The modern Korean bathroom is surprisingly different from the typical American bathroom. I suppose when you think about it, this point should not come as a shock. Nearly everything in Korea is very different from the typical equivalent in the US. The food is quite different, the landscape, the language, the history; why should I expect my shower to be any more familiar to me?

I've "showered" using a small plastic bowl to pour water on my head from a five gallon bucket when visiting a friend in Nicaragua, so by no means do I consider a Korean shower an unpleasant experience. Warm water comes from pipes above my head, and I did not have any concerns that some of that water might contain any bugs or vermin doing the backstroke, so  I truly was a happy camper even if my showering thoughts were not the soothing non-thoughts I experience at home in own shower.

My shower thoughts in Korea consisted of "Huh, guess no one ever knocks on the door desperately needing to use the toilet while you shower or boy would that be super awkward," "I've never squeegeed naked before," and "Wearing shoes in the shower is the most dressed I've ever been while showering, and yet I've never felt more naked."

This is pretty typical, though not exactly like one we had.

Why, you ask? Korean showers are really just shower heads above a drain. You don't really have walls or shower curtains around your shower area. You are basically standing in the middle of the bathroom, possibly directly in front of a toilet, while your shower water ricochets all over the room coming dangerously close to your very small loincloth towel and puddling just under it so that if you have managed to miss the towel with the water luge off your shoulders, you can be sure it will be good and wet when you accidentally knock it off the hook before squeegeeing the floor. Also, you are likely wearing the bathroom sandals that were sitting at the entrance to the bathroom and occasionally being goosed by the squeegee as you back away too far from the toilet. But you do have a lovely warm toilet seat and a refreshing (though somewhat initially startling) rear spritz and blow dry from the bidet toilets to look forward to in the morning.

Oh yeah, and that's not even mentioning the jimjillbang (gin-ja-bong). Remember the Turkish bath? Well, if you take away my underwear and add in a substantial amount of pointing and discussion by little old naked Korean ladies then you've got the typical Korean bath house, which I experienced with my two lovely sisters-in-law. Thankfully, I was feverish from my sinus infection so I didn't particularly mind the commentary from the peanut gallery; I willfully avoided thinking about the fact that I was naked; and I did actually enjoy the painfully vigorous full body exfoliation scrub.

My favorite part was steaming in the various rooms before the naked part (we were given pink shorts and tees because that part is coed). Each one was slightly hotter than the last and had grass mats, salt rocks, or very smooth round rocks (that we called Cocoa Pebbles) to lie on and burrow into. There were also refrigerated and frozen rooms and an extremely hot room that we ducked into briefly. Amazingly, I felt a thousand times better after the jimjillbang, infection-wise, and only minutely demoralized about having gotten naked in front of my husband's family. "I'm practically European now," my inner pep talk went, "and I was way skinnier than those Korean ladies."


photo via http://cmgarlan.blogspot.com 

Encountering the Native Inhabitants

Like any trip overseas, you encounter the people first. And let me tell you, the Korean people did not disappoint. I cannot begin to tell you how kind and generous the Korean people we met were. There were also many opportunities for them to be wildly entertaining.

A few things I have learned (merely by observation, so fault the facts if you must) about Korean people:

After practicing their English on us, these
schoolgirls asked me to take their picture.

Koreans are really rooting for world peace. Doesn't matter what they are standing in front of or who they're with, when a picture is being taken everyone throws up their fingers to show the world that when they visited the golden buddha at the top of that mountain in Jeju, they were also wishing for world peace. Waterfalls? Oh yeah, bring on the world peace. Random statue? World peace! New husband taking a photo of you in a field of wildflowers? World peace.

If you pass a group of 650 school children in Korea, they will all say hi or hello to you in English giggling maniacally when you say it back.
EVERY. SINGLE. ONE.     ANYWHERE. YOU. SEE. THEM. 

This is a cliff hike directly along the sea. This girl is
wearing 3-in Louboutin shoes on volcanic rock. INSANE!

Looking good is more important than walking fast. The Chinese had footbinding, the Koreans have fashion. Nearly every woman under 30 wears dangerous looking heels. HUGE, spike heels with rows of buckles and zippers that are usually out of proportionally fancier than the rest of the outfit. And there doesn't seem to be a thought about the activities ahead when getting dressed in the morning. We have seen the fashion outfits with the huge heels on hikes and climbs and on non-work days tottering through the park and down cobblestone streets.

Over the age of approximately 30, looking the part is better than knowing what you're doing. People going hiking have "hiking outfits" complete with those ski pole type things to finish off the look. They have the North Face jackets and pants and shoes, the whole works. And I am unsure if they've ever hiked before. People biking have "biking outfits" complete with head to toe spandex and goggles. Again, unsure if they've ever biked before buying the whole outfit.

Next up, the adventure of using a Korean bathroom!

The First of Many Firsts

Nathan and I recently returned from a pretty significant travel adventure to South Korea. It's taken me a bit of recovery time, so I'm just now starting to blog about it. It hasn't been so much that I needed the trip to sink in as I needed to get healthy. I definitely came back with some sort of respiratory/sinus infection. (To which the doctor I visited last week prescribed not talking and salt water gargling as a cure. Ugh, co-pay down the drain!) I could digress about the crappy doctor for much longer, but I'll spare you.

I also returned to a crashed work computer. This is usually my fastest avenue for picture uploading, so that has also slowed my blogging. However, today I am tackling the first blog entry (small though it is). Hopefully more will follow shortly.

The first of the many firsts we experienced on our trip was our flight path. This was the first trip Nathan and I have ever taken that has gone up over the North Pole! When we looked out our window mid-flight, we could see polar ice caps and huge ice flows. It was pretty amazing.

Symmetry

So beautiful!

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

A Strategy for Our Home

I just read this post and it resonated with me because I have never truly given my design style a lot of thought. I know I have a couple of places in our house that don't particularly feel right. Our guest room has always felt a bit more disjointed than the rest of the house as has our smallest "bedroom" at the back of the house. This year may just be the year for planning what I need to do to improve these spaces, with actually getting down to action might have to wait until next year.

I feel pretty good about our bedroom. We recently rearranged, and I think it's working. It's a pretty small space to work with, but cozy with our choices of furniture. I have one more piece of furniture to add, so I'll go into more detail about that later when I've incorporated it into the room.

Our living room lives up to the hodgepodge style that we love: colorful, lots of vintage mixed in with some new and some natural. I think I might be ready to change out the art above our mantle. I think I want to head in a more architectural direction; perhaps some sort of mirror. I just rearranged the contents of our glass-fronted built-in bookshelves, and they feel more coherent now. I have a project percolating that will probably end up requiring me to rearrange again when I get it done.

The kitchen has some details that aren't exactly what I would have chosen for myself, but those details are too high end to warrant spending money to change them. Perhaps I can add some elements that will tie in the countertops with our style better. I'm thinking slate as a backsplash might be a good direction.

The dining room is an eclectic focus on the farm table, mis-matched chairs, and mirrors and glass, which I feel is a strong design. I do think I'm going to extend the mirrors up the wall higher in the center to take away that straight line that currently runs across the top. Our desk is also part of this room, and I think it adds to the space without crowding. It's not perfect, but Nathan says he won't use it if we put it in the back small bedroom. I am considering refinishing the desk or even painting it, but I'm not quite ready to tackle that yet. The finish isn't really in great shape, so I do feel that it needs some work.

Our guest room needs a little work still. It also serves as my craft storage room, so I have to be careful about keeping it from being overrun with supplies. I've recently added some fun storage that helps keep the fabric, buttons, and myriad other supplies contained while actually adding to the look of the room.

The small back bedroom is the room that needs the most work. It's quite small and meant to eventually be the baby's room. However, I'm not prepared to be readying that nest yet, so I need to come up with something to make the room feel settled and complete without spending too much money on a design that may change in a year or two.

It's a bit odd to be in this frame of mind. I honestly don't think I've ever experienced needing to edit because we've always been in the process of buying/finding pieces. We're finally at the point that we don't have holes waiting to be filled. It's a little overwhelming to try to make a whole house work together, but I think getting it right will give me a huge level of satisfaction with our home.

Pffffffft

It's amazing how long you can keep going on just a spark of hope for something. And when that small flame finally goes out, the room gets cold right quick. Every morning this week has seemed particularly cold and gray, and it feels like people are just out to be crappy. I have the litany of positive things going through my head, but they aren't really finding the toehold they need to improve my mood because the lousy things are busy running amok in there too.

Ever notice when a few bad things happen, it feels like the awful things just continue to roll on through?

I know it's the whole power of negative thinking thing, but I can't seem to brush things off this week. I suppose I'm having myself a bit of a depression. (The extra sleeping has been lovely at least.)

Thank goodness our change of scenery is coming soon. I can't wait to escape on an adventure, even if it isn't the same one we originally planned.
------
There is a funny postscript to this...

When Nathan got home after working very late last night, I said to him, "I know that you don't do very well at dealing with this kind of thing right when you walk in the door especially after such a long day, but I am having a really hard time. I am feeling really down, and I just can't find a way to feel better. I am incredibly depressed...."

My head rested on his shoulder as I waited for a reaction. I could hear the peppy electronic music going in the one earbud still in his other ear. I looked up at him.

He looked back. "I feel sad." Seeing my raised eyebrows, he added, "For you."

Luckily, this was just so ridiculous that it cheered me up a bit. "I could have typed those words into a computer program to have them said out loud to me with the same effect, Nathan."

"But I meant it though."

Fabulous Book Covers

I came across these amazing new Penguin Classic cover designs as I was searching for The Lady in White on Amazon. The whole series has such fabulous covers by Coralie Bickford-Smith that I am so glad I don't have any nice versions of the classics yet.

All of these will be on every wish list from now on!

Spine photo from Coralie's portfolio. Covers from Amazon.

I Love a Sense of Humor

You've got to love when a company has a sense of humor. It's rare enough that when someone embraces humor, you remember it (Allstate Insurance, anyone?). I'm talking cleverness, of course, I don't count Axe Body Wash among the products that use actual humor in advertising.

Think of the possibilities!

There's a way to do lowbrow humor so that it's still humorous. Case in point, Sealy Mattresses. They've created a very funny free app based on the fortune cookie bit where you add "in bed" on the end of your fortune. Now you can add "in bed" to any picture you take thanks to Sealy. 

Now that's what I call good advertising.

Pictures from Sealy website and InBed Mobile App page.

Face Off

         
           Good morning, gentlemen. Did I interrupt a something?                                    A staring contest, perhaps?

Quick(ish) and Different

Sometimes when I feel like our dinners are in a rut, Nathan and I break out the Fish Tacos. They're the perfect thing to remind you that summer's not too far away, and it's definitely a nice change from the usual go-to meals.

It doesn't take much work to make them because it's mostly just chopping vegetables. We like to add in tons of vegetables-tomatoes, peppers, jalapenos, onions, and avocados. We also make a sort of cabbage slaw to go on top of everything. 

The cabbage slaw consists of nearly half of either a red or a regular cabbage, depending on my whim, sliced very thinly.
I add:
3 T. chopped cilantro
4-5 green onions (including white parts)
1 chopped jalapeno
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper
1/4 t cayenne
2 t. vinegar
1/3 c. olive oil
2 limes, zest and juice

Most of these measurements are a complete estimate, so feel free to add less or more of anything as you go.

We use any light fish we have on hand, which usually ends up being Tilapia. I break the fillets up into large chunks before breading them (but you could leave them whole fillets and let people break them up themselves after they're cooked), salt and pepper each, bread it in flour, and saute it in a pan with some olive oil or butter until it's lightly browned on both sides.

Serve when fish are fully cooked with all the fixings and tortillas. (Or just mix it all together on one plate McArdle-style).

Found Treasure

I haven't gone thrifting since before Christmas, but this past weekend I had the urge. I must have had the gift because I struck the mother load, and I found a pile of fantastic stuff from two or three different thrift stores.

The trick to success when thrifting is to be looking for items from more than one category. This time, I kept an eye out for teacups and saucers, bowls, and linens. The lovely little hat was one of my favorite finds; it's a 1950's grey wool cloche.

I'll show you the project I'm using all the teacups for soon. They're going to play a role in my sister's bridal shower this summer.

Clever Clogs

I don't remember who said this to me, but I do remember hearing this phrase when I lived in Scotland. "Well done, clever clogs." It refers to a smart idea though, not just cute shoes. In this case, I am referring to the inventor of these adorable handbags.

Picture taken from video on fuzfarm.com

I came across these handbags, and I just can't get over how clever they are. Click on the picture on the site, and you'll see that they all unzip to lie completely flat. Fascinating! I definitely encourage you to go see it in live action because it is very fun to watch. Still pictures just don't do it justice.

Playing it by Ear

Having Nathan in my life, I've certainly had to become comfortable with not knowing the plan much in advance. He likes to say that he'll "wait and see" what's going to happen. This means that I rarely, nor anyone else, ever get a yes or no when trying to organize plans, only at best a maybe. I've gotten good at identifying what maybes are truly no's, but invariably there comes a weekend where I am surprised midday by unexpected Saturday evening plans. I've learned to roll with it.

Still, the latest developments in Japan mean that our honeymoon trip to Japan in just over a month are more up in the air than even I have had to deal with before. It's hard to be too disappointed in our situation when you see image after image of the devastation that the Japanese people are suffering so stoically and courageously.

With a whole month before we leave, there's certainly time for the reactors to be calmed, people to return home, and our original plans to remain possible, especially since our trip plans did not include travel in the northeast of Japan to begin with. Hopefully, things will work themselves out. As Nathan often tells me, it's not worth worrying about this far in advance. In the meantime, I will follow the stories of a brave and resilient nation, hope for the nation's recovery, and donate to help a nation that has been a major donor to those in need in the past.

This news article that I read over breakfast this morning makes me hope we get to visit this nation of courageous and proud people so much.

Why I Might Give Up on Glee

The last two episodes of Glee have left me feeling very disturbed. I am not usually a person who takes any television show seriously; in fact, rarely am I offended even when watching Family Guy or South Park, which I'm sure their writers would find disappointing. But after watching the Blame it on the... and Sexy episodes of Glee, I am left feeling so disappointed in the treatment of these incredibly important teen issues (alcohol and sex) that if one more episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth, it will permanently end my love affair with the show.

Glee has tackled big issues in the past and managed to have a balanced and respectful take on more than one side of an issue (ie. Grilled Cheesus/religion episode), but all of a sudden they seem to be going for the "cool" route when it comes to alcohol and sex. And as we all know, the cool route doesn't (often) appreciate those who decide to wait.

Hungover in the halls of McKinley High.

I found the negative outlook on those high schoolers who might be hesitant to engage in drinking or having sex to be incredibly offensive. The Glee writers are perpetuating the negative attitude against these responsible kids that these students often deal with from their popular peers every day. This show has often featured bullies and bullying in such a negative light and now, all of a sudden, they are okay with an adult (the sex ed teacher, no less) calling a student who chooses to abstain from sex, "frigid." It's one thing for one of the characters that we don't take seriously, such as Santana or Brittany to say such a thing, but for an adult to address such a comment to a student is completely unacceptable.

Rachel's reaction to being told she is
"naive and possibly frigid" by the sex ed teacher.

 For a program that so delicately handles gay and lesbian issues (which I wholeheartedly applaud) they are certainly bull-dozing mature choices as unrealistic and old-fashioned. Sure, many more students may be drinking and having sex these days, but not every kid out there is doing it. To belittle those students who are choosing to abstain from sex until they are truly in love or following the law by not drinking is directly negating any good they do in changing student attitudes regarding sexual orientation.

Glee writers can't have it both ways. They can't hope to improve the climate for students who don't fit in with the popular crowd if they continue to pass judgment on students who make uncommon choices about alcohol and sex. It's just not funny.

Photos:
1. Glee Logo from Fox Broadcasting via www.thechinabeat.com
2. Blame it on the...from Fox Broadcasting via www.rickey.org
3. Sexy from Fox Broadcasting via www.fanpop.com

It's Finally Here!

It's here! The long-awaited day of the year that every good Chicagoan looks forward to with excitement. Paczki Day! (Which this year just happens to fall the day after Casimir Pulaski Day, another Chicago tradition.)

Yum.

Yes to Vegetables!

I don't know how I came across this blog, but I'm sure it had something to do with a recent pin. I was sucked in by her lovely pictures, but stayed to read about a great idea she mentioned, Meatless Mondays.

After a weekend of intense meat-eating, Nathan and I were needing to focus on vegetables last week. I threw together a little plant-based meal of roast beets and sweet potatoes, quinoa, arugula, and goat cheese. It was just the light meal we needed to recharge. By the way, if you've never had roasted beets before, I definitely recommend them. They are SO good!

We liked the idea of meatless Mondays so we're going to try to do this every week. Tonight's menu? I'm thinking a vegetable stir-fry with bok choy, carrots, pea pods, and bean sprouts.

Photos taken at night using our iPod Touch,  so forgive the poor quality.
1. Quinoa
2. Roasted sweet potatoes and red beets
3. The finished dish