Highlights Of Seoul

Instead of boring you with a story of "first I went here, and then I went there," I'll just give the highlights of my summer vacation in Seoul. There were two unfortunate circumstances: the weather was terrible as a typhoon was passing across the peninsula this week, and my camera battery died as soon as I got there (so no pictures). But still, I had a great time.

DMZ: On Thursday, I went on a tour of the DMZ, about 40 minutes north of Seoul. There are two different tours that a tourist can do, one takes you just on a tour of the South Korean side of the DMZ and the other takes you to the Joint Security Area in Panmunjeom, which is controlled by North and South Korea. For the Panmunjeom tour, one needs to have a passport and there is a strict dress code and code of conduct to follow. I had left my passport in Ulsan, and I didn't have the proper attire with me, so I had to opt for the simpler (cheaper) DMZ tour. The tour stops in three locations: "the 3rd tunnel," the Dorasan observation post, and the Dorasan train station. The "3rd tunnel" is the third tunnel discovered by the South Koreans that originates in the North and was supposedly intended for an underground invasion force from the North. The tunnel was discovered in 1978, a full 25 years after the cessation of the Korean War. It is significant because it is a larger tunnel than the two previous discoveries and by some calculations could have allowed for a force of 30,000 soldiers to pass into South Korea in thirty minutes. The North claims that this tunnel, and the others, were built by the South. Also, the third tunnel was painted black inside by the retreating North Korean forces in an attempt to disguise it as an abandoned coal mine. The Dorasan observatory post was the closest we got to the North Korean border, as it overlooks the DMZ itself. Unfortunately, the weather was so bad that even with binoculars we couldn't see the Northern side. The train station was built as part of former president Kim Dae Jung's "Sunshine Policy" of detente with the North and is a symbol of a hopeful future of peace and unification. Potentially, the station could connect the South and the North, but the stations it runs to in North Korea are closed, so it actually doesn't go anywhere. Visitors can stamp their passports with fake stamps from North Korea, which is a nice gimmicky souvenir.

Monet: I also got to take advantage of the traveling Monet exhibition, "From Instant to Eternity," at the Seoul Museum of Art that will be there until the end of September. The information panels in the different rooms were written entirely in Korean, but fortunately for me I was accompanied by the incomparable Ja Young, so she was able to translate for me. The pieces covered most of Monet's career, and it was interesting to see how much his style changed, as he moved more and more towards trying to paint only light and ignore form. Several pieces from the his water lilies period were the highlight of the show. This is the first time that the water lilies series has been exhibited in Korea and so it has been a big draw for Korean art lovers. It made me want to visit Paris to see his giant wall murals at the Musee de l'Orangerie. I also learned a lot about Monet's life that I wasn't aware of, like how he lost his eyesight in one eye towards the end of his life and how he lived in poverty until his forties. The next show at the Seoul Museum will be Van Gogh in October, so unfortunately I won't be able to see it.

Chinese Treasures: On Saturday, the remnants of the typhoon crossed the peninsula, so it was another nice day to go to a museum. I decided to make my way to the Seoul History Musuem, which I had never been to before. I wasn't aware that, currently, the museum is hosting an exhibition of some of China's national treasures. These artifacts span Chinese history from the second century BCE through to the time of the Tang dynasty in the ninth century CE. Once again, the information was all in Korean, and this time Ja Young wasn't with me. But as luck would have it, a Korean middle school English teacher was behind me in line and she took it upon herself to be my personal tour guide! I was happily surprised and extremely grateful for her help. There were six whole rooms of artifacts. I was amazed by the intricacy of the craftsmanship of some of the pieces and by the preservation. I was curious as to whether most of the pieces were representative of the upper classes and the emperors, or whether there were any pieces from the ordinary citizens' daily lives. Unfortunately, my companion said that there wasn't any information about who would have used the objects or where they would have been found. There were also some fascinating pieces from the height of the Silk Road period that came from Rome, Byzantium, and Persia. I realized how limited my knowledge of Chinese history is, which is to say it's almost non-existent, but I feel that I know a little bit more after having seen the exhibit. When we reached the end, my guide told me she felt honored to have been able to speak with a foreigner because she doesn't find many opportunities to during the school vacation. I told her I was the one who should feel honored. Once again, the seemingly boundless Korean hospitality has awed me.

Marionette: Ja Young has encouraged me to try to see a play just about every time I come to Seoul, but I had never gone prior to this latest visit. Sometimes, Korean plays have English "subtitles," and of course there are some great non-verbal shows. So, I headed up to Daehangno, the former site of Seoul National University and a district full of small theaters, to see what was on offer. Ja Young and I decided on "Marionette," a truly unique experience. The acting troupe was comprised of three famous b-boy and b-girl crews (that's break-dancing groups to the uninitiated) who have been doing the show for four years now. Incidentally, break-dancing and beat-boxing are wildly popular in Korea for some reason, even with fans who aren't that into hip-hop music or culture. The show follows the story of a marionette master and his favorite marionette who falls in love with a girl in the audience. There is also an evil magician who wants to take over the master's theater. The dancers themselves play the roles of the dolls, using their b-boy skills to move like marionettes. There was also a full-size marionette model which was operated by three puppet masters rather than by strings. Apparently, it is a technique borrowed from a Japanese theater tradition. It also reminds me of a performance I once saw at the Fringe Festival when it visited Prague, but I digress. The costumes were out of this world and the dance scenes were interspersed with short videos drawn in an original style that was an entirely different art experience in its own right. The actor who played the marionette master totally looked like Lee "Zorro" Quinones from "Wild Style," too. At the end of the performance, one of the actors had a memento from the show to give to someone in the audience. He asked if any of the Korean audience members could speak English, and Ja Young volunteered to translate for him. There were a few other foreigners besides me and the actor wanted to know where we were from and what we had thought of the show. He was impressed that I had come all the way from Ulsan to see the show, so he gave me the memento, a cell-phone charm, as a sort of "bribe" to tell people in Ulsan to go see the show in Seoul. All in all, it was definitely one of the most original and coolest things I'd seen in a long time.

Once again, Seoul was great, even if the weather wasn't. It's not long now until my contract expires, but something tells me I will be back to visit the city again.