Home! Saturday 21-SEP

I'm RICH!!!

After breakfast in the Exec lounge, and a bit of a lazy morning, Theresa took a nap and I headed out to see what I might find in the neighborhood.  I took a 100,000 KRW with me, just to feel RICH!!  Ok, so at 1075 KRW to $1, that’s only $90, and I couldn’t imagine spending that much on anything, but I don’t think I’ve ever had 100,000 of anything in my pocket, so why not?

7-11 is EVERYWHERE!!

Anyway, in the lobby of the hotel, I found a display case with some (replicas, I suspect) of ancient Hangeul , or Korean writing.  It was invented in 1443 by King Sejong as a phonetic alphabet, and was released in a book titled “Hunminjeongeum”, which translates to “Correct Sounds for the Instruction of the People”.  I wonder how much King Sejong actually worked on the book versus getting credit for a group of scholars working their tails off?  Regardless, I was most stuck with how little I know about the history of Korea before the Korean War, and most of that I learned was by watching MASH (so, maybe not a rigorous education at that).  I did not get anywhere on figuring out their language, but that will have to wait for another trip.

Exercising under the freeway.

The Grand Hilton Resort is way up on a hill, so it was a tricky walk down, and promised a long climb back up.  When we got off the bus last night, a van swooped in from the resort and picked us up, saving us the hike up the hill dragging our bags.  At the bottom of the hill there was a main street that ran parallel to an elevated freeway.  Under the freeway was a drainage way, with a little exercise park along the side.  There were several people out doing some sort of exercise, which was kind of impressive.

 

Drying vegetables on the street.

I turned up a side street and wound my way through the streets looking for anything of interest.  There was a little business with some men breaking down cardboard boxes and bundling them, and I saw a guy pushing a sort of rickshaw trailer loaded with boxes to the group of men.  I found a little church, with the doors open, so went inside to sit for a while and think and pray.  Someone in an upstairs room was practicing Amazing Grace (not in English), but there was no evidence of anyone else in the building.



Apparently no wiring codes here?

You can pick Chevy or Daewoo, they're all the same!

 

Lunch, thanks to Asiana!  (And Theresa)

Back at the hotel, I picked up Theresa and we went for another stroll around the neighborhood.  Then, we packed up and got a cab to the airport.  As we checked in they gave us our tickets right away, which was exciting, knowing we had First Class and nothing to worry about anymore!  We managed to get into the Asiana Business Class lounge (long story) so had lunch there and enjoyed a peaceful wait for our flight.

 

 

 

 

 

Uh, Captain, aren't we going the wrong way?

Our flight began 10999 km from home, and lasted about 12 hours.  The flight path was a little odd, as they flew around North Korean airspace, so started East (instead of the usual North).  We found The Great Gatsby on the IFE, so got to finish our movie (as well as a few others).  But otherwise, an uneventful flight.

When we arrived and went through Immigration, the officer noted we declared the countries we had visited to be China, Hong Kong, and Korea, and he asked if we were on vacation.  We said yes, and he asked, “How was it?”  I sighed, “It was long!” while Theresa said, “We've had enough rice - we just want pizza and beer for dinner!”  He smirked, and I noted as we walked away he was still chuckling a little.  He looked like he was hating life when we walked up, so I guess we left him a little better than we found him!

Looking back on the trip, it was long, but we saw an incredible amount, and learned a lot!  Trying to learn the writing gave me some hints on their culture and communication.  The way you learn to express your thoughts influences how you think.  So, in a way, the written language, and even the spoken one, guide or even limit how you think.  It makes me wonder how they see our language as limiting or ineffective?

China has over 2000 years of Emperors and Dynasties, which only just ended in the last 100 years.  In fact, there is a quote from Chairman Mao about the French Revolution in the 1790s and his response was “It’s too early to tell.”  That speaks to the longevity of the nation and their identity.  That history has strong threads of Daoism, Confucius, and Buddhism.  Christianity is mostly recent and very much peripheral.  In fact, we were asked to find a Cross for a friend, and could not find one anywhere!

The technological explosion of communication in the last century, like radio and TV, has changed the whole world.  But, the Communist regime, through control and censorship, has changed the Chinese culture and attitudes to a prescribed result.  It seems as though the culture was ripped from them and supplanted with the party line.  This is contrasted sharply with the scrambling capitalism of the street vendors almost desperately trying to part you from your money for whatever they have to sell.  I wonder how difficult it must be for the people in their 60-70’s, whose parents remember the Last Emperor, and his overthrow, who themselves remember the conversion to communism, and whose children know only post-Mao communism, and whose grandchildren have Samsung cell phones, big TV’s, personal cars, and perhaps impatience for change?  English is easily found, in print and advertisements, and the Roman alphabet is in common use.  Western numbers are standard, and the Chinese numbers difficult to find.  It is hard to imagine that China in 20 or even 10 years will act anything like it does today.  But I guess we will see! 

In the meantime, we are glad to be home with our drinkable water, sitting toilets (with toilet paper!), and access to almost any information we want including CNN (without blacked out stories), Fox News, Facebook, and of course BlogSpot!