Sorry about the gap in blog activity--I couldn't finish a post in between side trips. But! I'll make it up by doing two posts now--just think of it as practice for buying my future children's affection as a doctor-parent (just kidding, I'm not going to be a surgeon or a cardiologist).
Anyway, I think it's time to switch up the blog angle again a bit again. Since I've been traveling around the peninsula, we've eaten a lot of food and seen a lot of Korea's history, and I've shared the food, but I thought it would be good to share a bit of that history too.
I'm sorry if this is disappointing, but there will be no nudity or embarrassing family photos (probably will be soon enough though, don't worry) in this post, but there will be a whole lot of knowledge, so prepare to get cultured.
History Lesson:
In traveling to Buddhist temples, graves of ancient kings, and sites of major battles past, I've done my best to learn a bit more about the history of the peninsula as it lends context, substance, and continuity to the perceptions of my experiences here. Complex as it is long, we unfortunately learn next to nothing about Korean history in the states, yet Korea has been a major player in East Asian history for millenia and is especially notable for the world's only deliberately and methodically created system of written language and some of history's most incredible examples of matriarchal rule. Korea's beautiful and fascinating cultural legacy; its historical drama and intrigue which read almost like a novel; and its rather recent meteoric rise as a very relevant political, economic (one of the Four Asian Tigers), and cultural powerhouse on the global stage are powerful reasons to start paying attention. Like trying to pick just one Game of Thrones book to read however (clearly the third one), since we can't tackle everything and still have time for a social life/sleep/adequate person hygiene, for now I'll just focus on one chapter of Korean history, and after my recent trip to Gyeongju, I think it's one of the most interesting periods: the 삼국 시대 (Samguk Sheedae), or Three Kingdoms Period.
Strip away the forest of skyscrapers that carpet the valleys between the mountains of Seoul; peel back the concrete of the roads and highways laid during the industrialization and modernization of South Korea. Let the years evaporate to a time before a globalized world, before the USA was less than an exciting idea, and even before the Roman empire had reached the peak of its power and grandeur in the West.
While Korea's prehistory begins over 100,000 years ago with the first arrival of hominids sometime between 300,000 and 100,000 B.C., the first major historical era of the Korean peninsula is the 고조선 Gojoseon (goh-joh-sun) period which started at an imprecisely known time before the 7th century B.C. and ended in 108 B.C. with invasion by the Han Chinese.
"History of Korea-108 BC" by Historiographer at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:History_of_Korea-108_BC.png#mediaviewer/File:History_of_Korea-108_BC.png
Blogger is getting mad at me for not crediting images that aren't mine, so sorry for making this seem even more like a presentation :(
Bronze blade-shaped coins from the Gojoseon era. This picture is mine so suck it, Blogger.
The Han conquest shattered the previously unified Gojoseon into many smaller kingdoms and entrenched Chinese political influence, especially in the north, but it also set the stage for the Three Kingdoms Period.
"History of Korea-001" by Historiographer at the English language Wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:History_of_Korea-001.png#mediaviewer/File:History_of_Korea-001.png
Laaaame.
Over time, these small remnants of Gojoseon conquered or otherwise absorbed one another until 57 B.C. when only three remained: Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje. The time from 57 B.C. to 668 A.D. is characterized by these three principal feudal powers in the Korean peninsula and known as the Three Kingdoms Period. All three shared very similar language, culture, and religion (influences of Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism), though there were differences.
불국사 Bulguksa Buddhist temple in Gyeongju, the [very] former capital of Silla.
"Three Kingdoms of Korea Map" by Chris 73 / Wikimedia Commons. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Kingdoms_of_Korea_Map.png#mediaviewer/File:Three_Kingdoms_of_Korea_Map.png
I was going for something like this:
But it turned out looking a lot more like this:
I refuse to cite a picture of Captain Crunch.
Goguryeo 고구려 (pretty phonetic there) in the north--the largest, most technologically advanced, and most influenced by Chinese culture of the three kingdoms--was the state most directly descended from Gojoseon. It flourished during the first six centuries C.E., eliminating any remaining Chinese rule in the peninsula and greatly expanding its territory west and north into present-day Manchuria and Russia; however, it is historically criticized for its intolerance of muggle-borns and high rate of producing death eaters.
A lot of people didn't know that part.
Baekje 백제 (Baek-jae) in the southwest was the most culturally distinguished of the Three Kingdoms and is remembered for its religious and artistic contributions to Korean culture, in stark contrast with its historically poor quidditch performance. Baekje, with its large coastal area and proximity, had strong trade relationships with China and Japan; however, it peaked in its power and influence in the 4th century, considerably earlier than Silla and Goguryeo, and fared poorly later on.
The Three Kingdoms, as feudal states do, had a mostly antagonistic relationship with one another and this period is characterized by transient alliances of utility and convenience as each kingdom vied individually for supremacy over the long 700-year span. Baekje was often the tease in this this shitty love triangle, and it alternatively allied with Silla and Goguryeo several times. Once Silla conquered the Kaya Confederacy in the 6th century though, Silla and Baekje entered into a 120-year alliance against Goguryeo's mounting momentum. However, once they had recaptured the Han river territory (present-day Seoul) from Goguryeo, Silla broke the alliance, claimed the territory for themselves, and turned on Baekje.
Silla to Baekje.
From there, Silla struck an alliance with the Tang Chinese and over the next 100 years slowly nibbled territory away from Baekje and Goguryeo like this:
This blew my mind a little bit too.
Nailed it.
And now for something completely different.
Me on my first day learning to blow dry my hair by myself:
Learning!
Sunday 3/1/2015
The Goo Birthday Extravaganza:
There is a profusion of Goo family birthdays in March. Heralded first by Mrs. Goo's birthday on the 1st, it's followed later on by Mr. Goo's and then Minook's birthdays as well. Therefore, some sort of celebration was in order, so we students had something small planned, but Mr. Goo, as it turns out, had other designs.
Grace, Peter, Lee-Jiao, and I headed out to meet Adam (oh shit, I haven't introduced him yet--I'll do it below) in Sinchon for dinner since family meals aren't prepared in the house on weekends. While out, we stopped at Paris Baguette (Korean Panera) to pick up a birthday cake for the Goos, and I grabbed some cupcakes for the kids. At 9:00, we added our confections to the cake Mr. Goo had bought and set up the common room for cake and alcohol--which substitutes for ice cream in Korea, or at least the Goo household.
The cake that Mike and Peter picked out--only about $20!
Then we sang 생일 축하합니다 (Happy birthday) to the three birthday Goos.
At which point, Minsoo started feeling neglected...
...and wanted attention. It worked.
Then, Mr. Goo told us the story of how he and Mrs. Goo met and (shortly thereafter) got married:
Well as much as Mr. Goo might think that I am a cartoon character, those are bold words coming from the man who, after listening to Mike recount his horrible day and nodding appreciatively, somehow produced a familiar green glass bottle and offered, "Soju?" He has also taken to introducing Peter and I as "Naked ER" (emergency room) and basically hazed Peter at the bars with his old college friends last week. Who is more cartoonish? You be the judge.
In either case, Mr. Goo is an awesome and entertaining host and true to form, once we had eaten our fill of cake and had some of his Glenfiddich 18-year which he so graciously offered, he announced that we were all going to 노래방 (noraebang) Korean private karaoke rooms--a huge part of Korean culture here. Here's how the translated scene played out:
Mr. Goo: "Eberybody, get ready! Let's go to noraebang!" He then leaves to go get something.
Mrs. Goo at this point looks a bit conflicted since it's already 10:00 and the kids' first day of school is tomorrow, but excitedly hurries to get their coats from the other apartment, while still wearing her birthday hat.
Minsoo: "But we have school tomorrow!"
Mr. Goo, returning with two metal canteens: "It does not matter, get ready, Minsoo, get ready!
Minsoo: "But we'll be late in the morning!"
Mr. Goo, pouring the remainder of the Glenfiddich 18-year (like $90 scotch) into the canteens: "It'suh fine--it will be fun; get your coat!"
From canteen to my mini flask. Minook is playing Smash Bros.
Minook then mysteriously disappeared at this point.
The rest of us realize that we are also present in the situation, stop watching what's happening, and also get ready.
Minook returns with a skinny tie on and freshly coiffed hair (he's considerably better at it than me).
Hide your daughters--he can sing too.
We headed across the street to the local Noraebang, which almost certainly laundered drugs in the 70s, unloaded the flasks and the rest of the very entertaining night passed roughly like this (there are more, better videos, but they're too large to fit here):
Let's Play K-Pop Artist or Cancer Gene!
As long as we're talking music in Korea, I think it's time to mention K-Pop (Korean Pop), a 90's-esque, bubble-gum pop genre centered around highly commercialized girl and boy bands which is hugely popular in Asia, and increasingly, everywhere else too. While Psy's "Gangnam Style" is the only song to truly infiltrate American pop culture, the K-Pop fandom in the East is so enthusiastic that it borders on zealotry.
The great majority of K-Pop is, musically speaking, garbage, but most of it is quite catchy, and some of it is actually decent. Nonetheless, it is a huge, possibly the biggest, part of the pop culture here, so much like I used to force-feed myself Natty Light back in college to acquire a taste for beer (it apparently worked though, and no, I haven't drunk Natural Light since), I have been listening, to Grace's utter delight, to more K-Pop.
All of the groups are still pretty indistinguishable to me both musically and visually, and right now I can only tell groups apart by how many members they have: 4 to 12ish usually--definitely bigger than American girl/boy-bands--and they all have kind of ridiculous names. The names seem to follow a rough pattern in fact, and so I've developed a quiz for you. It caters more to the K-Pop fans, med students, and doctors, but that's exactly my point.
From the following list, try to guess if the name is either: a K-Pop artist, or a cancer gene. Comment your guesses if you like and I will list the answers in the next post--no cheating and good luck!
1. EXID
2. 2PM
3. FHIT
4. SISTAR
5. JAZF1
6. RUNX3
7. T-ARA
8. JYJ
9. AURKA
10. MTHFR
11. MOA
12. TVXQ
Here's the K-Pop song that's currently earwormed its way into my head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCLBTmjJBY&list=PLP9h2WpSyv8LxOcoqE0lKGZ9rnQC0nBXy
Updates and Things
Adam (2/19): I forgot to introduce Adam, an adoptee from the Chicago area that I met at an adoptee Seolnal event. He has been living in Seoul for 2.5 years teaching English and now works for an English-language magazine. He has been hanging out with us on the weekends, is an expert on fountain pens, and just messaged me on Kakao Talk, so I need to respond to that.
TimTam Thieves (2/23): Patterns of suspicious activity in the house have led me to believe that there are TimTim thieves living among us. My top two suspects are Minsoo and Mike...
Alan (3/13): Alan is arriving from Taipei in a few hours for a long weekend visit. He has put me and Peter in charge of his itinerary. If there's anything you'd really like to tell Alan, I recommend you do it soon.
Here's Peter PTFO after partying with his childhood friends:
Another post to follow soon!
Mark
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