The first place the dolls went was to Dongdaemun Shopping Town. Six floors of crafty goodness. We only visited the yarn shops.
When we were finished there, we hopped on the subway over to Itaewon, the "special tourist zone." Itaewon is where a lot of foreigners hang out. Most of the staff at all the stores and restaurants speak English. It's a fairly seedy part of Seoul but when you're meeting your friends for western food it's one of the best places to be. The dolls and I had a lot of time to kill since our shopping didn't take as long as originally anticipates so we went and had some chai tea.
It was then that I realized that the dolls had travelled all the way to Korea only to hang out in Starbucks.
That night, the dolls and I went out partying on Itaewon's infamous Homo Hill. Unfortunately, my camera decided to stop working so the only photos available were taken by the lovely Miss Koco (misskoco.com) I spent the better part of the night in a haze best captured in the photo.
The next day, Sunday, the dolls came to visit the Seoul Stitch n Bitch group (site currently undergoing some renovations). They were a great hit. We hold our meetings the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month at Indigo Cafe in Haebangchon, Seoul.
Because of my work schedule, the dolls and I only got to go out on the weekends. But, they did spend one day at school with me. I work for a private language academy called a hagwon. My school's name is ECC. I don't have a desk in one class room but I do have a little cubby in the staff room. The dolls spent a lot of the day hanging out there because I wouldn't entirely trust most of my students not to destroy them! They did go to visit two of my best classes and the kids got a kick out of them.
I took some photos in my 2-2 class. The students are all about 7 years old. They immediately undressed the dolls and giggled.
Then there is my 4-7 class. They're 9-10 years old and I must say pre-teen girls around the world are pretty much all the same.
The dolls learned all about how kimchi was traditionally made , what ingredients are used. That was an "interactive" display. You could open each of the compartments to look and and smell the ingredients. The dolls are hung out in with the red peppers and even in an ancient kimchi pot. They spent some time hanging out with pickled vegetables from around the world. We "tasted" some kimchi fed to us by a manequin in traditional dress and learned about some of the more creative ways of eating kimchi . And of course we couldn't leave before sitting on a Jangseung, or Korean totem pole.
After we left the Kimchi Museum, the dolls and I went to visit Bongneunsa Temple, conveniently located across the street from COEX mall. There were many people praying so it was difficult to find places to take photos because we didn't want to be disrespectful.
The most disturbing part of the whole tour was going into the area that had been used for torture. The energy in the air was extremely intense.
Korean museums really love dioramas and life-like models but even without those to show what had occured, you could just feel how awful it had been to be there.
There was also a part of the tour where you could go inside of of the cells they used for torture. It was the size and shape of a small coffin inside. Victims were forced to stand and were unable to move and usually left in there for days without food or water. I'm 5'1" and I could stand straight with maybe an inch or two clearance above my head. My friend Brad, who's about 5'11", stepped inside and he had to hunch over and this was the largest of the 3 coffin cells in the room.
It was a grey and rainy day when we went to the prison so we had to nix a tentative plan to visit another temple that was nearby. We did, however, go into one of my favorite areas of Seoul called Hyehwa. I really just like to hang out there.
One interesting thing about Korean culture is it's weird poo obsession. Poo is good luck or something. I'm still really unclear about it. Kids often draw steaming piles of ddong (the Korean word for poo) on their tests and notebooks. You can buy ddong shaped erasers and pencil toppers. My trash can has two lovers skipping hand in hand past a pile of ddong. So, when I took the dolls to Hyehwa, I had to take a picture of the dolls and the colorful ddong statues.
Lastly, while most of the bathrooms I encounter have regular western-style toilets, very many public washrooms have squatters, or they have super-fancy toilets with water to spray and wash your ass clean, and then a nice breeze to blow it dry. My friend's apartment actually had one of these high-tech toilets so the dolls got to hang out with it.
And then, they left for Kansas. Hope they made it safely!
Saturday, December 9, 2006
