Week 1, Namsung Park

I am quite comfortable while I am on-post, but it is definitely a different world outside the gates! Yesterday I went to Eldri's apartment, which is a short walk from the hospital. I would have been so lost because you can't see any landmarks because the buildings are so tall. I got brave and ventured out on my own today. I walked to Namsung Park and climbed to the Seoul Tower, which is STRAIGHT UP! I had no idea how to get there, so I just started walking toward the hill, and went up and up and up until I got to a road that went around the hill, but not up it. I found stairs and actually climbed them all the way to the top, where I found the road that cars could drive up. It actually came from the other side, which would have been a couple miles away. The only thing I can think to equate it to is climbing stairs up the side of Sehome Hill instead of taking a trail--twice! The crazy thing is, that from Eldri's 10th floor apartment, near the Han River, you see skyscrapers as far as the eye can see in all directions, even across the river. You also see Namsung Hill, which is very big and of course blocks everything behind it. When I got up there, I discovered that there are skyscrapers as far as the eye can see in 360 degrees!!!!!! It was a bit depressing! I should have known, though, because on my guidebook map, Namsung Park is actually in the middle of the city, not on an edge. It was really quite unbelievable!

The other thing I learned is that I don't want to get lost because nothing is written in English. Today was easy because I just walked up until I got to the tower, and then down until I ended up back at post. I took a picture of a sign with a 7-way intersection with Hangul (Korean writing) saying where each street went. I'd say it's all Greek to me, but actually it's all Korean! It's a lot different than being in Mexico, where everything was foreign, but was somewhat understandable. I stopped to watch some folk dancers this afternoon, and of course I assumed it was Korean folk dancing, but because I couldn't understand anything the announcer was saying, they could have been Thai for all I knew! So basically I can make things be whatever I want, which is kind of fun!

Thanks for sending me the link to the newspaper article, Joe [regarding the withdrawal of American troops from Korea]. I've been keeping up with that issue, although I don't think that anything will happen soon. It will take years to make a move like that. We have something like 42,000 troops in Korea, most of them North of Seoul, and just preparing the infrastructure to support that number of people in a new area will take a while. They are in the middle of a construction project for a (badly needed) new hospital here, and I will be interested to see if they halt or slow construction now or if they continue.

The view from here.  The green space (hill) is Namsung Park.  Seoul Tower is at the top.

This is a sign I saw on my walk back to post.  Sure glad I wasn't lost at the time!