We first arrived in Korea on Jan 5 after crossing the
international dateline, landing in Incheon International Airport’s new terminal
II. The Olympics in Korea are much like our wedding was for Margaret’s
parents—namely an excuse to get stuff done. Infrastructure improvements that were
expedited for the Olympics included extending a KTX (Korea’s original bullet
train) to the North West coast of South Korea, and adding another terminal to
the Incheon Airport. The new terminal was very nice, as all new Korean things
are. Since it’s a big investment, I’m
sure they’ll make sure it ages well. Note: due to Korea’s love of all things
shiny, many things don’t age well. Once that thin shiny surface coat starts to
wear, it shows.
Once we landed, we had a small misadventure. We had been planning to get KTX tickets to
the city of Cheonan (pronounced Chŏnan—don’t
let that “e” fool you) to visit our friend Kevin and Lucy. Cheonan is about 60
miles South of Seoul. However, we had
forgotten that Kevin lives next to the Cheonan-Asan station, and the KTX does
not go to Cheonan, so we wound up deciding to go west to Seoul (there’s that
mis-leading “e” again), and then south to Cheonan. We arrived at Cheonan station, and Kevin picked
us up in his car, and we drove across town to the Cheonan-Asan station. This is the second time we’ve been fooled by
a two-station city.
Our friend Kevin, has lived here since 2008, and likes it
here so much that we wonder if he’ll ever leave. Kevin’s wife, Lucy is an
English teacher, who is pivoting toward counseling. Lucy holds the honor and distinction of being the only
person to ever feed us a midnight meal. Upon arrival, we were greeted with some
really nice Bip-im-bab (mixed vegetables and rice—we have another blog post on
that). The vegetables are all pickled or
fermented, so it’s not stir fry by any stretch of the imagination. Being people who like that sort of thing, we devoured
it.
But the insane hospitality didn’t stop there. The next
morning, we got quiche in Korea!!! Kevin loves cooking the most delicious of
American dishes. When we were here, he was hailed by all foreigners in the city
of Daejeon as The Great Maker of Lasagna.
He has one or two secret, East Asian substitutions that make it extra
yummy.
Kevin is part time these days, which is nice. He got a masters in teaching English as a
second language (TESL) from a program sponsored both by a US and Korean
University. Given that he has really
good people skills, he has been able to run with this and done well.
After the delicious breakfast (a joint Kevin/Lucy effort
this time), Kevin took us to then Independence
Hall of Korea. The museum is an excellent display of why war is bad,
because it was all about war, specifically the Japanese Colonial Occupation of
Korea. America & Britain started out as bad guys in all of this, but
thankfully wound up as good guys in the end.
It was a huge museum, and we mostly focused on the part on pre-1900
history, which in, even though the majority of the museum was devoted to Korea’s version
of the holocaust. Some items included pre-Gutenburg movable type made from cast metal.
We also saw some displays about the Turtle Ships, which were clad with iron and spikes to harden them against burning arrows and boarding parties (Japan's favorite tactic). The ships deployed in the 1590s to repel the Japanese navy, long before the famed iron-clad vessels of the US Civil War. The mastermind behind all this was Yi Sun-Shin (Wikipedia) who had a hand in the design of the turtle ships. In one famed battle, 13 turtle ships were victorious against a Japanese armada of 133 war ships, and 200 logistical support vessels. Admiral Yi also had home court advantage, because his navigators knew where all the sharp rocks were, and made sure the Japanese sailed over them. The Turtle Ships were slow, but a Turtle Ship out-ranged and out-gunned the average Japanese vessel.
We also saw some displays about the Turtle Ships, which were clad with iron and spikes to harden them against burning arrows and boarding parties (Japan's favorite tactic). The ships deployed in the 1590s to repel the Japanese navy, long before the famed iron-clad vessels of the US Civil War. The mastermind behind all this was Yi Sun-Shin (Wikipedia) who had a hand in the design of the turtle ships. In one famed battle, 13 turtle ships were victorious against a Japanese armada of 133 war ships, and 200 logistical support vessels. Admiral Yi also had home court advantage, because his navigators knew where all the sharp rocks were, and made sure the Japanese sailed over them. The Turtle Ships were slow, but a Turtle Ship out-ranged and out-gunned the average Japanese vessel.
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| Exhibit of Korean sailor loading a cannon on a Turtle Ship in Independence Hall Museum |
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| Sending the Japanese Navy home |
After that, we proceed to the beautiful City of Daejeon, the
city of Interesting Tradition and Science, which is the source of the “It’s
Daejeon! “Brand.
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