600 YO Korea Landmark Burned

glenn kangiser · February 11, 2008, 01:29:13 AM

Hey Homegrown -- You know this place?

http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons/viewtopic.php?p=79126

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 11, 2008, 10:50:18 AM

Yes, very well.

I have pictures of us standing in front of it with DD when she was about 1. It is only a few subway stops from where I lived in Korea, and I used to go there on the weekends to people watch and argue with street vendors over the price of stuff just for fun.

I read the article last night, too... too bad. When I first saw the headline last night, the first place I thought of was the old palace, Kyung-bo-kung, and hoped that it wasn't it. Thankfully, it wasn't. Kyung-bo-kung would've have been even a more serious loss, I think.

February 11, 2008, 02:23:47 PM

Just for the record, Seoul has a lot of neat historic landmarks... I'm amazed that some of them survived the Korean War well enough to be preserved. In the far southern part of the peninsula, though, there are a lot of the houses that still have the same type architecture, etc. Really neat places that've been there forever. My husband's aunt and uncle have one of those houses... it was modernized a few years back by their youngest son, who is an architect, to have electricity, indoor plumbing, etc, but still feels very much old style.

glenn kangiser · February 12, 2008, 02:02:58 AM

Interesting. Thanks, Homegrown. I like to see pictures of the old places like that.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 12, 2008, 01:25:02 PM

maybe one of these days I'll get around to scanning some of my pics of Kyung-bo-kung and the Korean folk village to post. Some of the architecture is really intricate. DH and I have this silly dream of building an old Korean-style gazebo-thing out in our someday Korean garden. Of course, it would be painted in green, blue, red, orange, pink, yellow, etc., like a lot of the older buildings there. What I really love is the places where folks still live in places like that.

February 12, 2008, 01:40:50 PM

I was hooked on Korean Soaps for awhile......

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 12, 2008, 04:13:06 PM

Oh, they're hilarious... I used to get a kick out of watching my MIL get into them... she always had favorites that she watched every day. My personal favorite was about a girl who is suddenly and irreversibly going blind and shunning the two men who are fighting over her, and then come to find out one of the guys is actually somehow responsible for causing her to go blind (never did quite figure out why), but now he's filled with remorse and trying to fix her up with the guy she loves and is running away from at the same time.

They're pretty funny sometimes.

StinkerBell · February 12, 2008, 04:23:00 PM

The one I got hooked on is where this young lady lived on a rooftop. It was like a small shack on the roof top. Anyways, I see a pattern in these soaps. Usually one girl like this one guy who likes this other girl who likes this guy who likes the first girl mentioned in this sentence.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 12, 2008, 05:22:09 PM

Yup, and there's lots of crying and pining away over unrequited love... I used to tease my MIL that on Korean TV, nobody kisses and everyone cries... on American TV, you seldom see people crying, but there's a whole lot more kissing. I suggested to her that if the actors started kissing more, maybe there'd be less crying. She just blushed and giggled like a little kid.

February 12, 2008, 07:06:44 PM

This just in:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080212/sc_nm/korea_gate_dc;_ylt=Aqz8QgY9vyAA8eA6dGPVQiWzvtEF

Interesting that everyone is getting mad and blaming the government for not protecting Namdaemun... why not blame the idiot who set the fire thinking somehow it is a legitimate form of protest.

I also hate how that the Korean press always covers for criminals... they never reveal anything but the family name, which of course brings shame to all the families in Korea that share the same name, but does not do much to shame the individual responsible for the crime. America is bad about mob mentality and groupthink, but nowhere near the extent that Korea is...

MountainDon · February 12, 2008, 08:19:44 PM

Quote from: StinkerBell on February 12, 2008, 01:40:50 PM
I was hooked on Korean Soaps for awhile......

I thought you meant soaps as in washing things.

StinkerBell · February 12, 2008, 08:40:08 PM

I use to make home made soap. I even go to the butcher for meat scraps and rendered down the fat. I had one incident with a batch. I guess I added an oil that was not the right temp and had a small incident on he stove top that ate away at it.... just a little.

MountainDon · February 12, 2008, 11:24:03 PM

I remember my grandmother making soap on the farm after hog butchering. Boy, that was a while back!

glenn kangiser · February 12, 2008, 11:46:06 PM

I thought the same thing, Don...Oh poor Stink-- she can't take a shower because she can't find anymore Korean soap.

February 12, 2008, 11:51:31 PM

Great minds think alike...

Kimchi scented soap

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 13, 2008, 02:57:36 AM

Honestly, at first read, I thought that too, but then I thought it'd be more fun to pretend that I thought she meant the soap operas in Korea... because they're super cheesy... but then she really DID mean the soap operas.

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 13, 2008, 03:04:05 AM

Here is a link to some photos of the old palace I mentioned earlier... They messed up the transliteration of Korean words into English writing a few years back and now spell it something like guengbokgung palace... less accurate IMO. I don't know how the heck people make heads or tails of the new system; it is too inconsistent, and the maps in the subway say one thing and the street signs another. More frustrating to foreigners than occasionally using the wrong syllable. Of course, I'm not a linguist...

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.emich.edu/abroad/korea/Gyeongbokgung_Palace-Seoul.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.emich.edu/abroad/korea/index.html&h=300&w=400&sz=15&tbnid=GvIG7GLsli_p3M:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgyeongbokgung%2Bpalace%2Bphotos%26um%3D1&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2

Homegrown Tomatoes · February 13, 2008, 03:08:55 AM

I think the central part of the palace is my favorite... there is a big open air pagoda that is two stories tall, and it sits in the middle of a big rectangular pool of water, with bridges going out to it. Apparently, it is where the royals had their parties, etc. I went there with a family from my church in Korea... a very kind couple. The man had studied in the US (medical school) and would translate the sermon for me because I didn't speak enough Korean to understand. They insisted on taking me there once so that I got to see something besides just work and the market while I was teaching in Korea. Nice folks.