Looking for a nice half-day escape from the concrete of Seoul, yet not too far and accessible by subway? The National Museum of Contemporary Art is a good choice! From downtown Seoul it takes about an hour to make it to Seoul Grand Park subway stop, from where you take the museum’s free shuttle. Then it’s a nice ride up the hills. The grounds of the museum are quite nice and host a sculpture park. The museum itself has a good collection of Korean art from 1900 onwards.
Highly recommended!

In the same line of thought than the previous post, here is one good example of the national image obsession: mirrors in the public loo…

If pictures of people in elevators checking themselves out in mirrors were easier to take, I would have a realllllyyyyy good collection, but it wasn’t very practical. And when I say checking themselves in the mirror, I don’t mean a quick glance to see if everything is OK, I’m talking about totally staring at themselves with a satisfied smile (like nobody was around) for the duration of the entire ride….

If you live in Korea and wonder if the people here are as obsessed with their appearance as they seem to be, you are not dreaming: they are!!! Wanting to look your best is one thing, but downright putting all the importance on looks is another one… Enjoy the video

Tiger by Dury Luong, originally uploaded by Elise in Asia.

Happy year of the tiger to all! I hope it brings you plenty of happiness and prosperity.

Like last year, I chose an illustration by Dury Luong, a designer from Toronto who does great work.

Malaysia Trully Asia, originally uploaded by Elise in Asia.

I’m back from a 2 weeks trip in Malaysia with my friend Irene. Malaysia is one of my favorite countries and it was great to go back there for a third time (been there in 2000 and 2003 already.) The place sure did develop a lot since I last visited, but the vibe is still the same. It is very interesting to see people from different ethnic background work and socialize together.
Malaysia is a bit like South East Asia, China and India rolled into one! And almost everybody speaks English, so going around is very easy and pleasant!

My New Chinese Books, originally uploaded by Elise in Asia.

For anyone who’s learning Mandarin, you know how hard it is to acquire new vocabulary, and specially remember it for more than a week. Finding the right material for your needs is also a challenge.
Here in Seoul, there are tons of nice textbooks to learn Chinese, the only problem for me is: they are written in …. Korean!!! Now that doesn’t help me much, does it!?!?! Try advanced grammar pattern explanation in Korean…

The books I brought with me from Taiwan are a) outdated (wonder if they were ever actual as a lot of content sounds funny even to Taiwanese!),  b) in traditional characters that are not in use anymore in China, and c) really geared towards local expressions and vocabulary that Mainlanders don’t use (and really make you sound like a country bumpkin!!!) On top of it, each book is about an inch thick and weighs 1 kilo, so they are not convenient to tote around. So goodbye Shida books!!!  

I found this nice online bookstore with great prices and fast shipping: WINCLC, a Window to Chinese Language and Culture. They have a great selection and charge a reasonable fee for shipping (it cost 10 USD to ship the 3 books on the picture and I got them withing 1 week.) Service is great, you email an inquiry and you get an answer in good English within 24 hours. Choosing only a few books was hard (temptation temptation…… as most of the books are priced at under 10 USD, if not 5 USD, including 1 or 2 cds), but I went for these 3 books: Talking About Chinese Culture (a bit too easy but a good way to get used to simplified characters,) Chinese for Economics and Trade (oh dear Lord, that one I keep for dessert, as the vocabulary is really not ‘daily’ stuff) and Advanced Hanyu Kouyu (just the right level and the dialogues are fun.)

What do you use to learn Chinese? What works for you????

Birth Announcements, originally uploaded by Elise in Asia.

The author of a blog I’m following religiously, Chiyo of Stuff Korean Moms Like, posted an entry about the pride Korean parents (and pretty much all North Asians while you’re at it) take when they give birth to a boy.  Traditionally, they hang chili peppers around the house in celebration of the arrival of the ‘jewel of the family’ (for a better explanation, please refer to the entry Their Sons.) I was surprised to find out there is also ‘something to display’ when a girl is born. Sorry about the poor picture, it was taken at the Korean Folk Museum with strong spotlights in the background, but we can still see the 3 strings of decorations. The ones on the left and the  right are for boys: chilis (because it looks like a …) and coal (to ward of evil.) The middle one is for girls: folded paper and pine needles.

Now, my friend Ming, with whom I was visiting the museum, observed that the paper looked like tissue paper to wipe tears…. I thought to myself: pine needles, because you want to whip yourself with pine branches upon your failure, the birth of a ‘lesser being’, a girl??? Our friendly yet sticky self-imposed guide explained that the folded paper was to represent purity (read virginity, a paramount virtue for women) and the pine needles were not for self-mortification but to symbolize sewing needles, in hope the girl would become good at embroidery and sewing…. Now THAT is reassuring!!! (I promise, Chiyo, if I’m ever blessed with a baby girl, I’ll hang the decorations YOU suggested around my house!!!)

Today was a great day to go exploring Inwangsan mountain near downtown Seoul. Diana and I went there a few times already, as it’s a not-too-steep climb, it’s really near the city center, and it offers great views of the area.

We went up another path than our usual. Some parts had ropes for the climbers to grab!!! That was fun!

The view from the top was great.

We took another path back down that was only stairs. Darn happy it was on the way down and not up, I would have cried!!!

And then, after all that climbing, a good reward was de rigueur!

Bukchon Hanok Village, originally uploaded by Elise in Asia.

Last Saturday was a nice sunny afternoon so Diana and I braved the yellow dust (yep, in fall this year, aren’t we lucky!) and headed for the area of Seoul called Bukchon Hanok Village. To call that place village is a wishful thinking, as the place consists of a few blocks, but it’s still really worth a visit. Several ‘dongs’ (street/blocks) of well-preserved traditional Korean houses grace the slopes of a hill, overlooking downtown Seoul.

The contrast of old and new is interesting and I’ll try to go back there when the sky is nice and blue, like it usually is in autumn. It would also look good with a bit of snow!

Houses in that area are insanely expensive and are mostly passed on from generation to generation. Some of these courtyard houses are open to the public as they host art galleries or shops. It’s a good opportunity to look at the architecture and imagine members of the ‘yangban’ (elite) living there a mere century or more ago!

What is your favorite historical neighborhood in your city?