The First Full Day - Sunday, Sept. 24

Eileen called my room just before 7:30 to tell me to meet for breakfast in about a half hour in the hotel coffee shop. We all had an American breakfast, with the addition of a "ginseng juice", which we were told was "good medicine." Took a while, but I realized why the taste was so familiar - it reminded me of the sliced fresh turnips that my grandmother used to give us when I was a child in Iceland. That was good for us too. Full of vitamin C, certainly.

After breakfast we walked around a bit. I never realized how many different models Hyundai had for their cars, nor did I know Daewoo also made cars. Daewoo LeMans, and Prinz abounded. Guess that's who makes the LeMans for Pontiac. There were other cars I'd never heard of. We returned to the hotel and found, yes, a casino with rows of slot machines. It was, however, closed. The weather is almost the same as in Montreal. Warmish, at about 70 deg F, and humid. It's overcast now. Oh, nearby, we passed a walled area with a guard standing outside. Wonder what that is.

A Mr. Kim is going to meet us at the hotel at about 10 o'clock to show us around Seoul.

It's an odd feeling to be walking around outside. If there were no Korean signs visible, we could be in any city, anywhere in the world. The Korean signage, however, serves as a reminder that for the first time in my life I am in a place where I can neither read nor understand the spoken language. The sounds are familiar, some words too, but that's because I hear them at work every day and recognize some of the words. I know the absolute necessities - yes, no, please, thank you, good morning, hello, good bye. But, I'd hate to get lost!

It's very nice to be around people who are so polite, a big difference, say, from downtown NYC, where people bump into you and move on without a word, often with a glare as if it's your fault they bumped you. The Koreans we are seeing apologize and stop to be sure you're OK. Well, this could be because we're so obviously tourists, guests of their country. But, still, it's nice.

My hotel room looks out across the Han River, although which direction it faces is a mystery. (Later: faces southward).

After breakfast, while we were waiting for Mr. Kim (from Samsung) to meet us, we met several other Samsung employees from different offices - Hong Kong, Frankfurt and Milan. They were going to be shown around by someone from their division in Seoul.

Mr. Kim (Hong Il), frm the Administration Department (Overseas Division) arrived just as I was asking the desk clerk if he could reach Mr. Hong from last night. He would be serving as a guide to the three of us from Samsung Electronics (Harry, Eileen and me) around. He brought his wife and 10-month old baby along.

We saw more than I think I can remember, starting with a drive past the Samsung offices in downtown Seoul's business district: The Ankook Insurance Building. Past the South Gate (Namdaemon), the city hall, through a tunnel under the South Mountain (Nam San), up to the Skyway which is a no-pedestrians scenic area, and to the top of the mountain where there is a lookout point. Photos were not allowed for security reasons. North Korea is so close that they don't dare risk anyone accidentally taking photos that could ostensibly be used to invade South Korea, or find fortifications guarding the city from various sites in the surrounding mountains.

ASIDE: The mountains appear to have been uplifted - you can actually see the layers in the outcroppings, and very clearly so. They seem to be fairly "young" geologically speaking, and are still extremely rugged and jagged. Korea is, from what I learned, a very mountainous country with about 80% mountains, which doesn't leave them a lot of space to grow food.

After we left the viewpoint, we drove a short distance to a restaurant, The Bear Restaurant. I had some delicious salmon and soup. Harry and Eileen both had shiskebab. From there we really got into the sightseeing.

We walked, on a guided tour, all over the Bi Won Palace. Some of the courtyards reminded me a bit of the part of Sweden I was born in, Skane. The major differences were in the tiled roofs and carvings replacing the thatched roofs I remember. The grounds were beautifully kept and very clean. It was very peaceful as well. I forgot for the time being that we were in the middle of a huge city (considerably bigger than Los Angeles or New York).

The next stop was the National Museum, which is located inside the Kyong Bok Palace grounds. Again, a very peaceful feeling pervaded. One thing I noticed over and over was the politeness of the people towards people taking photos - they'd stop and wait instead of walking past.

Inside the National Museum were many interesting "discoveries" for me -- the similarity to Navajo and Hopi rug designs; the types of hats in some of the costumes reminded of hats worn by Andean Indians (Peru?) in South America; the farming tools; musical instruments such as reed flutes. Gorgeous inlaid wood boxes, among other things.

Next we continued on to the Olympic Park, which had pretty much closed just before we arrived in Korea. So we drove around the perimeter to show us some of the structures. Finally, we took a boat ride along the Han River, which had been completely dredged about 5 years before the Olympics (1988). Along the shore were many parks.

Last of all, Mr. Kim took us to a Korean restaurant for a meal of noodle soup with beef and vegetables. We sat at a low table and the meal was cooked right there in front of us. We had tea and pear apple slices for dessert. Delicious!

We returned to the hotel about 9:30 pm, after a wonderful, interesting day that was much, much better than just resting as I'd thought we would do. Probably also a better way to deal with the jet-lag of some 14-15 hours!!!