Huam-dong Market

We've lived in our apartment in the little town of Huam-dong for almost three months now.  It's been below freezing almost every day that we've lived here.  And not just a little below freezing...WAY below freezing.  I think most days have been in the single digits after the wind chill.  The winter has been brutal.  Because of this, I only walk places that are absolutely necessary.  This week, however, more mild weather has moved in, and I started exploring our little town.  I found just about a quarter mile from our house, this fun little market.  I had no idea it even existed!

It even has a little toy store for the kids.  I absolutely LOVE where we live.  

Namsangol Hanok Village

The best part about having Peter work for the Army here in Korea is he gets four day weekends all the time.  It's fabulous because the kids have to go to school, so we get to spend the day together.  We decided this time to go to the Namsangol Hanok Village.  It was freezing cold, but an awesome adventure.

Around the 1970s when Korea began to grow, many of the historic hanok houses were being torn down and replaced with high-rises.  The Korean government wanted to preserve some of the history so they moved a few of the historic homes to this area on Namsan (the mountain near our house).  You can take tours of the different houses and learn the history behind them.  We took the 10:30am English speaking tour and were the only two on it.  It was fabulous!  The sweet Korean man who lead the tour must have been a history professor before he retired because he gave us the most detailed history of Korea.  We loved it!  Here are some pictures from the day.  We didn't take many because it was just too cold.

We wrote our wishes for the New Year and tied them on this rope.

And I had to take my picture in hanbok...

 ...with my knight in shining armor -- the Korean version!

 

It was a very fun day.  I wish it hadn't been so cold.  I'm looking forward to going back in the spring.  

This was my favorite translation from the day:  

The second line down talks about a valley, "where clean water flew."  Wow.  That's an impressive valley.  Even though I didn't see any flying water today, we had a great time!

March 1

Today is March 1st Day in Korea.  That's the title of the holiday.  The first place I noticed it was in my cell phone.  All the Korean holidays are automatically programmed into my cell phone calendar.  At first I thought it was just telling me that the new month began since it said March 1st, but then I noticed it was highlighted like the rest of my Korean holidays.  The next place I noticed it was on the streets.  For the last week, Korean flags have been flying everywhere.  It's been fun to walk down our street and see 20 or more flags lining the sidewalks.  I was curious what this holiday was, so I asked my friend Kiho.

It all started in the early 1900s when the peninsula was occupied by Japan.  The Japanese were quite brutal to the Koreans, much like most invading countries are.  They required all Koreans to give up their Korean names and take Japanese ones.  They destroyed many religious and cultural sites.  (I talked about this in my post about the Seoul Fortress Wall.)  They outlawed the Korean flag and language.  One lady, Yu Gwan-Sun, organized a freedom march where Koreans peacefully protested the Japanese occupation on March 1, 1919.  Her parents were killed on the spot, and she was imprisoned.  She eventually died in prison from horrible treatment at the age of 19.  Her efforts today, and those of the thousands of people who marched for freedom with her, are remembered every March 1.

I love how every country has someone in history like Yu Gwan-Sun.  Some who was willing to give everything for the cause of freedom.  It reminds me how precious freedom is and how I sometimes take it for granted.  Just a few miles north of here live thousands of people who can't even own a cell phone or speak from the heart for fear of being tortured or killed.  I take my freedom for granted all too often.  Today, even though this is a Korean holiday, I'm grateful to be reminded how blessed I am to be an American citizen and have the freedoms I enjoy.