Hyochang park

Next week is going to be a bit busy so I took off Friday morning and afternoon to go with David to Hyochang park. The weather is finally warming up enough that we can go out.

This is the tomb of Kim Ku. He was a Korean nationalist (you might remember him from a previous blog entry--I went to his house where he was killed). His memorial hall and library are here at this park so I wanted to check them out for my research. An Chunggun's father protected him and helped educated him.
A monument to those who died fighting North Korean Communism.
A statue of Wonhyo, a monk of great importance in Korean Buddhist history.

David watching people swinging.

David plays with a swing.

David Dances

Our friend Yoori loaned us her leap frog music station. David figured out he likes dancing.



David usually takes our rosaries while we are praying and puts them around his neck. The music station was running out of batteries so you can't hear it too well.



David dancing after mommy put new batteries in the music station



David's patented spin move!

Cardinal Kim, RIP

Cardinal Kim died a few days ago. He was in his mid 80's and had been retired from active service for several years. Cardinal Kim was active in the democracy movement. Something like 375,000 people, including many non-Catholics came to pay their respects. I went but the line to see his body was 3-4km long. One of my friends waited in it for three hours before giving up. I waited 30 minutes to attend mass in the cathedral's crypt. I translated one of his speeches with my friend Kangri a couple of years ago for a translation class we were taking. Here are some pictures and videos from my visit:

As can be seen here the cathedral is very crowded. The top banner says "[Lord] grant eternal rest to Stephen Cardinal Kim Suhwan. The one below it says "Thank you. Love one another." I think he left a note by his bed before he died that said that.

Pictures of Cardinal Kim that lined the road up to the cathedral. In the picture on the right he is with Mother Theresa.

Outside of the cathedral were two large screen televisions that showed what was going on inside. The chanting sounds Buddhist but I think is the litany of the saints.



People entering the cathedral. The guy on the right has the job of bowing to people as they come in.



The line I stood in while waiting to attend mass.

For more on Cardinal Kim's life see this link:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2901164

God grant him rest!

Arlene's birthday

Arlene celebrated her birthday on February 17th. It's tough having a birthday right by a holiday (Valentine's day). We stayed in for her birthday and ordered pizza from Papa Johns.
It took several times for me to get the camera timer function right.
The pizza next to one of Arlene's Valentine's presents, a pair of wooden ducks which in Korean culture represent marital happiness and fidelity. I don't think Koreans put them by pizza generally.

Videos of David

This is not the most exciting video. I mostly put it up so that Mom and Dad could see David playing with the cars they gave him.



David attempts to put a rosary on. We have trouble praying the rosary as he will demand to wear our two full sized rosaries and to hold our little one. I'm often forced to count on my fingers!



David, with a little help from his daddy, rides on a car that was loaned to us by our friend Yoori.

Philippines Trip

Arlene and David had a lot of fun in the Philippines. Here are some pictures:

David having a good time with Papa Alex, his grandfather.

David and his uncle Alex Jr. having some fun

Santo Nino (Jesus as child king, you can see the statue of him surrounded by candles. He is also being carried by a man in front). This is the church dedicated to him near Arlene's village.

David and another child. David is holding a Santo Nino (Holy Child) balloon.

Papa Alex, Dodong Alex, and David--three generations of Mayor Men!

David under a mosquito net

last Thursday

Last Thursday was a busy day as I tried to pack in as much work as possible before my presentation.
I first went to the Canadian embassy to ask some questions about Arlene's visa to Canada. Then I went to catch the subway in front of Teoksugung palace. It looked like they were filming some kind of commercial or drama there:

The star is the lady to the left of the guy with the white/gray cap.

The green cab on the right was part of the shoot. I think they were supposed to be filming the main actress getting into it.

After that I went to Namsan park to An Chunggun's Memorial Hall to give them a copy of an article I had published that referred to An. I had a nice chat with the head and one of the people who worked there and they then took me out to lunch. After that I went down town to run some errands. One of the highlights was visiting the central temple of a new religion established in the 19th century, Ch'ondogyo (which means "Religion of the Heavenly Way" though at one time it was called Tonghak, or "Eastern Learning" as opposed ot Western Learning, that is, Catholicism). The people were nice and I picked up a couple of books. However, it was clear that their religion, unlike some of the other religions that they inspired, is having some difficulties in maintaining itself. Unfortunately for Ch'ondogyo most of its membership was in the north and they chose mainly to stay in North Korea rather than flee.
I also went to the newspaper museum at the Donga Sinbun (a Korean newspaper) main building.

I picked up three books at the museum that were collections of advertisements, photos, and cartoons from Korean newspapers since the 1890's to the present. On the right is a press notebook I bought. It's curious because it featured a headline of Reverend Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. All the other notebooks had little cartoon characters on them. I wonder why they chose an American newspaper and one focusing on MLK in particular?

You could have your picture taken with Yi Soyeon, the first Korean astronaut is one the left. Alas, since no one was with me I couldn't have my picture taken with her.

On Friday I had to give a presentation on An Chunggun at the Fulbright Forum. I was really nervous about it. I was happy though as a large number of people showed up and they seemed satisfied with the presentation. One of my friends taped it so that I could see how to improve as a presenter.

Safe Arrival

Arlene and David made it back safely to Korea!