A President's Funeral

So the day I went to the restaurant (see previous post) was FRIDAY, the 29th. It was also the day of the funeral for former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun. Read about his death here. But if you want the gist of it. 

Roh was under investigation for bribery charges during his presidency, which was from 2002-2007. He was questioned by prosecutors and committed suicide a few days later by jumping off a cliff while hiking near his retirement home. It was shocking for the whole nation. 

And it also showed me how insane this nation is. All day, every day, they showed pictures of former President Roh and people mourning his death. People crying, more people crying, even more people crying. And it wouldn't be so weird if it wasn't for how they had treated this guy before. He had such a low approval rating when he was president, and after. People hated him. They protested his rule like crazy. He was even impeached. Then when he died, the pendulum swung the other way. People who thought he was a traitor by possibly accepting bribes, now thought he was a hero and did the honorable thing. READ THIS ANALYSIS BY THE NEW YORK TIMES HERE. 

So later that night, after most of the official festivities were done, my dad decided to take my family to the place where they were held to see if anything else was still going on. And it definitely was. 

There were tons and tons of people EVERYWHERE. Holding candles, crying, murmuring quietly, etc. 

A Korean custom in Korea, to bow to the picture of the deceased.

There were so many people lining up to bow to this one. I guess it was the "official" one? Or the one everyone wanted to bow at. It was INSANE. 

We went around 9:45, 10 p.m., and there were so many people. They blocked off the street in this major intersection in the city so people could sit around. There were people sitting in circles, talking and/or listening to people speaking into a giant speaker system. The speechgivers were talking about the ex-president and how he was awesome and how horrible the current administration is. There were a lot of very left-wing people out there. 

More people sitting. 

Left-wing propaganda, telling people to impeach/hate the current president. 

People sitting around. 

And like any good Korean political gathering, there were plenty of riot police around. There was actually a march and shots were fired into the air. I'm pretty sure they weren't bullets, but man it's pretty scary to have a bunch of Korean people run like a mob towards you. Wish I got that on video...

Eventually the police turned on these giant lights to blind people and/or to tell people to calm down. 

The face of former President Roh. His party's color was yellow. May he rest in peace. 

Saturday Pt. 2

So then we took the subway to 시청, which is around the City Hall area of Downtown Seoul. There's a palace there. We didn't go inside, but we took pictures! Woo hoo!

And then we started walking around and saw this gorgeous mural of flowers. 

And then, being the awesomely fit people that we are, we decided to walk from 시청 to 명동, which is this shopping district in Seoul. And along the way, we saw this building that was being renovated, and the walls covering it from the main street had this crazy collage/mural. 

The mural actually depicts some of the famous sights in Seoul. In the picture above, you can see City Hall on the left and Namsan Tower in the center. The blue ribbon thing in the middle is the Han River that cuts through Seoul. 

Then we finally made it to 명동.  The picture below doesn't show it, but it was SO CROWDED because it was White Day. Oh, for those of you who don't know what White Day is, it's a holiday where the guy gets the girl chocolate (or other gifts).  In Korea, Valentine's Day girls get the guys gifts. And then a month later, on 4/14, it's Black Day, where single people eat black noodles because they're single. Hahahah. Koreans are crazy. 

Jacob, Joanna and I went to this really cute cafe called O' Sulloc. They're super famous for their green tea. Yum yum. I had floral green tea and it came in the cutest set. 

We also got green tea 빙수, which is basically shaved ice with green tea, ice cream, red beans, dduk, and this one also had macadamia nuts and chocolate. SO AMAZING. Drool. I want some. 

Eventually, Christine joined us (but Jacob left after a bit) and we walked around 명동 for HOURS. Eventually we settled in another cute cafe and had dinner/tea and talked. Woo hoo! Then we realized it was super late and we ran home. Hahaha. Good times :)

the end. will update more on other stuff soon :) Be sure to check out Facebook for all my other pictures!