Friday, August 15, 2008

Liberation Day

Seoul City Hall, spangled with 27,000 plastic baubles and daintily guarded by a wagon fort of police security buses
'Fun Size' rose-of-sharons adorning the Gwangwhamun gate (currently under renovation to correct general Park's slipshod handiwork)
Today is liberation Liberation day here in Korea, marking 63 years since the end of the Japanese rule over the country - and there's much to celebrate, with the country having gone from one of the poorest nations in Asia to the world's 13th largest economy since that time.

I was quickly corrected by my friends however that wishing people a "Happy Liberation Day!" is rather culturally inappropriate. Keep in mind that Korea is a society in which, traditionally speaking, you're not supposed to smile on your wedding day, and should rather be taking in the enormity of what you're about to do. So I traded it out for the somewhat less peppy "I am honored to know this important day".

SoKo celebrated by kicking Japan's butt at women's table tennis at the olympics. At my goshiwon we ate pigs head and drank soju, before I slipped away to my secret life as an international gay spy mapping out Seoul's transient lesbian spaces.

2 comments:

mefeliu said...

So, tell me, is your room considered a goshiwon? Sorry to say but to me it looks like a closet... but if it is for a short period of time I guess it is fine!

Ari said...

you sneaky scout you. sounds like you're livin la vida over there in east asia. i recommend a stop in tel-aviv israel if you've got the chance to pop over on your travel route. after having spent one year as a lesbian there i've gotta say that being a fag hag for gay boys offered much more excitement on a saturday night, as the girls-only bars are as scarce as palestinians are in the city. keep us up about your adventures of late. they keep me connected to a world outside the confines of the south florida bar scene.
lots of love and enjoy your pig head.
ariela