Days 3/4

May 16th, 6:30 PM.

Finally gathering the energy and patience to update my blog. Every day is an exciting and exhausting adventure that quickly turns yesterday's memories into the vague, distant past. Everything is one big blur, and it's a good thing I have this time to reflect and peel the memories off from one another.  

Okay, let's think. Yesterday morning I woke up at 3AM again. Spencer and I went to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, and the group took off at 11:45 to go hiking up Bukak Mountain. Unfortunately there aren't many pictures from the hike because they weren't allowed on the majority of it--the view overlooks the Blue House and apparently there are concerns about assassination attempts. The hiking trail is beautiful and the view of the city is incredible, lessened only slightly by the armed soldiers scattered along the trail. I can count the number of times I've seen a gun in person on one hand--even in the hands of these soldiers they made me very uncomfortable. Even though it would be cool, a part of me is glad we're not visiting the DMZ for this reason. Anyway, hiking along the old city wall felt remarkably similar to walking along the Great Wall in China, except it was much less steep and (to my disappointment) there was no way to slide down when you reached the top. Needless to say I was quite tired by the end of it since I'd been up since 3AM and I'm sick... when we got back to ground level, my legs wouldn't stop shaking involuntarily. It was an excellent group bonding experience, though.

We got back in the evening and had about an hour to recuperate before we headed out to the Yonsei Festival. There was lots of food, alcohol, and performances, and it seemed awesome, but Spencer and I had to go home at 9:30 because we were so exhausted. I'm gradually becoming suspicious that CGIS has some kind of strategy for keeping students from going out drinking that involves forcing them to do so much during the day that they have absolutely no energy left for night life. 

This morning we got going around 10:30. We had waffles for breakfast--they were amazing, but I could feel my cholesterol rising as I ate it. We spent most of the day in none other than the Gangnam District, which matches my vision of Seoul much more closely than Sinchon or Hongdae. We took a tour of the Samsung building and checked out some of the awesome architecture in the area before stopping for lunch. Everyone else ate fish soup but I had bibimbap for the first time (I can't believe I made it this far without trying it!). Afterward we walked around the high fashion, shopping area of Gangnam which is exactly what it sounds like. 

 Once we started walking down this road people started looking abruptly more attractive, and it didn't take long to realize why: every other building was a plastic surgery clinic. We saw many women with bloody and bandaged faces being guided around by friends, and many of us were unsure what to say or how to feel about the phenomenon. My gut reaction was that it feels superficial and wrong. My secondary reaction was sympathy: it's sad that these people feel obligated to go through a painful and invasive surgery just so they can neatly box themselves up into a narrow standard of beauty. After talking about it for a while, though, I decided that plastic surgery is just a symptom of consumer culture, one that is not unique to Gangnam or even Korea. The same culture exists in the U.S. but just tends to express itself through other means. (Although plastic surgery certainly has its American clientele, mostly middle-aged women trying to look younger). Teens suffering for double-eyelids in Korea is the exact same as teens suffering for straight teeth in America. What's the difference between blowing $1,000 on some silicone and blowing it in a tanning booth? 

People love to hate women who achieve beauty through plastic surgery, and they love to celebrate women who possess "natural" beauty, but this way of thinking makes no sense to me. If anyone deserves credit for being beautiful (which they don't, because beauty is culturally constructed and not what a person's value should hinge on) it seems like women who have gone through plastic surgery deserve it more because they have gone through suffering to achieve their goal. Criticizing these women as shallow makes little sense: we have different cultural standards for what is "normal" and what is "going too far," the truth is that we all care about our appearances and are willing to go to varying lengths to "improve" them based on our cultural norms. If I grew up in Gangnam, I'd probably be lining up for plastic surgery with the rest of them.

Anyway, it's time for Elise to take a nap. Still waiting for a day when I feel normal and not like I'm floating through a semi-conscious dream. Starting to miss everyone back home and hope you're all doing well.