Written by Courtenay

Wednesday Sept. 29 to Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 – Almost exactly five and a half years ago, I was sitting in an exam room at OHSU, trying to understand the incomprehensible news that I had blood cancer. I was in utter shock and despair. All through that terrible morning, my phone kept pinging – “Almost time for your flight to Tokyo,” “Four hours until your flight to Tokyo,” “Your flight to Tokyo is now boarding.” It was a surreal punctuation to a reality that rather than boarding a plane for a long hoped-for trip to Japan and South Korea with my family, I was facing a rather terrifying and uncertain future. We had planned to meet up with fencing friends in Seoul and take Will to watch our first international Grand Prix after a short stay in Tokyo. Instead, we found ourselves in a completely parallel universe, where the only travel that people talk about is your “cancer journey,” a term I despise. That ain’t no journey.

But I digress. One stem cell transplant and a lot of recovery later, in March 2020, we were set to take that same flight, to take Will, Mitchell and Alex on Alex’s first trip to Asia and our first trip to Japan in eight years. March 2020 – remember the lockdown? My timing was impeccable. I started to feel like I should never plan another trip to Asia or the whole world would come crumbling down. Our next attempt to travel to Asia – just South Korea this time and with friends Asma and Rehan – was scuttled last fall when the Delta variant surged. So you can imagine the trepidation – and disbelief – that I have felt over the past few days as we actually flew to South Korea. The feeling as we took off from Seattle was surreal, but a good surreal. It felt amazing to be able to do something I once thought I might never be able to do again, that flying here now, this fall, somehow helps – not erase – but lay down a new track on those traumatic memories. I feel blessed. I feel healthy, strong and excited to explore this totally new country, culture and language. I feel normal. I feel like me. There was a time five years ago when all I wanted was to not be myself, anyone but myself. I am myself again.

Oh, and Seoul is incredible.

Our friend Sungmin had told us so. He is right.

We got to our hotel Thursday just as the sun was setting, and after a quick shower, we headed out into the balmy evening to see the lights of the busy Gyeonghwamun district and the beautiful Deoksugung palace, with its beautiful, brightly painted gates and pavilions lit up in the night. Young people in traditional hanbok posed for photos, and families strolled in the cooling evening air, with the sweeping up-curving tile roofs of the pavilions set against a backdrop of tall modern buildings and neon billboards of the surrounding city. It was magical. The city has a mellow vibe, people on the streets don’t seem too busy, too much in a hurry. They hold hands and walk and laugh, or gather in clusters outside restaurants smoking cigarettes. And laughing. There is a culture of cafe hopping, as well as of bar hopping. We had dinner at a fried chicken and beer joint – a thing here – at the one free outside table – while a group of what looked like work colleagues drank and laughed and caroused just inside. It looked like no work-related party I had ever seen – they were doubled over in laughter.

Today, our first full day in Korea, was a perfect day. We started in the cool morning air to explore the nearby palace of Gyeongbokgung, which dates back to the 14th century but was destroyed several times by the Japanese in the late 16th century and again in the 20th century during colonization. The buildings have been restored and the extensive grounds, while modestly landscaped, were beautiful and relaxing, especially with the backdrop of mountains just behind. Will called to talk while we were there, and it was so wonderful to stand in the shade of a gingko tree and talk, while groups of young people wearing traditional Korean clothing, snapping selfies and laughing, wandered past. We then ourselves wandered the galleries and very hilly streets of nearby Samcheong-dong, and found a quiet cafe with outdoor tables I had found online. (It’s such a miracle when your plans actually work out.) We wandered more and then had lunch in the courtyard of an old hanbok that had been turned into a bakery of sorts – another Google search find. My next Google search find didn’t turn out so well – the definition of a snipe hunt. After sitting out the heat of the afternoon in our hotel, we took a cab to a much-hyped night market along the Han river, which divides main Seoul in the north from Gangnam, the wealthy district of Psy’s famous K-pop hit Gangnam Style, south of the river. We consulted multiple websites, and even got the hotel concierge to confirm the super hip and groovy night food market was really happening. Well a 30-minute cab ride and a tromp up and down the river later, we found the folded up tents of the market, all locked up together. We will never know why it wasn’t held when it was supposed to be. But whatever! It was a lovely sunset along the river, and dozens and dozens of people had pitched picnic blankets or little half-tents to stay out of the sun and eat snacks and food and watch the sunset. It was like Central Park on a very busy summer weekend. We managed to snag a cab back to Namdaemun, a famous market area which we knew had a lot of street food. But as it is when you are in a big city, we found street food but are not sure still whether we found the Namdaemun food street. Whatever! We bought some mung-bean pancakes, kimchi dumplings and vegetable kimbap (seaweed wrapped around vegetables) and walked back to the hotel, where we ate our street food in the cool of our room. Rick is snoring now, though he is supposed to edit this post before bed. We have to get up at 5 a.m. for our DMZ tour – apparently the crowds were so bad there today that the tour group is making us meet in the lobby at 6 a.m. Arg! Stay tuned…