Worst Weather Best Pancakes

5 May, 2023 | Seoul, South Korea

Switching up my location in Seoul to Itaewon wasn’t just focused on the desire to connect with a local or be closer to the tourist-friendly queer part of town - though, it was both those things - but also because I was situated much closer to the main museums in the city.

Having already had enough of the War Memorial, after breakfast I headed to the main National Museum of Korea. Or at least, so I thought.

If there is anything I have gathered from my time here, it is this: Koreans fucking love setbacks - in the land use sense.

While the distance is modest in total - maybe a mile - the walk from the metro to the museum is very circuitous and the building is not readily visible for much of it. This wouldn’t have been a big deal if not for the weather.

Something like 65% of the jokes in M.A.S.H. were about how the weather in Korea fucking sucks and I am here to tell you they were absolutely correct1. In the week since I have been here, there has been just one (1) indisputably lovely day. Today, the weather was the actual worst: a light misting rain combined with high temperature and humidity. No great preparation or set of layers that will help you with this weather - just deal with being moist and overheated.

As many tourists before me, my relief at finding the entrance to the museum was somewhat dashed by the discovery that I was in the wrong museum - the Hangeul Museum is on the way to the national museum and wasn’t immediately apparent they were different until entering.

Koreans are extremely proud of their written language, and for good reason. Prior to Hangul, all writing was done with Chinese characters and typically limited to the Confucian scholar class and other elites. The development of a writing system for the spoken Korean language in 1443 CE by King Sejong the Great2 was an overtly nationalistic political act of egalitarianism. The scholars opposed it so vehemently that it is still the case that some occupations need a working knowledge of Chinese characters (Hanja) to function - particularly lawyers - not unlike Latin in some parts of the world.

By the time I got to the National Museum, I wasn’t in an exceptional mood. This mood was not improved when I discovered dense crowds upon entering

Without realizing it, I had shown up during the start of a holiday weekend. It was nearly impossible to get a locker. Overheated and frustrated, I decided to flee and return later. Getting lost trying to return to the transit increased the frustration I felt.

What did improve my mood was my evening. Folks in the bike tour - including the guide - strongly recommended the “foodie” tour, and so it was I found myself not-too-far from my old hotel with a group of about a dozen hungry people: