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| Pusan, Korea, hotel |
June 1 through November 15 is not “summer” here in Florida, but “Hurricane
Season,” which means we have a torrent of rain almost every afternoon and a few
violent storms; some of which are hurricane proportion and some not.
When I lived
in Seattle, the drizzle in winter was called “six months of wet.” The other six
months were relatively mild and beautiful. The trade-off was exquisite weather half
of the year. I could live with that.
When I was
visiting Pusan, Korea one fall, the residents reminded us it was “Monsoon
Season.” We stayed in one of the oldest hotels on the top floor. Our windows
overlooked the bay and the ocean. Our only saving grace was the fact that the
hotel had survived many years of violent weather and was still standing.
A monsoon did
rip through one of the nights we were there. The next morning there was damage
all around us, but the hotel had withstood. We went to Hunan Bay and saw
destruction in many quarters and along the beach. I guess luck was with us on
that trip.
They were selling silk worm larvae (worms)
that people purchased and took away in brown paper lunch bags so they could
munch them on the beach. Some of the larvae was smoked, but in either case we
were not buyers.
Later, we
took a wild taxi ride into Seoul. Today it is a huge modern city, but outdoor
markets still thrive. If you stand at one end of the city, you can see open-air
stalls as far as the eye can see.
North Korea
is only a few miles across the border from Seoul. While we were there college
students were rioting and demonstrating for the North. My parents were terribly
worried about us; but as it turned out, we saw a crowd of no more than 50
people. The photographers had made the scene placed in newspapers around the
world look like a mob of hundreds.
Since that
time I’ve always been skeptical of the reports in the news. They usually hype
up the violence and problems and make them look larger and worse than they
actually are.
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| Cheju do Island |
We also traveled
to Cheju do Island to see some of the damage from the monsoon. Luckily most of
the island at that time was farmland.
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| These little statues are everywhere on Cheju do. They represent good luck. |
During another trip to this same Island, my
son married a Korean girl whose father was a building contractor. They were wed
on the island of Cheju do in a hotel her father had built. First they had a
traditional marriage in her parent’s home, and then a contemporary wedding on
Chejudo.
Does the
weather affect the artwork in these Middle Eastern and Far Eastern countries
that experience monsoons on a yearly basis? Definitely! Not only did I find
many photographs, but fine art that clearly represents the turmoil and angst
that accompany violent weather.
