Saturday (Day 6): Today was my mom’s birthday! (I didn’t plan for this, but 3 birthday celebrations have been incorporated into my trip 😁) To celebrate, we decided to visit MyungDong Street, a famous pedestrian street in South Korea. There was so much street food there; I got to try fresh pomegranate juice, long “tornado” potatoes, candied tangerines, and marshmallow ice cream! Even after eating all of this, we ended up having dinner at a Michelin star restaurant. Despite its Michelin rating, the restaurant served simple knife cut noodles, dumplings, and fresh kimchi for super affordable prices! Everything was absolutely delicious, and at night, we went back to our hotel and celebrated with some cheesecake!
Sunday (Day 7): I spent today learning more about Korea’s history. We decided to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace (the main palace during the Joseon dynasty), and my brother and I even rented out hanboks (traditional Korean dress). If you wear a hanbok, you can get free admission into the palace grounds! It was an extremely hot day today, but visiting this national historical landmark was an incredible experience. Despite having visited Korea before, I had never once entered a palace from the Joseon dynasty. It was amazing to not only see but walk through the old buildings designed in the traditional style of the Joseon era.
In addition, there were areas where we could look into the interior spaces of the palace buildings. I got to see the room where the king would meet with his royal advisors to decide on the laws for the country. I also got to see the area where the advisors would read and write as well as one of the royal gardens that included a beautiful pond. I hadn’t known this before, but the palace is actually divided into separate, smaller ‘palaces’. For example, there is a separate palace for the queen and another separate palace for the royal concubines. In reality, the queen and king rarely saw each other because their living/working palaces were located so far apart (even though, the royals never did any walking and were carried by their servants). It took hours to walk through the entire Gyeongbokgung Palace, and even after our trip was over, I still felt like there were places to explore inside the palace grounds!
Once our visit was over, we returned our hanboks and strolled over to Bukchon Hanok Village. This village is famous because all of the houses here are built according to traditional Korean architectural designs. For this reason, many tourists walk around this village, but because it is still a residential area, everyone stays very quiet to be respectful to the residents.
Overall, today was a very special day because I got to learn more about the history of the country where I am from!
Tuesday (Day 10): Today, I had an interview scheduled with a psychiatrist in South Korea who specializes in PTSD cases. Before I began my travels, all of the psychiatrists that I had reached out to in Korea did not respond to my emails. I was connected with Professor Seo because of a family friend who happened to hear about my research from my mom. However, the psychiatrist was working at a hospital located more than 2 hours away from Seoul. So, I woke up early in the morning to make it there in time for our interview.
This meant that I was riding the subway during the morning rush hour. I have never been on public transportation during rush hour in Korea before, and it was atrocious. Everyone would line up neatly to enter the train, but once the train arrived, it was every man for himself. People were pushing and shoving so that they could get on, and it honestly felt like I was inside of a mosh pit. Luckily, I made it to my interview in one piece, and once our conversation was over, I knew that my moment of suffering was worth it.
First, he had so much to say about the mental health scene in South Korea. He told me how healthcare in South Korea is practically managed by the national government; the national insurance policy here makes receiving medical care fairly easy and cheap for Korean citizens. However, the insurance coverage becomes more complicated when mental health comes into the picture. A lot of the times, mental health care and treatment is not adequately covered by insurance; he has had to give exaggerated diagnoses to his patients before so that they can receive proper reimbursement for their psychiatric medications. Before our conversation, I had only perceived the Korean healthcare system as a positive entity, but he showed me how there are many systemic issues, especially when it comes to mental health, that need to be resolved moving forward.
Second, he told me why he believes trauma is a topic that is critical to research in South Korea. He said that in his experience, most mental health presentations stem from trauma – regardless of whether or not the patient is suffering from PTSD or complex PTSD. In the past few decades, there has been a shift in the understanding of trauma across the nation. Now, when psychiatrists and psychologists identify traumatic experiences as “traumatic,” it gives a whole new meaning to the patients’ understanding of their own suffering. This collective shift from perceiving trauma as something one needs to suppress to something that is deserving of help has emerged largely due to the tragedies that have taken place in Korea in recent years: the Sewol Ferry incident and the Itaewon incident.
Finally, our interview provided me with unique insight because his work differs a lot from the many psychologists and therapists I have spoken to so far. As a psychiatrist and associate professor in Korea, he sees more than 100 outpatients a week. He also spends additional time with patients who have been hospitalized due to the severity of their symptoms. I asked him whether he believed that the amount of time he spent with each patient was adequate; he replied that even if he did not, he could not extend the time in most cases because of the nature of the healthcare system.
Our conversation yielded so much fascinating information to me that I cannot possibly sum it all up in this blog post. I am looking forward to reviewing our interview and figuring out how his expertise and experience fits alongside the other data that I have collected.
On the way back home, I got stuck in the rush hour traffic again 😅 But today was definitely worth it!
Thanks for reading 🖤