Nadia Khammari, daughter of Tunisian Ambassador Mustapha Khammari, contributed the following article to The Korea Times in retrospect of her six months in Korea. She is now back in Tunisia. ㅡED.
"We are leaving for Seoul." Seoul? I remember saying it when I heard my father had become ambassador to Korea.
I was just eight years old when I first saw Korea on TV. It was during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in 1988.
I remember colors, music. I had never been to Asia but will go to China or Japan in the future, I thought to myself.
For an adventure I once dreamed of, I told my parents, "I will go with you."
I found this beautiful country, which despite the devastating war, has succeeded reviving itself from the ashes with the willingness of the people's hard work and brains.
The pace of life was very fast in Seoul. An immensely vivid and dynamic crowd, keen on work, spare time activities and fashion were moving in all directions 24 hours a day.
We could escape also from this omnipresent modernity by visiting a palace, temple or park. Scattered in perfect harmony with the urban landscape, monuments with splendid traditional structures were like opened jewel-cases, welcoming voyagers on their city tour.
In the town of abundance, it was pleasant to get lost among the stands of the two emblematic markets - Namdaemun and Dongdaemun.
In those boundless spaces of shopping, astonishing "Ajumma's with frizzy hair and men's style were there behind their tiny shops, offering an incredible variety of commodities.
They always smiled and were ready to bargain in a language, which neither they nor we could understand. The strange patchwork of sounds and gestures miraculously allowed us to understand each other.
Following one of those surrealist conversations, I felt a strong desire to learn "hangul," the Korean alphabet.
Very easy to learn, the Korean script gave me the illusion of being able to decipher the secrets of this town.
I could happily read the shop signs and placards, which enabled me to orientate myself more easily.
I discovered rapidly that reading and writing hangul was not as complicated as I imagined. The second stage of learning hangul was more difficult because you had to learn an impressive quantity of words, which did not have any common roots with the languages I have mastered so far.
My curiosity was very useful, nonetheless as I succeeded learning some sentences.
The image that has marked me the most about Korea was the magnificent tea plantations in the southern part of the country.
An evident proof of the cult of order and symmetry taking reign in Asia, the tea fields constituted living works of art.
I was also to discover roots of countless teas that I have encountered in one of the teahouses in Insa-dong.
The tea ceremony reflected those traditions that Koreans attach with the utmost importance. A simple sip of tea is synonym of a moment of enchantment.
During six months, I never stopped traversing the streets of Seoul, this immense and living town, acknowledging its immensity and not being able to discover all of them.
Korea is colored, precious and shimmering like a "defile" of Andre Kim, the fashion designer.
Now, I am back in Tunis, close to the sublime beaches of Tunis, to the blue sky of Tunis and to its cafes overhanging the Mediterranean Sea.
In some future day, I'll visit Seoul again. I will let my family and my friends discover Seoul. Even in Tunisia, in my country, the unforgettable Seoul will continue to be an integral part of me.