we're off to see the...

wizard? not really. tomorrow i leave KNUE for my province and will find out where i'm living and what age groups i'm teaching - pray that i don't get stuck in a little mountain village... anyway, i'm not sure how long it'll take me to get the net up and working, so if you don't hear from me for a while, don't worry... i'll post about the field trip that we took today - to the Korean Folk Village - as soon as possible. i took about 170 photos there, so it should be a good one. until then... :)

drink up your sweat!

yes, "pocari sweat" - i'd like to know what a pocari is... but no one can tell me. someone gave me a cup of this without telling me what it was and because it looks like water i took a sip - big mistake. it tastes kind of like sweat, but without the saltiness. just thought it was kind of funny...

tak galbi

the hottest food i've had yet. we went into Cheongju for the day yesterday and for dinner we went to a restaurant "yukanae" where they serve mostly tak (chicken) galbi (the method it is cooked). this is really neat because the food is cooked in your table and the server comes round and cooks it for you (see above). after you've eaten most of the meat (it also has onion, potato, and rice cakes) he comes back with plates of rice and mixes it all together for the second course. it was really tasty but so hot that i literally could have passed out from it. not while eating it - it's spicy then, but not so much you can't eat it (i like it hot!) - but about half an hour after eating it i started to feel really warm and then turned a funny red colour and began sweating profusely. the heat inside of me continued for about 30-45 minutes, during which time we walked from one airconditioned store to the next... thank god for AC!!! anyway, i survived it, but i think i'll have to watch out for the tak galbi. apparently it wasn't even the hottest kind that they have - there's another called bultak galbi - bul means fire - so basically fire chicken cooked at your table. mmmmm... yummy ... but i'd probablly internally combust!



after the tak galbi and the cooling off we went for some lemon soju at a bar - and they served snails... so i tried them. they were kind of salty, and chewy, nothing special really... it was just such a surprise to be sitting at the table and have smails plopped down in front of you by the mullet of the year - wish i'd taken a photo of him... i thought it was a wig - but i digress.



until next time... more to come on the exciting adventures of Korean life!

my first nurae bang

what's a nurae bang??? well, if you've seen "lost in translation" you'll remember the funny little karaoke rooms that they visited... nuraebang is the same idea - it Korean Karaoke - they LOVE it here and they're everywhere. i thought that karaoke was the same as in NA here, but the little room makes it a lot more fun and you don't even need a couple of drinks before you get going. since you're not standing in front of a bar full of people (just your friends) it makes karaoke a lot easier, and more fun.

Eolssu Korea

on our field trip the other day, our last stop was "Eolssu Korea" - a traditional folk music show. it was put on by the Cheongju City Korean Traditional Performing Arts Center just for the EPIK group. the first performance was Daechwita - Great Military Music. it originates from military exercises of the kings procession during the Joseon period. Chwita means to blow and strike, thus the music is performed with wind and percussion instruments. this was interesting but not my kind of music! lol... it was sort of like a high pitched whining with cymbals keeping the beat. the costumes were great though.

The second performance was Gayageum Sanjo in the style of Kim, Juk Pa. a gayageum is a 12-stringed zither and was accompanied by a kind of drum. Sanjo means (literally) scattered melodies - so the zither player was improvising as she went - it starts off slowly and gets faster and more chaotic, but the zither being what it is, chaotic is still quite calm and beautiful.

the third performance was Pansori, which is like Korean Opera, without the music. it is a "vocal genre" where the performer tells a long narrative story accompanied by a drum. the singers also act out the peice while they were singing. their voices were deep and resonating - it was very interesting and must have been funny because the Korean speakers in the audience were laughing throughout it.



the fourth performance was Gyeonggi Area folk Songs - this singer was incredible. her voice could do things that i could never even have imagined. Her name is Hwang Shi-Nae (in Korean the family name goes before the given name) i wish i had some video or audio of this because it was truly beautiful and one of my favourite parts. after her performance, she got the audience to sing along to a traditional korean folk song called Arirang:

(chorus) arirang, arirang, arariyo
arirang gogaero neomeoganda (i am crossing over arirang pass)
nareul beorigo gashineun nimeum (the man/woman who abandoned me)
shimnido mot gaseo balbyeong nanda (will not walk even ten miles before his/her feet hurt)

it was interesting (to say the least) to hear over 100 english westerners singing in Korean... but it was fun.



the last two performances (sorry no pictures - it was too dark and no flashes allowed) were done by a sort of oorchestra and were excellent. they all used traditional korean instrument, except for the synthesizer. they said it was a sort of fusion music using the traditional and the modern.

one of the best parts were the incredible costumes - as you can see. we all had a great time, and i can say that it was the highlight of the day.

Jikji Museum of Movable type or THEY LIED TO US IN J-SCHOOL!!!!

the museum


a close up of the museum wall

apparently it was the Koreans who invented movable type - not sure when because the brochure i have is in Korean, and my Korean is not that good yet... but i'll let you know if i ever figure it out!


this is part of a "type-tree" at least that's what i call it... it was a giant mass of all kinds of different bits of type in the shape of a christmas tree... i didn't get a good shot of the whole thing... just imagine this but about ten feet high and four feet wide!

it was really interesting to see the way that movable type was first produced - manually - but the exhibit was quite short...

i'm on my way to Cheongju for the afternoon and evening... will continue to regale you with stories of yesterday's field trip asap... :)

Unbo's House

Unbo's House
Unbo is a famous Korean artist. he died a few years ago and now his house is a memorial to him. It houses a gallery of his work and artifacts from his life but i thought the best part were his gardens

Statue of Unbo
- i took a pic of me sitting on Unbo's lap, but later on i saw other people doing it and some of the Korean EPIK's found it really offensive, so i won't post it here... sorry.

there were all these huge weathered rocks all over the place - still don't know if they were natural or part of his art. he also seeems to have been very fond of stone statues - they were all over - of turtles, little men, big stone bowls and of course, fish.



the whole place was beautiful and quite serene (if it weren't for the 120 epiks wnadering in and out... but a very lovely morning considering the heat... did i mention that the humidity hovers around 100% here? yesterday was no exception.


Unbo is also famous for his reunion with his brother - there were many stories like this after the Berlin Wall fell... family members separated - Unbo and his brother were separated during the Korean war - one in the north, one in the south - never to see each other again. luckily, shortly before he died (and maybe only because he was famous) he was reunited with his brother - Korean style, which means on national television. it was apparently very emotional and the entire country wept for them. that would have been something to see...maybe they have it on youtube? anyway, his house - i hesitate calling it that and only do so because that's what the signs say, since it was more of a compound than a house.
more on yesterdays big adventure to come - i'm off for breakfast!

a quickie in the meantime...

i had the longest, craziest, awesomest day yet... we went to Unbo's House, the Jikji Museum, a Buddhist Temple, a traditional Korean music show, out for dinner and then to the Nurybung (best translation so far, not sure how to spell it will verify and let you know, oh it's kind of like karaoke...). i had written the longest post that ever was, but accidentally closed the window without saving - ALWAYS SAVE!!!! and now have to do it all over again, but i'm so tired that i'm just going to give you some pics to keep you coming back... since the weekend is here, i may not have a lot of time, we're going into town tomorrow but i'll try to keep up to date with this, and there is so much to tell about today... so will definitely come back to this... these are in a totally random order...
Buddhist Temple
Dinner
Me singing at the nurybung
Unbo's House
one singer in the Traditional Korean music show

like i said, there is so much to say about everything i saw today. i promise to post more on all these exciting things, and more... in the days to come... i'm honestly trying not to get behind, but it's hard when there's so much to do and so much already done... enjoy and keep coming back!

R2D2 or the amazing trash can?

these things are EVERYWHERE!!! they work double duty as trash cans and ashtrays... but they resemble R2D2 from Star Wars more than anything... don't you think? it's funny how you notice the little things (well, i do anyway). like this sign for a roundabout that looks like we're supposed to be entering some kind of recycling facility or something...


i don't know if they have signs like this in other places where there are roundabouts (since we don't really have them in Canada) but i can't stop thinking "recycling". Koreans (at least here at the uni) are very into recycling - more so than NA, and we even have to separate the trash in our rooms into "garbage" and "recycling".

so, today we had a full day of lectures. first in the morning we had a course on Korean culture where they taught us about intercultural miscommunication - this is apparently the most important part of our integration since many things that Koreans do would be completely rude in our country. here are a few examples that are in our book:

1. Koreans ask very personal questions when they have just met you. example: how old are you? how much is your apartment? are you married? if no, why? if yes, how many children do you have?
2. Some Koreans assume that all westerners are American and will yell it at you as you pass them by.
3. Koreans do not greet strangers when walking down the street (or anywhere).
4. Koreans will not make eye contact with you during a conversation.
5. Many Koreans shake hands for too long.

just a few examples there, some of the ones we talked about in class aren't in the book and those were some of the best ones. like hawking a loogie and spitting it anywhere... very acceptable behaviour, but kind of gross for us.

Our second lecture was about teaching English conversation in the classroom. we got a lot of helpful ideas and tips on making lesson plans and organizing the classroom for efficient learning - very good - these are the kinds of things i need to learn the most. we were given tons of resources on the net and in books to help us along the way.

after lunch we had our first lesson in "Hangeul" (Korean language) i pick up languages relatively easily so i'm not having too much trouble... i'm supposed to be studying my alphabet right now... but i'm already way ahead of much of the class, so i'm not worried.

our last class of the day was a "question and answer" sort of deal with a teacher who has been working with EPIK for four years... everyone just asked all of the questions that we wanted to. my question was whether or not most apartments in Korea have western toilets or the "squat" kind (similar to turkish toilets)... apparently we shouldn't worry - 100% of apartments have "real" toilets.

well, i guess that's it for today, i'm going to get back to my studying... i will speak Korean by the end of this year... guaranteed!

and a happy birthday to me!

i went down to the local "hof and coffee" for drinks tonight - with 20 to 30 other epiks - to celebrate the big day. it was really nice to know that so many people are so kind after only a day or two of knowing me... i had a great time though i only had a pint of "hite" beer and a glass of peach soju (Korean rice wine) - we have a curfew of 11 pm, so we have to make it a light night although some people chose to maybe go a bit far. all in all it was a good birthday though i pretty much forgot about it until around 7 pm.
i even had some birthday cake courtesy of Kirsty from Australia. all in all it was a great birthday considering i'm thousands of miles away from anyone who should really care about it. and everyone was so nice about it i actually felt special on my birthday...



i'm off to sleep now, we get up early here, and have a full day of lectures tomorrow... will update more then...

Cheongju

today is our first day of orientation and we have a few "free" hours before that starts... so i thought i'd write a little about Cheongju - the city nearest to us - where we went on an excursion yesterday. christina, a girl from the states organized the whole thing for us - got us on the bus and into town - where we looked around, did a little shopping and started to acclimatize ourselves to being in a completely foreign place.

so we got on the number 514 bus. There are two kinds of buses here - standing and sitting - and they have different prices, but we took the sitting bus for our 30-40 minute ride into town. we filled the bus almost to capacity - there were only two seats left. even just being on the bus and looking out the window i was amazed at how diifferent Korea is. they seem to plant things wherever they can - on the side of the road, inbetween buildings, between the sidewalk and the buildings, in pots all over - there are plants and vegetables growing all over the place. i'll take some pics of it asap and get them up here.

finally we arrived in downtown Cheongju - and who'd have thought i'd have to come all the way to Korea to go to the "Carrefour"?? that's where we went - a big store where they sell everything from alarm clocks to clothes, to diamonds - not to mention the magic corn! which from what we could figure out is some kind of weird LEGO that is squishy and sticks together when wet... seems a little messy and a tad gross, but i was tempted to buy some just to see! maybe i'll bring some back to Canada with me...

so after buying what is the closest thing to a bathrobe that you can find in Korea - what i call a bathdress: a towel with snaps up the sides that you can wear around your body, it looks a little like the dresses that Marge and Lisa wear on the Simpsons only smaller - we headed out into the heat and humidity to find some lunch. So we headed into the streets - not sure of the names and probably couldn't write them if i could - to "feel" the atmosphere of dowtown. it was overcast for most of theday but cleared up later on - did i mention it's hotter than july in Montreal here? we have AC in our dorm rooms, but the second you step outside it feels like you're going to melt. currently, the AC in my room is on the fritz - has been since this morning, but hopefully it'll be back soon - that's what they tell me anyway. so, the pictures of dowtown are not great because it was so overcast, but you get the idea... streets lined with stores - some "american" style, some Korean, and lots of restaurants. it looks like it'll be easier for me to get pizza hut here than in Montreal!!! lol. here's a pic of "sexy cookie" i couldn't resist taking a photo of it - my first Korean lingerie store!

here are a couple more photos that i took, i'd love to post more - you should all know what a shutterbug i am... the first one is of the sidewalk - walking and biking; the second is a little "park" in the underground tunnel used to cross the street; lastly just a shot of a little side street that i thought looked nice.