Jeju Island

Seung Ah and I decided to go away on a long weekend to Jeju Island. None of us had been there before. We were pretty excited. I organized the logistical part of the trip and made our schedules, while she took care of the reservations.

Day 1

We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and the cab company we hired for the weekend was late. But we were really excited and when the guy finally arrived, he was very helpful. We hopped in and headed straight to our first destination.



One of the interminable pictures taken of us



I wanted to see this circus/horse show Lonely Planet mentioned was interesting (I trust Lonely Planet with all my trips) and so when we arrived at the Green Resort we went straight for the horses in the paddock. We were offered a ride for a fee (rather expensive, by the way). Here I was thinking that I would really be able to go for a stroll in the bright sunlight with the fresh green grass surrounding us. It was pretty hilarious, actually. After taking interminable pictures of us on the horses, the men then proceeded to lead the horses down a lane and back again. That was our ride! They were holding onto the reins the whole time! And to add insult to injury, Seung Ah, who had never been on a horse, got to canter in the paddock alone, but they held onto my reigns as my horse cantered regardless of the fact that I had taken horseback riding lessons once upon a time in my youth. I guess they didn’t want to take any chances with the waygook (foreigner)!



After the riding experience, the show was to begin, so we headed inside. The building was a bit run-down, as were the costumes the people wore, but they were amazing. According to Lonely Planet, these are Mongolians, but from what Seung Ah understood, they were Chinese. They didn’t even speak any Korean. The music during the performances ranged from meringue to classical to new age…interesting and strange. The average age of the performers was probably about 16 years old. I had a twinge inside when thinking of the child labor, but what can you do? The acrobats looked really tired, bored or upset and their costumes were both too big and too old, but they were truly incredible athletes. The pictures should prove that to you.



Green Resort Show



After the bedraggled look of the acrobats, the horseback riders seemed like polar opposites. They were positively glowing and that glow was particularly obvious in a six year old boy who rode horses as if he had been raised by them. His pride in accomplishing each feat brought spontaneous laughter and applause amongst the crowd, particularly when he would leap off the horse, raise his arm and smile triumphantly. Though he seemed way too young to be doing this, he also seemed to love it. I don’t know the truth about it, but it was a great show nonetheless.

After the show we headed to the first of two waterfalls we would see on the trip. The first, Jheongbangpokpo, is one of only a few waterfalls in the world that empties directly into the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking. The sun was of the late-afternoon variety so the light was softer and shadows were cast upon the smoothed-out volcanic rock. Upon first sight, the view was reminiscent of those paradisal scenes in movies like The Blue Lagoon and The Sleeping Dictionary with the exception of 20 or so people already there admiring it.



Jheongbangpokpo



We stayed there for a while and then headed off to another waterfall, Cheonjiyeonpokpo. This is the biggest waterfall on Jeju Island, but there wasn’t much water. The rainy season isn’t during spring here, but rather in the monsoonal summers. The waterfall is in the middle of a beautifully tended park which would be nice to visit regardless of the state of the waterfall. As it is currently the rainy season, it would probably be best to see this waterfall now.



In the touristy part of the park I bought a summer bag made of cotton and dyed with onions, persimmons and wormwood. I’ve taken a picture. I also purchased a calligraphy made by a Buddhist monk. The man on the paintings was a well-known Buddhist wise man and the sayings are all related to finding happiness and well-being in your life. Pretty inspiring.

Seung Ah insisted we go to the Sex Museum afterwards, so we did. Among the other drawings and things, they had pictures of natural formations from around the world shaped as genitals. The most interesting thing for me was a reproduction of a traditional Korea home long ago where houses were still made of papyrus, like in Japan. When newlyweds would retire to their honeymoon suites, people would sneak up outside and wet a finger with their tongue. Then they would place that wet spot on the papyrus which would dissolve, creating a tidy little hole from which they could watch their own little live porno show. It’s was hilarious! As conservative as Korea is, there are those moments when you are surprised by these little stories.

 

After that busy afternoon, we were pretty hungry. We wanted to try some local food and the cab driver suggested we try horsemeat. Interestingly enough, I had spent 3 years in France and had never tried horsemeat though they sold them in supermarkets, but I was all for it here. Jeju Island is known for its horsemeat. We went to a restaurant that specialized in horsemeat and God help us, that’s all they served! We had the most insane experience! We ate everything they served us and believe me, they served us some pretty crazy things; from bone marrow tonics to raw vocal cords, raw liver and raw testicles (yes, you read correctly, and they were actually pretty good!).



Our appetizer: raw horse pieces



Day 2

On the second day there, we woke up at 6:15a.m. in order to get ready to hike up the tallest mountain in South Korea. This sucker is not a steep climb, but oh my God is it ever a bitch! For some reason I am still unable to understand, the trail we went up was lined with volcanic rock (by the way, Jeju is a volcanic island). So imagine hiking uphill for 4 ½ hours on a trail that is made up of craggy and sharp volcanic rock. What were they thinking?! If you ever go there, keep in mind that this is the Songpanak trail. I was cursing it the whole way up! When we got to the top we were soaked through with sweat, but the sense of accomplishment on reaching the summit was awesome. We could see three quarters of the island as well as the surrounding sea and that’s when I realized how small the island really is. In fact, Lonely Planet suggests that you take about 5 days and bike around the island. I’m not a biker, but in theory it sounds nice.

Finally survived the hike!

After a simple meal we were pretty beat, so we decided to head back down. This time we took another trail down which was actually even harder on the legs because, by then, we were so weak that each step jarred the knees, put stress on the ankles and forced us to rest on the way down in order to stabilize our shaking legs. It took us another 3 hours to get down. Every time we though we were done, there was another slope to go down and even some uphill moments every time we exited a ravine. We were practically crying from exhaustion by the time we got back to the entrance of the park.

It was 4pm by then and a new cab driver picked us up taking us to a place called mysterious road. This is a road that seems to be going downhill, but when you stop the car, it seems to be rolling backward up the hill! It’s a pretty cool optical illusion. After that little hiatus, the driver told us that Mini Mini Land was a worthwhile trip. We were so tired we just let him take us. That was probably the only regret I have about the trip. This place is like a Legoland except for the fact that the buildings aren’t made of Lego. Definitely not something you want to walk through after having hiked for 8 hours.

After that walk-through was abbreviated (I could barely walk, regardless of the fact that I was grinning through it), we headed to Songsan Illchulbong, hands down my favorite place in Jeju. It is a small coastal town and we stayed in a minbak there (the Korean name for apartment style rooms with their own kitchens). It’s the Korean equivalent of a bed and breakfast. Below the minbak was a restaurant and, for lack of interest or ability to walk far, we had dinner there. We were the only customers, but I had the best broiled fish of my entire life in that place. It was mackerel and it just melted in my mouth. I’ve eaten it since returning to Seoul, but have yet to taste one as good as the one on Jeju Island (it could also have been the fatigue rendering me delirious, but I doubt it). We also had a seafood soup and I ate my first sea snail in its shell. The shell was so beautiful that I adopted it. It tastes like lambi (conch). We also had what was my first taste of Raspberry wine (bokbuncha). It’s very sweet, but quite good. Later that night we crawled into bed and fell into an exhausted sleep, knowing we would have to get up at the crack of dawn the next day and hike up a crater.

Day 3

We woke up at 4:45a.m., slipped on our clothes and hobbled up the quiet, dark streets towards the looming mountain. We were in so much pain, but you know what they say. Get back on the horse. Songsan Illchulbong is known for its spectacular sunrises. The idea is to get to the top of this mountain crater and watch the sun rise, hence the early start up the mountain. What was good about this place is that they have placed steps the whole way up and it’s a fairly small mountain, in comparison to Halla mountain. But imagine the pain we were in as we walked up flights of stairs for about 30 minutes. All the adjumas (middle-aged women) and adjoshis (middle-aged men) were speeding by us. It was as though we had exchanged bodies for that walk up there.

View from Songsan Illchulbong

Unfortunately, the sky was too cloudy to see the sun rise, but there was a peace and a beauty on the top of that mountain that I’ll never forget. We could even see Halla mountain, the mountain we had climbed the day before, in the distance. It made the trip and the pain and fatigue completely worth it. We stayed up there for a while before finally headed back. This was our last day here and we wanted to make the best of it.

We returned to the minbak, took a nap and then headed out to the pier where we took a ferry to Udo Island (Cow Island). This island is an absolute pearl. Absolutely beautiful and pristine. By then it had started to drizzle (our luck had held until that time). The bus tours going around the island were a bit disorganized and there didn’t seem to be any maps of the island, but the drivers were dynamic and funny (Seung Ah was my translator during the whole trip to Jeju, bless her!).

There are three main beaches that Udo is known for. On that small island they have a black sand beach, a white sand beach and a coral beach. When we got to the coral beach we didn’t understand why it was called this, but we were told that during high tide when the sun is shining, the water takes on a coral color from the crushed coral/sand floor. We were a bit disappointed because we didn’t get a chance to see that.

Haenyos resting

The best part of this trip was the haenyos. Haenyos are part of the history of Jeju and Udo Islands. These are among the hardest working women in the history of this country. Traditionally, only women could become haenyos, or free divers. They would dive for fish and shellfish and could hold their breath for up to two minutes. Over the last 50 years, women have stopped carrying on the tradition and have opted for jobs that are less difficult. As a result, the only haenyos left these days are in their 50s or more. They are still diving. We saw a whole group up them under a gazebo; resting I guess. There must have been a good 40 of them. It was so exciting to see these legendary women in their wetsuits, with their masks on their heads. Later on, we were even luckier to see them working! They were splashing about in the water, the flippers making flapping noises as they reached for the seafloor.

After seeing that, (which was my reason for wanting to come to the island), we headed back to the ferry. By then it had started to rain steadily and heavily. We had an uninspiring lunch of seasoned galbi from a black pig (grilled pork; I’ve eaten way better in Seoul; I think it’s safe to say that if you go to Jeju, focus on the horsemeat and the seafood; don’t bother with the rest). I did get a chance to try yet another new thing that afternoon, an alcoholic drink called mackoli. It is made from rice and some kind of corn meal, I think. In any case, I wasn’t crazy about it because it tasted similar to beer, which has that bitter starchy taste. For those beer lovers, you should enjoy this.

After lunch, we went to a traditional Korean village which has existed for over 400 years. People still live in these villages and keep them in beautiful shape, offering to give free visits in exchange for your willingness to buy something from their little store. I was all for that. The folk-village was called Song-Eup and it was beautiful. It was raining quite steadily and we were given umbrellas for the trip. There we saw the legendary Harubang, which are statues dating back over 250 years that are spread out throughout the island of Jeju. The harubangs’ purpose is a bit of a mystery. They are quite reminiscent of the Easter Island sculptures. People don’t know why they were made, but they are really cute and the theory is that if you touch the nose of a harubang, you will have a boy. If you touch its ear, you will have a girl. It is also said that the harubangs that have their right hand placed above their left represent government workers and the educated population. The ones with the left hand over the right represented the warriors.

Harubangs

I gladly bought something from the store, a concentrated form of tea syrup that you’re supposed to mix with hot or cold water. It is called Omidjacha, or 5 flavors tea. It’s delicious: sweet and tart at the same time. It’s supposedly good for colds too. I’ve been drinking it cold, very refreshing!

After the folk village we headed to Stone Park. By then the rain was lashing away at us and our pants and jeans were soaked through, but we pushed on and into a beautiful world of ancient rock croppings and volcanic remnants. It was very green and very peaceful and interestingly enough, the rain meant that there were few people there and so I felt as though I had stepped into an enchanted land, devoid of others save Seung Ah; a world a thousand years old. It was really magical. We went to the Rock Museum there, but unless you are into geology, I wouldn’t recommend it. There was a lot of focus on the volcanic history of the island and the age of the rocks etc… Those of you Discovery Channel fanatics would probably love this, but it was a bit boring for me. I love science, but I prefer living things.

Stone Park

After leaving the Rock Museum and Stone Park, we headed to the Manjanggul, an underground lava tube. It was really cool but the steps going down were really hard on us because of the pain that we continued to experience. The pictures I’ve taken didn’t turn out so well because I didn’t bring my big flash with me, but hopefully you’ll get an idea of what it’s like to be walking through where lava once flowed. The ground and walls had smooth and rough grooves running through them and there was quite a bit of explanation as to what the different kinds of lava flows were called. I didn’t know there were different names, but I’m here to inform you that yes indeed, there are! I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if we hadn’t been so exhausted and in so much pain, but I’m really happy we got to go.

Manjanggul: striations left by a lava flow

We returned to Seoul that night and had an extra day off the next day to sleep and stretch. Just to let you know, my legs, especially my calves, were on fire for a week after that trip. I’ll never climb that mountain again! ;)

If you ever go to Jeju Island, a word of advice, climb Halla mountain on your last day; this will help you avoid being in pain for the rest of the trip.

P.S. Check out these pictures and another album full of pictures from our day in Everland, the most famous amusement park in South Korea. I went with Seung Ah, Jong In and Jae Jin. It was a blast. There are tons of pictures of this trip. Jae Jin went on a shooting spree!

A City of Beauty and Culture

In March, I was excited to check out the Cherry Blossom festival in Youido, an island in the middle of the Han River in Seoul. I was dissuaded from going during the festival as it would be too crowded, but I was determined to go anyway. As fate would have it, I ended up being too sick to go during the festival and had to wait until after it to go. Son Mi, Jae Jin and I went on the Sunday after the festival was over. It was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon and the trees were covered in delicate white flowers bruised with pink blushes. It was a sight to see (click on the Kodak Gallery link to see more pictures). It was a wonderful day followed by a delicious lunch a 20 minute walk away.

Seoul is a humongous city chock full of cultural stimulation, if you know where to look. Unfortunately, I often miss the opportunities because the tickets are sold out or I’ve found out too late.

But I have been lucky enough to catch a few awesome things. Here they are:

Thanks to Jong In, one of the close friends I’ve made here, I was told about a Rene Magritte exhibit in downtown Seoul. I knew of Magritte because of the famous bowler hat paintings he had made. I was excited to see what else he had to offer. There was a lot. What an amazing man; so much symbolism in his art and the mixture of surrealism and symbolism reminded me of Dali’s work (which I had seen much of outside of Barcelona back in 2005). It was totally worth the trip.

Just a few days later I had the chance to see the Cirque du Soleil in all of its glory. I remember thinking to myself that it was funny that I had lived in Montreal for over 3 years, just steps away from the original Cirque, only to watch it for the first time half way around the world. The production was called Quidam, a wonderful mix of fantasy fit for children, comedy that was international in its humor, and acrobatics that left my mouth open in amazement. The beauty of Cirque du Soleil is the fact that there are no words and therefore no need to translate or adapt the shows to the different cultures. If any of you have the opportunity to see any of the Cirque du Soleil productions, I highly recommend it.

On June 24th, I went with Jong In and Son Mi to see a Korean musical. It is called Subway Line Number 1. It is the longest running musical in South Korea, having existed for about 15 years. Twice a week they have the show subtitled in English so we went on a Sunday evening. The show is actually a rock musical and you could see the musicians behind translucent screens in the background as the actors and singers performed for us. It was an awesome show and I’m glad that I saw it after I had been here for a while. I think it would have been a mistake to see it right away as I would have missed a lot of the subtleties of the humor in reference to the Korean culture. As it was, I laughed quite a bit and it was really cool. It ran a bit long, but I would definitely recommend it.

Last weekend I went to see the Orsay exhibit. Though I lived in France for three years and had been to the Louvre, I hadn’t had the opportunity to go to the Orsay museum in Paris. So, it came to me here! There were fewer paintings than I had expected, but the paintings that were there were definitely worth it. There were paintings from Van Gogh, Manet and Monet, but the best part was my discovery of some new artists. I fell in love with some of the paintings by Albert Bartholome (Dans la Serre), James Tissot ( Le Bal), Henri-Edmond Cross (L’air du soir), Paul Signac (Femmes au Puits) and Odilon Redon (Portrait d’Ari Redon au Col Marin). The colors and the pointillism movement which I had heard about but had yet to see live, were breaths of fresh air that I had badly needed. Check these out when you get a chance and let me know your own thoughts.

Fortunes and Futures Part 1

About one week after Solal weekend, Seung Ah took me to my first fortuneteller! I’ve always wanted to go to one, but I’ve never had enough money and was always wondering whether it was worth it. This experience was very interesting. He wasn’t a fortuneteller per se, instead he did Chinese fortunetelling which is basically mathematical. He asked for my date and time of birth and with that gave me information about my past, my present and my future.

I’ll let you decide whether he’s any good. Here are his predictions about me.

My Past:

- He thought I moved or changed jobs in 2005
- I haven’t had a boyfriend since 2005
- I started to try to make money on my own since 2002 and I didn’t have any real financial trouble
- The financial trouble I perceived I had stemmed from the fact that I was unwilling to accept help from my parents so that’s why I struggled
- I had some trouble in 2006
- I was fated to leave my home in Haiti
- I have had bad luck with men

Who I am/My Present:

- I’m good at managing and teaching; I’m good at conveying information to others
- I have a hard time getting close to men
- I have a strong sense of justice, but society has a hard time following me
- I have a strong personality and I need to control my environment
- I don’t want to have children unless I’m in a stable relationship
- I’m more interested in happiness than in money
- My luck is described by two seasons: Summer and Spring
o Positive, active personality
- I’m eager to learn and to work
- When I meet a guy, I push him away, that’s why it’s difficult for me to be in a serious relationship
- Being a teacher is a good job for me


My Future:

- I won’t have a boyfriend in 2007, but my luck with men will slowly improve in the coming years
- I’ll meet a new group of people this year
- I’ll be studying and will keep learning things for the rest of my life but I won’t get any recognition for it from outside sources
- In 2008-2009 I’ll have a good man and boyfriend in my life, but it will only last for two years
- In 2012-2013 I will meet the man of my life and will ‘marry’ him (keep in mind that in Korea, living with someone implies that you are married because it is not acceptable to live with someone without being married)
- The boyfriends I will have in the future will be friends who will develop into more because I have a hard time getting close to men
- I’ll be traveling a lot in my life; journalism is a good job for me; I’ll never stay in one place for long
- I’ll be changing jobs every 2-3 years because it is what I will wish to do
- I’ll have financial luck in the future
- By the age of 40, I’ll be dissatisfied with my job and will have many offers with different companies that I will refuse because they will not mirror the kind of life I will want
- I will have kids, but I won’t want to depend on men
- I’ll have some problems with my colon and my joints and lungs, but nothing serious
- I’ll be traveling my whole life
- I’ll live a long life

So guys, what do you think? The only extra information I gave him about him was the fact that I came from Haiti. I also objected to his statement about my finances in my past. I found that a lot of the things he told me about my past were not accurate and I told him that I did have financial trouble and that’s when he added the bit on how it was because I refused help from my parents. He also knew that I teach here and that I want to be a journalist, but I didn’t tell him about all the traveling I’ve done nor about the traveling I wish to do in the future.

I didn’t tell him a word about me and my relationships so that came purely from him.

It was quite interesting all in all. I’m not sure I felt as though he was the real deal, but to be fair, he wasn’t quite the fortuneteller with a glass ball etc. He used the Chinese astrology counting system so he did a whole bunch of calculations and this is a field that people study, not that they are naturally born with. In addition, the fortunetelling was done in a brightly lit café where people order drinks and chat with chill music in the background…not at all the dark dingy little corner room I was expecting. I know, I know, I’m a bit on the overly creative side of things.

So I leave it up to you to decide what you think of what he said based on what you know about me. Seung Ah will take me to a palm reader she knows in the near future. I’m curious to compare both people’s prognoses about me. How similar or how completely different will they be? In addition, I’d be really interested in delving into the more obscure and naturally psychic world of fortunetelling to see what those people, with the natural talent, will have to say about me. Are they mind readers, do they really sense something from another world? Are they pulling things out of their asses? What’s the deal? I hope you enjoyed my little experiment. Tune in next time for Part 2 of Fortunes and Futures.

Love,

L

Solal Weekend - February 2007

It has been an eternity, I know. I apologize. I would like to announce that I bought my first computer about a month ago and I’m extremely proud of myself. This is the first time I have been able to purchase something such as this with my own hard earned money. I have arrived! I am an adult! Yeehah!

So I write this on my new HP laptop and it is sweet. It took me a while to get down to the nitty gritty of writing this because I had a computer but no Microsoft Office which I have just recently acquired. Goodbye Notepad!

The subjects of interest this time around will give you an overload of cool stuff to digest. As most of you know, the Lunar New Year usually occurs around February of every year. My Korean students all looked at me quizzically when I asked them what they planned to do for the Chinese New Year. They didn’t know what I was talking about. You see how we Westerns are so ignorant in so many ways? What was I doing saying the "Chinese New Year"? It’s the Lunar New Year and yet in the west we merely associate it to China because we know more about their culture and Japan’s than any other culture in Asia. In Korea, it is called Solal and we got to have a four day weekend.

I hadn’t had any intellectual stimulation for a while at that point and decided to get my act together and do something different. I booked a tour for the DMZ (demilitarized zone) which separates North Korea from South Korea. It was a half-day tour instead of the full-day I had initially wanted, but interesting nonetheless.

To be honest, I had expected to get to the point where you see the South Korean and North Korean guards staring each other down. I was not able to get as close as that. We were actually fairly far away from North Korea and could only catch a glimpse of it in the distance. The experience here was not so much seeing North Korea, but rather all the lengths both governments go through to kind of keep you away from North Korea. I have thought somewhat seriously about visiting North Korea, under no illusions about how controlled the visit would be. I was naïve, however, about the DMZ trip. I thought that by being on the South Korean side things would be a bit more lax. I suppose that, in theory, this is true however things were so incredibly restricted that many times we were wondering what we could possibly take pictures of that would be compromising.

Let me breakdown the weekend for you. The holiday lasted from Friday the 16th of February to Monday the 19th of February included. On that Friday morning I had to wake up at 6:30 to get to the pick-up spot for my DMZ trip. We drove roughly an hour north of Seoul and stopped at an area where the Freedom Bridge is located. This is a bridge that used to be the only access road between North and South Korea. At the end of this bridge is a fence where Koreans and foreigners alike have posted notes of peace and love in light of the situation between the two sides of this divided nation. Under the bridge was a little park where people could sit. In the distance we could see that a family had set up a shrine to which they were praying. The tour guide mentioned that many families would come here to pray for displaced or missing family members from the Korean War. In addition, Solal is the period in the year when people honor the family members who have passed away. This holiday, along with Chuseok, is the most important in terms of family gatherings.

After the Freedom Bridge, we went to an area where we saw a video about the divided nation. It was so commercial and so ‘Western’ that I had no doubts the Americans had helped them develop the video. It was a bit on the cheesy side, to be honest. We then walked through an area where we could read about different situations that had occurred between the two Koreas, the conflicts and plots the North Korean government had to build and eventually attack and overtake South Korea through a series of tunnels. Four tunnels have been discovered up to today, the most recent having been discovered less than ten years ago. People have no idea how many other tunnels may exist. We had an opportunity to go down into one of the tunnels but we couldn’t take any pictures. You could see holes in the walls from dynamite which had been set off to create the tunnel. It was wet and cold down there and fairly interesting.

After the tunnel, we went to Dorasan, a mountain that overlooks North Korea. There was a beautiful view and we had a soldier give us a little presentation. We were not allowed to take pictures from inside, but could from the balcony. But, there is a catch. You could only take pictures from behind the yellow line. You guys, the yellow line was about 5 meters behind the edge of the balcony. It was a joke! The only thing you can see from there is the North Korean mountain range. It was so funny that I took a picture of the line so that you could get an idea how ridiculous it was. But again, that’s part of the experience.

After Dora Mountain, we went to Dora Station, the last train station in South Korea, which in theory should connect both parts of the country if and when they are ready to re-merge. The station is beautiful, but empty. It’s pretty useless for the moment. Over there is a picture of the former South Korean president and President Bush who are both inaugurating the station. I took a picture of that picture. Look closely at it, there is something odd in the picture. I look forward to getting news from you to see who has found the oddity.



The next day, I met up with one of the guys from the tour and one of the teachers from YBM and we went to see an awesome traditional sport: Ssirreum, Korean style wrestling. It was really interesting. An interesting and strange thing: the wrestling is separated into only two weight categories: under 100kgs and over 100kgs. So you ended up seeing someone who was 110kgs wrestling against someone who was 160kgs. That’s a huge difference! An interesting twist to Korean wrestling is that each player has a piece of twisted cloth that is wrapped around his waist and thigh. The opposing player can use only that twisted cloth to throw his opponent. This means that they cannot touch their opponent with their hands. They are required to hook their hands in the cloth and hold on to that and to use that grip to throw his opponent down. This is a very difficult system and it was really cool to watch. There was entertainment between each set where North Korean dancers performed for the audience. It was interesting to see and listen to traditional North Korean entertainment. There was a particular dance called the 4 Seasons where the women changed the colors of their clothes in front of our eyes! I know that there is an explanation to it all, but they would go behind a wall of girls and come back out in different colors. I don’t know how they managed.

At the end of the competition, the winner received some money and a traditional gift, a cow. In the past, cows were given to the winners. Normally the winner would ride on the cow but seeing as this was a calf, he couldn’t possibly do that. He was placed on a throne and was carried around by six high school boys who were very obviously suffering from the weight. It was pretty cute, actually. They were so out of it!

After the competition, Seung Hyon and I went to meet up with some of the other girls at Doksu Palace, another one of the oldest palaces located in Seoul, where we hung around. Afterwards, we went to have dinner in Itaewon (the foreign neighborhood), where we dined at a nice Thai restaurant. Some of them had never eaten Thai before. It was a success. After dinner, we went to Namsan Tower, the Korean equivalent of the CN Tower or the tower in Seattle. We took a cab up the mountain and it was all lit up. The lights were changing on the tower and it was absolutely beautiful. We watched the view from the top of this mountain and it was priceless.



All of Seoul was spread out before us and we could see the Han River weaving through the multi-colored lights. Afterwards we walked down to the spot where we were to take the cable car down the mountain and we walked by something quite fascinating. You know the smoke signal system from Lord of the Rings? Well, Korea had the same system in the past. They had a set of smoke signals spread throughout the country for the same reasons. I took a picture of the historical information about that. You can read it if you’d like.

So that was my Solal weekend! Enjoy the pictures on Kodak Gallery!

March and April: Spring Fever

The month of March was a busy one, filled with work and a sense that things were just going from bad to worse. Throat infections have emerged, relationships have disintegrated and the pace of life has become work, home, sleep, work, home, sleep. Quite the monotonous lifestyle. My first four months here were pure heaven, typical of travels. I’ve experienced this in almost every new place I’ve been to. 2006, a year which had been so unhappy for me, seemed to end on a beautiful note. I had a new country, culture and language to sharpen my teeth on and my experiences continued to be beautiful. I maintain those impressions of Korea.

Of course, it is not perfect. There are aspects to the culture that I think I will always have a hard time dealing with. Those include the incredible rudeness people display in crowds. Apologies are non-existent 95% of the time so you just have to bite your lip and move on. Though in the West I would immediately demand an apology, regardless of the person’s age if they pushed me or cut me off in line, here I’m learning to keep my mouth shut and it is a difficult lesson for me to learn. I don’t want to be the abrasive foreigner who comes to a new country and expects everybody to be and act the way I do. The Koreans themselves don’t say anything when these things happen to them so I follow their example, though it pains me to do it.

I have, however, started to put my foot down when it comes to my apartment building. When people make too much noise after midnight on a weekday and that noise continues for long periods of time, I have decided to knock on their doors and ask them to keep it down. They don’t often open their doors, but they keep it down afterwards. That’s all I want, really.

But I think that this problem stems from an immense city with a large population. Saying sorry to strangers seems to be too much to ask because that would mean that you would have to constantly apologize and I definitely think that Confucious had a say in this attitude as well, especially when regarding how the elders treat younger people.

As I’ve mentioned before, however, once you get to know these people, they make a 180 degree change. They become the sweetest and most generous people I’ve ever met. It is a strange and sometimes confusing country to live in. But I don’t regret a minute of it.

Interestingly enough, my biggest issues and problems here have revolved around, not the Koreans, but the foreigners. I have had more drama in one month with foreigners than I have had in 8 months with Koreans. Yes, that’s right. I’m in my 8th month here. Crazy, right? Time flies.

I never thought about it in quite this way before, but in the end, most relationships have a shelf life. I had made some friends with whom I thought I’d be close and form a strong bond. But each of those relationships reached their expiration dates, much to my dismay and I had to re-evaluate my status here.

I have been able to count on the Korean women at work. They are awesome. We go out to see movies together. We have lunches and dinners and last weekend, we even went to Yoido, an island on the Han River where the cherry blossoms are in bloom. It was a beautifully sunny and warm day and we strolled along the avenue taking pictures of these trees. We then went to have lunch together followed by some frozen yogurt in yet another part of Seoul. It’s such a huge city!

And though I love these friends, there is a point which you cannot cross. The kind of intimacy of conversation that I was able to have with my friends in the West, I cannot have here. There are some invisible barriers that are erected that are not wise to cross. When people have problems here, they tend to keep it to themselves. When they talk about relationships, they give the absolute minimum information and then the conversation is over. And you know how talkative and analytical I am. I need to talk things to death in order to deal with problems. These are the types of issues I’ve been dealing with. Nothing too serious, but a definite sense of solitude that I will have to adjust to. Traveling is wonderful. Exploring a new world is pure magic, but along with those wondrous experiences also come the more sobering aspects of adjusting to a culture not your own. It is a humbling experience that never fails to keep me on the right track.

But separate from the challenges of a new cultures are the challenges that people face around the world, in any situation, at any time. And that is the shelf life theory of relationships.

A person recently told me that he no longer wanted to know me. He merely crossed me off his list. This is the first time anyone has ever wanted to eliminate me from their lives in such a way. It was a very difficult thing to swallow. I started to question myself as a result of his words. I was in shock, wondering how someone could think that I’m such a bad and mean person that they would not want me in their lives anymore. A friend gave me a figurative slap in the face. He became almost impatient with me as he told me that I should not even question my worth or myself as a person. And he’s right. He was part two of my wake-up call. Part one was a lovely Australian friend who let me ramble on until there were no more words. And he reassured me that my honesty, though perhaps a bit difficult to hear at times, is what makes me the person that I am. I have never hidden who I am. I am an open book and those that choose to ignore that side of me will do so to their detriment. I have nothing to apologize for. I have never set out to hurt others and that is a creed that I have promised to uphold. When someone asks for the truth, they must be prepared to hear my version of it as I must be when I ask it of others. So, I have to thank these lovely people in my life; people with whom I see no expiration date: thanks to Ben and Steve.

It is always a humbling experience when others indicate that their ideas of your worth fall far below your own perceptions of your worth. It is definitely important to listen to others and try to understand peoples’ reasons for acting in certain ways. It is also important to determine whether these words are words that you hear repeatedly from others. If they are, this is a reason for pause, but if those words are unique and negative and don’t represent a general impression of what others consider you to be, you must gather your wits about you and maintain your dignity and the trust that you have in yourself. Pain, as difficult as it is to believe at the time of infliction, does fade and we must take that to build upon and learn from.

This is undoubtedly an unusual entry. I have turned the camera away from the country and onto to me. I promise, it shall not always be this way.

Keep reading, I’ve got lots more to say about this fascinating country in upcoming entries.

Love,

L

Christmas Parties and Noraebangs

Hello all! It's been a while and I meant to put this up weeks ago, but you know how life is...This has been a bit of a rocky New Year so far but I have faith that things will work out. For the first time, I've had trouble with some of my students. Three of them, in three different classes, all of whom are men and are in their early to mid 30s. For some reason, they have issues with me and it makes teaching them a bit on the difficult side. And for those of you who know me well, I'm a pretty sensitive person so it's a bit hard to deal with that kind of blatant rejection. I do have to tell myself that it's impossible for everyone to like me and it does work most of the time, but not always. But anyway, let me give you some fun stuff to read about and some fun pictures to look at.

'Tis a pleasure to be getting back to you not only with new pictures but also with some videos taken at the Noraebang on December 23rd, 2006. It was an awesome night. Let me start from the beginning:Our office decided to have a Christmas party for everyone. Earlier in the day, one of the teacher's, Son Mi, took me to a place that I will be forever grateful to her for: an outdoor local market close to my neighborhood. I had asked people for months about where I could go buy groceries because I found E-Mart so expensive! And it truly is. Though it's kind of like a K-Mart, the food section is ridiculously expensive and I cringe whenever I go to the checkout section. Son Mi opened up my world to a wonderfully fresh market where you can find pretty much anything and vegetables and meat are way cheaper than at E-Mart. I have found my new shopping district. Now, whenever I want to go to the market, all I have to do is hop on a bus and take a 10 minute ride and I'm there! Though I didn't have my camera and therefore didn't take pictures of the market, we nonetheless had lunch there and I tried something new: Soondae and Kope Chang with glass noodles in a hot and spicy sauce. Okay, so let me explain. Many foreigners hate Soondae because in truth it is blood sausage. But my images of blood sausage up until then was French style 'boudin', which is coagulated blood cooked in the intestinal pouch of beef (I think, or maybe it's pork?). I have tried boudin and was not really crazy about the texture nor the idea of literally eating blood. I was expecting the same thing here so I was a bit apprehensive but was willing to try anyway. As an appetizer we had some cold Soondae and liver pate. The liver was excellent, by the way. I tried the soondae and was surprised to find out that the intestinal lining was not filled with blood but was instead stuffed with glass noodles. Yes, there is some blood, but it wasn’t swimming in it and I didn’t feel like I was eating pure blood. It was not bad! Not something I’d order on a regular basis, but all in all, not bad. Our main course arrived and I thought we were going to have noodles with soondae and pieces of pork. Well, dear friends, Kope Chang is actually tripe! Yup, innards and innards for lunch. It was a surprise, like I said, but all in all, not bad. I’m not a big fan of innards but my grandmother used to make tripe in a sauce when I would visit her in the summers and it wasn’t bad either. So, though I think I’ll never be a fan of this type of food (innards etc…) it’s nice to eat different things from time to time. After eating, I bought onions, pork, beef, mushrooms, beans, broccoli and tomatoes for the incredible price of 20,000won. It would have cost me twice that much at E-Mart. Don’t you just love outdoor markets! Upon returning to my place we had some tea to warm us up and then Son Mi helped me choose something for the Christmas party, something Christmassy. It was fun to dress up since I do that so rarely. The party was lots of fun. There were only two of us there that were non-Korean speakers but that was part of the fun. We were nicely integrated into the cultural feel of Christmas in Korea. We had an interesting gift-exchange system that I would recommend to you guys in future years with large groups of friends or with co-workers. Each person bought a gift that could be used by a woman or man. Numbers were mixed in a box and people had to pick a number. The first number has the worst luck because they had to pick one gift and they are stuck with it. The last person, number 20 for example, could either choose the last gift on the table or choose any other person’s gift among the people who has already opened their presents. So the idea is that you can steal someone else’s gift that has been opened. I was lucky enough that no one wanted my nice scarf but there were many other exchanges that were pretty funny because people were running away from the people who wanted to take their gift. We had a blast. There was good music, good food and good company. After leaving the office we decided to go to a Noraebang, which is a Korean-style Karaoke. It was awesome. My first time to a Noraebang in Korean, there were 20 of us and we got a big room in a Noraebang a block from our work. We sang for hours and drank and danced and played drums with Moon Jong’s daughter. There were a lot of songs to choose from and pretty much everyone took a shot at the microphones. But the star of the night was our boss, Cane, whom you will see in all his glory in many of the pictures I have posted. You will also get to see short videos of me dancing and fooling around (incidentally also a bit sloshed) with the boys while they sang horribly and loudly into the mikes.

Hope you enjoy our moments of glory. Love ya! L

Korean Weddings etc...

Hello all!

Hope you are well. I'm here to guide you through the new pictures I put up on the Kodak Gallery. You are invited to check that out as soon as your done reading this.

About a month ago, one of our teachers here at YBM, Son Hwa, invited all the teachers to her wedding. I was so excited to see a typical modern/traditional Korean wedding ceremony. So here it goes:

Most weddings take place in beautifully decorated halls in highrises. Seeing as she is Protestant (which they call Christian here; they make a distinction between being Christian and being Catholic) they had a spiritual Western ceremony with a very vivacious pastor who used his microphone to the full extent of its capacities. Even if you wanted to block him out, it was impossible. But I could see he seemed to really believe what he was saying and I learned a new word that day: 하나님(Hananim), which means God.

I was warned previous to the wedding that Korean weddings are typically very loud affairs and that I shouldn't get offended because a lot of people standing in the back of this open hall would be talking as if at a social event, which this kind of is. You see, the halls are not closed off and weddings take about 15 minutes. Actually, let me backtrack a little. First the bride goes into a tiny room for professional pictures before the wedding while the organizers hurry to set up the place for the new couple. Then the wedding takes place and basically anybody can attend it because the hall is open in the back where there is a hallway separating the ceremonial hall from the buffet area.

The tradition is to give about 10,000won (around 10 dollars) to pay for your meal. The buffet is huge and has a whole multitude of different kinds of food fit for a king. So we saw the fiery speech by the pastor/minister and then the tradition is to go take professional pictures with the newlyweds. First there are the pictures with the family, then there are pictures with co-workers and friends, so we got to be in that one! There is another roll somewhere in my plastic bag full of a dozen rolls of film with more pictures, but I'll just add them when I get around to developing them. After taking the pictures, we went to eat but only had about 30 minutes before we were kicked out (they had to prepare another buffet...). But we were to be treated by another amazing and, this time, very new experience for me: the traditional Korean Wedding ceremony.

Okay, so it was not exactly 100% traditional, but still... traditionally, the ceremony takes place at the bride's house (in the garden) and the groom comes into the garden riding a horse and the bride is being carried in a kind of man-held carriage of the olden days...now, most Korean weddings take place in halls after the Western style wedding is over and that's what happened that day. We went to a much smaller room where Son Hwa was already dressed in all her glory in this gorgeous red wedding hanbok.

Traditionally, red is a symbol for celebration and white a symbol for death, actually quite like India. Today, close family members of the deceased people still wear a traditional white hanboks, specific to funerals, but most other people have reverted to wearing black. So, there are a good number of pictures of this traditional Korean wedding with the appropriate explanations per picture. Feel free to make comments or ask questions.

After the wedding I went to have coffee with the Korean teachers. It was a really nice time that day. Aside from the Korean wedding, I have had some other cool experiences. My former boss asked me to check out the universities that they have partnerships with so I arranged to have a tour of Korea University, one of the most prestigious universities in Korea. It was a gorgeous campus and probably the most hi-tech university I've ever seen with amazing computer and multimedia labs. Anyway, I took some shots of the typical colors we could find in the city during the fall. Gorgeous colors!

My current boss invited some of the teachers to see a Premier League Soccer game at one of the World Cup stadiums a few weeks ago. And of course, it had to be the coldest day of the year so far that day with about -11degrees Celcius. We were jumping up and down trying to stay warm while the manly men plied themselves with beer to stave off the cold.

After the game, I was convinced to go out for dinner though I was tired and I'm so glad I was encouraged to do so. We went to a typical Hwe restaurant for dinner. Hwe is the name for raw fish in Korean. We had flounder which was excellent and when asked what follow-up dish we wanted, Todd suggested the wonder of wonders...live baby octopus (sannakji)! I was totally for it. So we ordered it and when it arrived, the little suckers were squirming all over the plate! It was crazy! I wish I had had a video camera to be able to show you how impressive it was. Some of the tentacles were even moving off the plate!

The dish was garnished with slivers of raw cucumber and sesame seeds and we had to dip the octopus in sesame oil before putting it in our mouths. We tried to get the things with our chopsticks but it was impossible. They were sticking to each other and to the plate so we had to take them with our fingers. They stuck to our fingers! I finally put it into my mouth, all for the extraordinary experience, and I felt the tentacles sticking to the inside of my mouth, suctioned fast. It was such a strange and alarming and cool experience all rolled up into one! I had to chew very quickly to get it to stop sticking. It was a lot of fun and it was actually quite delicious! We washed it down with sansachun, my new favorite Korean alcohol beverage which tastes a bit like white wine.

Well, those are my experiences up to date! There are a few extra pictures that are randomly added but are explained at the bottom of the pictures (as are all pictures, of course)

Love!

L

Comment Acceder aux Photos sur Kodak Gallery

Bonjour!

J'ai reussi a creer un compte pour le site de Kodak Gallery ou vous pouvez acceder aux photos de la Coree.

Vous n'avez qu'appuyer sur le bouton marque Kodak Gallery et mettre:

username: leitainkorea@yahoo.com

password: traveler

A bientot!

How To View Pictures on KodakGallery

Hi,

I created a new username and password so that you can access my pictures on Kodak Gallery without having to create your own username and password.

To access these pictures, just click on the Kodak Gallery link and then enter in the following information:

username: leitainkorea@yahoo.com

password: traveler

and you're in!

Enjoy!!!!

E.V. Chu-Seok

In the first week of October, Korea was scrambling to prepare for one of the biggest holidays of the year: Chu-Seok. Chu-Seok is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, the harvesting time here and therefore also the time to spend with family, not eating turkey but instead kimchi and other delights. Chu-Seok fell on October 6th this year, a Friday, but was preceded by Korean National Foundation Day on the 3rd of October creating a week-long holiday for most office workers in Korea. People rushed to buy gifts and food and often went home to the countryside to spend this time with family. Some of my students admitted that they experienced stress during such a period, but most talked about feeling good during this time. I have been closely observing the Korean way of life and family is by far the most important thing in people's lives here. This love/devotion to family can be both healing and destructive as honor is prized above other things and people often feel forced to accomplish things or fit in merely from the familial and social pressures.

The pictures depicted here are some eye candy for the many places in Seoul that I visited during that week. Mi-Hwa, a sweet former student of mine as well as a former staff member of my YBM Guro location took me to Gyonbokgung Palace the day before Chu-Seok to show me a symbol of Korean history and culture. It was a beautifully warm day with a bright sun and I felt as though we had left the city to go into a new world. I didn't get a chance to go to the three museums on site that day, but I plan to do that sometime in the coming months. I truly felt the Asian pull that day and finally felt really ensconced in Asia since my arrival. This palace looks like the palaces you see in movies of ancient Chinese civilizations...it was awesome to walk through this gigantic area where kings and queens used to walk hundreds of years earlier.

After the Palace, we went to have dinner in Jongno where I had samgyopsal for the first time. Absolutely delicious and probably the dish I like the best here though there is so much to choose from! It is basically bbq pork, though not with the western bbq sauce you might be thinking of. Kalbi is also delicious but is beef instead of pork and is traditionally much more expensive than pork here. Here, you can have samgyopsal for two as well as Kimchi Kalguksu for about 20,000won. It's pretty cheap for two people.

After dinner we walked along the Chyungyechun Canal at night, the first time I was to see it lit up. It was gorgeous and I've taken pictures but the quality is not great online. The original pictures are nicer. This area of Jongno is known for being quite romantic and you will see tons of couples holding hands there. It can be a bit discouraging for us single ones, but it's still a nice sight to see.

After that, we walked down a bit and passed in front of Doksu Palace. We didn't go inside but Mi Hwa indicated that the sidewalk in front of the Palace is notorious for relationship break-ups. People have been known to bring their significant other there to break up with them. How sad and crass! Imagine your boyfriend telling you, "babe, let's go for a walk", and you find yourself in front of Doksu and you know exactly what will happen! ;)

Doksu is right next to the City Hall where the world filmed Korea watching the World Cup. Imagine that place with millions up people up and down the street and spread out on the grass here. There are many large screens on sides of buildings in this part of town for such occasions.

The next day, I was invited to Incheon to have Chu-Seok dinner with Harvey, a former teacher at YBM and his girlfriend Young-In. It was fun! I had song-pyon for the first time, a type of Tok (traditional Korean dessert made with rice paste and sweet, but not too much). This type of tok comes in green or white. The green version is made with some type of herb but I didn't like it as much. The white one has a sweet center made with sesame seeds and some kind of syrup. Yummy! After hanging out at their place for a while, we went to dinner where I had Kalbi for the first time. It was really good! That's the picture you see below.

Young-In is camera shy but apart from that, she's more outgoing than I am! Definitely not a typical Korean woman! The next day, Harvey and Young-In came into town (Incheon is a suburb of several million people about an hour's subway ride outside of central Seoul). We went to the annual Seoul Drum Festival which took place at another old palace in the north-western part of Seoul. It was awesome! There were musicians from around the world such as Senegal, Singapore, Italy and Japan. There were also many Koreans percussionists playing all kinds of music, from traditional (awesome but difficult to describe) to classical (western) to modern.

That was my basic Chu-Seok experience. The pictures you will discover by clicking on the Kodak Gallery link will also show you times I spent in Insadong at a teahouse with a French friend I made when I arrived. We went to a teahouse where we had gamjajin, a type of potato pancake, in a wonderful atmosphere of orange lamps and tons of plants. You will also see a picture of some of the teacher's from YBM who went out to have a girls' night out eating Kalbi and sampgyopsal as well as Hote-Tok, a delicious Korean-style donut.

We also spent some time in Insadong where we watched a man in a window demonstrate how to make Chinese pasta. It was the most amazing process! He took a wad of dough and proceeded to multiply the dough into spaghetti pieces! He mutiplied it into such thin pieces with this amazing rhythm that it was like a dance... And then we saw the same exact process done with...honey! Can you imagine! I took pictures of the making of the honey dessert called Kkul Tarea. They didn't come out perfectly but I think well enough for you to see how it's done.

I've labeled all the pictures so that you can know all you need to know. Feel free to ask questions if all is not clear.

Other interesting things:

1. I've discovered something I like better than Soju, though it's a bit more expensive: San Sa Chune.

2. The largest cut of bills in the Korean Won is 10,000, which is the equivalent of about 12 Canadian dollars. So imagine wanting to take out a hundred dollars or more. You end up with such a huge wad of cash that you feel like hiding!

I will try to take some pictures of my apartment so that you can see it in its finished glory, now that I have my stuff here! I love my place!

Till next time!

Love,

L

E.V. Personal Observations

1. When you order coffee at a cafe, sugar comes in liquid form. I'm not sure what plant the sugar here comes from, but it's a cool concept that I have not seen used on such a wide scale before.
2. Ashtrays here are either filled with coffee or white napkins. This prevents the smoke from continuing to float after people have finished smoking and therefore prevents any extra smells. I think everyone should adopt this system! In addition, though many men smoke here, the restaurants are not very smokey and people don't smoke in your face. Most people smoke in the street but not so much in restaurants. I've heard that they will soon ban smoking in all restaurants though some restaurants have banned it individually already.
3. Gingko Biloba trees are everywhere here! They are beautiful trees with leaves that look like little green fans that produce a fruit which looks like a yellow cherry. The fruits have been falling from the trees that line almost all streets in Seoul recently and you can find older men and women picking them up everyday. I've found out that they often roast the gingko nuts as they would chestnuts and that apparently it's good for the health to protect against something or another. (Dad, I will let you explain to everyone what the health benefits are because I remember you being the first person to once talk to me about the gingko biloba; just sign up and post a message) I must say this though... for the longest time, whenever I was walking home in the afternoons I would smell what smelled like vomit always in the same spot and I thought it was pretty disgusting but having grown up with all kinds of smells in Haiti, I never thought to ask. I later found out that ripe gingko nuts, when they have splattered on the sidewalk and the sun has baked them a bit, give of the wonderful smell of vomit, just in case you needed a little pick-me-up. It was a revelation...
4. The older women in this country are called hadjimas, or aunts. They are referred in this way by all people as a general sign of respect to the elders although some Koreans have told me that it's no longer acceptable to call them such. I'm in a constant state of confusion because some people say some things are okay and others say they aren't... An interesting little observation Lori led me to discover is that when walking up hills, hadjimas will walk backwards in order to keep from getting too tired. I saw this one day and it was a pretty strange and yet very cool site. In Haiti, people walk in a zig-zag manner. It's so amazing traveling, you guys. You end up noticing the slightest little things that make this world so incredibly diverse and interesting.
5. The Fall here is amazing. It only started getting colder this week (October 23ish) and we've had a few showers but apparently Korea is known for having an average of 4 sunny days to 3 overcast days. I tell you, those odds are better than those of Strasbourg for me. All ready, in the two months I've been here, I've seen more sun than I did in 4 months in Strasbourg. Thank God for that!
6. The rainy season here is not in the Spring, as most would think, but in the Summer like in Florida. Guess why? In the summer it's typhoon season and therefore they can get torrential rains and it gets really humid as well. We'll have to see about that...
7. I have noticed a few times now, a great big cauldron filled with bugs that are cooking in the streets of Insadong and have realize that they consist of Bondegi, silk-worm larvae. The smell is atrocious but my curiosity is great. I will let you know when I have mustered up the courage to try it.
8. Learning Korean is so hard! I take 7 1/2 hours of Korean a week and I'm not moving nearly as quickly with it as I had hoped. I'm afraid that I will not reach my goal of understanding 50% by December but I'm not giving up! The Koreans seems impressed with my progress but I still feel bogged down by it. It does feel good to be able to ask for milk at the convenient store though!
9. The food here continues to amaze me. The more dishes I try, the more I'm falling in love with the food and the side dishes! People here are surprised that I tend to gravitate towards all the spicy dishes. I guess they aren't used to seeing foreigners grab the green peppers and bite into them as though they were carrots! But I will speak of food another time.
10. The people here continue to amaze me with their kindness and generosity. I have started to get even closer to the female Korean teachers here and I'm finding them such a welcome addition to my life. There is an easy bond here that has formed in 2 months in Seoul that I didn't find in 3 years in Strasbourg. It's funny how people are. Don't get me wrong, I did make some good friends in Strasbourg, but it was a long process and it was only as I was preparing to leave that my friendships started to solidify. The friendships here are solidifying at an amazing rate and I've been invited to spend a weekend hiking in a mountain close to the hometown of one of the teachers in 3 weeks. Her family lives in one of the oldest cities in Korea and I will hopefully get a chance to visit that city as well. I'm really excited as I have not really left Seoul since getting here.
11. And lastly, I am still enjoying my classes. The diversity of the students and the levels of the classes are a pleasure and though preparation takes a long time, I'm trying to mix things up and have incorporated music days where we listen and dissect music by Bjork, Sting, Brian Adams, The Cranberries, Sheryl Crow, Robbie Robertson and Sade. It adds some spice!
12. Keep the comments coming guys! I love to hear what you think!

V.F. 10 Raisons d'Etre Coreen

10 Raisons d'Etre Coreen - Anonyme

1. La nouriture est delicieuse; on peut manger comme un refugie sans prendre du poids (tres vraie! J'ai perdu du poids depuis mon arrivee et les gens mangent enormement ici!)
2. On peut acheter une nouvelle voiture pour le montant de deux mois de salaire (apparement ceci etait vraie il y a 30 ans mais plus maintenant)
3. On peut grimpee une montagne dans la campagne sans avoir besoin d'equipment special (je vous tiendrai au courant...)
4. On peut connaitre les gouts musicaux des conducteurs de bus et de taxis en montant dans leur vehicule (je n'ai pas vraiment note ceci, mais peut etre je suis immunise)
5. Quatres saisons et 5000 ans d'histoire (certainment vrai en ce qui concerne l'histoire, et c'est une histoire fascinante, mais pour l'instant je connais qu'une saison et c'est geniale. Nous avons eu des temperatures dans les environs de 24 degres Celcius les mois de Septembre et Octobre. C'est geniale!)
6. Le soju coute autant que l'eau (ceci est vrai! Souvenez vous que le soju est une boisson alcoholise a base de riz ou patate qui a un gout un peu comme du sake japonais mais qui est bu frais)
7. Les lois de la rue ne sont jamais applique (je ne peux pas vous dire pour cela vu que je ne conduis pas encore ici, mais je compte passer mon permis ici a un moment donne)
8. On peut payer le percepteur avec l'argent de poche (je ne suis pas vraiment persuade par ce commentaire puisque j'ai du verse a peu pret 300,000 won pour mon premier mois de salaire qui est environ 250euros mais ceci inclus aussi l'assurance maladie et l'assurance retraite)
9. Tous les restaurants offrent une sorte de nouriture "d'endurance" (Eh oui! En Coree le concept de l'endurance dans la nouriture est enorme! Tous est promu pour nous informer des avantages des produits sur la sante. Mes etudiants hommes m'ont dit qu'en ete ils boivent souvent la soup a la viande de chien parcequ'en ete il fait tres chaud et ils ont besoin de l'endurance pour bien travailler. La viande de chien est un exemple de nouriture d'endurance. Je vais devoir en essayer un jour...)
10. Les taxis et le tabac sont omnipresent et bon marche (Disont que ce n'est pas difficile de trouver un taxi ici. Heureusement! Apres mes mesavantures a Strasbourg ou les conducteurs de taxis refusaient de me prendre au plein milieu d'hiver a 3hrs du matin, c'est bien de savoir qu'ici j'ai pas mal de choix et ce n'est pas trop cher!)

E.V. -Top Ten Reasons for Being Korean

1. The food is delicious; you can eat like a refugee and still not gain any weight (so true you guys! I've actually lost weight since getting here and people eat so much!)

2. Can buy a new car for a couple of months' salary (apparently this was true 30 years ago, but not so much now)

3. Can climb any mountain in the country in a day without any special equipment (I'll have to let you know about that one...)

4. Get to learn the driver's taste in music whenever you ride the bus or take a taxi (haven't noticed it particularly yet, but perhaps I'm immune!)

5. Four seasons and 5000 years of history (definitely true about the history, and a fascinating one at that, but as for the 4 seasons, I'm still enjoying the incredibly mild 24 degrees Celcius and slowly changing leaves. What a wonderful Fall!)

6. Soju costs as much as bottled water (this is true! Remember, soju is Korean rice or potato based alcohol that tastes a bit like Japanese Sake but is drunk cold or cool)

7. Traffic laws are never enforced (don't know about that, but I do plan on getting a Korean driver's license, apparently it's doable)

8. You can pay the taxman with your pocket change (I'm not so sure that is still true; I gave approximately 300, 000 won for my first month's salary which is roughly 300 Canadian dollars but that includes retirement funds and health insurance as well)

9. Every restaurant offers some sort of 'stamina' food (Yes, Yes, Yes! in Korea, the concept of stamina food is huge! Everything is promoted to inform you of the advantages of the product on your health. My male students have told me that in the summer men eat dogmeat soup because it is very hot in the summer and they need stamina to keep working. Dogmeat is one example of stamina food. I'll have to see what that's like one day...)

10. Taxis and tobacco are ubiquitous and cheap (Let's just say that it's not hard to find a taxi. Thank God! After my experiences in Strasbourg where taxi drivers would ignore you and leave you stranded in the middle of winter at 3am, it's nice to know that you have a decent choice and the price is reasonable)

VF - Semaine 4 - La scene Etrangere

Bonjour Tous le Monde!

Je sais que cela fait assez longtemps depuis mon dernier message mais j'avais un rhume qui me tuait et ensuite nous avons eu le Thanksgiving Coreen la semaine derniere et je n'ai pas eu de travail pendant cette periode. Depuis, je me concentre a trouver les meubles etc... pour l'apartement et je visite de nouvelles endroits chaque semaine. Je me suis beaucoup amuse pendant cette semaine de Thanksgiving Coreen et j'ai fait pleins de choses interessantes mais je vous expliquerai une prochaine fois avec des photos en plus.

Je voulais vous parler de ma 4ieme semaine ici et des observations interessantes que j'ai eu. Premierement, j'ai ete tres chanceuse and surprise de rencontrer une autre amie que je ne pensais pas voir ici. Lori et une personne sympathique que j'ai rencontre en ete 2005 a Miami. Nous avons passe beaucoup de temps a parler de Seoul, a l'epoque, puisqu'elle y vit depuis environ 5 ans. Elle est encore ici pendant un mois et j'ai pu la voir et prendre le temps de boire quelques vers et profiter pour dancer un peu a Itaewon.

Avant de la rencontrer ce samedi la, j'ai pris mon cours de Coreen habituel samedi apres-midi and heureusement j'ai aussi eu le temps de manger un peu avant. J'ai decide de m'arreter dans un petit restaurant dans le quartier de Sookmyung University et essayer un nouveau plat, bipimbap. Ce plat et tres sain et consiste de riz, un melange de legumes crus et cuits, un oeuf cuit, ainsi que plein de pate de piment rouge. Normalement les legumes dedans sont les suivants: concombres, epinards, d'autre legumes et une racine d'une fleur qui s'appelle balloonflower. Je n'ai pas trouver de traduction en francais pour cette plante mais je vous joint l'explication (la racine de cette espece (radix platycodi) est utilise en abondance en Asie comme anti-inflammatoire dans le traitement de rhumes et toux. En Korea la plante est connu sous le nom doraji -도라지 - et sa racine, seche ou frais, est un ingredient populaire dans les salades et la cuisine traditional). Ce plat est delicieux et on le melange avec la pate de piment et tous les legumes. Mmmm... On recoit aussi de petits plats (comme des tapas) a cote avec a peu pres 4 types de legumes prepares differement mais souvent vinaigre. Si jamais vous voulez essayer quelque chose de simple, sain et bon dans un resto Coreen je vous recommend ceci, particulierement pour les vegetariens.

En tous cas, apres ceci, je suis allez a mon cours et ce jours-la on a apris les parties du corps. Ce qui est comique c'est qu'en Coree, ils ont la meme chanson a apprendre aux jeunes les parties du corps qu'en Amerique du nord. Je m'attendais pas dutout a ca. Je me suis bien amuse en faisant les gestes et en chantant a haute voix!

Le soir, quand j'ai rencontre Lori, nous sommes allees a un nouveau bar qui s'appelle B-One. Ce nom est ce que les gens ici appelle le premier niveau du sous-sol. Effectivement, le bar est dans le sous-sol. C'etait tres beau, tres esthetique et moderne avec un DJ...super sympa.

Apres quelques Rhum et Cocas nous avons decide d'allee danser dans un bar/boite de nuit gaie qui s'appelle Queen. Imaginez vous qu'il y a une colline a Itaewon qui s'appelle Gay Hill (Colline des Gaies) ou tous les gaies ont tendance a frequenter. Il y a aussi une colline que s'appelle Hooker Hill (Colline des prostitues). Vous pouvez bien imaginer qui frequentent cette colline! Tres bizarre! En tous cas, a Queen, il y avait une combinaison de personnes tres eclectiques mais quand meme la majorite etait etrangers. Alors, pas quelque chose que j'aimerai faire toutes les semaines, mais sympa une fois pars mois. J'aimerais decouvrir d'autres parties de la scene de boites de nuits comme dans le quartier de 'Hongik', pres de l'universite de Hong. Apparement ils ont pleins de boites sympathiques, ce qu'on appelle des boites 'underground' avec de la musique 'live'. Bientot, j'espere...

En parlant d'autres choses, une de mes etudiantes du mois dernier etait enceinte de 8 mois. Je lui ai demande si elle connaissait le sexe du bebe. Elle m'a annonce que c'etait un petit garcon. Je voulais savoir si elle avait deja choisi un nom pour lui et elle m'a informe qu'en Coree, si le bebe est un garcon, ce sont les beau parents qui choisissent le nom. Typiquement, il vont voir un cartomancien ou une diseuse de bonne augure qui leur donnera le nom propice au bebe pour ammener a la famille le plus de prosperite possible. Quand les femmes sont enceintes de petites filles, les parents on le doit de choisir le nom des filles puisque les filles n'ont pas le meme status d'importance en Coree. Eh bien! Que peux-tu faire?

Je peux quand meme vous dire que la Coree du Sud est dans une situation assez precaire puisqu'aujourd'hui il y a un nombre insuffisant de femmes dans le pays qui mene a une baisse de taux de naissances et donc des problemes pour l'economie. Ils vont devoir trouver une solution a ce problem dans les annees a venir.

La meme etudiante dont je vous ai parle, m'a aussi explique que de plus en plus il y a une minorite de personnes qu'on appelle DINK: Double Income No Kids. Cela veut dire, Double Revenue, Pas d'Enfants. Je n'avais jamais entendu parler de ce concepte mais je le trouve tres interessant. Ce sont, en pratique, des jeunes couples qui decide de ne pas avoir d'enfants a cause du fait que c'est si cher, aujourd'hui, d'elever des enfants. Ils preferent, donc, de profiter de leur vie de couples sans famille. Eh bien, ci cela leur plait, je dit bravo...