Week 5 - Jeju-Do Part 1

So on Monday, Ji-Eun and I headed to Jeju. I was a bit concerned because I heard that the island was really flooded because of the Typhoon 4 days earlier, but honestly you really couldn't tell that a typhoon actually hit. Wild.

So we met our tour guide and headed to the hotel and then headed out to go visit a museum called Loveland. We were headed back to hotel but our taxi driver was really very informative and so we got to go on the "Mysterious Road." Which turns out it an optical illusion road. You look like you are going uphill but if you cut the engine off (which he did) you actually roll UP hill. That was really wild.

Then he recommended that we go to "Old Jeju" for dinner. So we did, and ended up at an Italian Restaurant to eat dinner. We walked around in the dark for a bit, climbing over various lava rocks, which of course I picked up several. :o)

The next day, we had breakfast and headed on our action packed tour. The tour was completely in Korean so I had NO idea what was going on. I just went with the flow or poked Ji-Eun to translate. She's like Kim, hates paying attention. haha

Our first trip was to Hallsan, which is the huge inactive volcano in the center of the island. It was raining very lightly so we put on some rain jackets, which was just like the character SamSoon wore in the Korean TV show. So Ji-Eun and I had fun reenacting the scenes from the movie, while all the other people in the group were trying to figure out if we were in need of some sort of psychotic drugs. ;o)

We didn't actually go to the top of the mountain 'cuz we needed to go to our next stop, Chinese Circus. Which is just rather random to me, but ok. They had a rather awesome trick where they had 8 motorcycles doing tricks inside this enclosed ball.

After the circus, we headed to a Green Tea farm. Ji-Eun and I walked around at what we thought was a fast pace, but turns out we were holding up the bus. Yeesh! So they started giving us time limits so we knew when to head back to the bus.

After that, we went to a place called "Spirit Garden." Basically a small plant garden that allows you to meditate while you take care of them. The plants were very beautiful, I just loved how so many of the plants were entwined with stone. Too bad I can't bring any back to the US.

So after having a really awesome lunch there, we headed to a state run Orange Grove. Where I bought this rather expensive mushroom tea for my mother, suppose to be really good for your health.

Then it was off to our next destination. Sanbangsan, which was just so beautiful. I took a lot of pictures of the various inlets. Ji-Eun and I were going to go off farther along the coast but the tour guide pointed us back to the bus. :oP

We had an option of doing a submarine trip or doing something else. We decided we wanted to the submarine trip. Which was just awesome. The water was just so beautiful. I really wanted to go swimming the entire time I was there but nope, no place for us to even do that.

Our last trip of the day was for us to go see this Magpie bridge. There was a myth that went with it but I don't remember what it was. The bridge definitely had a very high arch! Which you could see the waterfall from.

The Waterfall was really beautiful!! 

I will have finish up part 2 when I return from this weekend's trip! You will have to wait until then to see the rest of the pictures! Muhahaha!

An-yong!

Week 5 - Recap

Did you guys miss me? ;o)

This was a rather eventful week and I'm about to go to another event (Andong Mask Festival). I need to get my stuff together for it in a couple of minutes actually. So I will have to just kinda write what I can for now.

So on Friday, I took the "Slow" train to Busan. The train was like 10 minutes slower than the bullet train. haha! Turns out it is because between Daegu and Busan, the Bullet train really can't get up to speed. The big difference in speed would be from Busan to Seoul, which by KTX (Bullet Train) takes about 2 hours, and the other train takes about 8 or 9 hours. O_O

The ride was pretty uneventful, which is always good. I arrived at my Aunt's home and met my cousin from China. She was in Korea because her sister was dying from Diabetes. I wanted to see her in the hospital but I think that the family really wanted to keep me away from seeing her in her condition. I did meet my other cousin in the hospital lobby though, he was just really happy to see me. He said he and I were really great friends when we were kids, but unfortunately, I don't remember him. :o( He was rather tickled to see me, just blabbering in Korean to me, which I unfortunately couldn't understand. Talk about frustrating. And no, I didn't get a photo of him. Grr!!

Anyway, so my Aunt and Uncle took off on Saturday to my Uncle's family's home for Chusok. So Hay Hun Un-ne (Un-ne is older sister), took us to her friend's home and then to this really nice beach. Where Ji-Eun and I explored while Hay Hun Un-ne and her friend chatted up a storm.

There was this man who was sitting there making some sort of sugar and baking soda "cookie" and Ji-Eun insisted that I do this. So I sat on this really SHORT stool, can't believe how inflexible I am! So you sit there and he presses a little heart into the hot "cookie" and you are suppose to take a little pin and cut out the heart shape without breaking the cookie. Ji-Eun and I manage to both get the first one, and if you get it, then he gives you another cookie. Basically, you keep getting free cookies until you break the cookie. Well, I broke the 2nd cookie but Ji-Eun got the 2nd cookie, but she stopped at the 2nd cookie. The cookie tasted like burnt caramel.

Then we went off to the Pavilion by the sea and took several pictures.

I noticed that there were some fishermen, so we walked down along the rocky coast (picked up some stones there...hehe) and then climbed as far as we dared and took pictures. Then we made our way back to the beach to be picked up for dinner. Which, we went to a fancy Italian restaurant and had spaghetti. Hay Hyun Un-ni is so very kind, and she invited me to go visit her in China. :o)

On Sunday, well, shoot, I can't remember what we did on Sunday. LOL! I know we were running around downtown. hmm...Ok I do remember that we watched a Korean card game movie, but honestly don't remember what else.

On Monday, we slept in and then got ready for our flight to Jeju-do. The "Do" part is letting you know that it's a Korean equivalent of a State. So in the US it would be Virginia-do.

More BUSAN Pictures.

Week 4 Recap

Let's see, the highlight of my week was perhaps Tuesday when I went to Namyang School for the Disabled. :o) Later that night I met up with my Uncle and helped him wordsmith his English brochures for his products. :o) I got a free dinner and then he bought me a large veggy pizza for me and my roomie. And since I was SICK, my roommie and Eiko got to eat it all, well except for the piece that I managed to eat.

On Monday, Eiko and I got some lunch together. And we came across this field of Kimchi pots. Eiko informed me that this was the Food and Nutrition College. I think I will not say "Kimchi" when taking pictures anymore.

When we headed back, we saw some pretty cool garden art, so I had to join in with the serious garden dudes.

So Wednesday, I was rather ill and just slept and slept and slept. So really nothing to report. ;o)

Thursday, I had class and wasn't feeling dizzy where I was going to pass out all the time. My very kind Korean Language instructor took time out of her schedule to go over the material that I missed in class on Wednesday with me.

Then I actually took part in the Club Festival. I was told that the Tae Kwon Do exhibition was going to be at 6 pm, so I left around 5:30 to get a decent seat. Um...yeah, it didn't start until like 8 pm! So I got to watch a lot of people warm up.

The show was pretty much a couple of clubs showing off, such as what I've named the "Sexy Dance Club." I was rather impressed with the pyrotechnics for a University club presentation!

I think my favorite was the Sport Dancing Club. I wish I could upload movies, I took an awesome video clip of them performing to "Sex Pot."

 

Then in typical Korean fashion, they had their karaoke competition sprinkled through out the show. I have a little video clip of these two girls singing. One girl was rapping and the other one was singing the chorus.

Then they had a little thing where the MC pulled this guy out to the middle of the aisle and made the guy tell everyone that he loved his girlfriend. Who was REALLY embarrassed! Then he made her run to her boyfriend and he kind hugged twirled her in the air. I could tell that she was like, "You had better NOT kiss me in front of all these people!" Koreans are so modest. You can see all the people in the audience who are rather embarrassed too. haha

Then after some more Karaoke, they had the main event. The Tae Kwon Do exhibition. I have several video clips of this, which does you all no good. So here are a couple of still pictures that I took. This guy already broke the board, which is flying off to the right.

This guy was really cool. They had him all the way on the other side of the stage and had him blindfolded. They would only ring a bell to let him know where the apple was. Then he would cross the stage and then he did this back-flip, which I got a picture of him in mid-flip, and yes, he did kick the apple into several little pieces.

There was many, many more things that they did but the only way to really capture the action was via video. So until I can figure that out, you guys will have to wait!

Ok, now that I've killed some time, it's time for me to catch my train to Busan for a Chusok! Later!!

More Pictures!!

Chusok - Korean Thanksgiving

I'm headed out for the week for Chusok. Right after Korean Language class, I'm headed to eat and then to the train station to Busan. From Busan, I'm headed to Jeju Island on Monday and returning on Wednesday with my cousin.

I won't be back to Keimyung until Thursday!

Jeju is the Korean Island that is their version of Hawaii, so I'm sure I'll have some awesome pictures! Ok gotta go to class! See ya!!

CCAP - Namyang School for the Disabled

So on Tuesday, I had a wonderful opportunity to talk about America with the students at the Namyang School for the Disabled. The class was absolutely wonderful.

My Interpreter, 이종현 (Lee, Jong Hyun), was an absolute angel helping me get to the school. There would have been NO way I would have gotten there on my own. Korean buses are scary!

When I got to the class, I was greeted with several of the students saying, "Hello!" I was just so surprised that they could say as much English as they did. All but 3 students could talk, and they all said, "Hello," "Thank you," and "Goodbye." Which was pretty darn good! One boy could even say, "I love you!" Which really surprised me! O_O

So my brilliant interpreter came up with Halloween as the topic for us to cover about America. So I came up with a little powerpoint presentation that went over some basic facts, basically, Korea is wayy smaller than America, and then discussed Halloween. Then we colored in the masks that Jong Hyun made the night before, she so rocks!

They had so much fun coloring the masks and then getting to wear them. After they made their masks, they all practice saying, "Trick or Treat." Once they got that done, they got to actually come up one by one and knock on the table, and say, "Trick or treat!" and get some American candy from Jong Hyun and then they would have to come over to me and repeat for some more American chocolates! They REALLY liked that!

This little boy was one of the ones who couldn't speak very well, but he managed to actually say "Trick or Treat." I guess American Candy is a pretty good motivator! I was so just happy for him!

Class picture with our masks on!! The boy in the Red Sox Jersey was the one who could say, "I love you!" The girl with the pink sweater could speak English very well and actually knew some Chinese words as well! She was perhaps the smartest in the class, after all, she's the one who wants me to come back to the school again! ;o)

 

I just absolutely enjoyed my time with the class. This is definitely a memory that I will have with me when I think of Korea.

More pictures!!

Feeling better

Thank you all for sending me Reiki and all those good luck vibes. I feel so much better! Of course, I sound totally hoarse but at least I can actually stay awake for more than 2 hours!

My Korean Language teacher totally rocks! She suggested that we meet today so that I could get the lesson that I missed yesterday in today, so I wouldn't be behind. Isn't she totally sweet?! Turns out, she and I are the same age so she totally understands about my issue with trying to retain the Korean language, she has the same problem with the English language. She claims it's an age thing. hahaha! And she has a sense of humor too! ;o)

I did some rather cool things today so I will write about them soon.

Survey Says...

I will hold off on my posts until AFTER I've uploaded the pictures.

Thank you all for voting. :o)

I'm Sick

So today, I missed Korean Language class 'cuz I felt so horrible. I've got a sinus infection and was rather feverish through the night. I slept until about 11 am today and was going to try to take a shower but remembered there is only cold water. So I e-mailed my other professor to let him know I won't be making his class as well. Just plan on taking some more Tylenol and going to sleep. I think my body needs it.

Um...yeah...

So I've decided that I'm not going to answer any questions from people who do not leave me at the minimum their initials. It's not fair to me as I don't know who is asking the questions.

Guam Farmer's Village: An Invitation to Korean Culture

So on the VERY rainy Saturday, I'm talking about it rained ALL DAY LONG.

A couple of us took part in Daegu's Invitation to Korean Culture. Despite the rain, it really was a lot of fun. Would have taken some pictures of us doing the apple picking but the rain prohibited us from pulling the camera out as often as I'd like. Also, several people's camera battery died or they forgot their camera so I took pictures of them too. So that's why you'll see a lot of pictures of Tea (pronounced "Te-ya"), Markus, and Hannah.

The entire event was filmed, which I found rather annoying, because they got really up in our faces, plus I was rather uncomfortable with strangers taking pictures of me. :oP The villagers, actually greeted us at the bridge and were yelling, "Welcome! Welcome!" and one young girl yelled out, "I love you!" which is why Christian turned around in this picture, wondering in amazement why they were so excited. My guess was because of the camera crew.

They split us into 3 groups. White, Yellow and Pink rain jackets, which we had to wear, which annoyed me as it wasn't that great at keeping you dry. I didn't actually get to ditch it until after I already got soaked for several hours and put on my blue heavy duty rain poncho that I brought from the US. So other than the crappy rain jackets, the place was absolutely awesome! And this entire event was FREE!

The first thing we got to do is Natural dying. We put on these pink aprons and gloves, and then had our choices between using Yellow Dirt (which I did) that dyes the handkerchief orange, or you could use Onion Peel method which dyes it a yellow color, or you could use smoked ash tree to get a gray color.

Afterward, we walked to pick some chestnuts. Those things are SO prickly! You have to kind of stomp on the prickly outside shell and it will open up  where you can pick out the yummy chestnuts. I filled my bag to the brim. While we were waiting for the others to get finished with their bags, Hannah and I spied a Persimmon tree. So Hannah asked if she could get one and they said "Sure." So she got her Persimmon and happily ate it.

LOL! She'd probably kill me for posting this picture. It's too damn cute not to!

Afterward, we went to go pick our 3 apples, which no pictures from there because I didn't want my camera to get wet or even worse, end up in the mud.

Then we had a delicious lunch. Everything was pretty much grown right there on the farm. Oh man was it sooo good.

So after eating Be-bim-bap and Bul-gogi, and farm fresh apples and grapes, and sweet potatos, they kicked us out of the building so they could clean up and we could make rice cakes for the wedding.

Each table got a woman who showed us how to make rice cakes. They did EVERYTHING, from helping us pick chestnuts and apples and dye things, to making our lunch, fixing the rice cakes and also participating in the farmer's band. These women were amazing!

After making our rice cakes, we went and watched the Korean wedding. They picked an American couple to be the groom and bride. What was really cool, was this was the day of their 2nd anniversary! How cool was that?!

So the custom is that the groom arrives first and has to wait a long time. Then the bride is carried to the wedding but along the way, the guys carrying the bride pass out and say they can't carry the bride any father because they're so hungry and thirsty. So the bride's mother gives the guys Soju (Korean Rice Alcohol, kinda like vodka) and they revive and finish carrying the bride to the wedding hall.

Then they have the really long ceremony, which I really couldn't see because of everyone standing up. Which gave me time to snap pictures of everything else and grab some coffee. :o)

Then we all took turns trying on the Korean wedding costumes. Here's me with my costume! Yeah, the Korean photographer was really enjoying taking a picture of me in this outfit. :oP

After trying on outfits. They had the farmer's band. Which was so much fun, especially watching all the Older Korean women getting down with their bad self! They played for at least an hour and then they played all the way to our buses. They were so cute! Definitely a perfect ending to the entire event! I wish I could post my video clip that I took of the Farmer's Band.

More pictures!

Week 3 Recap

Yes, how about that, me doing just recaps of all the "exciting" events this week.

Let's see, I've been invited by Jo-Jo to participate in a weekly 1 to 2 hour conversation session with 2 of his Korean friends who want to improve their English speaking skills with a Native English speaker. So I agreed. The three of them are Tourism majors, which means they'll tell me about places to travel around Korea. :o) Works for me! I'll be sure to get a picture of them next time we meet.

On Wednesday, Christine and I were the ONLY people who showed up for "Korean Boudoir Art." Which we had NO idea what that was, until we showed up. Pretty much it was Korean needlepoint. We made cute little cell phone pillows and because we were the only ones to show up. We got a special gift of a little handkerchief with our names on it. I asked that my name be in Korean characters as well. :o)

We got our passports back, FINALLY! I was going to go pick up my train ticket to Busan, but I think I will need a translator with me. I have SO much homework though, that I think since I'm so tired tonight that I will go ahead and take a hot shower and just go to bed, put a note on the door that says, "I am SICK and need my sleep. DO NOT KNOCK ON MY DOOR!" Stupid curfew!

On Thursday, I had lunch with Eiko and dang it, can't remember the other girl's name, she's Japanese too. Eiko is a floor leader and is the same age as myself, she is working on a Master's Degree here at Keimyung. She is super sweet and keeps insisting that she isn't, even though she paid for my lunch and got me the hook-up with the WORKS on my mochacino. That was really crazy looking and really too sweet.

We ended up meeting up with Hannah and going to E-mart. See what happens when you say, "I will NEVER go to E-mart again." You end up going to E-mart. E-mart was interesting. There was some sort of group protesting American beef, kept seeing FTA. Being in transportation for so long, I was really confused as to why they would be protesting about beef and the Federal Transportation Administration.  Um...yeah...found out later it was "Free Trade Agreement." Duh.

Hannah ended up getting a Japanese side dish called "Nat-toe" which is pretty much fermented soybeans. It really didn't smell that bad, but not great either. I have loads of photos of Hannah and Kukka trying Nat-toe for the first time. It was extremely slimy, I think the little movie that I took of them eating it, was the best, but haven't figured out where to post movies yet, so I guess that will have to wait. Kukka said it was the only thing in her entire life that she couldn't eat. Man, I had so much fun laughing from their facial expressions!

While I was at E-mart, guess what I found, N...

They are roughly 50 cents a bag. Keep that in mind if you want me to send back Korean snacks!

MORE PICTURES!

Procrastinating...

I really need to study my Korean Language but I'm really not feeling very motivated. I think it's  'cuz my body craves sleep SO much. Not sure if it's the AC  or sinuses or what the heck is going on. I'm just so TIRED. >.<

I had lunch with two Japanese students. It was very enjoyable. They called me "Britannica" because according to them, I know everything. They've assured me that they're not calling me a know-it-all, but that it was a compliment. I will write more about that later when I've downloaded my pictures onto my computer and upload them onto Shutterfly. So I can accompany my blog entries with photos. I think it's more interesting that way, don't you?

Ah ha! I can put in polls. Let's vote shall we? You have 6 days to decide how you would like for me to post entries. Vote wisely, young Jedi, the future depends on you. The poll can be found directly to the left of the screen.

Also, I want to thank everyone for posting a comment to my blog. I really do like the feedback. :o)

The Ugly "American"

Just a little commentary on some observations I have made.

I'm sure that this might be a surprise to many of you, but to Koreans I am very obviously an American. In fact, I can't tell you how many Koreans are just totally floored by the fact that I am half-Korean. I find this a bit perplexing as I am so obviously Asian to many Americans, you would think the Koreans would see the Asian side of me, but I was told by several Koreans they thought I had Indian (from India) blood in me, but most definitely American.

Unfortunately, most Koreans think that those who are Anglo-Saxon looking are always Americans, even if they are not. As an American, I thought it was amusing at first, until I met someone who is not American and is rather rude in behavior and attitude. With the little bit of Korean that I do know, I kept hearing Koreans muttering something and then mentioning "mee-guk" with a sour look on their faces. "Mee-guk" is Korean for American. Not cool.

I've had several conversations with various people about teaching English here in Korea. Apparently if you work 1 hour a week for two weeks, you would get paid something like $750. However, the catch is, they want Native English speakers. Not bad money at all, but how many of us Native English speakers can really teach English? I would say very little of us could go beyond breaking down nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and objectives, well, at least I can't really.

Yet, I have heard of several people who are not even Native English speakers and can barely speak English, who are passing themselves off as Native Speakers and teaching "English" to Korean children. I was introduced to one such person who is from Russia, who I could barely understand, who was earning money teaching English. One has to wonder if it was her blonde hair that got her the job, as that is what Koreans consider the "typical" American woman, as her English speaking ability was really quite sub-par.

But more than that, what about the children? These children and their parents believe that they are being taught by an "American" teacher. What sort of ideas are they starting to form about Americans in their early little lives?

As a world traveler, I can say from experience, that I have met MANY ugly Americans on my journeys, so I'm not saying that Americans are great representatives of themselves in other countries. However, to have someone be labeled as an American when they are not and especially when they are behaving badly, I feel like it's almost my duty as an American citizen to tell the Koreans that the person really isn't from America. Granted, we have more than our share of rude idiots, but we don't need to embrace the whole world's group of idiots.

I haven't figured out how to handle the situation, but I feel comforted by the fact that I am participating in CCAP, where I can give the Korean students an example of a polite American. Well, one can only hope they perceive me in that way, anyway. ;o)

Sunday - Dalseong Park

So Sue Hyun and I headed back to campus so we could meet up with my Aunts and Ji-Eun, around 10 am and we had decided to pop into the local bookstore as I was told they were going to be there around Noon. I figured I was safe with like 2 hour window to get back and then I get a phone call asking me where I am, because they are at my room waiting for me. Oh @#$#%!!!

So I go running to catch the next subway and leave Sue Hyun to continue looking for English study books for her students. I told them it would take me about 30 minutes to get there and then they wanted to talk with Sue Hyun because they were thinking about meeting me downtown but no, I didn't have my translator with me, so I told them to wait there. They thought that I would be at the other subway station near the campus (which I was not) and so they waited for me at the main gate when I was in fact, at KELI house. hahahaha So I ended up giving them a call asking them where THEY were and they came to get me at KELI house. See why speaking the language is so important?

So my aunt loads me up with ALL this food. With a lot of granola and Hershey Miniature Chocolates sent via my mother. I'll be using the Chocolates for the little program that I signed up to volunteer for called CCAP (Cross-Cultural Awareness Program). This program is where I go local schools and tell them about America through a Korean Student Interpreter.

Wow isn't that strange, I just got a phone call from them and they asked me if I could give a talk on Tuesday to a bunch of students at a mentally handicapped school. Cool! So I guess I know what I'm doing on Tuesday. :o)

Anyway, here is the stash of goodies I got from my Aunt, my mother and from Sue Hyun's mom.

Yeah, I think I'm good for a while...what do you think?

So after getting that all sorted out, we made our way to Dalseong Park, the park of our ancestor's the Seo clan. Honestly, the park was really very sad. It was a free zoo, and all the animals looked really pitiful.  :o(

On the plus side, we did see the shrine dedicated to the Seo family with the Seo women. :o)

Here's one with me and my other Aunt, known to me as "Chanhunnie Uma" (Chan Hun's mother).

I thought it was interesting that the shrine would be a turtle with something coming out of it's back. They have something similar in Cherokee Indian Reservation but it's a Native American man who is standing on the back of a turtle.

It was rather hot, so my Aunts decided to sit in the shade, while Ji-Eun and I walked around the park. Took quite a lot of pictures but you could tell the animals were really too hot and honestly looked bad. Ji-Eun and I decided to get an ice cream and there was a bear looking at us all pitiful that Ji-Eun broke off a piece of her ice cream and threw it in his direction and he caught it perfectly. So she did that a couple of times while I was trying to get a picture of him catching it. This was the best one picture that I took.

Well besides the pitiful looking animals, they had a statue to a Reverend Choi Je-u, who was martyred by the Korean Government for being a Christian a while back. Apparently, in Daegu they actually have a Martyr's Tower in memory of all the Christian Martyrs in Korea. Sue Hyun's mother told me that every section of town has at least one Catholic Church and there are many, many Presbyterian Churches as well.

After the fun little adventure in Dalseong Park, we managed to get ourselves to Mister Pizza. Which I have heard from everyone in Korea, has the best Pizzas. They have like 3 pizzas that you can choose from, a veggie one, a shrimp one and a sweet potato one. We got the sweet potato pizza, which comes with a slice of regular potato, bacon, tons of cheese, sour cream and in the crust is mashed sweet potato. OHMIGOD is it yummy!!

So after eating that really yummy meal, we headed back to campus, where I was told to clean my room every day and do wash my laundry (which I was going to do after they left anyway, but all the washing machines in my dorm are OUT OF ORDER - le sigh). Then we joked around a bit, via body language and also interpretation from Ji-Eun, they headed off back to Busan.

They are so loving and caring.

You know, I have really been blessed this weekend with the kindness of so many people and got to experience so much. I am so very thankful for everyone and everything that I got to experience. This trip has been amazing and it just keeps getting better. :o)

MORE PICTURES HERE.

Saturday - Mount Palgonsan

I guess saying "Mount" before Palgonsan is kinda redundant as "san" means "mountain" in Korean, but eh, whatcha gonna do?

So on Friday after that wonderful shopping adventure, I met up with my roommate, Sue Hyun, and we headed to her home for the weekend. Where I met her cute little dog, Joseph, who is now my dog. Yes, that's right, Sue Hyun, he's mine now.

Her mother made quite possibly the hottest (as in spicy) 떡볶이 (Tteokbokgi) I have ever eaten in Korea, thus far. OHMIGOD, I believe that I could actually breathe fire after eating that. But man, is it good. Tteok-bok-gi is basically rice cake that is cylindrical in shape and maybe 2 inches in length in a spicy sauce. Apparently, people in Daegu like their foods VERY SPICY!

Her mother also spoiled me with some real bacon (American style) and chicken in the morning. Ahhh it was so delicious.

Afterwards, we went to Donghwasa Temple. Apparently, the legend is that a Phoenix use to live in the temple area. The temple has a fairly modern Buddhist school and also the largest standing Buddha statue in the world (thanks to the Taliban, who blew up the tallest statue a few years back).

I think besides the tall Buddha statue, the had the coolest looking dragon designs all over the temple area.

Ok so what you all have been waiting for! The largest standing Buddha statue in the WORLD!!

OK not the greatest picture, but it's a like the only decent group picture of us. There is Sue Hyun's mom and cousin (who was tagging along to practice his English with me, but was too shy to really talk to me), and then me and Sue Hyun (look at her posing).

Man, I wish I could of had someone standing there so you could see the height difference. Ah well, to give you an idea, a person of my height standing next to the statue (5'1") would come up to the bottom railing of the little stone fence going around it.

Oh and did anyone else notice the Orange and Maroon mat? hmmm? It's a cushioned surface for the people who are there to do some prayers.

Then we went off to ride the cable car. Which was rather fun and yet a little scary at the same time. At the top of the mountain, we met two cute little girls who came up to me and said "Hello. What is your name?" And I told the girl my name was "Jenny" and she just smiled brightly, "That's my English name too!" She told me that she was 7 years old and that her sister's English name was "Mary." They were so cute, and I was sad that I forgot to bring my US coins to hand out to them. Ah well, will do that next time.

Then, we went off to eat a very famous dish called "Nengmyeum" which is like a cold buckwheat noodle dish. It was very tasty. mmmm and is really famous in that area of South Korea. Apparently, it's a dish that you have especially in the summer time, since it's nice and cold. mmmmm 

So afterward, we went back home and took little Joseph for a walk by the river. Then Sue Hyun and I watched Inyuasha in Korean for the rest of the night! Woohooo!! Yeah, she totally hated translating the show for me, but what a totally good sport. :o)

MORE PICTURES HERE.

Friday Shopping Trip

So a couple of us decided to go downtown to do a little shopping and things like that. We ended up having lunch with the German guys (1 Austrian) and the girls.

It took us a while to figure out just where we wanted to eat, so we ended up going to this place called "Apple" which had probably the spiciest Spaghetti I have ever had. I think all the dishes had a hint of apple flavoring to it. My spaghetti was so hot that I had to switch off with Angela and also with Heini, who also barely managed to get it down. OUCH!

Then we kept our eyes opened for an ice cream shop and ended up at a very cute little place with swinging benches called, "Can More." Apparently, only Korean teenagers go to that place. We ordered Pat-Bing-Su (Shaved ice with fruit and sweet red beans - trust me, it was really goooood) and a Strawberry flavored version of Pat-Bing-Su with no sweet red beans. Very, very delicious.

So off we go shopping. Unfortunately, with having such a large group it was rather hard to keep track of where everyone went. The guys already parted after we ate, so there was 4 members of our party, and then we ended up losing Heini (Finnish). So I suggested that we head back to the subway to see if we can't find her, so as we headed to the subway, shopping along the way, we lost Tang (Chinese). We weren't really too worried about Heini but I was rather concerned for Tang since she really didn't know her way yet around Daegu. So I had the girls step it up a notch and headed back to the station, because I knew that Tang knew we were headed that way.

So we get to the station and no Tang. So Angela (German) was getting tired and said she was going to head back to campus. So we headed back to retrace our steps, I was determined to find Tang, and there we found her, looking for us, looking really distressed. So we found her and gave her a huge hug and she was so very relieved, she was really scared she said. So after finding her, we headed back to continue shopping. We had made a plan to meet at a certain spot so we wouldn't loose anyone this time around.

Then we lost Kukka (Finnish) and I got a text saying my roommate wanted to meet me at the dorm in an hour. So I had to make my way back, which Tang was done with shopping anyway, so we both said bye to the remaining member of the party, Hannah (Finnish), and headed back to campus.

And you can look at all the fun pictures of our trip.

SHOPPING PICTURES

Week Two

So wasn't sure if I actually posted pictures from Week 2. Just a couple things from walking around campus and from my second Korean painting class.

I seem to be having some issues inserting pictures into my blog under Shutterfly. Very not cool. Grr.

Anyway, so the picture with the initial JM is mine, the others are of the other classmates. Figured you all would be interested to see the differences in art styles. It's amazing how a simple drawing can be interpreted and drawn differently by other people.

I really feel bad that I can't remember the Chinese student's names! I think his name is Guan Zenghua who won 3rd prize.

Will post other entries once I figure out the deal with the photos and get some time. My days are starting to pick up with all these activities they have for us, plus school work.

Later!

More pictures.

Quandary

The website that I normally keep my pictures has decided that they are going to shut their website down. So I have until November to move my pictures to another location, which means all the links will not work. What a pain!

So I am wondering, do I go ahead and move my pictures to their recommended website "Shutterfly" or just kinda wait a while. But the longer I wait, the more pictures are not going to show up.

So...sounds like I should go ahead and start uploading pictures to the new place, especially since I have a lot more pictures to upload!

Stay tuned for more photos! :o) This transition period might take a while!

Gyeongsang-gamyeon Park and the Yangnyeongsi (Herbal Medicine) Market

So on Tuesday, I had a bit of time after my one class, that I decided to go on a little exploration. I had heard from Ji-Eun that she was going to come this weekend to see me, so I held off on going to Dalseong Park (my ancestor's park) and headed off to the Yangnyeongsi.

I got a little confused as to where I would end up exactly from the subway station (the English version of their maps are horrible!) and ended up stumbling on Gyeonsang-gamyeon Park. Which was pretty cool.

More Pictures of Gyeongsang-gamyeon Park.

I ended up finding the street to Dalseong Park, but decided against going there because of the rainy conditions and headed down the street to the Herb Museum.

I knew I was at the right place when I saw the West Gate.

As soon as I walked through the gate, I could smell the herbal medicine wafting through the air. Thankfully it wasn't that strong or I think my stomach would have turned at the memory of that Burdock tea that N got for me. Oh man, that was NASTY.

There was so many stores with all theses various herbs and also stuffed animals in the window. It wasn't until I got to the Herb museum that I found out that in Korean Herbal Medicine, that they use Plants, Animals and Minerals in their medicines. I found that rather interesting.

I didn't see any stores that had any English Language signs to see about getting some Korean acupuncture done. I hope to try it once before I leave Korea, I'm sure my neck and back would thank me for it.

Anyway, the museum had English, thankfully but the little gift store was very small and only had Korean language books. Bummer. And had a lot of Ginseng, which based on my trip to the tourist center, I'm sure I could find it a lot cheaper elsewhere.

Due to my lack of Korean language speaking ability, I decided to go ahead and head back to the dorm (also the fact that the rain was starting to come down harder).

Then off to dinner...rice and kimchi.

More Pictures of Yangnyeongsi Market.

Dorm Life

So as you might or might not know, Korean society is based on a hierarchal system. So basically the little room checker Nazi found out that we are both older than her and she apologized to Su-hyun and said that we both can go to bed at whatever time we want to. So yes, we're both going to bed before 11 pm, we're a bunch of old ladies. hahaha

Since a couple of you asked to see pictures of my dorm room, I went and took a couple. Didn't think that the pictures of the rest of the dorm was necessary but if you want to see the common area and the various bathrooms (toilet area, sink area/laundry, and the shower rooms) I can do that but nothing really exciting there.

As you can see, even though I am not in my home area, I still have managed to bring A LOT of stuff. I will say in my defense, that I did just get back from my weekend outing so I have a lot of things on my desk that I didn't get to put away.

 

Especially in comparison to my roomie.

And yes, there is the infamous bed with its 1" mattress and no box springs, just hard wood. This bed is so hard that even the Korean students are complaining about it, which makes us international students feel better about complaining about the beds!

I think the big thing for me has to be the toilet paper deal. The dorm supplies you with 10 rolls of TP for you and your roomie for the semester, but they didn't give it to us for like a week. Then it's the matter of remember to bring some with you every time you go to the bathroom. Even in the public bathrooms in the schools, you have to get your TP before you enter the stall because there isn't any IN the stall itself. This usually isn't an issue with anyone else that I've noticed but I tend to be a bit forgetful so remembering this extra step can be a hassle. I'm sure you all wanted to know all of that but hey, you might need to know this one day and they don't exactly mention it in travel guides!

Our dorm is the English Language dorm, so they actually have classes in our dorms. These Korean students actually have 6 and 7 am classes, as well as 9 and 10 pm classes to fit in some extra English courses into their schedule in addition to their regular college courses, and you think I'm an overachiever! HA!

Weekend Romp

Come on admit it, ya'll miss reading my blog entries. ;o)

So let me see, what did I do this weekend? Oh yes, on Saturday it was raining and raining and raining, my shoes were so soaked that it took two days to dry, so I am planning on buying another pair of shoes so I can rotate between drying shoes. As you can tell from my weather icon, it's been pretty much been raining EVERY DAY.

So I pretty much just studied all day Saturday, except at night when I went to the little grocery store to buy some fruit. Pretty uneventful, I was keeping an eye out for Noah though.

On Sunday, three of us Americans and my roomie, went to downtown Daegu to get some Outback Steakhouse. Unfortunately, we got off at the wrong subway station, so we ended up eating at TGI Friday's. It was very yummy. They pretty much serve rice instead of mash potatoes. Ah well, the bread was super delicious though. mmmm

Then the other two Americans got sleepy and went back to the dorm and Su-Hyun and I went to the Daegu Tourist Information Center. We ended up walking by one of the water treatment plants so I snapped a photo for all the peeps at T&L. ;o)

We ended up at a nice little park, Duryu, that had a lot of soccer stadiums before we realized we walked in the wrong direction and missed the tourist information center. The prices for the traditional Korean crafts were really outrageous so I just bought two keychains and was given two postcard books for free. :o) We walked across the hallway and picked up some free maps of Daegu and other touristy places.

Afterward, I bid goodbye to my translator and headed off to the wonderful world of E-mart. um...yeah. E-mart is basically a Korean Walmart. You all know how crowded Walmart is normally, well, Korea is no different. Except add a couple hundred more people and LOUDER, 'cuz there are sales people in almost every aisle yelling out the sales that they have for the aisle. I have vowed that I will never go back there again, if I can help it.

So on the way back, I ran into Hannah (Finland) who was going to go on a little tour of Daegu, but then changed her mind because she wanted to pick up some of the fresh fruit from the little convenience store. She just told me today that she now visits that store practically every day or every other day to buy fresh fruits. I am amazed that such a little person can pack away 4 large apples in one night, every night. She absolutely LOVES Kimchi and eats it at every meal. We both headed back to the dorm and I think she went out later in the light rain to do some exploring. She and I will go out on Friday and explore Daegu together.

Oh totally gotta share with you the little bird that seems to be following me around Campus. Found out it's a Magpie, they apparently let you know if you're going to have some good luck. Sweet!

Pictures from Week 1. I added several more.

Interesting Engineering-type Stuff

Obviously, being an engineer, I'm going to observe things that the average person probably wouldn't care about or even notice, but as you are reading MY blog, you are just going to have to endure some of many quirks.

Haven't had a chance yet to get some photos of their drainage systems for all this RAIN but I will.

The big thing I noticed was just how much infrastructure they have put in for the blind community. Which, let me tell you, I would NOT want to be blind in Korea. There are absolutely NO guarantees that there won't be a car or a truck driving on the sidewalks. They have a lot of these raised tiles that I've gathered based on their shapes indicate an area where caution is required (round circles) or a pathway (long ellipse), also at major intersections, they have traffic signals that beep for the blind to let them know they can cross the street. With all this infrastructure, you would think that there are a large population of blind people, but I have only seen one blind person during my time so far in Japan and Korea.

Another interesting little tidbit is the fact that the subway areas all have gas mask cabinets. Must be due to the incident with a radical religious group several years back. Kinda gives you a creepy feeling seeing them there.

Now getting to the roadway engineering. A lot of Korea is very mountainous, so in areas where it is particularly steep and curvy, they have placed little roadway strips. These strips are very spongy and definitely provide really great traction, unlike the smooth red brick they seem to use for sidewalks. I fell at least 3 times already and have just started walking in the road praying that a car doesn't come flying around the corner. I really think this technology could be used in a couple places in Southwest Virginia.

hokiesports.com :: Football

 UGH!!! The first football game for the Hokies is in about 2 hours and 44 minutes and I won't be able to listen. Well, not if I want to maintain my sanity anyway, it will be 1 am in Korea when the Hokies kickoff at Noon.

hokiesports.com :: Football

I really wanted to see the reaction of the Hokie Nation and how the students were dealing with the tragedy. But, you know, I really don't need to see it. I know what it means to be a Hokie and I know that if anything, the students will be resilient and closer than ever.

Daegu sight-seeing trip canceled

While it is just only lightly raining, it's still raining, with no signs of stopping. It's also rather windy. My umbrella almost turned inside out several times. So I've decided NOT to go sight-seeing. Figured that was probably the best for my health anyway.

Just got off the phone with Ji-Eun. Imo was really concerned that I was out walking around in the rain and also wanted to know if I was eating well.

Told her I was going to start doing my Korean studies. I think I'll read the articles for my Korean History and Korean Culture classes and then tackle the Korean Language afterwards.

Anyway, Ji-Eun and I are planning to go to Seoul for the Seoul Drum Festival. The English link isn't working for some reason, but I'll keep checking it out. Then after that, we're going to go check out the Jinju Namgang Lantern Festival.

There is also a Mask Dance Festival as well, but I'm not really sure where it is located. That might be too many trips in a row, but it should be possible! We'll play it by ear. :o) ooh this is most excellent, it is not very far from Daegu at all. Sweet!