Gatbawi

On Saturday, I had a fun day hiking up to Gatbawi with Jong Hyun and her father, Mr. Lee, to look at the beautiful autumn leaves.

I had heard from Tea and Marcus that the hike was rather intense but I figured it was probably due to them having a mountain climber as their guide. Mr. Lee also enjoys hiking up the mountain but told me not to worry that he will go slow for me. Yippie!!

So according to the map, the hike is about 2.0 km (one way) which is roughly 1.25 miles and the way the Koreans hike it should only take 1 hour. HAHAHAHA!! Ok seeing how this is ME, the hike took 3 hours. ;o)

Look at how "EASY" this map makes it look. Now those stairs should really look like various switch-backs that go STRAIGHT UP. HA!!

So we started on this one part and it was a bit steep. I was thinking, "Yeesh, this is a bit steep, but not too bad." Little did I know...this was the easiest part of the entire trip.

Even with it being "easy" I still needed to take a break. My leg muscles were really tight and I needed to rest and stretch them out. Where we were resting, there was a little Buddhist side temple and Mr. Lee being quite the photographer, he had me walk by it to take some pictures because this was not something you normally see in the US. So here is me walking by the temple. :o)

 As we walked a bit more into the mountain, we walked through Gwanamsa Temple. They were rebuilding on top of the old temple site that was destroyed during the peak of Confucianism. The temple roof ends were dragon heads.

Then we started climbing up the stairs. Little did I know, these were the EASY stairs.

The great thing was the beautiful scenery, which we got to enjoy because I really needed A LOT of breaks.

Then we got to the HARD stairs. Don't be fooled by the picture. The stairs actually were very steep, it was almost like climbing a ladder. Here's a picture of Jong Hyun, no doubt wanting to kill me to suggesting we go to Gatbawi. ;o)

We finally got to the top and was awarded our glimpse at Gatwabi.

This statue of Buddha was carved out of the natural stone around it. You can tell that this Buddha was carved around the 9th century because of the seriousness of his facial expression. See, around the 9th century, Confucianism was becoming the main religion for Korea and in their attempts to become the main religion, they were seeking to eliminate all things Buddhist. So the Buddhists went into hiding, and all the art works of Buddha has this serious expression on his face to show his sadness at being pushed aside.

What is also pretty awesome about this statue is that the flat rock on top of his head, is not attached to the Buddha's head. It's been there since the 1800's and has not fallen off! Considering how high up it is on the mountain, exposed to the high winds, that is really quite an accomplishment.

So we took a little rest at the top and enjoyed the scenery.

Jong Hyun had brought some apples, mandarins, and rice cake for us to snack on while we rested from that huge hike up the mountain. So after about 30 minutes, we headed back down the mountain, after I bought myself a little bracelet of yellow jade pigs, to remind me of HOW HARD that trek up the mountain was. I was later told that the little pigs are for good luck and also to help bring money my way. Hey, that will totally be ok with me.

So on the way down, we saw this pigeon that seemed to be just hanging out and a little vocal, so I took it's picture. I think maybe she was leading us away from her nest. I don't know for sure.

And this time we got a picture of Jong Hyun and her father with the beautiful leaves on my camera. They totally ROCK for being my tour guides up this strenuous mountain.  Albeit, it was really a piece of cake for Mr. Lee, he was doing pull-ups on this one branch on our way down! What a very healthy guy!

After we made it down the mountain, Jong Hyun's legs and my legs were shaking rather hard because of how hard of a climb it was. It was just crazy! Oh and I also bought some pumpkin candy from one of the vendors on the mountain, who I had made a note to myself to buy from on the trip down. Mr. Lee  then told me I got a lot of positive karma points because I bought from a handicapped lady. Interesting how that works out. Anyway, it was very yummy! It's kinda like pumpkin taffy that has peanuts and some sesame seeds (sorry CC, none for you!).

Then he took us to another place that was close by, a place where a famous Korean General, General Sin sung, sacrificed his life so that the Korean Goryeo King, King Wang Geon, could escape. 

This shrine indicates the place where the General was killed. 

Behind the shrine is an old Korean home where his descendants open up on the anniversary of his death. Which was not when we were there so we didn't get to go inside, no matter how hard I knocked at the door.

Afterwards, we went to dinner and ate very well. Everything was so delicious!

  Cheers!!!

Theme of the week, crafts

Besides me feeling like...blah...I haven't really done much except a lot of trying to figure out what it is that I need to do before I need to leave Korea. Let me tell you, my list is pretty LONG.

So the pictures this week is of the kind of fun things I've done this week. :o)

On Monday, in Korean Language class, we made paper Hanboks, which is the Traditional Korean Outfit.

Yes, I know it's gorgeous isn't it? ;o)

Kukka being the artist that she is, decided to personalize her Hanbok. It looks like her, doesn't it? hahahaha

 Oh and when I went to the hospital, Su Hyun and I had stopped at Seomun Market, which was right across the street. And I picked up this little guy, I've named him Thumper.

This little guy is a Korean back massager. What you do is take him and thump your back muscles with this little guy. Use his nose if you want a light pressure, use the side of his head for a deeper pressure. Yes, wonderful invention.

On Wednesday, we had Korean Art class, and I was the only one to attend. We covered Korean Knots. She started the knot for me and at the end when I tried to ask her how to start the knot, she showed me but when I got back to the dorm to recreate what she showed me. NOPE couldn't do it. I'm going to have to record her doing it in the next class. Anyway, here is the two things I made. Korean knot necklace and the one below is a Korean knot ring.

Today after Korean Language class, I went out shopping with a couple of exchange students. We went to Seomun Market and also to Kyobo books. I wanted to look up some English books that were about Korean culture. These books are like 50% cheaper here in Korea than it is in the US, so you know I was checking out titles.

Afterwards, we headed back to campus for the Halloween party. We had a mixer, were we had to fill out the blanks for the song, "The Monster Mash." Then next activity was for us wrap one of our team members in tolite paper as  a mummy and put little notes on various body parts on the mummy. This is poor Eun-Jin, our mummy.

 

Our team won the competition, so we got baseball caps and candy. The third competition was for the pumpkin carving contest. I thought our pumpkin was pretty good, but other teams won.

I thought the glasses and the puking effect was pretty awesome, but hey, what can you do?

More pictures HERE.

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

9/11 & Korean American Father(The Korea Times)

 A very touching article that is worth reading.

9/11 & Korean American Father

By Jason Lim
Although our family left Korea to begin a new life in America over 30 years ago, I never realized that my North Korea born father was an American patriot until 9/11.

My father was always the epitome of the traditional silent type, never raising his voice with his family yet guiding his children by how diligently he worked everyday as the owner/operator of a tiny dry cleaning store in Yonkers, a blue collar suburb of New York City.

He would leave at six in the morning and come back at eight at night, covered with the dirt and smell of cleaning other people's dirty laundry.

Even in the face of some unexpected business or family crisis, my father would be silent, offering no excuses and exhibiting no emotions. The next morning, my father would go off to work as usual, facing mounds of dirty clothes.

My father rarely talked about how he was raised in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. He never mentioned that he was accepted as a full scholarship student to Moscow University Medical School when the Korean War began and erased that option.

He never talked about escaping to South Korea by himself when he was only sixteen. He still doesn't know what happened to his mother and baby sister; consequently, we don't have any relatives on our father's side.

He never talked about fighting in the Korean War when he was only seventeen. When my brother and I were little, he did let us play with an elongated scar stretched across his chest from a North Korean bullet.

All these details we got in rare bits and pieces from our mom, who isn't exactly voluble either.

I never even realized my father spoke six languages _ Korean, English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Russian _ until I was in college. And here I was all smug to speak Korean, English, and some Spanish.

This was the father I knew, silent, hardworking, and very Korean. Until he called me a few months after 9/11 and told me to come home. He told me that he wanted to talk with me, for the first time in memory!

When I arrived, my father asked me for a favor for the first time in my life. He asked me to quit my job and work for the U.S. government in any capacity that they would take me. It would mean that I would have to go back to school and get a master's degree.

My initial reaction was to dismiss it as ridiculous. After all, I was the chief of staff for the founder of an international consulting firm and was the fastest rising executive in the history of the firm with a guaranteed, financially secure future.

This was the American dream that my parents had sacrificed for all their lives. And he wanted me to go back to school and apply to become a government bureaucrat.

Like any other American, I was deeply affected by 9/11. Three students from my high school were actually killed in the attack. But this was out of the question. I couldn't give up what I had worked so hard for.

Then he said something that stopped my breath. He said, ``Please." My father, who, along with my mother, had slaved in a stifling drycleaners for more than 20 years for his children, felt the need to say, ``Please" to his own son.

He then explained to me about gratitude. His gratitude to America for allowing a onetime North Korean orphan to take care of his family and send his sons to the best schools in the world.

His sense of thankfulness at being granted the freedom and privilege of making his life worthwhile for his family. He said that real patriotism came from acting on your sense of gratitude for your country, not just talking about it.

Having one of his sons contribute to the protection of America was his only way to pay back for what he had received. I hadn't known my father was such an eloquent man.

So, this past June, I began my new life as a government bureaucrat, working in the field of homeland security. My father is quietly ecstatic, and he plans to finally retire. He is 75 years old. And he is a Korean American patriot.

Jason Lim is a fellow at Harvard Korea Institute researching Asian leadership models. He can be reached at jasonlim@post.harvard.edu.

9/11 & Korean American Father(The Korea Times)

The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

Last night, I was procrastinating from reading some rather dry reading material about Neo-Confucianism and came across this video. This video is basically a video blog put together by a high school science teacher who is asking some interesting questions about Global Warming.

So yes, it's a little nerdy in its content, which is probably why I like it so much. ;o) What I like the most about this video blog is that it's just presented as an average person who is wanting some civil and intelligent dialog concerning why we should press the government and the scientific community to look into this problem. It's not some guy saying, "This is THE CORRECT answer." It is a video of a guy saying, "OK, I did some number crunching on my own and this is what I got. Do you see any reason why my logic might be wrong?" 

That's what I respect, someone who is seeking the truth and willing to concede that he might be wrong. I really respect the fact that he is asking for a civil exchange of information and that he tells you WHERE he gets his information and not just something he pulled out of his butt.

Anyway, I thought that he made a rather compelling argument and had me thinking all day about this subject. That was motivation enough for me to share his videos on this blog.

Here is the first of his videos:

And because he's sincere about really wanting to know if his logic might be invalid or not, he has several follow up videos to respond to comments that are trying to poke holes in his theory.

Here is his response video #1

Response video #2:

Response video #3:

And if you like those, then you'll want to check out the video he has called: The Most IMPORTANT Video You Will Ever See, it's in 8 parts, so make sure you see all of them. I think that this lecture is compelling and is making me wonder if the effects of overpopulation is what I am feeling here in Korea.

Anyway, the video is a lecture given by a Physics Professor from University of Colorado, Albert Bartlett. Now, don't get scared, the lecture is actually very easy to understand as long as you pay attention to him. And honestly, he really just uses very SIMPLE math to make some comments on overpopulation and how we are going to have to reduce our oil and coal production.

Again, he states his sources and also makes some awesome points about how some of the people who are considered experts, aren't really experts in the field that is the topic. I mean I totally agree with his point, what makes an economist a better expert than a geologist when it comes to finding oil?

Economist = an expert in the science of economics.

Economics = the study of labor, land, and investments, of money, income, and production, and of taxes and government expenditures.

Geologist = a specialist in geology

Geology = a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks

What do you think?

Definitions provided by: WordNet

Week 10 - Midterm Week!!

So week 10 of being abroad is mid-term exam week at Keimyung University. So part of helping students out, Monday through Thursday, we were supplied at 11 pm with a free snack. mmmm

On Tuesday, my English Discussion Group treated me to lunch. Where we had Pork meat cooked over some charcoal, pretty tasty, and then we had our brief discussion afterward.

Later that night, Matt and I joined Da Eun, her boyfriend and a friend of her's from Cambodia to watch her mother perform in a Traditional Korean Musical Orchestra. Unfortunately, I was only able to get ONE picture before attendant came flying over to me and letting me know that pictures were not allowed. The soloist below is playing the Kayagum.

So I couldn't get a picture of Da Eun's mom playing the Hae Gum, which is an instrument that looks very similar to a polo stick with strings. Let me see if Google has a picture of it...

 Thank you random people for providing the picture above for me...It's like a violin but it only has two strings and makes a rather mournful sound. I definitely like it better than the Kayagum.

It was 11 pm by the time we got back from the concert and I was just really exhausted, from the sinus infection no doubt, but I digress. I managed to remember to take a photo of a Korean Church sign. There are just so many lighting up the sky in Korea, I think I mentioned before that my Uncle had said that Korea looks like a graveyard because there was so many Crosses scattered throughout the city. Shoot, I should have taken the shot from a different angle and you could have seen 3 different churches in one area.

Now we are up to Wednesday. Oh, snack for Tuesday was Krispy Kreme Donuts. mmm...Ok so back to Wednesday, I was the only person to show up for Korean Boudoir Art, which was with those really nice ladies. This time we made little cloth coasters  and the other lady made a Korean Traditional Sock hanging thing for me. I also got another free coaster that she gave me, and gave me some string and a needle to make a couple more in my "free" time. The tall flower on the right is the one I did. :o)

So that leads me to Thursday, when I took the TWO HARDEST exams ever! Korean History and Korean Culture. I feel pretty good about Korean History but Korean Culture, I know I bombed that one. I couldn't remember the names and sounds of Korean or Chinese characters (as in letters) and couldn't remember what each of the different shamanic rituals were about or the names (English and Chinese) of the 9 Confucianism required books for government testing, and the list goes on. Yeesh. I was lucky, I could actually read college level English, so I could actually "finish" the exams, but I know that the folks from the other countries had some problems. Then I had the fiasco about the Doctor not being in the clinic, so I went back to my room and slept a bit.

So Friday, I took my Korean Language Exam and feel really good about it. :o) And then I went to Dongsan, Keimyung University hospital to get my sinus checked out. As I was waiting for Su Hyun to meet me, I noticed these three old women walking. Two of the women were practically hunched over, which is the usual scene of an older Korean woman, the third woman wasn't as bad off, but still walking a bit gingerly. Anyway, these three ladies noticed that the street light was green and made a run for it. One lady made it across, the other one braved the traffic and continued even though it was a green light for these cars and trucks, the other woman, just stood there in the median, stuck.

I watched with sadness, as she had to stand there in the median for over 10 minutes as the cars and trucks just zoomed by her, not even slowing down in speed but zooming by at speeds of over 30 mphs. I just really wanting to do something but wasn't really sure what could be done in that sort of situation.  Just seems like it was a visual representation of our society today. The old being ignored while the younger go rushing on in life. Meh.

So maybe it was me being all sensitive because of being sick, I dunno. Anyway, Su Hyun arrived a bit later and we headed to the hospital, after trying to find the International Health Center, we had a little bit of time waiting in the waiting room to see the ENT doctor. The doctor stuck this huge metal object into my nose that apparently let's him see into my sinuses, and he confirmed that yes, I have sinus infection and it was more than likely due to my deviated septum. My what? Now, I can't tell you how many doctors I have seen because of various problems with my breathing and all the sinus issues I've had.

 So he tells me that a deviated septum is where the cartilage in my nose has moved off center and actually blocks one of the nostrils, which normally causes snoring, inability to intake a lot of oxygen and also causes chronic sinus infections. :oP Geez, and to think I paid all that money for the sleep apnea studies when it was just a deviated septum. :oP Grr. So anyway, he said that he recommended that when I get back to the US, I speak to a doctor about having corrective surgery. In the meanwhile, he gave me some antibiotics to take care of the infection and if it wasn't gone in 10 days, to come back for another round.

Well, it was nice to finally KNOW what was causing all my breathing issues.

Oh, forgot to mention that I tried a soft drink called "Milkis" which is milk soda, yeah sounds a bit gross doesn't it? But it's got so little milk in it and has the equivalent of neutral tasting sprite. Not bad, not really great either, just ok. Worth a try though.

 

On Saturday, I did another CCAP class at Bugye Middle School, which is located outside of Daegu, in the country. It was really very nice area filled with all these apple farms, which I bought some from a little old lady on the way back to school.

I did Halloween again, but this time I was armed with some Halloween stuff from N and CC. The Halloween prizes were a hit with getting the kids to participate in the quiz that I had at the end. We also had the kids come up and run through saying "Trick or Treat."

The English instructor who arranged the CCAP class, also invited students from a neighboring school to attend as well. They were just so cute.

There are more pictures from Bugye Middle School, which can be found HERE.

So after the presentation, the teacher took my KIV, Hyo Kyung, and me, to lunch. Where we had smoked duck, man that was really yummy. And then we were driven back to Daegu, where Hyo Kyung helped me catch a train to Busan. I couldn't have done without her!

Oh and let me tell you something, be careful about using the words, "Never," and "I wonder," because things will happen so that way you say, "I did" and "I know." Yes, because I sat on the train twice and saw a lot of people standing on the train because they didn't have a seat. There is one train where they sell standing room tickets and yes, I said to myself, "Geez, I wonder why they're standing." Yes, well, I stood on the way from Daegu to Busan. Interesting experience, not comfortable but definitely do able. I don't have to wonder anymore about that. Yeesh.

So while in Busan, I met another relative and his family. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of them and they gave me this super warm and nice scarf. :o) The father, was my cousin, and is like 10 years or so older than me, he said that he use to hug me all the time when I was a kid. Yeesh. Apparently, I was rather popular for hugging as a kid, but I can't remember them. :o(

We had really yummy dinner, seafood spaghetti and very spicy Chinese chicken stir-fry. Afterwards, we watched a Korean movie that was based on a true story, a kid who was kidnapped and then the family was extorted for $200,000 random when the kid was killed the second day that he was kidnapped and they didn't find his body until like 52 days after the kidnapping. They still haven't found the kidnapper and the statue of limitations runs out next year.

So the next day, I got a haircut, some lotion, a Korean electronic dictionary (which I found out this morning doesn't speak English, yeesh), and bedding. Yeah, I got hooked up! lol

So then I headed back to Daegu. To start off Week 11. Which you all can read about later. ;o)

Other pictures from the week can be found HERE.

Sinus Update

Well, today after my two intense exams (ohmigod!) I went to the Health Clinic to find that they were closed. So I had lunch with Su Hyun.

A little after 1:30, I bravely went back to the clinic without an interpreter and the receptionist just went on trying to tell me something, which I just guessed that she was saying that the doctor was not in or something. So I said, "OK, I'll be back." I then went to the International Lounge and found two students who offered to help translate for me.

So back to the place we went and they just kind of stood there trying to figure out where to start, and the lady just kinda had an attitude and just started talking in Korean. As they spoke for a little bit and then they just kind of stood there and kind of ushered me out. They told me that lady said that the Doctor was not in and I would need to wait until tomorrow, and that if I'm really sick that I needed to go to a real hospital. I told them I thought the woman seemed a bit rude and they confirmed that when we first came in the lady said, "So she brings her friends this time, so what?" And then was saying that she TOLD me that the Doctor was not in and all this other stuff.

I honestly don't know why this woman thought that I could understand Korean, especially when I brought in a translator with me when I was there on Monday. However, this does remind me of several instances where I've seen someone who could not speak English in the US and being treated even more rudely than I was just treated. It is just amazing how stupid people think you are and then treat you like crap just because you fail to speak their language. I bet that you could be a Nobel prize winner and if you went to another country, where you didn't know the language, and  tried to order something, you would be treated like you were some sort of imbecile. Perception, it's amazing.

So I looked at the International Student Handbook and found out that tomorrow at the clinic, they have the ears, nose and throat doctor on staff. Let's hope that the manual is correct and get me some REAL help. I am so tired and drained.

I'm published!

The Keimyung Gazette asked several foreign exchange students to write an article about their home town. So I wrote a little blurb about Bristol. You can read it here:

http://gazette.gokmu.com/

Not sure how long they are going to have the article up in the prime location, directly on your right, but if you don't see it, then scroll down until you see KMU Voice, it will be listed there until the end of the semester. :o)

Air Bag-Like Jacket Saves Motorcyclist's Life

 Article can be found here:

Air Bag-Like Jacket Saves Motorcyclist's Life - Baltimore News Story - WBAL Baltimore

Now this is VERY cool. As a motorcycle rider and a safety conscious one at that, I am definitely glad to see a product like this out there.

Now if I can actually get one...

One down, Three to go

Had my marketing exam today, it was a cinch. I really don't know how I manage to get into these marketing classes anyway. I have no intentions of taking marketing class and then at the last minute, bam, I'm in a marketing class. Very odd.

The Instructor gave us the exam questions in advance, so it really wasn't a big deal. Some people actually had typed up answers to the exam and since it was open book, open notes, it was allowed. However, the kicker, you have to answer the exam on special University paper. So they had to transfer all that information, which was just WAYY too much, over to the other paper. Power to them. I kept to the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid) and just summarized my answers.

I also stopped by the school health clinic. The doctor spoke perfect English, but I am so thankful that I had Su Hyun there as an interpreter for me, the paperwork was all in Korean. O_O The doctor thought that I might have sinusitis but he couldn't tell for sure since you need to X-ray to find out and they don't have an X-ray machine. So he reluctantly gave me 2 days of antibiotics and told me if I'm still sick to come back and they'll see what they can do. Which might be talking with the International Office to get me to a real Hospital.  Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Well, it's almost dinner time! Food! Yippie!

Happy Birthday Nikki!!

Just want to wish my wonderful US of A roomie a very happy 36th birthday!

Of course, she won't get this message until she returns from her week vacation in Folly Beach, North Carolina. The lucky dog!

Hope you're having a good relaxing and rejuvenating birthday!

Mid-term Exams Are Here!!

For those curious, mid-terms start Monday for us. My Mid-term line up is as follows:

Monday - Marketing: An East Asian Perspective

Thursday - Korean Culture And Korean History

Friday - Korean Language

Human Thinking has been pushed back because we've only had like 4 classes due to all the holidays.

Well, I'm headed off to Dinner now and then off to study for Korean Language, perhaps the most difficult class that I have this semester! Yikes!

Weekend laziness...

My neck is feeling MUCH better today, thank you for all those who were concerned about my well being. I am still having some issues with the sinus infection or whatever it is, but thankfully, I now have my supply of Herbs from Gwen's Herb shop in Bristol, sent all special from N and CC. :o)

I got all sorts of goodies from them. Awesome Panda Bear Pillow, gotta have a little talk with Ms N about the PINK fuzzy socks when I get back to Bristol, but Su Hyun appreciates them in any case. And tons of Halloween stuff from the both of them, which I will be using in my CCAP class that I am suppose to have on Saturday, October 20th. More details when I get them on the CCAP thing. From CC, got some awesome wood carvings, one of my most favorite University EVER, yes that would be Virginia Tech and one of the cutest little cartoon that I saw on the Internet. See, sometimes you just have to mention that you liked something and it will somehow pop up in your life. ahem...I really like BMW... ;o)

So this weekend, amidst of me procrastinating from studying and in a sleeping coma, I managed to get outside today and do some shopping. Yeah, don't ask me how I ended up at E-mart. Grr. I picked up a lot of things, but the things I was looking for like over the counter cold medicine, was no where to be found. And index cards for that matter. Slightly annoying.

I did take some pretty nice photos of various flowers on my way to E-mart anyway.

Oh and I took this picture from outside my window. Is it me or does that huge rock look like a skeleton head?

On the way to E-mart, I was followed by this Magpie. Wished I could have gotten a better picture, because it looks a lot farther away than it actually was.

One thing about Korea, just because you're on a sidewalk, doesn't mean that there won't be a vehicle about to run you over. That is possibly one of the most annoying things I find about Korea. If you have a scooter/motorcycle, you can pretty drive where ever you want to. I was told that they really aren't allowed to, but because there isn't much of a police presence they pretty much do whatever they want. Grr! Next time I'll get a picture of the scooter people in dense human traffic and you can see why I'm so annoyed by them driving on the sidewalks.

   A rather humorous incident in E-mart. I needed some change and there was a McDonald's, and seeing how I didn't have lunch, I figured I might as well take care of two things at once. Unfortunately, I forgot how to say 6 in Korean. I tried to tell her that I wanted 1 #6 meal. Somehow she understood it to mean, I wanted 6 #6 meals. O_O I saw the price and freaked! 21,000 Won for one meal?! I knew something was wrong, but we got it cleared up. See how important the language is!!

So I ordered their Spicy Shanghai McChicken Sandwich, which I was expecting to light me on fire but it was not even remotely spicy.  Ah well, I guess Shanghai really doesn't have spicy foods, they should come out with a Daegu McChicken, I bet you'd breathe out flames with that Sandwich! O_O

 Well, shoot, there is like only 3 pictures that I didn't post. You can look at the pictures the small private garden next to the campus HERE.

Week of Oct. 8th

So Friday, I was in a lot of pain. I made it through Korean Language class and was driven home by the Instructor, which I don't know if that was helpful or not. All that stop and go was like getting mini-whiplash, by the time I got back to my room all I could do was cry, I was in so much pain. I managed to call Eiko, who got me back to the Orthopedic doctor. This time around they gave me a pain relief shot, which didn't do much and then back to getting the neck therapy, which helped a lot.

So we made it back to campus and I think Eiko was a bit late to appointment with her professor. :o( I honestly don't know 'cuz when I got back to my room, I went to sleep and took some Tylenol that Eiko had some girl drop off to me. That was around 1 pm and I didn't wake up until 6:30 pm when I got dinner later. Which was rather painful as I am having problems swallowing still.

On top of this lovely muscle pain, I also have some sort of infection, which I can only guess might be sinus related. It's funny how this sinus stuff started acting up for me when the building decided to turn on the heaters. I'm really starting to think there is something in the ventilation system.

Ok enough of the crying and moaning. This week, Tea, Matt, Mr. Lee and I attended the Korean Traditional Pressed Flower Art class. Not exactly a class I was dying to check out but figured I might actually enjoy it so why not?

We started off with a lot of dried flowers that the Instructor Mrs. Shin already dried earlier in the year. In the spring, she collects all sorts of flowers of various shapes and sizes to teach her classes and also to make the crafts herself. She says with the large flowers, such as sunflowers, she uses them to make furniture.

So we first worked on making little keychains or necklaces and while those things were cooking, we made little cards. In order of who made them (L to R), Mr. Lee, Tea, Matt, and Me.

 When it was all said and done, my two necklaces came out pretty well, if I do say so myself! Hey CC, maybe this could be another product line you could sell in Harmony Crossing! The instructor actually sells her necklaces and keychains at various tourist locations throughout Korea. Next class in November, we'll be making pressed flower earrings.

MORE PICTURES!

Oww - Part two

So I am back from the doctor's office. The entire visit with the X-rays was about 28,000 Won, or $28, which is way cheaper than my co-pay for my health insurance ($30 without X-rays!)!

I went in and got an X-ray where the doctor told me that my neck is too straight. Something I already knew from my Chiropractors at home and anyway from lying on my side in my sleep, I managed to pull and strain my muscles in my neck. :oP So he prescribed a muscle relaxant for three days and I had some therapy.

The table was like a heated tile floor that was rather uncomfortable to lie on but I think I should just get use to lying on hard surfaces while I'm here in Korea. What was kinda cool was instead of just regular electronic muscle zapping machine, it had an extra component, suction cups. So not only was it zapping the muscle to fatigue them, but it was also suctioning blood movement within the muscle itself. Very cool. So I felt pretty good for about two hours, but then I realized that there was another pain in my throat. Yes, the kind of pain that you get right before you get a cold. ARG!!

Doesn't bode very well for my trip to the Jinju Lantern Festival tomorrow but I figure it will be worth it. :o)

Owww

I must have slept funny last night because my neck is seriously bothering me. It's tolerable until I want to swallow, then it seriously hurts in the muscles in the back of my neck. Yeah, go figure.

Thankfully, Eiko is my personal contact for everything I could possibly need in Daegu. So she made some phone calls and I now have an appointment at 2 pm to see a massage type therapist. According to them for therapy, it will cost me 10,000 Won (or $10) and if I need x-rays then that will cost about 20,000 Won more. Can you believe that is the price WITHOUT insurance? Yeah go figure.

Hopefully this will help me! L8r!

Weekend International Students Field Trip

Keimyung University sponsored a FREE field trip for the International Students this past Friday and Saturday. So of course you know that yours truly was there.  :o)

The field trip was to promote Korean Industrial Companies, POSCO (Pohang Steel Corporation) and Hyundai Motors, and also to tour historical Gyeongju.

Our first trip was to POSCO, Korea's largest Publicly Traded Steel Corporation. The mural below is made of photos of POSCO employees.

Throughout the entire company tour, they mentioned over and over again how they used the Japanese War Reparations money to help fund the building of the plant. How the "blood of their ancestors" (during Colonial Japan) will help the future generations of Koreans. This is sort of a trend that I have seen in Korean businesses, the use of emotions to promote sales and also to inspire workers. I think because of their use of nationalism to promote the company in nearly all ways, that this might be the reason why Korean Chopsticks are now made of stainless steel. (Japanese out of wood and Chinese out of Bamboo & longer in length).

The next stop on our industrial tour was a stop at Hyundai. They gave us their PR brochure, which will come in very handy for my marketing project due at the end of the semester, and also a model of the Hyundai Tucson. I rather enjoyed the look of the Tuscani, the new even more sporty version of the Tiburon.

The factory tour was interesting, but rather curious to see how Toyota's manufacturing process differs as they are considered the world's most efficient. There was a lot of things that I wondered why they were done the way they were, but hey that's what you get for seeing only one section of the production line.

Then after that tour, we went to our resort hotel, which apparently hosts the LPGA tour at their resort. Can you see the East Sea in the picture?

The rooms were interesting as there was one double bed in the room and the other people had to sleep Korean style (on the floor). I opted to sleep on the floor. I was afraid that if I slept in a nice comfortable bed that would just spoil my back and it would revolt against me when I slept in my hard dorm bed. ;o)

We had a really good meal, which the Chinese students really enjoyed, it reminded them of Chinese food. Then afterward, we had a bonfire and karaoke singing outside. Yes, that is a karaoke machine you are seeing.

Around 10, I went back to the room with Tea, took a shower and then went to sleep. The majority of the others went on to finish off their many, many, many bottles of soju and beer, until about 3 am. The Chinese girls got up around 5 am to watch the sun rise, which didn't rise until 6 am, so they were a bit exhausted at breakfast. Which breakfast was CEREAL and toast, and eggs, and bacon and sausage with orange juice. Oh you want to talk about being a happy camper! Ok so the yolk was runny but I just cut that part out and left it off to the side, the rest of it was heavenly.

Then it was off to Gyeongju, we stopped briefly to pick up our tour guide. I had fun telling people that this was where my parents had their honeymoon. :o) I bought some famous Gyeongju bread, which I'm sorry to say, I didn't like all that much. I love sweet beans but that was a bit too much.

Then we headed off to Seokguram Temple, where I got an awesome picture the Korean Mountains.

Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to take pictures of the Buddha statue. The statue apparently is the most perfectly made Buddha statue in the world (don't know if I believe that) that this statue is absolutely perfect in its proportions (similar to the statue of David). 

 

Lucky for us, there was a picture on the Internet of this statue. The statue has a crystal on his 3rd eye, which on the winter solstic, the sunlight enters the grotto and hits the crystal, which reflects the light to another Buddha's 3rd eye, this crystal is double refracted and it shines the sunlight behind Buddha to illuminate a female figure, Avalokitesvara (Kuan Yin).

We then made our way to Bulguksa, which I visited 2 years ago with my sister, mom and Aunt, so I didn't take as many pictures this time around. So it was a bit frustrating to have to stay with the group when I wanted to look at some other stuff. :oP I was hoping to see if I could find the temple dedicated to the San Shin (Mountain Spirit) or find the murals that had the original Buddha's pictorial history and the pictorial lesson for how to attain enlightenment. But, no such luck.

We then rushed to the next site to have a Traditional Korean lunch. It was ok, but I really was having a hard time sitting on the floor that day and it was really, really hot in that room so I excused myself from the room and sat outside. Don't know why I was feeling so claustrophobic in that room. So while I was outside, I took a picture of the other students eating in the other room.

I thought we were going to see the Tombs of the past Korean Kings and Queens but that wasn't even on the agenda. :o( I'm going to have to go to Gyeongju again just so I can tour the tomb area.

Our next stop was at the Gyeongju World Culture Expo Center. It is basically a huge amusement park where we had no freedom to walk around on our own. I think I don't like tours because of that. :oP So we saw the huge building that was cut in the same of a 9 story pagoda. The 9 levels represent the 9 kingdoms during some sort of time period maybe the Joeson period.

On the floor below the Observatory, they had Korea's Digital Heritage. So they had all these high technology stations that showed you 3-D images of various Korean historical items, like crowns, pagodas, clothing, etc. They also had a lot of videos of hair styles and historical stories that you could watch as well.

After that, we watched some Chinese fusion dancing that was suppose to represent multiculturalism in Shanghai. It was a mix between ballet and some other dancing.

After that, we went and visited the garden that had the 12 Chinese zodiacs. I naturally took a picture of my Chinese zodiac, the dragon.

On our way out of the park, we passed the Russian Ice Skaters who were doing a parade to get more people to come and watch their show. The Russian exchange students had fun shouting out some Russian to the performers. Just for you Teresa and Imo, here are the Russian belly dancers in the parade.

Passed out on the way back to campus. Everyone was so tired, especially the ones who were hung over still from Saturday night. hahaha I know I slept like a log! I didn't even hear my roommate come in after I went to bed! Scary!

MORE PICTURES!! I've changed the naming format a bit so hopefully everything will be in the correct order this time around. :o)

Andong Mask Festival - Part 2

So we get to the Mask Festival area rather easily with our trusty Interpreter, Ji-Eun. We made our way into the festival and walked by large slabs of Pork and several other items that you don't normally see in the US.  I'll try to take pictures of them next time.

We walked around a bit and took note of several vendors we planned on checking out later. One place was selling some interesting products...

So we walked over to this other section and I just felt like we should go this other way for some reason and we ended up at a side stage where they were setting up for a Shamanic Performance. We had just studied about Korean Shamanism in our Korean Culture class and so we were all interested in seeing this performance and so we sat and sat and sat. As the performance started, we all had awesome seats but then all these elderly Koreans came out of nowhere and all started sitting in front of us and places you would never even thought about sitting. It's amazing how in America a bench would hold like maybe 2 or 3 people and in Korea, the same bench would hold 5 Koreans. Determined people, let me tell you!

Well this ceremony was several hours long and we watched several shamans performed but as we all needed to use the bathroom and also to MOVE we left after seeing 4 shamans.  They all pretty much did the same thing, dancing around and some sang. The one that threw us was this man, who I honestly thought was just a rather homely woman, turns out was a man, who was just in women's clothing because he channels a female entity.

I was really interested in seeing the ritual involving the blade stairs, so I asked Ji-Eun to ask one of the "assistants" when the blade ritual would take place and so she did. Well the assistant was the actual shaman who was going to perform the ritual, so she informed us it was going to take place between 3 and 4 pm. Which gave us a couple of hours to grab some lunch, have a little walk around and also catch a Korean mask dance.

We ended up watching half of Sooyeong.

Then we headed back to watch the Shamanic ritual with the blade steps. The blades were not sharp, so no worries about seeing blood or anything like that. The red and blue poles actually help the Shaman to keep a lot of her weight off the blades but still there is a good chance that she could hurt herself. Yes, that's right, in Korea, Shamans are usually women.

She first started off doing a lot of dances with various knives and swords, which I really don't understand why anyone would want to approach her to place money in her little headband. She's got KNIVES and is a trance people!!

 So after all this dancing and running around with various weapons (She channels a warrior spirit if you couldn't figure out why she had so many weapons), she started her climb up the stairs. I have a video clip of the event so sorry, no still pictures.

Then after coming down from the steps, she got really hyper and then climbed this other step and stood on another blade for a brief period of time. Didn't get any picture of that because this woman decided she was going to stand RIGHT in front of everyone and watch this with her young child on her back. Yes, that would be her in this picture.

Yes and people don't think anything of walking through a performance on their way to the other side. Don't know if it's Korean behavior or if it's just the behavior of several clueless people. So after doing all of that, she started doing little fortune-telling with her flags. Apparently red flag was the best.

So after the ritual, we went back to catch another mask dance. This one the Songpa.

Not really sure what the play was about, but the guy in yellow was a bad guy and there was a man in Green who was trying to capture him. I thought the guy in Green was a bad guy because his mask was rather ugly, but turned out he was the good guy. HA! Here he is talking with his son.

Well, we cut out of this play a bit early to do some shopping and then headed off. Angela and Daniel back to Daegu and Ji-Eun and I to Busan. Finally got to meet my other cousin, of course, I can't remember his name. Geez, I have no idea why I can't remember Korean names!!

So, let me see. The guy on the left front is a cousin of Ji-Eun (Father's brother's son) and beside him is another cousin (he's married to the girl who is not Ji-Eun, she's a Graphic Designer), then there is my Uncle at the end of the table, and beside him is my Cousin (Ji-Eun's older brother). Yes, I suck with names.

Ok I'm tired, time for bed!

More pictures!

Andong Mask Festival - Part 1

Geez, I think you guys are going to be spoiled getting all these posts all in one day.  ;o)

This weekend, Angela, Daniel, Ji-Eun and I, went to Andong for the mask festival. To start off our trip, we met Ji-Eun on Friday at the Bus Station in Daegu and took the bus to Andong. From there, we took a taxi to what I thought was a "close" traditional Korean house. Well, turned out it was over 50 minutes outside of Andong, but you know it was well worth it.

When we arrived it was really late, and one of the rooms actually had the heated floor system turned on. You can see the smoke coming from the heater. This home belong to an upper class Korean family approximately 400 years ago. The home was actually farther down closer to the river but was moved when the Andong dam was built.

 Since we had the largest party, we got to stay in the bedroom belonging to the Master of the home. :o) Ji-Eun treated us to some Korean tea and then we headed back to our room after accidentally trying to check out the "guest house" and finding out that there was an actual GUEST in there. Ooops!  So to keep out of trouble we hung out in the little open air sitting area in our room and played a traditional game that Ji-Eun taught us called, "Muk."

So we went about making our beds and turning in for the night. I dare say, I think that sleeping on the floor here was more comfortable than my DORM bed. Good grief. My alarm went off at 6:30, but I didn't actually get up for another 10 minutes. Man, I was SO tired! I think everyone else was feeling the same as they were dragging in the morning as well.

So as the others were trying to drag themselves to consciousness, I went outside and got an awesome picture of our "front yard." Um...yeah, the white building is the "guest house."

We were going to go on an hour walk on this path they had but unfortunately the walk was 30 minutes one way and there was no way we were going walk for an hour when we could be sleeping. Yeah, we were that tired. We did get several more shots of the house area. Seeing how we arrived in the middle of the darkness we were amazed to be greeted with the scenery that we did.

Here's a better picture of our "room."

The open area on the right is where we were playing Muk and the two open doors to the left and behind Angela and Daniel are the doors to our sleeping area. Talk about awesome.

We were told that breakfast was at 7:40 am and then something about 8 am. We then started joking around saying that breakfast was only 20 minutes and that we'd have to wolf down our food like Koreans do in order to make the 20 minute time limit. Little did we know that, there REALLY WAS a 20 minute time limit! LOL! We had a good laugh over that.

We then made our way down to the river, where you know I collected a couple more rocks. Yeah, my suitcase is going to be REALLY heavy!

 Someone had stacked a bunch of rocks on top of each other and Ji-Eun told us that we needed to put a rock on there and make a wish. So we each did that.

We took a couple more pictures and then headed to the Andong Mask Festival. We ended up taking a taxi and then hoping a bus back into Andong. It was interesting to catch this little farm bus as local farmers would bring on board huge bags of red peppers and other things. It really was pretty cool insight into Korean farmers.

Ok seeing how long this entry is, I'll start another entry for the actual mask festival.

To be continued...

Week 5 - Jeju-do Part 2

OK, so where was I? Yes, day two of the trip. Boy, I'm long winded sometimes!

So the next day, we started off at Jeolmul Tree Garden. Which is a garden area that is really big on health. So as you are walking up the mountain, they have these reflexology paths you can walk on.

As you can see, the path wasn't all that comfortable to walk on. ;o) The older people on the tour laughed at us for a bit and got way ahead of us as we tried the different rock paths. The made our way to catch up with them but got distracted by some random stone pigs that we just had to pose with. And also some random gate guardians too. Talk about a strange park!

We finally managed to catch up with the group at the mineral spring for which the park was named after, "mul" is Korean for Water.

We made it to the bus, being the LAST people again, yeesh. Anyway, the next stop on this day was at a Mongolian Circus show. Yes, this day really was just RANDOM. It was basically a horse tricks show. There was a 12 year old boy who did a lot of rather impressive tricks.

Then the next stop was for us to ride our very own horses! Apparently, because I seem to have a problem understand directions (maybe because the directions were in Korean?), I was lead around by a guy on another horse. hahaha Yes, I did think that was rather funny seeing how I do know how to ride horses, but hey, maybe Korean Horses don't understand English. ;o) Before we had our "ride" we took some pictures together.

So after all that, we went to lunch. Where we had the famous Jeju black pig. Which was called, "Dong Dey-gi" by Koreans by the way. This will be important information for later. Anyway, the meal was really good. I would say that this dish ranked really high on my foods to recommend to foreigners list....

So after this meal, we went to a Jeju Folk village / Marketing area. Yeah, I know, I'll explain. This "Folk Village" was really just a place to corner tourists and give you a 30 minute spiel about how wonderful these products are for your health. However, they do give you a 30 minute history lesson about a typical Jeju village. Well, at this village, there was a Jeju Dong Dey-gi.

Yes, this pig is really cute, isn't it? Well, then I was given a little lesson. Dong means "shit" and Dey-gi means "pig" and this little stinker gets its name not because it rolls in its own poop....no....it's because this pig EATS the poop of the villagers. Yes, that's right. The pig is the local sewage system and after it gets nice and fat, this little guy is eaten by the villagers. Yes, lovely. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

So after that little lesson, we drove to Ilchul Land, which has this huge cave and some other little attractions. The cave was interesting, had an awesome dragon carving on one of the cave columns.

Then we ran around the park, looking at all the plants and their greenhouse that had a huge and rather random cactus garden. I think my favorite were the little stone people, reminded me of the cycladic figures that Kim saw in Greece. Who me, like rocks?! Naww!!

Then it was hurry back on the bus to head to Seopjikoji Beach. Which we couldn't actually get down to the water but I did get some pretty awesome pictures.

This was a location for some Korean Drama called "All in" which sounded a lot like the "Thornbirds." A Priest who was in love with this woman, next to a beautiful coast, yeah...

After that, we made a random stop as we waited for someone from another tour to get off the boat and join our group. So then we headed to eat dinner caught by the famous Jeju women divers. The speciality was raw fish and something else. Honestly, I just couldn't get over the psychological aspect of knowing I was eating raw fish and only managed to get one piece down, gagging the entire time.

I think I might have grossed Ji-Eun out with my gagging, because she didn't eat much more after that. We ended up giving our food to the other people on our tour.

Since everyone else was eating, Ji-Eun and I went out to the Ocean and saw some really cool sea shells. So I started picking up a whole bunch, as I totally saw it as an opportunity to make necklaces out of them. I'm sure CC is happy that I'm finding more work for her to do. hahaha Oh, by the way, I got several compliments for my Jade necklace CC made for me. :o) Ji-Eun and I had a lot of fun playing with the shells on the bus.

Well, after all that, we were dropped off at the airport to wait for a couple hours for our plane. While we were waiting, the cutest little boy came up to me and said, "Hello. How are you?" So as a prize, we gave him American Chocolate and a Quarter for his efforts.

Well, that just made him our best friends! He gave us both Jeju vitamin C tablets and a little watermelon that has a little blue bug in it and a sticker that says, "I (heart) you." (made in China) haha He was just really cute, just coming up to me speaking Korean and I had NO idea what the heck he was saying but he was cute and very polite.

A great way to end a great trip in any case!

More Pictures here!

Bye Christine!!

One of our American exchange students, Christine, had to go back to the US today. Her grandmother is rather ill and she wanted to be there with her.

On Monday night, the Dormitory area had a festival and so she was able to see a little bit of Korean culture, karaoke singing, Tae Kwon Do, and drink a bit of Soju.  She had a send off of Korean Karaoke, with some guy pulling tissues out of his crotch, don't know what that was about, but ok, definitely a bit memorable.

I also bought her a box of the Korean favorite, Choco-Pie, for her trip back to the US of A. Hopefully, it will last her to the US. Those things are very addicting and very dangerous if you're on a diet!  ;o)

We'll miss you Christine!!

More pictures here.