Unusual Things and People Around Korea

This past weekend, after the Jay-Z concert, we had a day out with our friends, Jason and Jessica. First, we went guitar shopping as Jason is now teaching Abigail how to play guitar. Next time you see her, feel free to ask her for a song. She's getting to be a real pro at The White Stripes' "I Can Tell That We Are Gonna Be Friends," a song she taught to her students. Anyway, after that we went to one of Seoul's huge above and below ground markets. It's not quite as cool looking as The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but it has a hell of a lot more stuff to buy. For example, the items range from Aunt Jemima's Syrup to leeches, from ghost salt and pepper shakers to dried seaweed, and from skewered pineapple to live, baby octupi, waiting to be chopped and slurped down still kicking. Anyway, we saw a lot of cool people and things. Following are a few of them, plus some thrown in from the last few months:













This man is making some Korean dessert. It is much for fun to watch him make it than it is to eat it (it's rice, ponded until it is a giant, booger-like glob, which is broken into smaller pieces and rolled in crushed nuts).





















These nice youngsters were offering free hugs to anyone who wanted them. This is in the popular and trendy Insadong area:














This guy was not as popular as he was walking around the market, called Namdaemun Market, trying to make converts when all everyone seemed to want was for him to move over a little. I'm guessing that his quest was less than successful. He did play an awfully mean trumpet though:





















After shopping, here's where people stop to eat (notice the buffet of food; you select what you want and they fry it up and plop it on top of rice):

Jay-Z Concert in Seoul

This past Friday, Abigail and I saw Jay-Z live in Seoul in celebration of a friend's birthday. Our friend Tracy really, really wanted to see Beyonce, so she thought that the Jay-Z concert would be a good bet. She was even issued a performers visa by the Korean government, but hlfway through the show, Jay-Z made it clear that she wouldn't be performing. The show was still really fun (I wanted to see Jay-Z; don't really care about Beyonce) and everyone had a good time. Also, using some school resources to create false documents, our friend Meechum decided to create fake bakstage passes for everyone. He went to the show dressed the part with nice jeans and suit jacket. He looked like a record exec, and his girlfriend, Kiyomi, was looking just right too. Abigail and I bailed out after the show, but Kiyomi and Meechum walked right back stage and had chat with a few performers (Jay-Z left almost immediately after the show was over). Anyway, as with most Hip-Hop shows i've seen, it was high energy and lots of fun,

War in Korea?

Well, it seems that trouble is following me wherever I go. As I'm sure you all know, the North Koreans claimed to have detonated a nuclear weapon underground in northeastern North Korea. The North Koreans also claim that no radioactive morsels have been released into the atmosphere. But really, no can believe the deranged little man known as Kim Jung Il, the man that makes up for his small stature with a boufant haircut and platform shoes. Who does he think he's kidding?

In any case, I'm not worried about this incident at all what with the entire world, including China, condemning this move. I guess that's one good aspect about this: China and America finally see eye to eye on an issue. In any case, I also don't see any reason to worry as that would do nothing but either give me forehead wrinkles or cause me to lose even more hair.

I have taken an informal poll of several of my classes and many of them don't seem to really care too much about what's going on. After all, it's not like this is the first time that Kim Jung Il has done something completely moronic just to get a little attention. Also, many of the kids here (wrongly) think that if the going gets rough, the Americans will jump in to fight the nty "red" north. Unfortunately, seeing as the American military is having a bit of trouble with Vietnam Redux, I'm not too sure that they're willing to open up a new front on the other side of the Asian continent. This also begs the question: with our designated, post-911 "Axis of Evil" defined shortly after the attacks, why didn't we attack the country with known nuclear capabilities? Could this have been avoided in the first place with a pre-emptive attack on North Korea? Of course not. We all know pre-emptive attacks are illegal, but it's still fun to think about.

Our school is a stone's throw from a US Air Force base, the same one the dignitaries and the president use to land Air Force One. There is usually quite a bit of activity off of the air strip, but since the test there has been significantly more: Apaches, fighter jets, and trainers.

That said, the general attitude is more of curious anticipation rather than all-out fear. I guess that's what you get used to when you live in a country that has been at war for more than 50 years. We'll keep you posted.

Chusok Road Trip to the East of Korea

(Note: click on the pictures to make them larger.)

This past week we've been on holiday here in Korea. Chuseok is the equivalent of American Thanksgiving and a time when most Koreans travel to their family homes to eat and pay homge to their ancestors. People, icluding our students, go away for the week and Seoul is practically empty. Empty, that is, until everyone returns at the exact same time, causing a massive gridlock (here's a little more about Chuseok).

Anyway, on Friday, after school was let out, Abigail and I, along with three other couples, rented the school van and toured around eastern Korea. Following are a few highlights: We first went to a beach town, which was completely dead. Also, the beach was completely covered with clotheslines with gutted and drying squid everywhere. Mmmmm mmm! The nice thing about it was that we were able to swim and body surf in the Sea of Japan, so that was fun.

A note about the places we stayed: Korea is full of small, hotel-type places called minboks. Minbok rooms are nothing more than a large room with rollout "mattresses" and a heated floor. And when I say heated, I mean hot to the touch. And when I say "mattress," I mean a thin, duvet-type blanket. Ouch! Not built for people with European frames. In any case, there is no furniture and all 8 of us could stay in one room, for about 10 dollars each. Not bad.

The Korean peninsula, far as I've seen, is a really beautiful area. It's very mountainous with good roads and nice, rustic villages all over the place. As might be expected, it's quite organized and efficient, so no problems when it came to getting around.

After the coastal town, we made our way down along the sea and eventually over to an area called Andong, where an annual mask festival was being held in a small village nearby. This festival is interesting because it invites Japanese dancers every year. This is nice to see as generally Koreans and Japanese don't hold each other in very high regards. Here are a few pics from the village and the festival:









Above: the village








A few of the Korean dancers. i think this one was about order in society as the guy on the left was clearly a "drunk" character who often did disrespectful and funny things. He, being a member of a Confucian society, got scolded in the end.









Here are some old ladies preparing the Korean national food, a fermented, pickled cabbage called kimchi. Why fermented and pickled in jars underground you ask? Long winters in Korea and no veggies. Kimchi is often referred to as a "living food" for its good bacteria and many studies have been done with bird flu concluding that kimchi is what has kept bird flu out of Korea. I love it; Abigail doesn't. Boo for us.

We also visited some temples in the ancient capital of Gyeongju. It was really nice to see all of the beautiful temples, but one of my favorite parts was seeing the kids playing in the rock garden. Here are a few pics from the garden:





















Unfortunately, we had two deaths along the way.
















Despite the deaths of our friends, we made the best of their existences. Pictured below, going clockwise from bottom left: Sam's hand (California), his wife Robin (Hawai'i), Tracy, her husband Matt (both from Vancouver), Pridipi, and his wife Claude (both from New Zealand).












And last but not least, yours truly: