Chuseok Seoul-style

I arrived in Seoul to meet Rebecca et al for a week of sightseeing and such and take advantage of the few(er) crowds. However, the often humorous Mother Nature had a different plan for us. This was how we were welcomed upon our arrival…

At least the subways were operating .... sort of ....

Nevertheless, we decided to test our luck with them. After all, what's the likelihood of our exact stop being the one that is shut down? Turns out, pretty good.

Ok, fine. So, we get off a few stops down the line. No biggie. We exited the subway and proceeded to hail down the first taxi we saw.  Rebecca was carrying the “directions” to the hostel, which would have been quite useful had we gotten off on the right subway stop. Likewise, they were walking directions starting from the subway station exit, which went something like this, find the Paris Baguette and take ten paces to the right and continue until you reach the Dunkin Donuts.

So, Rebecca and I found ourselves having to quickly pull ourselves together and somehow explain to this guy where we needed to go…”Uh, Dunkin’ Donuts”. Ok, good job girls. That’s definitely a start but unfortunately, blurting out Dunkin’ Donuts is not the same as saying oh, I don’t know, take me to The Eiffel Tower (while in Paris), simply because there are more DD’s in Seoul than there are in Bean town and I feel fairly confident in making that statement.  Needless to say, our taxi driver was unimpressed. Ok, let’s try “Hongdae Hostel"? By this time, he's given up on Rebecca because clearly she's not from "here". He immediately looks to me (naturally) and to his disappointment and in my state of anxiety, I also blurt out “Dunkin Donuts”. So now the taxi driver has two babbling Americans in the backseat with no clue as to even what direction to go in. Let's try this again, “Hongdae Dunkin Donuts Hostel-UH”.

Here’s a tip. When you find yourself in a communication barrier with a taxi driver in Korea, 9 times out of 10 you can break it down by simply adding an “uh” to the end of your words. Example.

Me:  I need to go to Daegame Park

Taxi Driver:  Mwuh?! (WHAT?!)

Me: Daegame Park… go....please

Taxi Driver:  Huh?

Me:  Dae-ga-me Park…(repeat and louder)

Taxi Driver:  (shakes head) ???

Me:  Daegame Park-uh?

Taxi Driver:  Ohhhhh OK! Daegame Park-UH!

Me: Yes-UH!

10 minutes later, we pull up to Dunkin’ Donuts and to our amazement, the hostel was directly above. Sweet-uh! We bid our driver adieu and went on our merry way.

Chuseok

Chuseok is one of the most significant holidays in Korea and is a 3-day celebration during the harvest season. Traditionally it is a celebration of the year’s prosperities and good harvest. For Koreans, this is a time for families to gather together to give thanks and to remember and honor their ancestors.  I suppose it is believed that just as a strong root system is important for producing healthy crops, the same value is placed on ancestral roots as the anchor for continuing generations.

Apparently there are numerous harvest events and traditional folk games going on during this time that are organized by local city governments. So, to kick off the holiday, a few fellow teachers and I walked over to a nearby field where we found pretty much the entire town gathered around in a circle formation, holding hands and singing - turning clockwise, then counterclockwise. The dance is called Ganggang-sullae.

 This was the wishing "tree" where people had hung their wishes. We weren't about to pass up that opportunity so all of us wrote our wishes down on a slip of paper and then all the kids went running up to see if they could make out what we had written ....

.... and then this happened! Uh, we think this was a good thing. I mean, wishes only come true if they're torched to smithereens, right?

                                                                                                                                                                           These were dancers dressed in traditional Hanbok

This was a really awesome experience and I was elated to have been a part of it all.

Now, the thing about the Chuseok holiday is that many Koreans return to their hometowns to eat copious amounts of food (food? oh, I almost digressed but I will stay on track) and spend time with families. SO, for us "foreigners", this was prime time to be in Seoul! I will write about the trip to Seoul (Part deux, errr I guess it would be Part dul) but not before seeing the shout out from Secretary "Clinon", wishing the Republic of Korea a joyous holiday here.

...Seoul Continued

Seoul is colossal and there’s really no word that I can come up with that can convey just how huge of a metropolis it is. Seoul is ranked as the 8^th most populous city in the world (New York being the largest city in the U.S., comes in at 14).  Seoul definitely has some bragging rights too.

Here’s a few reasons from Wikipedia:

1.       Seoul is one of the world's top ten financial and commercial centers, home to large conglomerates such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai-Kia.

2.        In 2008, Seoul was named the world's sixth most economically powerful city by Forbes.com.

3.       In 2007, Mercer Human Resource Consulting ranked Seoul 87th in the world among major cities for quality of life.

4.       Seoul has a technologically advanced infrastructure. Its Digital Media City has been a test-bed for various IT and multimedia applications (There’s gadgets and widgets, which are both very technical terms btw, of all sorts, to test out everywhere you look)

5.       Seoul was the first city to feature DMB, a digital mobile TV technology and WiBro, a wireless high-speed mobile internet service. It has a fast, high-penetration 100Mbps fibre-optic broadband network, which is being upgraded to 1Gbps by 2012 (Um…and put the pickles on the side?)

6.       Seoul Station houses the 350 km/h KTX bullet train.

7.       Seoul Subway is the third largest in the world, with over 200 million passengers every year.

8.       Seoul was chosen to be the World Design Capital for 2010 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

Anywho,  so back to my original point which was…..Seoul is huge and there’s no possible way to see it all in one weekend. This was not our goal of course. Looking back through our pictures, you would think feeding our inner fat person may have been the goal. Well then, mission accomplished.

 One of Rebecca's friends from SC knew about a breakfast joint that served good ol' fashioned American breakfast (all over the walls and tables, there were explanations of what an American style breakfast consists of, pretty funny)...."Butterfingers".

This is Ashton (The friend). Poor guy was stuck with us girls.

Did someone say cake? cookies? cake cookies?

 It's taken me a bit to get used to seeing the Won on labels and I still forget sometimes and will throw up my hands and yell "35,000 for a shirt! Who pays for this stuff!?!" and then I sheepishly back away and remember, oh yeah those tricky Koreans and their zeroes. I had to take a picture of this little bottle of maple syrup. The price is obviously in Korean Won, but drop off a few of those zeros and it's about a $70 bottle of maple syrup. Who pays for this stuff!?!?!

We plan to reconvene in Seoul for Chuseok (one of the biggest holidays celebrated), which is next week.

Miss Rebecca and Seoul

Seoul Sisters!!!

This is the story of how mine and Miss Rebecca's paths aligned at the most perfect moment in time. Given our situations, one may find our connection quite likely. However, I disagree and here's why... So, as a preliminary step to obtaining an E2 teaching Visa in Korea, you must have a background check processed and apostilled. After stumbling around on the internet and ordering an unqualified online version (as my recruiter suggested btw), I found myself at the CBI office. As fate would have it, (Now enter, Rebecca) I am walking in, Rebecca is walking out. A little background - Rebecca is originally from South Carolina. She came out to CO for a year to teach at a Montessori school in Ft. Collins. Her year had ended and she was moving back to SC, literally that week, to have her interview with the consulate's office and then pack for her adventure in Korea. We happened to see one another and struck up a convo .... Rebecca left for Korea 2 weeks prior to my departure! The rest is history.

I took the bus into Seoul to meet up with Rebecca last weekend. Reunited at last!

Mandu (pronounced "mon-doo")!!! This is the wikipedia definition of Mandu, here. However, my definition of Mandu is, "Heaven in a bite-sized pillow of scrumdiddlyumptious". I think I would be ok if all I ever ate for the rest of my life were delicious Manduuuu!

Seoul adventure to be continued...

This Little Piggy Went to Market

Leave it to me to sniff out the largest outdoor food market in my town almost immediately after I arrived. Altho, I'll admit that some of it was hard to stomach. However, this was for sure a great first induction into the culture. This post is for those of you that wanted to see all the "weird" stuff I would be eating while in SoKo....or in this case, not eating but definitely soaking in all the vibrant colors. Oh, but don't you worry because my next post will be all of the food I have been eating, which has been "very delicious" (a Korean may not know a lick of English but somehow they all know how to say those two words and "OK", but I'll get to that one later).

Street vendors line up and down the open-air market, stretching across several blocks along the river. This place is HUGE!

 

Love's Divine Adventure

It is day 25 (of 365) in Chungju, South Korea. Let's rewind a bit, shall we?

So, what made you decide to leave everything that you have known and loved your entire life to come halfway across the world to a place you know so little about? (Insert look of astonishment and long awkward pause, here). It's a fair question and mostly it's simply because...........I know so little about this place.......Korea, my birthplace. Months prior to my decision to come to Korea, while desperately trying to restore a sense of balance and fulfillment (not finding it in the current situation I was in), I'm recalling something my mother said to me which was, "go where you can give and grow". So, I began the process of finding a teaching position in Korea, interviewing, accepting a one-year job contract and obtaining a Visa (all in a matter of 2 months). The entire process was.....well, a process. However, the way that each step fell into place was honestly, quite remarkable (not to mention the amount of love and support that I received from family and friends - such a demonstration of Life and Love!).

This is a year-long LDA (as my aunt and uncle would say) and I invite you to come along on my journey! Here goes...