Quick first note: at the end of this message I've added a link to the Picasa album that now holds some videos from here (new and older). In case you've had trouble seeing them on Facebook, please use that link :).
I have internet at home! Woo hoo! Last Thursday a technician stopped by my apartment to set up service for me, and we had some trouble at the beginning, but it's been up and running swiftly from that point onward, so I have no complaints. I will even add that when downloading one particular file I experienced the fastest downloading speed of my life with just over 2.7 mbps. Whew. It kind of blew me away. haha. Due to that development, I've spent a fair amount of time over the past few days Skyping with a bunch of different people, and that's been a welcome continuation/addition to my daily routine. I also spent some time yesterday rearranging my apartment yet again. By this point, I believe that I've moved every large thing at least once or twice, so I'm pretty sure that I've finally found all the lingering dust bunnies around my apartment … hopefully I can keep it this clean for the long haul. Now that things have moved around, I have more space for hosting people over here, although I do need find a small couch and coffee table to make the experience better, I think. Woo hoo! Last development for my apartment: I bit the bullet and bought some sweet speakers yesterday as well. mmhmm. I came to Korea with a set of JBL desktop speakers, but I'm pretty sure I fried them within my first 2 days here -- I didn't realize that the electrical output was so much higher here than back home, and unfortunately their power converter couldn't handle that load. So now they just sit in the bottom drawer of one my cabinets … but these new ones are wicked sweet, so I'm slowly getting over my loss.
So right now it's actually Monday night … just before I go to bed … and I didn't have to work today (or tomorrow) because of the Chuseok holiday that's happening today. This is commonly known as the Korean Thanksgiving, and it's one of the 2 times a year when Koreans would typically have a big gathering with their families. Dianne explained some of the happenings one day, and it's a time when family members would traditionally get together and commemorate their ancestors and have a big meal and spend time together as a whole unit. I did a little wiki searching, and apparently Chuseok can also be linked to a general harvest celebration idea as well because of the timing each year. And it actually aligns with the Lunar calendar, so next year it won't be the same day according to our usual means of counting days. In anticipation of Chuseok we had a fun day on Friday at Haba where some traditional Korean clothing, called a Hanbok, was available for the foreign teachers to wear while we helped with/supervised a bunch of games around the school. The kids themselves all came to school dressed in their own Hanboks, and it was super cute. You should check out the photo albums because I'll post some pictures of the happenings … as well as some specific shots with each of my classes, so you'll get to see the same kids that I meet with each and every day. The games we played included: "Yut Nori," "Neolttwigi," "Tuho," and "Jaegi Chagi." Yut Nori is one game that I haven't yet played for real because the set we had for the kids was a huge altered one, but from what I understand, one would have 4 short sticks that are like dowel rods cut in half down the middle (so each one has a semi-circular shape … while still being a stick). One would toss down all 4 sticks simultaneously, and depending on how they land (ie- which face is up … the flat one or the round one) points are scored and one move a little marker around a board. For the sake of the kids we simply had very oversized sticks that they kind of tossed … sometimes they just pushed them over. haha. It was funny to watch.
Neolttwigi looks a lot like a simple see-saw, and that's pretty much how it functions. It's comprised of a long plank with a center support that keeps it off the ground, and the two people on it would stand and jump up and down to alternately launch one another. For this game we ended up having teachers on either side of each student so that we could "help" them jump up and down -- truthfully, we ended up doing most of the work … although we would say, "Jump! Wait! Ok, jump!" to the kids, it was actually more of a "Pause … lift … pause … lift" routine for us. I tried to play this game with a couple of the other foreign teachers with mixed success because timing is a huge issue; I look forward to the next time I encounter this game for adults. Our Tuho game consisted of letting the kids throw bamboo sticks (with feathers attached to one end) into pots a couple feet away. These sticks were a couple feet long, so it was actually a pretty solid throwing game, such that naturally, when the kids weren't actively engaged in the game, the teachers -- both foreign and native -- tried their luck and tested their skill in this game. I think that Matt was the overall champion of the day with 6 in a row from 12-15 feet out and 1 (lucky) distance shot of 20-25 feet. it was great, and that'd be a super easy game to replicate back home … new lawn game, anyone? The last game, Jaegi Chagi, reminded me a lot of playing with a hacky sack back in middle school. In our version of the game, we had small bells attached to little streamer balls [whew … my descriptions are a little lacking sometime, aren't they?]. The kids would take these, and in the same way we would use a hacky sack, and kick them up into the air … trying to kick them up repeatedly with smaller taps. Most of the kids weren't coordinated enough to make more than one contact, but that was ok -- it was still fun/funny to watch them. Beyond these games, there were some other activities that I never really saw happening, although there was one more game that I'll mention that isn't really a traditional Korean game, but instead it's a variation that we used just for fun. This last game was essentially a race game, where two students would start at one end of the gym, race down past two teachers sitting in chairs and try to return to the starting line before the other person made it back. Sounds like a pretty simple, right? Yeah, it was. Here's the kicker, though, that made it hilarious for those in the know: before the kids made their run, they had to put a "Ki" on their backs. The Ki looks like a woven basket/carrier, and Dianne explained its significance to me. Apparently, traditionally if a child would wet the bed, in the morning the parents would make the child wear the Ki and go ask neighbors to have some salt. Now because other parents would do the same thing, they obviously knew that the kid was a bed wetter, and they would give him/her a hard time. haha. hilarious. How this became a game at Haba, I have no idea, but regardless it remains so funny to me.
Beyond Chuseok I want to tell you about a few more things in this email. First, I had two more interesting Korean meals over the past weekend. One I had Friday night with a few other foreign teachers, and we had actually intended to go and have a different meal, but when we stopped at a particular shop, that meal wasn't served, so we ended up settling on "Budae Jigae," which is also known as a military stew/soup. This soup contains a little bit of everything, and it truly was very interesting. Here's a quick aside: granted in my dining out experiences at home and around the States are probably still pretty limited, but regardless I think it's safe to say that at most every place I've ever gone, all the food prep and cooking has been done in the kitchen out of sight. Here, though, there have been so many times when we've gone out (or I've just noticed through a window) that food is still prepared behind a counter, but then it's brought to the table to be cooked. In the middle of the table is a gas burner for cooking and often above the table is a special vent to collect any fumes/smoke. In this style, the budae jigae was brought to us in a big dish for us to cook at our table. All the ingredients this time around were either fresh vegetables or precooked meat, but even with completely raw things, this often happens … and I've decided that it's one of the aspects of Korean dining that I like the best. Back to budae, though, this soup contained: hot dog, spam, fish cake, mushrooms, rice cake, ramen noodles, spices, onions, garlic, tofu, some other noodle, and maybe some other things I wasn't aware of, and we cooked it all in a broth. This dish originated in the post-Korean war times when meat was scarce, and they would take leftovers from the American soldiers and combine it all into the soup. This was quite the meal. Everything was alright, except that the jigae was a little too spicy for me. If there were a version with less spice, I might have it again … but of course because it was so spicy, we just felt justified to get some ice cream afterward, so I guess I can't really complain too much. haha. The other meal I had this weekend, on Saturday to be more specific, is called "Samgyeopsal," which translates to approximately "three layered flesh." This meal consisted of another one of the table burner units, a plate of thinly sliced pork and some fresh vegetables that we grilled all together. Although the taste was different, the meat reminded me a lot of bacon because of the cut, and that's why it has its name -- if you think about bacon and visible layers of fat and meat, those are the kinds of differences that the "three layered" name refers to. And this food, as with others that I've had, required us to simply fry the food and eat it in a wrap style, adding the meat and veggies to some sauce and cucumber slices and eating it all inside leaves. This was, without a doubt, another exceptional meal that I've had here, and I look forward to eating it again.
Alright. This message is getting to be about as long as any other, so I'll wrap it up with two more amusing things. One of these came Saturday night after going to the aforementioned restaurant and having the meal. I went out that night with Dianne and JiHye, and it was a very fun evening. After dinner we stopped by a Starbucks and then decided to go see a movie. Some have asked, by the way, about movies here, and there are many Korean movies … obviously in Korean, but there are other movies shown as well -- a number of Hollywood Blockbusers -- that play in English with Korean subtitles. A few weeks ago I went to my first movie here, and we watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," which was enjoyable enough. So this time we went to the theater, not knowing exactly what was playing, but because of my linguistic handicap, Dianne and JiHye specifically looked for English movies, and the one that just so happened to be playing around then was "Final Destination 5." Now, for anyone who knows my taste in movies and knows this movie series' reputation, do you think this was a wise decision? Exactly. It wasn't. haha. I've never seen any of the Final Destination movies simply because they've always seemed to follow the horror/suspense tracks … neither of which appeals to me … but ultimately, because I've not seen them before, I wasn't certain. So about the time that we decided to watch that one, I told them that I thought it was a horror movie, but I wasn't certain. JiHye and Dianne didn't know the movie either, so we decided to bite the bullet and go with it anyway. Maybe 10 minutes into the movie is when people really begin to start dying. oh, my. And then after that, because some of the main characters escaped their deaths during the initial slaughter, they must encounter death in many suspenseful ways throughout the rest of the movie. During this whole fiasco, I couldn't help but cover my eyes (and one of my ears) and kind of groan with each terrible piece of the movie I saw. oh, my (again). Right after the first of those initial survivors met her violent demise, I turned to both Dianne and JiHye and simply asked, "Soju Club? Soju Club?" haha. Fortunately they both shared my misery and sentiment and, and we cut out of the movie early. I'm pretty sure that's the first time I've ever walked out of a movie, but I felt so good with that decision. Whew. Lesson learned: don't choose a random movie and stick with your gut. The rest of the night was much more pleasant, and I even got to hear a birthday song at the restaurant about half a dozen times when we breached the midnight hour. The last story for today: I have always been a fan of pop music, and most of my music library right now consists of Billboard Tops from the past 60-70 years, so just within the last few days I became much more interested in Korean Pop music, often known as simply K-Pop. First of all, quite a few K-pop songs are just as catchy as American songs -- granted, I don't really know what they singers are saying nor can I really sing along right now … but still, it's been great. Next, K-pop groups seem to come in 2 varieties -- boy bands and girl groups. The boy bands include, from what I've seen so far, somewhere between a couple and ton of singers/performers. And the girl groups are the same. For both, I haven't seen any groups yet that play their own instruments, so they end up singing and just dancing during performances. I read up a little on these kinds of groups, and they can be compared, in a little way, to groups like Spice Girls or the more popular American boy bands like Backstreet Boys or *NSYNC. Two nights ago I even spent about a couple hours just going through video after video of the K-pop music, and it was great. I was actually searching for one particular song that I'd heard a number of times so far … but then I simply got caught up in the awesomeness of it all. haha. Additionally, just for your enjoyment, I'm even going to attach a few songs to this email when I send it … so that you can experience for yourself what I've enjoyed so far. And if you get a chance to invest a little time, check out the music videos as well … they're great by my standards (enjoying both the music and the dancing). If you download and listen to the songs in iTunes, some of them will have both the Korean and English names … and some others just have English names. In either case, you should be able to see what you're listening to. Enjoy.
*extra information: songs that I attached to the original message -- Wonder Girls "Nobody", iNFiNiTY "Be Mine", Seo In Guk "Shake it Up", After School Red "In the Night Sky", and T-ARA "Roly Poly". If you want to check out the songs, just do a google search, and you should find them.
Much love to you all.
pfn,
bg
ps- if you want to check out the Chuseok activities, visit:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.651383415404.2129752.15300236&l=b884f7436c
or
if you want to see some of the food I described, visit:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.653550462624.2130724.15300236&l=23968996e5
or
if you want to see some shots from in and around my newly-adjusted apartment, visit:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.651854775794.2129990.15300236&l=9d3ed5f37b
or
if you want to see some the videos I've posted, visit:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115494611185738572069/KoreanExploitsTheVideos?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIOmw5qrwpWSygE&feat=directlink
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