A couple of weeks ago we headed down to Gangneung. A little coastal city that may Wonju residents love to visit. We prepared ourselves for a array of seafood and a look at some of Gangneung's best attractions. One of the most impressive was Unification Park.
Showing posts with label Korean Adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Korean Adventure. Show all posts
Monday, February 14, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
What to check when checking in
One of the greatest things about travelling in Korea is the abundant supply of affordable accommodation. If you don't understand Korean then it is best to not book in advance.
Often online accommodation that is in English is overpriced. What you pay online is still cheap but you can get similar accommodation for a better price if you scout out places while on foot.
Often online accommodation that is in English is overpriced. What you pay online is still cheap but you can get similar accommodation for a better price if you scout out places while on foot.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
King Kong
Today was a good day!!!!
Very good indeed!
Except for the fact that as each day goes by I am getting more and more sad that I will being saying goodbye to my kids!
I am nervous that the next teacher will undo the teaching I have done.....and most of all I am sad that I won't get to act like a complete idiot and have people think that it is awesome!!!
Today, with my eldest class (14 year olds), we played a game that involved shooting people. On shouting shoot you point your hands at two different people, whoever has been shot the most has to do a dare!
I was a great mastermind and managed to get two girls to act and sound like elephants for ten seconds. Despite being red in the face they were also rigged with laughter!
Eventually all the shots were pointed at me and it was time that I endured some of my own medicine.
I was told to act like King Kong for 20 seconds. I was instructed that I had to make sounds and do actions.
So I did.....Fists pounding away at my chest I began making some unsightly sounds and ran around the classroom like a crazy person. I teased the girls and as I was hoping towards the boys, fists punching wildly, they got up and started running.
What followed was a frenzy of laughter and craziness. We ran around the classroom for a bit with the boys constantly crashing into each other like drunk drivers before I climbed onto the table and did a final King Kong drum-roll on my chest!
I then said goodbye, and chased them to the front door!!!
Oh, how I will miss for being loved for being an idiot!
Post by Claudia
Very good indeed!
Except for the fact that as each day goes by I am getting more and more sad that I will being saying goodbye to my kids!
I am nervous that the next teacher will undo the teaching I have done.....and most of all I am sad that I won't get to act like a complete idiot and have people think that it is awesome!!!
Today, with my eldest class (14 year olds), we played a game that involved shooting people. On shouting shoot you point your hands at two different people, whoever has been shot the most has to do a dare!
I was a great mastermind and managed to get two girls to act and sound like elephants for ten seconds. Despite being red in the face they were also rigged with laughter!
Eventually all the shots were pointed at me and it was time that I endured some of my own medicine.
I was told to act like King Kong for 20 seconds. I was instructed that I had to make sounds and do actions.
Taken from Horrorphile.net
What followed was a frenzy of laughter and craziness. We ran around the classroom for a bit with the boys constantly crashing into each other like drunk drivers before I climbed onto the table and did a final King Kong drum-roll on my chest!
I then said goodbye, and chased them to the front door!!!
Oh, how I will miss for being loved for being an idiot!
Post by Claudia
Monday, January 17, 2011
Frustration, ice and clothing
Washing machines are not my favourite thing in the world and that cannot be more true for how I feel about our washing machine in Korea.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
A Christmas in the cabins...
I simply can't believe that Christmas has come and gone! Phew...
As you all know this year we spent Christmas in a small lodge (known as a pension in Korea) with a whole bunch of foreigners! And it was a blast. A lot more relaxed than I anticipated but really good fun.
This is the one we stayed in http://hanok54.co.kr/ if you click past the introduction page. Click preview. Click
Then click
You will get an idea of how beautiful our little pension was! Unfortunately, I can't download the photos so I thought this would be the best way for you to see what it was all about. Oliver and I weren't too good with taking photos this weekend.
As you can see from the layout of the pension, there were no beds and no private bedrooms so for two days we had a slumber party of note. It was quite peaceful actually.
Our Christmas day was broken up into a series of "times". Breakfast time, snack time, nap time, movie time, dinner time, game time, drunk time and hangover time. It just happened this way...it wasn't planned...I promise!
Friday night (Christmas Eve) ended up being quite a bender....we stayed up until 4am giving Santa no chance to drop off our gifts. The others finished of a bottle of Tequila (bleh!) and numerous bottles of Soju. So on Christmas day there were a fair share of hangovers to go around.
Once up we decided to talk a walk to get some good food....Alas, many restaurants were closed leaving us with very few options. So after a 20 minute walk in the freezing cold we opted for the first restaurant we came across which was Bosam...Yum! Slices of meat, with herbs, lettuces and numerous other bits. It wasn't what everyone was after but at least our tummies were full.
After realising how cold it was we unanimously decided that we did not want to leave the pension again and we wanted to stock up on everything we needed. So we stopped off at a Family Mart. There must have been about eight of us there (we left three hungover souls at the pension) all kitted out with shopping baskets. We went crazy...wine, beer, snacks galore...I simply couldn't stop myself. I am not sure if the lady behind the counter was horrified at having so many loud foreigners in her store at one time or of she was over the moon because she just made more money off of us than she could have wished for on such a slow day!
On the walk back home we came across a frozen river....a novelty in our eyes. Immediately we started picking up rocks and trying to break the ice...but it was tough...so the boys got more adventurous trying to walk on it while the girls settled for trying to get small pebbles into breaks in the ice. After about half an hour half of us started getting cold and went back...but some die hard boys (including Oliver) played on for another hour! Nothing like some good wholesome fun on Christmas Day.
Once back I got hard to work to make some pancakes! Hmmmmm...I love pancakes. And I had a special ingredient from back home...Stroh Rum. Horrible to drink but fantastic to cook with!
The things started to die down as movie and nap time started...we got to watch some great Christmas flicks like Home Alone, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Avatar (Ok, I admit this isn't a Christmas movie but awesome nonetheless).
With temperatures and wind chill factor leaving outside at -20 Degrees Celcius we decided walking wasn't such a hot idea and opted for pizza, chicken take aways and kimchi rice! Quite a feast!
We then played a game to get Christmas presents which involved stealing gifts from others....Hmmmm...Let's just say some left happy and others not so happy. But then it was time for games....drinking games of course!We played everything from Korean drinking games like Bunny Bunny to classics like Sevens and funny ones like Obblydoobly.
Alas, despite our earlier shopping spree, our drinking supplies began to dwindle and the party faded at about two!
Thanks Friends for an awesome, chilled, and utterly funny Christmas!!!
Post by Claudia
P.S. If ever you decide to stay at this pension, the lady who runs it (a Korean hippie) is such a great laugh and will do everything in her eccentric power to make you comfortable!
As you all know this year we spent Christmas in a small lodge (known as a pension in Korea) with a whole bunch of foreigners! And it was a blast. A lot more relaxed than I anticipated but really good fun.
This is the one we stayed in http://hanok54.co.kr/ if you click past the introduction page. Click preview. Click
Then click You will get an idea of how beautiful our little pension was! Unfortunately, I can't download the photos so I thought this would be the best way for you to see what it was all about. Oliver and I weren't too good with taking photos this weekend.
As you can see from the layout of the pension, there were no beds and no private bedrooms so for two days we had a slumber party of note. It was quite peaceful actually.
Our Christmas day was broken up into a series of "times". Breakfast time, snack time, nap time, movie time, dinner time, game time, drunk time and hangover time. It just happened this way...it wasn't planned...I promise!
Friday night (Christmas Eve) ended up being quite a bender....we stayed up until 4am giving Santa no chance to drop off our gifts. The others finished of a bottle of Tequila (bleh!) and numerous bottles of Soju. So on Christmas day there were a fair share of hangovers to go around.
Oh, did I forget to mention that we had a disco ball and randomly started a
trance disco on Friday night..Bizzare!
Once up we decided to talk a walk to get some good food....Alas, many restaurants were closed leaving us with very few options. So after a 20 minute walk in the freezing cold we opted for the first restaurant we came across which was Bosam...Yum! Slices of meat, with herbs, lettuces and numerous other bits. It wasn't what everyone was after but at least our tummies were full.
Yummy leaves and fresh herbs!
After realising how cold it was we unanimously decided that we did not want to leave the pension again and we wanted to stock up on everything we needed. So we stopped off at a Family Mart. There must have been about eight of us there (we left three hungover souls at the pension) all kitted out with shopping baskets. We went crazy...wine, beer, snacks galore...I simply couldn't stop myself. I am not sure if the lady behind the counter was horrified at having so many loud foreigners in her store at one time or of she was over the moon because she just made more money off of us than she could have wished for on such a slow day!
On the walk back home we came across a frozen river....a novelty in our eyes. Immediately we started picking up rocks and trying to break the ice...but it was tough...so the boys got more adventurous trying to walk on it while the girls settled for trying to get small pebbles into breaks in the ice. After about half an hour half of us started getting cold and went back...but some die hard boys (including Oliver) played on for another hour! Nothing like some good wholesome fun on Christmas Day.
The amazing frozen river...take note of brock in his Santa outfit...he wore that all day!
Once back I got hard to work to make some pancakes! Hmmmmm...I love pancakes. And I had a special ingredient from back home...Stroh Rum. Horrible to drink but fantastic to cook with!
The things started to die down as movie and nap time started...we got to watch some great Christmas flicks like Home Alone, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Avatar (Ok, I admit this isn't a Christmas movie but awesome nonetheless).
With temperatures and wind chill factor leaving outside at -20 Degrees Celcius we decided walking wasn't such a hot idea and opted for pizza, chicken take aways and kimchi rice! Quite a feast!
Our Christmas feast...mostly gone by now!
We then played a game to get Christmas presents which involved stealing gifts from others....Hmmmm...Let's just say some left happy and others not so happy. But then it was time for games....drinking games of course!We played everything from Korean drinking games like Bunny Bunny to classics like Sevens and funny ones like Obblydoobly.
Alas, despite our earlier shopping spree, our drinking supplies began to dwindle and the party faded at about two!
Thanks Friends for an awesome, chilled, and utterly funny Christmas!!!
The three South Africans (Oliver, Claudia and Stallone)
The two Brits (Natalie and Mike)
A drunk Korean (Aekyoeng) and a confused Canadian (Trevor)
My two favourite Americans (Brock and Lauren)
Everybody! Take note of Karolina's (the blonde at the back) very excited face!
and Matt (front). These two Americans very sneekily managed to dodge my camera in all other photos but this one!
Post by Claudia
P.S. If ever you decide to stay at this pension, the lady who runs it (a Korean hippie) is such a great laugh and will do everything in her eccentric power to make you comfortable!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Quintessentially Korean
This is a blog post that should actually have happened months ago. This is a post we should have done the day we came here, or at the latest, the day after our first restaurant visit. This is a post about a food item so Korean, so engrained in the culture and society, it makes K-Pop and Soju look like distant relatives. There can of course only be one thing I'm talking about. It is the spicy, the delicious, the fermented, the one and only...Kimchi (김치 in Korean).
Wait...what did I say in that last sentence? Delicious? Yes. Spicy? Yes. Fermented? A fermented food item. Sounds strange, doesn't it. And it is indeed strange. But it is incredibly delicious, apparently really healthy for you, and it is eaten at every meal in Korea.
So what is this phenomal food called Kimchi? Let me break it down.
Kimchi can be made from a variety of different vegetables, but for the sake of simplicity and understanding, I will talk about the biggest and most widely eaten type of Kimchi, the variety made from nappa cabbage (배추 Baechu).
Let me point out at this point in time that this time of year in Korea is the season for Kimjang (김장),which is the event or process of making Kimchi for the coming year. Due to a considerable amount of Kimchi being made (enough for a year), it is a pretty big event, that is often spread out over the course of several days or a weekend.
I am not Korean, and don't have first hand knowledge on the Kimchi making process but I have spoken to many Koreans about it, and this is what they've told me.
The amount of cabbage used varies from family to family depending on all sorts of things, from how much Kimchi they plan on eating to how big the family is, but to give you a rough idea, one of my co-teachers made Kimchi with her mother in law, and the made 50 heads of cabbage worth. Yes.50.
So the cabbage is rubbed down with a very course pickling salt, and left to sit for a while, so as to draw out some of the moisture. Once it has sat long enough, the cabbage is then rinsed under fresh water, to get rid of all the excess salt. After that (it might even be before that) the cabbage is then smeared full of a tasty, spicy, salty red pepper paste that has been specially made for the Kimchi.
The paste is made of several ingredients, the main ones being garlic, fish paste or fish sauce, sticky rice paste and Gochugaru (고추가루), which is a powder made from ground up red peppers (chillies).
After the cabbage has been smothered inside and out with this spicy paste, it is then put into jars or tupperwares and put away for storage. The modern method of storing is not half as exciting as the old method, because nowadays, it is simply stored in a Kimchi fridge. Most families that have the space will have one of these, a fridge made especially to store Kimchi for the coming months. Whoohoo...excitement.
The old method is a little more involved and makes for a much greater story.
Back in the day (how far back I cannot tell you) after this whole process was done and dusted, Koreans needed a place to store their Kimchi. Outside was too cold, and the Kimchi would freeze, and inside might have been just that little bit too warm. What would happen is that the finished product would be placed in a kimchi pot and then buried to protect it from the harsh cold experienced during the Korean winter. If any was needed, it could be dug up. The pots are generally quite large, so burying one of these would have been no mean feat. There are of course still some families that try and stick to the traditional way of doing things, and they still use the pot method.
Whether it's being stored in pots or in a fridge, the months of storage after making allow the Kimchi to ferment and only increase in flavour and awesomeness!
Kimchi dates back pretty far; as early as about 3000 years ago, but I'm not going to go into the whole history of this Korean speciality. It is incredibly delicious, served everywhere and is also really good for your health.
As mentioned, Kimchi is eaten at almost every single meal, and I'd almost be willing to put money on (almost) that in all of our 'table covered in food' photos, there is Kimchi to be seen. It is a side dish that accompanies almost all food items. It is also often used to make its own dishes like stews or rice dishes.
All in all it is an incredible delicious food item that has an interesting and tedious making process, is eaten all over the country and is as ingrained in the culture and lifestyle here as bagpipes are to the Scots or cheese to the Swiss.
I for one know that I will most definitely miss this tasty morsel once my stint in Korea is over.
Post by Oliver
Wait...what did I say in that last sentence? Delicious? Yes. Spicy? Yes. Fermented? A fermented food item. Sounds strange, doesn't it. And it is indeed strange. But it is incredibly delicious, apparently really healthy for you, and it is eaten at every meal in Korea.
So what is this phenomal food called Kimchi? Let me break it down.
Kimchi can be made from a variety of different vegetables, but for the sake of simplicity and understanding, I will talk about the biggest and most widely eaten type of Kimchi, the variety made from nappa cabbage (배추 Baechu).
Let me point out at this point in time that this time of year in Korea is the season for Kimjang (김장),which is the event or process of making Kimchi for the coming year. Due to a considerable amount of Kimchi being made (enough for a year), it is a pretty big event, that is often spread out over the course of several days or a weekend.
I am not Korean, and don't have first hand knowledge on the Kimchi making process but I have spoken to many Koreans about it, and this is what they've told me.
The amount of cabbage used varies from family to family depending on all sorts of things, from how much Kimchi they plan on eating to how big the family is, but to give you a rough idea, one of my co-teachers made Kimchi with her mother in law, and the made 50 heads of cabbage worth. Yes.50.
So the cabbage is rubbed down with a very course pickling salt, and left to sit for a while, so as to draw out some of the moisture. Once it has sat long enough, the cabbage is then rinsed under fresh water, to get rid of all the excess salt. After that (it might even be before that) the cabbage is then smeared full of a tasty, spicy, salty red pepper paste that has been specially made for the Kimchi.
The paste is made of several ingredients, the main ones being garlic, fish paste or fish sauce, sticky rice paste and Gochugaru (고추가루), which is a powder made from ground up red peppers (chillies).
The layers of cabbage with the tasty red paste
After the cabbage has been smothered inside and out with this spicy paste, it is then put into jars or tupperwares and put away for storage. The modern method of storing is not half as exciting as the old method, because nowadays, it is simply stored in a Kimchi fridge. Most families that have the space will have one of these, a fridge made especially to store Kimchi for the coming months. Whoohoo...excitement.
The old method is a little more involved and makes for a much greater story.
Back in the day (how far back I cannot tell you) after this whole process was done and dusted, Koreans needed a place to store their Kimchi. Outside was too cold, and the Kimchi would freeze, and inside might have been just that little bit too warm. What would happen is that the finished product would be placed in a kimchi pot and then buried to protect it from the harsh cold experienced during the Korean winter. If any was needed, it could be dug up. The pots are generally quite large, so burying one of these would have been no mean feat. There are of course still some families that try and stick to the traditional way of doing things, and they still use the pot method.
This is what the Kimchi pots look like
This is known as a 'kimjang' bag. It is a very large (100x70cm) bag, into which the Kimchi is placed before being put into the pots for storage
Kimchi dates back pretty far; as early as about 3000 years ago, but I'm not going to go into the whole history of this Korean speciality. It is incredibly delicious, served everywhere and is also really good for your health.
As mentioned, Kimchi is eaten at almost every single meal, and I'd almost be willing to put money on (almost) that in all of our 'table covered in food' photos, there is Kimchi to be seen. It is a side dish that accompanies almost all food items. It is also often used to make its own dishes like stews or rice dishes.
All in all it is an incredible delicious food item that has an interesting and tedious making process, is eaten all over the country and is as ingrained in the culture and lifestyle here as bagpipes are to the Scots or cheese to the Swiss.
I for one know that I will most definitely miss this tasty morsel once my stint in Korea is over.
Post by Oliver
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Six months in
Can you believe it! It has been six months since we first arrived in Korea and were greeted by the stark realisation that we couldn't read anything, couldn't talk to anyone and couldn't find any decent sized towels to dry our cold behinds, that all seems like so long ago. OK, finding a decent sized towel is still a bit of an issue but we can read relatively well and we are starting to have really broken-awkward conversations that we can semi understand, YAY!
In six months we have done a substantial amount. We have gone to festivals that blow your mind with their awesomeness, like the Lotus Lantern Festival and the Andong Mask Festival, we have had a chance to be little children and run around one of the world's best amusement parks, Everland and we have stuffed our faces with delicacies that we are already sad we will have to say goodbye to.
I could list all the cool places we have been to or tell you about the amazing festivals we have attended or brag about the greatness of the food we have tasted but I simply wouldn't be able to sum up all the awesomeness. So here are some of mine and Oliver's typical photos in some of our favourite spots.
We went out on a limb and decided to take on and experience a new culture and we have never been happier. We are experiencing life from a different point of view and I think we are both growing from the experience. No, no, I am not going to get all soppy on you and start playing drama music while I tell you our life's lessons, I just think Korea has changed us in subtle but good ways.
Living the life of an expat is interesting. We have met people from all walks of life...young, old, Irish, American, and even fellow South Africans. Many of the other expats are truly intelligent, thought provoking people that are not afraid to get hammered, be opinionated, and have a good time. It really has been fantastic to meet so many interesting people.
The one downside is when people leave, you find yourself just getting to know someone, or already semi-attached to them and POOF their contract is up and they're leaving on a jet plane. In my opinion, this is one of the hardest things about expat life.
Another hard aspect is missing things from home. Being in Korea while our country hosted the greatest world cup in history was a difficult time for us as we had both witnessed how much blood and sweat South Africa had put into the event yet we weren't there for their shining moment. We have missed friends and families and we have realised that no matter where we are in the world we will always have this uncanny longing for Africa.
On a side note, I have also found myself missing South Africa's juicy, succulent steaks.....Mmmmmm. (Pause a moment and salivate a little bit).
Ok, it feels like I am just blabbing now but I think you get the point...we have loved being in Korea and our blog is a testament to the amazing travels and experiences we have had and continue to have.
So, what's next? Well....our main highlight in November (other than the fact that it is Oliver's birthday) is that we will be visiting the DMZ, I can't wait. Our highlight in December is that we are heading back to South Africa for 4 days to celebrate an beautiful couple's wedding....January, well in January I plan to try my hand at ice-fishing and we will be going on a temple stay! February....hmmmm, probably more fun in the snow (Oliver can't wait to get his hands on a snowboard). In March we will start getting our stuff together for our end-of-contract trip. April, Oliver's mom is coming over for a visit and we start to pack up our little abode (sniff sniff) and then on May 3rd our contract is up! Phew...it doesn't seem that far away at all.
Then it's another stopover in South Africa for my big sister's wedding (This was only finalised a day ago so shhhhhh, it's our secret). Then it is back to Korea to show Oliver's dad around Korea and then...wait for it...and then we will be doing a two month backpacking trip around Asia which should be absolutely epic!
I hope you have enjoyed the stories, photographs and information that we have given you over the last six months. This blog started out as a way for friends to be kept up to date but it has turned into our baby and we hope that for the next six months of our Korean Adventure you will continue to enjoy our perspectives on life and everything else from a small peninsula in Asia.
Post by Claudia
we can read it! Can you?
In six months we have done a substantial amount. We have gone to festivals that blow your mind with their awesomeness, like the Lotus Lantern Festival and the Andong Mask Festival, we have had a chance to be little children and run around one of the world's best amusement parks, Everland and we have stuffed our faces with delicacies that we are already sad we will have to say goodbye to.
I could list all the cool places we have been to or tell you about the amazing festivals we have attended or brag about the greatness of the food we have tasted but I simply wouldn't be able to sum up all the awesomeness. So here are some of mine and Oliver's typical photos in some of our favourite spots.
At the Gimje Horizon Festival
At Everland
In Gyeongju
At the Lotus Lantern Festival
On Gwangalli Beach in Busan
We went out on a limb and decided to take on and experience a new culture and we have never been happier. We are experiencing life from a different point of view and I think we are both growing from the experience. No, no, I am not going to get all soppy on you and start playing drama music while I tell you our life's lessons, I just think Korea has changed us in subtle but good ways.
Living the life of an expat is interesting. We have met people from all walks of life...young, old, Irish, American, and even fellow South Africans. Many of the other expats are truly intelligent, thought provoking people that are not afraid to get hammered, be opinionated, and have a good time. It really has been fantastic to meet so many interesting people.
Brock and Lauren
Daniel and Lisi
Caoimhin
Rob and Chrissie
Another hard aspect is missing things from home. Being in Korea while our country hosted the greatest world cup in history was a difficult time for us as we had both witnessed how much blood and sweat South Africa had put into the event yet we weren't there for their shining moment. We have missed friends and families and we have realised that no matter where we are in the world we will always have this uncanny longing for Africa.
On a side note, I have also found myself missing South Africa's juicy, succulent steaks.....Mmmmmm. (Pause a moment and salivate a little bit).
Ok, it feels like I am just blabbing now but I think you get the point...we have loved being in Korea and our blog is a testament to the amazing travels and experiences we have had and continue to have.
So, what's next? Well....our main highlight in November (other than the fact that it is Oliver's birthday) is that we will be visiting the DMZ, I can't wait. Our highlight in December is that we are heading back to South Africa for 4 days to celebrate an beautiful couple's wedding....January, well in January I plan to try my hand at ice-fishing and we will be going on a temple stay! February....hmmmm, probably more fun in the snow (Oliver can't wait to get his hands on a snowboard). In March we will start getting our stuff together for our end-of-contract trip. April, Oliver's mom is coming over for a visit and we start to pack up our little abode (sniff sniff) and then on May 3rd our contract is up! Phew...it doesn't seem that far away at all.
Then it's another stopover in South Africa for my big sister's wedding (This was only finalised a day ago so shhhhhh, it's our secret). Then it is back to Korea to show Oliver's dad around Korea and then...wait for it...and then we will be doing a two month backpacking trip around Asia which should be absolutely epic!
I hope you have enjoyed the stories, photographs and information that we have given you over the last six months. This blog started out as a way for friends to be kept up to date but it has turned into our baby and we hope that for the next six months of our Korean Adventure you will continue to enjoy our perspectives on life and everything else from a small peninsula in Asia.
Post by Claudia
Monday, October 4, 2010
Ke Ri Se Pi Ke Ri Me...
...also known as Kripsy Kreme doughnuts to someone who can't speak Korean. The heading is written the way it is, to give people reading this some sort of idea of what 'Romanised' Korean sounds (or reads) like. I'm not sure how recent this phenomenon is, but once one learns to read Hangul (the Korean alphabet), one starts to see how many things are actually written in English, in Korean. Another great example of this is 'Starbucks' coffee, which when written in Korean reads as follows: Se Tar Buck Se. What does the reading of Korean have to do with Krispy Kreme and Starbucks? Well, as of recently it has a lot to do with it.
Claudia and myself have found ourselves lucky enough to have a genuine Korean (not one of the fake kind) teach us the Korean language. One of my co-teachers (Sunny) has been gracious enough to offer us her services as a Korean to teach us. In return, we teach her, or rather help her improve her English. Any closer to why I started out with Krispy Kreme? No? Well here goes.
We meet Sunny twice a week, once to teach her English, and once for her to teach us Korean. And guess where we meet? Yup, Krispy Kreme it is! Now I don't want to bore you with pictures of our textbooks, so I will instead irrigate the inside of your mouth with images of some of the products they have on offer at KK!
Claudia and myself have found ourselves lucky enough to have a genuine Korean (not one of the fake kind) teach us the Korean language. One of my co-teachers (Sunny) has been gracious enough to offer us her services as a Korean to teach us. In return, we teach her, or rather help her improve her English. Any closer to why I started out with Krispy Kreme? No? Well here goes.
We meet Sunny twice a week, once to teach her English, and once for her to teach us Korean. And guess where we meet? Yup, Krispy Kreme it is! Now I don't want to bore you with pictures of our textbooks, so I will instead irrigate the inside of your mouth with images of some of the products they have on offer at KK!
Krispy Kreme claims on their website that they indulge all 5 senses. I can tell you one thing. They most definitely stimulate the nasal passages. You will struggle to walk into too many restaurants with a greater smell the Krispy Kreme. It truly does smell amazing.
Thus far, Claudia and myself have been strong enough to restrain ourselves from eating these amazing looking creations, but we are not sure how much longer we can hold back. As the months go on, and we find ourselves getting better at speaking Korean, we might trot on over to the counter and order ourselves half a dozen of Krispy Kreme's finest Dou Nut Se. Who knows!
We're moving ahead full steam with our Korean lessons, and are starting to show some very definite improvements, slowly starting to make out things that people are saying to us, and actually being able to build some of our own, very basic, sentences! Another friend of our, Rob, is pretty much fluent in Korean, and he is now also giving us Korean lessons. With this two sided bombardment were bound to make some headway, or so we hope!
Hopefully in a couple of months time, we'll be able to do a full post in Korean. As for now, we will keep on meeting up at the heavenly smelling Krispy Kreme doughnut store for a good dose of Korean, and an even greater dose of nasal stimulation!
Post by Oliver
Friday, October 1, 2010
Funny Korean Commercials
aJust for a spot of fun I thought I would show you some funny Korean commercials!!! They are often random, cute or just plain odd!!!
This one made me laugh out loud!!
Another favourite!
WTF?
Don't you hate moments like these...
This one shows just how random the adverts can be!
One more just for good measure and because Koreans really really do love their noodles!
Hahhaha!!! I hope these made you smile just in time for the weekend!
Have a good one!!!
Claudia
This one made me laugh out loud!!
Another favourite!
WTF?
Don't you hate moments like these...
This one shows just how random the adverts can be!
One more just for good measure and because Koreans really really do love their noodles!
Hahhaha!!! I hope these made you smile just in time for the weekend!
Have a good one!!!
Claudia
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
A great weekend in Andong!
We took a trip down to Andong for the International Mask Dance Festival which was great! It was full of people and there were many strange smells and delicious things to eat!
But I am getting ahead of myself, let me start from the beginning.
Oliver and I took our first ever train in Korea and it ROCKED. It was a similar price (for first class) to the buses and it got to Andong about an hour faster so a bargain if you ask me!
Another bonus was that we were the only two people in the first class compartment which made it that much sweeter. We got to see Korea's beautiful landscape in whole new light while the sun's rays warmed us on the chilly Autumn morning. Aaaaaah, it was a perfect start to an awesome weekend!
Once settled in Andong we hit the streets to get a feel for the place and we both fell in love with the market which was quite big but was (for the most part) covered by awnings...And we also found freshly baked muffins....Mmmmmm!
Once we found the festival we were immersed in it! We bought some souvenirs, looked at some photographic artwork (which has inspired us to try and do an exhibition of Oliver's work...I think his work is totally worth it, don't you?), we also watched the mask dance and just strolled around in relative bliss.
We decided to take a late bus to a Hanoe Village which is a village where the old-school style of housing has been preserved and people still live and farm there! It was sooooooooooooooo amazing!
We got to the village quite late on Saturday because the bus ran into some traffic but we did get there just in time to catch the traditional fire works display! Man was it cool....They had three traditional types of fireworks which were displayed....the first looked similar to fairy-lights as they had pockets of coal attached to a wire that extended from the river bed to a rock face, the second were egg shaped lanterns that floated down the river and the big finale was massive fire balls that were drop from the edge of the cliff face into the water. It was quite a spectacle!(My camera was not strong enough to capture the awesomeness of the fireworks, will have to wait for Ollie's pics)
We then had to rush back to get the last bus going down town! We got on the bus, two seats in the back left corner. We were both relieved that we had seats but a bit unnerved by the fact that we really really needed to wee!
To our amazement the bus driver kept piling people into the bus. There were as many people standing as there were sitting. It was tight and I still really REALLY needed to go to the loo. The bus driver then sat there for a excruciating 15 minutes trying to squeeze more people on the bus. By this time I was honestly afraid that I might wet myself and we hadn't even left yet. YIKES. All in all I made the half an hour ride without making a mess but my word that is closest to torture I think I have ever come! Cringe!
Anyway, off my bladder and back to Andong! Hanoe village was so spectacular that we just had to go back there the following day (even though there were a series of other places we wanted to see, like the Soju museum). We spent the whole of Sunday just walking through the old village taking in how peaceful it was. We saw more birds and insects there on Sunday than I have seen in the rest of Korea so far.
So Oliver and I have made a pact to return to Andong so that we can buy some more of those fabulous muffins, go to the Soju museum, and possibly visit Hanoe Village again!!!
Post by Claudia
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
추석
For those not 'in the know', the title of this post is 'Chuseok'. Chuseok is one of Korea's biggest holidays. This along with 설날 (Seollal) are the two biggest holidays in Korea, and apparently they are bigger than Christmas!! We'll see.
Chuseok is a holiday that is celebrated for the most part within each family. It is a traditional holiday that runs along similar veins to the American Thanksgiving Day holiday. It is in essence a harvest festival in which thanks is given to the ancestors for a good harvest. During the 3 day celebration, the ancestor's gravesites (or tombs) are cleaned and tidied up, and offerings are made to the ancestors to show respect and to show gratitude for the good harvest.
It comes as a bit of surprise then that this years harvest was apparently among the worst in many years (decades even), this is obvious when one realises that current fruit and vegetable prices sitting at between 3-5 times the price of previous years. Nevertheless this didn't spoil the event in the least!
Chuseok is a relatively private holiday, celebrated with family and many foreigners are left to their own accord to do something over these 3 days. This year the 3 days of Chuseok fell on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Many foreigners took off Monday or Friday (or both) and made themselves a cosy mid-term holiday. Claudia and myself didn't get these extra days off but we were lucky enough to be invited to by one of my co-teachers, Sunny, grandmother's home for the entire 3 day period.
So off it was, to a ridiculously busy bus terminal on the Tuesday morning, to head off to Jin Bu, which is where Sunny's grandmother lives. This having been Chuseok, the buses were packed to bursting point, which resulted in us having a not-so-comfy 1 1/2 hour standing bus ride! Not recommended!
Climbing off the bus, we were both pretty keen on some seat time, although this was all going to change over the next 3 days!
Sunny's parents came to pick us up from the bus terminal, and after packing our luggage in the boot of the car, Sunny made us recite to her parents the Korean phrases she had taught us ('Nice to meet you' and 'Thank you for inviting us' were among the more popular ones).
After a brief 5 minute stint in the car, we took our luggage out of the boot and headed into the house, to be greeted by about a dozen strange Korean faces. We didn't know these people from a bar of soap, but again, out of courtesy, Sunny made us recite our lines (this time we threw in a 'My name is...' and 'I'm from South Africa). We were immediately well received by the whole family which made us feel a lot more at ease with this overwhelming situation. After throwing our bags down in the sleeping room, which thanks to the amazing Korean hospitality, was given to us, we immediately took part in one of the traditional activities...making Seongpyeon.
After a few hours of sitting on the floor doing this, and observing the other ladies cooking like madmen in the kitchen, it was time to eat. A mealtime during Chuseok is really something to behold. The amount and variety of food that is available is just staggering. It was a meal of ambrosial proportions! After the eating is done, the women are back in the kitchen cleaning up and washing pots and pans and dishes and chopsticks and spoons and all sorts of other odds n ends! The kitchen was nothing but a non stop hustle! And before we get angry emails from girls out there saying "you're being sexist...,etc.", this is the reality of things. There are still very real gender roles in Korean society, and they definitely come to the fore during holidays like Chuseok, when it is the women's job to make food and clean dishes, while the men relax and watch TV or chat about whatever tickles their fancy.
With full bellies and smiles on our faces we thanked all the cooks and moved on to our next activity...playing games with the kids. 2 of Sunny's cousins were at this family gathering, Joshua who is 13 and David who is 11, and they took it upon themselves to introduce us to a traditional Korean board game called Yut. It's a game played with wooden sticks on a board game, which involves a lot more strategy than it makes one think. I am not going to go into the finer details of the game right here, but rather will direct those interested to this very detailed Wikipedia entry.
As the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun, and so before we knew it, the games were over and packed away and we found ourselves around the dinner table once again feasting on a magnificent array of delectable foods!
"Maagie vol, oogies toe", is the best way for me to describe what transpired next. It is an Afrikaans saying that literally means: "Stomach full, eyes close". And that is what we did, we had a great nights sleep.
The next morning we woke to the sound of many people talking, and of course the, by now standard, sound of clinking pots and pans and frying delicacies. Mmmmm. What a great way to wake up! After a quick shower it was time for breakfast, which needless to say was once again amazing. I must point out to fellow westerners that breakfast in Korea is not what we are used to. There is no cereal, yogurt and boiled eggs. No, breakfast here consists of the same soups, broths, fried noodles, rice and other food items that are eaten for dinner or lunch, a little strange but delicious either way.
Sunny decided it would be a good idea to take us to the near by Oh De San mountain park, and I tell you, it was not a good idea, it was a spectacular idea! What an amazing place. Korea as a whole is a achingly beautiful country, and this area is definitely one of the highlights. We walked around for a couple of hours, also visiting the nearby temple. Visiting a Buddhist temple planted smack-bang in the middle of a beautiful mountain range on a crispy Korean morning is something that everyone should aspire to doing at least once in their lives! Amazing!
Head back home...time for lunch. At this point I shouldn't have to tell you what an amazing feats this was! Simply awesome, much like all the other meals.
We spent the last couple of hours milling about town, with 2 of Sunny's high school friends, and enjoying an amazing cup of coffee at one of the local coffee shops (the best cup of Coffee so far in Korea!!). After enjoying a great dinner and playing some more games, it was off to bed, only to wake up again to the hustle and bustle of a busy Korean house at Chuseok!
The morning was spent saying goodbyes to the various branches of the family, and wishing them all goodbye and a safe journey back home. Claudia and myself also said goodbye in our own freshly learnt, broken Korean phrases. With all the goodbyes done, it was our turn to head off to the bus terminal, which we did in a huge hurry, realising that our bus was about to leave. We got there as the bus was leaving! All's well that ends well they say, and I can speak for myself and for Claudia here, Chuseok was an amazing experience, and we are most grateful to Sunny and her awesome family for letting us experience it with them!
To add one more thing, Chuseok is a time of giving...many gifts are given, and children are more often than not given money by their relatives...big smiles all round. There is nothing new about gifts being given, but one thing that is different is the types of gifts that are given. Walk into any store before Chuseok, and you will see shelf after shelf covered in gift packs. These gift packs range from tea assortments to packs of canned food.
Chuseok is a holiday that is celebrated for the most part within each family. It is a traditional holiday that runs along similar veins to the American Thanksgiving Day holiday. It is in essence a harvest festival in which thanks is given to the ancestors for a good harvest. During the 3 day celebration, the ancestor's gravesites (or tombs) are cleaned and tidied up, and offerings are made to the ancestors to show respect and to show gratitude for the good harvest.
It comes as a bit of surprise then that this years harvest was apparently among the worst in many years (decades even), this is obvious when one realises that current fruit and vegetable prices sitting at between 3-5 times the price of previous years. Nevertheless this didn't spoil the event in the least!
Chuseok is a relatively private holiday, celebrated with family and many foreigners are left to their own accord to do something over these 3 days. This year the 3 days of Chuseok fell on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Many foreigners took off Monday or Friday (or both) and made themselves a cosy mid-term holiday. Claudia and myself didn't get these extra days off but we were lucky enough to be invited to by one of my co-teachers, Sunny, grandmother's home for the entire 3 day period.
So off it was, to a ridiculously busy bus terminal on the Tuesday morning, to head off to Jin Bu, which is where Sunny's grandmother lives. This having been Chuseok, the buses were packed to bursting point, which resulted in us having a not-so-comfy 1 1/2 hour standing bus ride! Not recommended!
Climbing off the bus, we were both pretty keen on some seat time, although this was all going to change over the next 3 days!
Sunny's parents came to pick us up from the bus terminal, and after packing our luggage in the boot of the car, Sunny made us recite to her parents the Korean phrases she had taught us ('Nice to meet you' and 'Thank you for inviting us' were among the more popular ones).
After a brief 5 minute stint in the car, we took our luggage out of the boot and headed into the house, to be greeted by about a dozen strange Korean faces. We didn't know these people from a bar of soap, but again, out of courtesy, Sunny made us recite our lines (this time we threw in a 'My name is...' and 'I'm from South Africa). We were immediately well received by the whole family which made us feel a lot more at ease with this overwhelming situation. After throwing our bags down in the sleeping room, which thanks to the amazing Korean hospitality, was given to us, we immediately took part in one of the traditional activities...making Seongpyeon.
Seongpyeon is one the Korean foods traditionally made around Chuseok. A thick dough is made from glutinous rice powder and various other ingredients. This dough is then coloured using some other additives (we had purple, made with grapes, yellow, made with pumpkin, and green, made with various herbs). The idea is to take pieces of this dough, fill it with one of several ingredients, among them chestnut and some or other bean, and then the roll up this piece of dough and make it look somewhat pretty. There is a saying in Korea that if you can make pretty Seongpyeon, you will have beautiful children. Let's just say neither Claudia nor myself will have anything resembling human babies if that's anything to go by...and God forbid we should have kids together...oh the horror!
These were the Seongpyeon done by the professionals who I am sure will have amazingly beautiful children!
The finished pieces of Seongpyeon are then thrown into a large steamer and steamed until perfect. Traditionally they are steamed on a bed of pine needles, although we did not do this with ours. Nevertheless, Seongpyeon is a scrumptious, traditional Korean food!
After a few hours of sitting on the floor doing this, and observing the other ladies cooking like madmen in the kitchen, it was time to eat. A mealtime during Chuseok is really something to behold. The amount and variety of food that is available is just staggering. It was a meal of ambrosial proportions! After the eating is done, the women are back in the kitchen cleaning up and washing pots and pans and dishes and chopsticks and spoons and all sorts of other odds n ends! The kitchen was nothing but a non stop hustle! And before we get angry emails from girls out there saying "you're being sexist...,etc.", this is the reality of things. There are still very real gender roles in Korean society, and they definitely come to the fore during holidays like Chuseok, when it is the women's job to make food and clean dishes, while the men relax and watch TV or chat about whatever tickles their fancy.
With full bellies and smiles on our faces we thanked all the cooks and moved on to our next activity...playing games with the kids. 2 of Sunny's cousins were at this family gathering, Joshua who is 13 and David who is 11, and they took it upon themselves to introduce us to a traditional Korean board game called Yut. It's a game played with wooden sticks on a board game, which involves a lot more strategy than it makes one think. I am not going to go into the finer details of the game right here, but rather will direct those interested to this very detailed Wikipedia entry.
As the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun, and so before we knew it, the games were over and packed away and we found ourselves around the dinner table once again feasting on a magnificent array of delectable foods!
"Maagie vol, oogies toe", is the best way for me to describe what transpired next. It is an Afrikaans saying that literally means: "Stomach full, eyes close". And that is what we did, we had a great nights sleep.
The next morning we woke to the sound of many people talking, and of course the, by now standard, sound of clinking pots and pans and frying delicacies. Mmmmm. What a great way to wake up! After a quick shower it was time for breakfast, which needless to say was once again amazing. I must point out to fellow westerners that breakfast in Korea is not what we are used to. There is no cereal, yogurt and boiled eggs. No, breakfast here consists of the same soups, broths, fried noodles, rice and other food items that are eaten for dinner or lunch, a little strange but delicious either way.
Sunny decided it would be a good idea to take us to the near by Oh De San mountain park, and I tell you, it was not a good idea, it was a spectacular idea! What an amazing place. Korea as a whole is a achingly beautiful country, and this area is definitely one of the highlights. We walked around for a couple of hours, also visiting the nearby temple. Visiting a Buddhist temple planted smack-bang in the middle of a beautiful mountain range on a crispy Korean morning is something that everyone should aspire to doing at least once in their lives! Amazing!
Head back home...time for lunch. At this point I shouldn't have to tell you what an amazing feats this was! Simply awesome, much like all the other meals.
We spent the last couple of hours milling about town, with 2 of Sunny's high school friends, and enjoying an amazing cup of coffee at one of the local coffee shops (the best cup of Coffee so far in Korea!!). After enjoying a great dinner and playing some more games, it was off to bed, only to wake up again to the hustle and bustle of a busy Korean house at Chuseok!
The morning was spent saying goodbyes to the various branches of the family, and wishing them all goodbye and a safe journey back home. Claudia and myself also said goodbye in our own freshly learnt, broken Korean phrases. With all the goodbyes done, it was our turn to head off to the bus terminal, which we did in a huge hurry, realising that our bus was about to leave. We got there as the bus was leaving! All's well that ends well they say, and I can speak for myself and for Claudia here, Chuseok was an amazing experience, and we are most grateful to Sunny and her awesome family for letting us experience it with them!
To add one more thing, Chuseok is a time of giving...many gifts are given, and children are more often than not given money by their relatives...big smiles all round. There is nothing new about gifts being given, but one thing that is different is the types of gifts that are given. Walk into any store before Chuseok, and you will see shelf after shelf covered in gift packs. These gift packs range from tea assortments to packs of canned food.
This is the tea pack that Claudia received from her school.
There is nothing strange about receiving tea as a gift, but SPAM! Wow, that's weird. No, apparently it isn't. Spam(or canned meat) is a very highly regarded gift in Korea. No joke! It seems that the origin of Spam runs back a few decades to the post war years in Korea, when fresh meat was almost impossible to come by and refrigeration was also basically non-existent. Spam was then considered a huge luxury item, and this seems to still hold true today.
There are large varieties of gift packs that can be given, some containing an assortment of toothbrushes and toothpastes, other with Soaps and bath items (I'm not talking bath salts and body scrub, I'm talking straight forward, old school bar soap!). The variety is endless, and people buy these items left right and centre as gifts for family and relatives.
This was is the gift given to me by my director, and as you can see it contains bottles of cooking oil, cans of tuna, and yes, the great canned meat, Spam!
Chuseok was a fantastic experience, and I am glad that I am currently living in the 'Land Of The Morning Calm', and that I was able to be part of these fantastic celebrations!
Post by Oliver
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