This video was buried near the end of the really long Andong Mask Festival post. . . and I wanted to bring more attention to it, because this was one of the loveliest experiences I've had in all my travels, and I'd like to share the wonder.
In case you said "Post too long already. Will not watch." -- if you did that, you made a mistake, missing out on this one.
Skip the rest if you like, but watch this video. (Hang on to the end, too: there's more.)
one expat's life in Korea
Thursday, October 02, 2008
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
In Seoul on Saturday?
On Saturday October 4th at 1PM, I'm gonna be in the Starbucks near Kyungbok Station (Subway line 3). I'm gonna climb Inwang Mountain, a great little mountain right next to downtown Seoul, with important history in Korea's Shamanistic past. On the way down, we're gonna walk through a cool little preserved mountainside village, and end of in one of the nicest, tastiest coffee shops I've ever been to.
The climb's not too long, and not too difficult, so you shouldn't have much trouble. . . don't wear high heels or flip-flops, of course, and maybe bring an extra T-shirt to change into if it's hot, and a water bottle. I'd like to head out at about 1:30.
If you want to join me, come on! The best way to enjoy Korea is to get out and do stuff like this. Come to the Starbucks instructions, with pictures, in this video clip.
It helps if you send me an e-mail at roboseyo (at) gmail (dot) com, or send me a note on facebook (search for Roboseyo) so that I can expect you, and we don't leave anyone behind who wanted to come. Come and enjoy one of my favourite parts of Seoul with me.
-Roboseyo
The climb's not too long, and not too difficult, so you shouldn't have much trouble. . . don't wear high heels or flip-flops, of course, and maybe bring an extra T-shirt to change into if it's hot, and a water bottle. I'd like to head out at about 1:30.
If you want to join me, come on! The best way to enjoy Korea is to get out and do stuff like this. Come to the Starbucks instructions, with pictures, in this video clip.
It helps if you send me an e-mail at roboseyo (at) gmail (dot) com, or send me a note on facebook (search for Roboseyo) so that I can expect you, and we don't leave anyone behind who wanted to come. Come and enjoy one of my favourite parts of Seoul with me.
-Roboseyo
Monday, September 29, 2008
Andong Mask Dance Festival, Scenery, and Really Really, Ridiculously Good Food
So I heard about this thing called the Andong Mask Dance Festival, one of those Korean culture touchstones and all. Girlfriendoseyo explained to me that Andong is the heartland of Korea's confucian heritage -- the guy whose face is on the 1000 won bill lived there, and his house made it onto the money, too.
So something cool is definitely cooking in Andong, and we both needed, badly, to get out of dodge, anyway.
A really overbearingly beautiful sky kept us looking out the window.
Rickety old train stations
Instead of the fancy new ones with radar motion detector sirens to whistle if you step over the yellow line: this.
Finally, we arrived in Andong, at about 1pm.
So something cool is definitely cooking in Andong, and we both needed, badly, to get out of dodge, anyway.
What is the meaning of this picture? Keep reading...
So Andong it was. Rattling around in the train, starting at Chongyangni in standing room only, and moving into seats after the first hour, we got out of the city, and began to wonder as the city dwindled away.
The countryside is checkered with rice-fields shaped both regular and irregular, on average, about this size:
A really overbearingly beautiful sky kept us looking out the window.
Rickety old train stations
Instead of the fancy new ones with radar motion detector sirens to whistle if you step over the yellow line: this.
Finally, we arrived in Andong, at about 1pm.Lunch time.
Now, possibly my favourite Korean food is JjimDalk -- a special kind of chicken dish with sweet and sour soy-based spicy sauce, clear chewy noodles, and some veggies (most notably onions, carrots and potatoes) tossed in for balance. Good eatin' dear readers. If you can't make it to Andong (though you really should), the best place I've found in Seoul so far is right next to Boshingak Bell by Jongno Station. . . but I'll write more about that place another time.
On Saturday, we went to Jjim Dalk street, where about a dozen restaurants serve the famous dish, and the ridonculously harsh competition, plus the reputation of the town, plus the reputation of the street, has refined each place to the point where no place outside of "Chicken Street" can come within the same flippin' ORBIT as these places.
The Jjim Dalk (찜닭), and dear readers, I believe I have eaten enough of it to be able to say, was perfect. In every way. The freshness of the meat and vegetables, the balance of the sweet honey tang with the dark soy, the spiciness just enough to bring the other flavours out on a now-sensitive tongue, and the portion was...uh...a lot. Seriously, by the end of the meal, I was counting bones trying to figure out if they'd secretly given us more than one chicken. "Two necks I tell you! And thrEEEE legs! They gave us at least one and a half birds! Those over-feeding fiends!" It might have just been one chicken in there, but it felt like seven by the end of the meal, and it looked like two for sure:
So we did what any sensible pair of epicures would do, given a portion of perfect food large enough to fill us up twice over...
Tried to eat it all anyway. That was as far as we got. . . pretty respectable, though. I managed to maw down a few more noodles after we took this picture, but it had reached the point where my mind and my throat were holding negotiations each time I tried to swallow, so we had to leave some behind.
Here's Girlfriendoseyo, looking as full as a . . . really full thing.
The Jjim Dalk (찜닭), and dear readers, I believe I have eaten enough of it to be able to say, was perfect. In every way. The freshness of the meat and vegetables, the balance of the sweet honey tang with the dark soy, the spiciness just enough to bring the other flavours out on a now-sensitive tongue, and the portion was...uh...a lot. Seriously, by the end of the meal, I was counting bones trying to figure out if they'd secretly given us more than one chicken. "Two necks I tell you! And thrEEEE legs! They gave us at least one and a half birds! Those over-feeding fiends!" It might have just been one chicken in there, but it felt like seven by the end of the meal, and it looked like two for sure:So we did what any sensible pair of epicures would do, given a portion of perfect food large enough to fill us up twice over...
Tried to eat it all anyway. That was as far as we got. . . pretty respectable, though. I managed to maw down a few more noodles after we took this picture, but it had reached the point where my mind and my throat were holding negotiations each time I tried to swallow, so we had to leave some behind.
Here's Girlfriendoseyo, looking as full as a . . . really full thing.
(A little more here:)
Girlfriendoseyo found a really nice guest house that was originally built 600 years ago by a writer.
We slept in buildings like this.
And this.
Which were heated like this:
The old way, with a fire burning under the floor.
In the morning, we ate this:
Taken around Hahoe Folk Village, as the sun got low in the sky:
Hahoe Village was in fine form itself: this might be one of the better pictures I've ever taken...
People actually live in this village. You can even stay there--a few of the places put up guests.
and a few other places, where people with better cameras than mine took better pictures than mine, of the fireworks.
We slept in buildings like this.
And this.Which were heated like this:
The old way, with a fire burning under the floor.In the morning, we ate this:
some of which was probably taken out of these:
Pots for storing pickled side-dishes like kimchi.
The mask festival, then.
It was cool. Dancing, lots of people, the city put its best foot forward. We didn't have time to catch TOO much of the mask dancing, what with everything else going on, and the weather and scenery being so splendid. . . but the mask stuff was cool, too.
Traveling to and from places was actually one of the highlights, as the scenery in Gyungsan province reminded me of the BC Interior, kind up up Okanagan Valley way, with the mountains a little lower and the land a little more domesticated with beautiful rice paddies.
The rice plants were nearly yellow, which means they're almost ready for harvest, and the heads were bowed almost right over.
Hahoe Village was in fine form itself: this might be one of the better pictures I've ever taken...More of the Hahoe Folk Village countryside and sunset (with special guest Jumping Fish at 2:05):
People actually live in this village. You can even stay there--a few of the places put up guests.
The sunset was amazing, from start to finish.
This was the performance spot where the musicians set up during the fireworks show. This is another of the better pictures I've taken in my life.
These fireworks were different than others -- usually the aim of a fireworks show is spectacle. Big, loud, amazing, people say "WOW!" and small children scream in fright. These ones were so mellow and peaceful -- like bright flower-petals floating to the ground, and it created an ethereal atmosphere that was gentle and lovely, instead of the usual, expected thrills that fireworks bring. Maybe the cognitive dissonance: "This isn't what fireworks are supposed to be like!" heightened the experience, or the fact Girlfriendoseyo and I TOTALLY did not expect this experience... but I got blindsided by beauty this weekend, dear readers. Gobsmacked around a bit.
This was the performance spot where the musicians set up during the fireworks show. This is another of the better pictures I've taken in my life.
But the possible highlight (if you HAVE to choose between the countryside, the jjim dalk, and this) was the fireworks:
Now I'm sure I've spelled this wrong in Korean (feel free to correct me in the comments), but over at the folk village, they do this thing called 선유줄불놀이 Seonyu Julbulnori:
Traditional Korean fireworks.
I'd explain the whole thing... but just watch the video. It's worth it. These things were so beautiful.
These fireworks were different than others -- usually the aim of a fireworks show is spectacle. Big, loud, amazing, people say "WOW!" and small children scream in fright. These ones were so mellow and peaceful -- like bright flower-petals floating to the ground, and it created an ethereal atmosphere that was gentle and lovely, instead of the usual, expected thrills that fireworks bring. Maybe the cognitive dissonance: "This isn't what fireworks are supposed to be like!" heightened the experience, or the fact Girlfriendoseyo and I TOTALLY did not expect this experience... but I got blindsided by beauty this weekend, dear readers. Gobsmacked around a bit.
Video: Fireworks. Hang on for a surprise at the end.
and a few other places, where people with better cameras than mine took better pictures than mine, of the fireworks.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
When English Teachers Don't Get The Support They Need. . .
My heart sinks every time I read a post like this. From "I, Foreigner."
I'm sure Korea's not the only place this happens. . . but wherever it happens, how dispiriting.
Sigh. Hang in there, Otto.
Yeah, getting native speaking teachers in every school would help Korea speak English better. . . but there's more to it than just sheer numbers.
My new philosophy is “Do as little as possible”.
If a student asks for help then I will help. If they don’t, then I won’t. I will teach the students who care and claim there wasn’t enough time to give everyone individual attention. The end result will be the same, so why should I stress myself out in a system that cares more about making everyone look good than about what the students learn?
I'm sure Korea's not the only place this happens. . . but wherever it happens, how dispiriting.
Sigh. Hang in there, Otto.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Happy Birthday K-Rok
A blogger whose blog I follow recently celebrated her 38th birthday (congrats), and dropped this hilarious line:
And if one more 23-year-old told me “age is just a number,” he was going to get kicked in the nads. And then he was going to get told: “pain is only in your head!” Of course age doesn’t matter when you’re 23, schmuck!Congrats on your birthday, and woe to the next 23-year-old who rubs it in.
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