Recent Blunders

This past weekend I was able to feature my blog on Arirang TV (more on this later).  While I waited for the camera crew in a subway to do the shoot, my bowels overcame me.   I dashed in long strides to the bathroom.  I had my camera backpack, with a pocket specifically for laptops (this is important to mention).  I did not want to expose any part of my backpack to the grotesque, volatile floor of the public bathroom, so I did what anyone else would do...  I hung my bag on the hook on the back of the stall door.  Not but two minutes later, the backpack came hurtling to the ground like a meteor in our atmosphere.  I finished in the bathroom and ran outside, ripped open my backpack to assess damages.  Ironically, the much  more expesive and insured camera was perfectly fine.   Phew.   The computer that I just bought last year, however (note one of  my first blog entries talking about when I got the Vaio), had  a shattered screen.

I've sent this past week in turmoil over the potential costs of getting that thing fixed.  We haven't been able to see our complete dependence on our computer until it was taken away from us.  We are now plotting our next move.  Keep your fingers crossed that we make a financially wise decision.

Current Events

The artillery attack on Yeonpyeong island certainy gives reason for concern here in Korea.  While this is considered the greatest non-wartime act since the Korean War, attacks and conflict between the two countries are not rare.  Throughout the past 60 years, there have been several instances where North Korea have pushed the boundaries trying to get international attention.

Since we've been here, this is the third (knowing) conflict exchange, starting with the sinking of the Cheonan, the gun fire exchange during the G-20 and now the artillery strike.  It's easy as an American to get frustrated with North Korea, especially when South Korea seems so submissive.  I hear all the time and have often times thought it myself that they should just go to war and "end North Korea".  The fact of the matter is that all of Korea has a lot to lose if that were to happen.  Seoul is not far from the border and is well in range of the hundreds and hundreds of North Korean artillery already pointed at Seoul.  If there was a war, Seoul could in fact be obliterated within hours.  Thinking of all the people I have met, living in the culture as well as teaching many children, I'd hate to see or hear of them die in a war.  There are 12 million people within the city limits of Seoul and several million in the surrounding area.  Only a few artillery shells would be catastrophic...imagine thousands.  That is something that is hard to picture to outsiders who do not live here.    

North Korea also has a lot to lose.  Countries, as an outsider, are usually always seen as a whole as opposed to the sum of its parts.  North Korea is always portrayed as an  "axis of evil" (good work Bush) but never seen as an impoverished enslaved nation.  It's a shocker to think that while I feed my students lunch, less than 30 miles north are very similar children who are malnourished, starving and dying.

There are a lot of unknowns in the weeks/months/years to come, the biggest fear now is how China and or U.S.A responds to all of this.  If a war does happen, then North Korea would surely collapse because China could not afford to support them in a war.  Without China's aid, North Korea amounts to nothing.

Seoul Lantern Festival

The Seoul Lantern Festival is something that recently fell into our laps.  For as big as Seoul is, there is a great sense of community in this city and something awesome is always going on.  If Kelly and I even knew half of what was going on in this city, we'd lose our minds.  This past Saturday a group of us went ice skating at Lotte World, an impressive indoor/outdoor amusement park.  The ice skating was fun, but was packed beyond expectation.  There were four types of skaters on the ice.  1.)  The speed skaters in training,  2.)  Figure skaters in training,  3.)  Terrible, terrible couples who were giggling and falling everywhere, and  4.)  The waeguks (aka the foreigners, us, the outsiders, the idiots who weren't any good at skating and got in everyone's way).  I'm mostly speaking on behalf of myself, as I may or may not have knocked down two kids.  Due to my lack of skills stopping on the ice, I could only say sorry as I skated past them offering no services of help (laughing to myself).

I don't really know a whole lot about the Seoul Lantern Festival, so I will copy and paste what the tourist website says.

"Under the theme of ‘Seoul, a source of beaming hope’, the festival will feature 15,000 lanterns of 213 variations and from 25 countries. Unique pieces of work from ‘Sibaraku Nebuta’ of Aomori, Japan; and ‘Iryongsangtu’ and ‘Byeongeomgamyeon’ of China will be invited for the exhibition and a range of other creative local works such as ‘Door of Hope’, ‘G20 Lantern’, and ‘Lantern of Global Harmony’ will be on display."


Anyway, there is this stream in Seoul called the "Cheonggyecheon" and it was recently opened in 2005.   According to Wikipedia, it required $900 million to renovate.  That's a lot of cash, but it's a money stream.  A large portion of this stream had massive lanterns in the middle of various kinds.  Observe below.

There were tons of lantern-esk things adorning this stream.  It was a great time with some great people.  We had a blast.  You can check out some more pictures on our flickr page.

Pepero Day

There are many holiday seasons that we as humans love to partake in to uphold tradition, show love and gratitude towards others, give thanks and so forth.  Some of these holidays are cleverly spread throughout the year to make life more interesting and enjoyable.  There are some holidays that seem routine and pointless while others just seem so right.  I have found one of those holidays that just. seems. right.

Behold Pepero Day.  A holiday that exists only because of it's numeric intrigue.  November 11th (11/11).  Now, a casual outsider may challenge the notion that every month would possess the capabilities of offering entertainment with double numbered dates (9/9, 10/10, 12/12 are just a few of the 12 possibilities).  This is where said outsider would fall into the ranks of ignorance.  What makes 11/11 so fascinatingly unique is that there are chocolate covered sticks, that when put in groups of 4, resemble the magical calendar date of 11/11.

but what exactly is Pepero?

A box of Pepero from a student (not wife).

Pepero, as I've stated before in my complex description, are cracker-esque sticks covered in chocolate.  They come in many sizes and other variations.  The one thing remains constant, however, is that it is always shaped like a stick.

Now, I've had to dive deep into research to know more about Pepero Day.  My research went as deep as Wikipedi, where I learned that Pepero is a product of Lotte Confectionary, a large company based in Korea (also the 3rd largest chewing gum manufacturer in the world).  Lotte was inspired by Pepero by a like Japanese product "Pocky" back in '83, and had the genius notion to start a holiday based off one of their products (despite their claim they did not).  In fact, so genious, that %55 of Lotte's Pepero sales occur on or around Pepero Day (for those who forgot 11/11).

Now, this Pepero Day isn't obviously only about chocolate sticks.  It's a romantic holiday as well.  Similar to Valentines Day, youngsters observe this day to give their loved ones chocolate sticks, kisses and more chocolate sticks.  Yesterday most of our students brought enough Pepero  to school to build a small cabin down south.  The day went from pleasant treats to gluttonous binges on Pepero.  At one point I would charge my students one pepero stick in exchange for help on their science experiments.  I've had my fill of pepero sticks....as I finish my last one at the end of this sentence.

I'm not going to spend any more time on Pepero Day, but before I go, please click this link to get a better understanding.

One of my biggest regrets so far in Korea is that I did not know about Pepero Day prior to Halloween.  I would have killed to make a costume similar to the ones in the flash site above.  Maybe next year, but people would be more offended than entertained of the costume.

Wine Train

The Wine Train

 (sung to the tune of "Love Train" by The O' Jays).

This past Saturday, Kelly and I, along with Winnie-SHI and Joley-MON went on Korea's finest Wine Train.  About a month ago I noticed that an acquaintance of ours had posted some pictures of their adventures on a mysterious wine train.  I was instantly curious about this so called, "wine train", so I spared no hesitation in calling Winnie (my co-teacher at SLP) to investigate further.  

After Winnie did her thing on NAVER, we all came to the conclusion that this must be done with no reservations.  We pretty much instantly booked within the next couple of days (as this train gets sold out and only runs twice a week).  While the high price of such adventure would (and did) have its repercussions later in the month (i.e., payday needs to get here), we're glad to have done this.

The concept of the wine train is quite simple, it was a normal KoRail train that had 4 cars tagged on the end which were lavishly decorated to serve wine.  We rode the train one-way for about three hours throughout Korea (where we actually went, we do not know).  

 They were giving us instructions on how to properly smell and taste wine as well as the proper way to make a toast.

 Joel waeguk doesn't know what's going on.

 fruit and cheese platter provided

 While on the the train we were able to sample four different types of wine.  One being white and the other three red.  All the wine was from the vineyard we were heading to "Chateau Mani".  Mani being the name of the mountain the vineyard was near.

After three hours on the train enjoying the country side (as it is always great to get out of Seoul once in a while), we boarded a bus and went to the vineyard to eat lunch and tour the place.

The vineyard provided a pretty tasty lunch, and of course, lots o' wine.

 Wine on tap.

Free wine is the best wine.

In front of the Chateau.

While on the tour, we had a foot bath in grape water.  I was a little curious but the water had the aroma of grapes and felt great.

A small portion of a fairly large wine cellar

View from the Chateau

Grapes and things.

After a couple hours at the vineyard, we boarded the bus once again and went to a Ginseng museum.  Here we learned about the process of ginseng production, as well as the health benefits.  We were also able to try some ginseng makali.

Following the interesting, yet menial portion of the trip, we visited a large cave where they store a lot of their wine.  This cave also had some interesting background to it as well.  During the Korean War, people would hide and seek shelter in caves such as this one during air raids and so forth.

 Lots of wine is stored in this cave.

  

Following the cave visit, we went back to the train station and boarded the train back to Seoul.  It was a pretty long day, actually.  We left Ilsan around 8:00 am and didn't get back until 10:45pm.  The entire duration of the tour was about 12 hours.  A long day and a lot of wine, but still quite a bit of fun.  Kelly and I would probably put it in the top 10 things we have done IN Korea thus far.  

Also, we just might be put in Korea news in a couple of weeks.  There was a news team that was following the train and they interviewed Kelly and myself a couple of times.  They caught me sayin "Cho-eye-yo" (I like) and they had to get that on camera.  Quite awkward but I hope it gets aired.  I'll probably never know...

Website for the Wine Train