Lunar New Year

This weekend I enjoyed the splendour of one day off work thanks to the lunar new year. Unfortunately 2 of the three national holidays fell at the weekend, but one day is better than nothing.

After doing a bit of research I decided the actual New Years day, Sunday, was the best day to go to Seoul if I wanted to see some colorful displays. So on Sunday morning my buddy and I set off. The train was surprisingly crowded. Lunar New Year is a family oriented holiday, with the main 'business' consisting of younger adults and children performing deep bows to their elders, and then getting money in return. [Note to my parents - I think this is a ritual the Ridd household could do with including, for spiritual succor of course.] But once the bowing was over with I suppose there was nothing to do at home, so Koreans go and visit other people they wish to pay respects to.

Lunar New Year didn't have quite the build up or big lavish parades I was expecting. The main difference around my little town was an increase in food shopping activity and the appearance of many gift sets. Traditionally Koreans give gifts of meat or fish, and so the more practical gift sets tend to include tinned tuna, dried fish, or meat of some kind. My favorite by far was the Spam gift set, though I can't see this taking off in the UK. Great to see though, especially for a Monty Python fan such as myself.

Once we arrived in Seoul my buddy and I toddled off to the National Folk Museum, located within the grounds of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace itself was alright, but nothing particularly special I'm afraid to say. You can't really blame the palace or the Koreans though. It has rather a troubled history, including being burnt down few times, enduring years of neglect, and being torn down so that Japanese invaders could erect a government building for Korea's Governer-General. When they occupied the country the Japanese took very few pictures before they tore the ancient buildings down, so modern historians have a hard time of trying to reconstruct representations fo the old palace. I didn't get to see the gardens and lakes though, so maybe a second look will reveal some beauties.

The palace was made better by the Korean adults and children running around in traditional Korean dress, Hanbok, who gave it an 'oriental' kind of feel. Hanbok looks rather like a large tent on the women, and the men wear large parachute trousers and tunics. It may not be particularly flattering but they use bright colours so the clothing is exciting none the less.

During the afternoon we enjoyed a performance at the Folk Museum of what was described as fusion music. 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' played on traditional Korean instruments (including lap zithers called Gayageum, wooden flutes called Juggeum, and odd string things which I think are called Haegeum) is an odd sensation but not entirely unpleasant. The big drums were the best part, but unfortunately they were only allowed to get really loud and riotus once.

The museum also hosted a variety of traditional craft tents, at which children could try out activities like kite making, flute making, and mask painting. All for a small fee of about 2 or 3 pounds. The kites weren't particularly big and were simple wood and paper affairs, but some of the Korean blokes managed to get them really high in the sky, even above the roof of the three story museum. Jolly impressive. The palace's surroundings were also impressive as they included many striking hills and mini-mountains.

After the museum we went to one of the cities big malls to visit a bookstore called Bandi and Lundi's which has a great English section (classics 20% off, thank you very much) and we caught a film. Flags of our Fathers. I've seen better war films but I've also seen many worse. The mall was packed full of teenage Koreans out to spend the money they'd been given that morning. They all looked rather pleased with the world.

Later we went to a few bars with the assumption that the college aged kids would be out spending their money, but not many joined us. Maybe they were allowed out for the afternoon then herded back home for an evening meal. Still, they can't really complain. Aftyer all, they were just given a wad of cash for simply bowing. [Hint hint Mum and Dad...]

Korean 6 year olds with talent?

Last weekend I was denied my Saturday (again) in order to participate and watch a talent show featuring the kids from my kindergarten classes (6 and 7 year olds). I was asked to welcome people at the beginning and to compare a faux beauty pageant.

Mostly it was ok, the kids were quite good with theirs lines, even though some needed a bit of a prod in the right direction. The only problem was the insistance on using radio mikes. They "miked" (can that really be a word?) me up for the first thing I did, and I stood on stage with the kid I was welcoming everyone with. I said my first line and - you've guessed it - nothing. Faulty mike. So, rather than let me use the regular-on-a-wire microphone I grabbed I was forced to stand on stage whilst some geezer rushed on to change the microphone and it's transmitter, which involved undoings of jackets and many an embarrassed look towards the audience. I managed to make a joke out of it though, so not all bad. One of my colleagues caught it all on my video camera, so I can replay the cringiness again and again, joy.

The insistance on trying to use radio mikes continued for quite a while before they realised it wasn't happening and thankfully switched to oldfashioned microphones. Technology is not all good by any stretch.

This week is plodding along. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, and we're doing some activities at school (any excuse to not teach seems to be the sentiment here). The weekend brings the excitement of Lunar New Year, and a day off work! I hope to enjoy some festivities, so maybe I'll get some good photos.

Last weekend.

Unfortunately I was required to spend Saturday at a teacher training thingy in Seoul. It was incredibly dull, full of people talking about different series of teahing books (a lot of sales pitches disguised as teahcing method lectures) and I didn't really listen much. I wouldn't have minded if it hadn't meant getting up at 7 am. That may not sound too bad to you but it's over an hour earlier than I get up to go to work!

Getting up that early, and catching the 8 o'clock train, only had one advantage: I got to see the sun rise. And it was good. As we sped south it rose on my left hand side over the cold and barren landscape of northern South Korea. The area is hilly, with a few big mountains in the distance, and I expect it is used extensively for crops in warmer weather, but at the moment it is rather bleak. Running alongside the train tracks there are many small allotments, and they are also squashed into small patches of ground in towns and cities. Street sellers and market stalls tend to sell a lot of this small production stuff.

The landscape has two main features other than the hills; electricity pylons and large congregations of blocks of flats. I hope, in warmer weather, to travel more around the country and see some of it's beauty, but for now my Korean world is dominated by man made objects. Not surprising, perhaps, as South Korea is the 19th most densly populated country in the world (480 people per square kilometre). Most of the countries that are higher on that list are tiny ones like the Vatican, Gibraltar, Macau, Bermuda and Monaco. The only large countries that have a higher population density are Taiwan and Bangladesh. All of this is to say that South Korea is a crowded country, so it's not suprising there are so many blocks of flats and infrastructure objects.

[Geek that I am I actually find the list of high population densities quite interesting, for example the population desity of the UK is almost exactly the same as that of Jamaica. All this thanks to Wikipedia.com. I love that site for facts and figure.]

Anyway, despite the industrialism I still think it's beautiful, but then again a great sunrise can probably make anything look beautiful to me.

Food etiquette.

(This is a long one, but I was bored during a two-hour break at work. Sorry.)

There seems to be a strange fascination here with food. It is polite to continually offer food around workplaces and homes. Though this is kind and, in a busy school environment often sought after, it does tend to give a foreign visitor the impression they are being fattened up for something.

Such was the case when I first arrived in the country. Being of a rather large frame I couldn't believe they truly thought I was malnourished. Instead I began to assume they thought I required lots of food to sustain myself and I would faint without it.

I have now realised, through my own experiences and some outside reading, that they are simply being polite. To show concern for someone else's welfare by concentrating on whether they eat enough food dates back to time when most Koreans were so poor they could often not afford enough rice to eat breakfast everyday. So by inquiring in fairly intrusive detail after my food habits, and constantly feeding me, they are simply showing care and concern for my welfare.

One of the traditional morning greetings in Korea used to be "Have you eaten rice today?" It is a practice that has sadly fallen out of favour in modern Korea (I think it has rather an adorable ring to it). I hadn't experienced that polite inquiry until a few days ago. I was in the middle of wolfing down some lunch in the school cafeteria (well, school shed really) during my horribly short lunch break. The school's male director (we also have a female one) was eating and, using one of my colleagues as a translator, he asked me whether or not I had eaten breakfast that morning.

I was bang in the middle of enjoying a mouthful of rice and gimchi, and my Western sensibilities led me to assume he was asking because he thought I was stuffing my face and being a bit piggy. To tell the truth I was rather stunned and only managed to reply with a confused "Yeah". The minute I left I recalled what I'd read about polite food-welfare enquiry, and felt like a right Charlie.

I can now only hope he asks again some day so I can reply in a more courteous way. It is just one of a number of Korean manners that are tripping me up. But, being of a clumsy disposition anyway, it's not too much of a break from the norm.

------- In other news in snowed a little bit here, but it is now too cold for it. The wind has picked up and is really biting. I've taken to walking the mile and a half home from school with a friend of mine, rather than sit in a crowded bus. It doesn't make much difference time-wise, and it gets me out in the fresh air. Always good. I really want it to snow again though, as we haven't had much and it makes the world look so pretty.

(I've only just discovered how to put photos on here, so expect a few more!)

Wow, I found tea. But it's damn expensive.

I recently went on a trip to Seoul to have a wander around a few of the markets and I had a joyous time in one. Namdaemun market is a lot like other Asian markets; loud, full of odd smells, and ridiculously crowded. I enjoy almost all of it, except for one section that appears to exist only to sell roasted pigs trotters and cows feet (hooves, whatever you call them). Walking past them is rather gross and I expect in summer the accompanying smell will be really quite bad.

Namdaemun has an underground market where, in the past, my friend and I discovered alcohol stores that sell western liquors at reasonable prices. This time we explored a little deeper and I found English tea! It is highly expensive, at 5 squid for 25 bags, but it's good to know it's there as a safety net. My dear sweet mother is helping me out by sending me some every now and then in the post (which works out much cheaper), but I'm so happy to know I can go and grab some if that supply runs out.

I also found chocolate in that market - Cadburys! Granted, it was made in Australia, not Birmingham, but it tastes authentic.

So another good day, although all I bought was a bar of chocolate. I didn't indulge in many of my consumeristic impulses. Wow, I must be growing.

We went to see the new Leonardo DiCaprio film, Blood Diamond, which I would recommend to those not too squimish. It's not as good as Hotel Rwanda in terms of dealing with African nation atrocities, but it's worth a look. Just don't expect Leo's accent to be consistent, because it's not.
Another week of school has just begun, and so far it's going well. Let's just hope the young kids I have this afternoon don't spoil it.

I'm a millionaire!

That is to say, I've got 1.8 million won.

My employers set me up with a bank account at the end of last month, and so I've had this month's pay check put in (last month's was in cash). It's a surreal but great feeling to check your balance and see over a million in there. Not at all like the student days. This must be what Bill Gates feels like. Almost.

Still, a million doesn't actually go that far when you consider a crappy cup of coffee costs 3000. I'm just about getting used to paying what seem like big amounts but it's taking time.

I'm managing to save a lot, which was a major reason for coming here, as the cost of living isn't too high. I don't pay rent, only bills, and they aren't too much. The main thing is heating because it's jolly cold here, but as I live on the top floor I do get some benefit when the people below me turn theirs on. Still, it is costly in winter.

So the money situation is hunky dory. I do have another cold though, which sucks, but never mind. I'm sure I'll get over it... eventually.

I've definitely settled in now.

I've been here over two months now, and wowee it goes fast soemtimes. Although at other times it kind of feels like the batteries on the Earth's clock are losing power and times is ticking slower.

My Korean is coming along. I've been learning the alphabet and I can almost read the signs on stores and labels. Well, I can slowly work out how they would be pronounced. My "Hello" and "Goodbye" (same word - ahnyonghaseyo) has been perfected to a t, and my "Thank you", is also good. They don't seem to use thank you here very much though, it seems to be reserved for special occasions when they really mean it. So everytime I leave a shop and say thank you they find it mildly odd, instead they always say goodbye. I'm trying to adjust my manners.

I think, given a few more months, I'll be able to read words a lot faster, which will be good for trying to work out what film or program is going to be on telly next. I forked out 30 quid for Sky, as just having that one US military channel was driving me nuts, so I get some good movie channels now. Woo-hoo.

I'm getting quite into Korean food here. I don't eat in Korean restaurants much, as the language barrier is still a bit of a problem in such a small town as mine, but I eat Korean food at school everyday. You get a bowl of rice and a bowl of some kind of soup, and then you sit at a round table with lots of additional dishes in the middle. You then pick from the bowls bit by bit as you work your way though the rice and soup. My chopstick skills have come in extremely useful and everyone at school seemed very impressed that I could use them when I first came. And some of you mocked me! All those years of cooking stirfry's and eating them with chopsticks at home have really paid off.

The food is good. The main thing they love here is called gimchi (or kimchi, depending on how they choose to spell it). It's a vegetable of some sort, mostly chinese leaf cabbage, that has been soaked in a red pepper spicy concoction. It sort of pickles it, but in a very spicy way, and they spend early November making loads of this stuff so that it lasts them through the barren winter. The spices here are definitely hot, but I like them. Unlike spices from places like India, which hit the back of your mouth and your throat, Korean spices hit the top of your mouth and your nose. This seems to suit me better than Indian spice, and I can manage most food, even when my colleagues warn me that it's hot (another way to impress them). Korean cooking also includes tofu, green vegetables and, unsurpringly for a country that is 70% surrounded by the sea, lots of fish. I still steer clear of big fish, as big bones freak me out somewhat, but the little dried ones aren't too bad. Good for the brain.

So I'm learning the language, I'm liking the food, and I'm getting used to the manners. I think it's fair to say I've settled in.