Gyeonju Pictures

Went to Gyeonju a few weeks ago.   I can't remember a lot of what I learned about the history of this city and I can't find my literature (nor am I currently inspired to google it).  With that said,  it was where the Dynasty was for 100's if not 1000's of years.  Most of the pictures are of sites that were active over 1300 years ago.  It is rich in history and is a throw-back in time, especially coming from the industrial mecca that I currently live in. 

I must say, that yes, it truly is that beautiful there.  Stunning, actually.   I went mad taking photos--just shy of 300 photos in 2 days.  Sadly, my camera ran out of batteries.  Devastation.

Lily Pad Pond

More Lily Pad Pond

This is just pretty.  Looks like a such a whimsical place..

I think those are mushrooms growing out of the tree.  I think. 

This photo is so pretty it does not look real.  It was taken at Bulgoska temple (so are the next several).

I don't remember what this is.  I think a rain catcher? 

Another neat tree at Bulguska temple.

Bulguska Temple.  Stacks of rocks outside one of the temples. 

I don't know why, but I like the bathroom signs here.  :)  This one was on the temple site, so it makes even better.

This is the view outside of the temple. 

And a white-bellied squirrel.  Stinkin' cute.

This was just outside the city of Gyeonju.  It was Cheosok holiday weekend, so this town was eerily quiet.  We wandered around the streets aimlessly and hardly saw anyone. 

various photos while walking around the town..

we literally had it to ourselves...

I like this.  Dan looking at sail boats in a small deserted town in Korea.  Always dreaming big, which is one of many reasons why I adore him.

View from the hotel room. 

Fog+small village+rice fields=magic

Royal burial tombs.

A park at the royal tomb site.

More burial tombs.

And more....

This is an astronomy structure.  A Queen commissioned it (1300 years ago) and the stones in height represent her age and there are a total of 365 stones, representing the year. 

More burial tombs, with remnants of building pillars.

This was a very neat pond.  I will not confess to how many photos of fish I took.  Let's just say it disturbed me when my camera ran out of batteries and I ended it up with mostly fish shots.  Ooops.  This pond is on an old temple site.  I guess they drained the pond completely, and uncovered thousands of relics.  Would have LOVED to have been a part of that discovery.  Sad for the formerly alive fish though.

This is ouside of a museum.  I don't know what it is.

 

and these ones...

and this one...

Yeah.......  it looks more like a hoola dance.

In addition to fish, I also went half mad photographing lily pads.  Again, I will not say how many of the 300 photos are of lily pads.

They're cool though...right?

The Lotus... 

The last picture my camera allowed me to take. Yup.  A door.

(good thing they're not paying me to be a tour guide or promoter for their fair city, "um, I really can't remember much about it, and yeah...like those are tombs, of, um, dead people?")

lost & found

While waiting with Dan at the bus stop, he noticed a small credit card holder (w/ 3 cards inside) on the ground.  So he thought it might be the girl who was standing there, but she said no.  We then talked it over, and decided not to leave it there, just in case it fell into the wrong hands.  We decided I would take it to school with me and see if one of my co-teachers would be able to contact one of the issuing banks.  About 10 minutes later a young, college-aged girl comes up and we noticed she was looking for something, so we held up the card case to see if that was what she was looking for.  She was so happy, she started tearing up and just stood really close to us with this appreciative smile...and said she wanted to cry.  It was quite lovely.  As it turns out she was also headed to the train station, so we ended up taking the same bus.  On the ride to the station she wrote us such a lovely note:

Hello Kind Couple

When I knew I lost my credit cards I was very, very, very sad.  Anyway, how very pleased I am to meet you.  I want to speak English well, but speaking and listening to English is more difficult than reading and writing English.  Anyway, thank you very much.  I love U.S.A. 

I hope your love lasts forever.

Sincerily, Seo-Minji

Her gratitude was very touching and she offered her phone number and said that if I ever needed help while in Korea she would be happy to help me out.  She lives in the same neighborhood that I live in (part time) and then at her school the other days of the week.  This entire interaction was a welcomed distraction, because it made Dan and I less focused on the inevitable "goodbye" that was waiting for us at the end of the bus ride, so we were more than relieved (as this bus ride was the start of Dan's journey back the states). 

Before class starts my favorite 5th grade class loves to crowd around my desk to see what I am doing.  They find me endlessly fascinating (I feel famous) Today I pulled up google translate because they were just dying to express something to me that they were unable to get across.  So, the big, hot question of the day was, "Are your eyelashes real?"  Then they typed in, "close your eyes." so they could see my lids to make sure they weren't glued on and then they all had to have a closer look (about 10+ students) to verify that I did not lie.  The next question they had for me was, "Are those diamonds real?" (my studs & necklace).  Then they wanted to know if my pearl was real.    It was really kind of silly and fun.  Naturally these were girls asking the questions.  If they were boys I am sure the topic would have had something to do with zombies & blood.

Korea....Dan-Style

Dan has managed to break the hearts and crack numerous smiles from every ajuma he comes in contact with.  (Ajuma:  Older, married Korean woman.  Generally the top of the heap and everyone clears out of the way for the Ajuma.  If you don't, they're gonna knock you out of the way--your choice).  Obviously he is a pretty good looking fellow, therefore ajumas swoon?  Maybe?  He just has such a kind, open demeanor that I think, even across cultures, he is giving off a very trusting, gentle vibe.  However, Dan thinks it is because they think he is Mark Harmon (lead actor from NCIS).  NCIS airs 24/7 here.  I have never seen an episode before coming here, but since my English channels are very limited, I have now seen a disturbingly large number of shows.  I actually hate the show, so it pains me to admit it, but YES he really does look like that guy!

A paraphrased quote I recently read:  "It is your job as the foreigner to be laughed at.  Often, you have no idea why they are laughing at you, so just go with it."  I have found this to be incredibly accurate during my time here.  People laugh at me all the time and I really am completely clueless as to why.  Dan has managed to break my record though.  It's great.  :)  When he is being laughed at he generally does something kind of comical which kicks the laughter into high gear.

Today we decided to go on a bus ride through a coastal, rural part of Ulsan, just to see where we would end up.  Well, after several miles of beautiful countryside, we ended up at the end of the bus line (pretty anti-climactic).  The doors opened up and so we think we are pretty much being kicked off the bus.  So, we get off and walk up the street a few blocks, decide we're too tired and lazy to do much exploring and go sit at the bus stop and wait.  Well, the SAME bus comes over the hill and we get back on it and there are about 5 Ajumas on there roaring with laughter at us (because they were the same ones that were on the bus with us on the ride up, but they stayed on the bus while the bus driver took a 5 minute break at the station--smart ladies).  Anyway, we are both laughing at ourselves too, but mostly laughing at them laughing at us.  It's a little unnerving, yet very comical to get on the bus, in another country and have every passenger on it laughing at you!  Dan gave them a huge smile, waved at them and said in a sweet, goofy voice, "Hiiiiiiiiiya".   This caused them to laugh even harder and a few of them said "hiiiii" back to him.  Once back in town the ajumas were the first to get off the bus.  When they passed by our seats to exit, they bid us farewell with the Korean, 'anyeounghegayseo' and another chuckle for good measure.

The other day we went to a market nearby to buy two 6-packs of water (the 2 liter bottles).  Needless to say, they are rather heavy, but in a much appreciated, chivalrous fashion Dan keeps carrying both of these back to the apartment for me (I am beyond thankful as I have grown to detest carrying water back to my apt).  Anyway, as we were walking down the alley to my place, we were behind a couple of old ajuma-farmer women, each with a huge bundle of goods balancing on their heads (very common sight here).  The handle on one of the 6-packs snapped and the water fell to the ground, and it startled the women in front of us and they kind of laughed it off in an "oooopsy daisies" kind of way.  We end up taking a few more steps and the other handle snaps off, causing that 6 pack to crash to the ground.  This time the women turned and sort of laugh at our misfortune, so Dan picks up the fallen 6 pack and gestures at them and sticks it on top of his head, mirroring the way they had their bundles balanced on their heads.  Oh my word, they thought this was sooooooo funny, as they both just died laughing at this ridiculous foreigner with water perched on his head, mimicking them.  It was quite a sight.

He doesn't have to be doing something ridiculous to get laughed at either.  There are moments when he is giving money to an ajuma street vendor and for no apparent they start chuckling at him during the money exchange.  When we are walking down the street they sort of look at him and start laughing too.  I think he is probably bowing his head in respect or giving a friendly smile which just seems to tickle them pink.  Ajumas can be pretty aggressive (at least with me and every other human being on the planet), so I have been very surprised at this side I have not witnessed the entire time, prior to Dan's arrival, in Korea.

Dan has also managed to win the heart of my Kimbap lady (Son Myong-ai).  I think she has an innocent crush on him, because her eyelashes start batting and she gets this overwhelming smile that she can't control when he walks into the room.  It is such a lovely interaction.  Dan introduced her to Google-Translate, which she opens up every time we go there now.  It has been great to be able to "converse" with her on a somewhat deeper level.   We are planning on going there this evening for the last kimbap dinner, because he heads back to the US on Monday.

the dentist of much common sense and esturaries

The time has finally come that I must brave a Korean dentist.  I am a faithful follower of the 6-month rule of getting my teeth cleaned and I am the only person I know who sincerely looks forward to it.  I LOVE the dentist (american ones at least).  In anticipation of coming to Korea, I decided to add in one extra cleaning, so that it would hopefully tide me over until I got back to the states.  Unfortunately, I am noticing an ugly bit of tarter on my teeth and therefore decided not to wait it out for another 6 months.

One of my friends here has been spreading Korean dental horror stories.  She scared me.  She said she felt like they were going on an archaeological excavation in her mouth by sticking sharp pointy objects up into the root line, in between the gums and scraping for days.  Her and her husband both shed a tear or two at the painful experience.  She told me this story about 4 months ago, and since then I have been pretty confident in my decision to not experience it first hand.  Some things you just have to take someones word for it!  Sadly, the plaque is more than I can bare.  I will be brave.

HOWEVER, while researching dentists in the area, I came across this tag-line on a website of a dentist that was recommended to me by a facebook group in Ulsan:

" I want to esturaries affordable teeth whitening.  It’s four!  All hoping for.  We must press on a daily basis to exert US toothpaste in them.  Dentists also easy to understand public assistance cases and the treatment of common sense is a dentist."

 

Where do I sign up???  Not only will they clean my teeth, but they will give treatment in the cases of common sense.  What more could I ask for?  Korea rocks that way---a little teeth cleaning, a little common sense...

 

The great thing about many businesses here is that they are open late!  In Korea, I can go get my teeth cleaned at 8 p.m.  Not sure if this is before or after the 'Soju common sense' party though.  I guess I'll find out.

  

The Gift of SPAM

Mmmmmm......SPAM

During our initial orientation we were told that many Koreans believe westerners love SPAM.  We were also told that there was a high probability that we would be given SPAM as a giftt.  Up until recently I have managed to escape the gift of SPAM.

However, I have noticed that in the grocery store, in the aisle with a ton of western products, there is an unusually large amount of SPAM products.  I pretty much look at it as the SPAM aisle and skirt past it rather swiftly, so as not to perpetuate the myth about westerners' love of SPAM.  After all, I must look out for my successors!  Just last night, Dan and I were in the grocery store and saw a HUGE, monster display of SPAM gift sets.  Yes, SPAM git sets.  We were chuckling over them, making comments like, "Wow, can't say I have ever seen a SPAM gift set before" and "Can you imagine this being sold in the states?" etc.

Chuseok is a Korean national holiday that is coming up next week.  My love & anticipation for Chuseok boils down to the fact that I'll have 3 days off of school!  But it is a big holiday for Koreans whom many travel across the country to visit their families, exchange gifts and spend time with loved ones.  So all the newly stocked gift sets at the grocery store began to make sense.

Today, in honor of Chuseok, my principal gave me a rather large gift box of SPAM, complete with fancy SPAM logos & matching bag.  I was very thankful for the kind gesture and expressed a great deal of humble gratitude towards her, because really, it is wonderful to receive gifts, especially unexpected gifts.  As we were walking away, my regular teacher asked me, "Do you like SPAM?"  I never thought I would find myself in a position to lie about my fondness for SPAM, but I said without hesitation, "YES! I LOVE SPAM!".  :)

In all  honestly, I would never in my wildest dreams touch the stuff because I do have all sorts of hangups about what I perceive to be "weird, unidentifiable mystery meats".  Sure, fried SPAM, well--it is kind of freakishly good, but again, the health nut in me just won't go there (Maybe Dan will eat it!).

So, despite my best efforts, the myth about westerners loving SPAM persists....  And yes, at least to my Korean coworkers, I too LOVE SPAM.

ohhh korea: you so random

Koreans also use the word "sexy" a lot.  I think it is a lost in translation use of the word.  For example I was showing a power point on opposites: tall/short, big/small etc.  One of the slides was of Snow White (pretty) and the Hag (ugly).  When Snow White was displayed, one of my 2nd graders said, "Sexy".  It's used to express pretty, more often than not.  Unfortunately, "sexy" and "pretty" have different connotations.  The other day Son Meyoung-ai (Kimbap store owner that I frequent), told me that I was sexy.  I went ahead and made the leap that what she really meant was "pretty".  So I tried to show her the difference between sexy and pretty by drawing pictures of 2 different cartoon-style pictures depicting each.  Initially I named a few big names like Madonna & Marilyn Monroe, but she had not heard of them, which is why I resorted to drawing terrible pictures.  Anyway, she understood it.  Once again, I am amazed at how easy it is to transcend language barriers through drawings, tone of voice, & gestures. 

When Dan was packing to come visit me, I put in a few food requests (forever a foodie).  I asked for oatmeal, popcorn and vanilla protein powder.  A few days before he came to visit he asks me, "Um, do you think it is a really good idea for me to come to Korea with white powder"?  It never even occurred to me that it was a really, really, really bad idea to come through customs with  white powder in zip lock bags.  Anyway, I did agree and took that demand off the table!   :)

Well, many weeks later from when I started writing this post, Dan is now, officially here!  It was amazingly wonderful to see him.  So far we have not done a great deal of things, but in typical Christine fashion, I have managed to incorporate massive amounts of food excursions into pretty much every last corner of free time, whether we were hungry or not.  I am trying hard to be respectful of the fact that he has an outdoor survival camp coming up soon, and needs to stay in good shape for this, so I am managing to not try to talk him into eating waffle pies, donuts & ice cream and every other amazing Korean treat that had me cornered for quite some time.  Otherwise though, we are discovering new little restaurants along the way.  Dan introduced me to the beauty of Mon-du!  It is this dumpling textured treat that is steamed and filled with pork, onions and a few unidentifiables.  It melts in the mouth in pure bliss!   It is insanely cheap too.  We can easily have dinner for 2 on about $4=$5 dollars a night if we choose our restaurants right.  It's great.

The other day we went to a Mon-du shop and like most small ma/pop restaurants here the kitchen is pretty much in the dining area.  Well at this particular restaurant there was a hamster living in the kitchen!  Normally, I am certain this would have freaked me out.  I am now concerned that I am not nearly as worried about this is as I should be.  This is just part of Korea, where it is okay (i guess) for animals to be living in the kitchens of restaurants.  Sanitary food prep stations are for the weak of heart!  :)

Speaking of weird things related to animals:  There is a cafe here called "Cat Cafe".  Where cat's just live in this cafe/coffee shop (at least 10-15 as near as I could tell) and jump on the tables, while you're having your coffee drinks and snacks.  It's really most bizarre!  I also thought it was kind of funny that they sprayed our hands with sanitizer when we walked in. 

Here are a couple of photos of cat cafe.

This cat declared himself King of our table.  He was kind enough to allow a small photo shoot.  Barely.

This cat with the stubby ears, was one grumpy cat.  He was not a happy addition to Cat Cafe.

This cat right here cracked me up.  He was not an exclusive "member" of cat cafe, but was hanging outside of the store just looking in.  I imagined him saying something like, "hey guys, whatta 'bout me?".  I actually felt a little bad for him.  :)

We also went to a baseball game here.  Talk about a really, really good time!  I can't remember the last time I had such a fun evening.  Certainly I have never enjoyed a baseball game as much as this one.  It is so different from an American baseball game.    The crowd here, shouts, sings & chants throughout the entire game.  They also go nuts and yell when their person is up to bat, which seemed a little different because I would assume it would be distracting for the batter.  There is also a "ring leader" type of guy who gets the crowd going and soon thereafter the cheerleaders (YES, they have cheerleaders at baseball games here) start rocking it out and the crowd goes nuts for it.  They also have about 5 or so of these little weird mascot creatures.  I don't know what they were.  2 of them looked like ducks and the other ones looked like a cross between a tella-tubby and marvin the martian.  I love Korea.  You can also bring your own food & drinks to the game!  So people were coming in with full-on picnics of pizza, kimbap, mcdonalds and even beer & soju.  You also can't buy hotdogs at these games, but if you were looking for squid man, they're selling it all over the place.  The vendors walk through the stands selling squid & beer throughout the game.  What is nice about the beer here is that it is about $2 dollars for a beer vs. a US game where it would easily cost $5 or $6 bucks.   Also, at the end of the game the crowd slowly, but surely starts to turn orange.  Is what happens is people start handing out orange grocery sacks and people blow air in them and stick them on their heads and tuck the handles behind their ears.  :)  Dan and I had no idea why they were doing this, but we decided to go with it and tied our bags to our heads as well.  Sadly, this will likely be my only Korean baseball game as the season is about ready to wrap up.  Happily, I will always have this great memory. 

Squid & Beer vendor! 

It was pretty neat seeing the scoreboard in another language.

Me and the family that posed in my photo.  They were great!  Proudly displaying the orange bags on our heads.

Mascots! 

There are some petroglyphs that are really close to where I live.  This past weekend we decided to go see them.  It took a couple of hours to get there because we had to change busses several times.  When we finally got off the final bus, like the guide book told us, at the entrance.  What the guide book failed to mention is that from here we would have to walk a couple of kilometers to the museum.  I was wearing inappropriate shoes with no socks and it was a million degrees with 100% humidity.  About part way through the walk I mumbled something like, "watch it be closed on Mondays".  Well, as fate would have it, the museum portion is closed on Mondays.  From this point, we looked on the map and it looked like we could walk another kilometer in either direction and make it to the petroglyph sites.  The kind security guard then tells us, "ohh they are under water right now".  So that was our BIG exciting petroglyph trip!  We then asked the security guard if he would call a taxi, because there was NO way I was hiking back down to the main road in that heat. 

Fortunately this trip was not a complete miss.  Even though it was hot and miserable, it was so gloriously beautiful.  There were sounds of frogs and cicadas.  I also saw the biggest black butterfly I have ever seen (actually I have never seen a black butterfly!).  It looked more like a bat.  There were trees that had leaves that were bigger than my head and vines all over the place and a beautiful stream running through it all.  So, I actually enjoyed the entire experience.  I now have the petroglyphs to look forward to. 

After the cabby picked us up we had him take us to a 500 year old ginko tree that was shown in our guide book.  It was set back amongst some rice fields and old houses.  I am forgetting the history behind the tree, but I think a king 500 years ago had it planted.  It certainly was one glorious tree. 

This was one of the views on the path to the petroglyphs.

The huge leaves and a dan's hand to show how big they are.

It was all incredibly lush and alive like this shot.

Truly not a bad photo in the bunch!

This is the 500 year old Ginko tree.

Rice fields surrounding the tree.

A nice path through the rice field.

An old farm house right by the tree.

At the end of this trip on our way back to Ulsan, I realized I did not have my camera with me.  I remember taking a picture in the taxi, so I knew it was in there.  Like a true shopper that I am, I was already picking out my even better, bigger and more expensive camera!  I made a phone call to one of my Korean friends and she called some taxis for me with no luck locating the camera.  Dan was convinced that he would get it back to us because the driver had Buddist beads and books in his cab, so based on the fundamentals of that religion he was pretty optimistic about the outcome.  We ended up taking a bus back to the town we were in to ask some taxi drivers and also check at the bus station, since that is where he dropped us off at.  While I was in this town, I texted my friend a few phone numbers from various taxis I saw around town and fortunately one of them was the one we took.  Long story short about 5 hours after the camera went missing, the taxi driver met me at a hotel in downtown Ulsan and brought my camera back to me.  It was so wonderful.  It's just nice when things like this work out and such a good reminder that there are truly decent and honest people out there!  It made my month! 

This is the picture that I thought I just had to take in the cab too!  It's a TERRIBLE photo.  So not worth the 5 hour freak out.  :)

tidbits

Today my Korean co-teacher had on a shirt that read, "Iiontellectually and Physically Superior".  (oh goodness)