One Year

     Today is our one year anniversary!
     That is all.

Where to begin?

     It's been a long month. Dad has come and gone from Korea, Jungwon and I went to Namsan, and of course there was Halloween at the school. I'll keep the text short, and let the pictures do the talking.

Namsan	Halloween	Dad

Really Country

     I have finally, officially met Jungwon's mom, twice. In case I haven't mentioned it the first meeting was accidental at a coffee shop just after we started dating.
     For the first official meeting we decided to have lunch in Seolae Maeul, which is a small neighborhood in Seoul that was apparently, at one time, home to a clump of French people. We went to one of my favorite restaurants and had some pasta followed by a cup of coffee. Jungwon's mom seemed to accept me, but she admonished me repeatedly for my lack of Korean.
     For the second meeting, Jungwon invited me to accompany them to a temple/African art center outside of Seoul. We had a good time and after walking around for several hours we had some Manduguk (dumpling soup) at a famous restaurant. Unfortunately I didn't memorize the name of the temple, or the restaurant. If I remember correctly you head south, take a left, and it's on the left. However, I did take a few pictures around the temple, not too many because I didn't want to offend anyone. Then at the African art center we got a lot more pictures of everyone.

Really Country

QingDao

     For anyone that didn't know, I had to take a trip out of Korea. My work visa was expiring. Therefore I needed to leave, and reenter on a tourist visa.
     To set up the trip, I was just going to check on what I would need to go to China. I started off by going to Hana Tour, where the lady quickly told me that I'm not allowed to leave the country because my visa was expiring. I tried to explain to her that was why I needed to leave, but in the end it was no use.
     Next I went to Hyundai Dream Tour. Hyundai is a more upscale travel agency and the people were able to take care of everything for my trip out of Korea.
     First I had to get a tourist visa for China. This is much different than getting a tourist visa for Korea or Japan. For China you have to submit your passport, application form, and application fee (currently just over one hundred thousand won) to the Chinese Embassy. This doesn't have to be done in person. After three to four days your passport is returned to you, more than likely with your visa. The standard tourist visa is worth 2 visits of thirty days during the next six months.
     Next the travel agent figured that QingDao would be the cheapest flight. I got it booked (three hundred fifty thousand won including airport tax and agent's commission), and then I waited for my passport.
     The day before my flight my passport arrived back at the agency. I took a trip to pick it up, and stopped by the nearest Kook Min bank to exchange some KRW for RBY. Everything was set.
     Things went uneventfully at the airport. I showed up early and killed some time with coffee and bagels. Eventually it was time to board the flight.
     I was flying East China Air. ECA's flight code is MU. I think Mu can mean "nothing" or "radish" in Chinese. Neither would be a good sign. To say I gulped when I saw the little gold "Made In China" sticker on the door to the plane is an understatement. I got my window seat over the wing, and quickly noticed footprints on the wing of the plane. Barefoot prints.... What sort of aircraft mechanic walks about barefoot?
     I strapped myself in and began to divert my attention to anything besides the aircraft. Anytime someone spoke on the intercoms the TV's shorted out. The Korean announcement actually gave me more information than the English announcements. Worse yet, everyone had eyes on me as I was the only westerner on the plane.
     Take off went well, and the flight was super quick. However, landing almost made me wet myself. QingDao was being hit by a rather large storm. The plane shook and lurched. It dropped and it careened. The other passengers were giving out collective gasps and wondering why there was no sunlight outside of the windows. I was busy trying to decode the Chinese characters on the emergency evacuation cards.
     This plane had the quickest disembarkation that I've ever seen. People literally ran from the plane. Of course, everyone ended que'd to fill out the immigration cards. I had a woman turn to me and politely ask me for a pen before she realized I wasn't Korean. I just smiled and handed her one. She was just a bit surprised.
     Getting into China was very simple. Getting out of the airport was sort of fun. A lady approached me and asked me in thick English, "Taxi?" I thought she was a taxi driver, I said, "sure, bathroom first". When I stepped out, she was waiting eagerly for me. She asked me where I wanted to go, and I tried to explain good hotel. Not best hotel. Good hotel. She lead me about looking for someone willing to interpret. She eventually found someone that understood, he explained it to her, and she lead me out to a taxi. She wasn't a driver. By what I can tell, her job is to help foreigners upon their arrival at the airport. She didn't ask for money, and simply told the taxi driver what I needed.
     The driver got us going (the taxi was strangely meterless) and immediately took it upon himself to teach me Chinese. He was surprised at how quickly I was picking up the words, so I explained to him that they were similar to the Korean that I knew. I filled the pauses by teaching him English and Korean. He drove for about forty-five minutes during which he called ahead to a potential hotel. He took the scenic route and pointed out different places I could walk to. Then he took me into the hotel and explained to the desk workers that I wanted a low-cost room. I got his name and number and asked him if he'd be working the next morning. He said he would, and would drive me back to the airport. I paid for the room and the ride, and was suddenly alone.
     I spent about fifteen minutes in the room before I set out to go see the sights. I was about two blocks from the waterfront. It was literally a walk through the park. The coastline was jagged with just a few sandy areas for swimming. I walked until I got tired in one direction before I got tired and walked back to the hotel. Just before I went in, I remembered, I wanted to get some Chinese coins. I hadn't seen anything I'd consider a store during my whole walk so I went in the opposite direction. This lead me to a road that had some huge houses and trees. Still, no stores. I took a right turn towards what was supposed to be a historical marker, but just found the beach again. I decided to call it an evening as it was beginning to sprinkle and walked back to the hotel.
     At the hotel I took a quick shower and a long bath (been a year since I've had a bath). Then I promptly crawled into one of the beds and fell asleep. Two hours later I awoke to the sound of about five car alarms. I could hear the rain and wind outside the window. One by one the cars became quiet and I laid there listening to the storm. The room lit up, the air was filled with thunder, the cars started beeping again. This went on from about ten PM until four AM. Lightning, thunder, beep-beep-beep. Lightning, thunder, beep-beep-beep-drip-drip-drip-drip. The floor to ceiling window in the room had begun to leak. I was exhausted, I thought I'd tell the hotel about it in the morning.
     I got up early and had the hotel call Xie (my driver). I tried to tell two people about the drip, all they said was "sorry" and hurried away so I gave up. Xie must have been sleeping down the block because he was at the front door in five minutes. He drove me back through Qingdao on a totally different route. The city was flooded. Parts of the mountains had washed over the roads. Water was rushing out of man hole covers. A little creek we had passed the day before was now large enough to cover the width of three roads...luckily it had huge flood banks to keep it from covering the actual roads.
     The weather delayed my flight for an hour which gave me time to look around the duty free shop (singular) and eat breakfast at the restaurant (also singular). The flight home wasn't so interesting, and the Korean customs and immigrations went through without a hitch.
     I finally got here about two hours ago, still exhausted. I may write later about the differences between Korea/China/USA, but it would probably be pretty boring to read.
     Pictures below, enjoy. I need to let everyone know I'm alive.

QingDao

Han River

     Back in July, Jungwon and I went to the Han River. The Han River (Hangang {한강}) is the main river that runs through the center of Seoul. We took the number 2 (green) subway line to Sincheon Station {신천역} and walked north for a block to get to the river. The area that we walked around was a public park of sorts. There was a swimming pool, a walkway that was fairly crowded with people, and some ferries.
     The swimming pool made me realize again that there are many differences between Korean and American culture. The women were pretty well covered. If they weren't swimming, the women had loose dresses on to cover themselves. I was thinking that many girls walking around the party areas of Seoul wear less than these women were swimming in. In contrast, the men were wearing little speedo swimsuits. They had no qualms, in the water or out, of showing off their....packages. These are probably the same men that walk around in business suits, in the middle of summer, no matter what type of business they are attending.
     The walkway was full of pedestrians, cyclists, small dogs, picnics, and vendors. At times it was difficult to walk around the sporadic picnics, but we managed not to fall into the river. Another cultural phenomenon that I noticed was spitting into the river. At first I thought it was just the older men, but after it was mentioned we noticed young people including women spitting nice wads into the waves. Maybe it was just a desire to mix their water with the water of the world.
     Finally, we decided to ride one of the river ferries. Just due to timing we ended up purchasing the more expensive tickets for a ferry that featured a Live Cafe. There weren't any seats outside on this particular ferry so my camera was having a fit trying to focus on the outside world, the dirty window, and the reflections on the windows. The good news was that there were no mosquitoes in the ferry.
     All of the pictures were taken before we hopped on the ferry. It was getting fairly late in the evenings and I got a few decent shots of the sun struggling through the clouds to shine on the water. The movies were taken on the ferry. The first one is on the way down the river, looking at the south bank. The second movie is heading back up the river, looking at the north bank. The final movie is a shot of the Namsan tower. The background noise for the movies isn't very good, just the murmur of a few dozen people around us, and the music from the cafe.
     On a side note: during the whole trip to the river I kept thinking of this movie.

hangangpics

Heading West, Looking South.

Heading East, Looking North

Namsan Tower

Octopus

     One day while we were walking through Yeongtong, Jungwon noticed one of the new restaurants. She got really excited. After about a month we finally made it to the restaurant.
     The restaurant is named Kimmyeongja {김명자} and they specialize in octopus. After work tonight Jungwon and I stopped by to order a couple of freshly chopped squirmy things and soju.
     The restaurant itself was very nice. It of course had floor seating, but the cushions were nice and thick. The tables looked nice and the side dishes were very good.
     The side dishes included diced turnip in a red pepper sauce, white kim chi served in a bowl of ice, and gaeronjjigae (which is a type of boiling scrambled egg). Jungwon ordered us the sanakji {사낙지} which didn't have a price listed on the menu, and a bottle of soju. In the end the whole meal came out to be less than 25,000 won.
     Sanakji is nothing more than freshly chopped octopus legs. The guts and the section that I guess you can call the shoulders were served in a side dish. The octopus is so fresh that the legs continue to writhe about on the plate, and they are actually quiet tricky to eat as the suction cups grab on to everything, including your mouth.
     The still pictures of the meal aren't so bad. I made many, many movies, and they may not be for the faint of stomach. Sorry for playing with my food, but it was truly an experience I will not forget.

Octopuses

Fresh Octopus

First (and second) Bite

Stomach and Tired Tentacles

Closeups

Shabu-shabu

     Unfortunately I'm going to skip posting about the Turkish restaurant that we ate at on Sunday. We didn't take many pictures, and the few we did take were too dark to make the food look yummy. Instead of Kebab, I present, Shabu-Shabu!
     Shabu-shabu is one of the meals that is so healthy, yet so yummy, you can't stop eating. Jungwon suggested that we stop by a local restaurant for lunch yesterday. it had been a few weeks since we'd last been so I quickly agreed, and gorging was commenced.
     Shabu-shabu {샤브샤브} (the current-correct romanization from the Korean would be syabeu-syabeu) was a dish that came to Korea from Japan. The basic idea is for the restaurant to give it's patrons a pot of boiling broth, and enough food to feed them twice. Shabu-shabu usually has thinly sliced beef (it browns in just a few seconds in the boiling broth), some mushrooms, and tonnes of veggies. After the pot of goodies is eaten, the servers will bring some noodles, and freshen the broth a little. After the noodles they'll ladle out most of broth and throw in some seaweed mixed rice.
     The shabu-shabu that we ordered was beef and dumplings. Usually we have to shovel in the goodies ourselves once the pot begins to boil, but for this particular meal the pot came preloaded. Luckily this particular meal excluded the final rice course. After the cabbage salad, main course, and noodles, I don't think either of use could have touched the rice.
     Enough babbling. Here are some pictures from Monday's lunch.

shabushabu

Busy, busy, busy

     As of late, I've been busy looking for another job. I didn't have to start this early but I did, and I hope that I've found a good one. I'm not going to hold my breath. Both of my previous jobs in Korea sounded great until after the VISA.
     Now, I know that people come here to see pictures and movies of Korea and hopefully me, and not to hear me whine or rant about work. Instead I'll talk about food. I have lots of pictures from various meals that I've eaten in the past week. I even have pictures of a potential meal. A Korean treat that I promised Jungwon that I'd try.
     I will post the meals in the order eaten. Tonight's post is from two very large chains in the Seoul/Gyeonggido areas. The restaurant is Pho Bay. It's a Vietnamese restaurant, and the food is filling, delicious, and healthy. David was gracious enough to pay for the meal as a gift for Jungwon's coming birthday (July 25). The bar that we went to afterwards is named Wa Bar. The chain is very popular among the foreigners. This was only the second time that I had been to one.
     The usual main course that we get at Pho Bay is a plate of assorted veggies and a bit of meat, a plate of hard rice paper discs, and a bowl of hot water. You take a disc of rice paper, soak it in the hot water, spread it onto your wooden plate, laden it with veggies, roll it up, dip it in peanut butter and enjoy. It's a lot of work for a few bites, but it's really worth it.

Pho Bay

     After Pho Bay, Meg wanted to go out for drinks. David suggested the Wa Bar (western style bar specializing in imported beer). David had a Jack and Coke (not pictured) I had the Lowenbrau, Jungwon tried the Hooch Ice; Lemon, and Meg had the ultra-captain tall glass of Wa-bar draft something. The most interesting part of the trip to the Wa Bar was that the waitress had no idea what a Jack and Coke was, so David had to mix it himself.

Wa Bar

Men Suck

     Teaching English as a second language has its fun moments. Often the children will say or make wonderful comments that deserve prosperity. I had two such noteworthy moments yesterday.
     My first class yesterday was four first graders. The reason why there are only four children in the class is because their English is so far above and beyond the abilities of the other first graders the other students can't keep up. We were looking at a conversation page in the book. At the bottom of the page are three mice. One is jumping rope. One is doing a handstand. The last rodent is dancing a jig. Even though their command of English is really advanced, I still like to keep reviewing the basics. We had already used the word "mice" to describe the group, but I wanted to make sure they remembered the singular form, since it's an irregular noun. Knowingly using bad grammar I asked, "what do you call one mice?"
     The immediate response from all four students was, "jump rope!" After about five minutes of me giggling and trying different ways to approach the question without using the word mouse I eventually broke down and drew a chart on the board containing the singular and plural forms of different animals. The children then immediately knew what I was looking for and collectively exclaimed, "mouse!" They also realized why I was giggling and we all went on a laughing jag for another ten minutes repeating, "what do you call one mice...jump rope!".
     The second wonderful thing happened while I was checking diaries. A student nicknamed Jenny is also in the advanced class for her grade (third grade). Jenny, wrote about a new classmate, {민석}. The classmate's name written in the new romanization is Minseok. However, in the old romanization, which is still heavily used in names, her new friend is Min-Suk and was spelled as Min-Suck by Jenny. As I leaned back in my chair doing the first reading of the entry the voice in my head said, "men suck", and I, of course, scared my co-workers with a sudden burst of laughter. I started to correct the entry, but stopped after I added the 's' to 'speak' in order to take a quick photo.

Seoul Grand Park

     Jungwon had been wanting to go to the zoo for a while so last Sunday we kicked things off by watching Shrek the Third at CoEx, and then heading down to Seoul Grand Park.
     First the specifics. Seoul Grand Park is on the number 4 line (light blue) 3 stops below Sadang {사당역}. It is subway station number 437 and is listed as Seoul Grand Park {대공원}. When you get off the subway simply follow the signs and/or crowds of people. You'll eventually come to a ticket booth to buy a tram ticket (or as an alternative you can veer right to get a ticket for a ski lift type thing, but I don't know where that will deposit you). The tram follows a circuit allowing you to easily get to any of the park's attractions. There is a rose garden, an amusement park, a museum, and of course, the zoo. The tram costs 800 won and has Korean and English voice overs.
     Jungwon made it a point to mention that she wanted to see the dolphin show so when we bought our zoo entry tickets we made sure to get our reserved seats. The zoo admittance and dolphin show came out to be 9,000 won total for two people. Total cost for tickets including the trams back and forth came out to be 12,200 won. Frozen bottles of water cost 1,000 won in the park, and during the summer they are a necessity. We went through three bottles of water, two that we brought with us, and one that we bought after the dolphin show, and this was only June!
     The zoo had a good collection of animals. Of course I didn't like the small sizes, ugliness, and boringness of many of the animals cages. For the most part the animals did seem to be in good health, although the monkeys and apes seemed very stressed by the jeering visitors and the lack of intellectual stimulation.
     One thing that I liked about the zoo was the fact that it had a lot of educational side shows. Little rooms you could enter that had information (in Korean) about how the wolves at this zoo were genetically altered to have domestic dog stomaches, or a room that talked about animal dung (many Koreans, especially children, seem to be obsessive about poop).


The Goodies


     First we have pictures uploaded to my web folder. There are giraffes, a cute baby hippo, lions cuddling, a rhino, a lemur, and (of course) the room of poop. Next are two videos of the dolphin show. The show started with a couple of performing seals, and then the dolphins showing off. The first video is actually the end of the show. You can see my camera going in and out of focus. The Auto Focus was giving me fits all day. The second video is cute, but unfortunately the end just went totally out of focus. None of the pictures of the show turned out.

Seoul Grand Park

Dolphin Show 1

Dolphin Show 2

Ice Water

     When I first got to Korea, summer was steadily approaching. As the days got warmer and warmer I kept seeing signs for cups of crushed ice and fruit, for about 5,000 won. I would think, "5,000 won for a cup of ice and fruit! Who in there right mind would pay that? That's more than $5.00 for ice!" After a summer of walking about the cities, and the new summer pouncing on us like an overweight cat, the answer without hesitation is me.
     The cup, or normally bowl, of ice is properly known as bingsu, {빙수}. The name is derived from two Chinese characters. Bing can mean ice, and one of the meanings for su is water. Proper bingsu, patbingsu {팥빙수}, is made with crushed ice, various sliced and diced fruits, frozen yogurt, bits of rice cake, and sweet red beans. As strange as the concoction sounds it is really quiet delicious. More importantly it is very refreshing after a long trek across town.
     Bingsu can be found everywhere during the summer. Coffee shops, fast food restaurants, and anywhere else that wants a boost in summer business will advertise their bingsu.
     Jungwon and I recently went to an interesting place called Pasticcerria in Yeongtongdong that sells "Italian" style bread. We didn't try the bread, but we got a very lovely bowl of patbingsu.

bingsu

Roses

     Roses are the flowers that you give to a pretty lady to let her know that you care. Roses like to be pruned, they like a little fertilizer, they like a little love. When I see a flower shop I like to stop and look at the different colored roses in the window. When I see a rose bush I think about how much care has been given to it based on how tall it is, or how much it is blooming.
     All of that is changing for me. Korea, at least the small area where I live, is sick with roses. There is a certain variety of climbing rose here that vomits up from the ground and sprays the scenery with its hot pink petals. The fragrance of these flowers isn't very strong, but you do eventually get tired of seeing these masses of hot pink flowers everywhere.
     The worst part is, they are largely untended and unnoticed. The bushes are so unruly that they must go years between the prunings. Koreans walk along the walkways that these roses are attempting to choke, and they are oblivious to the thorny tendrils spilling into the path. They pay no attention to the beautiful flowers, of the late spring, or the rain of petals of the early summer.
     "They're common."
     "They are everywhere."
     "They are nothing special."
     If roses are nothing special, what am I supposed to buy my girlfriend? If roses grow almost wild, what happens to the pride, sweat, and blood that my mom has poured into her rose garden year after year? If roses are common can I start a flower shop and make my fortune selling dandelions?

roses

Descending Life Line (four)

     Almost every restaurant in Korea will give you complimentary side dishes. If you go out for pasta, you'll usually get some sweet pickled cucumbers and some sliced peppers. The more Korean the meal, the more side dishes you'll get.
     I go out for kimchi jjigae {김치찌개} and along with my large bowl of still boiling stew and side bowl of rice they leave me all types of pickled and preserved....stuff. Everything from squid to cucumber, from mushrooms to soy flavored jello. Masitda! {맛있다}!

Descending Life Line (three)

     Public transportation is very, cheap, easy, and convenient in Seoul. Sometimes there are subway stops just half a block from each other, and buses run everywhere. You can buy rechargeable cards that will scan on both the buses and the subways through your purse or wallet. A trip from Suwon to Seoul by bus costs a mere 1,700 won (about $2 in US money).
     Unfortunately this means that the public transportation is also extremely popular. I have have heard stories of people missing subway stops, because the train was too crowded to exit. If I leave Seoul coming back down to Suwon at the wrong time of the night I sometimes have to stand in the aisle of the bus, and a few times I've actually stood on the stairs at the door of the bus, because I couldn't get any further in.
     I know Ken Kesey often said, "you're either on the bus, or off the bus." Sometimes to be on the bus you just need to be able to get a good finger hold, swipe your card, and pray for a quick ride.

Working Title

     Jungwon and I were stepping into an elevator in Gangnam the other day. The elevator was already occupied by a mommie and her little one gurgling in a stroller. The mommie took a quick look at me, then started talking excitedly to the baby. Jungwon giggled, but most of the words went over my head. I listened intently but she was speaking too rapidly and I couldn't pick out many words.
     We exited the elevator and Jungwon translated for me, "she was telling the baby, 'quick, practice your English, hurry.' And the baby said, 'aaaaaeeeei'. And the mommie praised the baby, 'good job'."
     I could probably fill a book with little stories of being interrupted by people looking for a quick English conversation for themselves or their children. Most of the time it is cute, and often it is funny (like the mommie in the elevator). Rarely is it annoying. Regardless it's the mommie in the elevator that made me think of "Descending Life Line (two)".

Descending Life Line (two)

     Here is the latest installment of Descending Life Line. If you can't read the text in the image the mommie is telling the baby, "Say hello! Say hello!"
     At the bottom I wrote, "Often when Parents see you on the street they will try to get their children to practice English..."

Descending Life Line (one)

     Here is a little comic that I doodled while I was sitting in a coffee shop in Seoul. I was thinking about the strangeness of teaching children in a language that they don't completely understand. The particular class that I was envisioning has the disadvantages of almost no English, attention span, or chances to release excess energy before class. Luckily there has been no actual fires, yet.







     The boy in the comic is saying, "Wayne teacher! Wayne teacher, homework check! Wayne teacher! Teacher! Wayne teacher, homework! Teacher~~~!"
     The caption at the bottom reads, "...And then there are whole classes that I fill with a sort of monologue: "Nick, don't stab Steve. Why is John on fire again? Alex, please get off the table. Andy please get in your chair. One moment Paul. Steve wake up. Paul help John, please. Dan put your toys away. Nick, don't eat Steve. John stop burning..."

Yeongtong-dong and Cheongmyeong-san

     Most of the pictures in the next web album are from the hike up the mountain that I took this morning. Cheongmyeong-san {청명산} is a nice, very little mountain. It takes about an hour to climb up, and 45 minutes to come back down.
     About half way up from Yeongtong-dong {영통동} (the neighborhood I live in) you'll come to a leveled off area called Noble County. I've heard that it's a retirement home (silver town) but some of my students have told me about the nice restaurants and swimming there. The whole place is owned by the Samsung Corporation so it could be a combination retirement home/recreation center for Samsung's employees. I took a slight detour on the way down the mountain today to look around the grounds.
     On the edge of Noble County is a little farm. The farm has two tiers for growing their crops. With a county as small, densely populated, and mountainous as Korea you grow what you can, where you can. The farm used to have a giant bird cage filled with parakeets, pheasants, and other noisy little things, but the cage has been mostly dismantled.
     On up the mountain you can find a few little exercise spots. Koreans are crazy for fitness and you can find exercise equipment in almost every park. At the very top of the mountain is a little stone marker and a metal sign letting you know which city is on which side of the mountain.
     I took a picture of my neighborhood on my way home. You can see the paper on the street. Unfortunately littering is a very popular form of advertising in Korea. The towers in the background were not visible from this area when I first moved here in August. Korail is putting in a subway station that will connect to Ori Station {오리역} and I think Suwon Station {수원역}, and the towers are being built to cater to the boom in population and businesses that the new station will bring.
     Finally there are some pictures of the crab tanks next door to my apartment. These tanks are very common in Korea and they are filled with all manner of sea life. I'll probably do a photo essay on these tanks some time soon.

Yeongtong-dong and Cheongmyeong-san

Icheon Redux

     I mentioned in my email about Icheon that I made some movies, but was working on converting/editing them. I couldn't find any decent looking freeware to do the converting/editing. Instead I found a way to post them on line in the full horrible glory, Google Video.
     They are horrible do to my own lacking. My Nikon digital camera has very few movie making options. I have very little experience running a camera (and usually it's a high quality camera on a tripod). A lot of video was shot with me holding the camera over the crowd's heads, and my final excuse is that it was horribly bright outside so I could not really see the LCD.
     Anyways, the background for the movies is, we (Jungwon and I) went to Icheon {이천} on May fifth, two thousand and seven. Icheon has a ceramics festival once every two years, and this happened to be one of the years. To make it even more exciting May fifth is Children's Day in Korea. We stumbled upon a Taekwondo {태권도} performance, and later we came across a group playing traditional Korean drums.

Movie One: Korean Drummers (very loud!):

Movie Two: Taekwondo Demonstration; Board Breaking:

Movie Three: Taekwondo Demonstration; Modern Form:

Bongeunsa

     Bongeunsa {봉은사 } is a Buddhist temple in Seoul. It is just a short walk from CoEx (Samseong Station {삼성역}). The temple was especially busy and decorated when we were there, because this coming Thursday (May twenty-fourth) is the celebration of Buddha's Birthday (Hooray for National Holidays!).
     It was very odd walking around the rustic grounds in Seoul. Everything surrounding the temple is cement, steel, and glass. The trees and gravel walkways were refreshing. Without Jungwon there I would have stumbled into a restricted area that was meant only for the resident monks (the sign was written in Korean). As usually Jungwon took most of the pictures (she's the better photographer). The colorful statues are made of painted paper. I was wondering the whole time "how well will they hold up in the rain?". Probably pretty well since the temples have had paper lanterns strung in the nearby streets for a month. Still, we were lucky that it was a bright and clear day.
     The grounds were crowded and we only went into one building. It had a sort of exhibition of the paper statues and a small display of how they are made. When we were leaving the building the people sitting at the table had me sign and write what I thought into a guest book. They did not let Jungwon sign, it was for foreigners only.
     Another building had some beautifully painted scenes on the side. They depicted a young monk going through all sorts of trials. He did all sorts of things including wrestling a tiger, but the worst had to be the written test. I later discovered that Bongeunsa was the main temple for giving the country's exam for admittance into the monk hood. And as a slight aside, I learned that Bongeunsa is a zen Buddhist temple.
     Finally, you will notice a few swastikas painted on the buildings. This doesn't mean that it is a hideout for nazis. Rather the symbol itself is older than nazism, and has been used to denote temples for many centuries.

Bongeunsa