April 22, 2007
My Korean TV debut!
I mentioned in my last post that I made my debut on TV here after the performance at the cherry blossom festival. It was funny, we were leaving the performance and a TV reporter and cameraman stopped Manda and I to see if she could ask us a few questions, she said it would only take a couple of minutes so we said 'sure, why not'. So they turned on the camera and she started to ask me about the what I thought of the show, where I'm from, how long I'd been in Korea, etc.... It was good and over pretty quickly! Unfortunately I have no idea what channel they were from so I will probably never see it air, but Jeong hee took a few pics, so here's one:
April 16, 2007
Cherry Blossoms in Seoul
I've spent the last 2 Saturdays in Seoul walking around to see the spring cherry blossoms. They are so pretty, this beautiful pale pink and there are just tons of them right now.
Last Saturday Jeong hee, Manda and I went to near where the parliament buildings are in Seoul to see the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a lot of fun, I couldn't believe the amount of people there. We walked for quite a while looking at the blossoms and then watched a traditional Korean show. It was great, we even got to sit in the front row. They had mats all laid out right in front of the stage and no one was sitting on them, then one of the coordinators for the show motioned that we could sit there. I'm not even kidding when I say maybe 5 seconds later there was a stampede of people racing to sit on the mats after they saw us sit down! We ended up hardly having room to cross our legs but were lucky to be able to see so well. The show ended up being quite long so we left after about an hour and 15 minutes because I was hungry. I know, surprise, surprise! haha... On our way to leave we were stopped by a t.v crew and asked if we would do an interview! More on my television debut in the next post!
This Saturday Jeong hee and I met in Meongdong to go to Mount Nam (or Nam San in Korean). We took the cable car to the top of the mountain which was fun. I'm not great with heights so I was a little apprehensive, but it was okay. It was a pretty short ride and not a super tall mountain so that helped! Then we walked down the mountain to look at all the blossoms. They were amazing here, in some places they covered the road in an archway.
Here are a few pics, as usual there will be more on Ringo, enjoy!
The blossoms at the festival, so pretty...
A parade at the festival
The traditional show we watched
The blossoms on Nam San
Beautiful, so many blossoms!
Last Saturday Jeong hee, Manda and I went to near where the parliament buildings are in Seoul to see the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was a lot of fun, I couldn't believe the amount of people there. We walked for quite a while looking at the blossoms and then watched a traditional Korean show. It was great, we even got to sit in the front row. They had mats all laid out right in front of the stage and no one was sitting on them, then one of the coordinators for the show motioned that we could sit there. I'm not even kidding when I say maybe 5 seconds later there was a stampede of people racing to sit on the mats after they saw us sit down! We ended up hardly having room to cross our legs but were lucky to be able to see so well. The show ended up being quite long so we left after about an hour and 15 minutes because I was hungry. I know, surprise, surprise! haha... On our way to leave we were stopped by a t.v crew and asked if we would do an interview! More on my television debut in the next post!
This Saturday Jeong hee and I met in Meongdong to go to Mount Nam (or Nam San in Korean). We took the cable car to the top of the mountain which was fun. I'm not great with heights so I was a little apprehensive, but it was okay. It was a pretty short ride and not a super tall mountain so that helped! Then we walked down the mountain to look at all the blossoms. They were amazing here, in some places they covered the road in an archway.
Here are a few pics, as usual there will be more on Ringo, enjoy!
The blossoms at the festival, so pretty...
A parade at the festival
The traditional show we watched
The blossoms on Nam San
Beautiful, so many blossoms!
April 14, 2007
A dining experience!
A bunch of us went out for Korean Barbeque for dinner tonight. It's delicious, you order the style of pork BBQ you want to be grilled in the centre of your table and it comes with a lot of free side dishes; lettuce salad, fruit salad, kimchi, radish, and more. I was really looking forward to the lettuce salad because I've discovered salad can be hard to come by in Korea and this one is really good.
So tonight the salad arrived and I placed a bunch in my bowl, then I took my first chopstick full and what did I see??? A long dark hair hanging out from the leaves!! ewww... I wasn't sure what to do at first because that's the first time something like that has happened to me here. Yuna, my Korean friend, told the owner about it and he had a server take the salad and our bowls away. After the owner and server left our table we all had a short conversation about whether or not that would be seen as being as unhygienic as it is in Canada, the US, etc.... We concluded, that yes, it probably is because no one likes to eat hair!!
Just after we finished talking I looked up to see the owner with the hair in his hand closely examining it. We all thought this was pretty funny... but it got worse! Moments later he walked over to our table with the hair. He went up to Yuna and told her in Korean that it wasn't a hair from anyone that worked in the restaurant. I don't understand a lot of Korean but I could tell that he was showing her the root and saying it wasn't Korean!! We couldn't believe it because it definitely didn't come from any of us that were near the salad, we all had shorter and lighter coloured hair!! Yuna was quite disgusted and just told him to go away!
We had a good laugh about this because it was such a different reaction than we would have gotten in a restaurant at home. There they would be so apologetic and probably give you a discount on the meal, and here they bring the hair back to your table to prove it didn't come from the restaurant (and no discount)!! Afterward I was thinking I should've had someone take a picture of it, but it's probably best we didn't, I'm not sure anyone else would want to see it! It's always an interesting experience when we go out!
So tonight the salad arrived and I placed a bunch in my bowl, then I took my first chopstick full and what did I see??? A long dark hair hanging out from the leaves!! ewww... I wasn't sure what to do at first because that's the first time something like that has happened to me here. Yuna, my Korean friend, told the owner about it and he had a server take the salad and our bowls away. After the owner and server left our table we all had a short conversation about whether or not that would be seen as being as unhygienic as it is in Canada, the US, etc.... We concluded, that yes, it probably is because no one likes to eat hair!!
Just after we finished talking I looked up to see the owner with the hair in his hand closely examining it. We all thought this was pretty funny... but it got worse! Moments later he walked over to our table with the hair. He went up to Yuna and told her in Korean that it wasn't a hair from anyone that worked in the restaurant. I don't understand a lot of Korean but I could tell that he was showing her the root and saying it wasn't Korean!! We couldn't believe it because it definitely didn't come from any of us that were near the salad, we all had shorter and lighter coloured hair!! Yuna was quite disgusted and just told him to go away!
We had a good laugh about this because it was such a different reaction than we would have gotten in a restaurant at home. There they would be so apologetic and probably give you a discount on the meal, and here they bring the hair back to your table to prove it didn't come from the restaurant (and no discount)!! Afterward I was thinking I should've had someone take a picture of it, but it's probably best we didn't, I'm not sure anyone else would want to see it! It's always an interesting experience when we go out!
April 8, 2007
A visit to Kwangjang Market
Happy Easter!
Last weekend I went to Kwangjang Market in Seoul with Jeong hee and Manda. It's a smaller market, all covered which was great since it had been raining on the day we went. It sold mostly food, fabric and traditional Korean clothing and wedding gifts. Most of the food looked really good and some was interesting. I'm always trying to stay open minded about new foods, but it's more difficult with some things... However, we did try a mung bean pancake that was delicious. Jeong hee had done some research on the net and found out a place that was famous for making them was in the market, so we ate there. Afterward we went for a walk along the river and then stopped in Insadong to have dessert. I have to find out what they're called in Korean, it's deep fried dough about the size of a small pancake filled with a sugar and honey mixture, not that healthy but one of my favourite things here. Anytime I see them I have to have one!
Here are some pics, it can get complicated to add too many here, so I'll put the rest on Ringo. Enjoy!
Last weekend I went to Kwangjang Market in Seoul with Jeong hee and Manda. It's a smaller market, all covered which was great since it had been raining on the day we went. It sold mostly food, fabric and traditional Korean clothing and wedding gifts. Most of the food looked really good and some was interesting. I'm always trying to stay open minded about new foods, but it's more difficult with some things... However, we did try a mung bean pancake that was delicious. Jeong hee had done some research on the net and found out a place that was famous for making them was in the market, so we ate there. Afterward we went for a walk along the river and then stopped in Insadong to have dessert. I have to find out what they're called in Korean, it's deep fried dough about the size of a small pancake filled with a sugar and honey mixture, not that healthy but one of my favourite things here. Anytime I see them I have to have one!
Here are some pics, it can get complicated to add too many here, so I'll put the rest on Ringo. Enjoy!
Jeong hee, Manda and me before we chowed down!
pig snouts and hooves, one of the things i can't see myself trying...
traditional wedding gifts
Hanboks - traditional clothing - for kids and adults
April 5, 2007
Another field trip
Last week my school went on another field trip, I mentioned in my last post we went to the Samsung Transportation Museum. It was fun, they had a lot of really cool cars, I'd like to go back when I have time look around more!! The kids loved it though, they got to sit in some of the cars, honk the horns, step on the brakes, etc.... totally a great place for them. More on that visit to the market last weekend soon, I'm too tired to type much more tonight. Here are some pics from the field trip:
With my class
Alysa with her class - Angel class (you gotta love the class names)
Manda with her class - Joyful
Had to get a picture of this - one of my favourite 80's movies
Manda with David
With my class
Alysa with her class - Angel class (you gotta love the class names)
Manda with her class - Joyful
Had to get a picture of this - one of my favourite 80's movies
Manda with David
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