Living the Country Life

I am loving being in Seoul; the city is always up to something, be it clubbing during the nights or shopping during the day, to the smells of cooking meat drifting from the grilling restaurants mingling with the warm smells that waft from the many street vendors that dot the streets. From the rushing cars and the "always moving" mind set that Seoul lives by, I have pretty much learned to adapt, with a few minor things that I probably will never get used to (totally different post).  But what about life outside of the globalized capital?

Before school started, CIEE took us on a 3 day, 2 night excursion to the Chungcheongbuk-do and Gyeongsangbuk-do provinces to see the mountain ranges, temples, and historical sites that dot the sides of the forested slopes. We left the Global dorms around 8:30 in the morning and started the three hour drive out of the city. I really did try to stay awake for the whole ride out so that I could watch the scenery change and get a feel of where we were gong to be staying, but sadly I passed out after the first hour. I'm sorry, but when I had my music playing and the bus was swaying  with the road, I could not keep my eyes open, and anyone who has been with me for long car rides knows that I am terrible at staying away for longer than an hour once the car starts to move...

Anyway, when I woke up after we stopped at a large rest stop, think restaurants and stores (much like in Southern France) we were only a couple minutes away form our first stop which was the Sobaeksan National Park. I loved the park, we walked up a path to a stream to have lunch in and among the rocks.

 I really felt at home there because everything reminded me of North Carolina, especially Sugar Loaf mountain! After lunch a few of us decided to walk up the path to a small Buddhist temple that was on the top of the mountain. Well, we walked for about thirty minutes to an hour and we still had not made it to the top, so I decided to turn back early so that I would make it back to the bus on time. Well even though I did make it back on time and the people who kept on going were late to the bus, I was really only like 5 to 10 minutes away from reaching the temple when I turned around on the path. At least I was able to find theses really cool rock stacks along the way!


But it turned out ok, because the next place that we went to was the Buseoksa Buddhist Temple that was one of the largest and main Buddhist temples in ancient and modern Korea. Buseoksa was pretty cool. Since it was a working temple, I could not take too many pictures inside of the buildings, but the sculptures and murals were amazing!

Every piece of roof and ceiling were decorated in colorful designs and had been updated, so everything looked new and bright. But in and amongst all the "newness" was natural wood that had been worn smooth by hundreds of years of touching by visitors and monks a like.

Even though the day was a little overcast, meaning we could somewhat make out the mountain ranges peaking out in the distance, the way that the late afternoon sun shown between the trees in the forested parts of the temple were just magical. I also learned about the rock stacks that I saw everywhere. They are part of a Korean "wishing" system. When a person sees a sight or feels a spark of divine inspiration, they are to add a rock to an existing pile or create a new one and make a wish. If the pile falls, then the wish will not be granted, but if the pile stays, then the wish will eventually happen. Let's just say that I made lot of wishes that day and even created my own pile!

For dinner, we ate at a small family run restaurant down the road from the temple's main gate. The chicken was pretty good, especially when we dipped the pieces into a salt and sesame mixture. But my favorite part of the meal was the mountain fresh veggies and the apples that we got to eat for dinner.  Just to let you all know, produce, esp fruit, is crazy expensive here in the city and I had been craving apples and fruit since I arrived because this is the start of apple season back home in NC; so that apple was a Godsend!

Later that night, we went back up to the temple to watch the night prayer service that the monks hold every night. A few of us were given the option of sitting in the back of the temple during the chanting and bowing part of the service. I ended up being part of that group that hung in the back of the main temple. I personally did not participate in the bowing and chanting, but I did sit and listened to the service. It was calming sitting in the dark with the smell of incense burning in the background and the sounds of the monks' chants setting the mood in the hall. At one point the golden Buddha in the center of the room seemed to be moving, breathing in and out at the same time as me. Of course it was an illusions spurred by the flickering candle light and my eyes staring down the statue, but at the time is was spiritual and deeply stirring.

Now I know a few of you reading this will wonder why, a Southern Episcopalian would find a Buddhist ceremony spiritual, but let me tell you what one of my aunts told me when we visited her in China a few years ago and went to the Lama Temple in Beijing. When I asked her why she loved to go to the temple when she was not Buddhist, she told me that even though it is not a "house of God" that he could still hear us and it was still a  place where we could get close to him. So that is what I did, while the monks were chanting and bowing, I sat there enjoying the atmosphere and thanked God for allowing me to have this opportunity to study in Korean and learn more about myself and the world through this experience.

After the ceremony, those of us that stayed in the temple were the last ones to leave the compound, so we had to walk down the mountain in the dark. Again I just kept getting flashes from when I had to walk down to our mountain house in the dark after watching the sunset from the outer laying cliffs on the western facing side of the mountain. wen eventually made it back to the bus after buying some snack from the corner store where I was told by the lady running it that I did not nee to use the super polite form of thanks that I have learned to use here in the capital. That night we stayed in traditional houses. This place was also a museum, so there were mannequins and such in rooms by ours (that I found in the morning thankfully!). I really liked the rooms and slept perfectly fine on the floor with only a thick comforter.

the inner courtyard of my house that I stayed in

The next day, we packed up our bags and put them on the bus while we toured the village that we stayed at and learned all about the next stage of Korean history that came after Buddhism, Confucianism. We toured the old Confusion school that was nearby and also learned more about the Confusion way of life and how it created the hierarchy that still exists in Korea today.

we even learned about calligraphy and decorated our own fans!

After the tours, we started to drive to the next village on our schedule. But on the way, we stopped at the Korean ginseng hall and got a brief rundown of the ginseng market and how Korean ginseng, especially red ginseng is very coveted around the world. For dinner that night, we had samgupsal, or grilled pork belly!

That night we stayed at a resort in a nearby town. Very modern, at least compared to  the village we stayed at the night before. Since we had the night off, we all just hung out in each others' rooms and bonded over games, drinks, and music (some of us more than others).

For our last day, we went to Mungyeongsaejae Park and explored the ancient defense walls and the trail up the side of the mountain.

I walked up to the second gate and then decided to head back down so that I could visit the filming set that SBS (a major broadcasting center) had built for the filming of their historical dramas. One the way back down, I ran into a group from my program that had found a group of kids that were under the care of a single nun, so they were helping the kids down the mountain. OMG, these kids were adorable and so cute. We ended up hanging with this group for about an hour, just talking and playing with the kids. I was a little hesitant, just because I was not sure about what the lines were for interacting to kids that are not part of your group. But in the end it was fine. One of the little boys even came over to me and called me "noona" (older sister) and asked for me to help him put his shoes back on.

Once the kids left, I did go visit the filming set and looked around. It was really cool, because there was a smaller replica of the palace here in Seoul that I had visited a couple weekends before. But what I liked was that on the outside, the building looked real, but when you looked into them, you could see the plywood and leftover chairs from filming. Even the stone bridge that they had was made from set materials; the bottom was stone, but the top part was made of rubber sculpting cement and was squishy, like the floor of a water park.

Throwing what I know

Love in AOT!

For our last activity, we went to a pottery museum and created our own pieces that are going to be fired int he traditional way and will take about a month and a half to bake. But it was fun to feel and mold clay between my fingers again. Even though we were not really making the bowls (we were using stamps and molds) I had a lot of fun.

Once everyone was finished, we got back on the bus and make the three hour drive back to Seoul. The staff had put on a movie for us to watch about a North Korean Assassin and the South Korean Detective working together (still need to find the name of it...), even though they were pretty sure that most people were going to pas out and sleep the whole way. Well they were right. I thin I was one of eight people out of the group of 36 who stayed awake for the whole drive.

Even though it was a few weeks ago, now that classes are picking up and I am starting to get used to the bustle of the city, I still like thinking back to all the peaceful and historical insights that I gain while in the countryside of Korea. Really wishing that I am able to get back out there sometime later this year.

Namsam, Parks, and Palaces

                Ok, so when I last left off I had visited the US Public Library that was run by the public relations branch of the US embassy here in Seoul.  The following day, on the 22^nd, CIEE took us outside of Seoul and brought us to tour the LG headquarters and factory. OMG, I want to get everything that LG has to offer. They took us back in to the vault, yes I said vault (like retina scanning and everything), to show us all the merchandise and technology that they sell not only in Asia, but also in North and South America.  For example, they showed us the new smart phones that are designed to compete against Samsung galaxy and also a completely waterproof smart and flip phone that is only sold in Japan. There were TVs that changed the screen to 3HD and 3D, some that were voice activates and one that was thinner than my pinkey finer (like seriously, it was about the size of a piece of paper!)

After they made all of us with the feeling of needing to keep up with the Jones, we were taken back into the testing labs where they are in the process of testing new designs and quality testing products that are about to be released onto the market. I wish I had some picture to show you from the tours, but photography was not allowed because in both of the rooms, there were products that had not been released or patented yet, so unfortunately my camera had to stay off.

For lunch we went out to a “Chinese” restaurant or more like it a Korean Chinese restaurant. I ordered the jjajangmyun for my main dish. 

Jjajangmyun is a noodle dish that has a black bean and pork sauce that is mixed in. This version was pretty good, but I was told by the other people at my table that there were better versions back in the city, mainly from the “Chinese” delivery places.  The lunch also came out with sweet and spicy pork that was super delicious and made with honey, not sugar.  All in all I stuffed my face and enjoyed the meal!

After lunch we drove back to Seoul and visited Namsam tower. Namsam is located on one of the tallest mountains in the Seoul area and has a panoramic view of the whole city.

It was really fun going up to the observation tower platform and seeing all of Seoul. I tried to find Yonsei, but I could not figure out which direction was what. Unfortunately it was pretty overcast that day, so I could not really see the mountains, but I really want to go back at night to see all of the city lights from up on the platform. But I think the coolest thing was at the base of the observation tower.

                Namsam is also a very popular dating spot for couples here in Seoul so there is something pretty cool that I have only saw in Paris when I was last there, but not on this scale at all. There is a myth that if you leave a lock with the name of your significant other and a short message with your name at the end, your love will last as long as the lock is still attached.

So these locks were EVERYWHERE! It was fun to go through the message and looks at the different handwriting styles, because I could not read the Korean, but some of my friends who could read Korean said the notes were really cute and adorable. What I found really fun was the in some cases, the people left cell phone cases or even laminated posters with couple pictures!

Then on the 23^rd, the CIEE Seoulmates (local students who are interning with CIEE) took all of us out to Hangan (The Han River) were we had a picnic of different types of chicken bites and pickled radishes.  After lunch we went out bike riding and just enjoyed being out in the sun and feeling the breeze for the first time that we had arrived. While I was riding my bike, I saw a small “waterpark” which was more like two wading pools and lots of space to lie out in the middle of the park. I had never seen that many people in a pool at once. But being the lifeguard that I am, I really only saw that the lifeguards there were not carrying any tubes or any tool kits that I am used to carrying when I am on stand. They were just standing by the pool sides in red shirts looking kind of awkward. Truthfully they would have blended into the crowd if not for their really tan skin and the red shirts that they were wearing. 

The water park that I was talking about

Another interesting thing that I saw at the parks was that people rented tents to have shade, but theses tents were everywhere and in mass quantities. There was also a man made granite stream that ran along the side of the park for people to swim and wade in that lead to a huge wading pool that people were playing in. Man, the parks back in the states need to step it up!

 

When we were heading back to the dorms that evening my friend Corey and my first roommate Shy and I were approached by a student here at Yonsei. He was a graduate student here at the medical college and came up to use when he heard that we were speaking English. His name is David and he was really glad to have someone to talk to in English. He had not talked to anyone in English in about two years so he really wanted to talk to us. Well we all really hit it off and ended up just chatting for about an hour. But the coolest thing was that he knew about Sewanee. Since he grew up in ATL, he was looking at a whole bunch of school, and even thought about applying to Sewanee at one point. He was the first person that I had met here that knew about Sewanee! 

On the 25^th CIEE gave us a free day, so I had signed up to do a Palace tour with Yonsei Global the international group here on campus that connects domestic students with the international and exchange students. We were put into groups of eight with two Yonsei students as our group leaders. Mine were a fellow ’93 liner who was studying English Language and Literature named Songki and a fellow five semester junior who is studying business administration named Jeseop. Anyway, the palace was really cool. According to our guide (who was 16 and had studied the palace for a year and a half and spoke really good English), the palace was designed after the Forbidden Palace in Beijing but is more colorful and detailed when compared to its Chinese counterpart. But it was beautiful and I am constantly in awe of all the colors that I have been seeing in the Korean architecture here around the city and in the historical places that I have visited so far. We saw the changing of the guards and also the back gardens and then a few of us from the group with our two leaders went out for Naengmyeon or cold spicy noodles for lunch.

roof of the main gate

 After we ate, we then went out for Patbingsu, pretty much heaven on earth. Patbingsu is a very popular dish here in Seoul, esp in the summer. It is soft serve ice cream with pieces of fruit (which is great because fruit is CRAZY expensive here in the city), sweet pieces of ttok or chewy rice cakes, and red bean all on a bed of shaved ice.

It was so good, but because we had a larger group the lady at the register said that we would need to order two large king sizes. Well one would have been fine, but we had two HUGE bowls of Patbingsu; and we tried, tried very hard to finish them both, but in the end we were defeated by the bowls.

When we were done with lunch, a few people in the group needed to pick up some things for the dorm, so I offered to take them to Daiso, which is the Korean Dollar Store. I freaking love Daiso, everything there is very cheap (like 1K to 5K won = 1-5 $) so I lead them all to the store. I felt great being able to lead them through Sinchon and to show them what I knew of the surrounding area. Really glad that I got in two weeks before the other internationals so I already knew the ropes and was more familiar with the flow of the neighborhood.  I had also helped a few of them with using chopsticks, how to eat the slippery noodles, and also how to use the cups of broth to cut the heat form the chili sauce on the food. I felt like I finally was in control here in Korea and more sure of myself here in this foreign country. 

That night, I met up with Corey and Shy and we all went to David’s orchestra concert that he invited us to when we parted ways on the 23^rd. The way that he talked about it, I was imagining a few students who would be like, for lack of any other comparison, a high school orchestra group. Well I was dead wrong, they were AMAZING. Now I am not a huge classical music buff, but they were really impressive. David played the clarinet, so he was towards the back, but I found my eyes following the violins up front more. Maybe is it because my sister plays violin, but I kept thinking of her during the performance and thinking that she would really love to be there watching the performance with me.   

After the performance, we waited for David to come out in the sea of people. It was really hard to find him with all the Koreans everywhere; we even had to go part ways up the stairs so that we could see over the heads. Well he found us first; I think the fact that we were the only foreigners there may have helped a little bit! I wanted to invite him out to dinner with us, but he was pretty busy with saying hi to his family that had come out to watch him and cleaning up the hall and then going out with his friends afterwards, so we just congratulated him and then promised to meet up later. We exchange Kakao IDs so we could keep in contact later.  For those of you that have no idea what Kakao Talk is, it is an app that has free messaging and calling that EVERYONE here in Korea has, the best was to describe it would be like the app Viber back in the states.

So until next post!