Blogger's note: I'm going with...... better late than never, right? -__- I apologize for the lateness of this post. It was written in Notepad, minus picture tags back in November, then I attempted to publish it in December, and now it's FINALLY done. In practically February. I'm dying of embarrassment, really. X__x; Thanks for everyone's patience.
Actual Post:
Firstly, I would like to dedicate this post to [girl] Sam, who claims she has no idea what is going on in my life right now. XD Nothing terribly interesting, I should think. Well, you be the judge......
Special thanks to my sister, who took the time to resize all of these for me. My computer does not have Photoshop anymore (hint, hint, anyone), so up until now I've had to do all my resizing online, which takes FOREVER, let me tell you. So thank you, dongseng! You're awesome.
Anyways, here are some pictures from a few (>>;;) months ago. I haven't been taking too many pictures of late; I should really work on that.
Gwangju:
Gwangju, btw, is the "main" city in my province, Jeollanam-do. It's about an hour away by bus--50 minutes if you drive like a maniac, which most Korean bus drivers do.
Five hundred years ago, my co-worker took me to see the Gwangju Biennale, which is a contemporary arts festival. There were some pretty interesting exhibits, such as this one.
This one photographer (Korean man, I think? Maybe Japanese? My memory is failing me) took a series of photographs of Asian men (Korean? Japanese???) in antique American Civil War gear. As an American, it was cool for me to see, who has seen lots of Civil War photography (I studied Matthew Brady back in the day), but I think for Koreans this might have flown over their heads a little bit.
A giant........ sheet. I don't really know, it looked cool.
I wish that I had taken more pictures of the exhibits, some of them were really cool. But of course, since this was all contemporary art, some of them were really.......... kind of annoying. Not my thing. >>;
Wandering around Gwangju, I saw THIS! And nearly died. LAURA, THIS IS FOR YOU. I don't know which Korean went to America and decided to rip off this college name, but this is EVERYWHERE. Literally half of Korean youths are out there wearing jumpers that claim they go to Franklin & Marshall. They don't even realize it's a college...... I think a lot of people think it's a brand name, "Franklin Marshall" (since a lot of Koreans don't seem to know what the "&" symbol means).
Went out to eat with my co-worker, and she recommended this to me. It is so much fooooood, so we split it. Essentially it's cold soba noodles with loads of vegetables. You mix it all in and add hot sauce. It was good!
Taken when I was chilling by myself in Gwangju. This was at a food court--I got sujebi, which is handmate traditional noodles. This was so hot I burned my tongue, but it was worth it.
Close up of the sujebi. Usually when you order a stew/soup in Korea you can ask for a little bowl which is kind of like a plastic ashtray. You spoon your food into it, so that the broth can cool. Because let me tell you, those metal bowls are HOT, and they retain that heat well.
Chuseok: (Yep, we're going WAY back now)
Nothing makes a 6+ hour long car ride better than hodu kwaja! (walnut...... cookies. Cake. Something.)
There are very few walnuts in walnut cookies, unless you buy the expensive kind. The cheap kind are mainly red bean filled. Hey, I'm not complaining! I'm pretty much addicted to this things, they are amazing.
Chuseok morning. This was what I woke up to, at 9 am. We start early here in Korea!
Close up of the "offerings." There's (LOTS OF) fruit, candies, meat, fish, rice.........
This went on for a good half hour. My host dad and one of his brothers bowing to the ancestors. Only the men participated in this part of the ceremony.
After the ceremony, the food gets split up and we have the biggest breakfast ever. Here's some of the remains. It was delicious, if somewhat cold because it all got cooked yesterday. XD
While Thanksgiving has pumpkin pie, Chuseok has traditional sweets and cookies. This one was bright pink and teal and white, kind of chewy and very, very sweet. It was okay.
BUT THIS IS DELICIOUS. My favourite Korean cookie ever. It's chewy and buttery, but strangely has no butter in it......... it's made out of chestnut paste and other sweet stuff and then fried in oil. THAT'S why. Yeah, it's super-healthy.
How do maple sugar candies go over at Chuseok? Very well, thank you. BTW, those are super-giant Korean fall apples and Asian pears there. I love Asian pear. I need to stop obsessing over food, God.
My host dad (in the blue striped shirt) chilling with his dad and his great uncle in his dad's house.
My host dad, his younger brother, and his elder sister playing go-stop. My host brother is keeping score. Since I do NOT understand this game at all, it's pretty dull to watch. They played this game alllllllllllllllll weekend. It's a popular family game I think.
More food shots! Korean food looks interesting, that's why. This is a traditional soup that I guess people eat around Chuseok? It tastes better than it looks.
Just pork ribs.
What a lot of Korean kitchens tend to look like.
And what the utility rooms look like.
My host dad's GRANDMOTHER. She is oooooooooold but impressively still coherent.
My host parents took me to a traditional village model around my host mum's host.
They made me pose. >>;
The traditional village.
Kind of like waaaaay old style thatched roofing, isn't it?
Flowers that are famously used in Korea as a natural die. People even use them to "dye" their fingernails this orange-y colour. It's called a "korean manicure."
Andong Mask/Dance Festival:
The Russian dancing team. Those Russians were
intense. They were so bouncy and happy-looking, it made me want to go to Russia and join in the fun!........ and then I remembered Russian winters.
In between the dance acts, there was this old Russian band playing. Yes, that man in the middle has a giant tamborine around his neck. He was awesome.
More Russian dancer awesome-ness. They had to be seen to be believed, really. These pictures do them no justice.
One of the craft booths at the festival. It was here that we got attacked by about 5 professional photographers and had to pose. (Photographers are always look for pictures of foreigners doing touristy stuff. They think it will promote tourism. Personally, I think that is ridiculous because I want to do things that the locals are interested in, not other Americans! But whatever.)
A performance of a traditional Korean play. This was an all-female troupe, interestingly. Performance troupes traditionally were all-men, like Chinese opera used to be.
Andong scenery.
More Andong scenery, now with scarecrows.
We went to ANOTHER traditional village (they have a lot of these is Korea--often they are used for filming historical dramas, sort of like that one road in England which has retained all of its historic beauty and is used in half of the BBC dramas. Don't ask me why I know this.)
That is exactly what you think it is. And with that, let's leave Andong.......
Gyeongju:
So, recently (i.e. over 1.5 months ago), all of the teachers in my organization met up for a three-day work conference. My first business trip ever! Mostly it was a lot of discussions and talks on teaching English, but on one day we did sight-seeing. Gyeongju is well-known throughout Korea for its historical significance, so there's quite a lot to see.
Me looking rather worse for wear. This was taken at a Buddhist shrine which we were NOT allowed to photograph, which is sad because it was the most beautiful thing I've seen in Korea thus far. (I.e. a huuuuuge marble Buddha statue. Use your imagination.)
Every time I see traditional Korean architecture, I have to think of China. Except it is slightly different........
A famous temple. That's all I can really say, this place was a little dull. The weather was horrible so none of my pictures look very good.
A famous bell!
A famous park!
A famous soy sauce bottle!...... No wait, that's an observatory.
A famous party place for the Gyeongju kings of old. Did I mention Gyeongju was the old capital in ooooooold Korea? I think it's the capital from the Shilla dynasty, which was then surmounted by the Gyeoreo dynasty. But yes, this is where the kings were lounge about and drink, I kidd you not.
Haeinsa Temple:
Phew, we just keep going, don't we? Haeinsa means "Reflection of the ocean/water Temple" (thank you, Chinese class), which is odd because........ it's in the mountains. And there is not that much water to be seen. But whatever. It is one of the most famous temples in Korea, hidden waaaay up in the mountains, about an hour and a half from the nearest city, Daegu. It's WELL worth the trek, though.
We went just went the fall was getting started, so the leaves were gorgeoussssss.
I wish these pictures could do the place justice. Funny enough, the scenery around here DID remind me of NH in the fall, Mum.
The leaves were so red that the trees looked like they were on fire.
Inside the temple square. This temple was the most busy temple I've ever seen. O_o It was packed. It's still an active temple, so the place was full of monks (both male and female) running around.
There was this huge rope maze set up, with the monks walking through it and chanting. Apparently it is said that if you make it through the whole maze while praying deeply, your wish/desire will be fufilled?
So clearly, lots of people were following the monks and doing the same thing.
On our way out, this creepy ajusshi (old man) insisted on taking the picture for us, which was nice but he had no idea HOW to use my point and click camera. Our smiles look so strained because we're all thinking, "Just take the picture already!!"
More mountain scenery. Bye bye, Haeisna!
+++
*huge sigh of relief* That's it for now! Once I find my camera again (....... where is it........), I'll be able to share more Mokpo-centric pictures, but until then these will have to do.
In other news, I've been in Asia over 5 months now. Wow. Time really flies. I'm going home for the holidays in less than 2 weeks, it doesn't even seem real. I feel like spring semester is going to be a lot slower, though......... (or maybe I'm just hoping that.)
Postscript: My whole photostream is
here, there are few more pictures I didn't put up on here just 'cos I think it's rude to post pictures of my friends and so on.
