Christmas boarding
I have always wanted to board on Christmas day and despite being in a country with slopes this year it was still not to be: however I did manage a session on Christmas eve!
As it was our first Christmas away from home Kat, Emily and I couldn't think of a better way to spend Christmas eve than boarding. So we got up at stupid o clock in the morning and headed for Bears Town, a resort near Seoul. Sam had decided he wanted to come along for the ride, and never having snowboarded before, it was going to be an interesting day for him!
We arrived at the bus stop in Seoul and got chatting to a Korean girl, who's English name was Katie. She was an English teacher in Seoul and ended up spending a while riding with us - or rather falling over with Sam!
Left to right: Katie, Kat, Emily and me.
When we arrived at the slope the first thing we realised was that there was no snow anywhere but the slopes - the entire resort was made with 'real' fake snow. In France they often have snow machines but I have never seen a resort made entirely out of fake snow - probably because all the other resorts I've been to are massive compared to Bears Town.
The view from the top of the largest slope. How strange is it that nothing around the slope is white.
Emily and Katrina were pretty nervous about boarding as they hadn't been for quite a while, where as I was just excited to get going! But the first thing we had to do was take Sam to a very small slope and amuse ourselves with his first ever attempt at snowboarding. He actually did remarkably well standing up and heading down the slope without too much trouble. By the end of the day he had almost mastered turning. Much better than my first time - it took me a week to learn to stand up!
VIDEO - Sam's first attempt - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/MOV01965.MPG
I also managed to get this footage of Kat and Emily nearing the bottom of one of the slopes.
VIDEO - Kat and Emily boarding - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/EmilyKat.AVI
The 'fake' snow meant the conditions were fairly good - snowboarding when it is icy is a nightmare - and a fantastic day was had by all.
The resort was fine for a day trip but not somewhere I would wish to go back to; it was too small. I could get from the top of the biggest slope to the bottom in around five minutes - a feat you could never achieve at some of the resorts in France. Plus I have never been to a resort with soooo many people! At peek time the queues for the lifts were huge!
I took the video below on my way down the largest slope. It's not the best because I was trying very hard not to fall with my camera in my hand and subsequently was going much slower than I would have been otherwise - honest!!!
VIDEO - Ride with me - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/Me.AVI
A very busy learner slope.
Excited - Never!
Last Friday (22/12/06) the kindergarten kids had their Christmas Party. Normally I would be excited about watching the kids have fun (and effectivly getting the morning off work) but I have now realised that these things always follow the same pattern and are mainly an opportunity for the teachers to take some cute photos of the kids! It amazes me that the kids get excited - well almost!
The most interesting parts of the day were watching the kids sing Christmas songs in Korean and realising how unexcited they were about Santa's imminent arrival.
I took some video of the singing because it seemed so strange to be listening to a tune I recognised but the words to be totally different. See if you can guess what the songs below are? - Send your answers on an email - the winner will get... well... nothing!
Christmas song one - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/DSCF3328.AVI
Christmas song two - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/DSCF3329.AVI
Christmas song three - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/DSCF3331.AVI
Santa arrived and I was surprised to see that the kids still weren't very excited. When I was a kid meeting Santa was one of the most exciting things that could happen. But not these kids, as there were given their presents and had their pictures taken sat beside him most of them succeeded in looking thoroughly miserable! Some of my favourite pictures are below.
Eric looks ecstatic as Santa gives him his present.
Jim can hardly contain his excitement.
Amy manages a smile but this could be because her Dad is the School director and he made sure she had the largest present of all the kids!
After Santa had given out the presents the kids were given some crisps and biscuits to munch on and amazingly, once again, I was given some food! Then it was time for the kids to have their proper lunch and the party was over. No games, no proper fun, just photos and food. To top it all off, in Korea it's rude to open your presents in front of people so the kids couldn't even get excited about, and play with, their Christmas gifts because they had to wait till they got home to open them!
Once again I was glad I wasn't a kid in Korea!
The festive season is upon us
This post is more for my personal reference than anything else but if it serves to make you jealous of all the fun I'm going to be having over the festive period then thats good with me!
Friday 22 December 2006 - Christmas drinks at Rob and Wendy's.
Saturday 23 December 2006 - Clean flat - catch up on blog - prepare for xmas day.
Sunday 24 December 2006 - Snowboarding - yipee! Bears Town resort, only 40 minutes from Seoul - http://www.bearstown.com/.
Monday 25 Decmber 2006 - Christams Day at our flat, making roast dinner (without an oven!!).
Tuesday 26 December 2006 - Work - Speech contenst rehersal :-(
Wednesday 27 December 2006 - Work - Speech contenst rehersal :-(
Thursday 28 December 2006 - Dad's birthday. Fly to Japan. Arrive at hostel around lunch time, dump bags head to one of the traditional Japanese gardens (whichever is nearest our hostel).
- Rikugien - open until 16:30pm - http://www.japanguide.com/e/e3025.html.
- Koishikawa Korakuen - Open until 17:00pm - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3034_003.html.
- Hama Rikyu - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3025.html.
Friday 29 December 2006 - Early start - Takaosan (Mount Takao) spend the day walking up the mountain etc... http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3029.html. If back in time go to Tokyo tower in the evening - Open until 21:00- http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3009.html.
Saturday 30 December 2006 - Mt Fuji and Hakone Day Tour - http://www.affiliate.viator.com/brochure/product_show.jsp?ID=1010&PRODUCTID=1016&CODE=2142TYO_F800_F820&AUID=3948.
Sunday 31 December 2006 - Sensoji buddhist temple - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3001.html. NYE - decide when we get there.
Monday 1 January 2007 - Who knows, depends if we are recovering from the night before!
Tuesday 2 January 2007 - The Imperial Palace - one of only two days a year when the inner palace and gardens are open to the public. The imperial family also make a number of appearances throughout the day - http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3017.html and http://www.kunaicho.go.jp/e17/ed17-02.html. Get to airport for 3pm to fly back.
Wednesday 3 January 2007 - Day off - recover!
Wow, I'm exhaused just writing that!
Korean Birthdays
Last week we had a mass birthday party for all the kindergarten kids who celebrated their birthdays between Halloween and Christmas.
It seems that at some point each of the kids will get to celebrate their birthday at school and be given a present by each of the other students. Last week's party consisted of the usual dressing up nice and posing for endless (unsmiling) photos before a mass present giving session ensued.
Despite the party at school kids here don't get the fun games kids enjoy at western birthday parties. After (a form of) happy birthday was sang in Korean, (video below) the kids posed for hundreds of photos and the presents were given out it was time for lunch. I'm glad I wasn't a kid in Korea, where was musical statues, musical bumps or pass the parcel?
VIDEO: The kids sing happy birthday - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/DSCF3245.AVI
VIDEO: A mass present giving session - http://www.mediamax.com/j150vsc/Hosted/DSCF3280.AVI
It is also quite odd that such a big deal is made of the kids birthdays at school because often Koreans don't celebrate their individual birthdays. Instead they have a big party at New Year when everyone gets a year older. When a Korean baby is born it is automatically one year old, it then turns two on the next January 1, so this date is a birthday for every Korean citizen. If you were born on 31 December you would be two years old at when you were two days old! Strange huh! It certainly proved a challenge to work out how old the kids actually were when I arrived!
Here are some pictures of the party.
How much food and presents? The fried chicken was good though!
Whenever you see pictures of birthdays etc the kids are always posing in front of masses of food. I'm not sure why this is. If it is a Korean thing I guess it has something to do with showing off material wealth and making people aware that, as a country, the hard time of the past are behind them.
From left to right - Danny, Grace, Josh, Irene, Jane, Jim, Alex celebrate thier birthdays.
Danny, Grace and Alex pose in front the cake.
The school director poses with Grace after giving her her present from the school.
The director never seems to have a lot to do with the kids. This was the first time I'd seen him with them. He is usually quite a miserable unsmiling man - he needs to assert his power - but his face totally changed when he was with them. He was suddenly transformed into a much softer smiling man who appeared to love the kids. However he came into the room for all of five minutes to give them their presents and have his photo taken, then he was gone again. It seems strange that he doesn't make any effort to spend any time with them - especially if he actually likes them!
Left to right - Jane, Jim, Grace, Josh. The birthday boys and girls from Blue class show off thier presents.
It IS snowing in Kumdan!
Well, at least it was!! But this time it was proper snow.
Kat and I got on the bus from Seoul on Saturday and noticed that it had started snowing. Within 20 minutes about 3 inches of snow had fallen, everything had turned white and the bus was travelling at around 20 miles and hour because of the treacherous driving conditions! As we crawled along the motorway we saw cars in the outside lane stuck in the snow, cars parked in the crash barrier where they had skidded of the road and other cars who had simply collided with each other. It seems Koreans are as incapable of dealing with snow as the English! I guess in their defense it did come on extremely quickly.
Below are some photos I took when we got back to Kumdan. It hasn't snowed since Saturday night but it has been too cold for the snow to melt. Instead many of the pavements have turned to sheet ice making the walk to and from work hazardous to say the least! Kat managed to land on her arse yesterday! He he.
A snowy tree taken from the bus window on the way back from Seoul.
From the flat window looking down to Kumdan intersection.
Kat poses in the snow!
Dont worry, you are in the right place - It was time for a redesign
I have now been in Korea for almost four months and in that time etribes have added loads of features to enable me to change the look of the site.
I have decided to change a few things to give the blog a bit more of a Korean feel. Notice the chopsticks on the banner! After never having used chopsticks before I arrived I am now almost a pro - well I can usually eat without dropping my dinner on the table!
I have also changed my profile picture - the picture I had before was a bit boring - the new picture is much more Korean stylie! If you look at my photos of the kids you will see that they nearly always do the 'V' for victory sign in photos (you can just about make out me doing it in the picture), the incredible thing is most adults do it too!!
Any feedback or comments on the redesign would be most welcome. If you hate it let me know!
Herbal medicine market
Following weeks of colds and generally feeling rubbish Kat, Emily and I decided to visit the Seoul herbal medicine market in the hope of finding something to remedy our ailments.
The market was huge and had plenty of medicine to choose from, but we discovered two drawbacks - everything was in Korean and we don't know anything about herbal medicine! Luckily we found a very nice man who, after having lived in London, spoke very good English. He showed us a mixture of, well.... twigs that will apparently make us feel better.
As we had little hope of finding anyone else who could show us how to prepare the herbs we decided to go for it and purchase his twigs! Whilst he was making us up a bag he gave us some tea to sample and a twig he told us to chew on. Once I got over how odd it was to be stood in a shop chewing a piece of wood I realsied that it had a sweet taste and the longer I chewed it the sweeter it got!
Our herbs are prepared.
Emily and I drink tea and chew on some sticks!!
The market was a fantastic place to visit despite our lack of knowledge of the products on sale. The streets were lined with stalls containing baskets of brightly coloured herbs with elderly Koreans nestled between the baskets waiting for someone to make a purchase. It was the way I'd imagined Korea to be before I arrived!
Some of the herbs on display.
A woman sits amongst her herbs.
According to the Tour to Korea website, market has more than one thousand herb clinics, herbal medicine shops and drugstores, this has expanded from just 20 shops during the 1960s. Also the products are fairly cheap because they are delivered directly from herb plantations.
A museum made out of paper?
A magazine had reliably informed us that Olympic Park boasted a museum made entirely out of paper! We were excited to see how it could work - it seemed inconceivable - surely there would be massive problems when it rained?
It turned out that - yes - it was inconceivable! There was no museum made entirely out of paper; what we did see, however, was pretty impressive.
The museum, called Paper Tainer, is made out of 353 paper tubes and 166 freight containers. It is constructed in a way that uses no cement or water and the entire building can be dismantled and moved around with no damage to the environment.
The Sporlight 30 Brands exhibition room.
Inside the museum were two exhibitions, Spotlight 30 Brands and Spotlight 30 Women. All the information inside the museum was in Korean. But we had obviously been spotted walking around (we were the only foreigners there) and as we left we were given some press information printed in English.
It seemed strange to be in possession of a press pack again - like a throwback to a previous life! I almost felt compelled to start interviewing the poor girl!
But the press pack did provide some interesting information, according to the pack:
The paper tubes, which reach 75cm in diameter and 10m in height, have adopted an elegant yet solemn columnar system which appears in traditional Korean architecture. This architecture aligns tubes consecutively in a way that seems to reach for the sky, making a magnificent sight in itself.
As a symbol of trade the containers represent delivering the culture and arts of the world to the people. And the museum building itself is a work of art.
The first exhibition we saw was Spotlight 30 Brands. Here 30 designers and artists reinterpret the brand image of 30 corporations into art. The press pack said that this is the first 'Art Marketing Exhibition' ever held in Korea. It also claimed that the corporations taking part were "aware that art and culture has the power to make a significant difference in society."
Many of the corporations featured were Korean brands so I can't tell you a lot about them but some of the best pictures are below. Check out the photos section for more pickies.
This was a totally black room and when you put you hand in a tunnle and broke a hologram these lights came on. Very odd!
Dimonds really are a girls best friend!
Each little square you can see is a photo if the inside of a nearby grocery store.
The second exhibition was Spotlight 30 Women. Some of the paintings here were amazing, it was definitely some of the most interesting art I have ever seen. Much better then the Lourve exhibition we visited a few weeks ago.
According to the press pack the museum selected women who lead a symbolic and creative lives in Korean history and asked 30 artists, who excelled in their various fields, to "recreate and re-illuminate these women with their own unique interpretations." Some of my favourite works are below more pictures can be found in the photos section of this blog.
I love this picture!
This is painted by Ahn, Seong Jin, I loved it so much a bought a postcard of it before I left. There is something incredibly powerful about the picture and the story behind it. It depicts Yoo Gwan-soon a young woman who stood up for the liberation on Korea. She was one of leaders in the march of the 1st Liberation Movement but was arrested by the Japanese and died, aged 16, in a Japanese prison after being tortured.
I also found the photos below interesting. But I was unable to find out anything about either the artist of the woman featured in the pictures.
This is another powerful picture. I just wish I knew what it was supposed to represent.
I'm really not sure what this is all about!! Notice how the women are naked but none of the men have any flesh showing at all!
This actually looks like the painting is three dimensional.
Olympic Park
After reading about a museum made entirely out of paper located at Olympic Park we couldn't think of a better way to spend last Saturday - all we had to do was find the museum!
Walking out of the subway station we spotted a tourist map beside an empty tourist information booth. We looked at the map for a while, which was in both English and Korean (but not as clear as it could have been), before a woman appeared from nowhere and gave us an English guide book and map.
The guide book said that the Olympic Park had been completed in June 1986 to commemorate the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It covers 1.4 million square meters and consists of a vast grassy field, the World Peace Gate, the music fountain and approximately 200 sculptures and art exhibits. Some of which are pictured below.
The guide book says:
Olympic Park is one of the top five most renowned sculpture parks in the world and includes recreations of two famous vestiges from the Baekje period of Korean history the Mong Chon Moat and the Mong Chon fortress.
Six stadiums from large to small are located here and were used during the 1988 Olympic Games. They are now used for various types of performances and sporting events. The promenade around the outer wall of the course is used as a public jogging course.
Heading off into the vast expanse of the park the first thing we saw was Peace Square and the World Peace Gate
Emily and Kat pose in front of the massive Pece Gate.
The Life in Korea website offered this information about the gate and the paintings on the underneath of the wings.
The imposing steel frame and reinforced iron structure is 24 meters high, 37 meters wide, and 62 meters in length. The structure's wing-shaped design evokes both beauty and majesty. By bringing together elements of traditional and modern architecture, the architect conveys the images of a leap forward and of ascension. The lower side of the structure's wing-like ceiling contains paintings of various symbolic forms including a blue dragon, a phoenix, tiger, and turtle.
The painting on the East wing of the gate.
The painting, done by Paek Geum-nam (a noted painter and professor of Sunggyungwan University), uses the traditional Korean Dancheong pattern, covering the entire area of the wings' lower part.
Blue and red (symbolic of Korea's flag, Daeguk) were used as the main colors to represent the concept of Um and Yang (yin/yang), the Oriental symbols representing the two opposites of the universe, as well as the spirit of creativity. Choojag (a spirit shaped as a red phoenix that guards the south), Hyunmoo (a spirit shaped as a black turtle that guards the north), Bakho (a spirit shaped as a white tiger that guards the west), and Cheongrong (a spirit shaped as a blue dragon that guards the east) are the four spirits appearing in the mural paintings. The images of their ascension to heaven signifies life against the body and freedom against spirit, in addition to the dauntlessness and strength of the Korean people.
The peace gate really is huge and the paintins on the wings are very impressive. I had to practically lay on the floor to take the picture above and even then I couldn't get the whole wing in!
Inside the Peace Gate is the Torch of Peace. This was built on August 31 1988 and is made from an octagonal granite sculpture measuring 4.1m in diameter and 0.75m in height and uses gas for fuel. At the base of the torch the Declaration of Seoul Peace is engraved in Korean, English, and French.
The declaration reads:
All people long to live together peacefully regardless of ideology, race, religion free from the threat of war and violence. By achieving this, we can achieve true happiness in life that all people commonly desire. We the citizens of Seoul declare to make the 24th Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea a true festival of world peace from September 17 - October 2 1988 free from the threat of war, violence and terrorism. Thus, world peace can begin to firmly take roots from this momentous event. This is the royal summons for the people of the world today. This petition of peace signed by citizens from around the world was adopted as the Seoul Peace Declaration on September 12 1988 during the 24th Summer Olympic Games.
In today's climate of terrorism and with the recent nuclear tests in North Korea the Declaration of Peace certainly gives you something to think about. It is a shame that it was only written 17 years ago and, in some ways, the ideal has already been torn apart by the actions of a few selfish nations - namely America and North Korea!
Kat and Emily warm their hands on the flame of the Torch of Peace.
On the other side of the Peace Gate in Peace Square, and area commonly used for recreational activities, was a festive ice skating rink. After looking at the kids wizzing around we decided to consider ice skating after we'd visited the museum hoping there would be less kids around to show us up.
As we made our way to the museum (details in a separate post) we came across lots of different statues, some more random than others! Pictures below.
This is called 'Olympic-Unity'.
After searching the internet I cannot find anymore about this sculpture than it was sculpted by a Korean called Moon-Shin in 1988.
This is imaginatively called 'The Thumb'!
Once again the internet is devoid of information about this piece. I have found out that is was done by the French, the name is given as Cesar! and it was done in 1988.
This is called 'Dialogue'.
I did manage to find some information on this piece. The Seoul Olympic Sports Promotion Foundation website had some notes that appear to be written by the Algerian sculptor called Amara Mohand. The English is pretty poor but just about comprehendible. It said:
Exchange ideas emotions establish a dialogue between men that is what I wanted to express in the work in a natural space open toward the exterior. In order to do so I had to give some meaning to the Olympiad of Art in Seoul. It had seemed important to me to think beyond geographical frontiers, linguistic obstacles cultural or political differences. Art remains a privileged means of communication between people this thought has been determinant as my encounter with the Koreans. This is how I was able to make two sculptures resembling two beings who approach each other and discover each other their heads practically resting one against the other to better hear each other like two sculptures who friquent each other in order to enrich their knowledge attentive one to the other trying to establish a meaningful dialogue because to my mind it is through exchange and nearness that the human being can exchange and nearness that the human being can exist realize and surpass himself.
After looking around the museums we headed back to the ice skating rink. After much debate about whether it was good idea considering it was freezing and we were very bound to fall over and end up wet, we decided to go for it.
We were stood inside the rental building looking confused when a very friendly older Korean man, with almost perfect English, came and asked if he could help us. Then totally taking charge of the situation he took us to buy our tickets, got us our skates and even paid for our locker.
The locker was only 500 won (about 30p) but it was very nice of him to pay for it. Some Koreans can be very generous and giving, which is nice, but sometimes Korean generosity can make you feel uncomfortable. It is in our nature to offer to give the money back, but in Korea it is rude to do so! So we offered once and when he declined we dropped it - he didn't seem offended in any way and later he took some photos of us on the ice (see below).
Getting onto the ice was a nerve racking experience. It had been about nine years since I last donned a pair of ice skates. But we soon got the hang of it and were ambling around in a circle being overtaken by kids that barley reached our knees! And amazingly, despite a few close calls none of us fell over. The pictures below are posed - honest!
Do we look like we're moving??
Kat and Emily feign unsteadiness on the ice!
Emily and I show off our skills!!!!
This is posed - Honest!
After tiring ourselves out on the ice it was time to head home for a good nights sleep so we would be up bright and early ready to explore one of Asia's biggest herbal medicine markets (post coming shortly) on Sunday.
