Ancestor Day

A year after a person dies, it is Korean culture to make a big feast in offering to the ancestor. The whole family is present to pay their respects. I was invited to attend such a gathering.

The grandmother's name is placed inside a wooden plaque and one candle lit on each side. Then the food is placed on the table.

Red colored foods are placed away from the grandmother because superstitiously red is a bad color. Incense is lit and must be burning the whole time. The grandmother starts to eat first.

When she is finished with her main meal, every family does a toast with her. In this case, the eldest son and his family was first. The eldest son would pour her a glass of soju, wave it over the incense 2 or 3 times and then place it next to her plaque. Next he would step back and with his family, all would bow all the way down (on their knees, head on the floor). They would bow twice and then the next family would go.

After everyone has paid their respects, the food is taken and divided among us. It is now our time to eat! Usually the food is placed around 11pm. Then around 11:30 is when the bowing begins. We didn't finish until a little after midnight. I was told they began this ceremony so late because when the night is the darkest the spirits come out.

A GREAT Sunday!

So this Sunday the weather was cloudy, cold and gloomy, but even that couldn't stop the day from becoming one of the best since I've been in Korea. I woke up at 9:15AM still tired from the night before (I never feel like I get enough sleep). Sunday was the day I scheduled to take a trip with this really nice Korean family. The mother takes me to JangGu (Korean traditional drum) class. I wait along side the road and the family shows up, but without the mother . They originally were going to take me to TongYeong and GeoJe, but I had already been to GeoJe so we went to the Busan Aquarium instead.

In Tongyeong, we went to this place where you can take a cable car up to the top of a mountain and look at the view. The cable car ride was really great. I have a fear of heights but it was ok. When we got to the top, the view wasn't as good because it was so cloudy, but it was still really nice to see. There were so many steps to the top after we got off the cable car though. It reminded me how much i needed to work out.

Then afterwards, there was a choice whether to go to an amusement park, or the aquarium. I chose the aquarium because it was such a cloudy day. Cloudy days are best spent inside. The drive was going to be 3 hours but luckily we stopped somewhere for lunch on the way. The place we stopped by was so great! When I ride the to visit Busan on the weekends I always see this area where there are pots on the roofs. It was so great to actually be able to stop and experience this area for once! We ate such delicious food!! There was a plate of beef, rice, soup, more soup, and all these delicious dishes. I ate so much!!! And they had my favorite Korean dessert, ShiKe.

Off to Busan we went! I fell asleep most of the way.

At the Aquarium, this is the first tank of piranhas.

YongPyong

http://www.yongpyong.co.kr/eng/index.asp

YongPyong ski resort is a great resort for beginners up to experts. There are many slopes to ski on no matter what your level is. I am a beginner, so naturally I started on the beginner slopes. I worked my way from the bottom to the top, and then eventually to the intermediate slope . It was so much fun though!

First off, if you go during the winter, you have to book your hotel weeks in advance. I booked mine on a Monday, we were to leave that Friday. Because of this, we weren't able to stay in the hostel on the resort, but instead stayed at a cheap hotel in the town near the resort. This is great because it was ALOT cheaper and we got our own rooms with bathrooms. The hotel we stayed at was named Green N Blue hotel. http://greennblue.co.kr/ The owner speaks English and is actually trying to become a citizen in Vancouver, Canada. Don't expect much if you decide to stay here, it's not that nice, but the owner was so friendly. There is also a free shuttle that goes throughout the whole town that runs every 10-15 minutes and takes you straight to the resort. For three people to share a room, it was 80,000won a night. There was one King bed and a couch that folded out into a single bed. They also print you the bus schedule for the day.

To get to the hotel we took an express bus to Seoul first, stayed overnight, then headed out. It took about 3 hours to arrive in the city. It was freezing but we decided to check out the resort anyway. When we got there, all the excitement came to us and we decided to do some night skiing. It was soooo much fun!

Ski rental, snowboard rental, ski lift and/or gondola, ski/snowboard wear prices are all listed on the website. They also have a list of the condos and hotels on the resort and you can make a reservation right from their website.

To give you an idea of the prices:

Ski rentals for Evening + Night skiing: 24,000 won

Snowboard rentals for Evening + Night boarding: 30,000 won

Ski wear: about 25,000 for Evening + Night

The ski lift and gondola prices were the most expensive. This is where you can pay 500 won to store your clothes, purses, shoes, etc all day. Once you open the locker though, you will have to pay 500 again to use it.

The mega green slope. The light was reflecting off the snow so brightly.

My Apartment

This is where I live!!

This is the inside of the place I am living at:

And the bathroom:

There is no bathtub. The shower head is just sitting on the wall and I have the whole bathroom to shower in. As you can see, the shampoo and soap is there on the wall. It's quite nice.

It is quite big for one person, in my opinion. When I was told I was in rural South Korea, I envisioned farms everywhere and that I would be able to learn how to grow rice . That is not the case here. My studio apartment is very clean, with a kitchen, fridge, and TV. I got my internet and TV set up Saturday so it is like home now. There is no microwave so I have to cook everything, which is fine. I just have to adjust to the prices and different vegetables offered here.

This is my breakfast:

Yesterday I met some other foreigners that are also in the same area teaching English. We met in the city; this is the road I take to enter the city:

One of the teachers was really nice and showed me around the rest of the city, since I only stuck to the main road. He showed me the Goseong Market, which was so great! They had so many different vegetables, fruits, and even a fish market!! There were so many different kinds of seafood, and freshly caught too. They de-scale it and gut it in front of you.

In South Korea

It is my third day here in Goseong, South Korea. Here are some images from my plane flight and from the motel of my first night.

So far, Korea is great and everyone is really friendly. I think because I look asian they don't assume that I am a foreigner, though I know I dress like one. I don't know many Korean words, only "Hello" and "Thank you". That is enough to get by on so far. Here is my first Korean meal:

It was just a collection of small dishes, but we couldn't finish all of it, it was so much! My co-teacher took me to this traditional restaurant for dinner Friday, my first whole day in Korea. It was small and hard to find, so I don't know if I would be able to return to it, but it is in the same area as the supermarket. Maybe when I get more accustomed to the area I will be able to eat here again. We sat on cushions on the floor. I wasn't used to eating with chopsticks and a spoon, I still find it redundant and strange, but I'll get used to it.

My co-teacher tells me this type of meal used to be only for the upper class and royalty. The lower classes would only get about 4-5 small dishes to eat from. Anyway, it was so delicious!