Ace and I just got back from our vacation in Beijing! It was Chinese Lunar New Year, a major holiday in Korea as well, so we got Monday and Tuesday off from work. We booked a 4-day whirlwind tour of Beijing through a local English-speaking travel agency, and on Saturday morning, we took off for Beijing with about 50 other local English teachers, including 4 good friends; Brent, Grete, Ed, Bopha, Laura, and Carolyn.
After a very quick 2 hour flight to Beijing, we hopped on our tour bus and headed to the Temple of Heaven. This temple is where the Emperor would come on the winter and summer solstices to talk to his father, God. God would supposedly descend from heaven to have a chat with the Emperor in this beautiful, brightly colored round building.
Next, we had dinner- all of the meals on the trip were family style meals in huge restaurants, with several plates brought to each table that we could pick and choose from. All of the food was pretty yummy, but I have to say I think I like Korean food better. We did enjoy peking duck a few times, of course- it was very nice in small quantities.
After dinner we hit our big, beautiful, wonderful, glorious hotel. It was a five star hotel called Loong Palace Resort. I’ve never stayed anywhere so nice- we all reveled in the enclosed showers (not just a tiled bathroom with a hose coming out of the wall!), big bathtubs, comfortable beds and big fuzzy towels. The hotel included a bowling alley, nightclub, singing room, swimming pool, spa, sauna, hot tub, a million restaurants, etc. etc. etc. Our room had floor-to ceiling windows on the fifth floor that gave us a lovely view of the city- the downtown area is quite flat, so we could see a long ways- perfect for fireworks viewing.
The next day was filled with markets- Jade, Pearl and Tea markets- which were definitely tourist traps. I could have done without those. Just one downfall of a group tour, I suppose. We did, however, hit a large, indoor market that Ace and I really enjoyed- it was five floors packed full of fake backpacks, purses, “designer” clothes, and tons and tons of souvenirs. Ace and I bartered like crazy, and ended up buying large backpacking backpacks for about $30 each, a lovely hand-painted wall hanging, some really cool brass incense burners, and a few other souvenirs. It was Ace’s first time really bartering, and he did great! I think it was a good warm-up for our trip to Turkey.
Next up was definitely one of the biggest highlights of our trip- the fireworks. All evening as we were driving around, we’d seen huge fireworks being shot off downtown, from the street, bridges, between huge office buildings, etc. At about 10 o’clock, though, the city really got going, and Ace, Carolyn, Laura and I sat in our rooms and watched in wonder as the show got better and better for the next two and a half hours. The city doesn’t have an organized show of any sort, and pretty much every family just buys gigantic mortars and shoots them off together from the nearest street. It was STUNNING- like an average fireworks show was going off from every single block in this huge city, all at the same time, nonstop for at least 3 hours. There are really no words to describe how beautiful it was. We were all totally awestruck; it definitely makes my top 10 list of Most Beautiful Things I’ve Ever Seen. Ace will be putting up videos soon, just to give you a glimpse, though of course they can’t fully capture the experience.
Ace has promised to split blog-duties for this trip with me, so I’ll let him fill you in on the Great Wall of China, Tien’amin Square and the Forbidden City. Lots of love! Kait
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Another cultural difference
While eating out tonight at a wonderful Indian restaurant in a different part of town with Kait and friends, I couldn't help but take note of an interesting cultural difference between western culture and Korean culture (and perhaps East-Asian cultures at large). The difference is eating, or rather, how we eat. While having a discussion after we finished our delicious dinner, we had to laugh a bit about some Korean diners who were seated at a table near us; they were what I like to call "smackers." By that I mean, they "smack" their lips very noticeably - and unapologetically - when they eat. I can remember when I was in fourth grade, I instantly developed an antipathy toward someone simply for their propensity to smacking. This just goes to show how deeply it is ingrained in the average western person. But here, I think that it is generally believed to enhance the taste of a given meal. We had a discussion about how the smacking perhaps causes the air from your mouth to waft up to your nose, giving you more of a smelling sensation when you eat, or maybe the smacking itself causes people to enjoy the sound of eating, adding another sense to the dining experience. In any case, we all know that the Korean diners were not being impolite (this is not the first time we have noticed this), it is just their way of eating. However, knowing that doesn't necessarily prevent the sound from getting under one's skin... I guess it's one of those differences that are bound to exist between people of two cultures.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Korean friends
Yesterday afternoon, Kait and I met up with two of our co-workers to go downtown Daegu together. We started off by going to what is called a DVD room, a place where you can go and choose from several DVDs to watch right then and there. We had been to one of these in Thailand, and it was just a small room with a few cushions and a TV/DVD player. But this was definitely different: after we had all met up, we went straight to the DVD bang (room) and we remarked that it felt like we were walking in to a movie theater. In a sense, we were. Once we chose our movie (The Bucket List, a good movie, we all thought afterwards,) we headed to our room after having purchased some snacks at the front counter, and I had to chuckle a little after what I saw: teddy bears. That's right, I walked in and saw a very comfortable lounge bed (for a lack of a better description) that was covered with pillows and three medium-sized teddy bears. (Only in Korea would this be commonplace.) Also, it was not a TV we watched, but a small screen that used a projector that we had in our own room, so it was basically a small, private movie theater where a person could watch an out-of-theaters movie whenever s/he would want. Pretty cool, I say.
After that, we went to a very nice Vietnamese restaurant and had a great dinner together. I was worried most of the time that there would be some awkward silence between us all - as there often is when we are with Korean people due to the cultural differences - but we all got along just fine. (Both of our co-workers are near-fluent in English.) The restaurant itself was very beautifully designed, and the servers were wearing some cool traditional Vietnamese garb.
During dinner, they asked us if we had ever been to a tea house in Korea yet, and we replied no, even though we wanted to while we were in Seoul. So after dinner, we went to the tea house. It was in a small pocket tucked away from downtown, and it seemed to be pretty traditional. On the exterior were stone steps and various plants that gave it a rather ambient vibe. Inside, we sat on the floor around low tables where we could sit and have our tea. Again, we sat and talked together for so long - I think about two hours or so - that we decided to skip out on salsa class. And for those of you who know Kait, that means we were having a pretty good time. Although we didn't have a camera, we know where it is so we can take pictures to put on our photo page.
After that, we went to a very nice Vietnamese restaurant and had a great dinner together. I was worried most of the time that there would be some awkward silence between us all - as there often is when we are with Korean people due to the cultural differences - but we all got along just fine. (Both of our co-workers are near-fluent in English.) The restaurant itself was very beautifully designed, and the servers were wearing some cool traditional Vietnamese garb.
During dinner, they asked us if we had ever been to a tea house in Korea yet, and we replied no, even though we wanted to while we were in Seoul. So after dinner, we went to the tea house. It was in a small pocket tucked away from downtown, and it seemed to be pretty traditional. On the exterior were stone steps and various plants that gave it a rather ambient vibe. Inside, we sat on the floor around low tables where we could sit and have our tea. Again, we sat and talked together for so long - I think about two hours or so - that we decided to skip out on salsa class. And for those of you who know Kait, that means we were having a pretty good time. Although we didn't have a camera, we know where it is so we can take pictures to put on our photo page.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
A trip to Seoul
Ace and I just got back from a lovely weekend in Seoul. We decided on a whim on Thursday that it was time for a little adventure, so first thing Saturday we hopped on the KTX (fast train) and we were in Seoul in just an hour and 40 minutes, even though Seoul is pretty much on the other side of South Korea! I tried to stay conscious for our speedy trip, but I slept through most of it. Ace said I didn’t miss anything too scenic- except for some farms, the trip was cities and towns everywhere.
Once we got into Seoul, we took the subway (there are 12 different lines, but it’s amazingly user-friendly, considering) to a market crammed with everything from socks and $5 jeans to wooden masks, tea sets and ginseng candy. I was thrilled to find a hippie shop (I haven’t found one in Daegu) so I could replace my very ratty Thailand purse and get some fun earrings. After enjoying the sights, crowds, and pungent smells of cooking silkworm larvae, we headed to the antiques market our lonely planet guide recommended.
Wandering around Seoul was a very welcome change of scenery- it was great to see a skyline other than the lego-landscape of Daegu, and there were lots of lovely fountains, art installations, etc. I definitely think it would be fun (but expensive) to live there- it seems like there’s tons of interesting art exhibits, concerts, and cultural things going on.
I had a heyday at the Antiques mall- it’s a good thing most of the shops are closed on weekends, or who knows how much money I could have spent. The mall consisted of two or three old buildings absolutely stuffed with old trunks, carved wooden windows, tea sets, carved tables, Chinese medicine cabinets, buddhas, etc. I was thrilled to see some traditional stuff- it seems like Korea is so modern that it’s hard to find any souvenirs more interesting than cell-phone danglies and 4-inch heels. Everything in those musty buildings was gorgeous and interesting. I left with a red-cloth lantern, an red antique Chinese jewelry box with birds painted on it ( a present for someone), and, my favorite, Ace and I’s first piece of art. It’s actually Thai, a framed painting on cloth of a view from the river of Wat Arun, a temple in Bangkok that we visited. with a dragon boat passing in front of it.
After the mall, we lugged our stuff to a very cheap and blah, but clean, little motel. We dropped off our treasures and wandered around our area in search of some non-Korean food, just for a change. We settled on Outback and had a very homey dinner, then searched in vain for a jazz club I really wanted to check out. I think the cabbie dropped us off in the wrong district, cause it was nowhere to be found, but we did stumble across a board game café, which was brilliant. Funky chairs and tables were filled with young people sipping tea and coffee and playing rented games. The lettering on all the games was in Korean, though, so we settled on Jenga.
Then we headed to a theater and watched “Love in the Clouds”, which was ok; it was really nice watch a movie on the bigscreen, though. We haven’t done that since our first weekend in Daegu! I also enjoyed the fountain Coke Zero in the concessions stand- the only place you can get that around here is Costco , and if you know me at all, you know how I feel about diet fountain colas After a night in our little room, we got up and headed to Itaewon, which is the foreigner district. We hit some import grocers and loaded up on little luxuries that we can’t find here- couscous, real oatmeal, tomato soup, edemame, mac and cheese, decent incense, etc. I’m pretty thrilled with all of those finds. Ace was also able to find some shoes there that fit him, which was exciting. There were people from all over the world and an amazing variety of restaurants- Middle Eastern, Moroccan, Italian, Mexican, African, Indian… I definitely want to go back soon and do some serious eating.
After spending a small fortune at the grocery stores, we went to the best-preserved palace in Seoul- it’s a world heritage site, and was occupied by members of the royal family until the 1980’s, I believe. It was lovely, but I was freezing during the hour and a half outdoor tour. One interesting part was seeing how the original floor heating system worked- a sort of crawl space beneath the building where charcoal was lit, and a serious of vents that carried the hot air around under the rooms, with a little door at the opposite end where you could scoop the ashes out. Brilliant! After the tour, we had dinner at a little Italian place and took the fast train home. All the getting lost and wandering around that I didn’t bother to write about made it a very tiring trip, but we had a great time. It was also nice to do the backpacker tourist thing for just a night- we ran around like crazy but knew we’d be sleeping at home on Sunday. We’re definitely hoping to go back soon.
Once we got into Seoul, we took the subway (there are 12 different lines, but it’s amazingly user-friendly, considering) to a market crammed with everything from socks and $5 jeans to wooden masks, tea sets and ginseng candy. I was thrilled to find a hippie shop (I haven’t found one in Daegu) so I could replace my very ratty Thailand purse and get some fun earrings. After enjoying the sights, crowds, and pungent smells of cooking silkworm larvae, we headed to the antiques market our lonely planet guide recommended.
Wandering around Seoul was a very welcome change of scenery- it was great to see a skyline other than the lego-landscape of Daegu, and there were lots of lovely fountains, art installations, etc. I definitely think it would be fun (but expensive) to live there- it seems like there’s tons of interesting art exhibits, concerts, and cultural things going on.
I had a heyday at the Antiques mall- it’s a good thing most of the shops are closed on weekends, or who knows how much money I could have spent. The mall consisted of two or three old buildings absolutely stuffed with old trunks, carved wooden windows, tea sets, carved tables, Chinese medicine cabinets, buddhas, etc. I was thrilled to see some traditional stuff- it seems like Korea is so modern that it’s hard to find any souvenirs more interesting than cell-phone danglies and 4-inch heels. Everything in those musty buildings was gorgeous and interesting. I left with a red-cloth lantern, an red antique Chinese jewelry box with birds painted on it ( a present for someone), and, my favorite, Ace and I’s first piece of art. It’s actually Thai, a framed painting on cloth of a view from the river of Wat Arun, a temple in Bangkok that we visited. with a dragon boat passing in front of it.
After the mall, we lugged our stuff to a very cheap and blah, but clean, little motel. We dropped off our treasures and wandered around our area in search of some non-Korean food, just for a change. We settled on Outback and had a very homey dinner, then searched in vain for a jazz club I really wanted to check out. I think the cabbie dropped us off in the wrong district, cause it was nowhere to be found, but we did stumble across a board game café, which was brilliant. Funky chairs and tables were filled with young people sipping tea and coffee and playing rented games. The lettering on all the games was in Korean, though, so we settled on Jenga.
Then we headed to a theater and watched “Love in the Clouds”, which was ok; it was really nice watch a movie on the bigscreen, though. We haven’t done that since our first weekend in Daegu! I also enjoyed the fountain Coke Zero in the concessions stand- the only place you can get that around here is Costco , and if you know me at all, you know how I feel about diet fountain colas After a night in our little room, we got up and headed to Itaewon, which is the foreigner district. We hit some import grocers and loaded up on little luxuries that we can’t find here- couscous, real oatmeal, tomato soup, edemame, mac and cheese, decent incense, etc. I’m pretty thrilled with all of those finds. Ace was also able to find some shoes there that fit him, which was exciting. There were people from all over the world and an amazing variety of restaurants- Middle Eastern, Moroccan, Italian, Mexican, African, Indian… I definitely want to go back soon and do some serious eating.
After spending a small fortune at the grocery stores, we went to the best-preserved palace in Seoul- it’s a world heritage site, and was occupied by members of the royal family until the 1980’s, I believe. It was lovely, but I was freezing during the hour and a half outdoor tour. One interesting part was seeing how the original floor heating system worked- a sort of crawl space beneath the building where charcoal was lit, and a serious of vents that carried the hot air around under the rooms, with a little door at the opposite end where you could scoop the ashes out. Brilliant! After the tour, we had dinner at a little Italian place and took the fast train home. All the getting lost and wandering around that I didn’t bother to write about made it a very tiring trip, but we had a great time. It was also nice to do the backpacker tourist thing for just a night- we ran around like crazy but knew we’d be sleeping at home on Sunday. We’re definitely hoping to go back soon.
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