11/23/09
In the interest of getting some music recording finished, I let the blog go un-updated for quite a while. So finally, here's some fresh stuff.
Back in October, Korean celebrated "Chuseok", or loosely translated "Korean Thanksgiving", a time to be thankful for the harvest and eat lots of traditional Korean food like Songpeon and Chap jae. The holiday amounted to a five day weekend for me which I took advantage of by seeing some great sights. First I went with a couple of teachers from my school to the Seoul Fortress. It's no "Great Wall of China" as far as length goes, but it covers enough ground so that we were only to walk along the north part in one day.
You know a fortress is old when you look at the brochure for it and it doesn't even bother giving the date it was built, but merely tells you that the repair project began in the 14th century at the command of King Taejo. However it wasn't until 1422 when the 4th King of the Joseon Dynasty, King Sejong (he made the Korean language), made repairing and extending the wall priority number one (after planting and harvesting of course), bringing the wall to its current, more massive girth.
View from the fortress.
Maybe I just hung out with the wrong people, but I never tried a persimmon until I came to Korea. Its a fruit that ripens in the fall and there are two kinds, one with a very soft consistency and the other more rigid. I like almost every kind of food there is and, whaddya know, I like this food as well. As with most fruits, Korean people usually peel the skin off before eating.
Speaking of food, if there is one main staple food ingredient of Korea, there is no controversy, no close second. The winner of the gold, silver, bronze, and honorable mention, is the red pepper, which can be seen drying in the autumn sun all over the place, as on this side street in Seoul. After being dried, they're made into "red pepper sauce" or "kojujang" and this sauce, in turn, is put into not only most kinds of kimchi, but at least half of all the other soups and side dishes in Korea as well. If you didn't already know, Korean food is spicy, and this is why.
This is me and the vice principal of my school. I don't see him all that often at school, but he's made me feel very welcome ever since I started at the school. When he talks to my co-teachers, he makes sure they're teaching me about Korean culture, and when we happen to cross paths in the cafeteria, he usually shows great satisfaction that I'm eating kimchi.
There are so many people who have helped me in my valiantly sloppy struggle to learn the Korean language. One of them is Alex, who is my friend Steve's co-teacher. He has helped Keith and I out so much with learning the language. It's hard to find someone who's willing to speak incredibly slowly so that you can understand and then listen patiently while you hack the sentence to pieces trying to say something simply in a correct way. He's one of those people. Thanks Alex.
However, as thankful as I am for Alex's help with Korean, he still lost when we played rock paper scissors before taking the traditional Korean clothing picture at the historic villiage.
Me, Keith, and Steve attempt to pose as "Yangpan" or ancient Korean aristocrats.