My Life is Made Further Complete by Another Temple and Festival

Yakcheon-sa and the Cherry Blossom Festival

Yakcheon-sa (the '-sa' means temple in Korean)

My friend Mike's relatives were visiting and needed something to visit, so I suggested the Yakcheon temple. This is a temple I had been meaning to visit for awhile now because I had heard that it was one of the largest Buddhist temples in Asia. That didn't turn out to be completely accurate, but it was not disappointing.

I'll just mention the 2 highlights. Starting with the room with the 500 Buddha statues. Like the name suggests, there was a room with 500 unique, individually painted Buddhas doing various things. Apparently of these 500 statues, one was depicted in a Korean style while the rest were done in a Chinese style. Unfortunately there were no signs or information in the building ( the only information we had learned was because my friend had done a special foreign temple stay) and because the room had be re-arranged due to renovations, we could not find the special Korean Buddha. And honestly.... they all looked like they had been done in the same style.



The other highlight was the main temple prayer room. Now the temple claims that this is the largest Bhuddist prayer room. And it's not difficult to believe. I rarely see a temple/palace reach 2 floors, let alone 3 floors like this one does. In the center of the room there are 3 massive Buddhas, flanked by dragons curling up the poles supporting the temple. The temple isn't very old (I believe it was constructed sometime in the late 20th century), which means the paintings are still vibrant and in excellent condition. You're allowed to climb the first 2 floors, and the floors are filled with paintings and statues. All and all, it was a worthwhile trip down to Seogwipo!


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Cherry Blossom Festival

There isn't as much that I can say about this festival as it was rather uneventful. I don't recall the names of these trees, but despite the fact that I'm calling them they're certainly not Cherry trees. Each year these beautiful trees bloom for only about a week, and so during the weekend of the strongest bloom, they host a festival. This festival also coincides with the Rape seed festival, what today westerners would call Canola oil flowers. For some strange reason, the Koreans still insist on calling it by it's old name. I'm assuming they don't quite realize what 'rape' means in English. I didn't get out to see that festival, as I ended up choosing to sleep in to get over a cold caused by the 'Yellow Dust' in order to prepare for Malaysia. 'Yellow Dust' is something I recommend you google... I may blog about it later.

Back to the Cherry Blossom Festival, having read about the lavish festivals held in Japan for the Sakura (the same kind of tree) I was very much excited to see what Jeju would do! One fact I was aware of, was that in Korea, many couples have their wedding photos taken infront of the Cherry Blossoms.

Unfortunately this year Jeju's spring has been a pretty cold one, and so the Cherry Blossoms still had not fully blossomed by the time the festival had rolled around. In fact the entire festival was rather cold with the wind and a temperature around +10 celcius. Still, my friend Judy and I headed out to the colorful tents to see the festival. The festival wasn't too different from previous ones, but I was able to dress up in a hanbok again, create my own hanji doll (hanji is the Korean paper art, used in making doors, windows and other various things) and receive a painting made out in my name. Or least he painted my name on it.



It says something along the lines of 'Without friends, all the beautiful things in this world are meaningless'. Rather depressing, but apparently is of the Joseon Dynasty style. Either way the painting is gorgeous.

So there you have it. A quick update of 2 weekends I experienced in March (although I realize posted up very late). Next post? ~Malaysia~

Jenny's 'Factoids' About Koreans & Jeju Life

As of late my poor blog has been missing out on some Jenny-lovin', and since no one enjoys experiencing that, I decided to put up a filler post. I will soon be heading to Malaysia for a short vacation, so you can expect a long-winded post about that. But until then, enjoy this post about observations made about the every day life of Koreans in Jeju.

• 1. High heels are ideal footweal for any location. Caves? Mountains? They have the stability of mountain goats, and I'm clearly a wuss.
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• 1.5 Small feet + high open-toed heels = Elf Feet. Naturally, Korean have smaller feet than Westerners, which is to be expected considering their natural smaller bodies. The current shoe style style for women right now, are these wickedly high, thick strapped, open-toed heels. What Korean women don't realize, is that the combination of tiny feet (made tinier by the shoes) and the tiny high-heeled shoes, give off the impression that the woman is top-heavy. Not sexy ladies!
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• 2. Knocking on the bathroom stall door before entering is remarkably clever and helpful. How many of us have sat in a bathroom stall where the door won't properly close? And end up using one hand to keep the door closed and the other hand awkwardly using the toilet paper? In Korea you don't have to worry about that, because before any Korean enters a bathroom stall they usually knock! Although me figuring out why they were always knocking, took awhile.
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• 3. Being too cheap to pay for hot water results in no one washing their hands and a great market for hand sanitizer! Heat is expensive in Jeju, so most restaurants don't bother to have hot water run through the restaurant bathroom. So from what I've seen, usually Korean women are NOT washing their hands. This, for me, led to some confusion, as Koreans insist you wear a mask when you're sick, and yet don't seem too fazed by the lack of hand washing.
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• 3.5 Please stop putting cloth towels in public washrooms! Ew!
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• 4. Throwing paper advertisements onto the streets is not littering, it's a legitimate form of advertising!
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• 5. A big thank you to Jeju society for not making me worry about being robbed! For once in my life I've actually been carrying cash in my wallet, something I would never EVER do in Canada. Due to Jeju history, no one really steals out here. Despite there being tables of items out on the streets and no one really looking, no one really takes anything!
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• 6. Another big thanks! If you forget something at a restaurant, the workers will actually run out of the store and chase you down to return it. I know that if I ever lost my wallet here, not only would it be returned, but the money would be there as well.
• 7. LEDs on your scooter is not sexy! I'm sorry, but outfitting your tiny weiner scooter with a blue glowing light underneath it, is incredibly lame.
  
• 7.5 Having 3 guys on one motorbike with no helmets is not only dangerous, but also slightly homo-erotic. I know many Koreans don't even recognize the possibility for people to be gay, but come on.... this is up the same alley as the drunk men whose hands fall a little too close to their friend's bum!

I will add up more as I remember these small differences between my home and Korea, but for now enjoy these awesome bits of 'facts' that I've noticed during my stay here!

Fire? and Alcohol? That sounds like a good combination to me!

My Visit to the 2010 Jeju Fire Festival

Once again I haven't been posting as often. I apologize but I wasn't sure people wanted to hear my tales of woe about my demonic computer or how much I've enjoyed playing Aion. And truthfully, that would be a good summary of the last few weeks of my life. However this weekend, finally after so many weeks, I got off my butt and headed out to Jeju's largest festival!

The festival runs for 3 days and celebrates the years first Full Moon (based off the Lunar Calendar). Since Jeju is an old extinct volcano, they celebrate by embracing fire and imitating the power of the volcano through fire and fireworks. This festival is also connected to the old tradition of burning fields to prepare the soil for planting. This is Jeju's largest festival and tends to bring in people from all over Korea.

I only went to the last day of the festival because that is when they burn the entire oreum. And the fact that it rained all weekend was also a bit of a deterent.

Most of the activities had been done on the previous days, so there wasn't much to see before fire. There were TONS of food stands and a lot of free alcohol lying around. So it would be fairly safe to say that the majority of the Koreans there were definitely buzzed. That's not to say that the foreigners weren't, but you didn't need to guess if they were drunk or not.


My friend and I did the same tradition as the last festival, which is writing down our wishes for the new year on a piece of paper, and hanging up it up on some rope. Except at this festival, my wish was burned up with the rest of the haystack it was attached to.


One other thing they did have was kite flying! Now that may sound a little dull, but they had the the largest kites I have ever seen! Not to mention a giant flying Spongebob! And if that wasn't incredible (or random) enough, they later on had kites with flashing LED lights!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj5p3jlckYo

[I couldn't get the entire video uploaded here. So here's a link instead]

Finally there was the procession of the torches to the base of the oreum and they stood with torches in hand while the entire mountain side blew up with fireworks. And after a brief wait the entire place was set on fire! You can't really understand how amazing this was with just words or photos, so I've uploaded a video (ignore my dorky voice in the background)! It truly was an amazing spectacle...

Afterwards we were able to get up close to the fire and ... well basically screw about. The police didn't seem to mind, but then it's not as though anyone did anything stupid. And that was about it. It really was an amazing night!

Sword Fights and Shaman Delights!

[My Visit to the Tamna Guk Ipchun Gut Nori 2010]

I've been looking forward to this weekend for awhile now. It's the traditional Jeju Shaman ceremony, celebrating the coming of spring and asking for a good harvest from the gods. For whatever reason this tradition is strongly symbolized by a wooden cow. Unfortunately the pamphlet (the only thing in English for the entire event) didn't tell me too much information. But I will quickly tell you some of the information I learned.

First off, it was supposed to be held on Wednesday (which is day of Ipchun which represents the beginning of Spring) but was forced to be celebrated on Saturday for the sake of tourism (I gather this led to some arguments between city officials and the shamans). The festival started off on Friday, with a large parade procession from the current city hall down to the old city hall: Jeju-Mok Gwhama. I couldn't go because I had to educate Korea's brats of the future. Starting at 11am on Saturday the day was begun with the head shaman doing the traditional ceremony in order to garner favor from the spirits for a good harvest. Finally the day ended with a 6 stage drama/dance that basically wished for a bountiful harvest for the year:

1. A dance of the stone grandfather
2. A dance of the Hojang who plants seeds in the field
3. A dance of the hunter who shoos away the bird that eats the planted seeds
4. A dance that represents the seeds slowly growing
5. A dance that signifies the conflict between the grandfather's wife and his mistress
6. And finally a dance wishing the best for a good harvest at the end of the year
   

Now I'll discuss the highlights of the day. The stuff that I'll can promise you, I will never forget and should be highlighted more often in Korean tourism. Saturday was filled with drum processions, sword fights, traditional dances, traditional songs, a traditional hanji paper activity, traditional plays, traditional.... well you get it. That was the stuff that was most amazing for me, and so that is what I will talk about in this post!


On Saturday Mike and I headed down to Jeju-mok, and there standing in front of the entrance was a large bull statue. This anime is made of natural wood pieced together (not carved) and is surrounded rope with little papers tied to it with wishes for the new year written upon them. There was an interesting (but admitedly lengthy to the point of boredom) ceremony performed by the head shaman in the pavillion in front of Jeju-mok. (Picture is posted further above)

Photograph by Mike Laidman

We then headed to the activity area where I made a cute little box using the hanji (wikipedia it, you lazy bums!) paper method. It sounds complicated, but all I did was glue colored paper strips to a box and created a lovely new place to put my pencils. We also made tea soap. I think. They pointed to a tree behind us and made the most atrocious smelling soap I've ever had the 'pleasure' to smell. It's officially a gift for my brother now! (I love you!!)

Photograph by Mike Laidman

We then proceeded to view the more traditional political side of the ceremony. At least people were dressed in traditional political clothes (again, I don't know the history and tradition behind this ceremony sadly). Now at this point we were invited to sit down for a traditional tea ceremony (I truly am a lucky soul), while everyone else had to stand in line for snacks. I don't know who I was sitting beside, but I think they were some pretty important people in Jeju (who were quite friendly). Never in my life have I had so many cameras in my face. When Mike and I were first poured tea, the sound of cameras clicking was something out of a TMZ episode.

Ah yes. Mike and I came early, and by coming early we were one of the first foreigners to arrive. And as I've mentioned in previous posts, Jeju media LOVE foreigners. Mike and I were in 4 interviews today, and I have to say that there is nothing more nerve-wracking than a camera in my face and having questions being asked to me in Korean (however, most people spoke to me in English and EVERYONE was very kind).

Photograph by Mike Laidman

After all the interviews, Mike and I settled down to watch an amazing display of Korean warrior prowess. There is nothing more amazing than watching a skilled warrior slice through 5 bamboo sticks, with concentration so remarkable that I had trouble tearing my gaze away from photographs of him taken by my friend. The warrior demonstrations ranged from sword play, a halberd demonstration, and a couple of younger boys sparring. The last presentation was of the 4 year old son of one of the warrions. This cute little boy slowly walked up and sliced clean through a little cucumber. Truly a fantastic experience!

This was then followed by the fantastic experience of seeing a couple of traditional dances. It is a crime that I cannot sit here and explain to you what these dances were about! I simply do not know! This time I took some videos instead of just photos. I feel that the videos do a much better job of showing what the experience was like. The first part of the dances included a scene that almost seemed like a bit of a circus. The little boy was doing flips everywhere, while the 'trainer?' and the 'animals' danced around. Considering the theme of the festival, I think the 'animals' were bulls. But they didn't really look like it. (But who am I to judge?)

The second part of the dancing was like nothing I'd ever seen before. No... I don't know what it's about. This lack of knowledge is making me extremely frustrated! When I know, I will update this blog. I'm mentioning it and posting the video of it, because it's something the world should see! Or at least my lame family and friends back home.

Before the final dance, there was an interesting play and dance performed. I talked to one of the foreigners there with me, and he was able to interpret the Korean enough to be able to tell that there was a daughter, father and mother. The mother and father were arguing about something concerning the daughter. I just loved the mother's dancing! Hilarious!

This ended with a final dance, and a procession of drums and instruments leading to the final closing 6-part ceremony that I initially mentioned earlier in the post.

Before I finish this off, I want to tell you of 2 more experiences I had today. I'm used to being approached by curious Koreans who want a chance to talk to a foreigner (something I can understand, when you consider the massive influence from the west and yet the fact that not many Jeju'ians have had the chance to talk to a real westerner), but this was way out of my comfort zone

At first we were approached by a woman who declared to us that not only did she hate English (she was speaking in English), foreigners, and America (we did point out that we were NOT Americans), but that we were also sucking away her culture. She went on to ask how we imagined Heaven and Hell, and then declared her battle with Jesus (despite being Christian) because he was from the West (we did take the time to point out that he wasn't from the West)! This conversation ended with a question about whether she was managing her disease any better, and a cryptic message about how not only would she battle Christ, but she'd also "see us later".

The second encounter was by another woman who decided to tell me she hated Vancouver and the Canadian government (or at least the BC government), and how Vancouver was dirty and not very environmental. Now, you probably wont see me defend the BC government anytime soon, but.... HEY! Come on! That's my country you're talking about! Oh don't worry, Canada wasn't the only punching bag for her; she also hates Jeju. Now... let me tell you.... being surrounded by Jeju'ians and being the the only white person in area (so you already know people had their eyes on me BEFORE the woman approached me), while a person loudly talks about 'Jeju' with *thumb down* gestures, really gave me a new definition for the word 'tension'.

Yay for life experiences! Especially the ones I didn't think were necessary.

Well that's it for my weekend! In case you're wondering why I didn't post about my Seoul trip, it's because everything I learned in Seoul is writted with the photos on my facebook. All I really have to discuss/post about is palace factoids. If you're interested in hearing about it, tell me and I'll make a post!

K-pop! Grow Up!

http://www.allkpop.com/2010/01/beast_yoseob_fans_shutdown_ius_minihompy

Mini-hompy is like a Korean facebook. Mini-hompy = mini - homepage.

This week once again I didn't do anything of interest (unless you think shopping for computer parts and reformating my laptop is newsworthy), so I will do more of an opinion piece this week. It's still interesting, and sadly it's a subject I'm all too familiar with.



Korean Pop. Generally bland music, that is embarassingly catchy. In this post I'll be talking about how I feel about K-pop. No, I'm not going to argue quality of music. Just read on and post in my comments section what you think.

As you may remember from the last post on this topic, Korean pop bands are created like so:

K-Pop Creation
How to make your very own K-pop group!

1. -Host talent competitions and/or scour the country for talent
2. -Then choose a select lucky few to have compete against each other to see who will star in the new band (for extra cash and publicity, turn this step into a reality tv series)
3. -Then hide the select few winners and puts them through a rigorous training process. This training process includes perfecting vocals, languages (often English) and dancing
4. -Then after a year or 2 of being hidden slowly release information about the band (name/band members/music style)
5. -Then release a 'teaser trailer' released for the music video (yes a teaser for a 3 minute production)
6. -Then *BAM* have them debut on some music show and start selling merchandise.

K-pop Band Breakdown
Key Basics to Maintaining the Perfect Group

All K-pop band names have meanings. Special secret meanings that are only released weeks before the band itself debuts. For example the band, 2NE1, stands for the new 21st century sound that they embody, and MBLAQ stands for 'Music Boys Live in Absolute Quality'. So for the purpose of this excercise we'll call our K-pop group "Jenluvz". Cus not only do you love Jenny (me), but you're also jealous of Jenny (me). Cus if you say Jenluvz fast enough it sounds like 'Jealous'. Makes some sort of vague sense right?

Furthermore each member of the band is meant to embody a certain special ability. That is to say one person will be the 'fashionable one', another will be the 'voice' and there will always be the 'leader'. It's best if the lead singer isn't the best looking, or else he'll take all the attention away from the other members. I've created a chart so one can fully understand:

Now you too can create your very own K-pop group!

But back to seriousness, everything is always perfectly pre-determined and planned. The music companies control Korea's music almost entirely. I have yet to hear the Korean radio play or Korean pop sites talk about a self-made pop band (although that's not to say it doesn't exist). Yes I realize that in the west we have company-created pop bands as well, but generally the west chastises those types of bands; and eventually, some member of that pop band tries to break free and try some sort of original music. Furthermore, we do have bands that appear on the Top 100 charts that are genuine and haven't been created by a company. But... you know what? I don't mind these plastic bands all that much. Their music is catchy and at the end of the day, I still have my western music on my mp3 player if the songs get annoying.

So why does K-pop need a slap to the face? It's because of how the companies abuse the fans and how the fans abuse them back.

http://www.allkpop.com/2009/11/2pm_fans_attack_ivys_minihompy

Oh dear! Oh dear! What's worse? The boobs-galore (by Korean standards) or every 12 yr old's future husband being seduced by another women.

K-pop is about 40 years behind the west in the way K-pop stars are encouraged to interact with their fans. K-pop stars are NEVER seen with girlfriends or boyfriends. Your average fan is encouraged to think that these pop stars are single. Single all the time. If some rumors leak that the pop star has a gf or bf, it is quickly covered up with fake stories. To compare this to the west, when Paul McCartney first got married, they hid the wedding from the public for a couple of months out of fear of the fans reactions. They married in 1969!!!! Come on K-pop... get with the times.

Ouch! A face slashed by the nails from screaming fans. Something I'm sure all pop stars are used to.

http://www.allkpop.com/2009/12/wooyoung_has_a_bloody

K-pop stars work HARD! They never have a break, and are constantly working. K-pop bands cycle through songs & albums incredibly fast! Your average western star puts out an album, promotes it, tours for it and then disappears for a few months. Not K-pop stars. They spit out an album, promote it for awhile, disappear for certainly less than a year and again they do the same thing. In the case of G-Dragon (note my Halloween-theme for my blog) he released his solo album and pushed it for about 3 months before then promoting his band's, Big Bang, album and heading off to Japan. We're talking about 4 music videos, albums, photoshoots, and everything for his album in ONLY 3 MONTHS! My kids literally have a new 'flavor of the week' when it comes to music. Yes kids are like this, but not to the extent that Korean kids are encouraged to be. And constantly wanting and being given something new to be entertained with, is not a lesson I like seeing kids be taught.

The control these companies have over these kids is incredible! Often they are the ones deciding what the kids will like, and encourage the fanatical devotion. Now of course western kids can be just like this, but I feel that they have more selection when it comes to their fanaticism. ?

Oh Jae Beom, we all make mistakes as kids. But damn that one really came back to bite you in the ass.

And it's not as though their manipulating doesn't come and bite music companies in the ass. The biggest story in K-pop concerned the famous band, 2PM. The leader, Jae Beom, originally came from Seattle. Well in his younger years he whined on his MySpace about how Korea was "gay". Well years later he's moved to Korea and become a huge sensation. Well some Koreans found the post years later and made a huge fuss! HUGE! Despite multiple public apologies, the hatred was so huge that he had to quit the band and head back to the USA. Well now the kids are whining that he is no longer here.

Of course they've now changed their mind. What baffles me is why these young fans are in that much control!! THEY'RE KIDS! They throw a hissy fit and a man is out of a job! And now the company is boycotted cus they want him back? These fans are manipulated to be so utterly and completely obsessed with these band members, that it's almost impossible for these K-pop stars to keep out of 'fan trouble'.

So this is why I wish these music companies would just grow up already! Besides, if you left the K-pop stars to their own devices, chances are you'd make far more money off of the scandals they'd create.

They are just humans afterall

Jeju is Menopausal.

My Snow Day in Front of my Work Place

Today I made up for the classes missed during the Snow Day last week. Last Wednesday the weather was snowy and windy, and the temperature went down to about -10. It's now a week later and today I sweated on the way to work, because I didn't realize the temperature was now +15 and decided to wear a winter jacket. So today I felt like it was an ideal time to blog about Jeju's menopausal weather.


First off, I realize that the topic of weather isn't the most fascinating one but the weather here is just so darn weird that I just had to dedicate a post to it. Furthermore I also want you to seethe in jealousy while you hear about my warm weather in JANUARY! Because... I'm kind like that.


Now when I first got to Jeju, I almost died from the heat. Canada's summer had been cold (Canada why did you forsake me with a summer of +21 weather?) and I was not ready for the +35 (and higher) that Jeju dished out to me. To make it even extra special, it was humid.

Humidity + my hair = kids asking if I got a perm

But I start to warm up to the Jeju weather (Oh, such wit I have) when this over-20-weather lasted up until October. Oh god... it was wonderful. Leaves didn't start dropping from the trees until November.

Literally 3 Days After the Snow Day. Horrid Weather eh?

Now of course Jeju is menopausal. For all the generally good weather, there were always these random weeks where suddenly the temperature plummeted down and I felt like I had been slapped across the face by mother nature. It never made sense when they came. But each time the previous warm/cold weather had completely desensitized you for the menopausal attack. So the attacks always ended up being a lot more painful than my arrogant self had anticipated.

On the Way Home at the End of the Day

In case you didn't know, all the Palm trees in Korea are imported to incourage tourism and there is no way in hell that Jeju ever naturally had Palm trees. Jeju is certainly no 'Hawaii of Asia' as the tourism industry would have you to believe. So last Wednesday when the snow fell, I absolutely had to take photos of Palm trees covered in snow. I laughed to myself as I heard the horrid sound of buses, cars and taxis drive around with chains around the tires, and saw Koreans try to use an umbrella to protect themselves from the snow.

But really, Jeju had the last laugh again. I sweat my ass off today while wearing a winter coat in +15 weather, and this time Koreans got the chance to look strangely at me.


And honestly.


When I get back to Canada, the weather will kill me.

Penguin Swim

Well up until this past weekend most of my weekends have been during the Christmas holidays and I didn't really celebrate Christmas/New Years this year. So that's partly why my blogging had ceased. However, last weekend there was finally an event worth blogging about, the Penguin Swim. So I shall now recite to you the tale of my jolly good ol' time with my friend/male escort, Mike, at the Penguin Swim.

Now first off I want to mention that last year at the penguin swim (which Mike had also attended) there had actually been some snow fall the night before. So it was a rather perfect environment for the penguin swim. However this year... well it was a perfect day for me, but hardly fitting for a penguin swim. It was a bright sunny day of about +10C when I got up at the ungodly hour of 7:30am to head down to document my friend swim.

Yes, document. Jenny Cade does not bloody swim in any body of water during the winter. Unless it is heated and indoors. Even then I tend to avoid swimming in the winter. Cus lets be honest, who shaves their legs in the winter?

So we got down to arguably the most popular beach on Jeju island, and began to watch the pre-swim entertainment. Well actually we arrived too early and had to wait about 2 hours. While we were waiting some Korean kids (probably 12 years old) saw us and began talking to us. I don't know how, but somehow that translated into Mike doing some sort of tripping competition. I've included a video of the awesome competition. Please note the local News camera man who is also filming this.

I don't know why. But for whatever reason Jeju local news stations love filming foreigners. When Mike was registering I was pushed out of the way so a woman could interview him. And at one point there was just a camera filming my co-worker and I even though we weren't really talking or doing anything at all.

The pre-swim festivities included this wrestling and leg hopping competition. Volunteers came up and stood on one leg, while holding the other leg, and hopped on over to knock each other down. Pretty amusing and random, and as if to make it even more random the final round was between 2 middle aged ladies. The wrestling was a bit more intense. There were a lot of conscription kids for the Penguin swim (in Korea you must serve 2 years in the military) and it was mostly them who volunteered, along with a few middle aged men (and one hardcore old guy). Now the wrestling was right up against a man-made rock wall. So a couple of times shirtless guys were being flung up against the rock wall and gained a few painful looking scrapes.

It's funny how in Canada (and the West in general) we spend so much time constantly worrying if things are safe enough for people (well I don't, but someone does). Well Korea is really quite the opposite. I constantly see 2 or 3 people sitting on a motorbike with no helmet. Or see 8 drunken people sitting on the back of a fruit truck (no seatbelts of course). While I think the west takes safety to a ridiculous extreme (ie. Playgrounds. Why can't parents understand that it doesn't matter how many times you try to change a playground, kids will still find a way to get hurt on it), Korea is certainly the opposite extreme.

Finally it was time for the swim. So after a 15 minute round of warm ups, they all headed to a pit of .... tangerine goo? I'm not sure what it was, but they all started slathering each other up. And then they raced into the water. Apparently the water was about the same temperature it was last year, although I'm not sure if that made the experience better or worse.

The festivities ended with free booze (only in Jeju...) pig parts, kimchi and seaweed soup. Then Mike and I slowly wandered up to the bus and went back to Jeju city. And what did I get from this experience? A cool time, a wicked towel, and some strange photos.

Seoul Sistah!

Although this is being posted up reaaaally late, this is the tale of my weekend trip to Seoul. After spending months in Jeju and never leaving that island, my 2 male escorts (Mike and Justin) and I headed up to the capital city for a weekend getaway.

Of course my tale wouldn't be complete without some snazzy background (or at least random) information about Seoul, so let me indulge you. Now the population of the city itself is over 10mill, and if that doesn't make your jaw drop, the suburbs around Seoul boost the entire province (which pretty much is just the city and surrounding suburbs) population up to about 24 million. So... what does 24 million look like? Well literally rows upon rows upon rows of appartment buildings. Literally 24 million people stacked on top of each other. Seoul isn't your typical western city, where upon reaching the downtown core the buildings suddenly become skyscrapers. Nope, instead I found most of the buildings to be similar and not terribly interesting.

In a way I found it to be a little futuristic looking. Almost as though everyone was a designated number, living in a designated section of the city, in a designated building, on a designated floor with a designated room number. In the end, I found it was a little unsettling and not a future I want to envision.

Now while I did not find Seoul to be the prettiest city in the world, it certainly was the most technologically advanced city I've ever seen. The metro system was what stuck out the most for me. You can use your phone as the swipe 'card' to get on the metro (as well as the bus, train and taxi!) and the metro seats were comfortable and heated! There also was rather calming classical music played between each stop. Each metro line had a different song. Furthermore when waiting for the metro, there were doors separating you from the track to avoid any possibility of falling and getting hit by the metro. One of my male escorts dubbed them as 'suicide doors'.

But I guess you guys don't want to hear about the metro. We arrived early Saturday and spent most of the day looking at cameras. However that evening we headed off to check out what was dubbed the 'Light Festival'. Now initially when I heard about this festival I was imagining Koreans in Hanboks dancing while they paraded around intricate paper lanterns. This 'festival' was actually just projections of images onto the buildings that surrounded Gwanhangmun Square where it was hosted. It was actually a little lame as they mostly just projected the same images over and over again. And considering how cold I was, watching a fish swim across a couple buildings lost its appeal pretty fast!




The next day we headed to the GyeongBokGung Palace! This is the largest palace in Seoul and is a part of a district that includes about 4 other palaces. This palace is actually right infront of the parliament buildings of Korea, which is actually a palace with a signature blue roof. Like Canada and England, GyeongBokGung had its own changing of the guard, which was neat to watch with the halberds and flashy clothes.

The palace itself is huuuuuuuuuuge!!! Hopefully you can tell that by the picture I included. This is just the outer courtyard, which has its own man made stream running through the middle.

It was offered and I couldn't resist. So here's me being a tourist and dressed up in a hanbok

Now I didn't grab a headset tourguide for this palace, so unfortunately I'm not up on the history of this palace. I do know that it has spent a vast amount of its time being burnt down and rebuilt. Being burned to the ground by the Japanese or other Koreans, the oldest part of the palace was only from the 1800s. Almost everything in Korea is just a recreation of something that was burnt down. It's actually quite tragic, but for me it didn't lessen the experience. But literally everywhere, there was a little emergency fire extinguisher sitting on every corner of the palace grounds.

Here are the scribbles of my cruddy future. Please never ask me the price of this piece of paper

After this we headed to Insadong, a popular tourist place, to try out one of the popular fortune teller cafes (no I'm not a believer, but I am fascinated by it). I paid my fare and had an 'interesting' fortune told. In summary I was basically told that I would not have happiness or true satisfaction until I was 46. It would be because of my large ego which would get in the way of work and co-workers. Furthermore that any husband I have, I would only be able to see him once a month. For if I saw him too much, I would end up trying to change him, thus causing him to resent me. So my marriage would be one of permanent long distance. He also said I was the element Water , but I'm pretty sure I'm Fire.



Needless to say, it was not the cheeriest of fortunes. Highly entertaining though and worth the money! And that about wraps up my trip! Of course I spent time with friends and meeting new ones, but that isn't really worth blogging about. Besides, I'll be back soon enough to see the rest of Seoul.