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.

Ring ding dong Ring ding dong Ring diggi dingdiggi... [The Soccer DreamMatch]

Oh yes! Oh hell yes! I was blessed by the presence of many popstars today. Oh god... let me tell you a story of epic'ness.

Jeju, back in the day, hosted the FIFA World cup and had built a massive professional soccer stadium. Now in all honesty I think the field is actually a bit too small and the nets are definitely too small, but that doesn't matter cus this wasn't any mere normal game... no! This was the soccer game to remembered for an eternity !! (Well the Zidane headbutt MAY beat this)

[Note: that there is literally a moat between the stage and the soccer field.]

First off the Soccer game was between Jeju and North Korea. Or maybe some northern part of China, but the players were north Korean! SECOND AND MOST IMPORTANT was that after the game there was a K-pop Exxxxxtravaganzzza Concert! Yes there was about 10 K-pop bands playing their #1 hits! You literally can't get any luckier than this, especially when you consider....

it was FOR FREE!

So we got there at a reasonable time, but unfortunately it was one hell of a cold, wet and windy day. Oh Jeju... known for Rocks, Women and Wind. And we sure got the last 2 with the raging wind and the screaming girls (I guess not really women). Actually thank god we found a sheltered place and free jell warmers or else I would have been a cranky Jenny. The odd thing about the entire weather experience is that everytime I thought I saw snow flying about, it turned out that it was just garbage floating in the air. At one point my friend received a massive chunk of ash on his arm. Delightful.

[Jeju United in jerseys that were clearly stolen from construction workers]

So we first sat through the game. And to be frank... it wasn't quite up to the standards I was expecting. I've kinda seen the same stuff from some of the advanced teenage teams in Canada. But the game was entertaining enough with Jeju winning 2-0. Which is a miracle when one considers the last game my friends saw with them in it, saw them lose 8-0. But it delivered in entertainment to be sure. It would have even been worth the 10,000won the ticket claimed to be worth!

Now for the K-pop. The stage was pre-set up and let me tell you, it was sexy! Of course... it was across the field and I ended up watching the TV most of the time. Which sucked a bit.

The presentation included:

Kara

Brown Eyed Girls

4Minutess

Girls Generation

Jewelry

f(x)

Some Japanese group that had big paw mittens and cat ears and sung something that we think was 'luck-y' but sounded much dirtier

U-Kiss

SS501

SHINee *Girlish Squeel*

2PM *now all the Koreans squeel*

Park Jin Young aka JYP Entertainment CEO (the name of the company is his initials) [He should stick to being a CEO]

And some annoying comedy group

[Kara performing sooooome sorta song. You'll be distracted by their bums anyways, they're quite hypnotic. However if you look closely I'm up in the stands to the left towards the top. Covered from the wind]

I'm pretty sure I'm missing more K-pop people. But I mean this gives you an idea of how epic this presentation was. These are all groups with either current chart topping hits or had some in the past. And they were ONLY singing the chart toppers. It was filmed on tv live and had fireworks and well.... fire.

[SHINee. Addictive music & terribly underaged (for me anyways) ]

Not all groups were quite as energetic of course. A couple groups were flat out lazy in their dance routines, and one band.... was oddly boyish looking. I'm still not sure I believe my friends insistance that one of those girls was NOT a guy. SHInee which I am a fan of (despite the cutest one being 16... we won't discuss that), really turned out to be very skinny. Christ, all of these K-pop stars are skinny, but boy do they take the cake. And it's not as though kids don't notice. My students dubbed SHINee as 'beggars' because they look so mal-nourished.

I've posted up the video of 2PM -Heartbeat which is currently making the girls go wild. Partly because the lead singer (whose actually American) got in a big fiasco for calling Korea 'gay' (which is ironic when you consider that many Koreans don't think Gays exist) back in his youth and it came up to haunt him later on. So he ran away to America. So this is a bit of a comeback. But mostly I posted it up cus the opening made me laugh so hard!

This was basically the K-pop Experience of a Lifetime! And it was Epic!!!





Oh... And the soccer was cool too!

EDIT: I decided to upload this video. It's epic. The lyrics.... boy well they sounds dirty. The lyrics are actually bo-peep bo-peep but enjoy listening anyways. Enjoy the paws...

The Incredibly stupid (but AWESOME) Museums of Jeju

So you may or may not be aware of this fact (it should have been a giveaway with the Loveland post) but Jeju is filled with a massive amount of stupid museums. One could argue that this is because of Jeju trying to boost its image as a honeymoon destination, or maybe it's because the Japanese long ago burnt down all their traditional buildings and they needed new attractions.



Whatever the case, Jeju has a plethora of the most ridiculous museums, ranging from a Miniature Land (world landmarks, like the The Great Wall of China, in mini form) to even a Hot Air Balloon maze park (I have no idea what that would be...). I honestly can't tell you how many of these museums/lands there are! I mean, what is Alligator Town? Or Happy Town? Or Dreamland? I don't know, but I'll find out!


But today I'll discuss 2 museums that are very stupid but awesome! Teddy Bear Museum (I visited this months ago) and Trick Art museum (which I visited last weekend).

Teddy Bear Museum

Basically this is a museum of teddy bears that reinact famous moments in history or in film. I hate to say this, but there really isn't much to say about this museum... I mean it's a bunch of bloody teddy bears.

There are paintings of teddy bears, and there is even is a outdoor... park?... of teddy bears! Sometimes they're cute and sometimes they're creepy. At the end of the day, I was left thinking about whether or not my Grandfather (who fought in WWII) would have appreciated WWII being represented by teddy bears.

Trick Art Museum

This museum was actually far more interesting than the Teddy bear museum. Basically this museum has a bunch of classical or famous paintings recreated on a brick wall. They're recreated with extra shadows and also have portions of the painting popping out of the frame. The idea is to put yourself as a part of the painting so that it appears as though you are somewhat a part of the painting.

Luckily my friend Mike came with me, and his camera (and his camera skills) were really quite amazing. So his shots looked very much superior compared to mine. This museum is perfect for anyone who likes to take silly photos. Which seems to be most Koreans. There is an entire store in Jeju that has nothing but those small photo booths you find in malls & amusement parks and costumes to dress up in. Furthermore, for whatever reason, it appears that EVERY Korean owns a huge professional camera, and yet I sincerely doubt they're all avid amateur photographers. So i'm pretty sure that this museum is targeting that audience in particular. Either way, it's still a fun museum

In the end, the museums were definitely worth it. You certainly can't find any like this at home. And there are plenty more for me to check out!

New Theme!

Ok, so I want to give a quick description of my new theme! Of course it is now winter (not really for us) and soon it will be Christmas. My blog theme is reflecting the new things that I've learned about Koreans and winter.

First off, Korean buildings have no central heating. I'm also pretty sure that they don't have insulation either.

Secondly, Koreans live by two temperatures. Super hot or super cold. They hate super cold, so inevitably (thanks to portable heaters) you'll experience the super hot.

Thirdly, Korean winter fashion is... interesting. They usually just wear thin coats with layers and layers of sweaters underneath. And otherwise freak out if you wear short sleeved shirts. They don't really wear mittens, but they do have nifty earmuffs with mp3-players inside

Fourth-ly and finally, the hats. The hats are awwwwesome. And that is what has inspired my new theme. Koreans LOVE cutsey hats. Particularly the animal-themed hat. My male student has the very same hat as the old man in this picture, and this is the 'cool kid' of my class. My friends often joke about what kind of Korean men these boys would end up like if it wasn't for the 2 years of conscription they all have to take.

PS- I will be buying one of these hats for myself. LOL!

Up, Down, All Around, and Sick as a Dog

So it's been awhile since I've posted up an update and I do apologize. I've been sick for about a solid month and it has zapped the energy out of me. So most of my weekends have been me feeling miserable, singing a large amount of K-pop to myself, gift shopping, letter writing and on one special Halloween me being extra sick after I drank 2 glasses of wine.
My little black dress will never be the same...

So this weekend I finally had some energy and went on an adventure with my partner in crime, Liz.

Oh finally... freedom from my smelly bedroom!

So this post is the tale of this Saturday and another mini-adventure I had in the city.

Majanggul

'Gul' means cave in Korean, so the name literally means Majang Cave. Majanggul is actually not a cave, it is a system of lava tubes that are some of the largest in the world. (For those of you who don't know and will be too embarassed to ask, lava tubes are the tunnels formed from where lava once flowed.) And walkin through them you can quickly tell that they aren't exagerating about the size. Sections of the tube are approximately 23m wide and over 30m high. So while it is too dark to see much of the tube formations, it still is an enjoyable 1km walk.




Actually Jeju has tons of lava tube systems, but this one is an actual UNESCO world heritage site and... well huge! The tube runs for kms and kms but only 1km is open, and quite frankly that's enough for me. As awesome (and I mean that as in awe-inspiring-some) as it is, 1km is suffiscient. It's dark and one can only spend so much time wondering how Korean girls can walk in high heels in this place, or spend time looking into the deep dark (Hence why I only used my own photo once for this post, cus my camera usually only took photos of what appeared to be my friend in front of a black abyss).

Gimnyeong Maze

Woot! Hedge Maze! Who doesn't love those? I mean honestly! Well actually this maze is on the way to the tubes, and since the tubes were free and the hedge was only 2$, we figured we'd spend some money on this. Apparently this hedge maze was created by an old foreigner, Fred, who built (grew?) this as part as his retirement project. Some people play golf, some build (grow? seriously I don't know!!) hedges! Why not? The purpose of the maze is to make it to the middle and climb up the stairs to ring the bell. So Liz and I went our seperate ways and raced to the center.

Highlights of this maze include: somehow giving myself motion sickness while going through the maze (Yes... my own motions made me sick. It was all the bushes!), the random Korean boys who caught me off guard and said Hi (and then proceeded to giggle like a little school girl with his friend) to me while I looked at them blankly, me cheating, and finally KICKING LIZ's BUTT!

Thank you! Thank you!
Don't worry, she looked at the map too, I just cheated faster than she did.

Samseonghyeol

Finally the activity I did while I was sick. This is a famous place within Jeju-si that my Korean friend John (that's his English name obviously) took me to. It's a very famous shrine within Jeju and quite frankly it was quite a priviledge to be able to see it. What follows is the legend that surrounds this shrine:

Go, Bu and Yang were 3 demigods that rose from the earth at the Samseonghyeol shrine. One day, while they were hunting, they met 3 maidens who had wased up on the shore with grains and animals. They married the maidens, started up agriculture and each man began their own tribe. They are credited with populating the island with the tribes that the three men began. Even today, it is not uncommon to see a Jeju'ian with one of those demigod names as their last name. Actually a couple of my students have Bu as a last name [Boo So Young being the cutest name].

So twice a year, descendants come to the shrine and conduct a ceremony to worship their ancestors. The place itself is really quite nice and relaxing. The truth is, Jeju-si is one of the more ugly cities in this world (doesn't beat Waterloo though) and Samseonghyeol is one of the few beautiful parks. It has traditional Korean buildings, 3 shrines, a miniature museum about the shrine, and of course the actual spot where the 3 demigods emerged from the earth. The entire place actually made me the most relaxed I've felt in a long time!


So there you have it! I'll try to update more often, now that I'm finally well and over this horrid illness!