Merry Christmas in Korea

We had a wonderful Christmas weekend! Thanks to our dear parents we had lots and lots of gifts and treats! I managed to produce lots of lovely sweet & spicy Christmas biscuits, Gluehwein and Christmas mince pies.

Thanks to our friends in Korea for good times: the Christmas Eve dinner on Thursday night, walk on Geumosan on Saturday morning, delicious pa-jeon and makkeoli for Christmas lunch, Sherlock Holmes (movie) on Christmas afternoon, Suanbo & Weoraksan snow, Cockburn's Port, pheasant & makkeoli on Boxing Day and a dinner party and live music to finish it all off with a flourish!

Here's to a fabulous 2010!

Christmas Decor at School

For the ten days leading up to Christmas, I planned lessons for 'my girls' (students) to make Christmas decorations. Christmas is celebrated in Korea, to some extent. Christmas Day is a national holiday, the big depratmnet stores play christmas music and sell piles of toys and christmas trees and cards, and Christian families usually go to church and spend the day together.

The Christmas spirit is, however, not as we know it at home. Christmas is a minor holiday in Korea copared to the other biggies (Chuseok and Lunar New Year) and the Christmas spirit is more of a commercial one than anything else. This is of course partly true in western countries, but all in all there are more social activities leading up to Christmas back home than here.

We experienced this last Christmas, and for us, it made being away from home over Christmas even harder. We had a good time and our lovey parents sent us parcels and we bought each other gifts but it was still tough. To make it easier this year, I threw myself, body and soul, into making the Christmas season a festive one: for myself and those around me. I was baking biscuts many nights a week, we decorated our house and had at least three big Christmas meals over the long weekend. Happy Christmas = Lots of yummy food, right?! :)

What I also did, was get Christmas cheer going at school. It is still strange to be at school right up until the the day of Christmas eve, but I enjoyed it so much more this year. I planned ahead a bit and managed to make a request for some money to buy stationery and other accessories needed to make christmas decorations. With our new principal, these kind of requests have become a reality and no longer a far off dream - what a pleasure! So off I went with the school's credit card and spent W120 000 at Sangju Stationary Centre. I bought lots and lots of colour paper, stickers, ribbons, glue, scissors, staples, etc. I had to do my calcuations quite carefully - by the end of the week, I would have seen about 650 students and I had to have enough materials for all of them.

Anyway, it all went swimmingly. The lesson itself was much more of a culture lesson than a language lesson: the girls told me that they don't usually make their own Christmas decorations, and they didn't know how to make gingerbread-man-chains, paper snowflakes or any of those simple paper crafts which we all learn at pre-school and make in our holidays at home. The most English they had to use was asking me for materials if they ran out "May I please have some more colour paper." " May I please have some ribbon." etc. This seems like very little, but believe me, it was difficult for some of them. What I liked about it is that it is REAL English which they are using to communicate with me.

They thoroughly enjoyed making the decorations and hanging them up along their allocated part of the windows at school. So many teachers commented on the festive, pretty windows and I really felt like the decorations brought more of a Christmas spirit to my school. Yeyyyy!

Why? I don't know, but it made me laugh!!

ONLY IN KOREA! Squid for Christmas!! :)

Instructions: probably much to difficult for most of the students to follow, but it helped me prepare and gave them some idea of the finished products.

This is Sujin. She is one of my favourite students. She is tiny and FULL of energy! Other teachers have problems with her in class as she has a very short attention span but she shines in my classes as most of the activities are high-energy. After every class, she stays behind and helps me clean up my desk and the classroom - she's my little angel!

Some of the girls took the opprtunity to make Christmas cards - for me and for some of their other teachers.

Some of the first grade students at the high school. In typical Korean-teenaged-girl style they're doing their best to obscure their faces. It's quite sad...most of thes egirls think their faces are too big, and they all want narrower faces like westerners. What a sad thing!

Mr Kang and I: He is my co-teacher at the high school and is absoultely wonderful. I think he is the main reason why I feel so much more at home at the high school than the middle school. He speaks almost perfect English and is so understanding and encouraging. He's also a real joker, so being in the classroom with him is such a pleasure.

Snowy Skiing at Muju Resort

Two weekends ago we went skiing at Muju resort. Muju Ski Resort os one of the biggest in Korea and is about 2 hours from here by car.

Arranging public transport to get to Muju was a bit of a nightmare - we were going to take a shuttle bus organised by the resort, but then it was cancelled at the last minute as they didn't get enough bookings. So then we were going to have to take two trains, a bus and a very expensive taxi to get to the resort. Our dear friend Seong-suk then came up with the brilliant idea of hiring a van (=mini bus). Her husband arranged a great deal for us and for W200 000 for the weekend it was very much affordable. I was the designated driver - the only one with an international drivers' licence - and fortunately it all went very well. Thanks go to Dan, a UK friend of ours, for taking over the tricky snow-driving!

We had a fabulous time at Muju: the weather was perfectly wintery! It snowed most of the time we were there - this was of course accompanied by very cold temperatures: it was around -7 degrees C most of the time, and at one point my eyelashes even began freezing shut (scary!!) but it was great for skiing. I am still not a very good skiier but I really enjoyed going down the slopes at my own pace, and by now I am relatively comfortable even going down the internediate slopes which is a real personal achievement!

My skills were really put to the test on Sunday afternoon when we decided to all go down the longest slope at Muju together. It is called 'The Silk Route' and starts high up in the mountains. When we got out of the gondola (=small cable car) at the top it was very misty and windy. We had lunch at the restaurant on top and then headed off to the slopes: well, the conditions were rather scary. By now the wind was howling and the mist and snow coming down so think one couldn't see more than about 20m ahead. This all on a relatively steep slope which had turned to ice. The wind had blown all the surface snow off the slope and it was treacherous and very, very slippery. Scary on smooth skis which are made for snow not ice!

Anyway, we took it really slow, and Lina, our 'Ice Angel' helped us avoid the worst of the ice. She is an experienced snow-boarder and it was very comforting having here there with us. The scary conditions lasted for about 2km of the slope, and as we got lower down it cleared a bit but it was certainly a rather nerve-racking experience - bonding for sure!

Our group for the weekend was as follows: Simon, Dan, Melissa, Lina, Julian and Jess. Lina is from the nearby town of Gimcheon and the others are all from Sangju. A combo of 2 Poms, 2 Americans and 2 South Africans. We had a fantastic time together and really look forward to another ski trip in February when we're back from Cambodia. Enjoy the photos!

Beautiful Muju Ski Resort: the resort is designed in a kind of Alpine Style - very well done actually!

An ice-cream in the snow at minus 7, I just had to!

The slopes! This was a beginner slope - one which I spent most of my weekend going down, just getting into it again and not putting too much pressure on myself :)

Who's who??

Go Team! from left to right: Simon, Melissa, Dan, Lina, Julian, Jess.

Cleaning the snow off the car, as more was falling! We really loved being in the snow, it is still such a novelty for us!

Eating 팥죽 on 동지날

I am now safe for the winter: I went to eat 팥죽 on 동지날 with my colleagues. 팥죽 (patjuk) is red bean soup with glutinous rice balls and 동지날 (dongjinal) is a traditional Korean holiday which falls on winter solstice, the 22nd of December.

Eating red bean soup on this day is an important traditional Korean ritual: it is believed to prevent evil spirits, and protect the people who make it (and eat it) from bad luck and epidemic diseases.

So some of the teachers at my high school invited me to come with them to a small temple near our school where we had red bean soup for lunch. It was delicious! I really like beans and the soup had a lovely rich, earthy flavour. It had rice balls in it, which are called "birds eggs" in Korean. The monks at the temple also brought us kimchi: this was honestly amongst the best kimchi I have tasted. I am not a huge fan of the stuff, but this was rather tasty. Since they are buddhists they don't eat meat and so instead of using fish sauce as the base of the kimchi sauce, they had used pumpkin and persimmon pulp: so much better!

P.S. The picture is straight off the internet. This was another one of those 'surprise' occasions on which I wish I had had my camera, but didn't.

Afterthought:
I am really enjoying being at the high school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I started conversation classes for all the teachers about 2 months ago and it has made the teachers so much more open and friendly towards me. I really feel almost 'part of the family' - more so than I ever expected.

A Fascinating Tea Experience

Last week I had a surprising and wonderful experience. Initially I had the usual 'what's going on here?' kind of feeling which we as foreigners in Korea know so well, but that feeling soon changed to one of curiosity, respect and humility. Mr Shin, one of the senior teachers at my high school - the one who's mother's funeral ceremony I attended - came along on Thursday and told me that his friend at the local court wanted to have English conversation lessons. Thanks to interpretation by the ever-wonderful Mr Kang (my high school co-teacher), it turns out that Mr Shin's friend is the chief judge of the Sangju district court and that he wants me to give him and his staff at the court English conversation lessons. To discuss the details, he had scheduled a meeting for us on Thursday afternoon.

So off the three of us (Shin, Kang, Jess) went to the court. An important-looking place of course, with metal detectors in the foyer and finger-print entrance-security in the corridors. Once we entered the chief judge's office I suddenly felt rather small and lowly: he has a huge office with the usual 'important' couches for entertaning guests - similar to the ones one encunters in other important places in Korea. We bowed our greetings and took our seats.

The judge sat at the head of the table and infront of him the typical equipment for a traditional Korean tea ceremony were laid out. This took me by surprise, but it soon became apparent that this was his way of showing respect to us for agreeing to meet with him, and in no time the tea ceremony was in full swing.

Kang did a fabulous job of explaining to me what the judge was saying about the various pieces of equipment, different types of tea, preparation methods etc. I commented that one doesn't come across traditional tea ceremonies very often, and Kang translated that this had to do with the Japanese occupation which tried to stamp out a lot of Korean traditions. Tea ceremonies are generally associated with people of higher social standing, then and now, and this explains why the judge would have 'treated' us to this: as a way of welcoming us, but also maybe to make us appreciate that we were in 'important' company.

It seems that traditional tea ceremonies in Korea were becoming less and less common, but have recently been experiencing a kind pf 'revival', as a way of relaxing in the formal setting of the workplace, and re-connecting with traditional buddhist beliefs and a healthier way of life.

So the equipment which the judge, Mr Song Bong-Kie, used was as follows: a main teapot (symbolic of the father), a secondary 'teapot', a kind of shallow cup with a spout (symbolic of the mother) and a few small cups without handles (symbolic of the children). The tea leaves - he used early-harvest green tea - are placed into the 'father' pot and then it is filled to the brim with boiling water. It is left for about a minute, no longer, and then the tea is poured into the 'mother' pot/cup. From the mother pot it is then poured into the 'children' cups.

'Dad' teapot - with the symbolically phalic handle, 'Mom' pot in the background (as usual) and the kids lined up next to them.

We were each given a little cup and could drink our tea. The green tea leaves can be re-used three times, i.e. the 'father' pot is re-filled with water three times. I must note that the 'tea set' is very small compared to our western tea sets: the pots and the cups. The tea tasted lovely: a clean, green tea kind of taste which I'm sure I couldn't even fully appreciate.

He told us that he also uses Puerh Tea from China, which he buys in compressed cakes for lots of money. I definitely got the impression that doing the tea ceremony the really traditional and proper way required access to lots of money.

They asked me whether I drink tea: I said yes, but that I drink tea from tea-bags and feel that one can hardly compare the two. I tried to look bashful and I think I communicated myself quite well :) Mr Shin himself is also quite a tea connoiseur and often brings me traditional Korean tea to try at school. But he refuses to try my rooibos tea as it is in a teabag!

Then a friend of the judge's, a buddhist tea mistress, came to join us. She is a highly-respected tea master/msitress(?) and is the one who taught the judge all about tea and tea ceremonies. This appeared to be the really special part as she used some very fancy implements to prepare 'Malcha' tea - powdered green tea of the highest quality.

Equipment for making Malcha tea - powdered green tea. (photo courtesy of 'The Internet')

She used a different kind of pot - similar to the 'mother' pot - for this tea. A special bamboo spatula was used to place the powdered tea into the pot and then a little cold and then hot water was added to it. She then used a very strange looking implement made of bamboo: it looked like a cross between an old-school shaving-foam brush and a whisk.

She stirred the mixture very briskly for a few minutes and it got all foamy and green - a lovely bright colour. We each had a turn to drink the tea straight out of the mother 'pot' and then she made a fresh batch for the next person: it had a very strong, rather bitter flavour, but also very fresh. I quite enjoyed it! The judge then gave me a tea set: this came as a complete surprise to me, and I felt very honoured and humbled. He explained that the tea set was pottery and made in a wood-fired kiln by a well-known monk at a nearby temple.

Mr Shin later told me that I was very lucky to receive that tea-set as a gift as one cannot actually buy them: the 'special' monk who makes them only gives them as gifts. Now the pressure is on - I will have to ask Mr Shin to help me buy the 'right' tea to drink from my unique and precious tea set - and ask him to help me make sure I do it all right. Come on over and I'll show you all how :)

My special tea-set, wrapped in the traditional Korean way.

Post script:
At no point during our meeting did we discuss the English lessons. The closest we came was the judge asking me whether I needed to see a dentist, and inviting us to a dinner meeting with himself and his dentist friend where we would (maybe!) discuss the English lessons further (?). After the dinner his dentist friend would be more than happy to check my teeth! To be continued...

Fly-by-night Sumo Trip to Japan

A few weeks ago we had the wonderful fortune of going along on a trip to Fukuoka in Japan. The main, and almost only, purpose of our trip was to watch the Sumo Wrestling Grand Tournament which was being held in Fukuoka. There are four grand tournaments a year, and only on in Fukuoka - the nearest Japanese city for us - so it was the perfect opportunity. We took a train down to Busan (3 hours) and then a 3-hour ferry across to Fukuoka.

The only part of this experience which was bad, was the awful mission we had to go through to get visas: we had to provide so much paprework, for a 2 day visit. What made it all the more annoying was that the Brits, Canadians and Americans whom we went with were visa-exempt - love it! (Wait 'til we got o China...:))

Anyway, we had a really fabulous time. We were a group of 8 and all got along like a house on fire, I was amazed at how a group of 8 interdependently-minded people could make travel decisions without too much struggle at all. Yey!
We also managed to fit in a delicious Japanese drinking-meal and a some late night capers in a Bourbon bar in downtown Fukuoka - where I was incredibly privileged to be given a Kimono as a gift - a 60-year old one at that, thanks Bourbon+Asian generosity :)

The next morning we managed to fit in a visit to the Robot Center and the beachfront before catching our ferry home.

Here are the pics I showed my students - they laughed SOO much at the sumo wrestlers, they loved it! I tried to emphasize the importance of respecting Sumo as an ancient part of Japanese culture and get them to look beyond the 'sexy panties' and big bellies and 'boobs' but that was lost on them :)