Photo of the Week # 10

For the last photo here is a picture of me and my friend at the LINE store in Seoul. The LINE bear
is definitely the most iconic mascot of this brand, so I was excited to take a picture next to it. LINE bears
name is Brown! Isn't he cute? 

다시 만날 날까지~ (da-she man-nal nal-gga-jji) Until We Meet Again!

 이번이 마지막이네요.. ㅠㅠ 안녕하세요 여러분!
( ee-beon-ee ma-jee-mak-ee-ne-yo... yu-yu ann-yeong-ha-se-yo yeo-ro-bun)
 For the last time.. :'( :'( Hello Everyone!


I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Break this last week. I'm a bit sad to say, but this will be our last post (aside from the photo of the week). Fortunately, we will get to meet again when I come visit next month! I'm so excited to share with you in person about South Korea. By the way, I am so curious! What was your favorite blog posts from the past 10 weeks? What was your favorite thing you learned? Also, do you think you would like to visit South Korea if you had the chance?

During this last post, I am going to tell you four reasons why you should consider studying abroad when you get older!

Number 1: Learning about a different culture and history! 

 

Photos of historical and cultural things I took in Korea. Top
left: A tower known as a Sok-tap where ancient Koreans
would pray to free their worries. Top Right: Picture of wishing
rocks. (Remember the hiking blog?), Bottom photo: Picture
of one of the traditional buildings from the Buddhist Temple, Sudeoksa.

When you visit or study abroad you have the unique opportunity to learn about a new culture and history different from your own. I know you all seem to enjoy Korean history, so I thought I'd tell you a very quick history lesson before this blog ends. I asked my Korean friend Jiyeong, to explain this story to me.

Creation of Korea: The Story of Dangun

Legend has it that a long time ago there lived a tiger and a bear. The tiger and bear went to the God of Sun (Hwan-eung) and asked to become human. Hwan-eung said if they could stay in a cave for 100 days and only eat mugwort and garlic they could become a human. The tiger couldn't stay in the cave but the bear was strong and endured! When the bear came out of the cave, Hwan-eung had made her into a beautiful woman named Ung-nyeo. Hwan-eung and Ung-nyeo become married and had a baby named Dangun (The First Korean) who grew up to be a powerful Shaman. Thus, the land of Korea was created with Dangun as its first member.

Picture Depicting the Story of Dangun

If you'd like to learn more, I invite you to watch this short video about the history of Korea from YouTuber Billy GO! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbhZ0RapV4U (Also if you ever want to learn Korean, Billy makes great educational videos and books about the Korean language!)

 Number 2: Try and eat delicious foods! 

Pics I took of a bunch of delicious food! In order: Patbingu, Haejangguk, Honey Butter Chicken, Jjimdalk, Ddukbukki, Choco Chex Bingsu, Mango Bingsu, Honey Macaron, Bungeobang, ddong (poop) bread, Yukgaejang (best I've ever had!!!), full course ddeokgalbi meal, and different yummy drinks. 

Studying abroad allows you to try and eat all sorts of yummy foods you can't easily get in America! During my study abroad these past three months, I have had the chance to eat so many delicious foods that I will really miss when I go back home. I plan to come back to Korea next August and a large reason for that is definitely the food!! Whether Korea, Japan, Mexico, or The Netherlands; each country has their own unique foods that studying abroad will give the chance to try!

Number 3: It's Cheaper Than You Think!

 
I think that one reason a lot of people don't study abroad, is that it can be really expensive. However, that is not always the case. Most schools offer scholarships you can apply to that will really help with the cost. I have been really fortunate that I have had to pay little to no money to study abroad. During the summer of 2018, I received the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) for Korean. Through CLS, I was able to study Korean in Korea for two months all expenses paid for plus money for food and travel. For the program I am doing currently at Soonchunhyang University, not only is housing free, the school actually pays me over $100 a week and paid for my airfare!

Of course, not all study abroad programs are like this but if you are worried you can't study abroad because of money, definitely look into similar programs! Actually, theres even a high school program called NSLI-Y that pays everything for students to study abroad for 2 months or even a year. Of course, you all are still young but just know there are lots of opportunities out there!

Number 4: Make Friends From All Over The World!

 

Finally, studying abroad gives you the opportunity to make friends from all over the world. At my school not only are there Koreans, but there are people studying abroad here from the United States, Canada, France, China, Japan, Uzbekistan, Germany, Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Vietnam, and Mongolia!

 I've been able to meet and make friends with so many people I could have never met without studying abroad. Some of which, I will be friends with for a lifetime!

I hope these reasons make you consider studying abroad in the future and of course there are so many other reasons I did not even touch. I have not only made new friends, gone on cool trips, etc., but, I have truly learned a lot about myself  as a person as well! I truly think this study abroad program has pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me a more confident person. I am so thankful for these experiences and very grateful that I was able to share them with all of you!

Again, I would love to hear about which blog post was your favorite, or any other fun facts or things about Korea that you remember learning! Also, if you have any suggestions for fun  stuff we can do during our celebration next month let me know (like maybe I can give a little Korean lesson!).

Until we meet again,
안녕! (Ann-nyeong)!

Happy Thanksgiving! *gobble gobble*

Happy Thanksgiving friends!
행복한 추수감사절  보내세요! (haeng-bok -han chu-su-gam-sa-jeol bo-nae-se-yo)

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and ate lots of food with
your families! Although, Korean "Thanksgiving" (Chuseok) happened a
few months back, my friends and I did get together and made our own
little American Thanksgiving this week. We had tasty breadrolls, corn, pickles, and chicken!
(Couldn't find any turkey in Korea sadly...). What was your favorite food you ate for
Thanksgiving this year?

Student Interview: Meet Jimin and Cleo!

안녕하세요 여러분!
Hello Everyone!

I really hope you enjoyed learning a little about school life in Korea last week. I am super excited for this week, because I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to interview two Korean students who are about the same age as you all! They were both really excited to know that you all will be reading it and hope that you enjoy what they have to say.

Anyhow without further delay, let me introduce you to the two students Jimin and Cleo! Jimin and Cleo both go to an international school (where they use a lot of English) so their experience might be a little different than some other kids their age but definitely not too different.

Jimin (left), and Cleo (right)

I asked both girls the same questions so I will write down their answers below. Jimin answered my questions in Korean so I did my best to translate! 

Me: What is your name? 

Jimin: My name is Jimin. (제 이름은  지민입니다.)

Cleo: My name is Cleo Kim and my Korean name is 김태이 (Kim Tae-Ee)

Me: How old are you? (몇 살이에요?)

Jimin: I am 10 years old in Korean age. (10한국나이로)

Cleo: My age is 11 and I was born in 2009. 

You might be wondering what Jimin means by "Korean age". Actually, in Korea age works
differently. In Korea, when you are born you are considered to be one years old. Also, in Korea
everyone turns the next age on New Years Day!  This means if you were born on Dec 31st, you
would be TWO years old the very next day! Of course, you still celebrate your birthday here but
technically you are considered to be the same age as everyone who was born in the same year as you.
So that means, all kids born in 2009 are 11 in Korea even if their birthday isn't until December.
Can you figure out what your Korean age is?

Me: What grade are you in? 

Jimin: I am in grade three in Korea. (3학년한국으로)

Cleo: I'm now in 4th grade actually in my school I should be 5th grade but I came late so now I'm in 4th grade.

Me: What are your favorite things to do for fun? 

Jimin: Gymnastics! (체조)

Cleo: My favorite fun's are texting with my friends  and watching Tik Tok and recording my videos at Tik Tok. I like to collect some K-pop good, I like collecting Red Velvet's Goods. 

Have any of you used Tik Tok? I
have heard its a pretty popular app
for kids these days.

Red Velvet is a Korean pop group! Actually, I showed you one of
their songs in my "Riding the Hallyu Wave" post from earlier this month!

Me: What does your usual school day look like? 

Jimin: I go to school from 8am to 3pm, but school gets out at 4pm. After school finishes, I go to academy (after school-school)... ummm then I come home and do homework, then I play on my phone, and then go to sleep! (학교가 8시부터 3시까짛하고 방과후하면 4시에 끝나고... 끝나면 학원가고  학원 같다오면  숙제하고 숙제하고 핸드포하다가 자요!)

Cleo: I go to school and go to academy (sometimes), and go to home. 

 

Me: What do you usually do when you meet your friends? 

Jimin: I play board games or play outside!! (보드게임하거나 뛰어놀아요!)

Cleo: I watch movies and drink Gongcha (bubble tea), go to friends house or my house. 

Gong cha is a famous bubble tea shop in Korea! Have you ever had bubble tea?

Me: What is your favorite food? 

Jimin: Ramen!! (라면)

Cleo: My favorite foods are Korean foods example: I like meat! I like American foods too!

Me:Do you like learning English? 

Jimin: Yes! (네!)

Cleo: I like learning English from kindergarten. I was in international school because I like learning English and I went to America at summer vacation. It was pretty god because I like to communicate with many Americans.

Me: What is your favorite subject at school?

Jimin: Math or science. (수학아니면 과학)

Cleo: My favorite school subject is always changing but my most favorite is L.A. (Language Arts) because I like to spell the word and  pronunciation the words. I had many hard time to learn vowels, adjectives, and nouns. 

Me:Do you want to tell anything else to the American fourth graders? Maybe do you have questions for them that you are curious about? 

Jimin: Is school in America hard or difficult? (미국 학교 힘들어요?)

Cleo: Do many American students learn about Koreans?

The American flag next to the Korean flag.

What did you all think of the interview? I had so much fun asking Jimin and Cleo questions and I hope you all feel like you learned a lot about kids in Korea these past few weeks. Is there anything else about kids in Korea you'd like to know?  Maybe more questions you have for Jimin and Cleo? What do you think about Cleo and Jimin's questions for you? Do you think American school is hard? What about learning about Koreans in school? Definitely, leave your answers below and I will share them with Jimin and Cleo! Also let me know if you have any questions about their answers. 

Also, I kinda can't believe it but next week I will be writing my last blog post for you all!!! :'( So please do let me know if there are any questions you still have about Korea that you'd like me to answer that week. Although it will be our last post, it won't be our last time talking! In January I will be coming by to throw a little celebration with you all. I am hoping to bring you all some fun treats and share about my experiences, so let me know either this week or next if there are any sort of treats or things you want me to bring back for you! 

Till next week! 다음에 봐요!

Photo of the Week #8

Hello class! The photo this week is one I took at the entrance of a Buddhist temple near my school. We did a temple stay at Sudeoksa with one of my classes where we learned about Buddhism, drank tea and talked with a monk, and had a traditional Buddhist lunch. This entrance is called the one pillar gate, and is the first gate you will see at all Buddhist temples across Korea! 

Let's go to school in Korea!

안녕하세요 여러분! (Annyeonghaseyo Yeorobun)

Hello everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed last weekend's post on activities for kids in Korea! I think it's pretty neat to see how daily lives for Korean kids are different from America. In relation, this week I am going to discuss education in Korea! Next week I will be interviewing a kid here in Korea to get an even closer look at life in Korea as a kid so be on the lookout!

To start, let's look at how education is laid out. Kids typically start school at 5 years old for 유치원 (yu-chi-won) or kindergarten. Next they go to elementary school (초등학교- cho-deung-hak-gyo) until 6th grade. After this, kids will go to middle school (중학교-jung-hak-gyo) until 9th grade and then high school (고등학교- go-deung-hak-gyo) for three years, from 10th grade to 12th. Notice any differences from America yet? 

Typical classroom of elementary schoolers.

In America the school year starts in September right? In Korea, they actually start in March and end the year in December! This means that everyone in your grade will have been born the same year as you. Age is really important in Korea due to the system of respect here. In fact, in Korea you can technically only be true "friends" or 친구 (cheen-goo) with people who are your same age. Of course you can be friendly and close with people of different ages but they won't technically be your "cheen-goo". Actually when I met my roommate Jiwon, the first thing she asked me when I arrived was my age. When we found out we were born the same year, she said that made us "cheen-goo"! 

My friend Eunji and I! She was born in 1995 and I was born
in 1997. So what do you think? Would that make us cheen-goo's?

Anyhow, I am curious how what does a typical day of school look like for you all? What time do you go to school and what time do you go home? In Korea, elementary kids go to school at 9am and the younger kids (grades 1-4) will go home after lunch. Older kids (5th and 6th grade) stay a little later. However, this doesn’t mean the school day is done. Many elementary kids will go to a  학원 (hak-won) or after school-school until late at night (my friend Jiyeong said that she would go to hak-won until as late as 10pm!) Hak-won is where students go to study English and other subjects. In high school it is most important since it is where kids study for their college entrance exams! What do you guys do after school? 

What do kids in Korea wear? Although, elementary students
can wear what they want usually, middle and high school students
have to wear uniforms like this. Would you like to wear a uniform?

Now that I’ve told you a bit about  Korean education I wonder if you have any questions about education in Korea I can ask the kids. If you have any other questions for the Korean kids let me know, and I can try to ask them! 

By the  way, this weekend I went with my friends to a green tea field, bamboo forest, and the  6th largest city in Korea- Gwangju. I picked up some delicious green-tea caramel that I  hope to share with you all when I come back. Do you like green tea?

Picture I took at the Boseong Green Tea fields. Boseong creates 30% of Korea's green tea.

Bamboo Icecream!

Bamboo forest. This was me next to a statue
from the Korean story "The King's  Ears are Donkey Ears."

Photo of the Week #7

 This week I wanted to share a photo I took in Gangnam area of Seoul. It is a statue representing the Gangnam Style by Psy dance! Do you know Gangnam Style?

Pandas, Cafés, and a Holiday Just For Kids?

안녕하세요 여러분 (Annyeonghaseyo Yeorobun)
Hello Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed last week's post on K-pop and Korean entertainment! In relation, I was actually really lucky this week and stumbled across a free performance by some of my favorite Korean artists while in Seoul this past weekend. 

Video I took of brother-sister duo Akdong Musician (AKMU) performing

their newest song "How Can I Love The Heartbreak, You're The One I Love".

This week however, I wanted to talk about a topic I think you will all enjoy: Being a Kid in South Korea! Specifically, I want to talk about the different activities that kids can enjoy and a bit about what being a kid in South Korea is like. I will be interviewing a kid here either next week or the week after so definitely be on the lookout for that!

The first thing I wanted to talk about is a special holiday in Korea called "Children's Day! (어린이날-eo-reen-ee-nal). Whereas in America we have Mother's and Father's Day, Korea has a Children's Day and a Parent's Day(May 8th). I asked my roommate Jiwon about Children's day and how you celebrate it. She told me that Chilldren's Day is on May 5th, and is a day for parents to give presents to their kids and to spend time together. Jiwon also said that typically parents will stop giving gifts when the kids go to middle school but that she asked her parents to keep giving her gifts so she still got them for a few more years.

What do you think about Children's Day? Do you wish America had a Children's Day? Are there any holidays in America that you think are similar? 

The next thing I will talk about are children cafes, museums, and parks! South Korea has  hundreds and hundreds of cafes, so it is no suprise that their are kids cafes too! Although often for a bit younger kids, the few that I've passed by look like they would be really fun. While parents can drink some coffee, kids can go play on big play-structures, meet new friends, and eat fun kid themed food!

The Little Prince kid cafe!

Korea also has quite a few kid museums such as the Seoul Children's Museum where you can go learn about Korean history and science with fun and interactive exhibits! There are also special parks like the Children's Grand Park or Pororo Park which even have little rides you can go on. Pororo is by far the most famous kids character in South Korea. He is a little penguin who along with his own TV show, has lots and lots of cute and fun activities associated  with him. 

Picture of Pororo and Pororo's friends at Pororo Park!

The last and I think most fun activity kids can do are amusement parks! Korea has lots of small amusement parks but the biggest and most famous are Lotte World and Everland! I have not had the chance to go to Lotte World but it is the perfect place to go all year round because it has an inside and outside park! Since it is getting colder and colder here these days, if I decide to go to an amusement park again it will definitely be Lotte World. However, this past weekend I had the chance to go to Everland for the first time and had such a blast! 

Statues of some of the Everland characters. From left to right-
Lenny, Bagel, and Lara.

If you have ever been to Disneyland, Everland is a pretty similar experience. You can go on lots of fun themed roller coasters, rides, and meet the cute Everland characters like Lenny the Lion! I think my favorite part was riding the T-Express (which is apparently the largest wooden roller coaster in all of Asia!). It was really fast but a bit scary. 

T-Express!

Everland has a lot of different themed areas such as Aesops Fabels, Jungle, and even a section themed like the 50s and 60s of the United States. It was kind of funny in that area since they kept playing famous American songs from people like Elvis! Everything was in English in that area too which was pretty helpful. 

Picture I took of the American themed Diner. The houses are
also supposed to represent homes like in America from the 50s and 60s
and have little American memorabilia inside (such as old TV's, footballs, etc.).

By far though, the highlight of Everland was the zoo in the Jungle themed area! There were lots of cute animals such as monkeys, bats, and even a tiger! However, the coolest animal was most definitely the panda!  I have never seen a panda in real life, so I was so excited to finally see one for the first time. He looked so fluffy and cute. Have any of you seen a panda before? What is your favorite animal you have seen at a zoo? Mine are definitely monkeys (especially Gibbons)!

Panda! He was sleeping so cutely. His name is Le Bao! Did you know Panda's can eat up to 33 pounds of bamboo everyday?

Everland was so much fun and one of the most popular places in Korea for kids (and adults too!). If you ever have a chance to go to Korea, definitely check out Everland!

Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this post! Have you ever been to an amusement park or maybe the state fair/ Rose Festival? Do you like roller coasters? 

                  My friends and I at Everland!

안녕! (annyeong)

Bye!!

Photo of the Week #6

Hello! This week I wanted to share a picture I took of royale traditional clothing at the Gyeongbokgung Palace Museum in Seoul, South Korea. Traditional clothes are known in Korean and are called 한복 (han-bok). This outfit in particular would have been worn by the crown prince during the Joseon dynasty. It is so colorful right? Hopefully, I can make a post more about clothes/fashion in Korea, in the future. 

Riding the Hallyu Wave

안녕하세요 여러분!  annyeonghaseyo-yeorobun
Hello Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed the post last week discussing holidays in Korea! Halloween just passed, did you celebrate Halloween? If you did, what did you dress up as? If you don't celebrate Halloween what is your favorite holiday overall?

This week I am going to talk about a topic some of you may be familiar with or someone you know may be familiar with: K-pop and Korean entertainment! Have you heard of K-pop or perhaps BTS? What about Korean dramas?

Me at the BTS concert in California last May.

K-pop or Korean Popular Music is a genre of music in South Korea that started in the 90s but has continually grown in popularity throughout Korea and the world. The name they call this popularity boom is known as the "hallyu (Korean music and tv) wave". With the recent popularity of BTS, the hallyu wave appears to be as popular as ever. I asked my Korean roommate Jiwon what she thought about the popularity of BTS and kpop in America and she said that she was really surprised since k-pop has never been so popular before. Jiwon was even more shocked when I told her that my little sister (who is 11) has a lot of friends who really like k-pop and BTS since she didn't expect that young kids would also be interested.

A clip I took at a k-pop concert last month of the group

Red Velvet performing "Power Up". 

K-pop fans are called "stans" and every k-pop group has their own name that their fans will call them. I don't listen to a lot of groups but I do like one called SHINee. SHINee stans are called "shawols". Members of each k-pop group are called "idols". K-pop fans also usually have a favorite member which they call their "bias". My "bias" in SHINee is the member named "Key". For anyone who does listen to BTS or K-pop in the class, do you have a favorite member (bias)?

Me posing with two of SHINee's newer albums in front of a big picture of SHINee. The member right behind me is "Key".

If you are a fan of k-pop when the members come out with new albums you can go to fun events like fan meetings and concerts if you are able to get tickets. It can be really competitive to get tickets to k-pop concerts so many people will use multiple computers and wait up for hours in hopes of getting a seat. Although I have gone to k-pop concerts in America, it is actually a lot harder to get tickets here in Korea since there are so many more fans here for those groups.

A picture I took at a SHINee fan meeting in Seoul.

Aside from k-pop another very big part of Korean entertainment is k-dramas. K-dramas (Korean dramas) are the most popular genre of TV shows in Korea. Korean dramas are different from American dramas in that they almost always only have one season (typically 16 episodes that are one hour each) with clear beginning, middle, and ends. American TV show typically can go on for multiple seasons without a clear end in sight. You can almost think of a Korean dramas as a very long movie. Although not as popular in America as k-pop, K-dramas do have a pretty large fanbase in America as well. Kdramas have also even made influence in American media. Have you heard about the American TV show "The Good Doctor"? The Good Doctor was actually based off of a 19 episode 2013 korean drama with the same name!

Picture from the famous k-drama "Goblin". 

The last big area of Korean entertainment are Korean variety shows. Variety shows, like Korean dramas have also played a role in American entertainment. Have you heard of The Masked Singer? The Masked Singer in America was actually based off  the Korean version "King of Masked Singer"(as well as a similar show in Vietnam). There are a lot of different variety shows in Korea such as game shows (like Running Man), k-pop idol performance shows (like Inkigayo, Music Bank, etc), and talk shows (like Radio Star).

American actor, Ryan Reynolds, on the Korean variety show "The King of Masked Singer".
Ryan Reynolds sang while wearing the mask on the right.

If you have listened to any k-pop before who is your favorite group? If you've watched a k-drama or variety show which show have you watched? If not, would you like to listen to any k-pop or would you watch a Korean tv show?

Lastly, I hope you enjoyed this post. If you have any future topic ideas let me know as well!!  

안녕!

(annyeong)

Bye!

Photo of the Week #5

Hello! This week I wanted to share a photo I took of a fun slime room/café I saw in Insadong in Seoul, South Korea. South Korea is notorious for fun cafes (like a princess cafe, raccoon cafe, and even a Hello Kitty cafe!) and this slime room is no exception! At the Slime Room you can have a drink and make your own slime (crunchy slime, butter slime, whatever you desire!). I know my 9 year old sister loves slime so I thought it would be a fun place to show you all!

Tis the season... for Korean Holidays!

안녕하세요 여러분 (annyeonghaseyo yeorobun)

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed last weeks post and learning a bit about hiking culture in South Korea. I definitely hope I get a chance to go hiking again while I'm here.

Anyhow, before I start this next topic I am curious, what is your favorite American holiday? Mine is probably Christmas (and no it's not just because of the presents haha). I enjoy being able to spend time with my family and eat a yummy Christmas dinner. Since Halloween is coming up this week I thought it would be fun to talk about holidays in Korea! Do you know anything about Korean holidays? 

Like America, Korea also celebrates holidays such as Halloween, Christmas, and "Thanksgiving", but each of these holidays are celebrated a bit differently than in America and not everyone celebrates them either. They also have some other holidays such as Peppero Day and Hangul Day as well that I will talk about a little bit later. 

K-pop (Korean popular music) boy group SHINee dressed up for a big halloween party in Korea. 

However, since this holiday is the soonest I will start by talking about Halloween. Do you all celebrate Halloween? What are you planning to dress up as? 

Although Halloween has gained a following in the past few years, it is not a traditionally celebrated holiday. Trick or treating is not common here, though some kindergartens and English academies do a trick or treating event in their classes. Actually, according to my Korean friends and my own experiences this past weekend, it appears that Halloween is mostly celebrated by young adults at special Halloween parties. I went to a couple places over the weekend in the international district known as Itaewon and saw hundreds of young adults in costumes (both Korean and foreigners), halloween themed restaurants, and halloween themed gifts. So although it is very different from America, you can still have fun and celebrate if you are a kid or a college student. 

Some buskers (street performers) I saw in Itaewon in Seoul, South Korea. 

They were wearing fun teletubbies costumes!

 The next holiday I will talk about is Chuseok (추석) or Korean Thanksgiving. People call Chuseok- Korean Thanksgiving, but it is pretty different. First of all, it happens at a different time of year than our American Thanksgiving. Chuseok happens on a day between August through September but it changes every year depending on the lunar calendar (a calendar that makes dates based on the moon phases). Second, Chuseok like Thanksgiving is a time to eat lots of food with family, but instead of celebrating your blessings, you celebrate Chuseok to honor your ancestors (or past relatives who have passed away). 

This year Chuseok happened on September 13th. We didn’t have any classes here in Korea and all of our Korean roommates left to be with their families that weekend. My international friends and I didn’t celebrate a lot but we did eat Korean songpyeon (a special rice cake eaten especially for Chuseok). What do you all think of the Korean Chuseok? Do you celebrate Thanksgiving at your house? What kinds of food do you eat?

Example of Chuseok food. 

Two holidays that are celebrated in the fall in Korea that we don’t have in America, are Hangul Day and Pepero Day. Hangul Day is celebrated on October 9th, and is the day to celebrate the creation of the Korean alphabet (Hangul). Hangul was created by King Sejong the Great during the Joseon Dynasty in 1443. Before Hangul, Korea used to use Chinese characters to write everything, but King Sejong realized that the Chinese characters were a bit too difficult and didn’t really represent Korean. So, King Sejong and his smart friends came up with an alphabet with only 24 letters that was much easier to read and learn than the Chinese characters. In fact, hangul is actually one of the easiest alphabets to learn in the world! From my experience, I think you could easily learn it in less than a week or even a day. 

A picture I took of the King Sejong (세종대왕 se-jong dae-wang) statue outside of the famous Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea. 

Pepero Day is a cute holiday celebrated on November 11th each year. It is the day that friends and couples will exchange the Korean candy Pepero. Pepero is a thin sweet breadstick with chocolate on them. I asked my Korean friend, and usually pepero day is usually celebrated by kids in school but sometimes college students and office workers will exchange them too. Pepero is really tasty so hopefully I can bring some back for you when I visit! Would you like to try them?

Pepero! 

The last holiday I will talk about is Christmas. Christmas is celebrated in Korea but like Halloween and Christmas it’s quite different from America. In Korea, Christmas is mostly couples and friends holiday. It is somewhat popular and you will see Christmas and winter decorations throughout the city, but it is definitely not the same as America. I also asked my Korean friend, Alec, if people get presents on Christmas and he said that some families do give presents but it is not that common. Alec also said  that he didn’t receive presents on Christmas as a kid either. What about you, do you celebrate Christmas or some other gift giving holiday? 

Of course, this is not all of the holidays in Korea as they also celebrate things like Valentines Day, but I hope you enjoyed learning about a few that they do celebrate here. What is your favorite holiday? Let me know in the comments!! 

Photo of the Week #4

Hello everyone!! This week I want to share a photo I took at the Oeam Folk Village in Asan, South Korea. This photo is showing part of the process for how people in ancient Korea during the Joseon dynasty would have done their laundry. After washing in the river, people in ancient Korea would pound the clothes repeatedly with the sticks to flatten or iron out the clothes. Pretty neat right?

Wishing Rocks, Korean Sushi, and Climbing Mountains

안녕하세요 여러분 (an-nyeong-ha-se-yo yeo-reo-bun)
Hello Everyone!

I really hope you all enjoyed my post about Korean food last week! Which one was your favorite to learn about? Are there any Korean foods  you know that you wish I talked about? I think my favorite was the seaweed soup because not only is it healthy for you, I think its really neat that it has such an interesting cultural meaning behind it too.

This week I am going to talk about a fun activity I did recently with some friends and teach you about the culture surrounding this activity. First, I am going to show you a picture from this activity. Can you guess what activity I may have been doing?

Picture I took overlooking part of the peak at Bukhan Mountain (북한산-book-han-san)

If you haven't guessed yet, I went hiking! Hiking in Korea is called 등산하다 (deung-san-ha-da), which literally refers to the act of climbing up a mountain. The particular mountain I hiked at was called 북한산 (book-han-san) and is located in Seoul, South Korea. 북한산 means North-Korea-Mountain (though it is not located in North Korea but is in the North of South Korea).

A map of Bukhansan relative to Seoul

Have you ever been hiking in Oregon or anywhere else in the world? I have always loved hiking and I think that the Gorge in Oregon has some of the most beautiful trails, so when my friend offered the opportunity to go hiking in Korea I couldn't pass up the chance.

My friends and I took the subway from our university in Suncheon to Seoul on Sunday, October 13th which was about a 3 hour subway ride. We left early in the morning but after some troubles we didn't get started until about 11am. The hike was going supposed to be around 5 hours long which worked well considering the park closed at 5pm. Luckily the weather was perfect that day. Hiking is definitely most popular in the fall since in Korea the fall is less rainy and it is not as hot as the summer.

My friends and I during our hike. This picture was taken about 3 hours in or halfway through. 

The first thing I noticed when we were hiking was how young we all were compared to the rest of the hikers. In America, hiking is often an activity for people of all ages (but especially younger kids). However, in Korea hiking is typically done by older Koreans in their 40s-70s. When I asked my Korean friends about this they said that the older Koreans find it to be the best way to connect with their friends and get some healthy exercise in at the same time. Unlike younger people who prefer to go out with their friends at the movies, karaoke rooms, clubs, or video game cafes. 

Group of Koreans getting ready to start their hike. Aren't their outfits super colorful?

Remember how last week we talked about different foods that have cultural meaning? Hiking has one too! When I learned about hiking in Korea, my Korean teacher explained that the #1 food to eat when hiking is 김밥 (kim-bap) or Korean sushi. It is similar to Japanese sushi, except it doesn't contain raw fish, and mostly has vegetables. The most classic kimbap contains spam or bulgogi, rice, seaweed, pickled radish, carrots, and spinach. It is super delicious so my friends and I definitely brought some with us. I also wasn't surprised when I saw the countless kimbap stands surrounding the mountain. There was even a man selling fresh kimbap straight out of his van!

Example of some kimbap.

Hiking in Korea isn't only great exercise, it is also a great way to see some neat historical sites from Ancient Korea. While we were hiking we saw two different historical buildings. One was a gate built in the Joseon dynasty and the other was a little shrine also built during the Joseon dynasty. The mountains is also where most of the buddhist temples and monasteries are so you will often see people dressed in traditional religious attire while hiking (such as buddhist monks). 

Shrine we saw while hiking. 

Before hiking my Korean Culture and Society professor also talked to us about these stone formations you can often come across while hiking. They basically just look like stacks of rocks. However, my teacher explained they have another purpose beyond looking pretty. It actually turns out they are wishing rocks! This means that when you add a new rock to the pile you make a wish and hopefully it will come true. I came across quite a few on our hike and tried to make a wish each time. Since the hike was pretty tough and I was getting pretty tired, most of my wishes ended up being about finishing the hike successfully. Do you know of any traditions in America where we make wishes? The first one I can think of is dandelions! I remember whenever I saw a dandelion as a kid I would blow the thistles, close my eyes, and make a wish. 

A smaller rock formation I saw while hiking. 

A large stack of rocks we found near the ancient Korean gate!
How many wishes do you think have been made here!?

Overall, my first hiking experience was super fun and I made a lot of new memories that I will keep forever. The trail was tough and my legs definitely hurt a lot the next day, but I had a great time and would love to go hiking in Korea again if I have the chance. What do you all think? Would you like to try hiking in Korea? What do you think about kimbap and wishing rocks?

View of one of the peaks at the mountain. Unfortunately we ran out of time to go up there.
Can you spot the people climbing?

Another view of the mountain. Can you spot the city in the background? We were pretty high up huh?

As always, I would love to hear all of your thoughts below and if you have any ideas for upcoming posts! This week is midterms (big tests you take during the middle of the semester in college) so I think I will go back to studying now! Have a great week everyone!

다음에 봐요 (da-eum-eh bwa-yo)! Until next time!