As I look around here in Korea I cant help but notice the drastic juxtaposition of two clashing cultures. For arguments sake I will call these two cultures the traditional culture and the K-pop culture. The tradition culture consists of women in Hanbok, folk songs, tea, temples and respect. The K-pop culture consists of women in mini-skirts, K-pop, bars and clubbing. Due to these two conflicting cultures I sometimes feel as thought I am living in a land of contradiction. Many Koreans fear the loss of their culture and I can honestly understand why as the younger generation does not seem very interested in their heritage. This of course leads me to beg the question, is my presense in Korea and my purpose of being here contributing to this loss of culture?
I have to answer that question with an indecisive yes and no. The yes side of the answer is inescapable. I am here as an embassador of the ever conquoring Western culture, spreading my language and consequently my culture. The result is a McDonald's and Starbucks on every corner and of course music like "Insomnia or Sorry Sorry Sorry" (music that I love by the way). I don't want to give the K-pop culture a negative wrap but I just want point out that it is drastically different from traditional Korean culture. Then again it is only natural for humans to evolve and modernize their behviour. Maybe holding on to a traditional past is futile anyways...who knows...
However, I also feel that my being here is contributing to a greater peace and understanding in the world. I now know a lot more about Koreans and because of that I also feel a bond with this country and it's people. I hope that the reverse is true as well and that the Koreans I have met have a newfound bond with Canadians and our culture as well.
Now for the "no" part of the answer. Ever since I've got here I've been really participating in and emersing myself in traditional korean culture. The number of temples, palaces and festivals are countless already just 2 months into my trip. So I think it's a two way street. My culture maybe rubbing off on them, bu theirs is rubbing off on me as well.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
A Tale of Two Festivals
So I had a crazy and jam packed weekend. On Friday I went to Gyeongju, a city about an hour outside of Busan, with my school on a field trip. We took the grade 3s and 4s. The significance of Gyeongju lies in the fact that it was the captital of the Silla Kingdom (57 BC – 935 AD) which was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and the longest sustaining dynasty in Asian history. A great number of Silla tombs can still be found in the centre of Gyeongju. Silla tombs took the form of a stone chamber which was surrounded by a soil mound. We visited such tombs as well as memorials for the two great kings and the one warrior who unified the Three Kingdoms of Korea. This was a good cultural experience but more than that it was a great day of bonding with my students. They are so adorable, they were all trying to hold hands with me and a few of them made me notes and drawings telling me they loved me. After that long day outside with the kids I went home a lil early and fell asleep. I woke up ate some McDonalds and called it a night. lol
Saturday was an absolutely amazing day! The others were late, so Taylor and I headed to the beach for the Eobang Festival (Fish Festival) taking place on my beach. There was free everything! Free face painting, flip flops, wish trees, balloon hats, characatures, traditional candy and games. The others eventually met up with us and we had a blast. As we walked along the beach a few local political figures asked us to sit down and eat with them. An extremely old lady kissed Taylor lol and another man told us not to worry about money. He bought us seafood pancakes, soup and my new fav drink Makoli (Korean rice wine of some sort). The Makoli was disgusting at first but I have to say that stuff really grows on you. In any event we continued on after lunch and checked out some more games and cool little jewellery vendors etc. After this the real fun began! We had signed up to participate in the traditional pulling of the fish net at 6pm. So we were suited up and ready to go. Little did we know we would be the celebrities of the night. We were interviewed by local news crews and given cool fish hats that lit up. We were constantly pushed into centre stage(beach) to dance and pulled in the net and participated in 3 exciting games of tug of war! After which we were awarded with more Makoli! We danced the night away and then watched in awe as a beautiful display of fireworks ensued over the Gwang-an bridge. After that we got some free beers at G Terrace (a beach side bar), grabbed some burgers at Breeze's Burns and finished the night off with some darts and more drinks at Thursday Party (another beach side bar). All in all one of the most amazing nights I've had in Korea.
Sunday was another festival. The lantern festival. We were once again signed up to participate in the festival. This time it was by walking in the parade. The lanterns looked beautiful at night, but in my opinion we got there far too early and did way too much sitting and waiting. I actually wished we had simply watched the parade rather than participated in it, but it was another experience in Korea nonetheless. Needless to say even though I wasn't dressed up in traditional Korean clothing like Taylor and Kiara, the locals were still waving at me frantically as if I was something special to see, despite the fact that almost everything else in the parade was way cooler to look at. Paulenna and I skipped out early because we were tired and cold. I must say I don't regret that decision lol.
Walter has left to Hong Kong for the week and I will meet up with him in Shanghai on Saturday. Looks like I'm in for another CrAzY weekend!!!!
Saturday was an absolutely amazing day! The others were late, so Taylor and I headed to the beach for the Eobang Festival (Fish Festival) taking place on my beach. There was free everything! Free face painting, flip flops, wish trees, balloon hats, characatures, traditional candy and games. The others eventually met up with us and we had a blast. As we walked along the beach a few local political figures asked us to sit down and eat with them. An extremely old lady kissed Taylor lol and another man told us not to worry about money. He bought us seafood pancakes, soup and my new fav drink Makoli (Korean rice wine of some sort). The Makoli was disgusting at first but I have to say that stuff really grows on you. In any event we continued on after lunch and checked out some more games and cool little jewellery vendors etc. After this the real fun began! We had signed up to participate in the traditional pulling of the fish net at 6pm. So we were suited up and ready to go. Little did we know we would be the celebrities of the night. We were interviewed by local news crews and given cool fish hats that lit up. We were constantly pushed into centre stage(beach) to dance and pulled in the net and participated in 3 exciting games of tug of war! After which we were awarded with more Makoli! We danced the night away and then watched in awe as a beautiful display of fireworks ensued over the Gwang-an bridge. After that we got some free beers at G Terrace (a beach side bar), grabbed some burgers at Breeze's Burns and finished the night off with some darts and more drinks at Thursday Party (another beach side bar). All in all one of the most amazing nights I've had in Korea.
Sunday was another festival. The lantern festival. We were once again signed up to participate in the festival. This time it was by walking in the parade. The lanterns looked beautiful at night, but in my opinion we got there far too early and did way too much sitting and waiting. I actually wished we had simply watched the parade rather than participated in it, but it was another experience in Korea nonetheless. Needless to say even though I wasn't dressed up in traditional Korean clothing like Taylor and Kiara, the locals were still waving at me frantically as if I was something special to see, despite the fact that almost everything else in the parade was way cooler to look at. Paulenna and I skipped out early because we were tired and cold. I must say I don't regret that decision lol.
Walter has left to Hong Kong for the week and I will meet up with him in Shanghai on Saturday. Looks like I'm in for another CrAzY weekend!!!!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
SERVICE!
One of my favourite things about Korea is service. This is when vendors or whoever throw things in for free. Since I've been here my friends and I have had a lot of random things for service. Some strange, others quite normal. In any event, this blog will be a running account of the things I've recieved or seen my friends recieve for service.
- Ice cream (at Norebang)
- Taxi (on the way home one night, a kind taxi driver who knew a bit of english took pity on Puja and I who looked lost and refused payment for the ride)
- Gems (for my phone when we signed up for Wally's phone courtesy of LG Telecom)
- A scarf
- A purse
- A belt
- Soju
- Coke / Cider
- Fruit Platters (at clubs)
- flip flops
- face painting
- lunch! w/ makoli
-Charicatures
- lanterns
- a drawing notebook
Ah, the kindness of strangers =)
- Ice cream (at Norebang)
- Taxi (on the way home one night, a kind taxi driver who knew a bit of english took pity on Puja and I who looked lost and refused payment for the ride)
- Gems (for my phone when we signed up for Wally's phone courtesy of LG Telecom)
- A scarf
- A purse
- A belt
- Soju
- Coke / Cider
- Fruit Platters (at clubs)
- flip flops
- face painting
- lunch! w/ makoli
-Charicatures
- lanterns
- a drawing notebook
Ah, the kindness of strangers =)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Better Together
Wally's here =)
There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together
Mmmm, It's always better when we're together
Yeah we'll look at the stars and we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah it's always better when we're together
And all of these moments
just might find their way into my dreams tonight,
But I know that they’ll be gone
when the morning light sings
and brings new things
for tomorrow night you see
that they’ll be gone too,
too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
i was somewhere in between
With only two,
Just me and you,
Not so many things we got to do
or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree, now,
Yeah It's always better when we're together
Mmmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together
mmmmmmm
I believe in memories
they look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
There is no, no song I could sing
and there is no combination of words I could say
but I will still tell you one thing
We're Better together
There's no combination of words
I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing
But I can try for your heart,
our dreams, and they are made out of real things
like a shoebox of photographs
with sepia-toned loving
Love is the answer
at least for most of the questions in my heart, like
Why are we here? And where do we go?
And how come it's so hard?
It's not always easy and
sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together
Mmmm, It's always better when we're together
Yeah we'll look at the stars and we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah it's always better when we're together
And all of these moments
just might find their way into my dreams tonight,
But I know that they’ll be gone
when the morning light sings
and brings new things
for tomorrow night you see
that they’ll be gone too,
too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
i was somewhere in between
With only two,
Just me and you,
Not so many things we got to do
or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree, now,
Yeah It's always better when we're together
Mmmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together
mmmmmmm
I believe in memories
they look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up,
you look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
There is no, no song I could sing
and there is no combination of words I could say
but I will still tell you one thing
We're Better together
Friday, April 3, 2009
1,2,3,4...tell me that you love me more
I feel as though so far this blog is giving off the wrong impression. I like to rant when I'm upset so I've written some negative blogs, and I'm glad I did because the ranting really helped me get the steam off my chest. Koreans are different from North Americans and this is both frustrating and wonderful all at the same time.
That being said, I realized that the blog wasn't reflecting how in love I really am with Korea and my life here. So because of that this blog will list my 10 favourite things about Korea in no particular order.
1. Being on the Yang Dong Elementary School volleyball team. "Yong Dang, Yong Dang OOOEEE!!" My teammates are all men with exception of another female teacher, and they are all super encouraging and fun to play with. We practice every Wednesday during work hours =) and play a game against another school every other week. Not to mention my V-ball skills are improving.
2. My coteacher has become much more than just a coworker. She is such an amazing person. She is giving, light hearted and best of all a slaker like me!!! hahah we're a match made in heaven. We watch "Nopo De Anja" (Korean mini series) during work hours (shhh don't tell my principal lol) and oogle over the F4 boys hahah. If I ask her about something once, she makes it her life mission to make sure I get the answer or I get my problem solved, no matter how big or small that problem may be. She has told me I'm her little sister and having her here is really like having family.
3. Meeting all my international friends. Not only have I made awesome Korean friends, but I have a great group of friends from the states and different parts of Canada that have insantly become like family as well.
4. On a similar note, I love having a sense of community and belonging to a specific group where I really feel I belong. I never really had that in Canada. In high school I was the one brown girl who wasn't a part of the Youth of South Asia club and nor did I ever reject my Indian culture. So I've always felt somewhat inbetween. But here there is a huge group of people who are just like me. They are black, white, yellow or brown and are interested in taking in and experiencing many different cultures. I think that's why we have made lasting friendships so easily and quickly.
5. Fried MANDU!!!! Need I say more?
6. Random moments. This is something Flav and I achieved the summer of '06. However, it was short lived. Here in Korea, I'm crazy. I try everything once and sometimes twice. I make random friends, and I literally go where the wind takes me. It's the me I always wanted to be.
7. I am always on the go, whether its out to dinner or off to another city to explore, my schedule is packed of fun goodness.
8. Let's face it, this is a year long vacation. I don't really do any work. =)
9. GOD I LOOOOVE THE CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THE SHOES!!!!!
10. The BEAUTIFUL scenery I see EVERYDAY. From cherry blossoms to the beach to the lights of Gwangan Bridge, my eyes are spoiled rotten, there is beauty all around me!!!
BONUS: Everyone here thinks I'm beautiful, mainly because I have a small face and big eyes. It is beyond flattering to be stopped in the streets and told you are beautiful on a daily basis. hahah Foreigners are celebrities here.....it's going to suck to go back to North America and get used to being a nobody again lol.
Well I love my life....and boy do I feel blessed =)
That being said, I realized that the blog wasn't reflecting how in love I really am with Korea and my life here. So because of that this blog will list my 10 favourite things about Korea in no particular order.
1. Being on the Yang Dong Elementary School volleyball team. "Yong Dang, Yong Dang OOOEEE!!" My teammates are all men with exception of another female teacher, and they are all super encouraging and fun to play with. We practice every Wednesday during work hours =) and play a game against another school every other week. Not to mention my V-ball skills are improving.
2. My coteacher has become much more than just a coworker. She is such an amazing person. She is giving, light hearted and best of all a slaker like me!!! hahah we're a match made in heaven. We watch "Nopo De Anja" (Korean mini series) during work hours (shhh don't tell my principal lol) and oogle over the F4 boys hahah. If I ask her about something once, she makes it her life mission to make sure I get the answer or I get my problem solved, no matter how big or small that problem may be. She has told me I'm her little sister and having her here is really like having family.
3. Meeting all my international friends. Not only have I made awesome Korean friends, but I have a great group of friends from the states and different parts of Canada that have insantly become like family as well.
4. On a similar note, I love having a sense of community and belonging to a specific group where I really feel I belong. I never really had that in Canada. In high school I was the one brown girl who wasn't a part of the Youth of South Asia club and nor did I ever reject my Indian culture. So I've always felt somewhat inbetween. But here there is a huge group of people who are just like me. They are black, white, yellow or brown and are interested in taking in and experiencing many different cultures. I think that's why we have made lasting friendships so easily and quickly.
5. Fried MANDU!!!! Need I say more?
6. Random moments. This is something Flav and I achieved the summer of '06. However, it was short lived. Here in Korea, I'm crazy. I try everything once and sometimes twice. I make random friends, and I literally go where the wind takes me. It's the me I always wanted to be.
7. I am always on the go, whether its out to dinner or off to another city to explore, my schedule is packed of fun goodness.
8. Let's face it, this is a year long vacation. I don't really do any work. =)
9. GOD I LOOOOVE THE CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND THE SHOES!!!!!
10. The BEAUTIFUL scenery I see EVERYDAY. From cherry blossoms to the beach to the lights of Gwangan Bridge, my eyes are spoiled rotten, there is beauty all around me!!!
BONUS: Everyone here thinks I'm beautiful, mainly because I have a small face and big eyes. It is beyond flattering to be stopped in the streets and told you are beautiful on a daily basis. hahah Foreigners are celebrities here.....it's going to suck to go back to North America and get used to being a nobody again lol.
Well I love my life....and boy do I feel blessed =)
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