Gwangju Weekend and The Korean Train

Ah.  A weekend to go visit another part of lovely Korea.  Joseph and I had a 5 day weekend as our Summer Break for the Korean students so we took the wonderful opportunity to visit Kate this past weekend and Kate did a great job playing hostess and taking us about to explore her city: Gwangju.

 

Joseph and I have discovered a variety of trains running in South Korea.  You have the fast train and the slow train.  The only difference is the money you pay for each and the time is not that different.  Perhaps 30 minutes or so depending.  We decided upon the slow train as it was cheaper and we didn't really care if it was 39 minutes slower than the fast train.  Something interesting was that passengers are not subjected to a person coming through the train cars to view or stamp your train ticket.  There is a line that says "We Trust You" at the entrance of the train station that only passengers are allowed to cross. *giggle*

The line at the train station that only paid customers are allowed to cross.

The AC unit

The Slow Train (older train)

The AC unit really puts out a lot of power and it's easy to see why people crowd around it.

Ready and waiting to board the train to Gwangju

The Fast Train "KTX"

 Train stations here are very nice and it reminds me of busy train stations at home in larger cities.  There are several AC stations where locals and foreigners alike crowd around to keep cool in the humid air.  Even though we rode the slow train we were very comfortable.  The seats are assigned just as on a bus.  Each pair of seats also has acces to their own AC vents.  A surprising find was that we discovered there was more room in the train seats than on a business class airplane seat.

Rose Garden: Chosun University

Rose Garden: Chosun University

Kate showed us the university near her which is called Chosun University.  It is very pretty with parks and a beautiful Rose Garden. 

On our return home we took the slow train again and had a relaxing and uneventful remainder of our 5 day Summer Vacation.

On our return to Daejeon we saw this sign posted:

The Korean Thanksgiving

Chuseok (Chew-Sock) is the Korean Thanksgiving and is the 2nd most important holiday in Korea.  The first is the Lunar New Year. 

Joseph and I spent last Friday asking our students and teachers at our school what exactly does this mean.  Mainly, we get a 4 day holiday which we were told was a long holiday (Florida teachers insert *sigh* here).  So, okay 4 days for a holiday, 2 of them being weekends.  Does that even count?

Anyway...Chuseok is the day families remember their ancestors and celebrate the year's harvest.  One of our students told us that most families travel to their grandparents and all of the women hang out in the kitchen preparing food and talking while the men play board games, card games, talk with each other and eat.  The children play traditional games, sing songs and eat a lot of food in addition to receiving small amounts of money from their elders ("here's a quarter buy something nice"--and in Korea, you can!).



This weekend Joseph and I along with Kate and Amy went to Lotte Department store--think upscale Mall similar to Mall of  Millenia in Orlando or International Square Mall in Tampa.  We went to hang out, see the sights and see the gifts that Korean's give to one another for this Holiday.  Let me tell you...we laughed almost until we cried but you have to admit one thing:  the Korean's give useful gifts.  Each gift set has a practical use and will be used.  All of it.  No throwing out the fruit cake.  These sets are comprised of everything from Spam and Tuna (if you think I'm kidding check the pictures) to ginseng, toothpaste and lotion.  We were asked several times to refrain from taking pictures but we had to take a few.

Enjoy!

Our neighborhood decorated for the Holiday

Never thought I would see a TUNA gift set.  Notice the price? Approximately 20$

Cow hoof?  It's about 100$ and it was very heavy

The 17$ watermelon

Toothpaste, Korean "deodorant," lotion and soap

The biggest shrimp ever for a low price of 200$

SPAM, TUNA and OIL in a gift set

The grocery department in the basement of Lotte Dept. Store

Kiwi's--about 96$

Spam and Tuna

Mushrooms

Just tuna.  Check the price. 

Our *Korean* Family

Expats are common everywhere and in every country.  Korea is no exception.  It is similar to a large high school or a very small college where everyone may not know each other but everyone is aware of everyone who is an expat.  In Daejeon there are about 400 of us.  There are the usual clicks of people who regularly hang out together but usually everyone will hang out at some point in time at various locations.  People plan trips and whoever signs up has the opportunity to mingle with their fellow expats.



Just like in every family not everyone gets along all of the time but we make it work because we are family.  We are the only ones here to help each other out and support each other.  We have weekly dinners to catch up and just speak English with other people who will understand our jokes.  We meet up at other establishments to hear Western music and dance Western dances and drink Western drinks.

We are therapists to each other as needed and who doesn't need a good therapist?  As a good friend said, "Korea is a great therapist and she pays you".  Couldn't have said it better myself.

In Korea you learn a lot about yourself.  All of the drama is gone.  You are left with nothing but your thoughts and your actions (both present, past and future).  All the stuff from home is muted or deleted.  There isn't the normal daily drama going on in your world here.  It is a chance to get to know yourself and/or your relationship with yourself and other people.  You begin to realize of understand how you affect people and the effect you have on them and yourself.  You have the opportunity to fix or delete certain items or people in your life.  It's nice.  Korea cuts through the crap and the support system around you helps you see yourself and helps you along the way to bring out the best and worst and then help you fix it.  Some people hate it here.  They might be here for the wrong reasons. 

Embrace what you are and who you are and allow Korea to help you on your way.  Just don't deny Korea because she finds you whether you want her to or not.

Korean Wedding? 9-3-11

Theater production?  Circus?  This is a wedding?  Take your pick.  All three are extremely accurate. 

Joseph and I had the wonderful experience this weekend to attend a Korean Wedding.  You really have not lived in Korea until you are able to experience one of these.



Weddings are performed in places called Wedding Halls.  The one we went to was called Beautiful Wedding Hall (our research did not yield church weddings but anyone with further information please let us know). There were maybe 5 or 6 rooms on the first floor and one room was the ceremony room and the other rooms were very small and decorated beautifully to seat the bride and to take pictures with and of the bride (the second floor was apparently identical to the first).  Outside each of these tiny rooms was a table with a fake wedding cake, candles and various pictures of the couple so you would know whose room it was.  All around were different families and brides, grooms, etc. talking and looking in at "their bride."  In one area of the hall was a space where a woman was taking video of grooms asking about how they felt, etc.  Some women were dressed in the traditional Korean attire called a Hanbok (http://weddingbellsblog.com/wedding-dress/korean-wedding-dresses-the-hanbok/).  Other women were wearing nice dresses.  Men were wearing suit and tie, tuxedos, or jeans and a shirt.

Apparently one wedding ceremony is performed right after another has ended [we noticed that almost all parts of the wedding are staged to get great pictures.  we saw a bouquet being thrown to the same woman 3 times to get a good shot.  This was done immediately after the ceremony ended.].  Workers went around the room straightening out chairs, the runner the bride was to walk on, flower arrangements, etc.  Everyone for our wedding came in and claimed their seats then went around talking with various people. 

The ceremony:
The mothers of the bride and groom were wearing the traditional Hanbok and stood on the platform at the end of the runner waiting to begin.  They walked together to the alter and bowed to each other. The groom stepped onto the platform at the end of the runner and called greetings to various people around the room.  A video came on over the alter playing various photos of he and his bride taken in wedding attire in various settings and locations.    His bride behind him having her makeup retouched.  Strobe lights start going around the room and the groom calls out a greeting and strolls down the aisle looking similar to a high school graduate.  The lights stop and then focus on the bride.  She is still having her makeup retouched and  another woman is fixing her dress and veil (an American style wedding dress). She steps up onto the platform with her father and holding hands, they walk together down the aisle while the 4 strobe lights follow her.  When they reach the groom, father and groom bow then the father transfers his daughters hand to the grooms hand then he hugs his daughter (lingers for a few photos) and then sits in a chair.  The couple proceed to the alter to begin.  During this time the doors to the ceremony room are not closed.  Other families and weddings waiting to go next are right past the doors and can be heard during the ceremony.  Not sure if this is normal or not. 

After about 10 minutes Joseph and I are told that Koreans traditionally do not sit through the entire wedding unless you are close friends or family.  As we are coworkers we are able to go to the building next door to the buffet so we left one by one and met out in the central hall.  Korean weddings to not have receptions as American's know them--as far as we can tell.  There is a connected building next door and upstairs and down holds long tables and chairs with white linen tablecloths and chair covers and a never ending line for the buffet.  It smelled wonderfully like a Chinese buffet from back home... :-)  People attending the same wedding usually do not sit together and the bride and groom do not join the guests.  After we were eating and talking awhile the brides father came to us and thanked us for coming.  We left soon after. 

We had a great Korean experience and were happy we were asked to be a part of this one. 


**Disclaimer:  Joseph and I are not certain if this is how all Korean weddings are.  We know they are not exactly the same this was just our experience.  This blog was a lot longer with more detail but because of space and not wanting this to be too long, details not important to the main idea were left out.

table outside the brides room

brides sit in a room this small for the express purpose of picture taking

rotunda with all of the rooms

The hall itself

Bride and Groom's mother's

Mayhem behind the bride about 4 other weddings waiting for their turn

Touch up for the groom

Left to right: Paul, Lana (Paul's wife), Liana, Jin, Elizabeth

notice the spotlight? lol

bride's parents

groom's parents :-)

A Korean Wedding

Daecheonghasu Lake 8-27-11

Translated to Big Clean Lake.  I quite like the Korean name more.

Joseph and I hike quite frequently.  This past Saturday we hiked to a lake that is the third largest man made lake in the country.  The lake provides water to Daejeon and Choeongju.  The water is so clean you can drink from it straight out of the lake.  We did not do this but we saw some people who did.  There are places along where we walked where gourds were placed to drink or wash your hands.

full view of park/rice field

Here is the park. Behind this is the rice 'field'

Across the street from the lake was a park/rice farm. Can you guess which part this is? 

Another stream 

Our reward for walking so far and we still had about an hour or so until we got there

All mountains we have been on so far have trails similar to this

Boys playing in stream leading to the lake

Joseph and I walked about 8 miles there and back in addition to up and down two mountains.  It was a blast.  It was tiring and it was fun.  It was beautiful up in the mountains being surrounded by trees and seeing the occasional hikers.  We thought the pictures would speak for themselves in this blog.

All in all, a great day!  Where to on our next hike?