LARA IN KOREA!: CHUSEOK HOLIDAY! 추석 휴가!

Only after one week of Korean class we already had to go on Chuseok holiday! S-Korea is a country full of surprises! ;)

WHAT ABOUT CHUSEOK?

“Chuseok (Korean: 추석), originally known as Hangawi (한가위, from archaic Korean for "the ides of August"), is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday in Korea celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. Like many other harvest festivals, it is held around the Autumn Equinox. As a celebration of the good harvest, Koreans visit their ancestral hometowns and share a feast of Korean traditional food such as songpyeon and rice wines such as sindoju and dongdongju.” Cfr. Wikipedia as I couldn’t explain it better myself.

Well, it is true that it was full moon and I have been watching her bright light at night. Wikipedia also didn’t lie about the fact that a lot of people indeed went back to their hometowns to celebrate this special day with their closest family.

We decided that this weekend was the perfect time to explore this wonderful city Seoul some more, as we assumed that a lot of people would have left the city, we would consequently have had all the city to ourselves, we didn’t, although it was really calm.

WEEKEND ON FRIDAY!

On Friday evening I went out with a whole bunch of people to start our four days weekend. In the afternoon I relaxed, (I don’t really remember exactly what I did, actually) and in the evening we went out for chicken and beer. We agreed to meet at Honkik subway station to go out with some students from the other universities (Korea and Yonsei). The guys drank a lot of beer and we had different dishes of chicken, delicious. After finishing many cans of beer (at least the guys did), we went for a drink in a bar. You still can smoke in bars here! I’m used already to the fact that since the 1st day of July Belgian bars have become smoke free. So my clothes and hair were smelling like that awful smell again. I wonder when they will put smoking restrictions here as well. (Back in our universities, we are not allowed to smoke in our building or rooms, and not even on the balconies!)

We also went to a Noreban (Korean Karaok bar). Which was fun. I only asked for one song: Wonderwall from Oasis. My score was really bad, like 53%... But I know I’m a terrible singer, so I’m not worried about getting low scores. Some Korean students had joined us and were singing funny songs, like songs from their childhood. We got home safe by taxi, a safe and cheap way to get back to SNU after going out. It takes about 25 minutes and costs 15000 Won shared by all the people who can fit in one car. So it’s quite OK. I paid 5000 Won (3,4 €) for a taxiride from uptown Seoul to our downtown SNU campus. Coming back to the dorms feels already like coming home, although I really miss my mummy, family, friends, garden and especially my king size soft bed back in Belgium!!!

KIMCHI MUSEUM ON SATURDAY

Saturday we went to visit the Kimchi Museum. Julieta and I were thinking: if we are in Korea, we should know everything about KIMCHI! The Kimchi Museum is a cute little museum in the basement of a huge shopping mall named Coex. The shopping mall is really really big, we almost got lost! ;) In this building you can find many shops (clothes, shoes, books, coffeebars, ice cream shops, a Hello Kitty store etc…) The musem wasn’t that easy to find, but luckily Shervin (from Iran) joined us, he had it all sorted out in advance and knew were we had to go. I was really surprised and almost couldn’t believe it... that a museum about the most important dish of a country is located in a place like this. We enjoyed the museum, we learned some more about this dish. Before we have the Kimchi on ours plates, many steps have preceded. You can compare it with pickles (augurken) or sauerkraut, except for the fact that in Korea there is a big variety of fermented vegetables. They make kimchi by first cutting different kind of vegetables, mixing them with garlic and other herbes. After that they put these veggies in some vinegar and let all of this ferment in a big sealed pot. I’m not a fond of this vinegar marinated vegetables because they are often really spicy and I don’t like spicy food. But Shervin told me that if I would go to this museum I surely would find my favourite kimchi, as you can taste some of them. And I did, my favourite one is the white kimchi (baek kimchi 백김치). This is the kimchi made of ‘Chinese kool (cabbage)’. This kind of kimichi is tasty but not too spicy, just what I was looking for! :)

Julieta, Shervin and I think it was fun and also good that the museum wasn’t that big. We learned a lot about the slimming effect of eating a lot of kimchi. They say it burns fat and prevents intestine cancer. I’m happy that I found a kind of kimchi that I like, mission accomplished! B)

SEOUL ZOO ON SUNDAY

I thought it was a good idea to go to the zoo on Sunday, because it’s the evening before Chuseok and many people would be home to prepare for some celebrations the day after. I made a good choice. So Shervin, Tyler (from the USA) and I, we all went to this beautiful park by using the subway. It only took us 18 mins to get there. Luckily, the zoo wasn’t crowded, which was really nice! Actually the zoo is a big park, with many trees, many animals and also a cable lift, but unfortunately no panda! I think I’ve never seen a panda before… Our time at the zoo was relaxing and we had a good laugh! Especially the bears were fun to watch. We waited until their lunchtime so we could watch them being fed. It seems like their Korean keepers taught them how to ask for meat by doing the 'give it to me move' and then bow for it as well. The Mickey Mouse resembling black bears also knew how to turn around and pretend like they are eating on a table! The whole thing was something strange, but funny to see. The dolphin show was ahh… so nice! The dolphin lady, she literally surfed on a dolphin! Whaa! I want to do that too, where can I do this, can somebody tell me?! ;) I’ve watched many cool animals and even touched a snake for the first time in my life! What a milestone! ;) What a creepy experience! I don’t like snakes, although I think they are very fascinating and intriguing. At a fixed time you could get a meeting with a python and put it in your neck and stuff like that. Brrr, but I did it: I’ve put it in my neck and hold it for a while. But it freaks me out when I touched it, so strange. It’s just weird that snakes although they don’t have feet, they can climb up trees and swim in the water. So they are really special animals… but scary. I would die screaming if I would ever find one like this in my bed!

TRYING TO GO TO THE MOVIES + CHUSEOK DINNER ON MONDAY

Monday, on Chuseok day, we - Shervin, Hugo (Canada), Tyler and I - had planned to go to the movies with a bunch of people, so we did. But when we arrived at Megabox (a movie theater that is located in the Coex Shopping Mall) was crowded and we couldn’t get any seats. Instead we just wandered around in the (in my opinion a little bit claustrophobic) mall and had an iced green tea. At 7pm we met with a Kantonees friend of Tyler, who studies at Ewha Women's University (이대), she and her Korean friend showed us around on their amazingly beautiful and green campus. It’s located in a nice area in uptown Seoul. This university offers higer education to approximately 18 0000 female students and only about 50 foreign male students (as a male you can only enter if you are a foreigner). They say that when you walk on the campus you feel like you are in one of those typically British universities, it's true. Hugo kept on saying “if I was a girl I would have applied for this university.” But after hearing about the strict rules at this only women’s university, he definitely has changed his mind. At SNU we don’t have a lot of strict rules except for some basic ones like “you’re not allowed to bring a guest into your room for a sleepover, you shouldn’t bother your roommate in any way, don’t touch other peoples laundry” etc... and we DON’T have a curfew (avondklok), so we can come back to our building and room whenever we want. In Ewha University you have to be back before a fixed time (often twelve o’clock in the evening) and when you stay out longer you need to get a permission and sign some papers and provide them a contact number of the people who you will hang out with and inconvenient things like that. Yonsei also has a curfew. Ewha and Yonsei are both private universities, probably that’s why they are more strict. And in Ewha they are stricter because there are only girls, I guess. We’re really lucky we don’t have this at SNU! Free like a bird. :)

So after our little tour around Ewha Campus we went for Chuseok dinner in a little restaurant, which was again delicious! We had Korean BBQ. You grill meet on a fire of coals and you eat it with a lot of side dices and rice! If you ever come to Korea, you should try it. I can strongly recommend this to you. I had it already twice and was culinary pleased afterwards. Actually I didn’t eat anything distasteful up untill now. :) We’ll see... I also heard that you could eat a whole alive squid not far from my campus (in the Naksungdae neighbourhood). But it is said to be dangerous because it can kill you if the tentacles grab the back of your throat! Ieuw!

HAVING A REST ON TUESDAY

Today we had a rest instead of going to Everland (= Six Flags, but we’ll do it later, plenty of time :)), and we helped each other to study some Korean on the terrace in front of our convenient store GS25, next to our building. In the evening we made some food together for the first time! It wasn’t bad, actually it was kinda good: beef with Korean mushrooms, cabbage in soy sauce flavoured with salt and pepper (the only 'herbes' I've bought). As we happen to have a huge flat screen TV, we watched some funny Korean programs while having dinner (e.g. one about teams who had to learn magic tricks in a short time and then had to compete against each other)! I’m already fond of a Korean drama feuilleton, but I always forget the name. I thought it would be on every night, but this evening they didn’t broadcast it… What a pitty! I think watching TV is a really nice way to learn a language in a non stressful way, that's why I plan to watch TV once in a while!

Goodnight everyone! I’m ready for class tomorrow, because I did my homework and I can read and write the Korean alphabet now! Joepie! :)

xx 라라

birdy clouds

Hmmm, lekker!

Wolken zien, ik hou ervan

Meeting people from Yonsei en Korea U.

They are not weird at all! ;)

Garlic Chicken (you eat this while drinking beer)

Uitgangsbuurt

Edwin from Columbia

While I have a cocktail :)

Nicolas, also from Belgium!

At the noreban singing Karaok

Ze zouden ermee gaan slapen, met Kimchi!

Making Kimchi

Finding our favourite KIMCHI!

Mijn favoriete is de linkse in de hoek: de witte!

KIMCHI, al wat de klok slaat.

Echt.

Voor wie al eens zijn Kimchikookkunsten wilt oefenen... ;)

KORENGLISH!

Zo moet je dat eten!

(Claustrophic) Coex Shopping Mall

Supercool, in de boekenwinkel mag je gewoon ergens neerzitten een boek nemen en er in lezen, zoals in de bibliotheek!

Boeken lezen in de winkel, geen wonder dat het analfabetismepercentage hier zo laag is!

De kinderhoek in de boekenwinkel

Sesamstraat in't Koreaans, als ik er eens zin in heb..;)

Ik wil ook een lief waarmee ik een matching outfit mee kan delen!

Mijn keuze...

Getuigen van Yehova vind je echt overal!

Voor het eerst boodschappen doen, zeer schattige karrekes. :)

Hmmm bulgogi

Boodschappen...

...moeten op hun plaats!

Mijn frigootje dat 's nachts soms rare geluiden maakt

Ik kocht een Koreaans kinderwoordenboek: 500 woorden mét prentjes!

Een waarheid als een koe!

Mijn nog steeds privé-badkamertje B)

De was moet opgehangen worden

In de 'Drying Room'

Ik heb mijzelf stokjes en een lepel gekocht, en ook nog andere keukenspullen. Joepie!

De vraag van één miljoen: heeft een zebra witte op zwarte strepen of zwarte op witte strepen?

Enkel uitleg in het Koreaans... zucht

Een boeddhistische struisvogel?!

Altijd al mijn ultieme droom geweest: rijden op een struisvogel.

Een raar dier dat zeer snel het zand induikt alsof het water is!

Die heeft misschien iets te veel gegeten?!

SUPER schattige woestijnvosjes

Krullen op zoals katten dat kunnen

Een wel erg nieuwsgierig diertje

Op de foto kan je het niet zo goed zien, maar dit mannetje was zeer lang, zelfs naar giraffennormen!

Alle dieren in de zoo waren aan het dutten of hadden honger...

Dolfijnshow met eerst een presentatie met uitleg wat je precies moet doen (zoals klappen en roepen enzo)

Zo moet je roepen als een dolfijn een kunstje heeft gedaan

Ja hoor, dolfijnen geven hun kleintjes ook de fles

Een gigantisch dier

Kindjes krijgen een eigen toilet naast dat van de mama

Een koele kikker

Een kwade krokodil

Leg eens een slang in je nek

Beren met Mickey Mouse oren!

Een zeer mooi bos waar vogels vrij 'vrij' in konden vliegen

De beren vragen om eten

Vervolgens klappen ze in hun poten

En dn draaien ze zich om om hun stuk vlees te eten...:)

Wat een boze bizon!

Baby leeuwtjes en luipaard

Baby tijger

Als ik een liefje had zou ik ook naar hier komen op Chuseok! :)

De zoo!

"Who loses it?!" een reality show waar zwaarlijvige mensen vrienden worden, vervolgens gewicht moeten verliezen en waarbij er telkens uiteindelijk een iemand moet afvallen, hoe ironisch...

En dan beginnen ze allemaal te wenen, natuurlijk

Mijn favoriete drama op TV!

De linkse is blijkbaar een zeer bekende actrice

Koreaanse variant van 'Saturday Night Live'... Koreaanse mensen doen graag dansjes, maken graag satires en verkleden zich graag als jeanettejes...

Allemaal om te lachen, natuurlijk

Chuseok nacht: volle maan!!!

Groene thee overal

in de buurt van Ewha Universiteit

De campus van Ewha Women's University

Deze universiteit heeft haar eigen mini shopping centrum en een soort 'gracht' waar je kan zitten en rondhangen met je medestudenten...

Ehwa U. was de eerste vrouwenuniversiteit in Korea en de grootste ook (ben vergeten in Korea of ter wereld), dit is het allereerste gebouw.

Chuseok avondeten

Zeer grove campagne om mensen aan te zetten tot plastische chirurgie! Als je geen mooie S (lichaam) en V (kaakbeen) vorm hebt kan je niet op vakantie gaan omdat je dik bent omdat je geen plastische chirurgie hebt gehad (ofzoiets) ?! Unk?!