Lost track of the weeks.
Trip Start
Oct 27, 2005
1
16
49
Trip End
Nov 01, 2006
Seoul, Korea Rep.
Sunday, February 12, 2006
On to exciting news.
Last week was cold. For a couple of weeks, we had great warm weather here, then all of a sudden it get's so cold. They said it doesn't really snow that much inside of Seoul. Well, it snowed twice last week. I listen to Vibe (Calgary radio station) and the weather was warmer in Calgary. The warm weather has come back, but now it is raining.
This weekend a friend of mine came in from another part of Korea. She is Canadian as well. She also likes country music. Our plans were to go to a Country bar on Friday night. Yup, country! Well our plans fell through, but the night was still great. I ended up winning a dance contest with a friend. That was pretty fun.
On Saturday we to Insadong. In Insadong they sell a lot of antiques, and there are a lot of tea houses. The weather was beautiful, which made it so much more enjoyable.
Think Korea, Think Kimchi. Kimchi, the staple of every Koreans diet, is a vegetable that is pickled and covered with pepper paste and then fermented in the ground. When something like that is so huge in a country what do they do. Make a monument or museum for it. Well, on Sunday we went to the Kimchi Museum. I learned about the history of Kimchi. Yes, the history....
It all started in the prehistoric times. A man wrote a manuscript about different vegetables and from there kimchi was born. There are three eras of kimchi which from are the different dynasty's. There are many different types of kimchi. The most common one, the red spicy cabbage was created in the last era. As well, there are different types of kimchi for the 4 different seasons. Kimchi, who would've thunk it! That's not all there is to Kimchi.
Kimchi is a great for your health. It has so many different types of vitamins, it's fights off cancer, it is great for weight loss, it's great to get your bowels moving and shaking, it's a wonder food!!! The key to Kimchi health is the special lactic acid bacteria.
The next time you eat Kimchi, you will have a better understanding of where it came from and what it is.
After the exciting museum we went to a Temple. Temples here are all around the city. It's quite amazing. In a massive, always busy city, you can go to a temple and it's so tranquil. It feels like you are thousands of miles away from the city. This Sunday was the first 15th day of the new Lunar calendar. We walked through the gates of the temple and immediately saw people bowing to the statues. We didn't want to offend anyone, so we bowed too. People were lighting candles and incense. The aroma of incense was very calming. We walked up to one of the rooms and saw people praying. We sat amongst the prayers and watched them. The room was decorated with Buddha's and paintings of lotus flowers. Again, the smell of incense filled the room.
Outside there is a big statue of Buddha. Infront of it, people praying and lighting candles and incense. It was a very religious experience.
I bet you're all wondering if I've lost my Turkishness.(hehe) Well, I'll have you know, I have not. My parents sent me baklava. So delicious. So Turkish. I got my package on Monday, with the baklava in it. Jay, one of the other teachers I work with, really wanted donair kebabs. So we went to a Turkish restaurant and got one. Met a few Turkish people. It was quite the Turkish day for me. It is weird though speaking Turkish to someone in Korea.
In a city with so much to do, I should probably act like a tourist more often. Makes these blogs so much more interesting.
Keep your head up and smile!
