"Chicago" in Daegu

The Daegu Opera House. I've been wanting to go since I found out they had one, but I could never find a performance schedule. Well, now I have one!
They were performing the musical "Chicago", which I saw the movie and really enjoyed so I really wanted to see the stage show. Of course it was all in Korean but I know the story by heart so it was easy to follow. It was fantastic! The performers did a great job.
Finding the place was pretty simple; they had English signs and it's kind of hard to miss once you drive by. The driving is not so simple. I do not drive here. I have my Korean license but unless I absolutely have to I don't drive. So far I haven't had to. Matt is learning to drive like the Koreans & it is terrifying! Many times I just have to close my eyes and hold on. We almost missed the turn to the parking lot since we were in the far right lane, so he just turned across the other 2 lanes to make the left hand turn. This sounds crazy but is actually quite normal driving behavior here and surprisingly didn't disturb me at all.
After the play we went to find dinner. It took us an hour to drive about 4 miles. It was horrible. We really need to learn the subway route! We were going to try this restaurant we've driven by and I always thought looked nice, but it turned out to be a drink lounge only. So since we were there, had a parking place, and were starving we just walked till we did find a restaurant, about half a block down. No English, no pictures. The waitress did know the words 'seafood' , 'noodles', and ' pork' so that's what we ordered. I was just hoping the seafood was cooked! My dish was like a seafood noodle soup. It was cooked and it was good, although very spicy. The noodles seemed to be like potato noodles, which was different and very tasty. I had to quit eating after a while because all I could taste was the seared flesh of my mouth. Due to the decor and Matt's meal being very similar to sweet & sour pork, we came to the conclusion that it was a Chinese restaurant, and not Korean.
After dinner we walked across the street (always a life threatening proposition) to a coffee shop. While waiting, I had to use the bathroom. Now I realize this is an odd topic but I also realized that I haven't discussed the toilets here and it's worth blogging about. Toilets here are always a crapshoot, so to speak. They did have a bathroom, except it was in the alleyway behind the shop. And it was cold. Like 20 degrees outside cold. And the bathroom was outside, did I mention it was cold? BUT it did have toilet paper, and a toilet. These are not as common as you may think. Many of the restrooms have 'squatty' toilets, which I have actually mastered the use of! The first few times I was presented with one I chose to wait, but then I decided I couldn't avoid them forever. I have also learned to carry some type of toilet paper with me. Most bathrooms however do not have soap, this one didn't even have a working faucet. This concerned me due to the fact that the guy making the coffee uses the same bathroom. This same situation happened at a restaraunt we ate at; fortunately (or not?) I had already eaten or I don't think I could have continued that meal. (I also carry hand sanitizer at all times!)
So, the opera, the bathrooms. The highs & lows of a day in the city!

Cirque

It's not all ascending steps to temples and folk villages out here. Sometimes entertainment comes to us, courtesy of MWR (morale, welfare, & recreation) & Armed Forces entertainment. Yes indeed, the Cirque came to town, with a giant Santa in tow.

Oldest child's favorite, (the 'pink princess' as she called her)...
my favorite....ha ha.....

and the husband's favorite!

Our oldest loved having her picture taken with the princesses. I couldn't believe the little one actually sat with the 'red princess' (Carrie again) without screaming! And of course she was pretty enough to get her share of attention as well!

All eyes on the little one!

When we were waiting for the photo op, the oldest was trying to climb on the bleacher bars & pretending to be an acrobat, and the next night at dinner (we have a 'church supper' for lack of a better term every Monday) she told them she was an acrobat. So I think she was impressed.She flipped upside down a few times...maybe she has some talent?


I thought this guy was really neat, spinning giant cubes & other things. He would step in & out, like a lasso tricks if you've ever seen that. There was another who had like a giant double hula hoop that he rolled around inside of. I couldn't get a picture of him but he was pretty awesome as well. It was a great show. The husband & I enjoyed it as much as the girls, maybe even more!

Andong

Well, we broke down and bought a car. (Ha ha!) But it's okay. We still do a fair share of walking. But it does make it easier to get out & explore, like to Andong. Home of the traditional mask festival, which sounds really fun except we missed it back in October. Korea has a history & love affair with these traditional masks. It was explained to me that back when they had the class system in place, those in the lower class were forbidden to speak poorly of the upper class. So they would make masks as their form of expression. Every souvenir shop here has some wooden ones for sale. I hope you can enlarge this to see it better.


Unfortunately we didn't get to the mask museum outside of Andong, which is supposed to be fairly nice. But we'll definitely be making another trip up there. This visit we went to a Korean folk village. The homes here were moved to their present location some years back for a dam construction project & renovated at that time. They also use a large section for filming Korean shows because it is so authentic (that's what the info says anyway). We didn't walk over the whole village because it was so COLD & we weren't really prepared for it. It started snowing on us and there were some strong winds so we had to give it up sooner than I liked.




We also tried to go to the adjacent museum, but they were inexplicably closed.

Ubiquitous totems in front of the museum.

We also stopped by Korea's oldest and largest stone pagoda, Sinse-dong Chilcheung Jeontap (seven storied pagoda). 

My favorite picture!

The best part: we ate lunch at Pizza Hut! Ha ha. (My husband is very unwilling to risk it in a Korean restaurant, mainly because they eat many things raw [even sometimes beef] & we don't!) We tried this crust that said it had sweet potato that I assumed was just mixed into the crust. Wrong; they have a thin ring of mashed sweet potatoes & then cheese around the crust. I think they must a different kind of sweet potatoes than I know because they were yellow & very sweet. It was different but really good. Even the world's pickiest husband liked it! Then we went to have coffee and dessert at a bakery, and I tried a 'glutinous rice donut'. Yech. Take my word, leave it on the shelf. It was fun to mush though! It's similar to the consistency of one of those stress balls & I think probably about the same flavor too.

They had a big Christmas tree up in the center of the outdoor shopping area and a Salvation Army bell ringer, bucket & all, so it was kind of nostalgic. And with the snow falling it was just great!

China: The abridged version

The China trip is fading fast from my memory & we've visited a new place in Korea to blog about, which is what this is really all about, right? So I'll try to sum up China in this post.

We never left Beijing during our tour. All the sights we saw were in the city, except for the Wall, which wasn't a long drive. I'll start at the beginning though. Airport: HUGE. I don't have much comparison to go by, the biggest airport I've flown from is Dallas (if you're going by size of the building), and the Beijing airport is probably 10 times bigger. There are at least 5 terminals and the terminal we left from had 62 gates. I don't know about the rest. It felt like I was in an indoor football stadium when I walked into the entrance. It's really that big. And very clean. I was impressed.

Beijing is lacking in one thing that Korea has: smells. I didn't notice any smells in the city while we there, and another couple and I did strike off on our own a couple of times so we weren't always in the tourist areas. Beijing also has it's own 'Chinatown', no kidding! We just drove through it; it was a very commercialized looking place.

(SOAP BOX ALERT!) During our time in Korea and (so briefly!) China I am amazed at how many people speak English. So many know at least enough to effectively communicate what you need to know. In Korea they start learning in preschool. A Korean mom told me they are obsessed with teaching their kids English. From what I understand it's like this in most Asian countries. It's kind of humbling to think how influential America must be for so many people to try to learn English and be so eager for their children to learn it. I mean when was the last time you gave any thought to trying to learn anything about another language? I think it really boils down to one fact though: the power of the dollar. Even with our 'sunken' economy we are still so amazingly rich.

But back to the topic at hand. The rest of the trip is honestly a blur. We saw so much in such a short period of time that it's hard to really take it all in. The tea ceremony: way to much effort for a single cup of tea. Let me brew up a pitcher and pour the sugar in! (Can you tell I'm from Alabama?) The jasmine tea was indeed very good, but not good enough to make me want to change my ways! We also saw an acrobatics show, which fascinated the girls. Carrie was especially awe struck. ("Mommy she's standing on her head!") It's is supposed to be based on the history of the area of China that was struck by a severe earthquake a few years ago, but the translation didn't make a whole lot of sense to me so I can't explain. It just seemed like a normal entertaining acrobatics show to me! We kind of ran through Tienanmen Square; most of the pictures I took were while I was walking. Same thing in the Forbidden City. And the Forbidden City really is a city; it's huge! You think you're walking through the exit gate and BAM! There's more! The area around the Summer Palace was beautiful, but since it was winter everything was dead and the small streams and such all dried up. We didn't go into the palace, I don't know if you can. There's so much more there that we didn't see; it should really be called a city as well. The Temple of Heaven: what can I say? It's a temple complex very different from what we've experienced in Korea, although that's probably because it's not Buddhist. It also is very large, and required much walking, though it didn't change much from one part to the next; the buildings just got a little bigger.

After a while all the pagodas and other buildings begin to kind of run together. It's beautiful architecture but it doesn't vary much from one to the other, at least not to me! And of course there are people everywhere which also translates to traffic congestion, but I honestly didn't think it was bad at all considering the population size. Of course, I wasn't the one doing the driving.

We ate at Chinese restaurants every meal, although I question how authentic they were. For example, they all had large 'gift shops' and the food was just like what you'd get at any Chinese buffet in the states. After a while some of us were sick of it, so at one time we saw a McDonald's and ate there, and another time we set off and found a Mexican restaurant, which was fantastic! I also had the best cappuccino ever from a Starbucks. (For the record I am not a Starbucks fan, but this one was great!)

Interesting note: censored internet. One of my tour groupies had brought his laptop & was telling us how some of the ads are blocked & there is no access to Facebook & MySpace. You hear about this but it's so much more profound to experience it yourself (or at least vicariously through someone you know!). And their version of Tienanmen Square is much different than ours; namely no mention at all of anyone getting killed. I remember staring at our tour guide as she was telling us the Chinese version of what had happened and thinking "Is she serious?". Then I wondered if she had any clue that there was a different version out there. They make it sound like a government support rally and not any kind of protest. (On a side note: they 'hawk' Mao Zedong watches in the square. You too can enjoy checking 'big brother' for your local time!)

Overall I had a good time and am so glad I went. My favorite part: definitely the Great Wall. It's awe inspiring. And learning that I can travel quite well with 2 little girls alone may inspire many more trips!

Addendum: Hindsight makes me realize how arrogant it is to presume everyone learns English solely because of America's international impact. There are other English speaking countries that influence the world as well, and I am now slightly humbled in my opinion and more conscious of their contribution to global society. However, I still maintain that America has the biggest impact.

The Great Wall (of many steps)

The Great Wall truly is great. It really is a wonder. I could never describe how magnificent it really is. There are three sections open to tourists; I'm not sure which one we went to. It is much larger and longer than I expected. I was unable to ascend anywhere close to the top since I was carrying a 25 pound child up the many steps. They didn't think it necessary to install an elevator I guess. It was icy and I had already slipped once. The steps are smooth, well worn stone and not of uniform size and shape. And they are very steep. I took this picture to show how steep, but it doesn't adequately capture it.

Since I don't have words to describe it I'll just post several pictures. The surrounding mountains are magnificent as well, although everything was dead when we went. If you ever have a chance to see the wall you should definitely go.

Ni Hao!

Ahh. To be home. Kind of.
I'm back from my brief visit to Beijing, China, home of great wonders such as the Great Wall, Forbidden City, quality knock offs, and millions of 'let's make a deal' hawkers. I'm not sure which fascinated me more.
I'll start with the hawkers. It's funnier.


There are many tour groups walking around these places in Beijing. Mostly Americans and Russians. We kind of stick out. The hawkers are everywhere. They sell scarves (8 for 100 rmb! no no, okay 9 for 100!), cheap souvenirs, knock off Rolex's, Gucci purses. They find you, they follow you, they pull on you. Emotions range from annoyance to humor to anger. (Male American soldiers really don't like to be touched by strangers.) I found it fairly easy to ignore them, some did not. It's actually funny when it's not you they're stalking. But you must show no weakness!! Otherwise they never leave; they will follow you to the bus. On the third day some of the members of my tour group started taunting them. They'd wave from the bus when we knew we weren't getting off (they flock to tour buses), they'd offer ridiculously low amounts for the goods just to see how long they'd follow and bargain (they'd always go right up to the bus). I bought a couple of things from the hawkers, one of them started to follow me & accost me for more money until a man in our group walked over and he left me alone then.
We also shopped at the Silk Street Market, which is a five story building packed with little booths full of knock-offs of any brand you can think of. You could go in here and walk out with an entire 'designer' wardrobe for about $500 if you're smart.You have to bargain for your purchase, you can't get attached to something, you can't let them know you really want it. They start exceptionally high, you start exceptionally low. Except I would start with what l would pay, it's this or nothing. Browsing not allowed. You have to know what you want. You walk down the little aisle to choruses of "Hey lady, wanna buy _____?" Don't let them catch you looking! No weakness! So at one booth I did buy some 'Abercrombie' sweaters, and I must say they are very good quality knock-offs. So she starts the bidding at 1375 rmb, about $200. (I only had USD and of course they will take it.) So I said no, $40 ( I only wanted to offer $30 but I only had twenties, I should have picked out another shirt!). So we go back and forth and finally I start to leave and she says okay, okay. And I have my sweaters. It's pretty much the same everywhere. And they are some serious drama queens! For instance, I saw a jacket I was considering. I tried it on it was too big. So I said no, and she said I'll make you good deal and I still said no it doesn't fit and she was acting like she was going to cry. Many of them did things like this. Also, all deals are 'secret'; "for you I will sell cheap, but shh, secret price". I always wanted to laugh.
I'm not sure which I prefer; the negotiating system or the waiting for something to go on sale. On the one hand, as an American I really do enjoy my personal space, but on the other it's nice to walk away with your purchase not grumbling about how things are so overpriced these days. It was definitely an exciting experience.

My Asian Kitchen

Since I haven't done anything really blog worthy lately (unless you count getting a little spooked out by our 'threat brief' on NBC attack and instructions on how to use our issued gas masks exciting) here is another recipe post! I've tried a few more new recipes since the last post about food. Not all of them Korean, most of them turning out very well. I got this great cookbook from the library called asian bites by Tom Kine and tried out a few things in there. (I think it's probably about 4 weeks overdue!) A few nights ago we had eggplant fritters from India, pork and cabbage eggrolls from Korea, and stir fried beansprouts. It was all good but the eggrolls were fabulous if I do say so myself! However, tonight we had kalbi, which is a type of Korean BBQ ribs. (Note: Korean BBQ is not at all like American southern BBQ. I believe it's called BBQ only because of the way it is cooked.) I have made it before with a recipe from this website: www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4793091 and they are awesome. I was literally gnawing the bone and I usually find that sort of thing quite demeaning. But anyone would demean themselves for these. (Think "What would you do for a Klondike bar?" becomes "What would you do for some kalbi ribs?") I would highly recommend you try them if you can. (Tips: cut down on some of the sesame oil & be sure to use a grill or grill pan.) If you have high blood pressure please eat these with caution!
I also used a recipe at this address: http://famousrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/01/08/stir-fried-rice-noodles-with-shrimp/ to make a stir fried rice and noodle dish I've been trying to figure out ever since I first had the noodles. I've eaten something like this at two different restaraunts here and love it, but I could never figure out the recipe on my own. I altered this one to fit my tastes as well. I left out the shrimp, added peas & carrots, added rice, and used fish sauce instead of oyster sauce (since that's what I had). Adding some roughly chopped yellow onion would probably be good too. This might be a good moment to let you know that my cooking style is a little relaxed. I view recipes more like suggestions than rules and don't typically measure things very precisely. I just kind of feel it. It usually turns out well, until I want to make it again and can't remember what I did!
Sorry no pictures this time. I just wanted to sink my teeth into them and not sit around looking at it!

Moving Day

Yes, moving in. We have been residing in this apartment for 34 days and we finally got our own stuff! It is very exciting. And since we live on the twelfth floor it was a much different move than we've experienced in the past.
That is our building. It is thirteen stories high. Using the elevator to move a household full of belongings is not really the most efficient idea since the elevators in our building here are smaller than American ones and you would be an elevator hog for the day. Not a great way to make nice with the neighbors. So they use an outdoor lift. This is what it looks like from the outside...

...and this is what it looks like when your possessions are hurtling up...

and up at your face.

The extendable rail was taped, yes taped, to the guardrail around our window. The men at the bottom would load some of the things, hurtle it up, then the men at the top would unload over the rail and hurtle it back down. It was pretty neat actually. They don't secure anything on the pallet so I found it slightly amazing that none of our stuff fell off, especially as fast as it was going. It goes way faster than an elevator. But they did a great job. They were the best movers we've had so far. Considering you have two different sets each time you move (one on the shipping end and another on the receiving end) that makes them #1 out of 10. Not bad.

Moving on...hah hah. I love bad puns! There is a little shortcut road that is more like a trail that we take to the camp/post here. It's a pretty nice walk except for a couple places where there are some unpleasant smells, but that's just part of life in Korea. (I kind of think that's really why so many of them wear the surgical masks all the time.) It's all downhill the way there but you know what that means! You got it, all uphill the way back. And it is not a little hill. So it kind of sucks when I make a grocery trip. Here's a photo from the top of the trail.
It's much better in person. I'll take this moment to mention the garden you see in the foreground. Korea is not vast, and so heavily populated that land is scarce. They use every available piece to grow food. You're driving down the highway you look down and there's a garden on the side of the road. And I don't mean like in front of someone's house. It's just free space so someone planted food. It's awesome. And in the cities if it's not food it's flowers. Here's my favorite part of the walk.

This ajuma grows beautiful flowers and I love walking by here. I saw the tiniest hummingbird here a few times. The first time I saw it I thought it was bee, then realized what I thought was the enormous stinger on it was its beak!

Okay, so back to our apartment life. They're big on recycling around here. We even have a box downstairs for clothes recycling. I have no idea what they do with them but that's what the English translation on one says. Here's our complex's recycling unit.
You have to sort it yourself. You also have to buy specially labeled bags just for trash and dump all food waste separately in yet another trash area. (I usually try to make Matt do it. It's pretty vomitous as you can imagine!) I'm not sure what they do with the food. I've heard both composting and pig slop, so I don't know. The man that grows the garden in the picture above digs through the food waste containers every morning so I know what he does with it. At least, I hope so....

Kyongju: Part Two

We got to Kyongju by train and then hired a taxi to drive us around. Before we arrived I had formulated a plan as to where I wanted to go, but as they say "the best laid plans...". We had a different driver the two days we were there, and both of them wanted to take us on what they thought was the best tour route. Since being here I've learned many times you just have to roll with it. So we did. And it turned out pretty well. I still got to see almost everything I had planned on and a little more.
One of the places I had not planned on going but am glad we did was the tomb of King Munmu, circa 681, off of Bonggil Beach. Kyongju is filled with tombs, which you may better visualize if you think of burial mounds, but this is not your typical tomb. This one is underwater. So you can only see it from the beach. There is debate as to whether he is actually buried here or they just spread his ashes here, but whatever. It was really pretty and much different than any beach I've been to. Very rocky, little pebbles to large rocks cover the shoreline and there was an area of large boulders as well.The rocky island above is the tomb. You can't go out to it; even if it was warm enough to swim there are stong rip tides here and they don't offer tour boats or anything like that. Below is Bonggil Beach.

Squid hanging out to dry. It's a favorite snack in Korea. I haven't tried it yet...


We also saw the oldest observatory in East Asia, and I thought I read the oldest building in Korea as well. The Cheomseongdae Observatory was built sometime around 634. There's a whole bunch of symbolism in how it was built and number of bricks used, etc, but I won't go into all that. It's a really old building, and kind of pretty; there's not much else to say about it. Here's the picture!

We also walked around a place called Wolseong Fortress, but there's nothing left except some stones stuck in the ground that you can only see because they are marked. Nearby was Sokpinggo, an ancient ice storehouse which is an attraction in Korea.

the outside of Sokpinggo

some of the Silla tombs; they are scattered in groups all around the city

Folk Craft Village


Stone Pagoda of Bunhwang-sa

from Gyeongju National Museum

Kyerim Forest: These trees were beautiful! They are probably a thousand years old. There's also a crazy legend about a baby found here in a gold box, with a rooster crowing beside it. When the baby was taken from the box by the king, he was named the crown prince and named Alchi Kim. However, he surrendered his crown to the king's actual son after the kings death. Eventually, the sixth generation descendent of Kim did become king.

We also made time for fun for the girls and went to Gyeongju World, an amusement park. Carrie had a blast riding the kiddie rides and poor Emily was so upset because she was too small for most of them! Kyongju was great; I really enjoyed our visit. I didn't do any shopping until about the last hour we were there waiting for the train and I think I missed out! The little bit of the shopping area I went through was great! So I may go back just for that!!

Flashback: Silla Dynasty

Sokkuram Grotto.

We went to Gyeongju (or Kyongju) this weekend to see the sights. And boy do they have sights! I think you could live there for years and not take it all in. Gyeongju was the capital city of the Silla (or Shilla) Dynasty for almost 1000 years. The city and surrounding area is covered in historic sites built by the Silla, many of them designated "World Cultural Heritage" sites by UNESCO. Gyeongju is called "a museum without walls". Even without the history it is a beautiful area.


Its crowning glory is Bulguksa Temple (above). It has existed since 528, although all the wooden structures were burned down in 1593 by the Japanese. (Note 1: The Japanese invaded and apparently ravaged Korea in past history. The Koreans hate the Japanese [and vice versa] and many things are blamed on them. Whether they are all true or not one can only guess.) The most admired part of this complex are the stone stairs, called bridges. (I don't know why.) There are two 'bridges' each comprised of two staircases. They are: Chongun Gyo, Paegun Gyo, Yonhwa Gyo, and Chilbo Gyo. They still exist with their original stones from 1200 years ago. Therefore, you are not allowed to walk on them. The below is Yonhwa & Chilbo Gyo. (Sorry, I couldn't rotate for some reason.)

Besides the temple the setting is just beautiful. Even with the crowds it seemed like such a peaceful place. We were there I think at the peak of fall foliage beauty and it was simply gorgeous. There are two famous and historical pagodas here also. Tabotap was covered in scaffolding and such for repair. It is also featured on Korean coins. The one pictured here is called Sokkatap.

This is a large temple complex, but I won't bore you too much! I'll just post a couple more pictures...

Another Buddhist site we visited was Sokkuram (or Seokguram) Grotto. It was built around 751 (the two books I bought have different years) and from what I understand still exists almost exactly as it was except for some structural reinforcement. (Note 2: I'm not sure how much I read is the whole truth and nothing but and how much is braggadocio.) The inside of the grotto contains carved stone statues pertaining to Buddhism and as I don't know or understand much I'm not going to try to explain. But apparently all this stone encased in this grotto building suffered no deterioration from humidity for over 1200 years due to the Silla's "scientific and architectural genius". They blame the ensuing deterioration on the Japanese effort to reinforce the structure in the early 1900's. (Remember note 1?) You are not allowed to take pictures of the inside so if you want to see you'll have to google it. It's worth a look. Once again, irregardless of the grotto temple and Buddhist statues the setting is phenomenal. It's set near the top of the mountain and the trail you walk up is lined with the beautiful fall foliage and rocky cliff sides. It was really magnificent. In the first picture below, the building on the left farther up is the grotto temple; the other on the right is the souvenir/snack shop - yes, even at super old "world heritage culture" historical treasure sites capitalism thrives! In the picture of Carrie & me the building behind us is the grotto.

From the top; next to the grotto.

Taken on the drive up to the grotto entrance.