Today we went to a traditional Korean Village!
We ate traditional Korean food (not unlike a "Traditional English Breakfast!") sitting cross-legged at traditional Korean table-platform-things.
I made some new friends.
It's really beautiful here!!
We went to a Buddhist temple, even! 
We played some games....
...but i'm not quite as good as the pros...
They have some pretty funny English translations. 
And some pretty lanterns.
They also have cool guys that wear bright colors and dance.
They also wear funny hats (and perform for a BAZILLION little Korean children who get a kick out of scraming "HELLOO!!!" to the foreigners.)
Checkim' OUT!
Yeah. I want one of them gum-drop caps.
We played a concert in this hall. (The acoustics were pretty dead. mreahhh...)
And the hall was on this beautiful campus overlooking this lovely city.
Yep. DKU. BYU. Rock it. 
Everything is very colorful and fun.I am happy.
Today has been Rad! My roommates and I all woke up comfortably around 6:00 am. We had to leave at 8:00 to go to the Historic Korean Village thinger, so we all had a lot of time to get ready. I'm not really suffering at all from jetlag today which is really, really nice.
We got to the historic village about an hour later. Interestingly enough, the village seems all ancient-like but it's the way things were her in Korea only about 60 years ago! So cool, and so strange. We saw a traditional farmers dance and played with some cool, traditional games. We met a lot of neat people and it was just a really beautiful place to be! There was a buddhist temple, a traditional bazzar/marketplace and a lot of really neat things to see and do. We had lunch there and it was really cool - I had a Kimchi tofu stew with rice and some cabbagey stuff and cold Kimchi. Instead of sitting on the ground at the tables there was an area that was raised up so you sit cross legged as if you were on the ground, but you're raised up...hope you can see it in the pictures!
Everything here is BEAUTIFUL. I'm stunned by the scnery (minus the serious pollution.) On that note - Korea has an interesting smell...It's like the stuffy cottage-in-Maine smell, plus a tiny hint of sewage (only occasionally) and general, humid muggy-ness with an overarching polluted-type of feel and whiffs of Kimchi every now and again. I'm lucky to not have allergies becasue it's really freaking some people out...
We're at Don Kook university right now - getting ready to play our concert. We just ate dinner (the pictures of the meals i've eaten are on another camera, so i'll post those later.) The food here, though, is AMAZING! Dinner consisted of breaded and fried pork, miso soup, rice, cabbage salad, french fries (??) and a yummy BBQ-like sauce. Mmmm..
Well, due to the fact that blogspot.com is presenting itself completley in Korean (surprise, surprise) as i try to upload pictures - that's just going to have to wait. Sorry! You're all in bed anyway, so it's not like anyone is actively checking this which means no one has any right to get ticked off.
Love you!
Edit:
Well, it's 12:50 am now. I should get to bed but i wanted to post some pictures. The concert went well - it wasn't our best. For the Pines of the Appian way, I was one of the 4 trombone players in the wings of the concert hall and after we snuck out and were setting up back there the Elders were standing where we needed to. They didn't understand that we were actually playing in the back of the hall. Once we got that message across, they wouldn't stop taking pictures and it was really funny.
There was a reception afterward and though the Korean students were quiet during rehearsal during the afternoon they were really trying to communicate during the reception. We had simple conversations - figured out how old we all were and how long we've been playing our insturments. In Korea, when you're born you're "1 year old" and then at the new year everyone gets a year older. So if you were born on December 31st, on January 1st, you'd be 2 years old. Weird!! I don't think i'd mind that, myself ;)
Needless to say, i have a lot more sympathy for tourists in America who can't communicate. I think forever more i'll be a LOT more paitent with them, becuase i know how hard it is to get a message across to someone who doesn't speak your language -and worse, you don't speak theirs!! Oh no!!
We got to the historic village about an hour later. Interestingly enough, the village seems all ancient-like but it's the way things were her in Korea only about 60 years ago! So cool, and so strange. We saw a traditional farmers dance and played with some cool, traditional games. We met a lot of neat people and it was just a really beautiful place to be! There was a buddhist temple, a traditional bazzar/marketplace and a lot of really neat things to see and do. We had lunch there and it was really cool - I had a Kimchi tofu stew with rice and some cabbagey stuff and cold Kimchi. Instead of sitting on the ground at the tables there was an area that was raised up so you sit cross legged as if you were on the ground, but you're raised up...hope you can see it in the pictures!
Everything here is BEAUTIFUL. I'm stunned by the scnery (minus the serious pollution.) On that note - Korea has an interesting smell...It's like the stuffy cottage-in-Maine smell, plus a tiny hint of sewage (only occasionally) and general, humid muggy-ness with an overarching polluted-type of feel and whiffs of Kimchi every now and again. I'm lucky to not have allergies becasue it's really freaking some people out...
We're at Don Kook university right now - getting ready to play our concert. We just ate dinner (the pictures of the meals i've eaten are on another camera, so i'll post those later.) The food here, though, is AMAZING! Dinner consisted of breaded and fried pork, miso soup, rice, cabbage salad, french fries (??) and a yummy BBQ-like sauce. Mmmm..
Well, due to the fact that blogspot.com is presenting itself completley in Korean (surprise, surprise) as i try to upload pictures - that's just going to have to wait. Sorry! You're all in bed anyway, so it's not like anyone is actively checking this which means no one has any right to get ticked off.
Love you!
Edit:
Well, it's 12:50 am now. I should get to bed but i wanted to post some pictures. The concert went well - it wasn't our best. For the Pines of the Appian way, I was one of the 4 trombone players in the wings of the concert hall and after we snuck out and were setting up back there the Elders were standing where we needed to. They didn't understand that we were actually playing in the back of the hall. Once we got that message across, they wouldn't stop taking pictures and it was really funny.
There was a reception afterward and though the Korean students were quiet during rehearsal during the afternoon they were really trying to communicate during the reception. We had simple conversations - figured out how old we all were and how long we've been playing our insturments. In Korea, when you're born you're "1 year old" and then at the new year everyone gets a year older. So if you were born on December 31st, on January 1st, you'd be 2 years old. Weird!! I don't think i'd mind that, myself ;)
Needless to say, i have a lot more sympathy for tourists in America who can't communicate. I think forever more i'll be a LOT more paitent with them, becuase i know how hard it is to get a message across to someone who doesn't speak your language -and worse, you don't speak theirs!! Oh no!!
But seriously, guys. Korea smells funny. And i can't figure it out...
So true on the smell! I was trying to figure it out myself, but I think you described it perfectly! Plus also, you know how new hotels or cars have that new smell? Yeah, some of the universities we've been to have a Korean-like new smell. Check it out next time. =)
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