7-year-old Friends!

I got to go with my friend to school in Korea and met some new friends! These children are 7 years old by Korean age calculation standards. They go to this school to learn English.

They shared me very nicely with each other!

A little about Korean age calculation, which can be confusing if you aren't sure how it works...

everyone is "1" at birth, and everybody gets a year older at the new year rather than on their birthday, so sometimes a person's Korean age can be almost two years more than it would be in the West. For example, a person born in December who is 24 by Western standards is actually already 26 by Korean standards in January.

So, these students are 7 years old in Korea, but they would only be 5 or 6 in the west. They are all learning to speak English very well!

They thought I was cute, too.  :-)

All the best!

Michael TheMonkey

Prayer Trees and Bibimbap

On large old Ginkgo trees in Korea, people sometimes hang prayers or names of people to whom they'd like to bring good luck.

Prayers

Buds

Bibimbap is rice and egg mixed with other things, usually the sides that come with other dishes in Korea, such as various cooked vegetables and hot pepper paste. It is sometimes described as "temple food" because it was (and is) a common meal for Buddhist monks with vows not to eat meat. The combination of egg, rice and mixed vegetables provides a fairly balanced vegetarian meal. There are not hard and fast rules about bibimbap, though, sometimes meat is added.

My bibimbap has rice, egg, salted seaweed with sesame seeds, carrots and hot pepper paste.

'Til next time!

Michael TheMonkey

A sunny winter day

I just wanted to share a few more scenes from Andong, South Korea! I even found another Monkey!

Ice below the bridge

A new park!

A road that leads to a tower

Decorative roadside plants

A long lost brother?

A bridge and a poem

안녕하세요!   Hello again from Korea!

Here I am near the rainbow bridge between Jeongha-dong and downtown Andong!

I took a walk down by the river today. The light was gold in the late afternoon and it was a little warmer today than it has been :-)

Here are a few interesting things you might not know about Korea:

• The competitive playing of some video games is televised. The most popular game played as an "E-Sport" in Korea is Starcraft. There is an entire channel devoted to E-sports.
• Holiday gifts are usually simple and practical things like food, drinks and health products, especially ginseng.
• Young couples in Korea sometimes purchase and sport complete matching outfits, called "couple wear."
• While Taekwondo is Korea's official national sport and is widely practiced, Soccer, baseball and basketball are the most popular televised sports. Korea has 8 professional baseball teams.
• You should never pour a drink for yourself in Korea, especially soju! If someone older than you fills your cup, it is polite to hold the cup with two hands as they pour.
• Personal image is very important in Korea and people generally spend time dressing up before going out. Business suits, dresses and skirts are common.
• It is good luck to visit at least three different temples on Buddha's birthday (in Early May.) Many temples provide visitors with a free meal of Bibimbap (riced mixed with egg and vegetables) on that day.
• At restaurants in Korea, servers generally do not check up on their tables as they might in many Western countries, it is expected that customers will summon them by shouting "Yeo-gi-o!" or by pressing an electronic call button on the table when they need service.
• Use of the Koreanized form of the word "service"("suh-bees-uh") in a restaurant means that something is "on the house."
  
• The rainbow bridge in Andong is populated by thousands of web-building spiders during the summer time and makes sounds like grunting animals at night when its lights are turned on. :-)

The rainbow bridge

Under the bridge

The area around the river is being landscaped and developed.

And here is a poem by one of Korea's most famous poets, Yun Dong-Ju (윤동주)

Let me have no shame
Under heaven
Until I die
Even wind among the leaves
Pains my heart.

With a heart singing stars,
I will love all dying things
And I must follow the path
That's been given to me.

Tonight also
The wind sweeps past among the stars.

Yours truly,
Michael TheMonkey

Calm but cold in Korea

Hello from the east, everybody!

Outside a temple near downtown Andong, South Korea.

For the next few months I'll be exploring in South Korea(대한민국)! Yesterday, I took a trip to some fantastic historical sites around Andong(안동), a moderately-sized city of about 500,000 in the Gyeongsangbuk province.

A little background on the region:

Often billed as the "Cultural Capital of Korea," the Andong area is well known for its links to Korea's past and its preservation of old traditions. The area surrounding Andong is home to the famous Hahoe Folk Village, a UNESCO World-Heritage site as of 2010, as well as numerous temples, Confucian academies and old family estates. Queen Elizabeth visited Hahoe and other sites around Andong in 1999, bringing further attention to the region as a cultural center.

Many Andong residents have a great sense of pride about their city and are happy to tell stories, share information and even teach traditional dances! Every fall Andong hosts the International Maskdance Festival. The festival lasts for nearly two weeks and draws visitors from all over the world. It provides an opportunity for everyone to learn about and participate in everything that Andong has to offer.

Did I mention that Andong is also famous for its food and drink??? Yesterday I got to try some Andong jjimdak(안동찜닭), yum! But more on that later... There are so many aspects to Andong that it's difficult to even mention them all at once!


It was very cold and windy yesterday, nearly -23 degrees C (-10 F) with the windchill!  Maybe not the best day for exploring, but it was sunny and nice otherwise. The first place I visited yesterday was a functional Buddhist temple near downtown Andong.

I climbed up three flights of stairs decorated with beautiful paintings...

...to reach the very quiet and peaceful main room, filled with sunlight, the dry, woody smell of incense and an elderly man seated on the floor quietly chanting prayers. The floor was wonderfully warm!

A lantern with prayers hanging from the center.

Dragons!

A large painting to the right of Buddha and offerings of food
-- too bad there aren't any bananas! ;-)

The temple's large Buddha statue.

And here's me in front of some lights with devotees' names.

It was hard to leave the warm, relaxing temple, but I decided to go on to see what else I could see!

A few minutes walk down the road, I came upon this pagoda -- the oldest stone pagoda in Korea! It was built in the 8th century as part of a temple called Beopeungsa, but it is all that is left of the temple. Traditionally, pagodas have an odd number of sections from three to thirteen -- this one has seven. The pagoda is Korean national treasure no. 16.

It was too cold to stay long near the pagoda, so I kept walking along the river, past the Andong Dam, until I reached the Andong Folk Museum.

Andong Dam

The museum has an outdoor and indoor area. The outdoor area consists of a collection of traditional houses and buildings, and the indoor area has information about historic daily life and culture. Since it was so cold, I headed inside.

The indoor museum focuses mainly on Confucian traditions related to life cycle events such as coming of age and growing older. The museum has a great wealth of information about life in the past and the influence that certain past traditions and Confucian ideologies have on modern Korean society, as well as many interesting artifacts and reconstructions of past life.

A handsomely decorated funeral box used to carry the body.

At the end of the day I was tired and my hands and feet were cold, it was the perfect time for some yummy, hot Korean food in a warm restaurant. Andong jjimdak is a kind of chicken stew with potatoes, carrots, noodles, peppers, leeks and sauce. It is an Andong original dish -- if you order anywhere else in Korea, it is always referred to as Andong jjimdak. I'd dare anyone to walk past an Andong jjimdak restaurant and not be tempted in by the smell.

Yum!

Last, but certainly not least, Andong is especially famous for its soju. Soju is a clear Korean rice liquor popular all over the country. Andong Soju (안동소주) is known for its strength (40-45%) and earthy flavor, which result from it being distilled in the traditional way.

Whew, Andong Soju is too strong for a little monkey like me!

I'm tired, I'd better get some rest so that I can get out and explore more of incredible Korea! Until next time!

Yours,
Michael TheMonkey