"Let's Get Physical"

My middle school recently held Sports Day - the equivalent of American schools' Field Day.

In Korea, Sports Days are held at every school as if they were professionally organized. There were tents set up for the kids to rest in the shade, water and snack locations, and the events were very well planned. The homerooms dress-up in team outfits that they purchase from retailers who specialize in team uniforms.

 

As for the events, my favorite was the jump rope contest. Each homeroom per grade competes against the others. The jump rope contest is a timed event in which each kid individually jumps over a rope spun by two students. If a student fails to jump over, they have to go back to the end of the line until they complete it. Next, 2 students have to jump the rope together...then 3...and then 4. The times of each round are averaged and the lowest time is the winning homeroom. It was rather enjoyable to watch four students hold hands and jump, only to have one trip and force all four to try again.

The students also competed in relay races, tug of war, and the third grade boys compete in a popular soccer game.

 

This is the 3rd grade class president - he's also a big fan of me and calls me "brother". 

He's a good kid.

Unfortunately, my camera battery was drained from the weekend, and I forgot to recharge it. I did capture a bunch of photo's in the morning and complied them into a video.

Enjoy!

"Evidence"

Tension is mounting slightly these past few days due to the new reports coming out that North Korea is being held responsible for the sinking of the ROKS Cheonan on March 26th. (see my previous post here).

According to the Joongang Daily there was evidence of a North Korean serial number found on a torpedo fragment:

“A North Korean-manufactured torpedo that carried a 250-kologram [551-pound] warhead is confirmed to be responsible for the explosion."

The decisive evidence was torpedo fragments collected from the sinking site. The propeller of the torpedo was recently recovered and a North Korean marking was on it, the ministry said. The marking read “1 Beon” using the Arabic numeral and the Korean letter that means number.

The recovered components were identical to the designs of a North Korean sonar-tracking torpedo depicted on an arms export catalog of the communist regime.

The experts also based their conclusion on analysis of evidence collected from the site of the sinking, the hull of the salvaged ship, postmortem examinations of the dead sailors, seismic waves, simulation of underwater explosions and currents near the sinking site, the ministry said.

 Here is a decent overview from CNN:

The DPRK has denied the allegations:

North Korea immediately challenged the report and threatened to go to war if the South retaliates or imposes sanctions. The North's highest power organ, the National Defense Commission, chaired by leader Kim Jong-il, also said it intends to send a verification team to South Korea to disprove the probe's findings.

Last week, Kim Myong Chol, who is often called an "unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea, wrote the following as it was posted on the Asia Times Online website:

Mission impossible
There are four important points that make it clear that a North Korean submarine did not sink the South Korean corvette.

Fact 1.North Korean submarines are not stealthy enough to penetrate heavily guarded South Korean waters at night and remain undetected by the highly touted anti-submarine warfare units of the American and South Korean forces. A North Korean submarine would be unable to outmaneuver an awesome array of high-tech Aegis warships, identify the corvette Cheonan and then slice it in two with a torpedo before escaping unscathed, leaving no trace of its identity.

Fact 2. The sinking took place not in North Korean waters but well inside tightly guarded South Korean waters, where a slow-moving North Korean submarine would have great difficulty operating covertly and safely, unless it was equipped with AIP (air-independent propulsion) technology.

Fact 2: The disaster took place precisely in the waters where what the Pentagon has called "one of the world's largest simulated exercises" was underway. This war exercise, known as "Key Resolve/Foal Eagle" did not end on March 18 as was reported but actually ran from March 18 to April 30.

Fact 3: The Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercise on the West Sea near the Northern Limit Line (NLL) was aimed at keeping a more watchful eye on North Korea as well as training for the destruction of weapons of mass destruction in the North. It involved scores of shiny, ultra-modern US and South Korean warships equipped with the latest technology.

The incident has become a huge issue, and is gaining momentum as the new evidence agreed upon by the multi-national team of US, Australian, Swedish, and South Korean experts that the North is the culprit and that the serial number discovered is the "smoking gun".

Relations are also being strained due to Kim Jong Il's recent trip to China where he was publicly embraced as China showed it still supports the communist dictatorship as it's friendly neighbor.  The trip had been anticipated for quite some time, and was made in early May shortly after the Cheonan's sinking, perhaps as a way to strengthen ties and support if it came to light that the North was involved.

President Obama has pledged his support to the South, as the two countries are very close. Obama phoned President Lee Myung-Bak. "The South Korean presidential office said Obama supported South Korea’s response to the incident and said he “fully trusts” the investigation conducted by a team of international experts."

From the Joongang Daily

“President Lee and President Obama agreed that North Korea must honor its international obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1874 and its commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons programs,” a statement by the Blue House read. “At the same time, the leaders said North Korea must stop its belligerent course of action and that they will strengthen their alliance.”

What's next for North Korea? Another CNN report:

As for the daily lives of the people of South Korea? It feels as though nobody is worried. This has been the manner I've witnessed all year. The North constantly has threatened war for decades that it has become second nature to hear it. People go about their daily lives and don't pay much attention to the posturing of the North, its propaganda.


Next post: Sports Day!

"Glow in the Dark"

This month marks the preparations for Buddha's Birthday (May 21st). Similarly to Christmas, the decorations have been up around the city well in advance, along with multiple festivals and things to see and do.

Just about every Westerner around Seoul decided to attend the Buddhist Festival and Lotus Lantern Parade held in Insadong, Seoul this past Sunday. The last time I saw so many white faces and heard that many people speaking English was last year before my departure.

The festival was amazing, with many interesting kiosks to attend. There was meditation techniques, exercises, food tastings, and arts and crafts from around the globe.

I made the pottery and box. During the lantern parade I was given the lantern by someone in the parade. (The swastika is a asian symbol used in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism that Hitler stole and adopted for the Nazi's)

Many countries were involved, including Cambodia, Thailand, China, and we even saw white American, South African, and Dutch Buddhists!

The highlights of the festival were the arts and crafts. We got to make some pottery, and a paper box that came out beautifully. (see above)

Between the tents we came across some traditional dancing, sand artwork, and musicians - to name a few

 

 

At the nearby temple, there were lanterns everywhere. It was beautiful!

After the festival, we got front row seats for the Lotus Lantern Parade.

Here are some of my favorite photo's followed by a video I made.

 

 

 

 

Here is a video of the festival and parade: It's about 8 min long - sorry!

"Maximum Consumpion"

We attended Seoul's 2010 Topokki Festival this Sunday near Yangjae station at the AT Center. (by the way topokki is also spelled tteokbokki - (tteok meaning rice cake)

From Wikipedia: Tteokbokki, also known as Topokki, is a popular Korean snack food which is commonly purchased from street vendors or Pojangmacha. Originally it was called tteok jjim (떡찜), and was a broiled dish of sliced rice cake, meat, eggs, and seasoning. Tteok jjim an early variant of modern tteokbokki, was once a part of Korean royal court cuisine. This type of tteokbokki was made by broiling tteok, meat, vegetables, eggs, and seasonings in water, and then serving it topped with ginkgo nuts and walnuts. In its original form, tteokbokki, which was then known as gungjung tteokbokki, was a dish served in the royal court and regarded as a representative example of haute cuisine. The original tteokbokki was a stir-fried dish consisting of garaetteok (가래떡, cylinder-shaped tteok) combined with a variety of ingredients, such as beef, mung bean sprouts, green onions, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and onions, and seasoned with soy sauce

The festival (I call it a convention) was full of topokki vendors giving out samples of their chewy concoctions, while also selling bowls of their different varieties of the dish. Among them were; chili, teriyaki , BBQ, garlic, black bean, and mushroom cream.

I've grown to enjoy the dish, as it is a popular street food that grows on you. 

(as well as lingers in your stomach like a brick!)

Besides the vendors, you could also see the winners who created new and unique topokki dishes. There was also a dance competition and an eating competition where the dishes increased in their levels of spiciness.

On the second floor of the AT Center they had a handful of vendors that were showing off business opportunities. You could sign up to purchase a franchise and run it yourself, visit the Research and Development station and see what kind of topokki they're working on. If you wanted, you could purchase cheese injected topokki, or grab up the last bag of chocolate sauce infused topokki!

While were were walking about, we started to get stares, as there were not many foreigners in attendance. SBS, one of the most famous TV networks in Korea tried to get me to do an interview. I refused (I don't like being on camera!) But my friend Domenick got the chance to be the star.

I made a quick video while they were taping, and recorded the interview off my TV that night.

 

You can also watch the full interview on SBS here.

I ended up giving a quick interview to a radio station as well (and wasn't too keen on that either!). Even the MC of the eating competition tried to get me to participate. Sometimes I just want to mix in with other Koreans so I don't stand out so much!

I also found this nicely done video on YouTube. Check it out if you want a better sense of the convention.

"Rocky Mountain High"

May 5th marked the Korean national holiday of Children's Day.  Parents give presents to their children, as well as spend the day with them by taking them to museums, amusement parks, the zoo, or shopping. There is no school on Children's Day which makes it an awesome day for me in the form of a broken-up work week!

My girlfriend also had the day off, so we got together with our friend Chang-soo, and decided to hike Surisan again (see my November post here) but this time, we left from a different location, and hiked all the way to the summit.  It was an exhausting 4-5 hour hike, but great exercise!

Here is a map of our trip: (yellow is our starting location, red is final stop). We took the train and buses to these locations, as walking would easily have taken another 3-4 hours.

At the base of the mountain was a small countryside village with some beautifully painted walls and homes.

 

After the first leg of our journey we stopped at a small Buddhist temple. Korea is getting ready for Buddha's Birthday, a very large holiday here.

Lanterns adorn much of the landscape

Candy and money are placed near the temples as well

 

The temple surrounded by spring blooming around it

 

A view of green mountains and Ansan and Suwon in the far distance

A quick rest and we're back on the trail... (note: more lanterns...)

After another hour or so, we make it near the summit...

The amazing views at the summit...

Hiking back down, towards Anyang

 

We stopped at the base of the mountain and drank some makkoli and haemul pajeon.(along with the traditional side dish of kimchi of course!)  Makkoli is a milky rice alcohol and haemul pajeon is a seafood and green onion pancake.

I wish I could have every Wednesday off...