Korean Cultural Day!

Sunday was quite the adventure and a great experience as well. One of the women who hangs out with us foreigners is from Korea and speaks great English and she takes a lot of pride in showing us what her country has to offer and the heritage that lay here. She set up a day for us to experience the facets of Korean culture. 1) Making Kimchi, 2) Playing Korean style ceremonial drums, and 3) Making paper mishe trays. We went to an area of Jeonju that I've never been before and I can certaily say it will not be my last time there either. It was stunning and had so much to look at but because we were on a schedule I didn't have a chance to do the exploring I plan on doing in the near future.

Ok so the Kimchi making process was pretty cool. Kimchi is basically fermented cabbage that is seasoned with chili powder and other vegetables. It is THE MAIN ingredient in any Korean dish; they eat this with everything. My aunt warned me of the smell kimchi has to offer and she couldn't have been more right. It is not the most appetizing smell to say the least but the taste will surprise you with a mix of sweet and spicy.

The drums we were playing are traditional ceremonial drums and the guy who was teaching us is a student at the local university majoring in Korean ancient music. He was really funny and very patient with the gap in communication. I really liked this part but after hearing 30 drums all at the same time my head was certainly beginning to beat a bit harder and a headache was coming over very shortly.

After the drums we were escorted back into the main room where our paper mishe was set up for us. This was VERY relaxing and a great relief for the headache to wear off. Jeonju is well known for their paper making abilities and this is because the climate of Jeonju is perfect to grow the trees that are needed to make the paper mishe. When Korea was run by a king and the different provinces had to give the king a gift of some sort, Jeonju would always send their finest paper because it was the highest quality paper in the entire country. We made trays with butterflies on them to give the meaning of relationships. Butterflies in Korean culture stand for a happy relationship and we glued a statement in the middle which said something along the lines of "as long as we're together then we'll always be happy."

The entire day was a lot of fun and I'm certainly lucky to be where I am today!

I APOLOGIZE FOR THE VIDEO BEING SIDEWAYS, I COULDN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO TURN IT.

KCC Basketball!!!

Saturday was indeed an interesting day to say the least. The KBL or the Korean Basketball League has a team right here in Jeonju and it's playoff time! I was invited to attend the game with a few other foreigners and since sports runs through my blood there was no way I could pass it by! Our team here in Jeonju is called KCC Ebis and I was surprised to see we had a few foreign players on both the KCC team and the visiting team. Apparently the team KCC played beat them by nearly 15 the first time they met earlier in the season so I was expecting for our KCC to lose. Oh I was wrong indeed! KCC came out and won big, by 28 points big. They have a player on their team who is a REALLY tall Korean and he's like a Great Dane puppy. He's tall, uncoordinated, and full of piss and vinegar! He was certainly an entertainment to watch to say the least. It certainly isn't an NBA caliber of game but it was a lot of fun and I certainly look forward to going to another one.

The video attached is of the pre-game celebration. What you didn't hear is the 39 times they did this before I decided to record it. It was a bit annoying by this point but I wanted to share it with you all :)

Dinner time!

Here is an example of a traditional Korean dinner. It's pretty awesome because you literally grill your own meat at your table to your liking and you have a ton of sides accompany the main dish.

Here's the shower!!!

Many of you have been curious as to what this shower ordeal is all about so here you go :)

A better way of getting around!

So apparently the competition for Internet subscribers is pretty intense. They companies will give away all sorts of things to persuade people to use their company for Internet. Apparently Korea is one of the most widely connected places in all of the world in regards to the Internet. The company I decided to sign with was giving away anything from a lap top computer to a brand new vacuum. One of the biggest disadvantages I'm facing here is the lack of getting around besides walking everywhere. So with that, I decided to take advantage of the new bike I could get. It's one of the folding mountain bikes that I've heard a lot of horror stories about but so far the bike has been great. I've attached a couple of pictures for you to take a look at. The first picture is the bike in the box as it was delivered to my apartment. The second is obviously the assembled bike and honestly it works like a charm.

Secondly, I was dieing for some pizza and I decided to venture into one of the local pizzerias and ordered a pepperoni pizza. I gave them my address and it was delivered right away. Everyone here is extremely helpful as you can see by the note on the box, "Welcome to Korea, Thanks." The pizza was one of the best things I've had since arriving in Korea but if you compare it to American pizza, it holds no stance :)

And last are pictures from St. Patrick's Day. Just a good night out with some friends and green beer to thank St. Patrick for his Christian work and gratitude towards Scotland :)

This was my first time ever seeing snow! It was raining the night before and when I woke up I was wondering why it was still raining but when I opened my window I saw this!! I was very surprised and immediately put some clothes on and made my first snow ball!!