Festival Season: Rice and Liquor Festival

Next on our list of freakishly fun fall festivals (say that 10 times fast) was the Soju and Rice Cake Festival in the beautiful city of Gyeongju.  After eventually finding our way to the festival (in large part thanks to Dan and his ability to follow simple directions) we stumbled upon a few of our friends from Pohang and decided to enjoy the festival together.

The group for the day. From left to right:  Christie, Brad, Emily,
Leigh, Heather, (new Korean friend that I can't remember his name),
me, Dan

We had quite the successful day that included: making rice cakes (basically mashed up rice with other mysterious ingredients thrown in and are ceremoniously mashed together with a huge wooden lever), enjoying the DOZENS of free samples of soju (a rice liquor) from all of the vendors and wandering around the festival enjoying each others company.

With so many foreigners in the same group we were quite popular with the Koreans at the various stands where you could actually make some of the snacks that Korea is famous for. Other Koreans were pushed out of the way so that the foreigners could be photographed and videotaped for the evening news.  Thankfully, Christie ( the blonde on the left of the picture above) was more photogenic and looked more like the kind of foreigner that most Koreans think we are supposed to look like so she was the favorite for the majority of the shoots.  (Thanks Christie!)

Another great thing about this particular festival was the opportunity to get even more souvenirs for when I come home to America.  For the bargain price of $1, we were given a tiny little soju "shot glass" that was conveniently hung on a little thread so that we could have it within easy drinking access.

Posing with our handy dandy souvenirs

Clearly we have been having a great time at all the freakishly fun fall festivals around Korea.  Keep on the lookout for my next post about the motorcycle shoot that happened last weekend.  We finally got our leather vests and just know that we looked amazing.  Get ready Dad.  After all that leather I may want to get a motorcycle when I get stateside afterall!

International Fireworks Festival

A few weeks back was the Pohang International Firworks Festival.  The title alone should give you a hint as to what kind of show we were able to experience. With fireworks displayed by Japan, Korea, Australia and the Philippenes, we got quite the range of awesomeness.  One of my friends from high school happened to recently move to Suwon (near Seoul) and came down for the weekend for the festivities.

We had an awesome time on the beach watching the fireworks and spending time with friends.  Here are a few pictures to give you a better idea as to what we did for the weekend.

The first night of the fireworks over the Posco bridge

In between fireworks at TILT
Kennedy, Leighton, Dallas, Dan and Tristen

Showing Dallas, Tristen and their co-teacher
around downtown Pohang

The beach in Pohang.  The busiest i've ever seen!

Leigh and Emily watching the fireworks with us

The finale of the night

Hundae Sandcastle Festival

Here is a slideshow from a sandcastle festival at Hundae beach in Busan.  The sandcastles were ridiculous, the beach was gorgeous and the city was spectacular.  Hope you like them.

(Mom all you have to do is push the play button and be patient)


Summer in Korea - slideshow maker

Korean Men and Old Women

[So I have been without a working computer at my apartment for almost a week.  That's one week of not skyping with my family (sorry Mom!), being able to watch my choice of movies or television shows in English, etc.  I am entrusting my computer to a friend I work with who is a computer whiz for the weekend to hopefully fix it up. I can't handle being cut off from everyone back home for too much longer]

#101.  This is going to be the most disturbing Korean-ism thus far.  It is not a widely known fact so I am not certain of its validity so take this with a grain of salt.  Fact or fiction?  Who knows.  Here goes. In the Korean culture men are considered to be of more importance than women due to their ability to carry on the family name.  The only way to carry on the family name (in any culture) is to produce viable offspring.  All of this you probably already knew.  What you did NOT know is that in order to make sure that their sons can do this is to help along the process at an early age.

Now what the hell does that mean you may ask?  Well, when Korean men are between the age of around 4-14 (give or take a few years) their parents masterbate them at night to make sure they can get an erection. They say it is for their own good and that they will thank them when they are older and can maintain an erection in order to impregnant their spouse and produce MORE viable offspring.  In America this sort of "help" is called molestation.  In Korea it is just part of the culture.

#102.  Continuing on the same sick topic...in Korea it is not uncommon for an old woman to reach her hand into the stroller of a baby boy and touch his penis and make sure it is satisfactory.  This is common in Korea.  While the parents may not like the idea of their little bundle of joy being touched in that way by a complete stranger, it is not their place to disagree with an elder.  In America that old lady would be bitchslapped back to Korea.  Twice.  .

Alright...enough of the disturbing topics.   Little recap of last weekend for you.

So last weekend I went to Busan with a few of my close friends Jen, Nick and Tim.  While the BUS ride to Busan was not eventful...the subway ride into Busan was a  completely different story .  Right off the bat we were promptly annoyed by a drunken korean man in a zip up jumpsuit.  (Jumpsuits are all the rage here in Korea by the way.) He assumed that the two boys and two girls were together (most Koreans make this mistaken assumption) and kept bowing to the boys and giving them thumbs ups.  It was fun and games until he took Tim's bottle of beer,  shotgunned it and ended up spewing it all over the floor.  Not funny.  He ended up lighting up a cigarette (smoking is prohibited in subways by the way) and was forcibly removed from the bus.  Think of when people are thrown out of bars.  Dramatic but effective.

While in Busan we went to the sandcastle festival (pictures to come later when my computer doesn't hate me.)  These were more than just mere sandcastles.  They were freaking works of art.  Some were 20 feet high and so intricate that I had to remind myself they were made of sand.  To name a few there were sandcastles depicting Jesus,  Abraham Lincoln, The Statue of Liberty,  Eiffel Tower and the Bat Mobile.   Epic.

I also managed to acquire the first coveted Coach purse to send home to the women of my family.  More will follow but hopefully the one will suffice for now.  Happy Momma? :)

All in all a pretty solid weekend.  Good friends.  Sunny beaches.  Amazing western food.  Hopefully this weekend will be just as solid.  Fingers crossed kids.  Toes too.

Puppet Peace Signs

Picture from the Soju Festival.  Creepy puppet men with peace signs.
Pretty much what Korea is all about.

The foreigners had to sign a registration sheet so that
they could keep track of us.  That's discriminatory. 

Rice and Liquor Festival

[Pictures taken by Chris Kuisle and Jared Gramza]

[Thanks to everyone for all the sweet comments about making sure i'm doing ok with the Korean sickness ridiculousness.  I am finally over the worst of it and now just have an annoying cold.  Hopefully the magic Korean medicine combined with the medicine on its way to me from my Dad should be able to make me kick this cold for good.]

Ok. Back to the Korean oddities.

#63. Koreans love their television to be accesible. You see tvs in a taxi, bus, market, bar...anyplace that frequents people. Some taxi drivers prefer to catch up on their soaps while taking their fares to Homeplus while others feel like Korean music videos are the way to go. You just never know what you're going to get.

#64.  Taxis are very inexpensive.  A cab from my apartment to the foreigner hangout bar costs less than $3.  In America it would cost at least double, if not triple. 

#65.  Other forms of transportation are inexpensive as well.  A 25 mile bus ride  from Pohang to Gyeongju costs less than $3.  Point Korea.

I know it's been awhile since i've written on here but honestly with being so sick I didn't do a whole lot until the weekend.  Hopefully this week will be markedly better than last week. It includes my second soccer game of the season, trying live octopus and my first birthday in a foreign country. It should prove to a week I won't soon forget. I hope.

Ok quick recap of the highlights of my weekend.  My first jaunt out of the confines of my bed was to Gyeongju on Saturday for the big blossom festival/soju rice festival.  You combine 10,000+ Koreans, 500+ foreigners, carvinal food of every variety and free alcohol samples...it makes for quite the interesting day.  Everyone seems to like the pictures I post on here so here a few.  More will come later.

Amazing Korean man doing the tightrope

More beautiful blossoms

FREE samples of Soju.  In total, close to 30 different kinds. 

The festival was amazing and I cannot wait until the next one.  Koreans love their liquor, food and entertainment.  What else can a girl ask for?

Ajummas and Chicken Noodle Soup

[So my dad has gotten some of his coworkers to read my blog on here.  It's sometimes weird (but awesome) to think that people who read my blog I have never (and probably will never meet).  I'm glad that I can bring a little laughter or insight into their lives.  Hopefully both.  Keep the comments coming.  I love 'em. ]

#60.   Old Korean women (Ajummas) wear visors. Everywhere. Think of the visors your mom wore to your athletic events when you were younger only bigger. Much bigger.

Ajummas are notorious for their visors.  While the visors do help shield the face from the sun it also results in the wearer looking as ridiculous as humanly possible. Almost Darth Vader-ish. Koreans don't like the sun because of the effect it has on their skin.  Here in Korea light skin is desired by all.  Pretty much the opposite of America.  If someone has dark skin they are thought to be poor and have a job that requires them to be outside laboring.  If someone has light skin they are thought to be wealthy. Just one of the little quirks of Koreans.

#61.  Koreans love whitening masks.  They want their skin to look as white as possible because white is considered a sign of beauty.   It is very similar to the masks Americans use to make their skin firmer or without acne.  Theirs supposedly will make their skin white. Who knows.

Well my weekend in Korea definitely could have been better.  It started off great on Friday with pizza (my first since landing) and drinks with friends downtown but ended horribly with my cold coming back with a vengence Saturday morning.  It is now Sunday afternoon and with exception of a 3 hot showers (mistakely thought the hot water would help) and a quick walk outside for cough drops I have been confined to my bed. 

Remember the medicine I had to take 3x a day to get rid of this nasty thing?  All gone.  Still have the cold.  If anything it's gotten worse.  Big thank you to the Korean pharmacy.  Your tiny pills are just not enough to kick this.

Due to my sickness I was unable to attend the cherry blossom festival in Kyongju Saturday.  Thankfully my friends took plenty of pictures.  The below pictures are from my friend  Darin Novak.  This is what  I would have seen if I would have NOT gotten the plague.

Beautiful aren't they?

Sorry for the debbie downer post.  Being sick sucks.  Being sick in a foreign country without the comforts of certain things to make you feel better sucks even more.  My paticular comforts are hot baths and mom's homemade chicken noodle soup.

 Right now I would pay an obscene amount of money for one bowl of that soup.