My First Korean School Trip!!!

 안녕하세요!! Today I'm back with another update, shorter this time but just as sweet. It'll cover the span of a day and a part of another.

Today I got home at 12ish mid-day after I had spent part of the morning and the entire previous day at a school camp event (More on that later). It was basically two days where we played, hiked, and did all sorts of things. It wasn't camping in the way I originally thought it would be (Tents, sleeping bags, and insect repellant, etc.), instead we slept indoors in a large dormitory like facility on school owned property located in the forest outside of Yeoju. I digress. 

Wednesday:

I took the school bus in the morning to group up with the other first year students at Daeshin Highschool. Then after a little while had passed and we were ready, we all hoped on the buses and drove 15 minutes to the school site outside of Yeoju. Then we unpacked, made ourselves lunch and headed for the auditorium building. 

In Korea, students often participate in a synchronized stretching (Warm up) routine at the start of events to loosen up muscles and such. After that was done we played handful of games like Limbo, floor curling, and few more, all of which were fun of course (I did pretty good at limbo surprisingly...failed at curling *Sad Canadian noises)

After the games concluded, we gathered in the courtyard and prepared for the long walk ahead. Mountains dominate much of the Korean landscape, especially the further east you go, and in Korea they are absolutely covered in forests with thick canopies. This mountain was no different and it was fairly steep as well, to my chagrin, low endurance and all hehe. The climb was difficult, I had to stop many times, my classmates did as well, however once we reached the top it was well worth the trouble. A traditional Korean viewing platform sat at the peak, and the 360 degree view from it was absolutely stunning. We could see the camp, the colorful fall canopy, as well as the Han river going through Yeoju, it was absolutely breathtaking. The descent down wasn't as wonderful as the view was (pain) but I really couldn't complain at that point. The hike back was peaceful, calm, and somewhat nostalgic because it remined me of the area North of Sault Ste. Marie near where I live.

(P.S. I may look haldf dead in the next photo, however I can assure you that most certainly was the case, I was sweating buckets😁)

The day was not over yet, no, there was more to come, Once back from the walk, we were given sometime to rest after which we were to eat. The menu included Ramen noodles, some convenience store sausage, cider (Non-alcoholic, don't sweat it Rotary), and finally the big ticket item 삼겹살구이 Samkyeopsal Korean pork barbecue, it was yum yum. There are two ways I know of eating it, #1Grab a piece of pork and a chunk of garlic and eat them both at once, #2 Grab a letus leaf, a piece of pork, garlic, and a dab of the samkeopsal sauce, and then fold it closed and eat it in one bite 😋.

I only had the one picture and we were basically finished in it, so.... I'll google an example. 🙇

After eating and cleaning up, it was time to return to the auditorium again. This time we watched as our friends performed songs and dances, rap, kpop, guitar, and much more. I even participated in a game where we had to guess the capitals of countries (I failed at Australia, who knew Canberra was the capital hehe my b 😅).

Performances lasted for quite a while, so naturally some people left to get a break form the loud atmosphere.....I joined them. One of them brought a guitar out and played for us. The air was crisp/cool, just the way I like it 'Canadian eh!' 😤😆😆. Snow hasn't arrived yet, but it will eventually, of course not in the Canadian quantity heh. Anyways, we waited out there for a while, until the show was over. I was excited because I knew that next on the itinerary was a great bonfire, the thing I looked forward to the most. Bonfires at the end of school camps seem to be a common occurrence in asian high schools, something I wish we had back home. These aren't little campfire, just so you know, I'm talking BONFIRES Yaa! We danced around it, while watching it's golden light illuminate our surroundings.

Being that it was the final event of the night, unfortunately that meant we had to go to sleep, although we were fairly excited for sleep after the long day we had.

Thursday:

Breakfast was a cheese, sausage, pasta sauce toast abomination that was scrumptious. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but it was breakfast nonetheless.

After breakfast, we had one final gathering in the auditorium, this time for dance lessons. Two thirds of the student body were out cold on the floor, including me (Teenagers + early morning), but some strong students muscled through.

Finally, we gathered in the courtyard and made for home.

I'm happy I could go on this trip, and I'm proud of myself for having the courage to say "Yes".

Thank you for reading another one of my busy blog posts, I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, I will be posting videos and a few more pictures on my Instagram 'Kindly.sir.chong' if you'd like to see more, and feel free to show this blog to anyone you think might be interest.

Be well,

M.S.C

 

A Handful of Korean Cultural experiences.

 안녕하세요 Good morning (or when ever you read this) everyone, it's time for another update. This update will focus on three main things, all of which have some significance to Korean Culture.

First of, I'd like to talk about my activities on Wednesday. As some of you may know, my rotary youth exchange coordinator put together a schedule filled with activities ranging in size from visiting the National Museum of Korea, to a three day trip to the DMZ, to a longer 4-5 day trip to Japan. This past Wednesday was one such trip, it lasted the whole day and was a total blast. It began in Gonjiam, city not far from Yeoju where I live (It's on the same line), once I arrived there along with Manny and Eve (American exchange students) we were picked up and taken to the location where all of us would be meeting.

The point of this trip was to learn how to make kimchi, a staple in Korean food and it's known world wide. It's made by combining a number of vegetables and spice together, such as cabbage, radish, carrot, salt (even though the cabbage is brined I believe), garlic, Gochugaru (A Korean spice made from sun-dried peppers) or so I assumed, sesame seeds, and more.

After making Kimchi, we were given the task of creating another Cultural item, although this time it wasn't food. This task required artistic skills because we were making traditional Korean lanterns. We assembled them ourselves out of wooden cutouts and painted them with colours of our choice. I decided to go with light green (Sage green) and light yellow combo for a sort of gentle pastel look. I was impatient so it was a little messy and it turned out looking a sort of weather, i was happy with the end result so...lit.

That was Thursday, now lets fast forward to Saturday, yesterday. 

I don't know if I mentioned this, but I've been taking drumming lessons for over month at this point, it's a Janggu class, however recently we switched to playing the Buk for reasons I didn't know until last Tuesday when they told me I'd be performing during Samulnori (A Korean festival). I was horrified, and rightfully so considering I'd really only copied their movements in class since I've yet to learn the language enough to understand 선상님 (Teacher's) instructions.

Despite my obvious cowardice, I really did enjoy the performance, it truly was a refreshing/fulfilling cultural experience.

Following my performance on Saturday, I was able to walk around the festival grounds, see what the vendors were selling, enjoy a nice meal, and check out the nearby Buddhist temple (Alone 😭😄). Buddhism has existed in Korea since (372 CE) long before Christianity arrived anywhere near there and still thrives to this day, in fact it's the most followed religion in Korea of the nearly 50% of Koreans who identify as religious.

As for today, I had language school at 1:00 p.m. and after that I headed to a nearby park that contains some historical structures. I was able to relax and enjoy the view of the Han river that flows through Yeoju and on the way home I was able to stop at my favorite café Rose' Coffee Haus.

안녕히계세요, thank you for reading, I worked really hard on this post. Anyways, have a good day or goodnight.

Peace

 

2022-10-15

 Today is Saturday and after a long week, I can finally write about what's been going on.

Most of the last week has been the usual morning, school, bed, routine, however Thursday was pretty fun. There was a fair, with booths and activities all over the school field. There was a game booth, a baseball/lottery booth, two crafts, booths, a foot washing booth, and more. That part of the days event lasted for a few hours, however eventually it was time to head for the gym. In the gym we started with a short wrestling event, Korean style (씨름 ssireum), that students could challenge each other in. Then we watched a sort Taekwondo demonstration in which they didn't really fight but instead kicked and smashed wooden boards. My favorite part came next, a handful of students worked up the courage before hand and decided to sing for the whole school. They finished the night with a band who played traditional Korean music with traditional instruments alongside newer ones like the drums or electric piano, honestly not my favorite thing in the world but it was nice nonetheless. I believe when all was said and done and I had gotten back home it was already 7 or 8 pm. 

Hello There!!

 Hello everyone I hope all will/are having/had a nice day. I understand it's been a long time since my last post, so I really hope people haven't forgotten about my blog. Please understand. I am very busy these days so I often don't have the time or energy to post. And with that being said, let's get onto what I've been doing.

My last post was September 3rd so a lot has happened in the over a month long break. I'll tell you about some of the bigger things though. I went to the DMZ with all of the other exchange student in my area, who I've been meeting with at a number of rotary events that I've been to. We saw North Korea, the 3rd tunnel that was made from North Korea to South Korea, the DMZ itself, and more. I've gotten together with the three other exchange students in my district (D3600) at one of their houses in a town called Icheon, which we've done several times, and finally just yesterday I went with all of the exchange students in my multidistrict to see the National Museum of Korea as well as the National Hangeul Museum.

Aside from big events, I've attended school and night school (Korean language), I've learned how to use both the metro and busing systems in Korea, and I've met and attended a meeting with my host club Club Myung Sung an all women's club.

If you'd like to see some pictures I've taken then you should check out my new Instagram account. @kindly.sir.chong