Saturday
Saturday was pretty fun. Basically, the plan was to visit Daegu and do a little perusing of the local wares. We did really well in that regard. There were plenty of clothing stores to be found, and we walked pretty much the whole downtown. It was really a great Saturday afternoon. It wasn't too hot, or too cool, it was just perfect for a nice day of relaxation.
We went into the traditional market for a little traditional shopping, but basically found the exact same stuff over and over again. I found some tailors, but didn't get anything. At the start of this trip, I thought getting new clothes would be a cool thing. I came to my senses, though, and thankfully so, because where would I even put a suit?
The market was pretty neat, because there were vendors everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. There was only room to go through one at a time, and there were still scooters going through, which gave the shopping an interesting air of danger, as if you knew while looking at a shirt you had the chance of being brutally ran down by a scooter. Well, maybe that's a little dramatic, but seriously the scooters go everywhere. I will get a picture of them being crazy.
One of the neater things about the market was that there was a vast network of indoor vendors as well, which specialized in textiles and traditional clothing. This part of the market was where the tailors were, and they actually had some pretty nice material. I would be pretty afraid of getting a suit tailored I think, because they would probably make it in the Korean style: very tight and shiny.
We came back from downtown and had dinner with the english teachers and watched celebrity apprentice. It was a really good time. The english teachers here are so nice, and are definitely interesting. They are good friends to have, and anyone coming to Daegu will be able to utilize them in staving off homesickness.
Sunday
On Sunday I had an incredibly fun trip (which is also the subject of my next video blog, hopefully up soon). I met with my teacher and a couple of Japanese exchange students in Daegu and we went on a one day temple stay.
I woke up early so I could be awake for the travels, and attempted to get the Japanese guys and go to meet our teacher. They didn't answer their door, though, so I had to go it alone for that part. I didn't know where we were meeting (at first), but my teacher had given me the name of the place, so when I got on the appropriate bus I gave the information to the bus driver. He agreed to tell me when we got there, so I floated off into a daydream.
An hour and a half later, when I come to from my day dreams, the bus drier is telling me to get off because I've arrived. Turns out the place I was meeting my teacher was a park I was really familiar with, I just didn't know what the official name of it was. I could have been there easily half an hour before, by taking the subway and whatnot, but instead, I had to rely on the bus and was a half hour late.
I met my everyone, and we were off. Turns out my knocking really did wake up the Japanese guys, and they freaked out when they realized they overslept. They, however, knew the official name for the park, and therefore were able to get there before me, even though they left way after me.
We got on this bus, called the Rapid Bus, but it should have actually been called the So-Crowded-It's-Probably-A-Safety-Hazard. This bus could probably have seated 40 people easy. Too bad 75 people were actually on board the whole way. Believe it or not, it made the trip much more interesting. What was usually a leisurely drive up a mountain road turned into an epic battle of diesel horsepower vs. gravity and physics.
We made it in good time (I think) and started making our way to the temple. I had a lot of fun walking to the temple itself. Hiking up a mountain is so neat, at least to me, and if you joy it as much as I do, Korea is a great place. The temple itself was smaller than I expected, but the stay itself was top notch.
At first, they welcomed us to the temple and we all introduced ourselves. All in all there must have been 25 people there, kids included. As soon as the clock struck twelve, we headed down to the food building for lunch, which was delicious. The temple had a vegetarian diet, and the food was neat. It was all very traditional, even the kimchi (sour from age). Also, there was traditional Korean bread, called Duck. It was really good, but it was the thickest bread type food I have ever had.
Lunch was finished and we headed out to our first activity: the famed Korean tea ceremony. I always enjoy doing the ceremony, because I feel like it helps me remove myself from the world, and really helps appreciate the act of taking in nature's bounty. I didn't really mean for that to sound so spiritual, but I guess it kind of just did. Anyways, we went through it two times, and the lesson was focused mainly on the steps, not the movements and things like that.
When we sat down for the tea ceremony I was pretty surprised. I have heard that temples usually have their stay participants do actual work while there, but the one we were at only wanted us to have fun and see the lighter side of traditional korean life, which was also fine by me.
After the tea ceremony, we all relaxed for a few minutes, while the next activity was prepared: Lotus flower lantern craft time. In honor of Buddha's approaching birthday, we were taught how to make beautiful little lotus flower lanterns. It was so simple, and the product was so pretty, I was so surprised.
At this time of year (Buddha's birthday), Korea is infiltrated by the likes of hundreds upon thousands of paper lanterns. They are in the monasteries and the temples and even in the schools and the big cities. It's not the biggest holiday in Korea, but it is definitely big enough. One of the neatest thing I learned on Sunday was that every lantern in the temple was made by the monks themselves. Every lantern probably took half an hour to make, at least, and there must have been nearly a hundred. While it may not seem like a lot, the monks had supplies to last for at least three times that many lanterns.
When we had all created our lanterns, we headed to the food place again for dinner. Dinner consisted of another very traditional meal. It consisted of flattened and ripped apart rice cakes along with green onions, potatoes, and...something else that was delicious as well. The making of the rice cake parts was a lot of fun, because I basically made it just like pizzas are thrown. The whole scene was pretty comical, because all the nationalities of the people participating in the stay (including, but not limited to, chinese, vietnamese, thai, russian, japanese, korean, and american) were flattening the dough in a very stereotypical way.
Dinner was delicious, but when it was over, we had one last activity. We played a very traditional game, called Yoot-Nori. It's basically a very old version of sorry. The rules are very similar, and instead of dice, you use 4 sticks, one side flat and one side round. Spaces moved are determined by how many sticks are turned flat side up.
The game was so much fun. I could see immediately why it was a traditional game. They split up the group into two factions, and it wasn't long before we were all cheering for our side.
We had to leave when the game finished, though, and made it back to the school easily. I, in turn, made it safely to sleep not soon afterwards, mainly because I needed to make up for the sleep I had lost the previous week.
Monday
Monday was not nearly as fun as Sunday, but it was ok. Class was relatively good, and I got all my homework done. I even got to write a whole page in Korean, which is great practice. The pages always get ripped to shreds by my teacher's pen, but it helps me learn a lot.
The only bad thing about Monday was that I sat in the lab waiting for my professor for a total of 4 hours without him being there. At first I was kind of annoyed, but was definitely humbled when he showed up.
Turns out, he had a car wreck this weekend and has had to be at the hospital for an hour a day for rehab. Here I was thinking he just didn't care, when he had actually been involved in an accident which wasn't his fault. Basically, the moral of the day was to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, a valuable lesson I have definitely been getting away from while I've been here.
The lab stuff was the last thing I did on Monday, though.
Tuesday(Today)
Today has been a pretty good day too. Class was ok (still FOUR hours) but all in all I'm getting it. After class, I had a delicious lunch and went to the travel agent. Why the travel agent? Turns out that next weekend we have a five day weekend. I wanted to go to Jeju island, which is THE place to go in warm weather. It's off the southern coast of Korea, has a nice beach or two, and is very traditional.
I said wanted because when I learned the price of the plane ticket to the island, I had to rethink the price. Basically, it was a lot. I think everyone in Korea will be going somewhere nice (the entire country has the 5 day weekend) so all the prices are inflated. I decided then that maybe it would be fun to go to another country for the holiday, like China, or Thailand or Australia, Fiji, anywhere really. The answer, price-wise, for all of those, was no, no, no, NO, and no. ALL the prices of air travel are inflated that weekend. Instead, we have decided to spend the five days in Seoul, take the nicest DMZ tour we can find, and do everything we possibly can.
With the travel plans settled, I headed off to table tennis, but for the second time in a row, the club isn't there. Last time it was because there was a tournament they didn't tell me about, but this time it was because this week is mid term week for everyone. Can't blame them for studying.
After leaving there, I came back to the room and did my homework. So ends my day.
For Now and Hopefully Only Until Tomorrow
Aron Huckaba International Vagabond
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