Yangdong Traditional Village

Sunday morning we headed to Yugang traditional village located a short drive from downtown Pohang (between Pohang and Gyeongju). The village is the largest of its kind in Korea and was magnificent. The village is a traditional Choseon Yangban village where you can experience some of Korea's national cultural assets.





Yangdong village

 


Thatched roof houses



At the village we watched folk beating some songpyeon (rice cake), from what I understand its ground down rice, slightly sweetened and sometimes combined with other things such as raisins and pumpkin etc, pretty tasteless otherwise but Koreans LOVE it, especially the plain white version.




Traditional attire for making rice cake

 

We walked about the traditional houses, which were able to withstand the Japanese war and still have people living in them today.





Traditional gate handle





Traditional Korean Horse

 


The winding paths




A view of Korea through the door frame.




The views of Korea



Beautiful Korean Bird in a persimmon tree









Man at work

 


Me in a windy old tree

 Two families have lived in the houses and maintained the area for over 500 years. Within the village are two types of housing structures from the Choseon era, large Hanoks on the hillside for the wealthy and on lower ground, the thatched roof houses of the servants.



The traditional ondol, a fire lit here will heat a home for 3 days!



After a stroll about the village we decided to walk back to Pohang as the weather was so good and it meant we got the pass by the lake, which was truly amazing. So beautiful...

Our day ended with delicious and addictive pretzels from Tom n Toms coffee shop (we feel the need to get one every weekend, they are freshly baked and filled with cheese for goodness sake) and a lil nap at home. We are pretty old these days.

Our upcoming plans:

• A surprise trip for the beaus birthday- I am so excited for this but much planning to be done.
• A Korean Christmas- Celebrated in as traditional Jolley style as possible with some friends.
• New Year in the Philippines. Say. no. more.

HOME!!!

December & Coffee shops in South Korea

Where to begin....well firstly I have been dreading winter in Korea as we have been told numerous times about just how cold it is here along with "Corey Teacher, I worry in Winter you get sick, no school, I worry." However, its now a week into December and its bloody marvelous! The sun is shinning every day and we seem to have a few colder days followed by some nice cool, even warm days (Sunday felt like spring). Furthermore, its rained once in the past 2 months (maybe longer), I think winter here is quite delightful. Although the real cold starts January and continues into February, we shall see.


Now onto the past weekend... We have been taking it easy of late, saving the pennies (December is so expensive, the boys birthday, Christmas, 2 holidays: starting December-February) and also I have been experiencing some strange stomach pains (food allergies? alcohol allergies? will get checked when I go home, in Korea they just tell me, don't eat spicy food, hmmm). So this weekend was quite relaxed.


We checked out the wonderful coffee shop near our house. Korea knows how to do coffee shops well, independent ones are usually pretty quirky and cool, although many of them blast the Kpop which I feel ruins the ambiance. However, this one is perfect, traditional styling and atmospheric tinkling's of music, I love it.






Coffee bean sacks




In my favourite coffee shop




Slow drip coffee funnels- a whole wall of them




British chair- I want it for my future home




Coffee sack wall




What a coffee machine



Another coffee shop- they like accessories in the shops including beer bottles!?




The drip coffee wall




Sweety Coffee Shop



Also delicious here are the bugers, especially at Gorilla Burger in Daegu. However, this weekend we made do with King Kong burger in Pohang. Pretty tasty.


The 'King Kong Burger'




King Kong is located down town off 5th street




They have small pictures (usually Polaroids) hanging up everywhere in Korea




So happy with her giant metal cup



We spent the rest of the evening at the cinema watching Social Networking which was pretty good suprisingly. The cinema is the one place you completely forget your in Korea as its the same as home and your watching an English film (with Korean subtitles, which I manage to easily forget about), then the lights come on and suddenly your a minority!


We then went to have a look at some christmas lights about the town, they really are great. Many of the trees around the town are lit beautifully.

Followed by some hookah and some arcade fun.




I love the basketball game




Hookah




Hookah and fish & chips at Portobello 




Mario Cart race: Paul ran out of time!

 Sunday was a little more adventurous....coming soon, very soon.

Korean School Punishments

Punishment in schools in South Korea can be pretty shocking stuff when you come from the PC controlled world of the UK. The main punishments I see frequently in my school are;

• Making students hold their arms up in the air for long, long periods of time.
• Telling students to put their hands on their heads (a favourite of mine, it has become my lifesaver and is a very mild form of punishment, I think)
• Having students kneel on the floor with their arms up in the air.
• Making students clean: Now students have to clean their own classrooms so they are usually sent to clean non-homeroom classes (such as mine) as well.
• Holding a bridge position- hands and feet on the floor, bum in the air, for long durations of time.

I've heard tales of much more severe punishments also. I even heard one teacher left because she couldn't handle seeing it.


Well, today my co-teacher made 2 girls in sixth grade who are the Vicky Pollards of sixth grade hold the bridge position for a good 10 mins and as he caught the girls kneeling when he was not looking he decided to pour water beneath them should they want to rest!


Imagine the consequences in th UK!

Festivities in Korea

Today (December 1st) is my schools 'birthday' and therefore a day off for everybody in my school!


My day started in spectacular fashion as I awoke to a homemade advent calender and little note from the beau. He is quite the wonderful fella. I LOVE advent calenders and this year would have been my first without one (I'm just a child), however I now have the most wonderful of calenders I have seen and I think maybe ever made!






My advent calender- filled with mini twix, snickers and ferrero rocher



I then had to pry myself from the sofa to do some christmas and birthday shopping. Followed by a trip to Jukdo market for veggies to make soups:






Delicious pastry fish, traditionally filled with red bean paste (not so good) and now filled with custard cream (delicious!)
4 fish = 1000W that's 60p



The pathway en route to Jukdo



A food stall in Jukdo selling anything from 'yum yums' to fish sticks- very popular stall here.




A nut stall- fresh or roasted while you wait.



Most things are bulk buy as Koreans usually live with a couple of generations of family.



BULK BUY?!

  If you don't wish to buy in bulk there are pre-weighed fruit and veg in little bowls for various prices.




The fruit and vegetable 'isle'




Halmonee in absolute halmonee dress: baggy patterned pants, crazy colour patterned tops, visor and head scarf.



Traditional Korean ceramics stall.




Seaweed




Fish



Jukdo Market is located in downtown Pohang and is HUGE, you can buy literally EVERYTHING there and spend hours of your day doing so. The fruit and vegetable stalls (I say stalls lightly as most are just little sectioned off floor spaces or some little carts) are usually powered (yes, powered!) by Halmonees (grandmothers) who are pretty much the driving force behind all of Korea. Many of the halmonee's have serious measures of curved spines, in what looks to be the most painful anatomical position imaginable. We have been informed this degeneration in the spinal structure may be a result of cooking from a seated position on the floor as they did not have kitchen work tops previously in Korea.





Napping on the job



However, do not be fooled by their wrinkled little faces for these lines are of experience and I feel each line represents strength. This belief comes from seeing such ladies helping out at building sites, collecting waste- recyclable or other and carrying mass amounts of weight (usually the fruit and veg).




Anywho, back to my main purpose of today. After making many a soup for my school lunches, it was time to......DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS!!


I have been waiting for this for some time, we are fully stocked with tree decorations and Christmas songs! Here is our little grotto:




Christmassy





Finishing the tree




Hanging the lights in my long johns




Our winter flowers



The finished display!

 Now its time for a Christmassy drink and cake! YUM.

An alleyway off Jukdo with a little old lady  taking a stroll