Day 2 begins early. I am well rested from going to bed early (thanks to a little help from a sedative I like to call studying). We drive to the local Kimbap shop to get breakfast. We each get a Kimbap and eat on our way to the shoot.
Kimbap (kim - seaweed, bap - rice) has it had been a big part of my diet while I was in South Korea. Kimbap is basically the same thing as maki sushi, without the usage of raw fish (the most common ingredients being rice, seaweed, pickled radish, carrot, sometimes beef or cooked tuna). You can get it at every convenience store, and most Korean restaraunts. It's dirt cheap, too. For about $1.50, you can get a roll of kimbap. It won't completely fill you up, but if you're on the run it's the best bang for your buck.
Our first shot was at the river in front of the hanhoe village. We just sort of did a couple circles in the river, but never actually crossed. I am wide awake, but I am being told I look tired. I guess that means I'm supposed to act more lively. Being on Korean television, or perhaps television in general, requires that you be extremely perky.
We then drive to a house on the other side of the river. I realize now that the first shot is going to make it look as though we crossed the river to this house (ignoring the fact that we also would've had to climb the mountain to get to it). Ah yes, the magic of television. The house turns out to belong to the patriarch of the Ryu family, a Yangban family that owns most of the property in Andong. The property he himself lives on is over 400 years old. We film the next shot in a study which is reminicent of the building we filmed the tea ceremony in. It's a wide open gazebo-like structure with two secluded rooms. Apparently, this building was used to teach the followers of the Ryu family over many centuries. The view is like nothing I have ever seen. This is definitely something many people only dream of. Seeing river, village, and mountains is blissful...except for the fact we were wearing Hanbok for the shooting, so I was close to heat-exhaustion in the South Korean monsoon heat (Hanbok is the typical garb of the Yangban, the S.Korean aristocracy and the former ruling-class since about the ??? century). Oh yeah, and it was Hanbok clothing meant for winter put on over the clothing I was wearing that day already.
The dude himself was definitely sensei-status. When we arrived, he sat there stoic and calm on the wooden floor, as if the only thing connecting him to the situation was the cigarette between his fingers. The smoke swirled around his face as he seemed to stare passed the floor (so that's what it looks like to never have to worry about money). He taught us about proper Yangban manners. How to bow correctly, how to sit correctly and all kinds of other important shit when you're an aristocrat. Bowing manner changes depending on the status of the people bowing in comparison to whom they're bowing to. He mentioned that he was at the 12th level, what level we were and how many levels there are in total, I have no idea. It all seemed extremely ridiculous. Next he taught us about the history of the property and the family...in Korean. One of the cameramen would seem to translate at random, otherwise I don't think they care if we knew what he was saying. I just smiled, nodded, and looked where he pointed (oooo aaaa). The last thing we did was the best. He schooled us in some chinese caligraphy. His looked good, ours looked bad. His wife must've seen the sweat pouring off of us, because she served us the most awesome iced tea. It was sweet, with a hint of plum. Oh and it had flowers in it...can't have tea without flowers in it.
We took some more shots of us on the property and then it was time to say goodbye. We just walked around the village after that. We eventually happened upon an old woman's house. She at first did not want to be on camera, but the producer must've sweet talked her because we then spent about an hour there just filming all the random stuff in her front yard. She had some interesting stuff. Melons growing on a thatched roof. A see-saw looking device which was used to pound rice. An old foot powered device to separate rice from the plants themselves. She was extremely nice actually. Served us mango juice and pretty much treated us like family. Definitely way different from Seoul.
Our last stop for the day was eating shark fin at some nice restaurant. You would think that this would be the best part, but it wasn't. I was still from earlier in the day (I failed to mention, we had gone to another restaurant earlier which was awesome). With all the filming, our food had gotten cold by the time we got to eat and man...they really wanted us to ham it up for this one and shark fin doesn't even taste that good. I mean, far be it from me to shit on the act of eating a shark, but it strikes me as novelty not good food.
This would be the end of my trip. It really was awesome and I want to thank everyone involved. Now I'll just have to see what a goober I look like in September.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Why do I want to eat Burger King?
Title not related. I'm headed for the airport in an hour. See everyone stateside...
...bye bye Korea.
edit: I just got iced by my roommate. My trip is now complete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1QVAq960Qo&feature=related
...bye bye Korea.
edit: I just got iced by my roommate. My trip is now complete.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1QVAq960Qo&feature=related
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Filming television for beer and free meals
Pretty much what I did all weekend and it was glorious. We were shooting a documentary on the historic town of Andong for "Korea Inside." This was for KBS, one of the four network giants in Korean television. Even though we were shooting for about 10 to 11 hours a day, sections of filming were punctuated by lavish meals full of the best food I've eaten since I've been in Korea (and all the beer I could drink). Even though I didn't get paid for it, I got a really awesome trip fully paid for which makes me hesitant to bitch.
Our first stop was visiting this badass old dude. His name is Dongsan Li and he was dirt poor when he was young so he followed these other guys who had food. As it turns out, these guys (who I can only assume were chewing wooden bubblegum and punching rocks for fun) walked 90 km to the nearest sea to get fish and then haul it back to their inland village. To keep it from spoiling they'd salt it (duh), but here's the catch: too little salt and you have crap, too much salt and you'd have food that tasted like a KFC double-down made with nutsacks instead of chicken. He is apparently the last surviving master of this art (of fish salting?, it probably doesn't translate into english). I watched him salt fish and it looked easy, so I proceeded to make an ass out of myself on camera and proceeded to ruin perfectly good meat faster than P.F. Chang's. Anyway, this guy's filthy rich now as he is the CEO of his own hand salted fish production company. His stores were EVERYWHERE in Andong. We ate at his restaraunt where we were served the fish he had salted for the camera just moments before. It was heavenly.
Next up, we went to this all natural paper mill. Paper mills don't really have the best reputations as places of pleasing odors, but surprisingly this paper mill did not smell like a Waffle House bathroom. Yup, because they make the paper without the use of any chemicals it really didn't smell that bad at all. We even made paper there, total field-trip style. Nothing else here really worth noting.
Our last stop in Andong was a traditional tea-ceremony in the Hahoe village. It took place in this awesome gazebo thing without walls that overlooked the river and mountains. We learned traditional tea-ceremony manners where things are done in a certain order and actions are taken deliberately and slow. When they asked my on camera my thoughts about the tea ceremony, I said something about peace and harmony with nature. They all clapped because of how awesome I am. The other kids couldn't appreciate tea as hard as I could.
Overlooking the Nakdong river
A typical home in Hahoe village
At night, the producers bought us a free meal at one of those Korean barbecue places. I proceeded to eat and drink as much as I could. The girl that was with us made fun of me because I was drinking so I made fun of her because she was dumb. Yay.
Simply describing what I did couldn't really capture how cool this little town was. Living there would really suck, but visiting it was off-tha-chain (or something equally as gangster sounding). This part of Korea was just extremely peaceful and awesome. Breath-taking views and awesome food make me give Andong two thumbs up. Next post will be about day two.
Our first stop was visiting this badass old dude. His name is Dongsan Li and he was dirt poor when he was young so he followed these other guys who had food. As it turns out, these guys (who I can only assume were chewing wooden bubblegum and punching rocks for fun) walked 90 km to the nearest sea to get fish and then haul it back to their inland village. To keep it from spoiling they'd salt it (duh), but here's the catch: too little salt and you have crap, too much salt and you'd have food that tasted like a KFC double-down made with nutsacks instead of chicken. He is apparently the last surviving master of this art (of fish salting?, it probably doesn't translate into english). I watched him salt fish and it looked easy, so I proceeded to make an ass out of myself on camera and proceeded to ruin perfectly good meat faster than P.F. Chang's. Anyway, this guy's filthy rich now as he is the CEO of his own hand salted fish production company. His stores were EVERYWHERE in Andong. We ate at his restaraunt where we were served the fish he had salted for the camera just moments before. It was heavenly.
Next up, we went to this all natural paper mill. Paper mills don't really have the best reputations as places of pleasing odors, but surprisingly this paper mill did not smell like a Waffle House bathroom. Yup, because they make the paper without the use of any chemicals it really didn't smell that bad at all. We even made paper there, total field-trip style. Nothing else here really worth noting.
Our last stop in Andong was a traditional tea-ceremony in the Hahoe village. It took place in this awesome gazebo thing without walls that overlooked the river and mountains. We learned traditional tea-ceremony manners where things are done in a certain order and actions are taken deliberately and slow. When they asked my on camera my thoughts about the tea ceremony, I said something about peace and harmony with nature. They all clapped because of how awesome I am. The other kids couldn't appreciate tea as hard as I could.
At night, the producers bought us a free meal at one of those Korean barbecue places. I proceeded to eat and drink as much as I could. The girl that was with us made fun of me because I was drinking so I made fun of her because she was dumb. Yay.
Simply describing what I did couldn't really capture how cool this little town was. Living there would really suck, but visiting it was off-tha-chain (or something equally as gangster sounding). This part of Korea was just extremely peaceful and awesome. Breath-taking views and awesome food make me give Andong two thumbs up. Next post will be about day two.
Friday, July 16, 2010
It took 4 hours
But we're here in Andong. I thought maybe I wouldn't have a chance to post because we'd be more in countryside, but I was bitchslapped once again by Korea's technological superiority. Of course there'd be a computer in my hotel room; what was I thinking? I'm typing a blog post and watching a professional Starcraft match on television, not exactly the countryside I was expecting.
The hotel seems to be run by the nicest old lady ever, and boy does she know how to decorate. While accending to the hotel room, all along the stairs were nice little business cards with naked women on them. They were cards for what I'll just call a dating service. Also in my room right above the computer, a 3x2 framed picture of a naked woman. Not too shabby. The toilet and the shower are separated by absolutely nothing in this hotel room.
Well the guy's making this show probably have Korean names, but I'm just calling them Joe and G.
Joe is a 34 year-old project director; he doesn't speak much english and he seems to have been filming videos for a while. His laugh is boisterous and he smokes a lot. He once did a documentary on homelessness in Las Vegas that was broadcast by NBC in Korea. He says his work is hard, but he seems to be happy enough. I wish I could understand more of what he said, he seems like a character.
G is a 28 year-old writer/filmer; his english is fairly good and he has only been filming with Joe for about a month. He seems a bit more reserved, but such is expected because he's the junior. He seems to be a bit at the beckon of Joe. He took Joe's tray when we stopped to eat something (which I didn't pay for, score) and he even fed Joe snacks on the road. G was a painter for his whole life. He says his dream was to be an artist, but now his dream is to be a film maker. G says nobody in Korea will hire you as a painter if you don't have credentials from a school. Bummer. He studied film-making at school. We had a long conversation about Native-American philosophy. He's really into how they live with the earth rather than against it. He's been living in a city all his life. I asked him what he thought about Christianity, since it's become big in Korea. G says there are two groups of Christians, the old and the new. The new Christian movement apparently doesn't like the Buddhists (which is of importance because apparently they have a major influence on Korean politics).
Tomorrow we'll wake up at 8:30 and go to the folk-village. We'll be filming all day, but they say the most important thing is to have fun with it. More when I get back tomorrow night.
The hotel seems to be run by the nicest old lady ever, and boy does she know how to decorate. While accending to the hotel room, all along the stairs were nice little business cards with naked women on them. They were cards for what I'll just call a dating service. Also in my room right above the computer, a 3x2 framed picture of a naked woman. Not too shabby. The toilet and the shower are separated by absolutely nothing in this hotel room.
Well the guy's making this show probably have Korean names, but I'm just calling them Joe and G.
Joe is a 34 year-old project director; he doesn't speak much english and he seems to have been filming videos for a while. His laugh is boisterous and he smokes a lot. He once did a documentary on homelessness in Las Vegas that was broadcast by NBC in Korea. He says his work is hard, but he seems to be happy enough. I wish I could understand more of what he said, he seems like a character.
G is a 28 year-old writer/filmer; his english is fairly good and he has only been filming with Joe for about a month. He seems a bit more reserved, but such is expected because he's the junior. He seems to be a bit at the beckon of Joe. He took Joe's tray when we stopped to eat something (which I didn't pay for, score) and he even fed Joe snacks on the road. G was a painter for his whole life. He says his dream was to be an artist, but now his dream is to be a film maker. G says nobody in Korea will hire you as a painter if you don't have credentials from a school. Bummer. He studied film-making at school. We had a long conversation about Native-American philosophy. He's really into how they live with the earth rather than against it. He's been living in a city all his life. I asked him what he thought about Christianity, since it's become big in Korea. G says there are two groups of Christians, the old and the new. The new Christian movement apparently doesn't like the Buddhists (which is of importance because apparently they have a major influence on Korean politics).
Tomorrow we'll wake up at 8:30 and go to the folk-village. We'll be filming all day, but they say the most important thing is to have fun with it. More when I get back tomorrow night.
Last post until Sunday?
Unless they have some sort of PC Cafe in the village. Actually, there is a downtown area and PC Cafes are EVERYWHERE in Seoul, maybe it's like that all over Korea.
Hopefully this isn't some elaborate scam :D I've only talked to the project director and he seemed nice, but his english wasn't very good. Oooo, I hope I don't have to pay for food or anything. I hope they make me eat weird things and I hope they are strange.
Hopefully this isn't some elaborate scam :D I've only talked to the project director and he seemed nice, but his english wasn't very good. Oooo, I hope I don't have to pay for food or anything. I hope they make me eat weird things and I hope they are strange.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Off to the village with you!
My first exam in Korean went quite well. Strangely enough, the grammar section of the test was much harder than the listening because of the sheer amount of vocabulary I had never seen. Either way, I think I got at least a B+, if not an A.
Now to allude to the title of this post. So apparently, I'm going to the folk village in Ahndong tomorrow. This is the perfect opportunity to see the other side of South Korea through something other than a museum. This is all for some television show and I really hope this doesn't turn into The Real World: Ahndong Edition. Either way, it should be good fun. I'm going to call the project director right now to get some more info and I'll post any interesting new developments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andong
Now to allude to the title of this post. So apparently, I'm going to the folk village in Ahndong tomorrow. This is the perfect opportunity to see the other side of South Korea through something other than a museum. This is all for some television show and I really hope this doesn't turn into The Real World: Ahndong Edition. Either way, it should be good fun. I'm going to call the project director right now to get some more info and I'll post any interesting new developments.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andong
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Finals, Grammar, and some developments...
The grammar and the listening portion of my Korean language finals are tomorrow. While the grammar portion will be a piece of cake, the listening portion will be a lot harder. And here in lies my biggest problem with Korean language in one word: vowels.
I've been studying Japanese for a number of years and had little problem with speaking the language, so I figured tackling Korean would progress in similar fashion (WRONG). There are similarities between the languages. For example, the word order is the same, there is usage of sentence part markers, and many of the words are of Chinese origin. But, whereas Japanese has 5 vowels (あ,い,う,え, and お), Korean has over 20 (여,야,애,에,오,어,아,이,유,우,으,위,외,왜 and it goes on...). There are actually less consonants than there are vowels. Now to be fair, some of those vowels are never used, some are written differently but pronounced the same (score!), and the difference between some vowel sounds is so slight, not even native speakers can tell them apart.
So then it begs the question: if a native speaker can't tell the difference between some vowels, what chance do I have? Yeah, it's kinda tricky. I took the practice test today and I was a bit lost. Although, tomorrow I think they'll take it easy on us.
: - . - :
Oh yeah, I got this e-mail the other day:
==============
Dear Aaron, Chun Yin, Dustin, Hiromitsu, and Wai Shing,
Hello
Your costumes for Gayagum performance will arrive OGA on Monday(7/19).
In order to make sure your costumes to fit on you, we ask you to come to OGA to try on.
By the way, we heard there are 6 boys in the class, but according to our file, there are only five.
So please take missing boy with you to the OGA at 5:00 PMJ
Best regards
==============
It's pretty much on now that I'm gonna be in a costume for sure. Definitely going to have to secure video of this affair as it will be fantastic.
I've also got an offer to go to a traditional Korean village and stay there a weekend, the catch is that I will be on national television (if one could call it a catch :D). My friend says:
Anywho, I took the offer and I'm waiting to hear back if they'll accept me.
Until next time! Happy Bastille day, y'all!
I've been studying Japanese for a number of years and had little problem with speaking the language, so I figured tackling Korean would progress in similar fashion (WRONG). There are similarities between the languages. For example, the word order is the same, there is usage of sentence part markers, and many of the words are of Chinese origin. But, whereas Japanese has 5 vowels (あ,い,う,え, and お), Korean has over 20 (여,야,애,에,오,어,아,이,유,우,으,위,외,왜 and it goes on...). There are actually less consonants than there are vowels. Now to be fair, some of those vowels are never used, some are written differently but pronounced the same (score!), and the difference between some vowel sounds is so slight, not even native speakers can tell them apart.
So then it begs the question: if a native speaker can't tell the difference between some vowels, what chance do I have? Yeah, it's kinda tricky. I took the practice test today and I was a bit lost. Although, tomorrow I think they'll take it easy on us.
Oh yeah, I got this e-mail the other day:
==============
Dear Aaron, Chun Yin, Dustin, Hiromitsu, and Wai Shing,
Hello
Your costumes for Gayagum performance will arrive OGA on Monday(7/19).
In order to make sure your costumes to fit on you, we ask you to come to OGA to try on.
By the way, we heard there are 6 boys in the class, but according to our file, there are only five.
So please take missing boy with you to the OGA at 5:00 PMJ
Best regards
==============
It's pretty much on now that I'm gonna be in a costume for sure. Definitely going to have to secure video of this affair as it will be fantastic.
I've also got an offer to go to a traditional Korean village and stay there a weekend, the catch is that I will be on national television (if one could call it a catch :D). My friend says:
[You] would go to Ahndong(Korean folk village where you might stay for 2 days this weekend. I think they're going to record your life: eating traditional food, experiencing Yangban's life, wearing Hanbok, learning Korean manner etc.
Anywho, I took the offer and I'm waiting to hear back if they'll accept me.
Until next time! Happy Bastille day, y'all!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Being American overseas...
Ok, so everything in my many conversations with people all across the globe about their views in Americans all seems to revert back to one central theme, nationalism. I've heard a lot of different points, but the one thing everyone has told me in so many words is that Americans are just very nationalistic. People have said that it's this sort of ardent nationalism that clouds the views of most Americans when reflecting on the actions of their country. I guess people are just mostly pissed off about the fact that close to 80 percent of the world disagrees with the wars in the middle east and about 80 percent of Iraqis that think we are just making things worse, but American citizens continue to sideline the issue and continue to strut around like idiots. I've never really thought of the US being like Germany under the Kaiser or anything, but certainly there are inklings of the same kind of thought patterns in a great portion of the population. Like this guy:
I don't think Tea Partiers are the problem though, they are part of the issue to be sure, but no I think the main problem is apathy. The inability of the true American opinion to both be broadcast to our citizens and to other people in the world. There may be a lot of normal people in America, but the crazy people are just a lot louder. There is a huge discrepancy between our media's coverage of the wars in the middle east and the coverage of everyone else. It's things like this which create errors in communication when you talk to people from around the world. They see a horrible civilian casualties, we see terrorists getting captured. They see tea partiers, we understand that they're essentially crazies.
The election of Barack Obama over John McCain, whether or not you agree with his performance thus far, is a signal that Tea Partiers and their relatives are not the majority. The people who voted in Obama were effectively the ones who were trying to vote out the establishment (but unfortunately, are the victims of a two party system which creates a facade of choice).
Okay, so these last two posts have hardly been about Korea, but I hope they've given people some insight of what it's like to be abroad and talking to people who may have some preconception of what America is like. I just try to calmly explain to them, come to America and go to some dairy queens, white castles, and ride some four-wheelers and you'll see that it's actually pretty cool.
p.s. I was walking home from a bar in Shincheon in Seoul the other night, and some random drunk Korean guy to a swing at me. No idea why. I just dodged him and continued on my way home. Seemed like his boys retrained him.
I don't think Tea Partiers are the problem though, they are part of the issue to be sure, but no I think the main problem is apathy. The inability of the true American opinion to both be broadcast to our citizens and to other people in the world. There may be a lot of normal people in America, but the crazy people are just a lot louder. There is a huge discrepancy between our media's coverage of the wars in the middle east and the coverage of everyone else. It's things like this which create errors in communication when you talk to people from around the world. They see a horrible civilian casualties, we see terrorists getting captured. They see tea partiers, we understand that they're essentially crazies.
The election of Barack Obama over John McCain, whether or not you agree with his performance thus far, is a signal that Tea Partiers and their relatives are not the majority. The people who voted in Obama were effectively the ones who were trying to vote out the establishment (but unfortunately, are the victims of a two party system which creates a facade of choice).
Okay, so these last two posts have hardly been about Korea, but I hope they've given people some insight of what it's like to be abroad and talking to people who may have some preconception of what America is like. I just try to calmly explain to them, come to America and go to some dairy queens, white castles, and ride some four-wheelers and you'll see that it's actually pretty cool.
p.s. I was walking home from a bar in Shincheon in Seoul the other night, and some random drunk Korean guy to a swing at me. No idea why. I just dodged him and continued on my way home. Seemed like his boys retrained him.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
A message to my fellow Americans
If you are stupid, please do not travel abroad. Please stay at home so we can hide you from the world, as your interactions with the outside world continues to sully the reputations of all US citizens. Please stop broadcasting your dumb like the newest Beyonce track and read a book or something, damn.
Stop stealing peoples food at a bar or shoving old men because they told you to piss off when you were cat-calling foreign woman. Thank you.
==========
In all seriousness, I've witnessed/been a victim of/or heard of several accounts of American retardation since I've been here. So far, I haven't heard of any similar stories for other nationalities. I don't have any exact numbers, so I can't say if we are statistically more unintelligent than other cultures...but this trip has done nothing to alleviate the stereotype for me. I suppose by now you all have realized this is a not so cleverly disguised rant, but hey I'm good at it.
Stop stealing peoples food at a bar or shoving old men because they told you to piss off when you were cat-calling foreign woman. Thank you.
==========
In all seriousness, I've witnessed/been a victim of/or heard of several accounts of American retardation since I've been here. So far, I haven't heard of any similar stories for other nationalities. I don't have any exact numbers, so I can't say if we are statistically more unintelligent than other cultures...but this trip has done nothing to alleviate the stereotype for me. I suppose by now you all have realized this is a not so cleverly disguised rant, but hey I'm good at it.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Oh Korea...
My Korean teacher played Starcraft and that her husband is a really good Quake player. She explained today that she's a big fan of e-sports, apparently. That is just amazing to me how mainstream it is here to be a gamer.
Oh by the way, she said her race was Terran.
Here are some names in Korean:
Laura: 러라
Chris: 크리스
Shane: 섀인
Javonne: 쯔반
Akemi: 아케미
Anywho, if you guys want anymore just let me know. It takes forever to write those because the input method for Korean on American keyboards is pretty difficult to learn and I don't know any of the keys.
Oh yeah, I found out today I'll be performing Gayageum and I'll be wearing traditional Korean clothes during the performance. I'll see if I can't get someone to take video of it and I can post it up.
Oh by the way, she said her race was Terran.
Here are some names in Korean:
Laura: 러라
Chris: 크리스
Shane: 섀인
Javonne: 쯔반
Akemi: 아케미
Anywho, if you guys want anymore just let me know. It takes forever to write those because the input method for Korean on American keyboards is pretty difficult to learn and I don't know any of the keys.
Oh yeah, I found out today I'll be performing Gayageum and I'll be wearing traditional Korean clothes during the performance. I'll see if I can't get someone to take video of it and I can post it up.
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