Tales and Songs from Weddings and Funerals

Hello from Korea

Anyoung haseyo - Hello from Korea

South Korea is the country where spicy food meets fierce nationalism and where, in some places, seafood is still gathered by 60-year-old women free-diving. Foreigners are looked at as a way to practice English and acceptance is based on whether you like Kimchi, the firey hot, pickled cabbage.

Korean food is more than just kimchi though. There has yet to be a meal where we have been able to eat everything that is placed in front of us. Each main course - say a piece of fish - comes with a bowl of rice, soup, and side-dishes ranging from peppery vegetables, to fish, to beef, to soothing green and garlicky spinach. Chopsticks are used to take food from the side dishes into your bowl of rice and much to Mom's relief a large spoon is used to eat the rice from the bowl.

Seoul is a massive city with12 subway lines and hundreds of buses. It never seems to sleep.

After only half-a-day in the capital we flew to Jeju Island, according to the Globe and Mail one for the top 10 under visited islands in the world and had it been a little sunnier I would have agreed. Between rainstorms we saw huge orange and tangerine groves, and rugged coastlines of basalt rock. While we didn't have the opportunity to see them, Jeju Island is the home of the longest lava-flow tunnels in the world.

Jeju is also the home of the haenyeo, a group of women that dive to collect seafood: sea squirts, cucumbers, octopus, abalone, and whatever else they can catch. They do it all without oxygen tanks and some of these women are more than 70 years old. It is a tradition that is dying however, as many of the daughters of these women take to less dangerous jobs.

Gyeongju was the next stop where my friend Kumyoung's friends joined us. The five of us rented a car to see the sights the ancient capital of Korea had to offer. After a few near misses we found where we were staying, a pension in the middle of rice paddies. It was pretty amazing. In Tumuli Park we saw tombs - grass hillocks that are similar in purpose to Egyptian pyramids but are more sedate. Bulguksa, a UNSECO reserve, is a huge temple complex that is popular vacation destination of many tourists both Korean and foreign.

The weather now is amazingly hot - as soon as you get used to sweating it is no problem. In the next few days we will be wrapping up in the south of Korea before heading back to Seoul.

posted by Angela @ 5:14 p.m.