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I recently got home from a 10 day trip to Korea. It was a cultural trip sponsored by my Tae Kwon Do school, and we went in conjunction with about 10 other schools, so we got an uber great group rate.
I had an absolute blast. I'll never be able to do a trip like this again, but it was the opportunity of a life time and I'm glad I was a) able to grab it, and b) my Chair was willing to let me take the last week of the semester off and arrange coverage so I could go.
We landed in Inchon and spent the first night in Seoul, the capital. Pretty much the only thing we did the first day was sample the local food. We ate Korean food for lunch and dinner every day, and it was an option for breakfast though most of us ate American food that was on the buffet for that meal.
Korean food is very good. Spicy, they use a red pepper sauce with most of their cooking. Even though I don't care for spicy food, I did find plenty that was tasty and easy to fill up on. Rice, kimchee (pickled spiced cabbage), and seaweed soup were offered with every meal. By the end of the trip I had gotten quite good with eating with chopsticks.
Koreans eat their meals communally. That is, everything is placed in side dishes, and the main meat is cooked at the table. The only individual "plate" you get is your rice bowl. You put your food in your rice bowl, or wrap it in a cabbage or lettuce leaf to eat as a sort of sandwich. They traditionally eat on the floor, though most of the restaurants had regular tables and chairs. Doors were usually open for ventilation (they're not much on AC over there), but the restaurants were very clean.
On day 2 we went to JeJu Island, off the south coast, for two days. They call it honeymoon island because its where everyone goes after getting married. We took a boat tour of the harbour (too foggy to see much, alas, but was still fun), visited a green tea farm, the Thinking Garden (a beautiful bonzai garden), and a natural feature called Dragon Head Rock. I ate live octopus and tangerines with the rinds while there. We also visited a traditional village and a tangerine farm (with another amazing rock garden).
Then we went to Yeosu and visited the 2012 World Expo, which was awesome.
We visited two Buddhist Temples, a Shilla dynasty tomb (they united Korea into one country), their national museum, a folk museum on life in Korea after the Korean War, the reproduction folk village in Yong In (kinda like colonial Williamsburg) where we saw their traditional ribbon dancers perform. We returned to Seoul and spent time shopping in their street markets, a real life incarnation of Greyhawk sans the crime. We also drove by the Blue House (their version of the white house, except for a beautiful teal tile roof), and the Royal Palace of the Joseon Dynasty before the Japanese kicked them out.
We also visited Kukkiwon, the international headquarters of World Federation Tae Kwon Do, and got a fantastic demonstration of TKD and then got to go on the mat for a lesson from their top professor. It was quite an honor.
Needless to say I'm exhausted and still suffering from jet lag. I aggravated the bone spurs in my left foot and could barely walk by the time I got home. But it was worth every hour of OT I had to work to pay for the trip (I was actually working 3 PT jobs to pay for it and pay for the extra trips I was having to make to Maryland to see my Mom before I left).
I've got a sampling of pics. Some of the things I looked at were with a nursing eye, so I took pictures of:
Toilets
Signs (Korean interpretations of English)
Architecture
Natural features
among other things.
Here's a link to my gallery: http://www.customerssuck.com/board/a...hp?albumid=165
This is just a very small sample of the pictures I took. I took hundreds. I'll be doing a formal presentation at my community college in September; if you live in the Greensboro area let me know and I'll post info on when and where if you're interested.
I had an absolute blast. I'll never be able to do a trip like this again, but it was the opportunity of a life time and I'm glad I was a) able to grab it, and b) my Chair was willing to let me take the last week of the semester off and arrange coverage so I could go.
We landed in Inchon and spent the first night in Seoul, the capital. Pretty much the only thing we did the first day was sample the local food. We ate Korean food for lunch and dinner every day, and it was an option for breakfast though most of us ate American food that was on the buffet for that meal.
Korean food is very good. Spicy, they use a red pepper sauce with most of their cooking. Even though I don't care for spicy food, I did find plenty that was tasty and easy to fill up on. Rice, kimchee (pickled spiced cabbage), and seaweed soup were offered with every meal. By the end of the trip I had gotten quite good with eating with chopsticks.
Koreans eat their meals communally. That is, everything is placed in side dishes, and the main meat is cooked at the table. The only individual "plate" you get is your rice bowl. You put your food in your rice bowl, or wrap it in a cabbage or lettuce leaf to eat as a sort of sandwich. They traditionally eat on the floor, though most of the restaurants had regular tables and chairs. Doors were usually open for ventilation (they're not much on AC over there), but the restaurants were very clean.
On day 2 we went to JeJu Island, off the south coast, for two days. They call it honeymoon island because its where everyone goes after getting married. We took a boat tour of the harbour (too foggy to see much, alas, but was still fun), visited a green tea farm, the Thinking Garden (a beautiful bonzai garden), and a natural feature called Dragon Head Rock. I ate live octopus and tangerines with the rinds while there. We also visited a traditional village and a tangerine farm (with another amazing rock garden).
Then we went to Yeosu and visited the 2012 World Expo, which was awesome.
We visited two Buddhist Temples, a Shilla dynasty tomb (they united Korea into one country), their national museum, a folk museum on life in Korea after the Korean War, the reproduction folk village in Yong In (kinda like colonial Williamsburg) where we saw their traditional ribbon dancers perform. We returned to Seoul and spent time shopping in their street markets, a real life incarnation of Greyhawk sans the crime. We also drove by the Blue House (their version of the white house, except for a beautiful teal tile roof), and the Royal Palace of the Joseon Dynasty before the Japanese kicked them out.
We also visited Kukkiwon, the international headquarters of World Federation Tae Kwon Do, and got a fantastic demonstration of TKD and then got to go on the mat for a lesson from their top professor. It was quite an honor.
Needless to say I'm exhausted and still suffering from jet lag. I aggravated the bone spurs in my left foot and could barely walk by the time I got home. But it was worth every hour of OT I had to work to pay for the trip (I was actually working 3 PT jobs to pay for it and pay for the extra trips I was having to make to Maryland to see my Mom before I left).
I've got a sampling of pics. Some of the things I looked at were with a nursing eye, so I took pictures of:
Toilets
Signs (Korean interpretations of English)
Architecture
Natural features
among other things.
Here's a link to my gallery: http://www.customerssuck.com/board/a...hp?albumid=165
This is just a very small sample of the pictures I took. I took hundreds. I'll be doing a formal presentation at my community college in September; if you live in the Greensboro area let me know and I'll post info on when and where if you're interested.
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