안녕하세요. 현우예요.

I am back in my hometown for 추석 (Chuseok) and as it’s expected each year, the trip back home isn’t always very easy, with all the people moving all together. But I made it back home safely. The bus ride took the time it usually takes – about 4 hours, and I arrived home at 4:00 am after taking a taxi from the bus terminal to my parents’ house. The bus fare from Seoul to Korea was around 22,000 won, and the taxi fare was around 6,000 won.

The bus stopped at a service station for 15 minutes so that people can use the bathroom or get something to eat or drink. And here’s a video to show you what a 고속도로(express way) 휴게소(service station) looks like at night. 🙂

재미있게 보세요 ^^

This picture also happens to have been taken in 신촌, and 신촌 is not only a major entertainment district but also a neighborhood that are surrounded by four universities (연세대학교, 홍익대학교, 이화여자대학교, 서강대학교). And if you go near a univeristy in Korea on a weekend, you can easily see something like this.

What do you think it is? Why would somebody do this? Where does it lead to?

These *marker* lines are usually used for guiding people from the 지하철역(subway station) or from 캠퍼스 안(inside the school campus) so that they can easily find the right 술집(bar) or 모임 장소(meeting point) for a reunion. 🙂

While it’s funny when you think about all the work that has to go into making this long long line (one line is usually 400m ~ 500m long or even longer),

it’s the welcoming atmosphere that these lines can give the visitors that makes college student keep doing this traditionally. For your information, it is of course illegal to put something like this on the public road, but it’s just understood and forgiven in areas near universities.

And it is actually quite fun making this although it takes hours and hours to finish one long line, and you always have to worry about the line getting cut somewhere in the middle, so you want to make sure that it’s securey fasten with duct tape.

And you also put in some welcoming messages on pieces of paper too. And when there seems to be more than one occasion going on in the neighborhood on the same day (which is almost always the case) you also want to put in some info about where this line goes to, although this arrow right below doesn’t have any info of that sort.

It says 이리 오슈 and 냉큼 오슈, which means “이리 오세요.” and “빨리 오세요” in standard Korean. 🙂

I was walking in 신촌(Shinchon) the other day and saw this big picture on the wall of a 갈비(kalbi) restaurant. I am usually trying to introduce interesting store names and signs but this week, I wanted to share this picture with you. I hope you’ll enjoy this nice picture of a traditional market/festival scene of Korea (until about 100 years ago) hung on a very modern building.

In the middle of this photo is the picture.

In front of this building there’s a 관광 버스(tour bus) waiting for its passengers.

Reading from the menu that’s written on the windows, this place sell 돼지 갈비, 소갈비, 냉면, and etc. 🙂 all of which I like very much!
And if you look more closely at the picture, you can see what kind of clothes “normal” or “average-ranking” people used to wear in Korea hundreds of years ago. And as you can tell, all men have their hair long and either curled into a ball or covered with a hat, and this is because Korean men never used to cut their hair their entire life because they believed it to be a divine part of their body that their parents gave them. (And of course they’re drinking 막걸리. 😀 )

And a little bit more closely. The 아줌마(or possibly the kid’s 엄마) is checking the taste of the soup before serving it, and the kid is looking at her with eyes full of envy (or hunger) 😛

Thank you for reading!! 🙂

I had a really long weekend recently and decided to take a short personal vacation. I headed off to 강원도 a province on the north-eastern edge of Korea. It is famous for the mountains and beaches, but I was just looking to get out of 서울. All of my long-distance travel within Korea has been by train or car, so I decided to take busses this time around. I boght a ticket for 강릉 and settled in what turned out to be a 4hr drive. It should have taken around 2~3 hours, but I guess everyone else had the same idea! I was hoping to speak as little English as possible on this trip, and since I was travelling alone, I stood a pretty good chance to getting to do just that. When I got to 강릉 the first thing I did was find a PC방. When travelling in Korea, it’s always a good idea to go there first. I used it to get my bearings in the city using Naver maps, and try to locate a good 찜질방 to spend the night in. With all my information, I sat out to get a taxi. I wanted to practice a particular pattern in the real world, something new from my class: It works out to “what’s a good thing to…….?” or “what’s the best way to…….?”

So, I started my conversation with the taxi driver:
저는 강릉에 처음이라서 뭐 하는게 좋을까요?
This is my first time in 강릉, what should I do?

He responded by listing all the things that were on my tourist map, so I guess I had sucessfully asked the question. He recommended going to the beach, seeing some old traditional houses and temples, etc. And of course eating 회 fresh, raw seafood. So he dropped me off at the 찌질방 and I went off to find dinner. I stumbled across a 왕갈비집 a few blocks away. They were advertising one serving for 8,000 원. However, I haven’t had much success at these places ordering by myself. They aren’t so into that, and usually require that you order two servings. But since I was eating alone, I had to ask the 아줌마 about that:

안녕하새요? 혹시 혼자서 주문하면도 돼요?
Hello, excuse me, but is it alright if I order by myself?

She turned around and looked at me and imediately responded with:
돌어오세요! Come on in!

I ordered a mamoth sized portion of marinated pork with all of the fixings. It was delicous and I had a really pleasant conversation with the 아저씨 who was cooking my meal for me.

In the morning, the weather was looking pretty awful. I went to a convienience store to have some yogurt and juice and get a recommendation about what to do.

ME: 오늘 날씨가 안좋아서 뭐하는게 좋을까요?
Today’s weather isn’t so good, so what is there that’s good to do?
CLERK: 어린이날이라니까 어린이랑 놀았으면 좋겠죠?
Today is children’s day, so wouldn’t it be good to play with your kids?
ME: 사실은 어린이 없으면…
Actually, I dont have any kids…
CLERK: 없으면은 그녕 여자친구랑 지내 보새요
If you don’t have kids, then just spend time with your girlfriend.
ME: 근데 혼자서 왔어요.
I came here alone!
CLERK: 혼자서 왔군요. 그런데 바다에 가보고 경포대에서 구경해 보세요.
Oh you came alone. In that case, go to the beach and also do some sightseeing at 경포대.

I didn’t really leave that conversation with anymore information than before, but I headed to the beach. (The weather cleared up just a short while later) That’s where the picture came from! There isn’t much more to say about the trip. I also went to the nearby town of 속초. But I really enjoy travelling around Korea outside of Seoul. It is where I can really see the benefits of my Korean study.

This is a very common question that I get from my non-Korean friends.

“What’s 곰탕? Is there really 곰 in there?”

And as you know, 곰 means “bear”, the animal. 🙂 So imagine – a bear soup … hehe.

But in fact it has nothing to do with bears(곰) although it’s 곰 + 탕(soup). If you look at the sign in the picture above, it says 닭곰탕 too. So it must have something to do with 닭(chicken) and 곰(bear) together in a soup? 🙂

The truth is, 곰 is actually a noun coming from the verb “고다”. And 고다 means to boil something to a pulp or let the flavor come out of something by boiling in water (usually with various spices added) for many hours. So, 곰 is not the animal ‘bear’ but a nominalization of 고다, therefore the act of 고다. So 곰탕 is a soup that you make by boiling something for a long period of time until the soup decreases in volume and turns very thick and rich.

What usually goes into a 곰탕 is cow bones, but here they also put in chicken.

I don’t know how tasty it might sound to you now, it’s one of the must-try menus when you come to Korea! 🙂 Has anyone had 곰탕 before? 🙂