MUSIC TO OUR EARS!

Wed, October 24, 2012 5:30:54 PM

Most are now familiar with Korean rap music thanks to the song "Gangnam Style" with the introduction of the horsey dance.  Well, that is only a small glimpse into the Korean love for music.  It is infectious in this country.  Music is everywhere and it is very much a part of their soul.

 

The Koreans love to sing.  I hear them singing all the time on campus.  I'll walk by classrooms on the way home from teaching in the evening and I'll hear the sound of students singing drifting  through the windows.  Susan and I can often hear the singing from our 5th floor apartment late into the evening as we retire at the end of the day.

 

Every chapel service on campus includes a time of worship.  The Koreans love to sing the modern praise songs and the traditional hymns.  This morning I was at the faculty chapel and we sang the hymn "The Love of God is Greater Far" which was written in 1917.  Most today would be unfamiliar (as I was) with this beautiful hymn and would have stumbled with the words and melody.  The Koreans have beautiful voices and and sang the first two stanzas in English and the third in Korean.  I was transported back to 1917 when the song would have been sung with the same enthusiasm modern worship songs are sung today.  It was absolutely beautiful beyond words and the sound drifted far across the campus.  It reminded me of something I have always strongly felt - a beautiful song about God is timeless.  Here are a couple of the verses:

 

    "The love of God is greater far Than tongue or pen can ever tell; It goes beyond the highest star, And reaches to the low-est hell;  The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His son to win; His err-ing child He rec-on-ciled, And pard-doned from his sin.

    Could we with ink the o-cean fill, And were the skies of parch-ment made, Where ev-ery stalk on a earth a quill And ev-ery man a scribe by trade; To write the love of God a-bove Would drain the o-cean dry; Nor could the scoll con-tain the whole, Tho' stretched  from sky to sky."

 

I am also amazed at the number of Koreans who are gifted musicians.  The piano is played primarily by ear (although most are classically trained) and it is not unusual for two pianos to be used during worship times.  We are hoping to set up music lessons for all our kids in the next few weeks.  Nothing would please me more than to see them be able to express the Korean love for music and carry that throughout their lives.

 

In our travels around Korea we have had the chance to visit Folk Villages that show how life was before modern times in Korea.  As you might expect, music and dance were also an integral part of village life.  We have enjoyed  the traditional Korean music as much as  the modern music.  There is a happiness than runs through much of it though it also reflects more somber and difficult times in performances of the Mask Dance.  And then there are the Korean drums.  Using several styles of traditional Korean drums and what looks like a small single cymbal, the musicians progress through a variety of rhythmic beats that make your face light up with joy and your feet want to break out in dance.

 

Coming to Korea has helped me understand Susan's love for music and why her voice is so beautiful when she sings.  I'm seeing lots of indications that our kids have that same love embedded in their genes and this makes me very very happy.

 

Ken Chinn

The Chinn family bellies up to a bar!

Susan and I have been hearing about a bar named Tilts in Pohang run by US expats that cooks really good American food.  Last week Susan and I hitched a ride with several friends to give it a try.  I had a rack of BBQ ribs and Susan gave the Philly cheese steak a try - each dish served with cajun fries.  They were an instant hit.  This was food that tasted like home.  We learned from a Philadelphia born expat that anything that called itself a Philly cheese steak was not a real cheese steak.  In Philadelphia it is simply called cheese steak.  Still, he admitted, this one was pretty good compared to the one's back home.  Last night we loaded the kids on the free shuttle and took them to dinner at Tilts.  We ran into a couple of other families we know that had the same idea.  Imagine a bar with about a dozen kids having a party as their parents enjoyed the good cooking.  At the dinner hour there were few if any bar patrons, so we had the place largely to ourselves.  The manager is named Teddy.  He loves kids and made quite a fuss over all of them.  I had a burger and Susan had buffalo wings.  I should mention the fries come with a large cup of catchup.  In Korea, you are given one small packet of catchup with fries.  If you ask for more, you get a second packet.  This is true even at McDonalds.  The Koreans don't understand the American craving for catchup.  The real hit of the night was the discovery that the bar now has a source for homemade apple pies from a trained pastry chef.  I ordered a piece and it rivaled the best apple pie I've ever eaten.  Lots of cinnamon, a buttery flaky crust and freshly sliced slightly tart apples.  It may well have been the best apple pie I've ever eaten, but I'm reluctant to give it that recognition since my taste was probably influenced by the many months that have passed since I've tasted homemade apple pie.  Susan gave it a taste and agreed it was delicious.  The weather is turning colder almost every day.  I am reminded that winter cannot be far away.  We see more and more sweaters, jackets and even heavier coats starting to appear.  We're hoping to visit more historical sights this weekend.  Stay tuned.

The Grocery Store

In Korea there are many choices when it comes to shopping for food.  There is everything from the tiny corner grocery store to large mega stores with names like E-Mart and HomePlus and Hanaro.  The large grocery stores seem very popular with plenty of employees to assist you with your shopping needs.  If you have a craving for pork belly (its like bacon without the curing) there are almost always samples offered by friendly employees frying away this Korean delicacy.  It is not unusual to hear a male employee shouting the benefits of what ever happens to be frying in the meat department.   For the more American style palate, the choices at these large stores are very hit and miss.  Susan and I were on the hunt for some canned tomatoes a week ago as an ingredient for some chili Susan was preparing to complement a baked potato bar (for a campus meeting called Alpha that explains Christianity to university students interested in learning more.)  There was no sign of canned tomatoes anywhere in the store.  Questions to store employees only brought puzzled looks suggesting the concept of putting a tomato in a can seemed rather odd to them.  Susan had another idea of a smaller store that sometimes carries more American style products. Bonanza!  Although they had no small cans, someone had ordered the super large Costco style cans and stacked them in a section for very large products.  I suspect it was an ordering error of some sort and Susan scored two of them.  
   
For the more adventurous, there are the open markets.  Ponhang has exceptionally large one called Jukdo Market.  It stretches for many blocks with hundreds of merchants offering items from vegetables, to meats to kitchen goods to it's most famous product, fresh (and I mean alive fresh) seafood.  Here you see large aquariums with freshly ocean caught fish brought in by the Pohang fishing fleet that hauls its catch to the market every day.  I was particularly interested in finding some fresh scallops.  They have them still breathing in the shell.  I had Susan ask if they offered them outside of the shells and we got the same puzzled look we received for the canned tomatoes.  The merchant replied that "they wouldn't be fresh anymore if we offered them outside of the shell."  Still, in order to make the sale they offered to remove the live scallops from the shells for the curious American guy.  I declined their kind offer when we weighed the scallops in the shells.  I roughly calculated the price at close to 40 to 50 dollars a pound for the actual scallops after they have been shelled and cleaned.  I wonder what they would have thought if they knew I intended to fry the scallops rather then eat them raw.  Still, I'm hoping to taste them sometime during our stay in Korea.  Fruit is very expensive in Korea where close attention is paid to the shape and beauty of the fruit in setting the price.  Not surprisingly, you find better prices at the Jukdo open market.  Watermelons are large and much more aesthetically pleasing than the ones we see in the states.  They are a rich dark green in shading and always sold in the markets with the stem on.  Unfortunately they cost about $20.  It is another delicacy I've not been able to talk myself into purchasing.  I'm always finding little surprises in the markets.  Once at the Jukdo open market I found a large vat of sliced pickles.  Tasting a sample I found they were a little darker version of what we call sweet bread and butter pickles.  We bought a half kilo or so to take home.  I sometimes see these pickles in restaurants placed on the table by the staff as a side dish.  
    
Costco remains a much anticipated weekly run for the Chinn family.  Last week I got a taste of some New York steaks being grilled as a sample.  Absolutely delicious, and a package would have made its way into our shopping cart if it wasn't priced at about $87 for what looked to be about 2-3 pounds of meat!  Even hamburger is priced at 6-7 dollars a pound.  Thankfully the food court always comes through with a low cost meal if you can find a spot to sit and eat. The hot dog comes with a refillable soda and is priced at 2,200 won (about $2.00).  The hot dogs are made from pork rather than beef - probably because beef is so expensive in Korea.  The Koreans at Costco have a curious habit of cranking a large pile of chopped onions onto their plate to which they add ketchup and mustard and mix it up.  It becomes a side dish with the bulgogi pizza they frequently order.  Going to the markets continues to be a fun activity for the Chinn family.  We go several times  a week for fresh bread and milk and whatever suits our fancy.  We take the free university shuttle to town for our shopping.  With gas prices at approximately $8.00 a gallon, we're in no hurry to purchase a car.  We read about the current gas prices in the US and wonder what everyone is complaining about!

Road trip video.

Thanks Mark!

https://vimeo.com/50923212

Driving in Korea

I must admit I was looking forward to the experience of driving in Korea.  Susan, on the other hand, said she had no desire to drive in Korea.  She has since softened her opinion to "no desire to drive in Seoul."  Since arriving here we have primarily relied on the school shuttle bus service.  It leaves the campus almost every half hour and makes a number of stops in the nearby city of Pohang.  I kept a sharp eye out the window of the shuttle bus trying to identify landmarks and streets that would be helpful when I got the opportunity to get behind the wheel.  That first opportunity came when another professor asked me to drive his mini van into town as he and his wife were trading shifts at a children's hospital where one of their youngsters needed a short stay.  The mission was successful and I considered myself an experienced Korean driver.

The true test came over the Chusok holiday where our family had a 5 day break from my teaching assignments.  You've seen the kid's reports and seen some of the pictures.  Here's the real story from the perspective of the driver.  We rented a 12 passenger van for the extra long weekend and headed out on our first day to Andong.  Each car in Korea generally has a GPS device to help find your way.  Some of the streets are narrow, often poorly marked in rural areas, and we have yet to find a decent street map for Pohang.  The GPS device not only helps you find your way, but has the additional feature of alerting the driver to every speed camera on the roads and highways.  This is very helpful since a violation of the speed laws will lead to a ticket in the mail.  You almost never see police officers and the highway and traffic stops are equally rare in the city.  The GPS device both blinks between dark and light to notify you that there is a camera coming and also gives an audible beeping sound to alert you to slow down.  Unfortunately, Susan and her sister Mary found the chatter and sounds from the GPS device distracting and turned the sound off when they took the car for test ride to the local street market the day before our first excursion.  That turned out to be a bad idea further enhanced by my interpretation of the blinking by the GPS device to be a simple notification that we were exceeding  the speed limit.  I would slow down when I noticed it, but without any sense of urgency.  After a day or two of driving we managed to get the sound turned back on and realized the full impact of this error.  Suffice it to say we are dreading the potential avalanche of speeding tickets showing up in our mail box.  Fortunately, some of my students inform me that some of the speed cameras are not actually turned on and that there is a "grace" given by not sending tickets if you are going less than 10 kilometers over the speed limit.

Here are some other observations as our travels took us much of the length and breadth of Korea over the 5 days.  Cars are king in Korea and the larger the vehicle, the more it controls the roadway.  Pedestrians, however, must be especially cautious in cross walks.  Most cars pay little attention to pedestrians.  Traffic lights are puzzling to someone used to driving in the US.  Red lights are often ignored if there isn't any cross traffic.  They have a puzzling system for left turns I've not yet been able to decipher.  Sometimes you can turn left on a green light, and sometimes you can't.  It may depend on whether they have a green left turn arrow, and then again, maybe it doesn't.  I've adopted a system of not turning on a green light unless the vehicle behind me honks, and then only if they pull around and make the turn in front of me.  At that point I will follow them.  

Driving in Seoul is more difficult, but it adds to the adventure.  I remember stopping at one traffic control light that was both green and red at the same time.  I was inclined to read that as a form of caution sign that allowed me to do what I wanted.  My inclination was tempered somewhat by the presence of a police checkpoint immediately behind me and a police vehicle to my left that was waiting at the same light.  What I really wanted to do was make a right turn.  I think that's okay on a red light in Korea, but wasn't sure (and not anxious to find out from the police officer to my left.)  I confirmed with Susan that the light was both red and green.  After waiting a bit with no progress I decided to risk the right turn.  It didn't draw any attention and I was on my merry way.  GPS devices, although helpful, can also be as confused as I was.  After carefully following some of the directions in Seoul, I sometimes ran into a dead end or was unable to execute a turn because of the existence of a wall.  They would reroute, have me make a u-turn and try an altogether different route.

Ambulances are equipped with lights and sirens in Korea.  Unfortunately, Korean drivers largely ignore them.  No one pulls over to the side of the road or attempts to clear a lane for them to get through.  Instead the ambulance weaves it's way in and out of traffic and occasionally uses the side of the road as a means of getting through traffic jams.  I largely attribute all this confusion to Korea's relatively recent prosperity with its economy.  They simply don't have the experience that some of the older economies have with traffic problems.  Now that there are many more drivers, these kinks will eventually work their way out.  

Having said all this, I am enthused about driving in Korea.  We are hoping to purchase a used van in the next month or two.  Despite our misfortunes with the speed cameras, I think they have a definite impact on slowing traffic down on the highways.  They have enough of the cameras at frequent intervals that, even though traffic always speeds up again after the light, the overall speed is slower than the US system that generally requires an officer to write a ticket.  I think that might work well in the US.

Ken Chinn

Korean Folk Village (Daniel)

Min-sok-chon (Korean Folk Village) is a town that is basically a giant museum.  The purpose of the village is to demonstrate the early life and culture of South Korea.  There are over 240 homes, shops and attractions.  There are cultural street markets with traditional wood making, metal works, basket weaving, paper making, etc.  There are performances of traditional dances, horse skills, marriage ceremonies and recreational activities.  Many of the buildings have been reproduced but many are originals that they moved from the countryside.  The Korean Folk Village is a popular tourist attraction for both foreigners and Koreans.  It is located right outside of Seoul near Everland, Korea’s largest amusement park.

 Ceramic pots that hold kimchi, soy sauce and other food items.

These resting places are everywhere in the countryside.  People gather to rest, to visit eat or even take naps.

Wedding procession.  Groom on the horse, the bride in the palanquin.

Mary (in red) crossing the bridge.

A pipe maker.

A candy maker.

Jump roping with Aunt Mary.

Robert working the mill.

The out house.

A Wanted poster.

Namhae (from Mary)

Sunday was Chusok in Korea.  Chusok is the Korean Thanksgiving.  It is probably one of the biggest holidays in Korea.  All of the businesses close and everyone goes home to their families.  At Handong, all of the dormitories, offices, restaurants and stores closed.  The international students had to move into a temporary place while the dorms shut down.  The faculty housing did not close.  Our family decided to travel during the Chusok break.  We rented a car and went to many places.

One of the places we went to is Namhae Island.   Namhae is on the center tip of South Korea.  It takes about 5 hours on the bus from Seoul.  It took about 3 hours from Pohang.  Namhae is one big island with almost 70 small islands that make up the county.   There are about 50,000 people that live in Namhae.

The most interesting thing about Namhae is the German Village.  It was built for the Koreans who went to work in Germany and returned.  In 1960 about 20,000 people went to work in Germany because Germany was short on certain type of workers.  The workers sent money back home which helped raise Korea’s economy.   The government was thankful and told them if they stayed in Germany for twenty years, when they returned, they will be able to buy land for very cheap.  Many people took the offer and stayed in Germany for twenty years.  When the workers returned with their German families, they built the German Village.  

Namhae is known for its beauty and the Oktoberfest.   The Oktoberfest is a festival for drinking but there are many fun activities and performances.  When I went there, they did a drum performance and a dance with ladies dancing in traditional Korean dresses and big fans.  I really liked the drums because the songs had a really enjoyable and fun beat. There were also face-painting and balloon animals. I got my face painted but didn’t get the balloon animals because I was watching the performances.

At the Oktoberfest you can get some really yummy food like sausages and crepes. The sausages were very good. They were warm and came with a slice of bread to make a sandwich. The crepes were large, very thin and doughy pancakes with a choice of cherry jam or chocolate sauce.  I chose chocolate. It was good.

                

There is a bridge to Namhae that was inspired by the golden gate bridge.   The bridge connects Namhae to the mainland.   They look similar but not exactly the same.   You get a good view of the ocean while driving across the bridge. 

 Namhae Island

 

German Village in Namhae

 A home in a well known Korean drama called Fantasy Couple.  Chulsoo's house.

 DMR crashed on the sidewalk waiting for mom and Aunt Mary.

 Oktoberfest Stage

Traditional Korean Drumming Ladies

 Korean Folk Dancers

 People coming up the steep hill to the German Village to attend the Oktoberfest.

Food vendors.

Making the black garlic buns.

Our choice for lunch - sausages.  Thank you F and R for lunch!