Coupon Party at JLS

Our school had a party for students last week. It gave them a chance to redeem their hard earned coupons in exchange for prizes such as toys and pizza. Over the course of a term, teachers hand out coupons as rewards for good behavior and good test scores. We had contests, games, food, and everyone had a good time.

Making Kimchi at Hongbeopsa Temple

Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish that is as delicious as it is spicy. This extremely popular and ancient food (dating back to the 7th century) is also rumored to have medicinal properties. We visited Hongbeopsa temple to uncover the secrets of Kimchi and learn to make some for ourselves.

The inside of the temple is pretty impressive.

We had great instructors. You can also see the Monk who runs the temple in the background. The secret ingredients to making Kimchi are: Chinese cabbage, garlic, red pepper, spring onions, ginger, salt, and probably some other stuff too!

But, the real secret of making Kimchi is to have fun! Ha ha. Here I am with Adrienne and Amanda.

Kimchi is fermented underground to unlock the magic.

Here are some big kimchi pots used to preserve kimchi. We left home for the day with enough kimchi to eat for a year.

If you would like to see more kimchi or learn about its history, please visit the following websites.

www.kimchi.or.kr
wikipedia

Merry Korea-stmas!

Bowling in Saha

Yes, there is bowling in Korea. It's pretty much the same as back home, funny shoes included. Here is my blowing team: Alice, Sung-he, and Joh-wan.

I'm apparently good at bowling in Korea. I got 6 strikes that night.

Art Gallery and Fashion Show

Last weekend I got the chance to see a fashion show displaying traditional Korean costumes.

It was completely by accident. Alice and I had just finished visiting the modern art museum, which was a big disappointment. We then wandered next door to the Bexco building to see what kind of display they had going on. When we found out it was "Shoes and Textiles" we almost turned around. It sounded really boring. I'm glad we didn't. We got to see an amazing display of Hanbok's in a variety of brilliant colours. The pictures don't do them justice.

We had to sign up and fill out some forms before entering the building. I signed up as the CEO of my own company "Denis Inc". They even gave me a nametag.

Making Songpyon

This trip took place near the beginning of my stay here in Korea. A group of us foreigners visited a temple in Busan near the edge of town. Each weekend this temple invites foreigners to visit and experience a new Korean tradition. On this weekend we learned how to make traditional rice cake known as Songpyon, which is often made during the Korean thanksgiving named Chusok.


After learning how to shape the little cakes, we walked down to the cooking area.


The Korean women working the cookers told us that our rice cakes looked “even better then we can make”. They were being sarcastic however, since most of our cakes looked mangled.

Here we are choking down our songpyon!

They also grew lots of hot peppers outside the temple. Hot peppers are found in a lot of food in Korea. Doesn’t it look delicious?