Korea Day #4

I started my day off by going to Namsangol Hanok Village, a Korean Folk Village with traditional-style houses. The houses were transported from other parts of the country and reconstructed here as a free tourist attraction.





In the old days, kimchi (spicy, fermented cabbage that is still a common side dish) was placed in pots and dug into the ground to keep it refrigerated. The pots were then protected by a small hut like this one.



In the background below you can see N Seoul Tower.




After the folk village, my guide and I went to Namdaeman Market, an open air flea market that is popular with the locals.




This is a boiling pot of beondegi (silk worm pupae), which is a popular street vendor food.



The way the pot was boiling, it looked like they were still alive and moving around. I didn't try any, but the smell gave me enough of an idea.

After the market, we took a subway over to the theater for my interview with Cine 21, another popular film magazine in Korea. Outside the theater, we found a group of volunteers cheering about the festival to publicize the event.


During the interview, I was given a translater. Here she is explaining my responses in Korean.


For this magazine we also did a photo shoot with a silk flower, although the poses were more low key than my previous photo shoot.



Although the magazine article wasn't printed by the time I left Seoul, the festival had it printed in a festival news pamphlet the next day.



That night I met up with some people to go out for karaoke. As you may know, karaoke in Asia isn't like in the U.S. where you sing in front of the whole bar. Instead, you and your friends rent a small room where you sing to each other.







This is me and lesbian filmmaker Lisa Gornick, singing the duet Summer Lovin' from Grease.



Things I learned today about Korea -

- Koreans often say "kimchi" when taking a photo, similar to how in the U.S. we say "cheese."

- It is appropriate for people to address people older than themselves as Mr. or Ms. so-and-so. Today my guide (who is college-aged) called me Miss Ehlen, a formality that surprised me especially since we've been hanging out for a few days and have otherwise had informal interactions.

- While Asian culture as a whole seems to be more "polite" than western culture, one thing I noticed is that it is not inappropriate (as it is in the U.S.) to make a reference to someone about them being overweight. While thinness seems to be emphasized even more than in the U.S., my friend told me that references to one's weight are more of a matter of fact than anything. For example, one night when we were out, someone told me that I may be her friend's type because she likes chubby girls. Not the kind of pickup line that I usually hear, although I suppose its originality tops "Come here often?" and "Did you come here alone?"

We were all a bit tired from staying out late the night before, so we returned to the hotel around midnight. I was glad to get to bed at a decent time as the next day was my last day in Seoul and I wanted to make good use out of it.