A Little History and a Little Hangul

I figured as a follow up to some of my travel experiences I would take a little time to look up the historical significance of the places I have visited and try to figure out the translation from Hangul ( 한글 ) to English.  So for your enjoyment, or at least my own enlightenment, I present a short history and language lesson.

Seomun Market

The largest Korean traditional market in Daegu and the third largest in all of South Korea.  With over 4,000 shops you are bound to find pretty much anything.  I would have spent more time exploring the market if I had known it was this large.  I only saw a piece of it and I was still blown away by the number of shops. 

The name Seomun ( 서문시장 ) means "west gate" (seo or 서 means "west" and mun or 문 means "gate") and the origins of the market date back to 1669 during the Choson (or Chosun or Joseon depending on the translation) Dynasty.  The market began as a five day market that was positioned outside of the north gate of Daegu Fortress and was known as Daegu-jung market ( 대구중시장 ).  During the 1920's the market moved to the west gate and acquired its current position and name.  I believe the actual romanization of the name is Seomun Sijang.


Daegu Stadium and World Cup Museum

This stadium was completed in 2001 in preparation for the 2002 World Cup.  It hosted four matches, including a Group Round match between the U.S. and South Korea that ended in a 1-1 draw.  The name is currently Daegu Stadium ( 대구경기장 ), but prior to 2008 it was known as Daegu World Cup Stadium (  대구월드컵경기장 ).  대구 translates as Daegu, 월드 means World, 컵 means Cup, and 경기장 means stadium.  The stadium has a capacity of 68,000 and is currently home to Daegu FC of the Korea Professional Soccer League.

The stadium will host the IAAF World Championships this coming summer.


Gatbawi and Palgongsan

 

Palgongsan ( 팔공산 ), or Mt. Palgong (san or 산 means mountain), is a mountain located at the northeast corner of Daegu.  Pal ( 팔 ) is the number eight and the name Palgong references the eight generals who saved Wang-Geon, the founding king of the Goryeo kingdom.  Palgongsan is actually comprised of a number of different peaks (which means I will definitely be going back), with the highest peak being 1192 meters above sea level.  The mountain served as a sanctuary for Buddhist monks fleeing from persecution during the Choson Dynasty.

Gatbawi ( 갓바위) translates to "hat rock" ("gat" or 갓 means "hat" and "bawi" or 바위 means "rock"), which references the stone slab on top of the Buddha.  Gatbawi Buddha was originally known as Gwanbong Buddha because it is located atop Gwanbong peak and the official name for the statue is Gwanbong Seokjoyeoraejwasang ( 관봉석조여래좌상 ) and means Gwanbong sitting stone Buddha.

For those interested, 관 - Gwan, 봉 - bong, 석 - Seok, 조 - jo, 여 - yeo, 래 - rae, 좌 - jwa, 상 - sang.

However, the name Gatbawi Buddha is the most popular and well known.  Gatbawi Buddha is specifically known as the Buddha of Medicine and people will travel from all over Korea to pray for loved ones who have become ill.  

There are two popular legends connected to Gatbawi.  The first and most well-known is that this Buddha will grant one wish per person.  The second legend concerns the designer, Uihyeon.  It is said that he made the statue to appease his mother's soul and that a big crane flew to guard him every night while he was making it.  I couldn't find a definitive date on the creation of the statue, but it seems to be from between the 7th and 9th centuries.

I am going to try and write these sort of articles for most of the places that I visit.  I personally found this article really interesting to write and learned quite a bit.  I will be writing articles on the history of Daegu and Waegwan when I get the time.

Well I'm officially tired...

I did quite a bit of walking and hiking this weekend, but the pictures were definitely worth it.  I had a couple new experiences in that this was the first time I took the train to Daegu (only about 20 minutes), this was the first time I used a Korean subway system, and it was the first time I used the Korean bus system.  As for public transportation, I give the train and subway systems both A's, but the bus wasn't quite up to par.  Daegu was a pretty good city to start out in because it has an extremely simple subway system (even simpler than DC, which I didn't think was possible).  You really can't get much simpler than 2 lines that intersect at one station, but it gets the job done.

So Saturday I hopped on the train to Daegu in the late morning with absolutely no idea where I wanted to go our how to get anywhere.  It was kinda fun.  I got off at Daegu Station and literally just wandered for about an hour until I stumbled upon Seomun Market.  With over 4,000 shops it's pretty legit.

From Seomun Market I found a subway station and took it to Daegu Grand Park, which at the time I had no idea what that was but I thought it sounded like it could be pretty cool.  It actually turned out to be the location of Daegu's World Cup Stadium.

There was also a World Cup museum so it turned out to be a pretty cool trip.

On Sunday I headed back to Daegu to go to Palgongsan (Palgong Mountain) and see Gatbawi, which is a giant stone statue of Buddha.  I also found a pretty awesome temple on the way to the top of the mountain (Gatbawi is at the top).

                                  Staircase leading to one of the temples

                            Pretty awesome

                                 Gatbawi

                              Panorama view from the top of the mountain

Unfortunately, I accidently went down the opposite side of the mountain.  Now there very well may have been a bus to take you to the other side but I didn't see any and I obviously couldn't read any sign that said there was one.  So I decided to hike back up to the top and head down the other way.  Hence me being so tired while writing this.  And this was a pretty serious ascent.  The peak is about 1000 meters (or 2/3 of a mile) above the base of the mountain.

There were a couple funny things I noticed during the climb.  This one guy had a backpack with speakers and was blasting "My heart will go on" by Celine Deion.  I found it amusing.  I also heard "Like a G6" playing.  Again amusing.  Seriously, the amount of American influence here is pretty surprising.  I've seen a lot of New York shirts, a lot of American baseball hats, and our music seems to be pretty much everywhere.  Another weird thing I noticed was that street venders were selling roots on the mountain.  I couldn't really understand this.  I mean, who goes hiking and along the way says "I think I'd like to buy some roots on the way to the top".

But anway, I had a fun weekend.  I'm looking to head down to Busan (which is the second largest city in Korea) next weekend.  I also begin my third week of teaching tomorrow so it should be fun.

Nearing the end of my first weekend

Well I've now gotten through my first week of classes and my first weekend here in Korea.  I've really enjoyed it here so far and I figured I would recap some of my experiences and my initial observations about life in Korea.

So let's start with the flight.  It is definitely a very long flight from JFK to Incheon airport.  I took a direct flight and it lasted about 14 hours.  Here is the approximate flight path:

Two things to note are that the flight comes very close to passing directly over the North Pole and that the flight completely avoids passing over North Korea and the waters controlled by North Korea.  I took Asiana and if anyone is planning to visit Asia I would definitely recommend them.  They had pretty good food (choice of either Korean or American dishes) and at the beginning of the flight all of the stewardess' bow to the passengers.

After I landed I caught a bus to Gumi, which took about 4 hours.  Upon arriving in Korea the first thing that struck me was that it really wasn't as different as I had anticipated.  There were of course the obvious differences such as the language and the fact that everyone was Korean.

Quick Note: Coming from the U.S. we are pretty used to seeing people from virtually every ethnicity in the world.  In Korea I would say about 99 % of the people here are in fact Korean.  If you see a foreigner in Korea you can pretty much assume that they are either an American soldier, an English teacher, or a tourist.

But anyway, the two things that struck me as very similar to the U.S. were the standard of living and the infrastructure.  Most of cars on the road were pretty nice (although they are all made by Hyundai and Kia) and the cities look pretty similar to western cities.

Another note: For some reason Koreans love tinted windows.  I would say over half the cars I have seen here have tinted windows.

So I arrived Monday night and was then already in the classroom on Tuesday afternoon.  Most of the students are very well behaved and the older students in particular are very serious about their studies.

                                          My classroom
I will be honest and admit that my first day I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.  But in some ways getting thrown into the classroom is actually pretty helpful because it forces you to learn quickly.  From what I've heard it takes about 3 weeks to really get used to it so I will let you know how it's going at that point.

My first weekend here was pretty fun.  I went out with my coworkers to some bars and met a lot of other English teachers.  Koreans in general are very friendly and outgoing people.  I went to my first true Korean restaurant on Saturday.  There are not any chairs, so you sit on the floor.  There is also a fire pit in the center of the table and they bring out a slab of meat and you are responsible for cutting it and cooking it.

Today I found a place to go hiking near my apartment and it provided some pretty good views of my town.

Well tomorrow I start my second week of classes so wish me luck! I am going to try and find a place to take Taekwondo and next weekend I am planning to go to Daegu.

No love for Enya?

Why in the world would a country ban a video of Orinoco Flow? 

I just woke up in South Korea...

Well needless to say that is kind of a weird feeling and the fact that I was actually on my way to Korea really didn't hit me until I was actually taking off in the airplane.  But I have now officially finished my first week of teaching and it has gone pretty well so far.  Most of the students are extremely well behaved and they all speak a basic amount of English so communicating is not too difficult.  My job is primarily to work on their pronunciation and reading comprehension.  I'm still getting the hang of this teaching thing, but I think I've gotten off to a good start.

I am living in a town called Waegwan (pronounced "Way-gone"), which is pretty small and only has a population of about 30,000.  I am however about a 15 minute train ride from both Gumi and Daegu.  Gumi has a population of about 350,000 and Daegu has about 2.5 million people.  Gumi and Waegwan both have very large foreign populations.  Gumi is a hotspot for foreign English teachers and Waegwan has an American military base with about 5,000 troops stationed.

So last night I had my first taste of Korean nightlife and it was pretty fun.  I stayed out till about 4 in the morning and honestly I'm not really sure how it got that late.  I also discovered Lotteria, which is pretty much Burger King.  I also went to a real restaurant for the first time on Saturday afternoon.  You sit on the floor at a very low table and there is a fire pit in the center of the table.  They pretty much bring the meat out to you and then you are responsible for cutting it and cooking it.

Well, I'm now off to do some more exploring.  I will try to keep the blog updated as experience more of Korea.  And here are some pictures from my first week.

                                           10,000 Won = about 9 bucks

                                                    Korean version of Frosted Flakes

                                         I'm definitely not in the United States

                                          Korean historical site