Seoul Searching ( or "How long do you think I can keep the corny 'seoul' puns up?")

Thankfully, our time in the classroom has been broken up with some great cultural experiences. Went with a group of teachers for Korean barbecue the other night.  Our restaurant specialized in lamb (yum!) and luckily, as the restaurant staff had limited English, a helpful Korean lady with an American husband and excellent English skills popped up from her table to come help us navigate the braziers, etc.  It was delicious and the spice of the meal (besides the kimchi) was the conversation with a truly inspiring group of professionals.  Afterwards we wandered the streets and alleys of Seoul and finished off the evening with a Korean snow cone - a huge bowl of shaved ice with nuts, candied fruits, and a bunch of other tidbits we couldn't identify topped by cream.  You stir it all up and it tastes pretty good!  Refreshing also as it was a rainy, humid day.

Fatima prepares some lamb skewers at the Korean barbecue

Another unique food experience was lunch at a Buddhist restaurant that specializes in "temple food".  We sat on the floor and shared little bowls of vegetarian fare in a beautiful restaurant adorned with Korean antiques and art.  Dinner was yet another Korean feast - sort of like a Singaporean "hot-pot" cooked in a communal steamer in the middle of the table.

After dinner we attended "MISO"  at the Chong Dong theater.  It was a beautiful production which included music, martial arts, dancing, and acrobatics. MISO is based on a traditional Korean tale, "Choon-Hyang-Jeon" about a girl who is torn away from her true love by a manipulative lord who subsequently tries to seduce her.  Needless to say the true love returns in the nick of time - just as the heroine is about to be put to death for rebuffing the lord - and they all live happily ever after.

A bonus to the theater performance was the pre-show drum lesson.  The jang-gu drum (see below) is an hourglass shaped instrument which is played on both ends which are covered in animal skin. Each end has its own pitch and timbre which when played together represent the harmony of man and woman. The jangu-gu drummer uses two different sticks, one sort of like a mallet and the other a flattened bamboo stick.  We actually got pretty good at it!

I'm in the second row on the left

Performers from the show