Dr. Fish

Ok, I did it; I finally went to Dr. Fish where tiny carp nibble the dead skin off of your feet. I loved the experience and I certainly will be doing it again!! It tickled for the first few minutes but once I got used to the feeling it felt good and was extremely relaxing. I could actually feel the fish nibbling on my feet. It cost 2,000 won (about 1.80) and lasted 15 min. You need to buy a 5,000 won coffee to be able to pay for the fish treatment. I consider it simply prolonged the pleasure of being there since the place was beautiful and the cinnamon honey latté that I had was absolutely delicious. All in all, it was a great day in Myeong-Dong!

J’ai enfin réussis à me rendre chez Dr. Fish et à faire manger la peau morte sur mes pieds! J’ai adoré l’expérience et je vais sûrement le répéter. Au début ça chatouillait un peu, mais par après j’ai trouvé que c’était détendant. Je sentais vraiment les petites carpes me mordiller les pieds. Ça coûtait 2,000 won ($1.80) et durait 15 min. Il fallait aussi faire l’achat d’un café pour avoir accès au bain de pieds avec les poissons. J’ai trouvé que cette « obligation » à tout simplement prolongée le plaisir étant donné que mon Café latté à la cannelle et au miel était vraiment délicieux :-)

Pungmul Dance Festival; Festival de danse Pungmul

Here is some "catching up" information. I'll have a few of these to add since I only started my blog a month after I got here. I went to a traditional farm dance festival in Byeupong. There are no words to explain the emotions that ran through me as I watched these people dance with their hearts and with their souls; it was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Through these pictures, I hope you feel some of the pleasure I felt as I was watching them. There are also a few pictures of potrait artists who were there. Why? Because just by looking at them, you can see that they also are very intense people who's passion guides their lives.

Voici de l’information de rattrapage. Il va y en avoir de temps en temps étant donné que j’ai commencé mon blogue un mois après mon arrivé. J’ai été voir une dance traditionnelle des fermiers è Beupyong; il n’y à pas de mots pour d’écrire tout l’émotion que j’ai vécu en les regardent danser. Ils dansaient avec leurs âmes et avec leurs cœurs. J’espère qu’à travers ses photos vous allez ressentir un peu de toutes ces émotions qui m’ont parcouru le corps pendant que je les regardais danser. Il y a aussi des photos de quelques artistes qui faisaient des portraits. Pourquoi? Parce que juste à les regarder, on peu voir que c’est leurs passion qui guide leurs pas.

The information you requested

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Monday supper and coffee; Un souper et café du lundi

On Mondays we start and finish an hour later; that means we don't get back to our apartments until 6:45pm. That's a little to start preparing supper so this Monday Pam and I decided to go and eat at the restaurant. We found one that cooked dakgalbi which is our favorite Korean food. It's spicy chicken with cabbage cooked right in front of you. It was delicious!!! Here a meal costs a fraction of what it would in Quebec; for the dakgalbi, one beer and one soju (almost a korean vodka), it cost us 24.00 which means 12.00 each. Plus here you don't leave any tips. I already tried to once for excellent service and the person would not accept it!

Then we went to have another one of my favorites, a coffee milkshake - also absolutely delicious - in a quaint little café we just recently discovered...A wonderful way to end one week and begin the other:-)

Le lundi nous commençons et finissons une heure plus tard; ce qui fait que nous n’arrivons pas aux appartements avant 18 :45. C’est un peu tard pour commencer à préparer le souper. Ce lundi Pam et moi avons décidé d’aller manger au restaurant. Nous avons trouvé un restaurant qui fait du dakgalbi qui est notre plat préféré. Ce fût un vrai plaisir pour le palet! Ici un repas dans un resto coréen coûte la moitié de ce que l’on payerait pour la même chose au Québec. Le repas avec une bouteille de soju et une bière a coûté 24,000 won; l’équivalent de 23.00 canadien. Après on est allé prendre un café frappé – absolument délicieux – dans un petit café que l’on vient de découvrir…Une très belle façon de finir la fin de semaine et de commencer la nouvelle:-)

Potato Festival; Festivale de la patate

Dr. Lee invited us to a potato festival in his hometown. We were treated like royalty by the locals. The only rough part of the two day activity was sleeping on the floor in the community center. It was worth it, but I doubt that I would do it again unless I had a bed to sleep on and a pillow to put under my head.

It was my first "country-side" visit. We hiked up a small mountain and enjoyed looking at the lush beautiful plant-life over here:-) That, I'll have to do it again. There are many places where you can go hiking over here since it's the Korean's national pass-time.

*I took a picture of a Korean woman picking up the potatoes that were left in the field.

Dr. Lee nous a invités à un festival de la patate dans sa communauté. Nous avons été traités comme de la royauté. La partie le plus difficile de la fin de semaine a été de dormir sur le plancher de la salle communautaire. J’ai beaucoup aimé ma fin de semaine, mais je ne le referais pas sans être certaine d’avoir un lit et un oreiller pour la nuit.
C’était ma première expérience à la campagne depuis que je suis ici. Nous avons escaladée une petite montagne et j’ai pu voir la belle végétation sauvage ici. J’ai l’intention de répéter cette partie de l’expérience. Il y a beaucoup d’endroit pour escalader ici étant donné que c’est le passe-temps national de la Corée.
J’ai pris une photo d’une femme coréenne qui ramassait des patates dans un champ.

Eating in Korea; Manger en corée

I will be working 4 hours on Saturdays for a 12 week program. Dr. Lee, the owner of ICEV, invited those who will be on this program to the restaurant. The place where you cook your meat is at several places in the table and is directly in front of you. There are also many things to accompany what you're eating on the table. Of course we were sitting on very thin cushions on the floor.

Je vais commencer à travailler 4 heures le samedi sur un program de 12 semaines. Dr. Lee, le proprietaire de ICEV, a invité le personel qui travail sur ce programme au restaurant. L'endroit où nous faisons cuire notre viande est intégré dans la table et est situé à plusieurs endroit sur la table. Il y a aussi beaucoup de mets supplémentaire comme accompagnement. Évidement, nous sommes assissent sur des coussins très plats par terre:-)!

Tea for Two

I know we are already Monday, but time flies by so fast over here that I barely have time to look back at what just happened to realize that something new is already taking shape in front of me; that's why I need to write about Friday, Saturday and Sunday! On Friday I received my first pay check (we are payed once a month over here) and went to Bupyeong with Pam to get cell phones. Over here it's our way of keeping in touch with one another and finding out where the others are if we ever get separated from one another when we go somewhere.
I wanted a thin one so that it wouldn't be too heavy and I thought that I would be buying a used one, so that it would cost less. Well I ended up buying a new one for 80.00 plus 10.00 for a calling card. In Quebec I would have paid over 300.00 for the same thing!! My phone has an mp3 integrated in it... And I got a bonus surprise! I love the painting by Klimt called "The Kiss". When I was going through the backgrounds I could choose from in the cell phone, The Kiss was one of them! I wasn't too excited about getting a cell phone, but now that I was able to have a slim one and that I have The Kiss as my background I'm really happy to have it!
On Saturday I went to Insadong with Juliet to have tea in a traditional tea house. The tea I chose was Ohmija which means 5 tastes. When you savour the tea, the flavour distinctly changes From bitter to sweet to spicy to salty and then to sour. It is quite an exciting and savoury experience for the palet. The tea is not given, it costs 6.00 but is worth every penny.

After our tea we looked at a few art expositions in the tea houses courtyard. We had the pleasure of seeing beautiful edible flowers made of sugar by a wonderful woman named Yooney Choi. Here you see Juliet standing beside her, and the picture of the cake with sugar flowers is one of her creations.

Dazzle Shoes; Souliers étincellents

Here the women wear very fancy, often with extremely high heels, shoes. You see these "dazzle shoe" boutiques on almost every street corner. The high heels are possibly because Korean women are not very tall. Another plausible reason could be because Korean women show a lot of leg and high heels make their legs look longer.
My first thoughts when I saw these very dressy shoes was, "Oh no! Not for me thank you." But after being here for 4 weeks, I realized that owning and "wearing" a pair (or two) of dazzle shoes was part of my Korean culture experience. So here they are; a pair of slightly comfortable high heels and extremely comfortable slip-ons. I already love them...Now what will I do when I get back home?...

Ici les femmes portent des souliers très étincellent et souvent avec des talons extrêmement hauts. On voit des boutiques remplit de ces souliers sur presque chaque coin de rue. Il est possible que les coréens portent des talons hauts parce qu’elles ne sont pas tellement grandes. Une autre raison possible est parce qu’elles montrent beaucoup leurs jambes et que ceci les fait paraître plus longues.
La première pensée que j’ai eu en voyant ces souliers était, « Oh non, ce n’est vraiment pas pour moi! » mais après les avoir vu à tout les jours pendant 4 semaines, j’ai réalisé que porter des « dazzle shoes » devait faire partie de mon expérience coréenne. Alors les voici! Une paire de soulier haut « légèrement confortable » et une paire de talon bas « extrêmement confortable ». Je les adore déjà!! Comment est-ce que je vais faire pour m’en passer à mon retour au Québec?...