Even before the Olympics it was already difficult to take a walk in Seoul and not see Kim Yuna in some commercial… she’s everywhere, every corner of Seoul, in the streets, in the subway, at the malls, she’s the official image for makes such as Nike, Samsung, Hyundai… I imagine after the games she will become even more a social phenomenon here in Korea.

Nike commercial with Kim Yuna: “200 points don’t surprise me at all”. Yuna was the first skater to score more than 200 points. She won the Olympics smashing her own record up to 228.56 points.

Yuna on a cellphone advertisement for Samsung (in Korea they are sold under the brand Anycall).

Television commercial for Anycall.

Yuna started being known when in the 2004-2005, at only 14 years-old she got the silver medal for Korea (first international medal for Korea in all its figure skating history) at the Junior Grand Prix Final, just behind the Japanese Mao Asada, who has been her biggest rival since then. Precisely Mao Asada has won the silver medal after Kim Yuna on the Olympics.

Yuna at 14 years of age.

Not only is Yuna good at skating. Music seems to also attract Yuna’s attention. She has already appeared on TV several times singing songs by her favorite Korean artists, and she does not hesitate to sing, either in a noraebang like most Korean teenagers, or at the galas of the competitions where she participates. What’s clear is that she was born to be a star.

Yuna singing with Taeyeon, from Girl’s Generation. ¿Will we see her as a professional singer once she quits skating?

Kim Yuna at the Grand Prix 2009 Final Gala (in Tokyo).

Kim Yuna’s performance at the Skate América 2009. This is one of her most popular performances. In many commercials she does the 007 “shooting” thing like at the end of the performance.

Links:

Kim Yuna’s Official Website: www.yunakim.com
Kim Yuna’s Cyworld (Korean): http://www.cyworld.com/figureyuna
Wikipedia article about Kim Yuna (inglés): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Yu-Na

The first song is one of my favorites. The song is “사랑이 뭐길래”, which means literally “What is Love” and would be pronounced something like “sah-rang-i moh-kil-leh”. The group is called “Miss $” (미스에스) and is quite a singular group, as its components are two rap-girls with quite a “tough” image when the rule in Korea for girls groups is totally the opposite (you’ll see it in next posts, don’t be impatient!):

Miss $: Hye-Young Tae (태혜영) on the left and Yumi Oh (오유미) on the right.

As a video to show you, I have chosen a performance they did live for the SBS. It was hard to believe to me, but the main girl in the video is not part of the group, she’s another singer called Nimo (니모) and in my opinion she does an awesome job. I was also surprised that they sung live, because here in Korea playback is quite popular, even in concerts…

Another curiosity is that the official video of this song has been quite controversial because it shows some too-explicit images, at least for Korean culture, and taking into account that this kind of videos is mainly seen by teenagers (you can see those images as well as the whole video here).

Ok, so I’ll stop the talk now and let you see the video. Notice that when a Korean group sings on TV they usually show the lyrics on the screen so that people can sing the song like in a karakoe. And don’t miss the detail of the Nike shoes that the girl on the left is wearing!

The answer… in February

The airport with snow everywhere (luckily enough, we didn’t have any problem to land).

More snow…

And more snow from my appartment’s window…

Snow in “my neighborhood”’s square (wanna try to sit there for a while?)…

A motorbike covered by snow…

So yes…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

In fall, the color mixture on the trees’ leaves can make the day of anyone who likes photography

More color mixture…

It is only possible to enter the palace in one of the organized tours during the day. There are tours available in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, at different times during the day.

One of the yards of the palace. Those stone posts on the ground are indicators of the position where the different king’s officials must stand.

A closer view of the posts. On them there is the name of each official written in Chinese.

This lake gets full of water lilies in summer, giving it quite an amazing look (picture here).

One of the gardens’ gates. The fences are made of bamboo and the roof is the one you can view in many temples and palaces from the Joseon dynasty.

This lake is another one of the many romantic corners in this palace.

Many famous Korean dramas have been filmed in these gardens. Among them, one of the most popular is Dae Jang Geum (or Jewel in the Palace, in the States), set in Korea’s Joseon dynasty.

Jiwon doing the favorite pose of all Asians

Visits to this palace are quite limited. It closes on Mondays, and to go in you have to join one of the few organized tours for 3,000 KRW the normal one, and 5,000 KRW for the one they call “special” (I don’t think it is so special, but can be an option if you miss one of the “normal” tours, as there are not many tours during the day). The “normal” tours in English start at 11:30, 1:30, and 3:30. The tour takes around one hour twenty minutes approximately and you can expect to walk around 1.6 miles during that time.

Given their proximity, it is possible to see both the Changdeok and Gyeongbok palaces in one day. If you take this option, it may be better to see the Changdeok Palace first, because it closes earlier and it is also more limited in times.

Finally, I must also say that, only on Thursdays, it is possible to visit the palace without a tour (they call it “self-guided tour”) given that you are willing to pay as much as 15,000 KRW per person. For those who want to take pictures without people around this may be a good option.

During our trip to Jeju (more exactly in Udo Island) we had the chance to see the haenyeo in action.

In the old times, on the southern Korean Islands, most of the population made a living from fishing. Many fishermen died while fishing due to the bad weather and the storms, and widowed women were forced to raise their children alone, so they started fishing underwater. And this is how the haeneyo started (at least this seems to be the most accepted version). This way of fishing started getting more and more populare among the female population (also partly due to the fact that women didn’t pay taxes, while men did) and daughters of these women started fishing too, creating a tradition which seems to be doomed to disappear.

These women can descend down to 20 meters or even deeper, holding their breath for several minutes. They say that years and even evolution/natural selection made their bodies specially suited to bear the low temperature of the water, as well as pressure changes (whoever has done diving will know that going down to 20 meter is not a joke). That’s why the haenyeo are usually called “Korean mermaids” or “Jeju mermaids”. This job is mainly done in summer, but also in winter, despite the low water temperature. Even though nowadays the haenyeo use neoprene and weights, in the old times, these elements were not used.

Nowadays, the younger women in Jeju don’t want to continue such a hard job, and they usually move to the city and study, or just live from tourism, main source of income in the area. According to the wikipedia, today there are around 5,000 haenyeo registered as such, out of which 85% are over 50 years old.

Their appearance is that of a person that has been working hard all her life, with their faces tanned by the sun. By the way, if you were hoping to see mermaids like those in the movies or cartoons for children, I’m sorry, I couldn’t see any either

Here is where the haenyeo sell their catch.

Althogh nowadays the haenyeo use neoprene suits, this activity used to be done without any kind of special protection against the cold waters.

Here is the catch. Shells, sea urchins, and conchs that they will sell to the restaurants in the island.

A closer view.

This miss haenyeo just finished her day.

Usually the heanyeo carry that buoy to signal their location when they are ascending.

In the museo de las Haenyeo you can see how the haenyeo used to fish in the past, with its tratidional suit (picture by karendotcom127).

To finish this post, here is the trailer of the movie “My Mother The Mermaid”, a Korean movie that shows the haenyeo. It is a movie about a girl (the Korean actress Do-Yeon Jeon, who travels past in time and gets to know her mother when she was a haenyeo in Jeju. In the trailer you can see the haenyeo diving. You can also see how they differentiate the mother from the daughter (both are played by Do-Yeon) by using a darker skin and more “wild” behavior on the mother (a characteristic of Jeju natives).

Udo Island location.

From Jeju Island there are ships going to Udo very frequently. It is possible to take your car if you rented one, but given the size of the island, I wouldn’t recommend it.

With Shienna, already in Udo.

View of the coast.

Pablo ready to rock on his quad.

The most fun way to see the island is on these quads (ATV) that you can rent for 40,000 KRW (20 thousand per person). It is also possible to rent a bike for only 5,000 KRW.

Despite being a very small island, Udo has some of the most beautiful sceneries I have seen in South Korea.

The quads made seeing the island a really fun experience. In the picture, from left to right, Luis, Manuel, Marta, and Juan Carlos.

The island’s beaches are not made of sand, but volcanic rocks like these.

Another thing that seems funny to me is that Koreans from the islands look quite different from those from the peninsula. These two brother and sister are a sample of this (don’t miss the boy’s earrings!).

Jiwon in an artificial beach made with white coral.

The owner of one of the many restaurants in the island, seeing how many people we were, and how hungry… did not hesitate to take us to his restaurant on his pick-up.

And after seeing the island, here is our reward: sea urchins and all kinds of raw fish for lunch

Jeju has many characteristic things, nice people, fresh fish, black pig samgyeobsal, you name it. Also, on the island, a kind of Korean dialect is spoken. Even though the do use Hangeul as writing system, this language is so different from Korean that not even Koreans from the peninsula are able to understand it.

Hallasan soju (soju is the Korean national drink) is undoubtedly the best I have ever drunk. In Seoul it is quite difficult to find it, and even I heard that it is forbidden to sell it in Seoul since some local soju brands complained about it (I don’t know if that is true or not, but what is clear is that Jeju soju is quite better than that from Seoul).

The Seongsan Ilchulbong, o Sunrise Peak for foreigners. It is a crater that during sunrise is considered one of the most beautiful scenes you can see in Korea. You can see much better pictures than this one here.

From Jeju you can take this ship (you can take your car if you rent one) which in about ten minutes will take you to Udo, another island even smaller and prettier (I will talk about this island in the next post).

Jeju is also the preferred destination for many in-love and just-married Korean couples. When these couples travel, it is a must to wear these couple-t-shirts.

Jeju’s black pork is delicious! One of the things that makes it different from the samgyeopsal you can eat in Seoul is that in Jeju it is eaten with the skin.

Of course, we couldn’t leave the island without livint its nightlife. Thanks to Shienna and one of her uncles, we could go for free to one of the biggest clubs I have ever been.

In our last day in Jeju, we went to eat pheasant, another typical meal of Jeju. This is the restaurant where we had lunch. Like most restaurants in Korea, you have to eat on the floor and with your shoes off.

Who would have told me that day that those four strangers would become more than friends, partners in adventures, trips, parties, soccer games, unrealistic situations, terrific intensive Korean lessons, taekwondo evenings, Hongdae and mASS nights… who would have told me that they would become my diving buddies, that we would celebrate together the victory of Spain in the Eurocup…

Who would have told me that these four strangers would leave Seoul after those fifteen months and that I would stay here, trapped by this city, by its great people to meet, its great places to visit, its great things to learn…

And would have told me, on that day, at that airport, that two years after, I would miss those four strangers almost as much as I miss my family.

I miss you guys!

Look at’em! Just arrived in the airport on what’s our first picture together (thanks Jairo!). Nothing like 12 hours together on a plane to appear on a picture like childhood friends. From left to right, Alex, Jairo, Carlos and myself.