"고로쇠물 마시러 간다."

Collecting sap into a large jug.

It's about that time for drinking 고로쇠물 (gorosoi) a drink made with water and syrup from 고로쇠나무, the painted maple. "고로쇠물 마시러 간다," or some corruption of it, is apparently what you say when you're off to drink some. Both this year and last my schools went to remote locations in Gwangyang and ate goat along with it. This year it was 염소떡갈바, goat ddeokgalbi, pictured below courtesy of my cellphone.



The gorosoi was clear, odorless, and pretty bland. No photos of it because it looks unremarkable. The meat on the other hand was delicious, and now you know where you can take me for my birthday next year.

Gorosoi is available, and thus popular, in the mountainous areas where that maple grows. It is considered "good for health," especially for the stomach. More from Gwangyang county's page:

- It was said by tradition that it is effective for stomach diseases, neuralgia, hypertension, arthritis, urinary diseases, etc.
- According to 'Book of Jangbaeksan Medicinal Herbs' in China, it is effective for neural paralysis and quadriplegia.
- According to master's thesis at Dankuk University (Cho Sun Ik, 1995), it has anticancer effect inhibiting tumor cell.

And one of the legends associated with it:

While an old man walked a mountain road, he had his leg broken and couldn't walk. Then he saw a rabbit drink sap from a tree and he also drank it for some days and his leg was cured and he could walk. So it was called Golisu, meaning 〃water beneficial to bone〃.

Jeollanam-do's Gwangyang is apparently regionally well-known for the product, and Gwangyang, Pohang, and Yangpyeong, in Gangwon-do, have Gosoroi festivals each March, so keep your eyes open for those.

Easy to forget how depressing the US can be.

Here's a paragraph on current events in American pop culture that caught my eye while reading a Pittsburgh sports blog. It starts out by referring to the revelation that star baseball player Alex Rodriguez---thought to be the antidote to Barry Bonds---took steroids while playing for the Texas Rangers:

But to wrap up the steroid talk, does anything really surprise you at this point? Seriously, let's take a look at some of the things that have happened in the last week or so: a female rapper performed at the Grammy Awards while nine months pregnant; a pop star's weight gain is being covered like a national tragedy; a mother of six has octuplets; the Super Bowl winning QB claimed he played with broken ribs, a claim which isn't exactly embraced; and a male rapper beats up a female pop star, delivering injuries described as "horrific". Really, are we nearing the point where we are numb to shock as a society? It's almost become a sick game of can you top this? If Michael Phelps was the #1 story last week, he's falling faster than a BCS team losing to a mid-major this week.

I'm sure there are more examples to add, but except for a few . . . exceptions, I don't pay attention to what the kids are into back home. Of course each time I visit FoxNews.com I'm almost convinced it's reporting on modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah.

"Does any other country have as dramatic a story as ours?"

Wow. Here's quite a column from the Joongang Ilbo. What's your favorite part? I think mine is:

Four decades of economic development have produced world-class youth. The average height of young Koreans is taller than Japanese and Chinese, and on par with Italians. Did they inherit a height gene from the same ancestors who suffered from poverty and starvation?

23 students from Suncheon accepted into prestigious Seoul National University.

This announcement was made with pride during a meeting of local English teachers this afternoon, and is in the papers, too. From the five cities in Jeollanam-do, 23 students from Suncheon, 20 from Mokpo, 13 from Gwangyang, 9 from Naju, and 3 from Yeosu were granted admission to Seoul National University, considered the top university in the country. In an comment to an earlier post, which I can't find right now, somebody asked me about admission statistics for Jeolla students trying to enter prestigious universities in Seoul. I'm not any closer to digging those up, but I was nonetheless pleased to find out about these numbers.

Gwangju police arrest suspect in murder of Chonnam University professor.

Gwangju police have arrested a Mr. Park (28) for the murder of a Professor Kim (52) of Chonnam National University. Professor Kim was killed shortly after midnight on February 4th at her house in Nongseong-dong. Mr. Park, a boiler repairman, said he was angry that Professor Kim didn't pay the 40,000 won owed him on the 3rd, so he returned a few hours later and strangled her with a scarf.

Four people die during traditional mountaintop grass-burning ceremony.

Sad news during a festival, from the Korea Times:

At least four mountain climbers were killed and 30 others injured as of 11:00 p.m. Monday in a mountain stampede during a traditional grass-burning event in Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province.

A fire set by municipal officials on a pampas grass field on top of Mount Hwawang flared out of control due to an unexpected wind, forcing onlookers to jump off a cliff, witnesses said.

Casualties are expected to rise as more than 15,000 people participated in the event, held every three years to mark the first full moon of the Lunar New Year.

More in the article, and from the Joongang Ilbo. Pictures below from various news sites.

Sleeper trains criss-cross Korea as part of new "rail cruise."

Interesting news from the Joongang Ilbo last month. An excerpt:

The journey from Gyeongju to Chuam is part of a three-day “rail cruise,” a luxury train package that Korail has ambitiously modeled after the Blue Train, a luxury rail experience that cuts through the heart of South Africa.

The trip works rather like a sea cruise. Each day passengers are dropped in major cities across the country and a local guide picks them up at the station and takes them sightseeing. After the tour, the passengers board the train and head to the next destination.

The "Simile" line stops in Suncheon, though the trip begins from Seoul. A little more from the article:

Korail offers four package tours. “Haeoreum,” a two-day route, stops at Jikji Temple, Gyeongju, Chuam and then returns to Seoul. “Simile,” another two-day tour, heads to Mokpo for a ferry ride, stops at Suncheon for sightseeing, and then heads to Namwon, the home of Chunhyang, the heroine of a popular folk tale. “Channuri,” a three-day tour, takes in Gwangju, Busan, Gyeongju and Chuam, in time for sunrise. “Aura,” another three-day tour, stops at Mokpo, Gyeongju and Chuam.

And

The facilities inside Haerang were originally aimed at meeting the standards of a luxury hotel.

Each suite comes with a TV and a private bathroom with bidet, which caused quite a fuss. The rooms, though tiny, are warm enough to walk around in shorts.

In the dining car, guests can sip free wine and help themselves to a bowl of fruit and biscuits by the counter.

Eh, I like trains and hotels so this sounds like fun, but it's pricey. Ordinarily it costs between 1.5 and 2.39 million won per room---depending on the duration, the room type, and the number of people---though through February 28th the range is down to 1.2 and 1.8 million. More details and pictures here, in Korean.

There are a bunch of other train tours available from Korail, but I can't link to them directly. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Suicidal cow in California commercial?

Via Funk Seoul Sister comes this advertisement for Real California Milk.



I don't know whether to make a crass joke about prostitution or Mad Bull Shit.

She likes "I'm fine thank you and you."

A blog with a long name has some humorous English interview tips for Koreans.

1. Man or woman, give me a firm handshake. You are not Queen Elisabeth 1, and I am not Sir Walter Raleigh returning from a starchy, tuberous crop-finding mission. I'm not going to kneel down and kiss your hand. Ergo, do not place your dainty little hand in mine like you re putting a cherry on a sundae.

. . .

3. When asked your name, please dont reply "Mr./Ms X". Actually, I am interviewing you. If anyone's getting called by their title, it's me. Plus, Im usually 5-10 years older than you.

. . .

6. Dont assume I know nothing of Korea, the Korean language or Korean culture. If I am sitting in an office interviewing Koreans for a position at a Korean company there is a likelyhood that I have a modicum of local knowledge. So, if I ask you where you live or where you went to university, dont reply "Maybe you dont know it." That is why I asked you. I am trying to have a conservation with you.

Because for some reason I can't leave comments on her post, I'll have to instead link to the most awesomely bad Korean English interview here.

Don't interrupt the foreigners when they're eating, k thx.

From the Korea Times:

A 71-year-old man was booked for hitting a restaurant staff member who was trying to stop him from talking to a foreigner at the establishment, police have said.

Seoul Gangseo Police on Saturday apprehended a man identified as Lee for beating a 60 year-old identified as Jeong at a restaurant in Naebalsan-dong in western Seoul last Friday. Lee was reportedly trying to approach two Scottish men who were eating at the premises while Jeong attempted to restrain him.

Lee was said to be drunk and told police that he was simply trying to ``learn English from the foreigners.''

The KT's headline? "Man Booked for Trying to Talk to Foreigners."