Saman Dance in Gwangju and Bamboo Forest at Damyang City

While everybody enjoying their time on Hangeul Day, we, 9 students from Daejeon participated in an event called Gwangju International Community Day 2010 located in outside area of Kimdaejung Convention Center, in Gwangju Metropolitas City. We proudly presented one of the famous traditional dances of Indonesia from Aceh, yup ... Saman Dance ... that's the one.

I have already performed this dance with they guys who studied at Solbridge last semester in Daejeon Convention Center, but this one was more complicated one. However, even with the lack of time of practicing, I guess we did great at the show.

*credit goes to mba Florencia Wiguna and husband ^^

Following the wild desire of Mba Aisyah to visit Bamboo Forest, we tried to find the way to the unknown. With the minimum skill of Korean language and heart full of prejudice, we actually finally found the place. Those who want to go there, take bus number 311 from Gwangju (We took it from Malbau Market).
Arriving at the Damyang bus station, the surrounding was like a country side, and it was a small city. It was calm and the road to the Bamboo forest was fun. When we got the bamboo forest, it was dark though, so we couldn't really go around the forest. However, it was something ...

More about Damyang Bamboo Forest here.
Pictures here.

October 12, 2010
앙가

--
Singer : Aisya Velasofi Proborini
Dancers:
Anthony Steven
Giri Djatmiko
Heidy Dwiyanti Utami
Florencia Wiguna
Siti Farhana
Me ^^
Claudia Raditya T
Chairil Abdi Kuncoro

Tutor:
Indria Herman

Baekje Festival -- Revisited

Last month, on 24th Chungnam National University Language Center students went to have a school trip to the World Great Baekje Festival 2010. Hahah, I know this was my second trip to this festival, but this time .... Jeng Jeng Jeng ... Me and other class representative were actually physically part of the festival!!

Yeah, we were asked to wear the traditional clothes of Korea and do the parade around the palace and were actually inside the performance. Isn't that amazing!!!!!

Chungnam National University Korean Course Students and the Director of performance in Baekje Palace

Foreigner army and citizen in Baekje Era ㅋㅋㅋ

It was fun, to be part of the experience and to see closer the performance. hahah envy me!!

Anyway, before we went to the palace to be involved in the performance, we went to other festival place ... you know Baekje festival is huge, there are all around the city. I don't know the name of this place, but this is in Buyeo. These are what we did.

Body painting =]

Those guys are that cool drummer players!!!

Samurai caught in action

Gonna hit the Ajumma

Off course not hahahha

Playing with the clay ... err I mean making clay pot ... or what is it called?? 호랑이? 홍아리??

What a nice day!!!!!!

Pictures here!!

October 04 2010

2010 World Great Baekje Festival - Third Day

This is it!!The first day of 2010 World Great Baekje. Located not far from our hotel, we headed to a palace which I was told that this is the first time they open and invite people to get inside and experience the Baekje time. There are King's and Queen's property, meeting room, a pagoda, praying place, etc. I was told that the pillar of the palace is kind of unique. Because it is wider at the center, which makes it stronger ... well that's what she said. The environment was very calm and I guess this palace was a very comfortable place. There were also some monks which I don't know if they live in this palace or not. I guess not.

 I personally like this palace. Anyway, there was a performance, which took us back to the Baekje era. I wonder, why the soldiers looked like old men, where were the young soldiers? And there was no knight riding horse as me and my friends were expecting. But it was interesting.

The palace trip was awesome, I like it, I love it, I would love to go again next time or maybe to other palaces.

Next to the palace, we visited Baekje Historical Museum. Just like any other museums, you know what is inside, right? But based on our group leader information, the properties inside the museum are the real ones.

There was (again) a place that was scheduled for us to visit. But, due to uncertain reason, it was also cancelled. That was actually a pity, because we might not have any chance to visit this festival again. But, anyway ... these 3 days experience were exhausting, yet we learnt, saw, experienced new things which made our exhaustion became not a problem at all. Visit 2010 World Great Baekje Festival, now!!

More pictures here.

September 19, 2010

앙가

-- Menu for today: Beef for lunch with a friend and Taekwondo in the evening.

Pre-2010 World Great Baekje Festival - Second Day

With the weather was less hotter than the first day, the second day was also better than the first day. Not only that I went to new places but also there were very interesting performances at the end of the day. The day was begun with the tombs ... again!!?? but it was a nice view from the top, though. Worth visiting.

It is called Tumuli in Neungsan-ri, Buyeo. There are 7 tombs of Baekje kings during the period of 538-660 A.D. Looks like the land of Teletubbies ... if you know what it is.

The next stop is Jeongnimsaji Museum, located in Buyeo. What is in there? there are a 5 stairs pagoda, Buddhas, and emm ... a museum (what?). You know what museum is like. And of course, there is a connection with Baekje Kingdom, because like you know, we were like in Baekje trip, so isn't that obvious?! hahah.

My group leader was simulating how Koreans bow to the Buddha

The last place to visit on that day, according to the what was written on the schedule, was supposed to be a castle. But, as we walked on the track, we did not see any castle. In fact, there was not really nothing to see. I guess there was another track that we could have gone to, which might lead to the castle. Anyway, it was called Busosanseong Fortress. I did not really take any pictures.

This is the interesting part. At night, we went to the same place as the night before (where there were performances and games) and ... ok let me put this way. On 16th, actually there was a one-day cultural trip offered by WSK, a program that I join, and they mentioned that there would be B-Boy performance, which I heard is a great performance. I had a kind of sad feeling because I missed the B-Boy performance due to my participation on this Baekje trip. But then that night, unexpectedly and luckily, there was B-Boy performance. And it was totally awesome.

But, it was not the only fun. That night, each of group (there were 12 group) had to perform their own performances. My team were doing this model-wannabe thing and singing my favorite Korean song (find my post about this, and you will know what song it is). The other team performances were really interesting. There were drama, guys dressed like girls, dance, Happy Birthday songs sang by many languages, dance again, and etc. My favorite was the guys dressed like girls, it was really funny and my travel mate was one of them hahah.

One of the performances, they were really cute ^^

Nice night to wrap up the exhausting day ^^. Pictures here.

September 19, 2010

앙가

-- Just had a coffee together with my friend and took picture of my 귀여운 친구 ^^

Pre-2010 World Great Baekje Festival - First Day

2010 World Great Baekje Festival is the first (that's what I was told) festival in order to introduce the to the world about one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea which is Baekje Kingdom. This event is being held from today (September 18) until October 17, 2010. Taking place in around Gongju and Buyeo, this festival is absolutely worth visiting. Anyway, I am not going to write in detail about this event, because you can find most of important information on the 2010 World Great Baekje Festival website. However, I am going to write about my experience of 2 days before the festival and 1 day at the time of the festival. Since I think it is going to be a long post, I have decided to separate it into 3 parts based on the day. As written on this post's title, this one is the first day of the journey.

공주 [GongJu]

Departing from Chungnam National University, we went to Gongju National University to attend the opening ceremony. Hundreds of people were there from a lot of countries, including South Korea. It was an extremely hot day, but since it is just the beginning, our spirit was still on the top. Besides, the dancer cooled the day.

Anyways, I actually have been to Gongju for a school trip and I was actually expecting to go to somewhere I have never been in Gongju in this trip. But yeah, the first place that we went after the ceremony was Gongsanseong Fortress which I have been to. It is a fortress and there are some tracks inside that you can walk through and enjoy the view. Luckily, this time i went to different track from the previous trip. But, before walking through the tracks, I found an interesting torturing equipment ... and even the blood.

Too bad there was not any deep explanation about the fortress when we walk through the tracks from the expert guide, so it was like more to sightseeing than history trip. But, the brief information written on the stone-like thing is enough, too. ^^

Let's go to the next stop which is The Songsan-ri Tombs and Tomb of King Muryeong. Unlike the fortress, this place I had never been to. Information here.

부여 [Buyeo]

On the schedule, actually there was one more place to visit, but due to the weather problem, it was canceled. We went to the Lotte Hotel where we stayed 2 nights over there. It is located in Buyeo and it was a very decent hotel. The room was good and one thing I was so amazed of was the toilet. Yes, it has these fancy buttons with variety of functions.

Even though the room was very decent, it was not really comfortable. It was because this room was occupied by 8 people, and there was only 2 mattress in a room and a big-size bed in another room. It became a problem, but actually we managed to spend 2 nights there.

The first day of the trip was closed by some performances. There were some music performance, of course Korean-ish performances, and also games. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera, but I captured some pictures by using my phone, but you know ...

One of the games, those guys played good

End of the first day ^^. Pictures here. 

September 18, 2010

앙가

--

A: 몇살이에요?

B: 저 스물두살이에요.

A: 아 진짜?? 믿을수 없어

ㅋㅋㅋ

The 43rd Nangye Traditional Music Festival and 2010 Yeongdong Grapes Festival

Two festivals in one day? why not. Organized by TalkHolic, a coffee cafe right across Chungnam National University main gate, we, some of foreigners in Daejeon, attended to two festivals in Yeongdong, a 1-hour-from-Daejeon county which is also famous of its Korean Traditional Music.

2010 Yeongdong Grapes Festival

On the festival of Grapes, there are some things you can see and/or participate. There is a (maybe) what I call a fruit contest.

 

You can taste the grape wine.

 

And the most interesting thing you can do it here is ... tadaaa ... stomping plus dancing on the grapes ^^. There are 4 groups, each groups are surrounding grapes and there is one basket of grapes at the center which one of the members of the group will stomp the grapes and dance ^^. They play the music, and you dance as instructed.

And because you have a gut to dance on the basket, you get a present ^^. And here are our team's heroes^^.

During my time at the Grapes Festival, there is one character that I wonder who he is. He looks like foreigners, but I couldn't find any information about him and why is he really famous in this festival. Any idea?

His picture is like, everywhere ... I guess he is an important person.

The 43rd Nangye Traditional Music Festival

Yeongdong, the place of this festival is held, is the hometown of Nangye, the pen name of Park Yeon, who is one of the experts of Korean traditional music. This festival is held as an honor to him ^^. He produced some of instruments and he also was a very brilliant musician.

Alright, what you can do in this festival?

You can learn how to play Korean traditional instrument, such as:

해금 [Haegeum]

가야금 [Kayageum] - I played Arirang with this instrument (at least I tried, lol)

아쟁 [Ajaeng]

거문고 [Geomungo]

And other instruments like drums, etc. There are also some games that might have relation with this festival that you can play. You don't drink wine? There are kinds of tea you can try. Moreover, there are traditional clothes from Asia that you can try to wear, and you can enjoy live performance of traditional music of Korea.

Thay guy is very tall ㅠㅠ;

What do I think about the festival? I liked it, because we really can participate on a lot of things, like playing the real Korean traditional instrument, trying the wine, the tea, and even stomping on the grapes. It was a great experience. Even though it was really hot, but I could enjoy it up to the maximum. This festival is being held until 7 of this month, so ... hurry up and have fun!!

More pictures here.

September 5, 2010

앙가

-- I am gonna die next week.