I think that the language is one of the basic components of a culture. That's why I think that I need to talk a bit about Korea's languange: Hangeul.
Hangeul (한글) is the name of the Korean alphabet. It was created by King Sejong in the 15 th century.
This is King Sejong....
The Korean alphabet is made of symbols which represent heaven, earth and the human figure (ㅇ,ㅡ, ㅣ). Hangeul is written horizontally from left to right, and vertically from top to bottom. The alphabet has 14 consonants and 10 vowels. Here's a chart showing all the characters of the alphabet:
If you are wondering how to read in Korean and how Korean language sounds watch this video:
Korean food is very rich and a little strange for me, and I must confess that when I first arrived here I could not digest it or tolerate its spicy taste. But now my taste has changed! ^^
On this occasion I want to introduce you to the Kimbap (김밥).
Ta-ta-taaaan (drum-rolls):
Kimbap translated to English means "dried seaweed roll". It's a roll made of sea weed, which makes the cover as shown in the photo. The roll is made of rice which is stuffed with several ingredients. In this case this roll is made of tuna fish. But you can find them in different flavors, beef, chicken, and the ever-present kimchi (김지). Other ingredients are radish, cucumber, carrot and egg, among others. The kimbap is a very cheap option for lunch and very filling!!!
If you've never had a Kimbap before maybe you can try and make one yourself:
A new year is always good, it's a new beginning, at least I think so. This year is also special for Korea as it marks the start of the "Visit Korea years 2010-2012". This campaign aims at attracting millions of tourists to the country. I think that for the people that don't know much about Korea is a good opportunity to save some $$$ and come here. You see, Korea is full of interesting things to see and do, it will surprise you, hopefully. This is one of the promoting videos for the campaing:
There are many events scheduled during this period, for example, the "World Design Capital Seoul", the 2012 Yeosu World Expo, a hallyu (Korean wave) festival, World Cultural Festival, among other things. If you want to learnm more about this campaign log on to http://www.korea.net/ they provide lots of information on many events going on during this winter.
Today stats:
Today we had lots of snowwwww, I can't show you any pictures cause ... sadly my camera is broken *sniff* :( but I'll get a new one soon!!!
UPDATE: Today was the biggest snowfall in 70 years in Seoul!! We had more than 11 inches of snow, read more about it here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_asia_storms
