Charpie's Travels

Fact #9 South Korea's flag was officially adopted in 1950, about a year and a half after the Republic of Korea was formed. The  white background represents (according to different sources) a traditional clothing color of the Korean people, purity, and/or peace. The  yin-yang symbol represents harmony/unity.  Four Kwae symbols : heaven (top left), water (top right), earth (bottom right), fire (bottom left). The placement of the symbols is intended to create balance (between the actual broken/unbroken bars as well as the elements they represent). (borrowed from www.worldatlas.com)

Fact #8 Korea is old. One thing this means is that there are plenty of cool old buildings. Pictured here is Gyeongbokgung Palace, one of the Five Grand Palaces. Gyeongbokgung (in English meaning "Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven") originally was built in 1394. It's been rebuilt since then. (borrowed from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea )

Fact #7 South Korea is part of the Korean Peninsula on the east side of Asia. Strangely enough, South Korea occupies the SOUTHERN part of the peninsula. Being that it is a peninsula, Korea is surrounded by water. To the west are the Korea Bay and Yellow Sea. To the east is the Sea of Japan, and the Korea Strait runs between South Korea and Japan. (borrowed from www.agc.army.mil) ...I said "peninsula" three sentences in a row. There should be a prize for that.

Fact #6 Standard Korean greeting: bow and say " ahn nyeong ha se yo"  (pronouned ahn-yan-ha-say-y) .  

Fact #5 I'm going to be a millionaire. Every month.  Sort of. Korean currency is the won. A US dollar converts to about 1,193 won.   (borrowed from  www.trendbird.co.kr/1909 )

Fact #4 Korea's time zone is GMT+9:00. Minnesota is GMT-6:00 (Central Time).  That puts Korea 14 hours ahead of Minnesota. (borrowed from  http://www.travel.com.hk/region/timezone.htm )

I ate fern tonight. It was one of the many ingredients in my bibimbap . We also enjoyed kimchi, pickled radish, peppers, onions, pickled potato, mushrooms, seaweed, carrots, bean sprouts (pickled and not), and rice cakes coated in soybean flour. I'm beginning to think Koreans eat more vegetables in one meal than I touch in a couple weeks. So I'm attempting to acclimate before I move. While browsing the menu, we stumbled upon a fun typo (sorry it's blurry).  "Yakki Kyoja - Japanese style fried dumping"

Fact #3 For Korean meals, utensils consist of a spoon and chopsticks.  If eating with an elderly person, wait for them to pick up a spoon or chopsticks before you do the same. Never hold your spoon while using your chopsticks.  When either utensil is not in use, belongs on the table (not on a dish). Rice is to be eaten with your spoon. While it is acceptable to pick up your rice bowl in China or Japan, when eating in Korea, leave the bowl on the table.