Winning and Free Stuff in Korea!

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know that I went on a tour of Seoul sponsored by the Korean Tourism Organization.  You can read about all the fun things we did here, here and here.  We were told that two bloggers would be chosen to win a special first and second place prize.

I was shocked and excited to find out that I won first prize.  It was a 100,000 WON Korea Pass.  I had no idea what a Korea Pass was but I was so happy to have won.  When I received my prize, I found that a Korea Pass is basically a prepaid credit card that you can use just about anywhere in Korea.  You can find out all about it here.  We had a lot of problems using our U.S. credit cards when we first moved here and were waiting to open our bank accounts.  When you visit Korea this is a great option instead of carrying around cash.

                               It also came with this book which had all the major cities in Korea. 

                                    It included maps of every city and many areas of Seoul.

               The best part was that it had a TON of coupons in the back for many cities in Korea.

 Have I told you lately that I love Home Plus?  I think Target Corporation should take notice of how Home Plus treats it's loyal customers.  Korea is the land of "point cards."  We have point cards for just about everywhere including Home Plus.  Hannah showed me how she has all her point cards on her IPhone and just has to bring the card up and show it to the clerk.

Rocketman and I were doing our weekly shopping last week and as the clerk handed me my receipt and cards, she also handed me a cloth shopping bag, FREE.  I smiled all the way home.  This week, when the clerk handed me my receipt and cards, she told in Korean to go to the service counter.  I had been told this before so I knew what she meant.  Rocketman didn't mind waiting so we went to the counter and took a number and waited.

When my number came up, I gave her my receipt and my Home Plus Point Card and she gave me this shopping cart, FREE!  She also gave me a second shopping bag like I had received the week before.  I'm still smiling and it happened yesterday!

 We also went to Suwon Station to find where they had moved a bookstore we loved to go to.  It wasn't easy to find but we did and bought a few things.  After paying, the clerk gave us the bag of goodies you see above, FREE!

Now, these tennis shoes have nothing really to do with this post but to let you know what young men are wearing these days.  I see them in all sorts of bright colors.  I love them!

Hanji - The Korean Medicine Cabinet Part 11

Last week in hanji class I finished cutting out all the Chinese characters and glued them to the drawers of the medicine cabinet. That turned out to be harder than I thought. I couldn't tell which order they went in or if they were righside up or upside down. My hanji teacher had to lay them out for me so I didn't glue them on wrong.

Friday ended up being a day of visitors at the hanji shop.  First, a U.S. family came in with their son who was a soldier at Osan which isn't too far from Suwon.  The mom was looking for some gifts and I helped her out explaining what hanji was and that everything in the shop was handmade by my teacher.  She ended up buying three beautiful hanji boxes.  My hanji teacher was really glad that I was there to help out.

I had also invited Mr. Choi to come and see one of the reasons I hadn't been in yoga for the past month or so.  He came bearing this beautiful bouquet of flowers.  He was shocked and in awe of my medicine cabinet.  The girls talked to him quite a bit and he ended up staying for an hour talking to me and watching me finish up for the day.  I then took him over to the Craft Artist Exhibition to see all the other crafts I have been doing.  We had a great time and I told him I should be able to come back to yoga next week.  He also told me that his wife told him to buy me flowers.  She is the sweetest little thing.

We waited at the bus stop together and when my bus came, it was packed with passengers.  I carefully made my way to the back of the bus and hung on for dear life, trying not to smoosh my flowers.  All of the sudden, a Korean women sitting in front of where I was standing reached out and took the flowers to hold for me.  I told her thank you in Korea.  Then bus driver was really heavy on the gas and the brakes so it was a rough ride.

Eventually the seat next to her opened up and I was able to sit next to her.  She gave me back my flowers and then dug in her purse and pulled out two tomatoes and told me that they were delicious in Korean and if I would like some.  I told her "yes" in Korean.  I didn't have a plastic bag so she emptied one she had and placed the tomatoes in the bag handing it to me. 

I placed the tomatoes inside my bag and rested my flowers along with my hands on my bag.  She grabbed my hands and lifted them up saying that I would hurt the tomatoes so I rode the rest of the way to my bus stop with my hands and bouquet about four inches above my lap.  She really was sweet to take care of me like she did. 

Here is a video Rocketman shot of me demoing how to cut out patterns from hanji paper.  It is not edited because we don't know how to do that yet and we didn't realize until now that the closeups are really blurry.  We will use a different video camera next time we try this.  But at least you get an idea of what I am doing:

Craft Artist Exhibition

 As if enough wasn't going on in my crazy life here in South Korea, I also took part in a Craft Artist Exhibition at the Hwaseong Fortress.
 Each artist had an entire display cabinet and I filled mine up with many of the Korean crafts I've been doing.  The first shelf was my Korean miniature food.

                The second was maedeup and chilbo.  Nan, my chilbo teacher, provided a photo.

                                                This is hanji from my hanji teacher.

                                                 These were made using pressed flowers.

                                                 My bodyguard also had a display.

                   Young-Soo had a display of her maedeup.  We both learned maedeup from Su-Mi.

This is a photo of my entire display case.

                                    This was my chilbo teacher, Nan-Young's display case.

More From The 2011 Suwon Hwaseong Cultural Festival

This is what I found outside my apartment building last Saturday.  How cool is that!

I also found these guys have a great time.  The one on the right end was my buddy.

 I went to the Fortress on Sunday by myself since Rocketman was down with a bad cold.  Nan, my chilbo teacher, wanted me to help since I could help all the foreigners.  She and the other craft shops had tables set up outside their shops selling and you could even try a craft for a really reasonable price.
But I saw a group of kids sitting on the floor in front of the stage that had been set up.  This is what each one had.

                         Some decorated their dry boards with more than just their name.

                           There were a lot of kids with lots of parents watching from the wings.

 I would have freaked at the pressure and am sure glad they didn't have things like this when I was young.

 Then I made my way to Nan's street and found lots of crafting going on.  I was in heaven.  Here they were decorating a cupcake with fondant.

                                              This table you could make a stuffed bear.

                                        I even found some chasu and maedeup.

 I love this lady and she knows me well.  She wanders about most of the time and stops by my hanji shop and chilbo shop regularly.

                                                 There were a lot of people.

 Right next to Nan, a potter had set up making pottery and letting kids make something.  She worked soooo hard that day.

 I helped Nan with many foreigners from all over the world and many had come down from Seoul.  But I was shocked when this lady knew my name and of course I knew her.  It's Mommy Cha and one of her two Kimchi Kids!  Her blog is one I regularly read and I found her through Sarah's Quest for Cuteness blog.  She came down from Seoul with friends and it was really nice to meet her in person.

Nan was also very busy and she appreciated my help.  I do tend to draw attention and it make a lot of people come to her table that may not have otherwise.

My bodyguard was there too selling his incredible wood sculptures.

This tray was probably the most popular of the day.  I lost count on how many Nan sold.

            Of course, I did some shopping too.  I bought this for Rocketman from my Bodyguard.

                         I also bought these that I'm going to make into maedeup necklaces.

                                                      More things I bought.

                               The potter hardly charged me anything for these cups.

And these tiny plant holders.  I ended up getting a free dinner at Young Soo's restaurant.  She made mandu guk for all the workers.  And she has the most delicious homemade kimchi.  She always knows to give me extra.  I came home happy and tired.  It's so wonderful to spend the entire day surrounded by crafting and good friends.  It doesn't get any better than that.

I also took a video of one of the many kids making pottery: