Seminar on Korean Celebrities + My first ski experience !!!

Now back to my adventure in Korea. 

15th of Feb

Today, we had another seminar about Korean wave, not in Korea University, but in Seoul National University. Unlike the topic previously, which was too much to comprehend for me, this topic Korean-wave Celebrities between Nationalism and Commercialism was much lighter. It was about the definition of Korean celebrities in the perspective of Koreans and in the eyes of foreigners, what the Koreans expect from their celebrities and what the celebrities should do to not be involve in any controversies, lectured by Dr Olga Fedorenko.

As we all know, Koreans have high expectations of their celebrities. They defined the Korean celebrities as someone who is patriotic, abide the laws, a good citizen and a role model to the citizens. This is also why the Koreans think highly of the celebrities who joined the compulsory military service (for guys) in Korea and criticise those that did not. Besides being patriotic, they are expect to not involve in any crimes and to not behave in a bad manner. For example, they are not supposed to smoke or behave rudely. If you do follow the K-wave news (which I do), some of the Koreans do criticise and mock them for their bad behaviour, which sometimes are quite harsh and unfair to the celebrities themselves. I mean, I know it is not right to behave that way especially when one is a public figure and that others tend to imitate what he/she does, but we are all humans, we do make mistake. As long as they apologise, it is enough, forget it and move on. Why keep such a close eye on them? You can't expect them to wear a mask all the time, right? It is tiring and suffocating. Unlike the Koreans, Dr. Olga said that foreigners defined Korean celebrities just like any other celebrities - they are all entertainers. It is that simple.

About bringing the career of Korean celebrities further, the celebrities have to get out of their country and work in other countries and get support from the non-Korean fans. This itself leads to many controversies. One simple example that the professor gave was the Dokdo dispute. The Korean celebrities were asked about their opinion on this matter. While the Koreans expect the celebrities to stand up for their country to show their patriotism, which some of them did, some did not take a stand. As a result, those that support Korea lose fans in Japan and even banned from entering Japan; those that did not speak up (or give no opinion) were criticised by the Koreans. Why must they be involved in all this political issue? Even if they do somehow involve in it, it is not wrong to use their rights to voice their opinion. Why drive them to the corner?? Give them a break please!

Basically, these were some of the main contents of the lecture, and we had some discussions with the lecturer after the lecture. It was interesting and it made me think. However, it is all too contradicting, as in there is no right or wrong and we all came to a conclusion that it is all depends on each individual. After the lecture, I didn't know how we ended up discussing about North Korea and South Korea and the relationship between China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. It lasted for a while. However, we decided to pull a stop on this topic as some of us wanted to go to the Express Bus Terminal to shop for clothes again. 

16th of Feb

Today, me and my another Malaysian friend joined a ski tour. YAYYY!! It is always one of the sports that I wanted to try and finally I can try it. You can't imagine how I bottled up all this excitement all this while.

So, we woke up early today to wait for the van to pick us up. The van arrived at 8.00 am sharp and drove us to another meeting point where those that join the DMZ tour and ski tour split. From there, we took a bus. In the bus, there was another family from Indonesia who join this tour. Together with us was a tour guide, who talked non-stop during the whole trip (and here me and my friend thought of taking a nap before the excitement start). We were given a brief talk about what we should do as we arrive the ski resort and pay for the package we chose (75000 won). On the way to the ski resort, we could see the snow started to build, which made me super excited (I have never seen this much snow). 

On the way to the ski resort

After an hour of bus trip, we finally arrived.

Our ski resort

We were told to get our equipment that we need (gloves, goggles, ski clothes, ski pants), which can be rent in a ski rental store. However, they all come with a rental fee. As our package only include gloves and ski equipment, we decided not to rent the others as they are not cheap to rent. We went with the down jacket and pants (wind and water proof), which I brought from Malaysia. While waiting for the others with their preparation, I went outside and it started to snow (such a lucky day for me!!!). I do not know if this is a good weather for professionals, but it is definitely a perfect weather for me. Skiing on a snowy day!!! Then, we proceeded to another location to collect our ski equipment. Before that, there were long procedures which I do not want to mention (it made me angry).

Different level of slopes (the pro ones)

Beginners to the left (look at crowd in the beginner slope)

At about 11.30 am, we finally started our lesson. The lesson for our package includes putting on and taking off the ski equipment, how to move forward, how to turn and how to stop. After a short practice, I decided to walk up the hill as below was too crowded to move and it is too flat to ski. Of course they have ski lift and ski "elevator", but it is too expensive to rent and we decided to climb up the hill. It was really tough at first but I somehow got use to the climbing. 

Middle of the hill

Top of the hill

A picture of me at the top

After I got to the top of the hill, I slid down from the top to the middle. It was my first time skiing and it surprised me that it slid down really fast that I almost had no control. The only skill that I could use on that time was "stop" but it didn't really help much for a beginner like me and it was a straight down. Within 15 seconds, I arrived at the middle of the hill. Guess what? I did not fall and it was so so fun!!! Because of the first try, I got a hang of it. Immediately, I climbed up to the top of the hill again and try it again. This time, my goal was to make it slower and to control my speed however I want, and I did it. My next goal was to change the direction I wanted to go, and again I did it. It was so fun and easy (probably because it is a beginner slop)!! It is even easier than ice skating. So, if you know how to ice skate, I'll recommend you to take the intermediate package.

My friend, on the other hand, had trouble with it. However, it is definitely not because she has no skill, she has it but the fear took over her. So, she decided to play in her own way. Of course, we took this chance to take lots of picture. A place with lots of snow, snowing and the ski equipment. What's more you can ask? Everything is there to take the perfect picture!

My "perfect" picture

It was snowing on and off, with a sudden snow storm and I decided that was my "last" skiing down as it was almost the supposed time to gather (3pm). As we went down, we waited for them in the equipment return area but we did not return the ski equipment as I thought we need to have the ski rental ticket to return them. So, we waited for about 20 minutes and there were no sign of them. As the snow went down, I decided to ski one last time. However, I did not climb all the way up but to the middle and slid down. Then, I heard my friend calling me desperately. She told me, "if we don't hurry, they are leaving without us". I panicked. Thankfully, the skis are easy to remove and within minutes, I returned the equipment and ran to the ski clothes rental shop. On the way, I asked what happened, and the tour guide told us that the meeting area was in the clothes rental shop and not in the ski rental area. I apologised to them (the tour guide, the bus driver and the other family) many many times as the delay was all my fault.

As a part of the package, we were brought to a duty free shop in myeongdong. Though he said it was part of the tour, it was written as "ginseng/amethyst center" and here I was actually looking forward to visit it. Another downside of joining this tour is that the time for skiing was too short although it was clearly stated in the brochure that the whole tour is from 8.00am - 6.00pm. I was actually really disappointed with it as the real skiing only took about 3 hours. With the delay and the duty free shop counted, the tour ended at about 5pm.

After the tiring tour, we decided to walk around myeongdong (since we were already there) and decided to have the rose ice cream we wanted to try so much as it was having a discount. It is a store called Milky Bee. Besides selling rose ice cream, which I supposed is the hit product (despite the winter, there is a long queue), they also sell ice cream similar to that of MilkCow that we have in Malaysia.

Strawberry + yoghurt

The rose ice cream comes with different flavour. Originally, I wanted the 3 flavours (strawberry + chocolate + green tea) so much, but it costs 6000 won and I don't think a cone ice cream is worth that price. So, I went with the one with promotion (3800 won). Though I did tell my friend that I want to splurge my money on the food that I want to eat, I still couldn't dare to do it. Nevertheless, the ice cream is good. The flavours are quite strong and I especially like the strawberry. The texture, sweetness and sourness is just perfect. Also, eating ice cream during winter is definitely a good idea as I can take my sweet time savouring the ice cream.

Later, I went to ISAAC for their toast again. Their toast are so good that I could never get bored eating the same thing again and again. We also met up with another friend and we went to Lotte Mart for grocery shopping and that's how my day ended.