Korean Culture Activity 1: Korean Tea Ceremony

So the "tea ceremony" was less of a tea ceremony and more of a cultural presentation. there were some documentaries on Korean history as well as modern Korea-- all boasting, but it was fun. It seems Koreans feel they have to talk their country up. they kind of do, or they might get missed or underestimated.

we saw documentaries on the craftsmanship of an ancient buddhist reliquary and a set of wood printing blocks of an ancient sutra. the first is smaller than a human hand, the latter is so massive it requires an entire library to hold it. then we saw the development of Hangul, the written Korean language. very linguistic. then they talked about korean technology being "sci-fi brought to life," and how korean companies build some of the tallest or most complicated buldings in the world, including the tallest, located in Dubai.

we also got a presentation of a new year's tradition of greeting one's elder family members. we got some chances to participate. i was in one of the groups:

the children bow to their elders like grandparents, all dressed in hanbok, traditional korean dress.

then the elders give good wishes, encouragement, and advice to the children... then money.

then we were shown how bow.




Here's some pictures of us in Hanbok, Korean traditional dress:

we also got to try some homemade tea sweets. my favorite a walnut and persimmon sweet. i also learned that most koreans foods are naturally fermented for some period of time.


when all was said and done i went home and got to enjoy my champaghetti (i found instant champaghetti!) and korean nori.