Dallae's Story

Doll Performance

I got the free tickets from Korea4expats.com to have a chance to watch the doll performance - Dallae's Story. My friend and I watched it on 19th May, Wednesday.
Because of the remembrance of war, for the education purpose, this performace was held in the National Theatre of Korea from 14th May to 22th May 2010.

I like it very much because the dolls are really well made, it is sweet though the storyline is quite sad. The story was started with a happy family, performing in 4 seasons, but later on war came and everything changed. The dad died and left the mum and the child toy.

It is a non-verbal performance, and thus with the music background and puppets, toys, and the light effect, it became an amazing show. It can even help the children to know the actions  of  dolls - just like the animation on TV, it was originally moved by human action by action. It's not easy to move the doll by hand.

I think my baby inside of me enjoyed the show too. :)

I found a website which have the short movie of the performance. Click here.

After we watched the show, we found this mini house was shown outside the hall.

Pram / carriage for the eldest

I saw this at one of the branch of Emart, a big and convenience mart of Korea. I was so curious and took the photos using my cell phone.

If you live in  Korea and you walk more often than you sit in the car, I'm sure you have seen this before.

The answer is in this photo (source):

Yes,  the eldest - grandma mostly use the carriage or pram 노인유모차 to help  them to walk. It is not only support them, but also help them to put their stuff in the carriage. Most of the time, they reuse their grandchild's pram - it is the most recycle way! (*_*) smart hal-mo-ni!

Instead of using a stick, the pram is very useful to help them to move around. I like their idea!
(The new pram is not cheap instead, about 100,000 won!)

Chocolate!

Ok... this chocolate is not from Korea, for sure.
My Korean friend gave me this Toblerone Chocolate, made in Switzerland, last week - which I miss it so much! Erm... I can get it easily in Malaysia, but not here. Erm... I know, the Koreans will say to me, Chocolate is too sweet, don't eat too much, and it will only cause your teeth worse. Erm... I know that.

I think I will write about the chocolate in Korea in my blog later. There are quite a lot of choices!
Anyway, today is 11.11 - pepero day - a day of a chocolate stick. Koreans buy the chocolate or chocolate stick to give to one another. I got to eat it today as one of our classmates bought for the whole class.

from pepero website

This chocolate stick was started in 1983 - Lotte brand.
Almond flavor 1984, Strawberry and Fried - 1994, Cheese and Coffee - 1995, Peanut, Hazelnut, Bulgogi - 1996, Peanut cream - 1997,  Nude - 2000, Black - 2005, Cacao - 2006, Nut Lemon Cheese - 2007.

However, now available in the market now:
Choco Pepero - 700 won.
Almond Pepero - 1000 won.
Nude Pepero - 1000 won. 

Starting from 1994, from Busan, Middle and High School girls gave 1111 to one another as gift. The meaning is - to be tall, slim, and pretty 키 크고 날씨하게 예뻐지자'.
Anyway, this is a  special culture for the students - hope this will not be a must but just as a fun - because it will encourage them to buy chocolates more!

Anyway, happy pepero day!
Happy 5th anniversary  to our marriage too!

30th Seoul Dance Festival 2009

Thank you for my friend's treat to the 30th Seoul Dance Festival. We went to the concerts before so she treat me this time when she got the free tickets too.

We went yesterday, 24th Sep 2009 for the performance by:

그늘꽃

운명의끈, 그씨줄과 날줄

Venue: Arko Arts Theater  아르코예술극장 (Subway line 4 HyeHwa station exit 2, the building behind HanKook YeChong)

30th Seoul Dance Festival actually starts  from 10th Sep until 30th Sep.

More information you can click at the link above.

Followed by the 12th Seoul International Dance Festival with KT&G - SIDance 2009

2009.10.5 - 10.24

Dancers from Korea, Slovenia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, Singapore, Japan, Asia-Africa Dance Exchange, Israel, India and Switzerland.

This was my first time to see a formal dance performance. We watched two totally different dance.

First was a modern dance by On & Off Dance Group.

Five main dancers with strong body actions. Actually both my friends and I did not understand about this performance much. As I saw one like this before at my friend's (a dancer) graduation performance, I am keen to watch it until the end to guess what message they want to bring out.

Second one is a strong Korean culture dance, with bright colors and traditional weapons. It made me think of Chinese dance anyway.

5 men dancers and 6 female dancers.

After I watched this performance, I only know that the handsome and tall dancers really exist in  this world. :P Anyway, the Korean dancers really perform very well. I hope to see ballet show next time.

I saw this poster outside the hall, really curious it.

I also saw this outside the hall - the dancers for different years. They look like Chinese lol.

If anyone did attend this show too, and you know what the dance is about, please leave me a message and tell me about it. Thank you!

Friendly Koreans

I love how they treat the needy persons:

- Elevators for handicapped person on subway - either at staircases (moving plate) or lifts (though sometimes it is far away).

- sound system for the blind at predestrian crossing.

- public toilet has a room especially for old and handicapped people, and a room for mum and sometimes room only for kids.

- Both subway and buses provide seats for old and handicapped people too, also applicable to pregnant women. (Yellow seats in bus)

- holders with code for the blind

Map also designed for the blind. (Normally in lifts only)

Books for the blind too.

- Road especially design for wheelchair movement, for needy persons like baby carriage/buggy, old people and handicapped people too.

It is hard to find in two-third world countries. I think it is a good practise we should follow.

Way to congratulate 축결혼

Do you see this before in the weddings of Korea?
축하드립니다
This is one way of Koreans to congratulate the newly wed couple - by sending the flowers.
Flowers are colorful, display is high in setting, and it really gives the impression of "big" gift to the couple and family.

It is a surprise for me because it appears only with chrysamthemum flowers (the same seting) in funeral, Koreans too.

Anyway, it is not a cheap gift. From what I searched online, it costs more than 100,000won. Thus, they are mostly are from company or family.