Ballet: Giselle

Giselle, a French-style ballet, was put on by the Korea National Ballet (KNB) to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The story begins in a village where Giselle unwittingly falls in love with Albrecht, the prince of Silesia, who has disguised himself to be near this enchanting maiden of the forest. The beautiful dancing Giselle, however, realizes over time that she is in love with the prince who is unattainable, and like Juliet in Romeo & Juliet, she surrenders herself to death, where she becomes one of the Wilis (the enchanted sylphs of the Rhineland forests who dance and entice men with their ethereal charms and frenzied dancing until the men drop and die of exhaustion). And so Giselle becomes a sylph, and when in remorse Albrecht goes to lay lilies on her grave, he stays too late and the dancing sylphs spring from their grave, surround him and compel him to dance. Only the fingers of the light of dawn save him as his beautiful Giselle, though wanting to save him, is powerless against the order of the queen of the sylphs who orders her to entice Albrecht and dance him to his death. For a more complete story, read here.

The graceful dancing of Giselle and her villagers, Giselle and the sylphs and Giselle and her Albrecht were deligthful to watch. While I loved the mincing fairy steps and light grace of Giselle, I was awed by the powerful vigorous leaps of the male dancer playing Albrecht. He seemed to bound through the air, touching the ground and bounding upwards again! I was amazed! I've seen ballets before, but never have I seen such a powerful male dancer! And though my friends and I watched from the highest tier and the furthest seat back, we could enjoy every mincing step of Giselle's and every might leap and empassioned bound of Albrecht's. A wonderful performance!

Reaction to SamDaSoo Bottled Water (Seoul)

Almost 3 years ago I had problems with drinking tap water (Korean President Lee Myung-bak has been trying to get more people to drink tap water because Korean tap water is now "safe", I guess unlike in former times when Korea was a third world country with parasites and serious water-borne disease outbreaks. There is huge governmental marketing for Arisu, the tap water that has been bottled for people's convenience). Anyway, I was stupidly drinking the water in my house and was feeling awful, not realizing the problem was coming from the tap water until one day the insides of my cheeks, every time I even sipped the water, would pinch and give me weird facial feelings. Needless to say, I quit drinking tap water!

So then I started ordering bottled water, or carrying one or two 1.5 liter bottles of filtered water from my office on weekdays. However, this January I wasn't working any university programs so what was the point of going to the university, which means, no more filtered water. Because my immune system was still shot from the tap water (and too much coffee with tap water - a double stupid!), I only drink water - no juice, no milk or soymilk, only water. I was drinking about 1 1/2 of the 1.5 liter bottles of water a day ... and then I started reacting to that too! Since January I've been having awful headaches, something I just don't have. Weird. They've steadily been getting worse, except for the two weeks when I went to the states for a brief vacation. No headaches whatsoever, but they returned shortly after returning to Korea.

Then my hands and arms started going numb. I couldn't figure it out ... until I didn't drink water for a few hours (got busy) and when I picked up the bottle to drink, suddenly numbness descended on my hands and arms. It was the water! SamDaSoo to be exact! I had just bought a case of Seoksu 1.5 liter bottles so two hours later, I drank some Seoksu ... and the same thing happened! Well, no more bottled water!!! I bought a Brita filter from Costco, but that filter takes tap water and I've already had way too many problems with that, so I stopped using it. It didn't seem to help that much anyway, even though I was filtering my tap water through it  twice. Used that thing only a few days, but my conclusion is ... useless. Since, I've been back to carrying filtered water every day from my office while looking for a reverse osmosis water filtering system that I feel is reliable.

Anyway, I posted on Facebook my reaction to the bottled water and a friend responded that her husband had a precipitator, a machine for testing water purity. She invited me over to see how it's used, so on our way to her house, we picked up a new bottle of SamDaSoo at a local store and then went to her house to test it against her water from her reverse-osmosis Chungho water purifier. (I specifically wanted to test the SamDaSoo because for the past several weeks, that is the water I've been pouring into my body.)

SamDaSoo bottled water vs. Chungho reverse osmosis water

To use the precipitator for best results, the water needs to be at room temperature. If it's cold, the results won't be accurate as the activating prongs need to heat up the water to room temp before the actual testing may begin. If water is contaminated, the water continues to heat up based on the number of minutes the precipitator is set at. We set the precipitator timer for 5 minutes but in less than 45 seconds a clear difference in the quality of water between the bottled SamDaSoo (left) and the reverse osmosis Chungho water (right) was obvious! If the water is relatively uncontaminated as the Chungho water appears, then the water does not heat up much beyond room temperature ... and the Chungho water didn't, whereas the SamDaSoo was getting steadily warmer, and very steadily grosser, Grosser, GROSSER!






The printout for diagnosis of the quality of water based on its color after using the electrolosis devise was in Korean so I had to bring it home to translate.

YELLOW - nutrition (amino acids, organic minerals, 용존oxygen, pure water molecules), nature-born organic matter

WHITE - lead, zinc, mercury/quicksilver

BLUE - copper pipe rust, arsenic, mercury/quicksilver, lead, copper, sodium/natrium

BLUE - germs/bacterium, carcinogenic natural matter, gas

RED - iron/steel bacterium, rust water, iron water

BLACK - heavy metals (zinc, lead, copper, chromium, phenol/carbolic acid, manganese, etc)

YELLOW is the indicator for water registering contaminants under 10ppm and therefore is safe to drink.


Analysis of SamDaSoo Water

Now based on the 5-min electrical activation of the SamDaSoo water as shown here, the colors of the water do not appear to fall anywhere near the safe zone. In fact, very far from it! The water had a scum on top of it that seems to fall under "BLACK" which signifies heavy metals. The water itself is white and colorless. That seems good from a lay-person perspective, and it better! since the bottle has a 2-year stamp for company-considered safe shelf life. But yikes when you consider it! Is the company so confident that no bacterium is in the water and will grow in those 2 years?!?! And just WHAT did they do to the water that would give them such company-product confidence? But now to analyze the "WHITE" - lead, zinc, mercury. OK, we're talking heavy metals a-g-a-i-n!!!!! Or maybe we could call the water under the black scum as "CLEAR" which would mean that it is clear of all nutritional elements like amino acids, oxygen and natural organic molecules. Either way,  not a good analysis.

Now if we were to analyze this a bit closer, we could cross-compare the disgusting water results with that from a Ionic Detox Foot Bath, which also uses some kind of electrolysis. Foam is not mentioned at all on the chart above but white foam did appear on the SamDaSoo water. What does this signify? And do the two electrolysis tools have overlap in what the gross water appearance tells of the chemical make-up of what is in the water? Hmmm ...

Buddhism - Acceptance and Denial in Korea

Fulbright Junior Researcher Inga Diederich gave a presentation on Buddhism in her lecture "Moving towards Stillness: Modern Buddhism through the eyes of a twentieth-century monk". With so much information presented, I only offer the bare bone outline of Inga's lecture on Buddhism's eclectic acceptance and denial into Korean culture over the past several centuries. {The lecture was given November 15, 2010.}

Buddhism was initially introduced to Korea in 372 AD from the Qin dynasty (pronounced 'Chin'; Marco Polo introduced Qin to the world ... as "Chin-a"). Shamanism was the religion of Korea and over time the two religious beliefs took on aspects of each other, although they appeared to be functionally different through where and how followers worshipped with Confucism defining more how to conduct one's self socially and Buddhism offering spirtual practices. Underlying the Korean religious culture also was Taoism, which had been so embedded within the Korean culture and for so long that it is difficult to say when Taoist beliefs were brought into Korea and subsumed into the culture. Needless to say, the religous layers before much written documentation leaves an unclear picture of the early religous melding of the three religions.

Many schools or orders of Buddhism were introduced to Korea - some existed for a marginal period of time, some lingered and were slowly snuffed out, but all were changed based on cultural acceptance and cultural adaptation. Some of the styles of Buddhism introduced were:

Hwaom - the Hwarang (the "flower boys") or an elite group of male youths in the early Shilla Dynasty (57 BC ~ 935 AD) were significant and prestigious followers
Yogacara - yoga and awareness of conscientiousness were principle belief-practices
Sutra Buddhism - read and read and read sutras ... and get enlightenment
Seon Buddhism - "seon" translates as "meditation" and justly so for this type of Buddhism, unlike Sutra Buddhism, focuses on think and think and think ... and get enlightenment
(plus other styles of Buddhism)

Interestingly, Seon (Buddhism), called Chán (禪) in the Qin from where it was brought, became culturally altered in Korea to better facilitate religious acceptance. It is believed that Seon Buddhism was then introduced to Japan, through Korea and not directly from Qin, and the Japanese also took the religious belief and altered it to better suit their own cultural beliefs and acceptance. Thus was born Zen Buddhism in Japan with Zen being derived also from Chán (禪) or Seon meaning "meditation". And because the West knows much more about Japan, the West knows only about Zen Buddhism while in actuality, Seon and Chán existed before.

Initially Confucism (not neo-Confucism which exists in Korea today) and Buddhism co-existed. Some reasons that Buddhism wasn't eagerly accepted was due to the Confucist beliefs defining social practices. A few were:

- the Buddhist practice of shaving heads was an affront to Confucism in which the hair was not cut as it represented a metaphysical link to one's ancestors to whom all respect and obedience must be given
- translation of qi concepts were in opposition, especially as in Confucism the qi concepts had taken centuries to "perfect"
- universality of enlightenment didn't make sense at all in the strict heirarchical structure of Confucism that gave preference and privilege to only a small elite

Yet, Buddhism did take hold and became the religion of the Korean peninsula during the Goryeo Dynasty (918~1392). By the time of the Chosun Dynasty (1392~1897?), the fourth king, Sejong the Great (1418~1450), reduced the number of Buddhist monasteries, all part of the state control over Buddhism and the growth and development of the new state religion, Confucism. Though public practice of Buddhism was declining because of politics and the removal of Buddhist temples from walled towns, private devotions didn't seem to decline so much and even kings sometimes turned to Buddhism in their old age.

In 1876 when the Japanese forced open the doors of Korea (the Hermit Kingdom) for trade, the coerced Kangwha Treaty between the countries was advantageous for the growth once again of Buddhism. The treaty was for the establishment of missionary schools, which included Buddhism; the treaty was also an attempt to create a unified Buddhist order (but this wasn't successful); and the treaty revoked the law preventing Buddhists from entering and practicing Buddhism within cities. However, some negative aspects also resulted from the forced culture change: a temple law was imposed and according to the law, all temple grounds would revert to the Japanese which resulted in establishing a strangle-hold on Buddhism; and the point that made bile rise in Koreans throat was the dispensation for Buddhists to marry and beget children. Some earlier forms of Buddhisms had not involved celibacy but those orders of Buddhism had long since died out due to thoughts of cultural purity particularly influenced by the "righteous man" concept of Confucism, and so Korean monks had for the past several centuries been celibate.

Here I'll stop with the introduction and acceptance of Buddhism into Korea. However, it must be said that after the Japanese left and the two types of Buddhist monks remained (celibate and non-) the argument became vocalized again calling for only celibate monks within Korea, and that is now pretty much the case. There are still a remnant few monks who are married with children, but they keep a very low profile within the Korean society. Now the Jogye order is the strongest and comprises the majority of Buddhist monks, and in fact, they also have one of the most visited and active temples with press next door as well as neighboring senior care center ... all located in the heart of Seoul.

Chestnut Street Seller

Going through my collection of pictures, I found this priceless one. It's not very often that we see street sellers with barrel "ovens" anymore. The street stalls have become more modernized and the government has regulated the carts to be uniform in size and appearance. Somehow this old man has slipped through the works.

This picture was taken two years ago but this winter I passed him several times still selling roasted chestnuts, sweet potatoes and corn ears with his barrel "oven". He even still sells in the same place, and while he remains pretty much the same, the street environment he sells in has changed. For one, the phone booths have long since disappeared. What's their use if everyone (97% of Koreans) has a cell phone?

A comment about this man's language. He greets everyone, old and young, male and female, business-suited and otherwise alike. That is, everyone pretty much gets called out to in the very informal "반대말 (sp?)" verb. His greeting to the masses is, "안영", kind of like saying "hey" as a greeting. I asked some embarrassed students about this and they said that people of his age and from the working class never learned to use 'polite' language. I actually wonder if it's that simple, or if it's his way of not being looked down upon based on his uneducated perhaps farmer 'class. Some old people had a very tough life and now that they're old in this muted Confucian society, they don't want to be sneered at because of the old age that used to get unconditional respect but no longer does. I'm thinking there are many reasons why he doesn't use the polite verb forms, but even I, foreigner that I am, feel slightly offended by him when he uses 반대말 to me.