Fieldtrip!

by Amily Soh.

K-Gen embarked on their 1st project with members last Saturday (9th April 2011, Saturday), with a short trip to Korea Plaza, located at Menara Hap Seng, Kuala Lumpur.
This trip was organized to expose members to Korea Plaza, a one-stop centre for those interested in everything Korean related to gather and to experience some information about korea tourism as well as their activities. Besides that, this trip also helps to enlighten K-Gen members to the cultural side of Korea, with a hands-on Korean cooking experience.

Thus, began the journey of discovery for 34 members and 2 non-members. The trip took approximately 30 minutes.

As soon as the members arrived, they were ushered to a small waiting room. While waiting for a few members to arrive, some took the opportunity to wander around Korea Plaza and took pictures. Most of the members have never been to Korea Plaza before, and were excited to view everything Korean related here from the vast collection of Korean drama series, to figurines of dolls wearing the Korean traditional costumes.

Many were seen taking pictures with a life size cut out of the popular drama series "Boys Over Flowers", which was one of Kora Plaza's main attraction. There were also signed posters by Wonder Girls and Beast that attracted the attention of the members.

The session started promptly at 11.20am with a short introduction by the person in charge, Yee Pei. She started to introduce the activities that Korea Plaza hosts, which ranges from Korean Language classes, dancing classes and also cooking classes, which were all free of charge offered to the public.

After the short intro, she played a 30 minute clip aptly named "Haru- An Unforgettable Day In Korea" much to the amusement of the members. This is because famous Korean celebrities like Yunho from popular boyband TVXQ was featured, and so was Big Bang.

To further introduce Korea tourism to the members, a short Q&A session took place. KTO was gracious to sponsor some prizes for those members who answered correctly.

After the short introduction, the members were given a 10 minute break to wander around the premises. Many were already eager for the cooking demonstration as they were able to smell the aroma of the chicken curry that was cooking near the premises which would be used during the cooking demonstration scheduled later.

But before that, a short game of Tuho commenced. This game consisted of some arrows and a container with a standard of 3 holes. The person would then have to stand a distance of 1.5 metres and try to land the arrows into the middle hole.

The members were all given the opportunity to try their hand in this game. They soon find out that this game is harder than it seems.

After a few rounds of training, a short competition was held. The first 10 members who managed to get the arrows in the middle hole would be given a prize, courtesy of Korea Plaza. This time, members were given 3 chances.

After that, the members were given a short introduction on Hanbok, a traditional attire for Koreans. It was said that the quality of the cloth reflects the status of the wearer, with silk for the "upper class" citizens, and normal cotton for the farmers. Also, the different colours of the Hanbok also shows whether the girl is married or not. Bright colours are often worn by young single girls, while those married women would opt for toned down colours.

A few members even got to try out the Hanboks, provided by Korea Plaza. A short photo session took place in front of Korea Plaza.

As lunch was drawing nearer, the trip continued with a short cooking demonstration of curry chicken and Korean dumpling-Mandu by Shin ssong sang nim (teacher). All the members were listening attentively to her, with some members recording the whole process and also jotting down the recipe.

Later on, we were also introduced to making our lunch, which is the Korean dumpling-Mandu. Korean dumplings were much cuter in appearance, with its rounded shaped form. Everyone was required to make 3 dumplings. It proved to be quite tricky getting that perfect rounded shape. Some "creations" were quite unique as they were either too big or even rsembles that of a popiah. Nevertheless, all members were thrilled to be given a chance to make this Korean delicacy.

The dumplings were then boiled and was later served with kimchi and curry chicken. All members were seen hungrily wolfing down the delicious authentic Korean meal that they made themselves. Some were even said to taste kimchi for the first time and loved it!

The trip then draws to a close by 3pm. A short feedback session in the bus gathered that many had enjoyed this eye opening experience to Korea Plaza and hope to visit the place again in the future.

This trip was solely organized by K-Gen as part of its projects to gather all members to expose them to Korean culture and also to Korea Plaza. A huge thank you to Korea Plaza and Student Development Hub, Taylor's University for making this trip enjoyable and memorable for all of us!

(L-R : Linda, Callie, Lyn, Amily, Migo, Sue Ann & Yean Wearn)
Part of the K-Gen BOD.