Jeonju

Hi, everyone. Katy again! About one year ago we had our wedding, and, about one year ago we moved to Korea. So, to celebrate those things, and the pay raise that comes with a renewed contract, we took a little trip to Jeonju. Jeonju is famous for preserving the traditional culture of Korea, for the popular rice dish bibimbap, and for the drink moju (strangely like a Korean, alcoholic horchata).

As a side note, some of these pictures were taken with a camera while others were taken on a cell phone. I hope this doesn't offend and photo wiz kids out there...

We stayed in a traditional Korean style guesthouse which meant that the rooms were small, equipped with blankets for the floor to sleep on, and the doors were paper and wood. Two flat pillows and a low table were provided for sitting on the floor for breakfast in your room, and two thick but narrow pillows filled with what felt like rice for sleeping on. Needless to say, neither was very soft. I actually loved the pillows, but the blankets they gave us for sleeping didn't quite protect my hip bones from digging into the floor at night. Actually, it reminded us of our first week in Korea, before we had a bed and were using our winter clothes as a cushion to sleep on.

Those stacks in the corner there are the blankets for sleeping on all folded up together

The blankets again, this time all laid out for bed

 

During the day we explored the neighborhood we were staying in which was what is called a Hanok Village, an area of town preserved to look like old Korea, with zoning laws that mean even the recent buildings are built in the old style, just with modern amenities and materials. This part of town was also home to many museums, a culture experience center, and a lot of handmade craft vendors.

The stream there on the left is made for wading in during the hot summer days as you walk down the street

Because they are traditional style buildings, and actually rather old ones, I look pretty big in comparison. Older Koreans are smaller in stature and so the modernity of a building that is made to look like it is from the old days can be judged by how tall the roof and doors are.

 

Probably our favorite stop was the Hanji (traditional Korean paper) factory. Paper made in this way smells like fresh bread while it is being pressed, and is textured more heavily than paper we use in the printer. We bought a number of different widths for stationary, drawing, and painting on. Because of their texture and width, they are often pressed with leaves or flowers in them for decoration.

This man is soaking the pulp that will be pressed into paper in the next room

We also briefly walked through a traditional wine museum where we learned how various grains are distilled for Korean alcohol. Most were variations on Makoli, or byproducts of the process of making Makoli (a traditional Korean rice wine).

The pots for distilling Makoli

You can't read the captions below each figuring, but the best one in this picture instructs the maker to "put the mixture in a liquor jar and forbid other people to enter there, and ferment wine with devotion"

Again, the caption tickles me on the far let figurine. It says that step one is to "calm down feelings"

A few other random stops were at a temple, and a paper fan museum..

I don't know if you can read that caution sign, but it says "mind your head..." and yes, that's J

The temple boasted some of the oldest Gingko trees (in Korean? in the world?)

Finally, at night we hiked up the hill to overlook the Hanok village, work off dinner, and sit at a beautifully lit pagoda to reminisce about the last year.

It was a fantastic trip all in all, and a long overdue exploration of the traditional Koran culture that isn't simply woven into our day to day lives. As you might expect, the place was crawling with tourists, cheap souvenirs, and backpackers, but it didn't ruin the experience. It was actually kind of fun to pass shop after shop of Hanbok (traditional Korean robes) rentals and see young Koreans in sketchers or stilettos and these traditional clothes with their selfie sticks to capture a classic looking picture. We even indulged and got a wedding photo printed on traditional paper and framed as an anniversary gift to ourselves. Don't ask us how we intend to get that home... we aren't thinking that far ahead yet.

 

I hope everyone else had as fantastic of a week as we did.

Cheers!

-K



Jamie Post- Summer Camp!

Hey everybody, it's Jamie!

This week I wanted to tell you about the summer English camp that I recently worked at. For those who don't know, "summer camp" in Korea is code for summer school. The camp is a six day program hosted at a university. The kids show up, are given atrocious orange polos, have their cell phones confiscated, and are assigned a dorm and roommates. Every day they attend six different "booths" (themed classes), participate in team-building activities, and participate in an evening program like a talent show or mini-olympic competition.

In addition to running one of the booths, each foreign and Korean teacher pair was responsible for one class of fourteen students as their homeroom. Here's me and my homeroom on the first night with our beautiful new polos. The students are presenting their class poster and cheer to the rest of camp. See if you can figure out who's shy!

My booth was science, and our three classes were about the phases of the moon, writing in code, and shock absorption. That last one was an actual vocabulary item. I have no idea who comes up with this stuff. Bizarre as the target language was, the classes had a lot of fun activities in them, like licking oreos until they resembled the phases of the moon, and building a "lunar lander" out of scrap materials in a sort of egg drop competition. It seems like the kids had fun, at least I hope they did, but I don't want to focus on the booths today.

I wanted to focus on a few of the funnier anecdotes from camp, like when I met a student for the first time and he told me I looked like spider man. I misheard him and thought he said I looked like a spider, so I thought we were ripping on each other and told him if I looked like a spider he looked like a squid. Squid is a pretty common insult here, and it means that someone is super ugly. I assumed it was based on live squid, but I have since been informed that it's actually based on this kind of widely available dried squid snack:

It smells about as good as it looks, but it's actually pretty tasty. Either way, I told this kid he looked like that monstrosity, and it took an awkward conversation with my co-teacher to figure out that he was trying to give me a compliment. I just hope I didn't legitimately hurt his feelings, but I think he was okay since he was joking about it by the end of camp.

Katy's favorite story from camp is from the evening program on the third or fourth night. I was sitting with the students, waiting for the program to start, when one turned to me, pointed to my wedding ring, and said, "I think you have a girlfriend."

"Actually, I have a wife."

"WHAT. No! You're too young!"

Her friend heard her yelling and asked what was going on in Korean. When she explained, the friend yelled, "WIFE!?!?!" in Korean, which got the attention of my whole homeroom. They asked what was going on, it was explained, and the girls yelled in chorus, "NOOOOOOO, JAMIE, NOOOOOO!!!!" My coteacher told me, "You probably shouldn't have said that" and I'm still not quite sure how serious she was being.

Towards the end of camp my homeroom caught wind that one of the other foreign teachers was going to participate in his class's talent show. Despite their chances with me being permanently dashed a few nights earlier, they really wanted me to participate too, so the girls taught me this dance:

"Cheer Up" by Twice

As you might expect I performed spectacularly, and one of the other foreign teachers gave me this sketch to commemorate the moment:

I will treasure it forever.