Reunited in Korea

I'm a little late with this post because I've been so busy with everything going on here, but one of the highlights of this past month was having two of my very favorite people from home visit me here in Korea.

I spent this 4th of July making my way to Incehon, where I met Nate and Jess and finally got to see them in person for the first time as an engaged couple.

We spent the weekend in Seoul, where they surprised me with their ability to immediately get started with sightseeing. We were lucky that the weather was beautiful--warm, but not the oppressive Korean humidity that I was afraid of. All in all, we had perfect weather for sightseeing around Seoul.

Gyeongbokgung Palace. 

I love Gyeongbokgung! It made me sad to know this would be my last visit!

Bukchon Village

Although the weather wasn't quite as nice for the rest of the week (lots and lots of rain!), we were fortunate that my middle school had exams the week they were visiting. My co-teacher at that school asked the principal if I could stay with my friends since I wouldn't be teaching that day anyway, and he thankfully said yes. So, instead of sending Nate and Jess off on their own, I got to go with them to Andong. Our first stop was at Hahoe Village, then we made our way downtown for jjimdalk for lunch.

Korea is so green in the summer! The rice is getting taller and taller!

I loved these flowers! They were all over the place for a solid month.

 After lunch we stopped at this famous wood bridge. The fog on the lake was beautiful--a nice perk to the rainy day.

Nate and Jess spent the rest of the week with me in Jeomchon, before going back to Seoul after school on Friday. It was much hotter this time around, but we were still busy exploring the city. We made a stop in Insadong to wear hanboks and do some shopping, then made our way to the other side of the city to check out the Kakao store (yes, this was actually requested...this time it wasn't my doing!)

We found the perfect bar in Hongdae!

On their last night in Korea, we ended our crazy busy day with a trip to Seoul tower. I've been to Seoul so many times that sometimes it's easy to forget just how huge the city is. By the end of the day, we were completely exhausted and even though we had done so much in a short amount of time, it was hard to believe their visit to Korea was already coming to an end!

I'm so thankful that last year I was able to have Megan and Nate experience Korea, and I feel like I hit the jackpot getting to have two more friends come this year. Sometimes I feel like my life at home and my life in Korea are two different worlds, so I love that even for a brief amount of time my worlds were able to collide. So close to the end of my time in Korea, it was nice to see this country through a fresh set of eyes. You truly don't realize how much you adapt to things until someone new points out everything that is different and you think "oh yeah, I remember the first time I saw that."  

It was sad to say goodbye to Nate and Jess at the airport, but at leas this time I could say "see you soon!" Knowing I have these great friends at home has been such a huge comfort in thinking about my post-Korea life, and I'm excited for all of the adventures I will have with them in the year ahead!

The Andong Mask Festival, Round 2

After attening the Andong Maskdance Festival last year, I knew that I wanted to go again this year.  Andong is only a little over an hour away from Jeomchon, but the buses stop pretty early in the evening.  Since we wanted to see a bit more of the festival this year, we decided to head to the festival Saturday morning and spend the night in Andong.

After arriving in Andong Saturday morning, we found a decently priced motel and then got some delicious jjimdalk for lunch. Jjimdalk is the famous food in Andong and a must-have when you're in town--it's one of my favorite dishes in Korea. Following lunch we were stuffed, energized and ready to explore the festival a bit. 

The Mask Festival is one the most famous festivals in Korea, and is therefore quite the HUGE event.  There's tons of food to eat and you can buy just about anything because there are never ending rows of vendors.  And of course, our favorite part of the festival is the arts and crafts! Since it is a mask festival it's completely necessary to not only watch the mask dances, but to also make your own mask.  To fulfill this duty we started with the masks that use the hanji (Korean paper).  I would say overall we did a pretty good job putting our skills to work.

After we finished our masks we caught the bus to Andong's Hahoe Folk Village. This folk village is a traditional village from the Joseon Dynasty and gives a glimpse of what is what like to live in Korea before the neon lights and plastic surgery took over.  I've actually been wanting to go to Hahoe, but since it's one of those things that is so close to Jeomchon, I just never took the time to go see it during my first year because I knew it wasn't really time sensitive and I could easily go at any time.  With that said, I'm very glad that I finally went because it was absolutely beautiful.  The rice fields surrounding the village are now turning bright yellow, which is quite the stunning sight (as an aside for those who aren't familiar, the rice is green during the spring and summer and turns yellow in the fall before the harvest).  The village as a whole was really peaceful and a cool place to walk around.  

As it became darker we made our way down the the river to get comfortable before Seonyujulbulnori, the fire show, which turned out to be my favorite part of the entire night.  There were long lines of pine needles hanging across the river and as they were lit on fire small little pieces slowly dropped, creating a twinkling effect that is difficult to describe, but almost looked like there were tons of fireflies falling to the ground.  I tried to video it since it's hard to describe how it works, but it didn't show on film. While this was going on there were also flying lanterns being released into the sky and some sort of poetry/play type thing being performed on a boat that was floating along the river. Then, one of the most interesting parts of the show was when burning logs were thrown off of the cliff that overlooks the river. The crowd would count down and huge logs were thrown off the edge of the cliff to tumble down to the ground. This actually looked really cool, but again is a bit hard to describe the effect.  Finally, the night ended with an awesome fireworks show.  All around, it was quite the combination of fire-related events and made for a beautiful and relaxing evening. 

After the night's festivities were over, we went back to the main site of the festival for some food then went back to our motel to get some rest after a long day.

Sunday morning we slept in a bit, grabbed some breakfast and headed back to the festival.  This time we wanted to make the other kind of masks (we are just all about the arts and crafts!)  The masks took a while to finish and afterwards we took a taxi to the bus station to get back to Jeomchon.

Being at the Mask festival really made me realize how different it is being in Korea for a second year.  Last year when I went to the Mask festival everything was new, exciting, and sometimes really perplexing and strange.  My first year in Korea was full of new sights, smells, tastes, and sounds. As I walked around the festival this year I realized how ordinary it all seems to me now.  I know what the food is and I know how the games are played.  When I ask how much something costs, I don't have to sit there and process the long list of numbers--I just know now (well, usually).

My first year in Korea was exciting and overloaded with amazingly fun memories.  So far this year has been much more calm, but I appreciate the way it's giving me a chance to look at Korea in a different way.  I find myself feeling much more desperate to communicate with others this time around, and this is fueling my motivation to study in a way I had a difficult way doing last year.  Now that the first year excitement has worn off, I find myself having an experience that is in many ways completely different, but teaching me new things nonetheless.

Andong Maskdance Festival

This weekend I went to one of the major festivals in Korea--the Andong Maskdance Festival.  Andong is about an hour away from Jeomchon, and a city that has many cultural sites.  The Maskdance Festivals is an international festival, and attracts people from all around the world. I remembered seeing things about the Maskdance Festival when I originally found out I was placed in Gyeongbuk and started researching the area, so I was excited to get to check it out this weekend.

I went to the festival with a few other people from Jeomchon.  Once we were there, we met up with some other people and started to make our own masks.  The mask-making was pretty entertaining, as it was essentially a tent full of children...and then the table of foreigners. As we were sitting there making our masks, one man came over with his daughter because he wanted to take a picture of her with us.  I thought he was just going to put her in front of us, but he ended up sitting her right on my lap.  No complaints here...she was completely adorable.  It was a pretty great start to the day.

It's no secret that I love children. I have been babysitting since middle school, and I kept many babysitting jobs throughout college.  I even kept a few babysitting jobs when I was teaching last year because as I tell people, I need to get my nuturing out of my system.  I have no desire to have children of my own for years, but I love going to festivals and other outings around Korea because there are adorable children EVERYWHERE.  And of course, I think they are adorable because I don't have to deal with their temper-tantrums, but still, these kids are pretty stinking adorable.

We spent a while making our first masks.  Mine did not come out as well as I would have liked, but now I know, and if I am in Korea again for the festival next year, I'll definitely have a better game plan.  Regardless, it was great to get a little crafty--there just aren't enough opportunities to be crafty when you teach high school!

After we made our masks, we got some lunch and spent some time walking around the tents that had food, souvenirs, and games. The merchants were selling just about EVERYTHING from socks and pantyhose to heating pads, to mops.  You name it, they were selling it.  We also enjoyed the games that they had available.  Many of the prizes for the games were not just over-sized stuffed animals, but alcohol.  Oh, Korea, you know how to get our money. I didn't play any of the games, but one of my friends wanted a bottle of wine and tried a few times.  Of course, he didn't end up with a bottle of wine, but a back scratcher and a yo-yo. Oh well. Overall, the Omija Festival we went to last week was minuscule in comparison to the amount of things that were at this festival--we spent a considerable amount of time just looking around at everything.

We eventually stopped by a maskdance performance.  They were short little stories that were performed wearing traditional masks and clothing alongside traditional Korean drumming.  Of course, I had no idea what they were saying, but we got the general gist of the performances.  It was definitely interesting to say the least, and I'm glad we stopped for at least a little bit to see some of the performance.

Korea has developed astonishingly quickly over the past 60 years.  At one point we were walking around the festival and saw a bunch of photographs from the Korean War displayed along a walkway.  The pictures were amazing and showed not only the suffering of people during the War, but also showed a country with dirt roads and very little development.  Today, Korea has some of the most modern cities in the world and it can be easy to forget that this is a country that in fact has a very old and unique culture.  It would be very easy to live in Korea and not learn about the history or traditional culture.  However, I hope that throughout my time here I can learn more about this traditional culture, because I feel that failure to do so would prevent me from experiencing an important part of the heart of this country.

We spent the rest of the day walking around a bit more, then we stopped to make our second masks--this time they were made out of Hanji--the traditional Korean paper.  I'm glad we stopped for our second masks, because I was much happier with how my second one turned out.

One of the more entertaining parts of the day was when we encountered these little carts pulled by little robots.  The robots pull the carts around and it is just the most hysterical thing to watch.  Oh Korea, always thinking of the most clever things.

After taking our turn with the carts, we met up with some other friends and went to a different part of Andong for dinner.  One of my friends used to live in Andong, so she led us to a little hole in the wall type of place.  We were in the main market, and we had to walk through some hallways into a back room to get to our dining place.  The room was actually really cool because there was writing all over the walls...it was definitely a different feel from the other Korean restaurants I've been to.

Dinner was absolutely delicious.  We had jjimdalk, which is Andong's specialty food.  It was chicken cooked with a bunch of different vegetables and noodles in a spicy sauce.  Definitely delicious, and when I'm in Andong again I will definitely have to go back! It also doesn't hurt that dinner only cost $8.  Eating at restaurants in Korea is definitely WAY more affordable than it is in the US.

After dinner we had some time before our bus, so we did some walking around in the different stores.  We ended the night by stopping in a bakery and getting some espresso and dessert.  Definitely a perfect ending to a great day.

I had a great time at the festival, and I'm really glad I got to go.  I spent more money than I had wanted to, but it was well worth it for a day of great good, fun, and culture.