Suwon {korean folk village, fortress, oido island}

Dec. 16th and 17th
A weekend of 'olden days', fortresses, chicken feet, pigeons, seafood, the ocean and of course good friends and much laughter.



{ a day without laughter is a day wasted. } - charlie chaplin 

tying a wish to a rope in the folk village.

We hitched a ride from one of Eugene's friend's who has a car! Man was it nice to be in a car again, not a taxi or a huge bus or a smaller bus or a train but a real car. We got to Suwon and went to the Korean Folk Village. This is basically a place where they have tried to preserve the 'olden days' of Korea. The dress, houses, toys, food, streets... everything is like it was back in the day - maybe like in the early 90's. (Since Korea was basically nothing after the Korean War, it was built from the ground up in about 50 years - quite impressive really!) So we wondered around on the muddy murky streets (the snow had melted and it was a mess!), went into buildings, took photos, looked at pottery, (bought some), and attempted to make some twisted grass used for making baskets and things - but failed. Guess I won't have a future as an Asian making grass baskets and shoes. Shoot! 

 {teaching us how to twist the grass}

We grabbed some lunch at a little restaurant inside the village and I got some sort of meat soup-y stuff with mushrooms. It was rather delicious and when I asked my friends what I should call it to order it again they said bo-go-gi, which means beef. I said yes, but if I just say 'beef' to the waitress is she really going to know that I mean the 'beef in the stew stuff with mushrooms'?? NOOOO... So, they gave me a better explanation of what to call it! Then we headed back out for some more adventures. We looked at more buildings, did the Gangnam Style dance in an old building thing, swung on swings where you stand up on them, and saw some horses and cows. 

We headed out (of the 'olden days') just before sunset to go to the fortress. The fortress was gorgeous! It's a huge strip of wall (sort of like the Great Wall of China I suppose) with bigger house like structures, called gates, at certain points, that goes all around the city of Suwon (well or a chunk of it). It was to protect the city from the Japanese invasion and was built during the late 17th century. You can read more about it here -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwaseong_Fortress - if you would like. We got there just after sunset, I would have maybe liked to get there just before sunset, but hey the lighting was just perfect (at least for a few minutes), so I was happy! We trudged around the wall for a bit, looked at the city and saw the moon and a couple of stars, took pictures and then headed for some food. We walked by the river, which flows through the fortress walls and headed to 'Chicken Street' or so it was called by my co-scholars. Why? Well maybe because EVERY restaurant was a fried chicken place. No seriously. ALL of them.  We flipped a coin to decide, and actually ended up going to the one that had a large foreign family walking into it! It made me happy, and I wanted to go talk to them but decided that might be weird. I do this thing where if I see a foreigner, I feel the need to talk to them and ask them where they are from and what they are doing in Korea. It's hard to explain, but that's what I feel I have to do. This time I kept to myself and instead just smiled at the little girls as they walked by to get some water! (probably would have been less creepy and weird just to talk to them!)

Left side: Eugene, Tina and right side: Eugene's friend, (PBS) and me.

left: gizzards, right: chicken feet.

There, at the chicken place, we feasted on fried chicken (both covered in sauce and not) and also feasted (or not so feasted in my case) on fried chicken feet and gizzards. My friends love the gizzards so much they taught me how to ask the waitress for more (they thought my blonde hair might charm her into it -- but nope - Guess my charm only works on soldiers at the DMZ!) I tried both gizzards and feet, but that was all... just a try and I gave up. The feet were hard and crunchy -- like toe nails. and the gizzards were tough and rubbery. I stuck with the white meat.. or attempted to - but I guess they also put necks and things on the 'chicken' plate so I had to be careful. I also learned how to say chopsticks (젓가락), chuk-ga-lak - which apparently sounds like other things (male parts) when I say it. So of course the rest of the time... Kristen Kristen say chopsticks... then hahahahabahhhahabahhhhahahahabbahhhhahahhahahahah --- they would all roll on the ground laughing. And for the longest time I didn't even know what I was saying or how I was saying it wrong! But I would keep trying to say it right and if we were inside or in a crowded place they would get embarrassed and say 'shhh, Kristen' while still laughing.

practicing her English, she was pretty good!!

We got BR ice cream next, of course the tub kind and then parted ways. I went back to Tina's place, met her grandma and little sister. Her little sister (grade 3) brought out her English work book and started practicing with me! too cute! 













The next day we hit up Oido Island (which I guess means Cucumber, I don't know!?). We started to walk along this pier, which was sitting on top of mud. Ok, so let me explain why this Island is special. So, here you can actually see the tide go out and come back in because the water is so shallow. When we arrived the tide was out so all we could see was mud, and crabs and other little creatures, and the water was almost not visible way out in the distance! So, I'm walking along, get my camera out and of course drop my lens cap. Yup right into the mud of the bottom of the 'ocean'. It's just laying there and I'm up top standing there looking at it thinking.. now what? I go down to try to fetch it (on another dock closer to where it was). But it was just out of my reach. I was smart and didn't dare step into the mud as I'm sure it would have been 'sinking mud.' Before you know it a small Korean man is climbing down, does some acrobatic moves and contortions and grabs the cap, washes it off in a little pool of water and hands it back to me. What just happened? A man, out of nowhere, saw what happened, swooped in and rescued my lens cap! -- Spiderman? Batman? probably. I said 'thank you' endlessly and we carried on our marry way. (keeping much better track of my things!) Thank goodness for the tide being out and for that flexible, and kind Korean man!

the dock... sitting on some mud.

the muddy bottom of the ocean - you can barely see the ocean out in the distance.

  { feeding the birds! }


Next we did something great, something that just impressed me. Tina went to the a little convenient store and got some chips (shaped like fries) - she opened the bag and held one out over the ledge. Sure enough a few seagulls started flying around out over the ledge, then more and more came. We started chucking the chips at them and they would dive, stop in mid air, or tackle other birds to get to these chips. They would make a large circle and fly right past us, waiting for us to chuck a chip into their mouths. These birds were really rather impressive on their catching skills! - I bet it was not their first time. It may or may not have been the highlight of my weekend! I couldn't stop laughing!

seagulls catching the chips... they were so impressive.

massive pot off soup and noodles with random seafood.

We also climbed a lighthouse and took a stroll down the market street to see all the dead/live/salted/cut open sea fish things they had for sale. It was a mix of all sorts of weird smells and sights. Of course my friends bought some snail things, which I tried. You take a tooth pick to dig it out and then eat it. Strange. But not too bad tasting I guess. We also went down by the ocean for a bit and looked for me hermit crabs. We went for lunch and got a massive and I mean massive pot of noodles and seafood (octopus, squid, clams (of all sizes) snails, shrimp and crab). It was pretty good - not my favorite, it didn't have much flavor. I guess I am becoming Korean and I sort of like the spice!

so much seafood. 

Oh our way back to the car is when we met the little grandmother that Tina helped get home safely -- here is that story -- 

http://kristenkayphotoworldlens.blogspot.com/2012/12/helping-hands.html

It was a great trip and a great way to get to know my co-scholars even better. I learned it is much easier to travel around with people who speak the language and know things about the area you are in. (instead of how I do it.. just wondering aimlessly - with no clue about anything!) but I think each can be fun in different ways! I am glad I got to see so much and experience Korean culture in many different ways in just 2 short days!