Icheon - Pottery

Icheon (Gyeonggi Province), South Korea

Pottery town with a good ole Cheongju Clan (Alina, Kayc, Peter, Annette, Elliot) and a couple of Icheon-ers!

So each town in Korea is kind of 'known' for something. Like my city is known for the movable type, Boseong for green tea, Jeungpyeong for ginseng and Icheon is famous for pottery. They have museums and places to make pots. So, what do you think we did there, yeah, we made pots and saw some pottery.

Of course art major me was super excited for this town! I am in love with throwing (you know like a spinning wheel, which you put clay on and make bowls) but this time we did hand building, which is not my strong suit in the slightest. It still worked out and didn't turn out too bad especially for the 2 hour time frame they gave us. You can't rush art but I guess in Korea you totally can!

I decided to make a vase, which turns out I think it could maybe hold half a flower. But hey, whatever. Time limit remember -- so it's not my best work, I did not have proper time to sketch and plan and think and pick out the best option!

So, these things are all over Korea. Like a shade apparatus for plants? I just have no idea but they cover the landscape of Korea. It's either these things, or rice field! I actually think it's rather beautiful, just a little strange and seems like it takes a lot of work to construct!

We took a cab to the top of the mountain, which over looked the small city. It had a museum and ceramic everywhere. Literally. There was a fountain and gardens and bridges all made with pottery or decorated with pottery. There were ceramic murals and statues as well. It was quite the interesting little area.

A cool wavy bridge. I think a bike ride on it would be super fun!

(You can always grow and thrive even in the toughest places).

But, I was starving. I hadn't eaten lunch. All I could think about was food. Something you should know  about me-- I need sleep and I need food and I'm happy (well and throw some art in there that makes it even better). But I was tired from little sleep and hungry from not eating because I was traveling but I guess at least I was taking pictures?! But still, food was on my mind.

The 2 Korean girls we were with ordered some chicken and had it delivered. You know life is so much easier when you know the language. There is no way I could have figured out how to order chicken and get it delivered (but maybe one day before I leave Korea I will be able to - goals folks, just make goals and take baby steps!) Yeah, they deliver to a mountain and they literally delivered to the exact spot we were sitting in the grass. He ramped that motor bike right up there and parked it a couple of feet from our circle, hopped off the bike, set the boxes of chicken down, and was off! It was an awesome 'oh Korea' moment for sure! The chicken was good and satisfied my ravenous hunger. As we sat around we noticed a cat had wondered up near us, but still a ways away. I decided it needed to eat some chicken. I felt her pain! So, I chucked some bones and the chicken necks (because who wants that anyway). She was pretty cautious at first, but after a few more times of throwing more.. she became quick at finding and grabbing after I threw it! She was such a good 'hunter'! 

It's sometimes funnier to take pictures of other people taking pictures. :) But, I of course got some of my own too don't worry...

We headed back down off the mountain and towards the bus terminal. Icheon has a really nice lake and there were lanterns up for Buddha's Birthday. It was a beautiful walk, the perfect ending to our day....

Spring time in Korea is really beautiful! 

So, we get to the bus terminal to buy our tickets (there were 2 busses left back to Cheongju).... ops-sso-yo. Nothing? No tickets to Cheongju? Are you kidding me. How were we supposed to get home? We all had to teach the next day! So, we had to get creative. We tried Deajeon - nope none. We thought maybe Eumsong, but decided against it. So, instead we went all the way back up to Dong Seoul (which is in the opposite direction) and took the last bus from there at 9pm (which we had to reserve online). We made it to Dong Seoul around 8:30. I got some BR -- it was just one of those days - I needed it. Found our bus and of course there was a delay because the bus was broke. So, we played some 1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato 4 and waited. I finally made it home about 11:30. It had been such a long weekend, but a good weekend!

What did I learn? Book your tickets home from a small town when you arrive! Especially if the city is the super popular city of Icheon (apparently).