Trip to Jeonju

Totem Guard @ Hanok Village
wards off evil spirits

Week Three is in the books and we’ve finished our first week of classes…now week two is just about done. Teaching has been pretty crazy. Before all this started I thought that I would enjoy teaching the younger kids the most and but in reality that has not been the case. These young kids are crazy!!! I’ve had real trouble keeping them all quite and getting them to focus. Well that’s not completely true…I have two class that are your basic intro to English with kids from ages 8 to 9, my first class is crazy and my second class is a bit better. So far the first class attempted to lock me out of class, and a little guy in my second class called me old and ugly. It can only get better…I hope.

Aside from those 2, I have three more classes; two intermediate classes with 12 & 13yr olds, which are pretty good and a class full of kids aged 9 to 11 with “Returnees” (kids who have lived abroad for more then a year in an English speaking country). The Returnee class is the best because we’re mainly just going to read, write and have debates. I like the other 2 older classes but I have difficulty making things like ‘past tense’ fun. Just gonna have to keep workin at it.

Last Saturday all the teachers went to Jeon-ju, the provincial capital that’s about 1/2 hour southeast of Iksan. Vallery drove there while I navigated…I thought that I could do it because hey I navigated for Wally across Canada. Unfortunately there’s no Trans-Korean Highway, so we did get a little bit lost. I look at it as a ½ hour scenic detour personally. But once we got our bearings (and with a little bit of help from a nice lady at a Tourist Information booth) we eventually got back on track. Our Destination was the Hanok Village, a traditional style Korean village where people still live in traditional style housing.

Top: World Cup Stadium Jeonju, Bottom: Hanok

Before heading in we ate at a traditional Korean restaurant right across from the village and like most Korean meals we got WAY too much. Everything was really good, most of it was a tad bit spicy, but it was all served in traditional ceramic or copper dishes. (Most places use aluminum chopsticks/cups/bowls because they are easier to keep clean). We had Bulgogi, Octopus Stew, Tofu Soup, and some sort of Spicy Fish, with about twenty different side dishes. For once we were able too make a pretty good dent in the meal.

Traditional Korean Meal for 3 w/Vallery & Ailis

When we got to the village we looked at the paper crafts and other items that were for sale in the souvenir shops. I got a nice paper fan, and Julie bought a bunch of stuff for herself and some friends. After wards we checked out the village and saw some traditional games being played. One game is a metal ring toss, a lot like horseshoes, but harder I think.

We then proceeded to the paper museum, now that was EXCITING, well not really, but afterwards we made some paper crafts with this really cool guy who was an abstract artist. He worked part time at the village showing people how to make Hanji Konge (translation: useful paper craft), basically little candy dish looking things made out of paper. His English was pretty good and told us about how he was saving to go back to art school in NYC, pretty nice guy. After we finished that we checked out this traditional Korean band??? I guess… they were pretty interesting, just bangin’ away on the skins, coulda used some singing though.

Traditional Korean Music

We then headed down to Gyeonggijeon (unpronounceable) a park/shrine to the former Joseon Dynasty that ruled Korea from 1392-1910, and were from Jeonju. The shrine was one of 5 in Korea; originally built in 1410 after the death of the dynasty’s founder. Gyeonggijeon was the only one of the five not to be destroyed in the Japanese invasions from 1592-1598. One area holds pictures of several kings that ruled Korea as well as their palaquins (what they were carried around in). Another area has a mock ceremonial village, with different house for each person (Adivsors, Priests, Cooks, etc.) It was pretty interesting.

(Clockwise from Top Left: Walkway to the Shrine, Julie and I infront of Ceremonial houses, and a portrait of King Sajeon creator of Korean alphabet {Hangul})

We also checked out Pungnammun Gate, the last remaining piece of a wall that surrounded the city of Jeon-ju. It also has been rebuilt several times. Really cool looking structure with really detailed wood carving towards the top, mostly of dragons and turtles (seems kinda wussy I know, but a symbol of protection so perfect for a giant gate).

Pungnammun Gate

After that we just wandered around and checked out the famous Nambu Market, a giant outdoor market/flea market type place, that’s a few minutes away from the gate. Kinda like the farmer’s market in Iksan but twice as big. And like any outdoor market there are tons of unsanitary practices going on…mostly with meat; chickens sitting out on counters, whole tables full of fish/seafood with ice cubes on them, or not. They also have buckets of live crab, and eel so it’s pretty neat.

Nambu Market

The most shocking thing about the whole day was the fact that I drove us home, didn’t get lost and lived to tell about the whole thing. I even used a U-Turn lane at one point. It was not as bad as I thought. Koreans are just really aggressive drivers, who use their horns a lot. If you can ignore the horns you’ll be fine. Well I figure if you’re not already asleep at your computer you’re praying for me to end this, so I will. Till next time.

Trev