Folk village & green tea making

Nagan Folk Village

When we arrived at the Nagan Folk Village we dropped our bags off, explored the village a little and then went to dinner. After dinner a bunch of us hung out on the wall to the village for a little while.

Sunset in the folk village

on the wall surrounding the village

 In the morning we explored a little more and then headed to Bosung Tea Hill to see just that, hills of tea. We ate some green tea ice cream, green tea bibimbap (a spicy rice dish with vegetables), had some iced green tea and some green tea chocolate. They can apparently make anything and everything with green tea!

in fields of tea

with Hong in fields of tea

tea hills

some of the group in the hills

We then headed out to make our own green tea. We visited this cute little Korean couple who use flakes of gold to fertilize their tea. Yes, this is very expensive tea. We learned which leaves were the tea leaves we needed to pick. Then we went and put the leaves in a giant pot to cook them and then we took them out to cook and roll them. The heating and cooling process then happens five more times so we didn’t actually finish making the tea, but we were given samples of this gold tea with tea rice cakes and crackers.

tea made of gold!

rice cakes made of tea

making green tea

Geomundo

After lunch with loaded onto a ferry boat for Geomundo Island. On the 2 hour ferry ride we relaxed and partied with the Korean ajumahs and ajusis (middle-aged men and women). They certainly know how to have a party. They were passing around oversized bottles of soju and beer with various other snacks. Some were singing and dancing and others were trying to balance on the ferry boat after drinking copious amounts of soju.

Our ferry boat from Yeosu

Some of the girls on the ferry

some Koreans starting the party

When we got to Geomundo we dropped our bags off at a local pension where we were staying. This is a typical Korean type “motel”, where you sleep on mats on the heated floors. After dropping off our things we boarded another ferry boat to tour Baekdo Island. This is made up of 39 uninhabited rock formations. It is a really awesome site to see.

Baekdo Islands (Baekdo - meaning 1000 islands)

After the tour of Baekdo we had dinner next to our pension and then explored this small island. This island really reminded me of when I was in Italy and stayed on a small island off Capri called Ventotene. One of my friends had commented it was like the Truman Show, in the fact that the same people who gave us our coffee in the morning were giving us our beach chairs during the day and partying with us at night. This island was pretty much the same thing. Most of the people on the island had taken the ferry over from Yeosu with us. Either way it had been a really long day so we went to bed pretty early.

In the morning we walked to a light house on the island.

The lighthouse.

Then took the ferry back over to Yeosu to visit the Nagan Folk Village and stay over in a traditional house there. On the way to the village we stopped at the Suncheon Bay Eco Park to enjoy nature and take a quick walk.

Yeosu

This past weekend was Korea’s Memorial Day. It’s pretty much celebrated like Memorial day in America, with a 3 day weekend and parties. I took a trip down to some islands on the southwestern tip of Korea. I met a lot of great people and saw a lot of great parts of Korea.

walking up to the Buddhist Temple

We left late on Friday night to avoid the holiday traffic and to get to Yeosu in time for the sunrise. We left at 11pm and drove through the night. Everyone tried their best to get comfortable and sleep as much as possible. We made it to Hyang Il Am Temple at about 3:30am. We all either slept on the bus or found various spots outside until about 5am when we started out hike up to the top of the mountain.

The many stairs up to the Temple

Unfortunately we didn’t get perfect weather and it was quite foggy once we got to the top of the mountain. It was still a relaxing time and we slept, enjoyed the scenery and explored from sunrise until 10am when we departed again for Yeosu harbor.

Sunrise from the Temple

The fog setting in quickly

We walked around the harbor and then explored the fish market. Now, this fish market wasn’t like any other I’ve seen. Most of the seafood was very much still alive and swimming. I didn’t really peg myself for a completely unadventurous eater, but when my meal is still alive and they kill it in front of me I find it pretty unappetizing. Luckily most of the people I was with felt the same way so we opted for a restaurant that brings out fully cooked food. Unfortunately for me the “American” version of fully cooked and most other countries I’ve been to seem to vary. Our baked fish came out with very sharp teeth and eyeballs. Luckily I managed to get over my fear of food with heads and eyes and ate some fish. Also, Korea is awesome with side dishes! Even if you hate the meal there are tons of yummy side dishes that they bring out in an unlimited quantity.

Yeosu Harbor

Octopus

I wish I knew what these were.

live fish...

dried fish

For a chewy treat...dried octopus. (I refuse to try this, but I can only imagine it's chewy)

English Village

Both the English classes took a trip to English Village. This place is created for kids to go and see English plays, eat American food and walk around and “explore the English language”. Or something like that I guess. As they walk in it looks like an airport terminal and they all get a little passport. They then move to the counter and talk to a native English speaking foreigner who asks their name and their favorite food. Then they get a stamp in their passport.

We went to see a play called “The Nanny”. Most of my class said they were scared of it or at least followed in the other kids lead and said they were scared. This was about three bratty siblings who didn’t know how to share so they had to get a nanny to whip them into shape. The nanny turned out to be a thief who wanted to steal their “expensive painting with lots of jewels”. Of course there were some more professional pictures taken of the kids, but overall the experience was pretty cute for them.