Live like a Korean

After the new year (HAPPY 2013 EVERYONE!!), the teachers in Jinan went on another cultural trip. This time is was to live/talk like a Korean.


Wednesday morning we woke up and grabbed our chartered bus for the 6 of us (Me, Marilize, Hanco, Jaclyn, Don Myeong, and Ms. Park) and headed into Jeonju. We were to stay in Hanok Village for the night. So we checked into our guesthouse that was an traditional Korean house, and were joined by the rest of our group (Miguel and Rob). We first went to the Camera Museum and enjoyed some coffee and vintage cameras.

That's a pretty big camera!

Vintage!

Afterwards, we had lunch (a pretty good Korean noodle soup) and then headed to learn some Hangul (Korean)!! For about 4 hours we learned greetings, food, and telling time (along with other random sayings). The best lesson for me was telling time!

Afterwards, we headed to dinner and it was AMAZING! It was a pork dish (of course) and it tasted soo good. It was like a sweet rib dish. MMM. Then we headed back to our guesthouse and drank some home-made Moju and played Yut-Nori (a traditional Korean game).

I was on Ms. Park's team....we just lost a point to Jaclyn's team :(

Thursday we woke up and had Korean breakfast (I had bibimbap, it's my favorite!) and then we headed to an art museum where they had a paper airplane exhibition!

Airplanes for everyone!

You write your wishes, then fold it into an airplane and throw it :)

After we got our fill of airplanes, it was off to a KOREAN CONTEST! That's right, we all had to compete to see who was the best at Korean. Well, I wasn't too excited for these reasons:

• Hanco - been living in Korea for 4 years
• Marilize - been living in Korea for 3 years
• Miguel - been living in Korea for 2 years (maybe longer)
• Rob - fluent
• Jaclyn - already been to Orientation (where you learn Korean)
• Me - been living here for 4 months, with no orientation

Needless to say, I didn't have much hope. Luckily, we were put in teams.

• Hanco/Jaclyn - I don't remember their name
• Miguel/Marilize - team monkey bobble
• Rob/Me - Soultang (sugar in Korean) 

Me and Rob ended up coming in 2nd place - BARELY! We had a lead of 1 point, then of course the last question was worth 2 points and team Monkey Bobble ended up getting it and pulling out the win. Good job to them though.

Afterwards, it was LUNCHTIME and we went western...that's right...ITALIAN! Amazing pasta was eaten by everyone, and we were quite happy :)

Then it was off to make our own Makgeolli - rice wine. We learned all the steps, and they we got to do the draining/bottling steps. We took the fermented rice and squished out all the juice with our hands, and then bottled it to take home. 

Marilize and Ms. Park bottling it up

Makgeolli Model

Then it was time for our last thing - the Keum San Sa Temple. We hopped on the bus, napped, and when we woke up, we were there!! Here are some photos to give you an idea of what I saw....

Tallest standing Buddha in Asia

The Jinan Group from my viewpoint

Panaromic of the Entrance/Exit

And when we finished the temple - it was over. Time to go home...back to living Hangookan (Hangul + Waygook).

Ghamsamnida,
Apes :)