Field Trip Day

It was raining yesterday, all night (I saw really bright lightning last night with no thunder), and all day today! I was kind of disappointed because it was field trip day today, but I think we got by. Last night, Gianni and I bought an umbrella to share in case it rained, but the one umbrella wasn't enough for us today. I ended up buying a poncho and another umbrella after I found a puddle at the bottom of one of my smaller backpack pockets :( . Still, field trip day was really fun. EPIK gave us all a book talking about the history and context of the area and things we were going to see today. I haven't read through it all, but it's very detailed and helpful.

The village we were in is a special area of Jeonju called Jeonju Hanok Village. A hanok is a traditional Korean house, and there are 900 is this village. Some of them are relatively new and some are older, but the village is a really interesting mix of those hanoks and modern buildings. The streets have a mixture of both types of buildings, so it's really cool to see. The hanoks are very beautiful with small alleyways between them. Some of them are shops that just spring out of no where. This hanok village dates back to the 1930s.

First, we went to "factory" where they produce traditional Korean paper called hanji. I say "factory" because it was really a room with 4 people. There were two women who were putting paper on large irons for a second to dry them, and there were two men operating hydro machines to dye the paper. One man was dying it purple. Next door to the "factory" there was a little shop where they sold the paper goods made at the factory. They use these paper goods to make anything from fans to stationary to necklaces. Ellie told us that this paper was actually used as armor at one point because it is so hard. It doesn't necessarily feel hard, although there are folding techniques you can do to make it hard, but it is not easily ripped. I tried to rip some of the paper, and I couldn't do it without scissors. According to my book, hanji is made from Paper Mulberry trees. It became known as the highest quality paper in East Asia. Hanji has been made and developed for centuries. A piece of hanji from the Leland period (108 BCE- 313 CE) was found on an archeological dig in 1931. I couldn't resist buying a few hanji products from the store next door.

After the paper factory, we went to an elementary school. A little girl named Ha Jin showed us around the schools. She was reading off of a sheet, but her English seemed pretty good, and she was so darn cute! The facilities seemed great, and it was nice to interact with some of the kids. The English classroom was full of stuff to do and play with. I hope my classroom is that stocked up. We had to take our shoes off a few times during the tour when we entered certain classrooms. At the end of the tour, a few women in hanbok showed up how to pour drinks for those older than us. We got soo jung gwa, a cinnamon tea served cold, that was really good. We had it the other day at lunch at the university as well. With the tea, we got yak gwa, a sweet biscuity cookie. It has kind of a different texture than I'm used to, but it's still good.

We then walked to Gyeeonggijeon Shrine--another hanok building. On the way, we found a shop selling umbrellas and ponchos, and a lot of us needed to get some. The lady running that store was making bank. The Shrine was beautiful. At the start is an old monument, called Hambi, telling all those entering the shrine that they need to dismount from their horses at this point. Our books said the Hambi was 400 years old but was reconstructed after the Japanese Invasion. We weren't allowed to walk down the center stones because that path is supposed to be reserved for the king only. Along the path, we went under several wooden gates. The tops of these gates were painted in bright colors with detailed, beautiful patterns. The Shrine, itself, contained a very famous portrait of King Taejo, one of the kings of the Joseon Dynasty. Apparently, the Shrine used to contain all 27 portraits of the Joseon Dynasty kings, but 20 of them were burnt during the Imjin war, the Qing invasion, and the Korean war. Now, the Shrine only preserves the portraits of 7 kings, and only 5 of the portraits depict the true faces of the kings they are meant to represent. The portrait of Taejo depicts his true face and has been kept for over 600 years. The one on display, though, is a  replica, and the authentic piece is stored in the Royal Portrait Museum and is only displayed for one month per year. In 1872, the portrait was copied because the original copy was too worn after 400 years. The old version was buried. All this information comes from the book EPIK gave us by the way.

After the Gyeeonggijeon Shrine, it was time to walk to a restaurant for our bibimbap lunch. It is believed that bibimbap originated from the traditional practice of mixing all the food offerings made at an ancestral rite (jesa) in a bowl before partaking in it. The word "bibimbap" means "mixed meal." Bibimbap is considered the greatest among the three great dishes of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). It is also a royal dish of that dynasty and a traditional dish of Jeonju. It was delicious! Gianni and I both loved the bibimbap, and this was the first authentic bibimbap that we've had so far. The meal came with a lot of banchan (side dishes), as is customary in Korean meals. Many of them were spicy, so I kind of stayed away. I'm sure Gianni has a better description than I do, but there was one banchan I really liked. It was a small, round potato bite in a dish of honey. Very sweet a yummy!

We had a little bit of free time before the next activity, so I went back to the hanji factory to take some more pictures down the narrow alleys. Then we met back up at the shrine, and my group walked to the traditional culture center. We were able to partake in two different activities there. The first was using colored hanji to cover and decorate a pencil case. It was a fun little arts and crafts activity, and it showed how strong the paper really is. The woman telling us how to do it showed us several things made of hanji beforehand, and it really was impressive to hear that they were made of paper. Gianni ended up with a box that is blue and pink, and mine is teal and red. The second activity was playing traditional Korean drums, janggu, and other traditional instruments. Gianni and I played the small gongs. A woman taught us how to play beats together. It was fun, but really hard to remember all the different beats. She was amazing though. She demonstrated the beats for us, and it is clear that she's been studying for many years. Also, whatever we thought we were playing sounded NOTHING like what she showed us afterwards! Oh well. "A" for effort! The song we mangled was a traditional song with 4 parts, 2 singing and 2 playing. There were 4 instruments the group was split into. Janggu is an hourglass shaped drum that can be played on either side. Each side makes a different noise, and it is played with two different sticks. There was also a group playing the small gongs called kwaenggwari. Another group played a different Korean drum with only one stick called a buk. One girl got the large gong, jing. It was hysterical whenever our teacher showed her when to play. She only had like 2 beats during each section, so her pauses were really long, but the teacher took the time to show her anyway.

We went to a hanok that was a model of a traditional Korean school. The seating arrangement was basically just rows, and the chairs seems very straight backed. Before getting back on the bus, we played a few games at the culture center. One was throwing what looked like arrows into small tubes from a distance, and the other was a seesaw type game where two people jump on either end and try to bounce the other one off.
It was a really great day. We got to learn a bit about Korean culture, and I can't wait to learn more. Back to regularly scheduled programming for tomorrow. Two more days of full classes before orientation is over!