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Friday, July 20, 2007

A Saturday in Suwon

TRADITIONAL FOLK VILLAGE:
These "breathable" clay pots store dwen-jang and kimchi:
fermented bean paste and cabbage.


The old heating system unique to Korea. Even today, the floor is the primary heat source -
by means of hot water pipes.


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This man was selling traditional honey candies from his trunk.


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A family fishing with nets.
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This is why they call it a "living museum." A Chosun Dynasty pottery mill recreated.

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My students enjoying cold Ginseng tea. Koreans drink cold tea in the summer, and hot in the winter. Mine is persimmon tea, it tasted a bit like apple cider with cinnamon. I fought tooth and nail with my student about paying for my own, but he insisted, "it's my pleasure."

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We shared a big pot of mushroom, beef and seafood soup. My students asked me to explain the sayings, "it could be better," and, "it couldn't be better," in relation to the food. I was so hungry from walking around that I said, "it couldn't be better."

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Enjoying the view with a student. He told me there that when he and his wife got married, they went horseback riding on Jeju Island. I told him about my frightening ride down a mountain in Venezuela.

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To SOULMATE bar, near Ajou University:

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I was good friends with this guy, Young, when I first arrived in Korea. He, Min and I hung out a lot, but he went away for work. Well surprise surprise, he got an engineering job at Samsung company in Suwon, and called me up to go for a drink. Since when do I have "old" friends in Korea? I've been here for awhile now.

Drink house food- A platter of fruit for 10USD. Beer and watermelon anyone? Help yourself.

4 comments:

MUD said...

What a wonderful trip you have made for us. Thank you. MUD

Anonymous said...

Hi Eva,

I don't know if you are interested, and I know this is last minute, but a group of Korean bloggers are getting together tomorrow to say goodbye to Gdog of "Daily Kimchi" blog fame. I will make my first trip to the big city via KTX and hopefully not get lost in the subway system.

Here are the details taken from I'm A Seoul Man's blog (http://seoul-man.blogspot.com/): "Tomorrow's get-together for drinks is confirmed. Sunday 22nd July 2007, Starting at 2pm.
I don't know how long it will last, but I don't have anything else to do tomorrow so it could go on till late evening.

I had a wander round yesterday and the "Western Bar", "Odyssey" (I'm not sure which part is the name and which is the description) looks like a suitable venue.
It's right outside Yeouido Subway (line 5) station Exit number 5. It's on the second floor above Dunkin Donuts.

So far confirmed are Gdog of The Daily Kimchi, Daeguowl of Kimchi for Breakfast, Stafford of The Chosun Bimbo, Aaron of Idiot's Collective, Joe of ZenKimchi and GI of Guano Island

If anyone else reading this would like to join us, please come along, the more the merrier."

Eva Karrin McKinnon said...

Hi John,

Yes, GDog invited me. I was just really tired this weekend!!

I hope you guys had fun. Let me know how it was, okay? Ps- have you met 'the bloggers' before?

Anonymous said...

I did it to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to say good-bye to GDog and meet some of the people behind the blogs, and I wanted to see the metropolis that is Seoul. I also had a rough Saturday, but I might never have made it to Seoul had this invitation not come up. Seoul was quite nice since it was a warm Sunday. There weren't too many people out and about or on the trains.

However, today was really bad for me. Our first day of intensives coupled with my getting food poisoning yesterday from eating off the street up there. I thought for sure I would end up in the hospital today, but somehow once all the food vacated my body, and I sucked down some pepto-bismal, I started to feel slightly better.

I would have liked to stay a little longer in Seoul, but I had to catch a train back and get ready for today. Plus, I hadn't talked that much adult level English in so long that my mind and mouth were having technical difficulties at times.