So, Saturday was a really busy day. We got up and out of the apartment by 9am to head down to Suwon and the Korean Folk Village. I had looked at a subway map and figured it would take us about an hour, hour and a half to get to where we wanted to be.
Three hours later...
It took a little longer to get there than I had anticipated. BUT we didn't get lost at all! Even when I discovered that one of our transfer stops was no longer on the map and I had to ask some guy at the convenience store in the subway (apparently the name of the stop got changed... nice). After several subway transfers and a free shuttle ride, we made it to the Korean Folk Village.
Here's Daddy on the shuttle ride.
And here's me on the shuttle!
Yay! First thing we saw on the way in was a place to take pictures in traditional Korean dress. Number two on my list of things to do before I leave Korea (take a picture in a hanbok) is now checked off my list of things to do. Dad got prints of the picture and took pictures of the picture so I could post it to my blog. I look like an ugly pregnant lady in it, but I got my picture. :)
After that we followed the signs to the art museum since, hey, we paid extra to get into it. Might as well go there first. Along the way, we found an "I Love You" sign. Cute.
We finally got to the art museum.
Aaand it was closed until the next exhibit. Suck. Oh, well. We did get some cool pictures along the way, at least.
I didn't know traditional Korean villages had carousels. Cool.
Then we got into the village proper. They had all sorts of cool stuff.
Traditional houses
Livestock
Government buildings
You could dress up as a royal guard and try out one of the various torture devices they had on display. (Yes that is a little girl on a... cross of some kind waiting for her dad to smack her with a big wooden stick which was also provided)
They had examples of traditional preschools (it's actually a hen coop).
CHICKEN!!
Lots and lots of stuff. As we were walking, I got waylaid by a group of middle school students who asked to interview me for an English project for school. It was cute. I answered a few questions about how we were enjoying the Folk Village so far, what did we want to do later, etc. I hope they get an A+. :)
We finally saw one of the shows we had been told about: a tightrope walker. It was this old guy (looked to be in his late 60's, early 70's) walking and jumping all over this tightrope! It was awesome. I'll prove his awesomeness with this video.
We then came across this area that had traditional Korean games. One looked like this game of dice but the dice were giant foam rolls with dots on one side. I watched for a few minutes and still have no idea what made the crowd clap and what made them groan. There was also this stick game: throw the stick in the vase! It's harder than it sounds...
Also, it's good to know that swinging is acceptable entertainment in most cultures (including Korea).
We had walked all around and we sat down to chill for a little bit and saw this pit where some of the maintenance workers had been burning leaves. A bunch of kids were playing with it. Parents watching on the side, maintenance workers nearby and not even caring. I wonder if it was just that no one cared that the kids were playing with fire or if it was an intentional entertainment set up for them? Who knows... but it kept them entertained.
So, we were done with the Korean Village. Good times. It was still pretty early so we set out for Itaewon for some souvenir shopping. I told dad that the sales people were pushy and he kind of brushed it off saying that he knows these kinds of places yaddah yaddah. HE was even surprised at how pushy the salesladies were. I laugh at him. Hahaha! He even told one lady to GO AWAY and she kept trying to tell him the molded plastic key chains were REAL MARBLE. It was funny. But, dad got himself a bell and a sparkly pink tie (that he promised to wear to church), some presents for people back home, and a few birthday/Christmas presents for me that I have already forgotten and will be totally surprised to open up in a few weeks. :)
AND he took me to Outback! Woo hoo! I had chicken (which you don't see much of except at the fried chicken places... or McDonalds) with CHEESE (which is super expensive here).
YUM. AND a Korean/American actor I like was on all the advertisements there. Oh, you are beautiful, Daniel Henney.
After walking around a little more, we got back on the subway and headed back to Mok Dong for another visit to E Mart and a quick look around the mall. Aaand by quick I mean about an hour. Heh...
I for one was pooped by the time we got back to the apartment. It was a lot of fun and a very busy day.
I looooooove the chicken picture!!
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