I love field trips!

Today was our big field trip to the Korean Folk Village! We all loaded onto a greyhound type bus and off we went!  2 tangerines, and 1 hour later, we arrived!  We were each grouped with a tour guide that was supposed to take us around and explain what everything was, but our tour guide spoke sooooo slowly, my impatience got the best of me, and before I knew it, I was wandering all about the park without the official group! (I know, I was a bad girl!) Here are some pictures from the day! ENJOY

This was called the "Wild Flower Garden"

This was some some sort of honey/nut candy!   We watched the guy hand make it within 1 minute.   He took a huge chunk of solid honey and started stretching it out and dipping it in flour and then folding it, and refolding it, over and over and over again until wala... it became this stringy white candy! He then took a spoon full of the nut mixture, poured it onto the candy, folded that over a couple times, and this is what we got! It tasted sooo good and apparently has been a famous Korean candy enjoyed by Kings for years and years.


I loved this! It was a very, very large stone that had rope tied around it.  Attached to the rope, people had written, on small pieces of paper, their hopes and wishes for their family or friends.

Kevin's wish...

Kevin tying his wish to the wall.


This picture is for our nephew Caeden, who for some reason keeps asking Kevin's sister and husband if we've seen the animals on our "vacation" yet!   Yep, Caeden, we have seen the animals!   :)

This is a replica of an ancient farmer's home. Each room is entered from the outside of the home. (Kevin and I, Colin, Carlos (Mayo) and his wife Jessica)

I'm not totally sure what the purpose of these sticks were, but I tried it using them none the less. The woman in the picture below was super excited to help me! What you don't see in this picture are the 75 + people watching! It was quite the spectacle! You know how I love to be the center of attention! :)



I felt like I was famous, because the lady who helped me with the sticks wanted me to take a picture with her family!  haha!


Just some cute little HAPPY piggies that were hand made in the village.


Kevin has (had) an Obama pin that he had pinned to his bag. Our EPIK team leader, Yong, REALLY liked it, so he gave it to her today!  She was so excited about the gift, and immediately attached it to her name tag, which we have to wear at ALL TIMES!


Me and Kevers, randomly throughout the park.




In ancient days, Koreans would mush their rice this way!  I'm not sure what the mushed rice was/is used for, but it was fun to mush it none the less!  I happened to be in the right place at the right time and was offered a chance to try!  That darn thing was SOOO heavy!


I found this little girl and had to take a picture with her... we had MATCHING SHOES for goodness sake!



Some of our new friends on the stepping stones in the river that ran through the park. (Carlos, Colin, Rob, Me, Kate, Daniel, and Kevin)


This was an AWESOME traditional drum/dance performance! Check out the guys doing crazy flips in the air!

I think this picture was the official "We are tourists" picture for the day!

How adorable is this guy, and how funny is his hat?!


The Teeter-Tawter / See-Saw performance!  The park also had a tight rope walking performance, and some guys who did crazy tricks on horses, but I don't have pictures... Sorry!)


I do have pictures of my jump roping extravaganza though!  Who knew Koreans liked jump roping in ancient days!  I hadn't jump roped since 5th grade, but I was pleasantly surprised at my abilities!  I think I might have been a crowd pleaser!   haha

Our new friend Carlos (Mayo) and I showing everyone how it's done!



I'll leave you with these funny anecdotes that I think you'll like. 

1) One of our new friends, Jessica, is allergic to shellfish, so one of the EPIK leaders typed this note for her to laminate and take with her to restaurants while she is living in Korea to tell them what she cannot eat.   Check out the 5th one down! :)

2) We just got another announcement over the PA system that "Sunday worship will be SERVED at 7:30pm in the cafeteria tonight!"  

I LOVE THIS PLACE... what more can I say?!

We officially LIVE in Korea now!

Last night we went out into the downtown area of Cheonan for some drinks with some people we met from our class yesterday. The downtown areas of nearly all Korean towns look like Time Square, with flashing lights and billboards covering the buildings from top to bottom! It’s a beautiful sight!

We started off our night by trying to catch a taxi... which was not an easy task. We were apparently on too small of a road for taxis, and ended up walking at least 1 mile in the freezing cold before flagging one down. The best part about our taxi ride, other than that we were finally in a warm place, was the fact it was only 1800 WON, which is equivalent to approximately $1.20. What a deal huh?!

Once we arrived in the downtown area, we walked towards a bar called the Cizi Club that was recommended to us by some local Koreans. There was a major language barrier at the downstairs lobby, and we were finally loaded into a tiny elevator and sent to fend for ourselves.

When the doors opened, we were shocked to find a HUGE, beautiful, and fairly ritzy club... that was completely empty! Apparently we were too early for the party, so we explained to the emploiyees that we would be back at 10pm by flashing all 10 of our fingers and using the best Korean we knew!

We then headed over to a restaurant down the street. The boys all ordered soju, which is the most commonly drunk liquor in S.K. With their soju, we were given free soup, seaweed and a bowl of snails! We all cringed at the snails, but by the time we left, they were nearly all gone.

You have to actually suck them out of the shell, and then they look like little snakes, about 2-3 cm long and are VERY slimy! Kind of disgusting... but we were feeling adventurous!

When we were done there, we walked the streets some more and stumbled upon this restaurant...

Yep, you read it right, "Boobi Boob." Unfortunately there wasn't enough room for all 9 of us, but we took a group picture by the other sign, just to commemorate the moment!

Just steps outside that restaurant, we ran into some Korean college age guys who were sooooo excited to see us!

They wanted to practice all the English they knew, which was actually quite a bit, and play host, like most Koreans do! :) They invited us to go to a restaurant with them, so we followed... and the rest is history! We ate pig intestine, which was super chewy! We had to chew it at least 2 minutes before it could be swallowed...


...cheered a lot!

... talked on the phone to their family and friends...

... fed each other (which is what they do when they feel close with friends! We knew at this point, they loved us! Instead of saying, "I want to feed you," though, they would say "I want to eat you!" It was hilarious!

.... and ultimately had an awesome night meeting new Korean friends and American and Canadian friends, who are luckily going to be in Pusan with us!!

There's a P.A. in my dorm room!

Korea is unbelievably techie, and we LOVE IT! The door to our dorm room at the University has a digital keypad, and our dorm room has a PA system! This morning we were woken up at 7:30am by a "ding, ding, ding..." and then one of the Korean EPIK directors said, "Dear EPIK teachers, breakfast will begin at 8:00am in the cafeteria..." We both laughed when she said "Dear EPIK teachers" instead of good morning, or hello! Little things like that are what make these long days so entertaining! :) Below are 2 pictures of the University we are staying at for our orientation.

Those steps are the steps we walk up to go to our lectures

This is the building we have our classes in. :)

They took my blood!

We officially passed our medical exam this morning after taking our hearing test, eye sight test, blood pressure, tinkling into a cup, getting an X-ray, and lastly, taking our blood! I was scared, but I put my brave face on, and am all finished! Whew!

It's official... I'm employed!

We started our 1st day of orientation today by walking across campus in the freshly fallen SNOW! It a winter wonderland today!


We had 1 class today that lasted 2 hours. It was a basic class on Korean culture... and we all filled out a form to set up our Korean bank account. We wrote our names, birthdays, signed it, and wala... we apparently have a bank account now! The form was even highlighted for us!


During the class, I took a quick pottie break and was taken back when I opened the door to the bathroom stall. I think I may have even audibly said, "oh!" when I saw the hole in the floor. It was an interesting experience!


After our class, we talked with Kevin's parents on SKYPE and my friend Lynzi, who lives in Costa Mesa. We then headed over to the Opening Ceremony, which was hilarious! Apparently Koreans are very last minute, which was totally apparent today, and hilarious! My 2 favorite parts of the ceremony were the traditional drummers, and the fan dancer! When the drummers were announced to come on stage, they didn't come out... The Korean woman directing the opening ceremony ran backstage and then poked her head back out and said to us "They were announced in English and didn't understand what we said!" We all laughed and clapped again to welcome them on stage!


At the banquet, we met a great couple from Canada, Laura and Cliff. We went through the buffet line together and saw that there was octopus. We all decided we would eat a piece together!! This was my piece! mmmm.... yummy tentacles! If you double click on the picture, you can see them more closely! A perfect ending to a great 1st day!