Old School Korea....ANDONG!

At the beginning of April, I had an opportunity to experience old school Korea in the city of Andong. I went there to visit my friend. Her name is Yeong Ju, but her English name just happens to be Emily. We randomly met on the subway in Seoul last fall, and became good friends. I had been wanting to visit her hometown for quite awhile, and  was excited to finally get the opportunity. I stayed with her wonderful family for the weekend, and toured their city. This was by far the greatest experience I have had in Korea. Not only was it nice to get to spend time in a family environment (I'll admit homesickness is starting to get to me), I also had  an incredible opportunity to enjoy a completely different side of Korea and it's culture. Andong is much smaller than Seoul, and much more traditional. It was nice to escape the concrete jungle that is Seoul and get to see rural parts of Korea.

Emily and I decided to take a one day bus tour of Andong. Our trip began at the longest wooden bridge in Korea. It was actually built within the last 10 years, and crosses the Naktong River.

After this we journeyed on to a hemp museum. When I first heard we were going to hemp museum, I was thinking that it sounded pretty boring. It actually turned out to be really cool . In Korea, it is custom to be buried in hemp garments. These garments are extremely pricey because they are hand made from hemp and  take months to make. The museum went through the history of the garments, and how they are made. One of the first steps requires stripping a layer off of the hemp. There were several old women sitting around doing this, and everyone on our tour got a chance to help them. Apparently, these women are chosen to be garment makers at age 10, are trained, and spend the rest of their lives doing this.

There were also several cool cultural activities at the museum. Usually, the bus tour doesn't participate in these activities. However, we lucked out. On this particular day, a Korean camera crew was doing a story on the tour company, and spent the day  following our group. In return for letting them do the story, they paid for our group to do a few special activities. One of these activities was painting scarves, and little hemp pouches. Emily used to compete in Korean calligraphy competitions, and is really good at it. She made a calligraphy painting for me on a scarf, which turned out to be so pretty. I'm not the most artistic person in the world, so I just painted  a few flowers on a hemp pouch. While we were doing this, we were both interviewed by the film crew, so I might have been on Korean television. I guess I will never know haha.

Another activity involved digging up some sort of herb or plant (I'm honestly not sure what it was), out of a garden.

After the museum, we walked to a nearby family village for a traditional Korean lunch. These villages are very rare, and I hadn't seen anything like them until I came to Andong. The villages consist of traditional looking Korean houses, and the people in the villages are usually a related. Since the Korean War, and the rebuilding of the country, it has become rare for people to live in these types of villages. In fact, it is very rare to see houses in Seoul. Almost everyone lives in apartment buildings. However, while driving in the country outside of Andong the next day,  I saw more houses in an hour than in the entire time I've been in Korea.
Anyways, back to the lunch... we were served our meal in a traditional home that was hundreds of years old. Below are pictures of the meal, and the house.


Korean food....still not my favorite, but I'm getting used to some of it. Also, sometimes, in more traditional restaurants, and in this home, it is custom to sit on the floor to eat. It's always an interesting experience.

 Here are some pictures from the village

These were some of the more modern looking houses we saw in village

Finally, the house we ate at....

Video from the inside... you can see them making the food, too.

I always saw these huge pots all over Korea, but never knew what they were for. Apparently they are for food storage, and are also used to make some sort of traditional food. Basically, they let vegetables, and whatever else they put in there, sit for a year and ferment. Not something I would want to eat, but apparently it's a popular Korean thing.

Our next stop was the much larger Hahoe Folk Village. This village was different, as it has actually a tourist area, and is recognized as an UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) site. Even though this is a tourist site, there are still many people who live in this village. Because of this, most of the buildings are closed to tourists; but, some people in the village will randomly allow tourists into their homes. Here are some pictures from Hahoe. Including aerial views (after we left Hahoe, they drove us up to a site that overlooks the village). The video is kind of shaky, but will give you a better idea of how huge this place was.

 Video
 

This guy let people come inside his house

While at the Folk Village, we also got to see a traditional Korean mask dance performance. In these performances, people dress up in traditional clothes and masks. Obviously, I  had no idea what they were saying. Apparetly it was mostly satire, and was pretty funny. Our bus arrived a little late, and there were no seats left in the theater. They ended up seating us on the ground in front of the stands. At one point, one of the masked dancers pulled a young Korean woman out of the audience, and started talking to her. Emily could understand what they were saying, and she looked at me and said, "Watch out, you might get pulled into the show." Well, right after she said that, the girl who had been pulled out of the audience walked over to me and said, he (the masked dancer) wants you to come join us. There were a lot of people, so I was really nervous and embarrassed. To make things more uncomfortable, the masked dancer starting speaking when I got up and the people started laughing. I didn't know what to think, but I went with it. Luckily the girl who came and got me spoke  a little English and could translate some of the things he was saying. He eventually asked us to dance with him. It was kind of embarrassing, but I just followed what he was doing, and what the other women were doing, and it ended up being kind of fun! At the end he gave us a box of sweet yam cakes, which sound nasty but were really good. They were each shaped like different masks used in the performance. Emily got part of my little performance on video. Hope you get a good laugh at my expense haha :)





Pictures from the performance

That night, Emily's parents took us out to eat at a Chinese restaurant close to their house. I was a little worried because I had never tried real Chinese food (the Chinese food we eat in America, is definitely not authentic).  I ended up loving it! After dinner, we went to karaoke bar owned by their family friends. I had such a great time with them, and was so thankful for their amazing hospitality and kindness. It was also such a great experience for me to see how a real Korean family lives. 

                   Here is a picture of Emily with her parents and younger brother.

The next day, her parents took me to see an old Korean school (I forgot the name). It was built hundreds of years ago and educated some of Korea's famous scholars. We ended up getting very lucky, as we ran into our tour guide from the day before. He was with another group that just happened to have an English translater with them. He let us follow along with their group, so I was able to pick up a lot of interesting facts. The school overlooked a river and mountains, so the the scenery was beautiful.

Our next stop was Bongjeong-sa. This is the oldest temple in Korea, and dates back to the 14th century.We had to hike a little bit to get there, which I always enjoy. I took a video of the temple. Notice the Chinese lanterns in the video. They were put up for the upcoming Buddah's Birthday holiday, which will be celebrated in late May.







My last stop before heading back home was a restaurant in downtown Andong. Andong is famous for a special type of chicken stew. Emily's family took me to a popular local restaurant to try it. There was a wait to get in, so Emily and her brother walked me around the downtown area, and the the marketplace while we waited. I ended up really loving the stew. It was a mixture of chicken, potatoes, noodles, some other vegetables, and a thick brown sauce.
                                                         Chicken Stew

                                   Andong Market

View of the city from Emily's apartment

It was sad to say goodbye to Emily and her family after such a wonderful weekend. It was even harder because I knew this was the last time I would see Emily until September, as she left for Chicago shortly after I visited. But as I like to say, it's not "good-bye," it's "see you later." It will be fun to reunite with Emily when I get back to the States.
The bus ride home was long, but I really enjoyed it. I left for Andong late Friday night, so it was too dark enjoy the scenery. On the way home, it didn't get dark until I got back into the area where I live, so the bus ride was one last opportunity to enjoy the beauty of rural Korea.