The first DE was a trip out to Namhansanseong, which I wrote about in a previous post. After that was a trip to a palace garden, which also got a post. A few weeks ago, we went out to a mountain and were part of a campaign to prevent forest fires. (산불을 예방합시다! <-- I swear I said this, like, a couple hundred times. Never going to forget the words for "forest fire" and "to prevent," that's for damn sure.)This past excursion, we went to North Jeolla Province/Jeollabuk-do (전라북도), which is in the southern area of the peninsula.
We had to be downtown at 8:30, which meant an early morning and a crowded subway ride. Luckily, we already knew basically where we were going, so we didn't have to plan too much extra time into our commute.
When we arrived at the meetup point, we encountered a Vietnamese couple whom we had met on the first DE. It was definitely nice to see some familiar faces, but they were on the other bus so we didn't see them nearly as much this trip as on the other one.
Unfortunately, it was the weekend before Children's Day, so the traffic was insane. We were supposed to arrive around noon and eat lunch right away, but we didn't get there until nearly one and had to eat very quickly. The food was really good, but there was a lot of seafood so I didn't eat very much. There was an awesome mushroom soup that I really wish I knew how to make, though. Maybe someday I'll find a recipe somewhere.
Right after lunch, we went to see a 농악 (nong-ak) performance.
I was behind a few people, so I couldn't get many pictures (or see very well, actually). Luckily, I had seen something similar before, so I didn't miss too terribly much while I tried to see past the heads in front of me.
After that, we listened to a lecture on Ganggangsullae (강강술래), which is another traditional dance. We had an interpreter whom we could listen to via headphones, but I did without for most of the lecture just so I could test my Korean ability. I definitely missed out on some things, but I feel like I understood a fair bit about the history of the dance.
Before we went to the hotel, we walked to the local mulberry festival for some special events. We didn't get to spend much time there, but it was still neat to see a local festival in a smaller town instead of just in a part of Seoul.
The hotel was about an hour away (I think...I fell asleep on the bus, to tell the truth), and it was by the ocean.
Yay surprise beach trip!
We only had a little time in the room to clean up before dinner, which was very enjoyable barbecue. There were 6 people to a table, so we sat with our two Vietnamese friends and two of their friends (another Vietnamese couple). After dinner it was completely dark, and the beach wasn't the long type you can walk along for ages. The plan was to get up early and explore the rocky area under the balcony, but the tide was in when we woke up so there was no way to get there but to swim. Rather than attempt that, we went back to sleep. Still, being by the beach was still awesome, even if there weren't many opportunities to enjoy it.
After breakfast, we took a trip to learn about the Saemangeum Seawall. It was cloudy, so we couldn't really see much from the center where we learned about the project's construction and the future work that would be done in the area. We got a tour that explained all about the project (the interpretation was sequential rather than simultaneous this time, so I listened carefully to the original Korean and the translation this time) and learned about the plans to develop the area. The seawall is a really cool accomplishment, but I'm not sure how I feel about the project as a whole. They plan to build a city there that's supposed to be a center for trade or something...but how do you just plan a whole new city and say it's going to be super important? Important cities aren't built up all at once; they just kind of...grow. And then there's all the argument about the environmental impact, which they entirely skimmed over with a couple sentences. I would have liked to hear more about that. Still, it was a really interesting tour.
Traffic back to Seoul was crazy once again. We had to make multiple stops at rest stations (which are 1000 times better than the ones I've stopped at in the States), and we ended up taking around 6 hours to get home.
Overall, definitely a really awesome event. Each person paid ₩10,000 (~$10 US) for this trip, and that included food, hotel, bus, and all the events. Preeeeetty ridiculously awesome. There were also some fun people that I hope I see again if I get to go on other trips this group puts on.
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