Monday, September 26, 2016

Chung Ang's First CKEP Trip

On September 24th Chung Ang University's international office had their first cultural field trip of the semester.  We Went to a folk village somewhere in Seoul.  They never said where the village was located (my google weather app said I was in Bora-Dong) but it was less than an hour away (in good traffic) and we took a tour bus.  Signing up for this event was very competitive.  There were 150 spots and 250+ international students so...yeah.  Sign ups started at 9am and some students were out of luck because they had class at that time and by 11:45 the list was filled up (from what I heard that day).  One thing your GLAM will stress to you is that in not signing up for the global fair, or signing up for this event and not attending, there will be no chance of you attending future CKEP events (whose sign up list does get smaller and smaller).
At the folk village there were many actors portraying what life would have been like for a Korean living in the Joseon era.  

Here I am taking a rest by a lake.  Around the village there were rest areas where people could just sit around (or nap) after a long hard day.  Only rule was that shoes were not allowed onto the gazebo.  Also, there is a boat behind me.

Here is that boat.  I don't exactly know its purpose but I do know that this was a typical kind of raft for the time period we are supposed to be in.  

Here I was taking a walk through the tunnel of gourds.  Gourds of all different shapes and sizes were dangling above wrapped around an archway and made a tunnel.  It felt nice and cool in there.  Korean mythology states that fairies lived inside gourds but that every now and then there would be a goblin with a mallet or some kind of similar tool ready to pop out and hit you.  

I don't fully understand the purpose of these but they were on a lot of trees and I thought they were interesting looking.  

This was a sign letting people know where certain things were and how far away they were.  You can't see but the words are written in Korean, Chinese, Japanese and English.  

Here is a cow.  There was a man demonstrating what cows were used for back in the day.  It was interesting to see and learn about the cow.  


This is probably a classroom.  The area was tucked away a little and I couldn't see everything well due to a massive hornet trying to bite me.  I had literally enough time to get this shot and run away.  The hornet was so big you, it was about 2/3rds as long as a typical male's index finger and twice as fat.  Therefore, I can't fully say what this room is but it was still pretty cool to see.  

Walking down the main road there were huts like that off on little side roads.  Interesting to see.  The only one i saw was the fortune teller's hut.  Another thing is that some stuff was blocked off due to the current filming of a Korean Drama (but I can't really say which one since I wasn't paying attention to the title on any of the posters I saw hanging everywhere).

Walking towards the eating area in the village I saw this cabbage patch.  I thought it was really cool how they have agriculture here in the village and actually harvest and sell the fruits and vegetables they grow here.  on the other end of the cabbage patch way in the back there in the picture is where the horses are.  That is also where the equestrian martial arts performance is held.  It was pretty cool.  Like cirque de soleil on horses. 

When we first arrived to the village we got to see this.  It was a form of traditional dance (that was fused with a little modern dance for show like break dancing) and was a fun show.  the ribbon dancing was the most mesmerizing.  

Here is a friend of mine getting his picture taken with one of the dancers after the show.  They were really happy to take pictures with the audience and even answered a few questions about the dances they did. 

There were two events we could sign up for to do in the end of the trip: pottery or doll making.  I did pottery but i should have done doll making,  The dolls came out cool looking and a lot of the people I was around during pottery class were really creative.  My piece came out looking like a melted vase with a really sad rose bud in the middle.  Not what I went for originally.  Not even close, but I improvised I guess.  Anyway, this was the outside of the pottery area.  I will have my clay creation mailed to me in a month after its heated and prepared.  

I thought the traditional designs on buildings are really fascinating so I had to stop and take a picture.  The design on the rest area was similar but the ceiling had white, pink and purple lotuses painted on the ceiling 

Upon getting on the bus, the GLAMs will give you this map or something similar.  It is a map of the whole village and where certain things are.  The village looks a little bigger on paper than it felt but there was a lot to see nonetheless.  There were also places to get your picture taken in hanbok if you wanted.  

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