Above is the itinerary for the day. We did this completely out of order being that we arrived an hour and a half late due to traffic. My favorite activities were pear picking and the biseokchigi.
The first thing we did was make barley cakes. We were given these four different colored balls of barley and a got to make little art works with this that we could eat later. Magenta was the messiest color. I learned that the hard way and couldn't use my phone for a while after that since i had so much dough all over my hands.
Once we finished making barley cakes, we went pear picking. We had to walk a far distance but the view was worth it. It didn't feel anything like Seoul and it felt very much, for the first time, like i was in a completely different country. The pictures I took couldn't compare to the real views. Seeing the mountains and all the colors of the trees on the way to pear picking was very nice.
Here is my view of a traditional Korean home. I couldn't get a better view because of the wall blocking me from seeing it but what I could see was very pretty.
Here is one of many vegetable (mostly cabbage) patches that were along the way to the pear picking area. That wall is actually a water run off sewage system for the village. Areas like that run all throughout the fields and run into the natural stream (only water run off from water vegetables, no waste goes through there).
Here was something interesting I didn't expect to see. These bushes were all carved into different shapes. This was only about 1/4th of the amount that there were and they made up someone's entire front lawn.
Finally, we were at pear picking. When pear picking, keep your head low and watch where you step. I kept tripping, falling and getting my head stuck in trees, on wiring and getting branches in my hair. The GLAMs told us "get bigger and higher pears for better quality." Each person is only allowed to pick two so choose wisely.
After pear picking we returned to our arrival spot for lunch and then learned how to make tofu. This is a picture of one of my friends using a tofu grinder to make the liquid tofu before sending it to the big tubs where it would be mixed to be solidified. The process is very lengthy but in the end, the tofu came out very tasty.
After making tofu we went on a tractor ride to our next activity, The tractor ride was fun. It felt like the tractor ride at a pumpkin patch during halloween in the states.
The next activity was biseokchigi (stone-matching) and the objective was to get a rock from point a to point b and make your rock hit the one at the end. However the rock you have has to be carried on top of your head, on top of your shoe, on your shoulder or in between your knees and your hands cannot touch it once its placed there until after you have dropped it in an attempt to match rocks. Pictured above is one of my friends contemplating where he will put the rock to get it to point b.
After the rock game, we made a Korean hackey sack and played a little. After that we came back to the meeting spot for makolli (Korean rice wine). As a tradition, visitors to the village must drink makolli made by the grandmas from the village. This makeolli is made and bottled in this village and not sold anywhere in Seoul. It is also not as strong as the kind you will find in Seoul. Here is my friend playing around with the bottle before we were told to open it and drink.
We had to drink it from bowls. Here I am drinking a litle bit from a copper bowl they gave everyone to drink from. I guess normally this is how you would drink makeolli.
After drinking makeolli, we had a farewell ceremony with a speech and we returned to the buses for the three hour ride back to school. It was a fun day and went by very fast. I highly recommend going on this trip if possibly for all those prospective exchange students to CAU (either to the Seoul or Anseong campus).
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