Having the long weekend after we
arrived was perfect to allow us to recuperate after our trip and get over the
jet lag. We were also able to start getting our apartment organized by making a
few trips to Home Plus. There was hardly any storage space in our apartment so
we managed to make a plan with some portable hanging rails.
On Saturday we decided to explore
and take a trip to Jeonju’s famous Hanok Village. It was relatively easy making
our way there because we could just show the taxi driver our translation page
Joanna had given us and off we went. The Hanok Village is very famous in Korea
and attracts lots of tourists and locals. The village is full of traditional
Korean houses, very old buildings and shrines and lots of tearooms and food
stalls. We didn’t particularly have a plan for when we arrived, we just planned
on wondering around. As the village is a very big tourist attraction, we expected
to see a few foreigners. Not the case. I think we saw one Westerner there and I
think about 3 the whole weekend. We are slowly realizing seeing Westerners is very
rare. The village was really crowded, I think maybe because it was a long
weekend. We didn’t get to see as much of it as we wanted and we definitely need
to go back to see the Jeondong Cathedral, calligraphy museum, the Gyeonggijeon
shrine and the Confucian academy. The crowds and the fact that NO ONE (well
basically) speaks English was quite overwhelming. But it was a good start to
looking into the Korean culture and seeing how our new life was going to be.
Around the Hanok Village:
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| I couldn't resist, I had to buy a fan, Koreans don't seem to notice it is BOILING!! (and the hat was a desperate purchase from Home Plus to avoid sunburn) |
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| Trying some of the snacks!These are rice cakey type things and are filled with icecream and topped with strawberries. Delish!! |
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| This little boy, whose name was "Friendly", came up to us and gave us 2 chocolates. Korean children choose their English names (sometimes bizarre ones) so I guess his name suited him. |
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| So crowded!! |
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| Having an "iced beer". |
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| This cute little kid was having a great time. |
After visiting the Hanok village we spent the rest of the weekend spring cleaning our apartment and preparing for our first week of our new teaching job.
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