My first field trip

Last weekend I went with my new friend Judy and her colleagues and their families to Gochang Province, in the southwest. Judy teaches with me at Ajou University, and also at another school, Kangnam University. The trip was led by a Korean historian from Kangnam, which was great because he gave us a context for what we were seeing.

We visited Seonunsa Buddhist Temple http://www.eworld4u.com/gnuboard4/bbs/board.php?bo_table=photo&wr_id=4 which was very beautiful and peaceful. I was reminded of the smell of really fresh air.

We also went to a fortress where there happened to be a concert of traditional Korean opera-style music starting just as we arrived. There was a tour group of senior citizens there at the same time, and several older ladies got up and started dancing. I enjoyed watching them at least as much as listening to the professional performance.

And we went to a UNESCO world heritage site with "dolmen" gravestones dating back to the Stone Age http://www.ocp.go.kr/english/treasure/dom_goin.html.

We had perfect weather and I got to see how beautiful the Korean countryside is--very lush and green and hilly. And apparently wealthy. We saw farmers' new homes with swimming pools and even a tennis court.

A funny highlight: unable to figure out the multiple buttons on the side of the high-tech toilet in the seaside restaurant, I managed to spray the front of my shirt with toilet water (literally, not the perfume kind).

I shared a guest room with five other women, all of us sleeping on bedrolls on the floor. At least three of them snored, loudly and in chorus.

In that same restaurant, we had a traditional meal--everyone sitting in the floor and sharing lots of side dishes while fresh seafood cooked on gas stoves right on the table. Despite having seen their dead eyes looking up at me from just a few inches away, I managed to eat some shrimp once my friend Judy extracted the meat for me. That was about as far as I could go in the interest of cultural politeness though; I couldn't bring myself to use chopsticks to eat from a whole fish, or to try the eel (and its backbone, which is apparently especially yummy) the next day.

I participated in some kind of toast with local berry wine, which was delicious. And I taught a couple of people how to say "l'chaim".