Last Sunday, the EPIK crew loaded up 10 buses to tour the Korean Folk Village and Icheon, an area famous for its ceramics work and rice, a field trip for 300 people, many, like Beth and myself, brand new to this country.
Part of this whole EPIK experience is to help us acclimate to this country, to ease us into a place that’s very far away from home, both physically and culturally. And there’s only so much you can read in books and listen to in lectures.
The Korean Folk Village was an accurate representation of what life was like in ancient Korea. The lady who gave us the tour spoke great English, but her portable PA system didn’t work very well, and it was hard to hear her over the din of the other people in the outdoor space, so most of us just kind of looked around and made up our own story.
We saw kimchi pots (used to ferment the cabbage and other vegetables used in the dish), straw mats and roofs and how they were made, silk worms boiling and the ropes that came from them, and so many other things it was hard to keep track of.
One of the cool things was the area where they tortured and jailed the people of the village who caused trouble, and many people took turns smiling for pictures in the racks and taking licks with the giant wooden paddles.
At one point a friend remarked, “Imagine this place back in those days, how cool it would have been.” I thought that was strange, because I had just been doing that, picturing the village square on a hot summer night, men and women walking to and from their houses in the orange glow of firelight.
After we had the chance to see everything, we saw some traditional Korean performances, one a colorful and lively dance, and the other a tight-rope walker who admitted he was very nervous and asked for someone to please catch him if he happened to fall.
We ate lunch at the Folk Village, one of the best meals we had during Orientation, bulgogi (a marinated beef dish cooked in front of you) and all kinds of fresh vegetables and rice.
Then we were back on the buses and off to Icheon (not to be confused with Incheon), where we toured Woljeon Museum of Art, named for a famous Korean artist who passed away in 2005. He painted a number of subjects and wrote poems in Chinese characters on his paintings to help tell their stories.
After the museum, we painted mugs on famous Icheon ceramic. Beth and I both painted our mugs using two of Woljeon’s paintings as templates (some would say we plagiarized…I say we were just inspired). We learned all about the ceramic vases that were made there in the old days.
Dinner that night was almost overwhelming. There was so much food on the table, it was hard to tell where to begin and what to eat next. There was Icheon rice and kimchi and dried fish and rice soup and tofu and pork and it goes on and on. They also served us rice wine that was very sweet and deceptively strong. I think quite a few people got pretty drunk, because it could sneak up on you.
It was a great day, my favorite of the Orientation. I want to go back and see everything when it’s warm. I forgot to mention earlier how everything was covered in snow and frozen mud. I think everything would be much more beautiful in the spring and summer, when the cherry blossoms bloom and everything’s green.
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