Hwaseong Fortress, Sports Day and Laundry!

Man, where to start! I have been so fantastically busy I have not even had time to catch my breath. Just the way I like it :o)

Ok, so Sunday: The day before was the trip to Seoul, and a lot of the TaLKers decided to stay the night. I came home though, and I am so glad I did because I had the energy to have an absolutely lovely day on Sunday. I woke up early (5:30) and decided to go for a run on the dirt track outside of the University. As I was running, I noticed something strange in the dirt: bare foot prints. Apparently, little old ladies like to get up before dawn and walk the track barefooted.

After my run, I piddled around my dorm room rearranging clothes, uploading pictures, etc. Earlier I had dropped off a note on my friend Shaina's dorm room door asking her to call my cell if she was up for some exploring. At around 11 she called, and we both had the same plan for the day: to visit Hwaseong Fortress. Suwon (the city we are in) is famous for having "Korea's Great Wall". Hwaseong Fortress is an ancient fortress that is completely intact in the middle of the city, complete with colorful pagodas and massive temples and bells. After a 20 minute bus ride, this massive stone wall just explodes out of the heart of a metropolitan city. Almost 5 miles long, walking it proved to be quite a workout (especially after running 5 miles!) Below are some pictures from atop the fortress wall.

Let's play a game: which is Japanese, which is Korean and which is Chinese?
In the middle of the day when the sun is roasting everything, Korean people seem to enjoy taking naps. In this temple on the fortress wall I found all of these elderly Korean people laying down, enjoying a cat nap in the shade of the ornate temple roof.

Do as the locals do, right?


Presenting: Suwon city!

Koreans young and old enjoy their afternoon nap. It was a very long walk up to this point, so I am sure this momma was tired.
This bell reverberated all throughout the fortress wall. It was 1,000 won (about 85 cents) to gong the bell. According to ancient lore, the bell requires 3 distinct prayers: the first is devoted to your parents, the second prayer is for your family and friends and the third is meant for your future success and fulfillment of your dreams. I thought I rang the bell fairly loudly until this very elderly man with a cane tottered up the platform. His back was hunched over with age, but you could see him set his jaw and square his shoulders when he took hold of the dangling log (more like a battering ram!). His rings were deafening, and his prayers were long and audible. It was fantastic watching him, especially when he gave me this enormous, toothless grin on his way down.
Dressed like the ancient warriors who guarded the fortress walls and the city within.

After walking the fortress walls, we were starving, so we headed into the city to scout some grub. Not five minutes into the city streets, a very drunk man came swaggering out of a store, hiccuping and calling to my friend, Shaina, and I. Luckily, he was a very pleasant drunk, and all he kept saying was "polizzia," which is Italian for "policeman". He followed us for a solid 10 minutes before leaning against a wall and pulling out what I guessed to be another bottle of soju wrapped in a brown paper bag.

Shaina and I decided that we wanted some traditional Korean fare, so we chose a very small restaurant. When you walk in, you immediately take off your shoes and go and fetch a squishy floor mat to sit on. It's actually very comfortable to sit barefoot, Indian style on the mat, and the owner of the restaurant seemed very happy that we had chosen her restaurant to stop at. Unfortunately, there weren't any pictures on the menu to point at, so I used one of the only Korean words I know to order: "tubu", which stands for tofu. And what a spread it was! For less than 6 dollars, we got to split 7 side dishes (dried seaweed, spicy prawns, rice, pickled bean sprouts, kimchi, sesame oil on potato slices, etc.) and each got a huge bowl of whatever we ordered for our main course. Koreans love soups and stew, so my lunch was this simmering bowl of spicy red broth filled with mussels, tofu, crab, some kind of root vegetable and noodles. It was a pig out! Thank goodness I'm used to spicy food and shellfish though because Shaina was taken to the hospital today for food poisoning from the mussels :o( She is doing much better now though.

To explain the pic below, Suwon is famous for archery. In fact, a lot of the 1st and 2nd generation TaLK teachers have told me tat some of their students were so good at archery that they competed at the Olympic level. I hope I get one of those kids!

By the time we finished lunch, it was around 2:30, so Shaina and I decided to head back to campus to do some laundry. If only it were that simple... That bus ride turned into a 3 hour trek across not only Suwon, but all the way to the outskirts of another city called Osan. We got off because it was the end of the bus line and after several failed attempts at selecting a bus route back, we finally just decided to ride all the way back to the fortress and take our original bus line back to campus. It wasn't all a waste though because I can now navigate Suwon like a true native. Along the way, Shaina and I noticed a restaurant calls "VIPS," which was billed as having "English steak and salad". When the homesickness kicks in, we said as a treat we will go there and get some American food. While Korean food is dirt cheap, Western foods are generally pricey (Think $30 meals). Maybe for Thanksgiving we will go to a McDonalds or an Outback Steakhouse to celebrate since they don't eat turkey here!

On Monday, we got to make traditional Korean fans in class(pics further down) and even more exciting:Korea celebrated "Sports Day", so the TaLK coordinators put together a couple of games for all 500+ TaLKers to participate in. The evening started off with these crazy games of dodge ball. Teams were organized by what province we will be heading to at the end of August. Koreans have no flippin clue how to play that game the right way! First, there was only one ball and second girls were getting smashed in the face (and they said it was a totally legal move), balls were bouncing off shoes... didn't matter- the coordinators would call you out every time. But by far the craziest part was when you got out, you moved to the sidelines around the enemy team, so not only was another team throwing the ball at you, but there were people from your opponents team surrounding your portion of the court, throwing a ball at you from all sides. According to the coordinators, the team with the most "females" (They hardly ever say girls or women) was the winner. We have 10 fewer girls than any other group! Needless to say, we lost every time. BUT I never got out once. In fact, we played a girls vs. girls game, and I was the only person remaining! I was pulling some serious Matrix moves to stay alive with a ball coming at me from every side. It felt like middle school all over again... only this time I wasn't a benchwarmer- I did Team Daegu proud :o)

Next was a game called the Amazing Race. It was 2 pairs (1 guy, 1 girl). The girls had to spin around 7 times , run to a guy, jump on their backs and run to another girl (ME!) who had to run backwards, then pick up a guy by the legs and wheelbarrow run to the finish line. Now I want you to imagine me, bolting backwards in a dead sprint... and then eating it. Hard. I totally busted butt, falling and rolling like 3 times on the grass. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath. Of course that made my wheelbarrow partner start to laugh too, so we were gasping for breath, he's karate kicking me in the chest as I try and hold up his legs long enough until we can cross the finish line. Team Daegu came in last place again after 3 races because it seemed like we all kept tripping!

Thankfully, the last game didn't really require any skill. It was a game called "The Human Rope". 10 girls and 10 guys had to lay down across the field and form a human rope. The longest rope won. While we were splayed out across he grass, itching from the pesticides and attempting our best yoga positions for maximum stretching, I had a stroke of genius: everyone should let out their shoelaces so we could gain an extra foot or two! Sadly, the coordinators said it was cheating because it wasn't physical contact.... Team Daegu was 0 for 3.

Here are some pics of class and the sports games. Sorry they are blurry, I only had my point and shoot camera at the time!

These fans are made out of the bark of a special type of Korean tree. The paper is so strong that it can be made into plates and eating utensils.... even clothing!
Oh my God... I am so excited about this- sushi to go! In Korea, sushi is called "Kimbap" (pronounced "Keem-bop"). This cost me about 95 cents. It's 12 pieces of sushi deliciousness TO GO!!!! You push on one end of the wrapper like one of those orange push pops from the beach. And the coolest part- each piece is a little different. This was a tuna roll and each piece was spicier than the next.

Elated after kicking ass and taking names in dodge ball.
The guy in the middle is Jeremy, the coordinator for our group. He is the Rico Suave of Korean men. Actually he was basically mortified taking this picture and turned bright pink, it was cute.
The Human Rope game. I'm in the second line.
TEAM DAEGU!!!!!!!

And to top off the night, my friend Eunice and I rushed upstairs before the festivities were over to get our laundry in before anyone else. An awesome day indeed.